USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Hatfield > History of Hatfield, Massachusetts, in three parts: I. An account of the development of the social and industrial life of the town from its first settlement. II. The houses and homes of Hatfield, with personal reminiscences of the men and women who have lived there during the last one hundred years; brief historical accounts of the religious societies and of Smith Academy; statistical tables, etc. III. Genealogies of the families of the first settlers > Part 13
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"Secondly, that every one thus assessed for a whole spiner doe, after this present yeare, 1656, spinn, for thirty weekes every yeare, three pounds pr. weeke of linin, cotton or woollen, and so proportionably for half or quarter spinners, under the penaltie of twelve pence for every pound short; and the selectmen shall take speciall care of the execution of this order, which may be easily effected, by deviding their several tounes into tenn, six or five to take an account of theire division, and to certifie the selectmen if any are defective in what they are assessed, who shall improove the aforesaid penal- ties imposed upon such as are negligent, for the encouragement of those that are diligent in their labour."
The work of the men on the farms has already been spoken of. Each man was adept through long practice in felling and hewing timber and splitting it for clapboards, shingles, and rails. Most of them were carpenters, coopers, cartwrights, and masons, and expert at all kinds of repairs. Rope for the harnesses was made at home as well as the wooden collars for the horses and yokes for oxen. The axles of the carts were of wood. Probably all the tanning of hides was done at home till the Partridges built a tan yard in the eighteenth century.
The staple crops were wheat, corn, and peas. Rye and oats were not raised very much at first. Barley had to be raised for malt, though for this a mixture of wheat and rye known as meslin could be employed. Meslin was also used as flour. Potatoes were unknown to the pioneers. Hemp was found growing wild, being used by the Indians for lines and nets. There were few fruits. Even apples were not raised to any extent in the seventeenth century; the first mention of an orchard in the Hatfield records is in 1694. The common drink was home brewed beer. Pump- kin sauce took the place of apple sauce, the art of pumpkin
1
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drying having been learned from the Indians. "Pumpkin parings" were perhaps as common social gatherings as the "apple parings" of a later day. Husking bees no doubt originated very early.
The marriage customs of the early settlers are described thus by Judd in his "History of Hadley," the marriages being performed by magistrates or persons authorized by the General Court till about 1700-even after that ministers were not always employed :-
"Not much is known respecting the nuptial festivities and wedding cus- toms in this part of the country, in the 17th and part of the 18th centuries. Marriages were occasions of joy and merriment. The groom had some new garments, and the bride had as rich a wedding dress as, in her circumstances, could be afforded. Mather, in 1719, said it was expected that the newly married couple would appear as such, in the public assembly, on the next Lord's day. This custom continued more than a century after 1719. It was termed 'coming out groom and bride.' It still remains in many places.
"Kissing the bride was not customary in the interior of New England, until some time in the present century, and the practice is far from being general now. It was derived from the English, who have been notorious for kissing, on various occasions, for centuries. Dancing at weddings was rare among the people, in most parts of New England, in the 17th century, but became very frequent in the 18th century. The people of Hadley danced at weddings in the last century, but the practice has been uncommon in that town for forty years past." (Written about the middle of the nineteenth century.)
The custom prevailed in some places of stealing the bride and concealing her for a time. There is no well-authenti- cated tradition of this being done in Hatfield, but this is not conclusive evidence of its absence. The practice lasted nearly up to the Revolution, according to Judd, who also says further in regard to marriages that they usually-
"took place on Thursday, but many on Wednesday, and some on other days. Very few on Saturday, or Sunday. Marriages were usually solemnized at the residence of the bride. The paternal mansion seems to be the most appro- priate place. Marriages in meetinghouses have been very rare.
"The marriage fee was fixed at 3 shillings in 1692, 4s. in 1716, 1753 and 1760, and 6s. in 1787. The fee of the town clerk for the publishment and certificate was 1s. 6d. after 1716. The minister or justice was to pay for recording the marriage.
"In some towns in this vicinity, in former days, when a couple had agreed to be united, the father of the young man went to the parents of the young woman, and asked leave for his son to marry their daughter. This was 'asking leave.' It was sometimes done by the young man himself.
"There were occasionally second day weddings, or wedding festivities, kept up the second day, in the last and present centuries, with much eating, drinking and dancing. February 2, 1769, Josiah Dwight of Hatfield was married, and had a two-days' wedding in Hatfield Addition, now Williams- burgh. About 18 couples attended the wedding from Hatfield, and had a good dinner, and spent most of the succeeding night in dancing and frolicking. The next morning 'we greeted the rising sun with fiddling and dancing,' says one of the party, in his diary."
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
The English aversion to marriage with a deceased wife's sister was shared by the colonists in New England for a long time. Divorce proceedings were very rare.
Funerals were at first simple, a solemn procession fol- lowing the body to the grave accompanied by the tolling of the bell. The minister was present, but no prayer was offered and no funeral sermon preached. According to Mather, about 1719 the custom was inaugurated of having the minister make a prayer at the house and a short speech at the grave. The continental funeral customs of wakes, revelry, and lavish expense for mourning garments obtained a foothold in the Bay towns but did not come into general practice in the Connecticut valley.
Drinking to excess was uncommon in the early years of Hatfield's history, though the use of strong liquors was prevalent throughout the eighteenth century and part of the nineteenth. It was not easy for the early settlers to get liquor in large quantities .. Brandy and Jamaica rum became more common as commerce increased. There were a number of family stills in both Hadley and Hatfield, but licenses to sell were not granted till 1681, as previously noted. There were no public houses for many years.
CHAPTER XII.
MORE INDIAN FIGHTING. QUEEN ANNE'S WAR, 1703-1713. AN INTERVAL OF PEACE. FATHER RASLE'S WAR, 1722-1725.
" Be stirring as the time ; be fire with fire ; Threaten the threatener."
Beginning of Queen Anne's war .- Hatfield fortifications .- Account of the desolation of Deerfield from the Hatfield town records .- The fight in the Deerfield meadows .- Progress of the war .- Victims of the war .- War expenses .- A short interval of peace .- Settlement begun in Whately .- Father Rasle's war.
Queen Anne declared war on France, May 4, 1702, and the next year the New England frontiers were again the scenes of fighting lasting for ten years. It was learned in the spring of 1703 from Mohawk spies that an expedition was fitting out in Canada for an attack on Deerfield. That town was at once fortified and garrisoned. August 30, 1703, Hatfield "voted to fortify several houses on the Hill, Col. Samuel Partridge's, Richard Scott's and also John Meekins's, and in the town they do agree to fortify the house of Jonathan Graves, John White, Mr. Williams, John or Sergt. Waite's, Sergt. Belden, Goodman Marsh."
Colonel Partridge, who was in charge of military affairs in the Connecticut valley, wrote to Governor Dudley, Octo- ber 27, 1703 :-
"The Town of Deerfield who lye much exposed to ye present enemy, wch obstructe them much in their occations, their Lives hanging in doubt every- where wn they goe out. Also they are now forced to rebuild their fortifica- tions at much disadvantage to them, & it being 320 rods or upwards, will fall very heavy to do it all upon their own charge, were verry earnest with me wn lately there, to plead with this Corte for some allowance towards the doing of it out of their publique Rates now to be collected there; as also, that they might be Quitted of Rates to ye publique for ye tyme being of this present warr, wh is so destressing upon them. SAML PARTRIDGE."
The garrison was kept at Deerfield during the winter of 1703-4, on February 29th of which occurred the memorable attack under Hertel de Rouville with 200 French and 140 Indians.
An account of the assault was placed in the Hatfield town records in the book already spoken of as containing the oath
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of allegiance administered by Major Pynchon in 1678. The account is indexed as "Massacre." This record of the slaughter was written by Dr. Hastings, who was then town clerk, and he continued in diary form notes of other attacks as they occurred up to the time of his death in 1728. The record was then continued by Oliver Partridge. It is here given in full for its interest as a contemporary account of a half century of conflict, with a few explanatory additions in brackets. The italicized headings are not in the original. The record is remarkably accurate and full of the casualties that occurred in Hampshire County.
Queen Anne's War.
"An Account of the Desolation of Deerfield, the last Day of February, 1704 .- Four hundred of French and Indians (as is thought) assaulted the fort, took it, and killed and captured 162 of the inhabitants, and consumed most of their estates into flames.
"Slain in the fort, John Catlin and his son Jonathan, John French, Samson Frary, Mercy Rood, Jonathan Kellogg, Philip Metoon and his wife and child, Henry Nyms, Mary Mercy and Mehitable Nims, Alice Hawks, John Hawks, Mary and William Brooks, Samuel Smood and wife and two children, Sergt. Benoni Stebbins, Deacon Sheldon's wife and her daughter Mercy, Samuel Hinsdell, Mary and Thomas Carter, Joseph Ingingson, Thomas Selden, Goody Smood, Andrew Stevens, David Alexander, Mrs. Williams, Jerusha and John, her children, Sarah Field, Martin Smith, Sarah Price.
"Slain in the fight in Deerfield Meadow: of Deerfield, David Hoyt, Jr., and Joseph Catlin; of Hatfield, Sergt. Benjamin Waite, Samuel Allis, Samuel Foot; of Hadley, Sergt. Boltwood, his son Robert, Jonathan Ingram, and Nathaniel Warner, Jr.
"Women and children slain in the journey to Canada, 20 persons, viz., Lieut. Hoyt, Jacob Hickson, Goodwife Brooks, Goodwife Belden, Goodwife Carter, Goodwife Nyms, Goodwife Frary, Goodwife French, Goodwife Warner, Widow Coss, Goodwife Pumry, Elizabeth Hawks, and six more children, and Frank, the negro. [The list counts only 19.] Died at Canada, in 1705, Zebedee Williams, Goodwife Jones, and Abigail Furbit.
"May 10, 1704 .- John Allen and his wife slain by Indians at Deerfield.
"May 12, 1704 .- Pascommuck Fort taken by the French and Indians, being about 72. They took and captured the whole garrison, being about 37 per- sons. The English pursuing of them caused them to knock all the captives on the head, save five or six. These they carried to Canada with them. The others escaped, and about seven of those knocked on the head recovered, the rest died. Capt. John Taylor was killed in the fight, and Samuel Bartlett wounded.
"July 29, 1704 .- Thomas Bettys slain by the Indians coming post from Boston.
"July the last, 1704 .- One Benton, and William Olmstead, soldiers, slain by the Indians, and two of the enemy slain.
"July, 1706 .- Judah Trumball and Widow Gash (perhaps) slain by the Indians.
"July, 1707 .- Edward Bancroft slain at Westfield.
"1704 .- Some time in July (19th), Thomas Russell, at Deerfield, and one, Kindness, an Indian, at Hatfield Mill, slain by the Indians.
"July 9, 1708 .- Samuel Persons, of Northampton, slain by the Indians, and his brother Joseph slain or captured; found killed and scalped.
"July, 1708 .- A fort taken at Skipmuck [Chicopee], where were killed Aaron Persons, Wm. Hubbard's son, and three more, and one taken and two wounded.
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"Oct. 13, 1708 .- Abijah Bartlett, of Brookfield, was killed, and John Green, Joseph Ginnings, and Benjamin Ginnings wounded, and a boy of John Woolcot's captured.
"Oct. 26, 1708 .- Brother Ebenezer Field was slain by the enemy in going to Deerfield, near the Muddy Brook.
"August, 1708 .- One Barber, of Windsor, was slain a hundred miles up the Great River, and Martin Kellogg, Jr., taken and one of the enemy slain and another wounded.
"May, 1709 .- John Wells, of Deerfield, slain by the enemy near the Lake, and John Burt killed or taken or lost at the same time; and in that expedi- tion about eight of the enemy slain.
"April, 1709 .- Mehumane Hinsdale taken captive. [He and the next five mentioned were Deerfield men.]
"June 23, 1709 .- Joseph Clesson and John Arms taken captive.
"June 24, 1709 .- Joseph Williams slain, and Matthew Clesson and Isaac Metune wounded,-said Clesson died four days after of his wound.
"Aug. 8, 1709 .- John Clary and Robert Granger slain at Brookfield.
"July 22, 1710 .- John Grovenor, Ebenezer Howard, John White, Benjamin and Stephen Ginnings, and Joseph Kellogg were slain at Brookfield.
"Aug. 10, 1711 .- Samuel Strong captured and his son slain by the enemy at Northampton agoing into their south meadow gate in the morning.
"Aug. 22, 1711 .- Benjamin Wright wounded.
"July 29, 1712 .- Joseph Wright's son, of Springfield, taken captive.
"July 30, 1712 .- Samuel Andross killed upon the scout above Deerfield, and Jonathan Barrett and William Sandford taken captive."
Father Rasle's War.
"In August, 1723, the enemy killed Thomas Holton and Theophilus Merri- man at Northfield. Two days following, they killed Rev. Joseph Willard and two sons of Ens. Stevens, of Rutland, and carried captive two other of his sons.
"Oct. 11, 1723 .- The enemy assailed Northfield, killed Ebenezer Severance, and wounded Enoch Hall and Hezekiah Stratton, and Samuel Dickinson was captured.
"June 18, 1724 .- The enemy killed Benjamin Smith, and took Joseph Allis and Aaron Wells captives. Allis was killed the next day.
"June 27, 1724 .- The enemy killed Ebenezer Sheldon, Thomas Colton, and John English, an Indian, above Deerfield.
"July 10th, Samuel Allen and Timothy Childs wounded at Deerfield. August following, Nathaniel [Noah] Edwards slain, and Abram Miller wounded at Northampton. The next day Nathaniel Bancroft wounded at Westfield.
"The enemy wounded Deacon Samuel Field, of Deerfield, Aug. 25, 1725, a ball passing through the right hypochondria, cutting off three plaits of the mesenteria, which hung out of the wound in length almost two inches, which was cut off even with the body, the bullet passing between the lowest and the next rib, cutting, at its going forth, part of the lowest rib; his hand being close to his body when the ball came forth, it entered at the root of the ball of the thumb, cutting the bone of the forefinger, passed between the fore and the second finger, was cut out, and all of the wounds cured in less than five weeks by Dr. Thomas Hastings.
"Sept. 11, 1725 .- The enemy came upon Fort Dummer scouts and killed one John Pease, of Enfield, one Bedortha, of Springfield; took Nathaniel Chamberlain [of Hatfield] and one Farragh and one Baker captives, and carried them to Canada; one Steel escaped."
French and Indian War.
"July 5, 1745 .- The enemy took one Phipps as he was hoeing corn at the place called the Great Meadow, above Fort Dummer, carried him about half a mile, then killed him and mangled his body in a most inhuman manner.
"On July 10, 1745, the enemy killed Deacon Fisher at Upper Ashuelot, within about sixty rods of the garrison.
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HISTORY OF HATFIELD.
"Oct. 11, 1745 .- About fourscore French and Indians assaulted the Fort at the Great Meadow, and took captive Nehemiah Stow and killed David Rugg coming down the river in a canoe.
"April 19, 1746 .- The Indian enemy captivated Capt. Spafford, Stephen Farnsworth, and one Parker. They were taken between the fort at No. 4, above the Great Fall and the mill, in that township, and on Monday follow- ing Moses Harvey was shot upon by the enemy in the road between Deer- field and Northfield, who fired upon the enemy and escaped.
"April 23, 1746 .- The enemy assaulted the upper Ashuelot, killed one Bullard and an aged woman named Keny, and took one Blake captive and burned a number of buildings in that place.
"On the 25th of April, 1746, one Holton, of Northfield, went over to Lunenburgh, and on his return was killed by the enemy.
"May 5, 1746 .- At the township called No. 4, one Putnam was slain by the Indian enemy, as he, with others, was going from the fort to a barn.
"May 6, 1746 .- Deacon Timothy Brown and one Moffett, a soldier, were captivated at the lower Ashuelot.
"May 9, 1746 .- About fifty of the enemy assaulted Deacon Sheldon's fort at Fall Town and wounded John Burk.
"May 10, 1746 .- The enemy fired upon Sergt. John Hawks and one Miles near the province fort at Hoosick, and wounded them both. On the same day the enemy killed Matthew Clark, of Colerain, and wounded his wife and daughter."
The fight in the Deerfield meadows mentioned in the sec- ond paragraph of the above was between the forces of the French and Indians and the relief expedition which set out from the towns below for the rescue of Deerfield early in the morning after the terrible massacre. The account of the part borne by Hatfield men cannot be better told than in the words of the Deerfield historian, George Sheldon. This quotation is taken from an address delivered by him at the field day of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association at Hatfield, Sept. 19, 1889, in commemoration of the massacre at Hatfield in 1677.
"Our forefathers, in the day of their need, found the people of Hatfield most generous. Hospitable homes opened the doors wide to shelter them, when forced to flee from the wrath of the Indians in Philip's war; and again in the devastation of Feb. 29, 1704. To the promptness and bravery of Hatfield men on that fateful morning, it was largely due that a remnant of our people needed any shelter, save that in the bosom of mother earth.
"We have no need to analyze the motives of these brave men. As they rode with headlong speed up the snowy Pocumtuck path, the lurid light reddening the northern sky and reflecting on the white openings in the woods through which they sped, told too well the dire disaster befalling their neighbors and their kin; and that was all they need to know.
"Faster and faster the panting steeds were urged, until in the morning light their riders saw a horrible scene of desolation and woe. Tall chimneys, with fire place and oven standing naked, amid the glowing cellar, where had stood the settler's home. Ruins of heavy timbered barns lay smoking about the blackened hay mows, which still sent out fitful flashes of flame with every eddy of the troubled air. Carcasses of cattle, sheep, and swine scattered about upon the trampled and bloody snow, where they were killed in wanton- ness or slaughtered for food. And most ghastly sight of all, nude and mangled forms of men, women and children, their neighbors, friends and kindred, victims of a most hellish act of civilized France, lying where their
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murderers left them on wintry beds of snow, which now had taken on a crimson hue.
"The foray of Ashpelon, in 1677, was an act of savages, the last wave of Philip's war. It was a raid merely for plunder, and by the code of Indian warfare, conducted with humanity. The assault upon Deerfield was not an act of international warfare. It was not an attempt of the Pocumtucks and Norwottucks to recover the homes of their fathers. Probably not one of their number was with the invaders. It was not an attempt to conquer terri- tory. De Rouville, the commander, never for one moment thought of holding the captured town for France. No, it is clearly established that Gov. Vau- dreuil sent his trusty officers of the Line, with a horde of blood-thirsty barbarians to surprise and sack a New England village, and murder its sleeping inhabitants, as a cold blooded act of French policy. It was to show the northern Indians that the French were their friends, able and willing to give them opportunities for gratifying their natural propensity for blood and plunder, and thus to secure their alliance. All the sentimental stories about this bloody raid being a grand and patriotic attempt of the Indians to revenge their wrongs, recover their old hunting grounds and the graves of their fathers, are pure fiction, and must vanish into thin air, before the facts of history.
"Your ancestors and mine, seeing and hearing the dreadful sights and sounds, on their arrival at Deerfield, did not know-nor did they need to know-these facts, to awaken their manhood, inflame their hearts, and nerve their arms. At the time of their arrival, the main body of the enemy had drawn off with their captives and booty across the river. Scattered bands were engaged in wanton destruction of animals and property; and a con- siderable body was still besieging the house of Benoni Stebbins. These flew like chaff from the threshing floor before the charge of the infuriated men from below, towards the main body, which many never reached. Observing this charge, De Rouville hastily threw his army into an ambuscade. The reckless daring of the pursuers, led, doubtless, by Sergeant Benjamin Waite, carried them into the trap, with fatal consequences. Overpowered ten to one, our men retreated, fighting inch by inch, to the fort.
"No plumed and armored knight, coursing with lance in rest, or smiting with sword and mace a Paynim horde around the walls of Jerusalem, showed more chivalric fire or nobler daring than this brave band in homespun, fight- ing their pagan and Christian foes on Deerfield North Meadow, in the attempt to revenge the slain and rescue the miserable captives out of the hands of the spoiler.
"That my theme is not leading me so far as it might seem, from the men and events of Sept. 19, 1677, will appear as a few words are said connecting in a remarkable manner the actors and victims of each occasion. I wish here to state clearly, that what I have said of the Hatfield men applies as well to the men of Hadley and Northampton, their comrades in the ride; and to the men of Deerfield who joined them on their arrival. Limit of time compels a confinement in the brief personal notes which follow, to those Hatfield men. who were of that troop which rode up the dark valley, on the morning of Feb. 29, 1704. As I cannot speak of them in order of merit, while each was eager to be foremost, they will be named alphabetically.
"First. Samuel Allis .- He knew that his mother and two sisters were in the fated town, and the furious gallop was a lagging pace to his anxious fears ; and the discovery that she lay dead and mangled among the ruins, and that they were captives in the hands of barbarians, may have aroused him to that pitch of fury which banished all prudence and carried him headlong to his death in the fatal ambuscade.
"Second. Samuel Belden .- He could not forget how the savages had murdered his mother at Hatfield, Sept. 19, 1677; nor could his half brother, Richard Billings, who rode by his side, equally eager to be avenged on the destroyers. But they could not outride Nathaniel Coleman, son of Dea. John Coleman, whose wife was killed Sept. 19, and whose daughter, Sarah Cole- man. is the picturesque heroine of to-day's celebration.
"Third. Ebenezer, Nathaniel and Samuel Dickinson .- Their uncle, Oba- diah Dickinson, was a captive of Sept. 19, the man whom the savages, with a
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refinement of cruelty, unknown to the Inquisition, compelled to lead his friend and companion, old Sergt. Plympton, to the stake, soon after their arrival in Canada. These young men could not be laggards in the race.
"Neither could Samuel Field, remembering that his father had been shot by prowling Indians at Hatfield ten years before; nor Benjamin Field, a nephew of the murdered man. But Samuel Field could not know how his whole future life was to be shaped by the events of this day. While bravely fighting in the meadow by the side of David Hoyt of Deerfield, one of the seven defenders of the Benoni Stebbins's house, the latter fell. Two years later Samuel married his widow, settled in Deerfield, and became one of her most honored citizens. His sister Mary married Jonathan Hoyt, of Deerfield, a brother of David, a young captive of that sad day, and in the course of events became my great great grandmother.
"Samuel Foote .- His mother, Mary Foote, with two children, was taken in Ashpelon's raid. His little sister Mary, after enduring the hardships of the long miserable march, was murdered in Canada. Was it the recollection of these cruel wrongs which urged him to the fore front, where he bravely fell, fighting with his face to the foe?
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