USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Greenfield > History of Greenfield : shire town of Franklin county, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 4
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The marke of AHIMUNQUAT, X
Alias MEQUINNITCHAIL.
Subscribed Sealed & dlid in ye presence off Amy Pynchon John Pynchon Jr. The marke of Grin Wneachchue Brother to Mequinnitchall, who Received pt of ye pay, viz. 20 fadam : & approved of the Sale of ye Land : Mequinnitchall alias Ahimunquat, did owne & acknowledge this writing abovesd, to be his act & deed, this present 22th of July, 1667.
Before me John Pynchon, Asist.
The settlers of Dedham owned their home lands in com- mon and undivided, and, by an arrangement adopted by the town, it was agreed that it be held in shares which were called " cow commons," and fractions less than a " cow com- mon " were called " sheep commons," five of which equalled a " cow common." So the 8000 acre grant at Pocumtuck was owned by the Dedham proprietors in proportion to the number of cow and sheep commons which they each owned in the Dedham lands. Having obtained title to their lands,
19
LOCATION OF TOWN PLAT
1670, 1671]
the Proprietors at Dedham for two or three years studied to find some manner in which to " proportion each seurall sorte of Land ther acccording to quallitie therof that equitie may be attended to each propriato" according to their proportion in every sort of Land deuideable."
A proprietors' meeting was held May 10, 1670, and ad- journed to the 23d, and fully attended, when, "it is agreed that an Artiste be procured vpon as moderat tearmes as may be that may laye out the Lotts at Pawcomptucke to each pro- priator according to their Lawfull interest in each sort of Land that is to be deuided and drawe and returne to the Towne a true platt of what he shall doe therein."
A committee was appointed to secure " an artiste " and an- other to accompany him to Pocumtuck and lay out the town plot, roads, and two divisions of tillage lands, and in the sum- mer of 1670 this committee repaired to Pocumtuck, and with great skill performed the task committed to their care, and in the following spring they made full report.
" May 16, 1671. Agreed by the Committee chosen by the proprietors of land at Pacomptuck for the settlement of the situation of the Town Plott equalicing lands laying out High- ways &c &c by their mutual assent and consent.
" I. That for the situation of the Town Plott it shall be on that tract of land beginning (at) the Southerly end of it att a little brook called Eagle Brook & so extend Northerly to the banke or falling ridge of land at Sampson Frary's celer & so to run from the banke or ridg of land fronting on the meadow Land Westerlie to the mountain Easterlie.
"2. That there shall be a highway for the common street laid out six rods in breadth about the middle of the tract of land above expressed beginning on that side towards Eagle Brook and so to run Northerlie throughout the said tract; on both sides wharon the house lots shall be laid out ; one teare of lot fronting on the said common Street Easterlie and another teare of Lotts fronting on the said Street Westerlie ; the meas-
20
LAYING OUT OF ROADS AND HOUSE LOTS
[1671
ure of the house Lotts to begin on the west range of Lotts att the North end."
The 3d and 4th articles provided for highways and the di- vision of farm lands, a full report of which will be found in Sheldon's History of Deerfield.
" 5. That there shall be a highway two rods in bredth which shall runn through both the divisions above mentioned both Southerlie and Northerlie ; the highway running Northerlie to run to pacomtuck river and so out into the woods (so that each) proprietor may come to his land which highway is left to be laid out for place as conveniency the best advantage may suite."
(This highway which was " to run to pacomtuck river and so out into the woods " became the road leading by Pine Hill across the Deerfield and up Green river to Greenfield.)
The 6th article provided for a highway along the east side of the river. The 7th, for a two rod highway through the meadow and across to the west side of the river.
" Whereas Samll Hinsdell, desiring to Injoy a parcell of Land on which (at) present he is resident and saith it was granted to him by the town of De(dham) and understanding by Capt. Pynchon (who was then present when it was (asked for) that he thinks it was indeed so and finding the piece said to be inconsiderable for qualitie and quantity being about 3 or 4 acres and he abating as much in the 2d of his devisions of plow land ; the said tract not also prejudicing any man's lott or lotts ; we judg he may Injoy the said parcell of land con- sidering his expense on the same; and no damage is done either to the Comons (or) any particular proprietor."
So the location of the first settler who planted himself be- fore any surveys had been made is confirmed.
The committee also reported the drawing of 43 house lots on the six rod Main Street, many of the lines of which remain to-day as fixed by this board on the 14th of May, 1671.
In a report of the committee at a meeting held Novem-
21
POCUMTUCK GETS A NEW NAME
1674]
ber 17, 1674, the name of " Deerfield " is first used, and there- after the new plantation is called Deerfield.
The pioneers lived on terms of amity with the few Indians who camped upon the river banks near the town, with no thought of the treachery which was latent in the breasts of their red-skinned neighbors. A town fence had been built enclosing the cultivated fields from the depredation of the fast increasing herds of cattle and sheep which roamed in the sur- rounding forests. Deer, wild turkeys and smaller game were plentiful in the woods, and fine fish could be taken from every stream. The rich alluvial soil was easily worked and yielded enormous crops of wheat, rye, oats, peas, beans, Indian corn and flax. Their chosen minister, Rev. Samuel Mather, was with them in 1673, and these hardy people were justified in looking forward to years of prosperity and comfort.
Trumbull, the historian of Connecticut, says : " Our ances- tors came hither to dwell on bare creation," and Daniel Web- ster in a letter highly approving the expression, wrote, " but they converted this bare creation into as fair an inheritance as has ever fallen to the lot of man."
Taine, in his history of English Literature, remarked that " the Saxon on his first settlement in England, as soon as a footing was made good, selected a hill or grove, beside a spring, built there a habitation, and was prepared to defend it to the death."
The same instinct survived and was intensified among his Anglo-Saxon descendants who settled here. They gathered in communities for mutual protection against their Indian foes, and every householder was educated to the old maxim that every man's house was his castle, and he was ready to defend his home to the last extremity.
"Only the firmest and most constant hearts
God sets to act the stoutest, hardest parts."
CHAPTER IV
THE POCUMTUCK INDIANS
"Blood hath been shed ere now i' th' olden time."
W HEN first known to the English, the Pocumtucks were a numerous, strong, and warlike people. They dominated all the tribes of the Connecticut valley for more than fifty miles of its length. In 1652 they were ranked by the Dutch as among the "Great Indians " and in 1658 when the Commissioners of the New England Confederacy apportioned a fine upon certain allied tribes for damages done by them at Niantic, the Pocumtucks and the Narragansetts were assessed alike, and Gookin estimated the latter tribe at 5000 souls. They were rich, inhabiting a very fertile country, raising abundant crops of corn, pumpkins, squash, and beans, while the woods were full of game and the streams alive with fish. There were great supplies of berries in the fields, and the woods yielded plentifully of nuts. The fur and peltry trade was large, one vessel sailing from out the river with over {5000 value in her hold. After their severe punishment by the Mohawks, it is evident that they were convinced that they could not safely occupy their old homes, and this and the desirability of having the English for protection, and a home market for their extra produce and their furs, contributed largely to their willingness to sell their lands, and also to their friendliness to the settlers until the wily messengers of Philip* poisoned their hearts against their unsuspecting neighbors.
* Rev. Dr. Holmes in his " Annals " says, " Philip foresaw that the development of the English presaged the extinction of the Indians. He made, against the advice
22
23
PHILIP AND THE ENGLISH
1671]
When the Pocumtucks-seduced by the artful methods of Philip's agent-committed themselves without reserve to his cause, they staked the life of the nation upon the success or failure of his scheme to drive the English from the country, and with the death of Philip and the failure of his cause came the dispersion of the once powerful Pocumtuck nation, and they fade from the page of history as completely as do the lost tribes of Israel. " Massasoit, with whom the Plymouth men had maintained peace for fifty years, died in 1660, leaving two sons, Wamsutta and Metacom, called by the English, Alexander and Philip. Alexander only survived his father a short time, dying upon his return from a visit to Plymouth, and Philip suspicioned that he was poisoned by the whites. He took up the government of the Wampanoags, and while maintaining an outward submission to the English, he was for the thirteen years of his reign, before open war existed, plotting with the Narragansetts and the Nipmucks, for a general rising against the growing power of the English. Rumors of his unfaithfulness came to Boston and Plymouth from time to time, and the dealings of those in power were not diplo- matic at least, and in 1671 when commissioners at a meeting held with him in Taunton, exacted a promise from him that all the firearms of the Indians should be surrendered, he felt that the last step in his degredation had come, and he prepared for war. The public mind was so impressed with coming danger, that Philip and five of his sachems were summoned to Plymouth in September, 1671, and there he renewed prom- ises of good behavior and agreed to pay a tribute of five wolves' heads yearly, and do no act of war without express permission." (Beginnings of New England, John Fiske.)
Time passed on without open outbreak until the fall of
of his chief old men, and it is said against his own best judgment, a mighty effort to save his people. It is recorded that he 'wept with grief, at the news of the first English who were killed' and that he was pressed into the war by the rash impor- tunity of his young warriors."
24
KING PHILIP'S WAR
[1671-1675
1674, when a praying Indian reported to the magistrates in Plymouth that Philip was surely planning mischief, and soon after the body of this Christian Indian was found under the ice in a pond near Philip's home. His murder was traced to three of Philip's tribe, they were tried, condemned to be hung, and on their way to the gallows, one of them confessed to the murder. Sunday, June 20, 1675, Swanzey, a pretty village near Mt. Hope, (the home of Philip,) was burned, the inhabit- ants, men, women, and children, murdered, their remains cut and mangled in such manner as only an American Indian in the accomplishment of this fiendish art can perform. Attacks quickly followed upon Dartmouth, Middleborough, Taunton, and Mendon.
At this time the country lying between Worcester and Brookfield on the east, and the Connecticut river settlements on the west, was wholly unsettled by the English and commu- nication between the river and the Bay was hazardous and in- frequent. Attempts were made by the English to pacify and retain the friendship of the Nipmucks about Brookfield, but Hutchinson, the messenger of the English, and eight of his comrades were ambushed and slain. Philip having fled from Mt. Hope arrived with some of his warriors at the Nipmuck camp a few days later, and the combined forces under his command attacked Brookfield, but the brave garrison and people held out for three days, defeating all the attempts of the savages to burn the large house in which they had taken refuge, although all other houses in the village were destroyed. They were at length relieved by forty-seven horsemen under the command of the gallant Simon Willard, who providen- tially happened to be scouting near Groton and was informed of the peril of the settlement. The enemy numbered upwards of three hundred, but were dispersed, and fled to a swamp several miles away.
The men of the valley had felt no fear of a general Indian war until news reached them of the burning of Brookfield,
25
SCOUTING UP AND DOWN THE VALLEY
1675]
the siege and the brave defence of the John Ayers tavern, and the relief of the town by Major Willard. Major Pynchon heard of the attack on Brookfield August 4, from some trav- ellers, and immediately sent a messenger to Hartford to secure aid to hold Springfield, and aid Brookfield. The next day forty dragoons and thirty Indians arrived from Hartford, and on the sixth he had two hundred and thirty dragoons ready for marching at an hour's notice.
Headquarters were established at Hadley, and Pynchon's men were scouting the woods for signs of the enemy. The Indians about Springfield and Hadley had volunteered to aid the troops for the same purpose. Attawamhood with thirty Mohegans was in the same service, and he was not long in dis- covering that by the shouts of the valley Indians they purposely gave warning to any of Philip's men who might be in that vicinity, and he plainly told Pynchon that nothing could be accomplished so long as those Indians were along. Scouts traversed up and down both sides of the Connecticut, but not a hostile Indian could they find, though the sheep had been driven off from Squakeag. Small garrisons were left at Squakeag and Deerfield. Philip and his men were undoubt- edly hidden in the swamps about Paquag (Athol) while his spies kept close watch upon the movements of the English troops.
A large number of Pocumtucks, Nonatucks, and other unknown Indians were at this time occupying a fort on the west bank of the Connecticut in Hatfield, a convenient place for watching the headquarters of the English at Hadley. Fears were entertained of their loyalty, and they were per- suaded to deliver up their arms, though still protesting their friendship for the whites. It became known soon after, that they desired to aid in scouting for strange Indians, and their arms were returned to them, but finding that they were enter- taining messengers from the Nipmucks, a council of war which was held August 6, 1675, decided to demand the arms
26
THE SWAMP FIGHT
[1675
again. A messenger was sent to the fort, but was put off by dilatory propositions and told to come in the evening. When he went in the evening he was received with insult, and Cap- tain Lothrop determined to take the arms by force. He sent a messenger to Northampton ordering the soldiers there to march for the Indian fort at midnight, while he and Captain Beers at Hadley would cross the river above and march down upon it, meeting about daylight.
When the two little companies met at the fort it was found that its only occupant was the dead body of an old sachem who had opposed the action of the majority. The Indians had fled towards Deerfield.
Lothrop dispatched a portion of his force to protect the towns, and he and Captain Beers took the trail of the retreat- ing redskins. The Indians under Puckquahow, a Nipmuck Chief, expecting pursuit, formed an ambush in a swamp about a half mile below Wequamps, (now known as Sugarloaf,) at a place where the Pocumtuck trail crossed a little brook, and the non-combatants were hurried on toward Deerfield, loaded down with their camp equipage. Into this trap marched the eager soldiers, and their first reception was the contents of forty mus- kets from the swamp at their right. They immediately took to trees, and the fight continued for three hours, probably kept up by the Indians to enable their women and children to reach a place of safety. After the Indians fled, it was found that the English loss was six killed and three men wounded who afterward died. A squaw captured two weeks after said that twenty-six Indians were killed, or had died of wounds re- ceived in that fight. The local men killed were Azariah Dick- inson of Hadley, Samuel Mason of Northampton, Richard Fellows and James Levens of Hatfield.
Although the Council of Connecticut had opposed the policy of disarming the Indians at Hatfield, immediately upon the reception of news of the "Swamp Fight," they dispatched troops in aid of the Bay Colony border towns, but as late as
27
ATTACK ON DEERFIELD-BEERS' MASSACRE
1675]
the 28th they advised against the disarming of the Indians at Springfield, urging the people to continue their trust in the local Indians. At the commencement of Philip's war, Deer- field had not more than about one hundred and twenty-five inhabitants, and could furnish only twenty or twenty-five men for war. There were three palisaded houses on the street, but upon which lots they were located is not certainly known, although the house of Quinton Stockwell, on Meeting House Hill was, without doubt, one.
The Indian attack in the extreme eastern part of the Colony had not greatly alarmed the settlers in the valley, but the burning of Brookfield had served to awaken the people to a sense of danger, and measures for protection were begun, but the " Swamp fight" brought home to the scattered settlers the fact that war in earnest existed, and that they must defend their homes with their lives, or abandon the valley to their savage foes.
After the fight of the 25th, no Indians were seen until September Ist, when at Deerfield, a Connecticut soldier look- ing in the pasture for his horse, was shot. This so alarmed the people that they all fled for safety to the forts, which were sharply attacked by the Pocumtucks. A dozen men in each, however, were sufficient to defend them, and the Indians re- tired with the loss of two men. The attacking force consisted of about sixty, and the English, largely outnumbered, did not venture outside their stockades, to defend their burning homes and devastated crops. The attack on Deerfield filled the whole valley with alarm. At Hadley, the military head- quarters, immediate preparations were made to protect the Squakeag settlement, and Captain Beers was dispatched with supplies and ammunition for the garrison at that place, under guard of thirty-six mounted men. About two miles below the fort, at Northfield, his force was ambushed, Beers and a large majority of his force were slain, only thirteen of the party reaching Hadley the day after the massacre.
28
NORTHFIELD ABANDONED
[1675
Major Treat, with a large force of Connecticut troops, re- lieved the beleaguered fort at Northfield on the 6th of Sep- tember. But the bloody heads of Captain Beers' men stuck up on poles beside the path, and the attack of the Indians upon a party who were burying some of the dead, so worked upon the fears of Treat and his men that they abandoned the unburied dead, and each trooper, taking up behind him a settler, made a night retreat to the settlements below, leaving the cattle and sheep to their fate. Quite a number of the cattle, of their own intuition, came into Hadley a few days after the flight. The inhabitants were panic-stricken ; Pynchon says : "And when we go out after the Indians they doe so skulk in swamps we cannot find ym & yet do waylay or people to there destruc- tion. Burne yr houses as lately they have destroyed a small village at Wussquakeeak from whence formerly ye Maquas drove these Indians."
CHAPTER V
GENERAL GOFFE, THE SAVING ANGEL OF HADLEY
" How well Horatius kept the bridge In the brave days of old."
W ITHOUT much doubt there was an Indian alarm September 1, 1675, among the people of Hadley, who were attending a Fast Day service in the meeting- house, but successive historians have enlarged upon this alarm, if there was one, and from it created one of the most intensely interesting stories connected with the settlement of New Eng- land. This tale has even been woven by Sir Walter Scott into his " Peveril of the Peak," and used by Cooper in his " Wept of the Wish-ton-wish."
The story in its fullness as related by President Stiles of Yale College, in his " History of the Judges," is this : " That pious congregation was observing a fast at Hadley on the occasion this war ; and being at public worship in the meeting- house there on fast day, Sept. Ist, 1675, were suddenly sur- rounded and surprised by a body of Indians. It was the usage in the frontier towns, and even at New Haven, to go armed to public worship. It was so at Hadley at this time. The people immediately took to their arms, but were thrown into great consternation and confusion. Had Hadley been taken, the discovery of the judges would have been inevitable. Suddenly, and in the midst of the people, there appeared a man of a very venerable aspect, and different from the inhab- itants in his apparel, who took the command, arrayed and ordered them in the best military manner, and, under his di- rection, they repelled and routed the Indians, and the town was saved.
29
30
THE "ANGEL " GOFFE
[1675
" He immediately vanished, and then inhabitants could not account for the phenomenon but by considering that person as an angel sent of God upon that special occasion for their deliverance ; and for some time after, said and believed, that they had been delivered and saved by an angel. Nor did they know or conceive otherwise till fifteen or twenty years after, when it at length became known at Hadley that the two judges (Goffe and Whalley) had been secreted there ; which probably they did not know till after Mr. Russell's death, in 1692. This story, however, of the angel at Hadley, was be- fore this univerally diffused through New England, by means of the memorable Indian war of 1675. The mystery was un- riddled after the revolution (of 1688, in England) when it be- came not so very dangerous to have it known that the judges had received an asylum here, and that (Gen.) Goffe was actu- ally in Hadley at that time. The angel was certainly General Goffe, for Whalley was superannuated in 1675." In his " Beginnings of New England," John Fiske says : "Like many other romantic stories, it rests upon insufficient authority and its truth has been called in question. But there seems to be nothing intrinsically improbable in the tradition ; and a paramount regard for Goffe's personal safety would quite ac- count for the studied silence of contemporary writers like Hubbard and Increase Mather."
George Sheldon, in Vol. 1, page 202, " Proceedings of Po- cumtuck Valley Memorial Association " gives cogent reasons for doubting the occurrence of any attack on Hadley, Septem- ber 1, 1675, and consequently any appearance of the " angel " Goffe.
Northfield had been abandoned, and Deerfield was soon to become desolate. The spies of her enemies from the sur- rounding hills could mark every movement of the settlers, and take swift advantage thereof. On Sunday, September 12th dis- covering that the people as well as the soldiers had gathered at the fort on Meetinghouse Hill, for service, they placed an am-
31
AMBUSH IN DEERFIELD STREET
1675]
bush in the swamp beside the street on the north, and as the garrison of the north fort in returning from service crossed the low ground, an attack was made, but too early, as only one man was wounded and the garrison made a safe retreat to the fort they had just left. The sentinel left in charge of the north fort was captured, and never afterward heard of, that fort was set on fire, and ransacked by the enemy, who carried away or killed much of the settlers' stock. Captain Appleton drove them out of the village, but his force was too small to attack the savages who continued just out of range, loading the cap- tured stock with provisions and plunder, which they took to their camp at Pine Hill.
An alarm was sent to Northampton, but when the rein- forcements had arrived and marched to Pine Hill, the enemy had disappeared. The gathering of so many men in the upper valley made it imperative that all the crops should be harvested and saved. Hubbard estimated that there was at Deerfield about three thousand bushels of wheat standing in the shocks in the fields, and Pynchon, to whom a great share of it belonged, ordered it to be gathered, threshed, and bagged, and sent to Hadley by impressed teams, if necessary. Captain Lothrop and his command were sent up to conduct the precious train to safety. The inhabitants of the town still continued their residence, and gave no sign of abandoning their homes. On " that most fatal day-the saddest that ever befell New Eng- land," September 18, 1675,-Captain Lothrop and his com- pany of men "the flower of Essex," with their loaded carts of wheat marched out of the fated town, and took the road to Hadley. All went well until they came to the crossing of Muddy brook, when the soldiers after crossing the miry ground and the stream halted while the teams wallowed through the muddy way. Many of the soldiers put their guns into the carts and dispersed among the vines and bushes to pick the luscious grapes which were in abundance at this place. Suddenly, without warning, the disorganized band were at-
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