History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 23

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 23

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Part IV. of his work gives an account of a journey of a party of the Pilgrims from Plymouth to the home of the Massachusetts, " and what happened there." The account begins :

" It seemed good to the Company io generall that, though the Massa- closets lind often threatened us (as we were informed), yet, we should go amongst them, partly to see the countrey, partly to make peace with them and partly to procure their trucke, For these ends the Governour choso ten inen, fit for the purpose, and sent Tisquantum and two other Salvages to bring us to speech with the people and interpret for us. We set out ahont midnight ; the tyde then serving for ns; wo supposing it

CAMBRIDGE.

to be neerer then it is, thought to be there next morning betimes; but it proved welt neere twentie Leagues from New Plimouth.

". Wee came to the bottome of the Bay, but being late wee anchored aod lay in the Sballop, not having seene any of the people, &c "

The account tells that on the next day they went on shore and sent Tisquantum (Squanto) to find the Indians, who were at a distance up in the country. The place where they landed, and where they found a quantity of lobsters which had been caught by the natives, was near a "cliffe," and was probably the rocky point in Quincy Bay known as "the Chapel," at Squantum Head.

They found the Sachem of the tribe here dwelling to be Obbatinewat, who owned allegiance to Massa- soit, and treated them kindly. He told them he did not dare to remain in any stated place, for fear of the Tarratines, and he said, too, that the Squaw-Sachem, dwelling across the Bay beyond the river (the Charles), was his enemy. He referred to the Squaw-Sachem as the "Queene of the Massachusetts," or gave the Pil- grims that idea. Obbatinewat next day consented to accompany them to visit this "Queen."

They crossed the Bay, with its "at lest fiftie islands," and at night came to the place where the Squaw-Sachem lived ; but the Indians, going on shore, found no one, and so they returned and all remained on board the shallop all night. On the next day they went ashore, leaving two men to care for the shallop (this was on October 1, 1621), and "marched in Armes" three miles up into the country, where they found corn-fields where some corn had just been gathered, and a house, probably a common wigwam, had been pulled down. Going on a mile or more, they came to a hill, on the top of which was a house, altogether different from any other Indian houses which they had noticed. This was built upon a scaffold raised upon poles some six feet from the ground. This house would seem to have been a sort of observatory. Beyond this hill, "in a bottome," they found a fort, covering a circle, some forty to fifty feet in diameter, and enclosed with poles thirty or forty "foote " long, as "thick as they could be set one by another." A trench was dug on each side of this palisade, "breast high." At one point there was an entrance to this fortress across a bridge. In the midst of this fortification there was the frame of a house, and here Nanepashemet, their former king, was buried. The location of this fort is supposed to have been to the southeast of Mystic Pond, in West Med- ford; and near the supposed site, in 1862, a skeleton was exhumed, which was thought by some to be that of the old Indian "King," as there was found with it a pipe with a copper mouthpiece. About a mile farther on, upon the top of a hill, the Pilgrims found another such fort, and they were told that here Nane- pashemet had been killed, and no one had lived here since his death. It is probable that he was killed in the raid of the Tarratines in 1619, when the pesti- lence had left him defenceless, and too old and weak to escape by flight.

The English remained upon this hill and sent their Indian guides forward to find the people and reassure them, so that they might have a talk and trade with them. They found the Indian women not far away, and having pacified them, they brought the English to them, within a mile of the fort on the hill. These women had fled before them, but carrying a large amount of corn, some of which they now prepared for the entertainment of the English. It was long before any of their men could be induced to appear ; and at last only one, and he shaking with fear. The English traded with them what they could, using them kindly and dealing fairly, promising to return again before long with more means of trade and asking the Indians to save all their furs for them, which they promised. Nearly all the women followed them down to their boats for the sake of trading, selling the fur clothes which they wore, and replacing them with boughs of trees lashed about them. And so they parted with them amicably; though their Indian guides urged them to plunder the women and take their furs without paying for them.

They missed their chief purpose, which was to gain an interview with the Squaw-Sachem, or Queen of the Massachusetts. The Indian women reported her a long distance away, so that they could not go to her. The journey here described seems to have been through the present limits of Charlestown, Somerville and Medford, to the southeast side of Mystic Pond, the party probably following along the high land by the old trail, well known, of course, to their guides.

The picture shows how weak and helpless the once powerful tribe of the Massachusetts had become. It is probable that the main body of the tribe was with the " Queen," but in all there could have been only a few hundred who were inhabiting the country be- tween the two rivers, and as far back as Concord, where the eminent historian of that town, Mr. Shat- tuck, thinks the " Queen " had her residence at this time. The contrast here shown with the condition of the Indians in 1605 declares the terrible havoc of the plague and their wars. Little more is known of this tribe after this, until the settlements were begun in Massachusetts Bay. In April, 1629, in their direc- tions to those who came over to settle the plantation in the bay, the authorities of the " New England Com- pany," say :

"If any of the Salvages pretend right of inheritance to all or any part of the lands granted in our pattent, we pray you endeavor to purchase their tytle that we may avoyde the least scruple of intrusion."

According to this direction, the settlers sought to obtain the lands of the Indians by fair purchase, though the prices paid would seem to us now in- credibly small, some trinket or article of clothing, or arms and ammunition being paid for a tract of land. But we must remember that the people had a whole continent of free land before them ; and on their part, the Indians had no idea of land values or titles, and only a few of their wisest began to think of the re-

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

sult of this constant giving up of their land. Their attachment to any particular locality was tribal rather than personal ; and when the English sought to obtain a title by purchase, it was found that the ownership of the land was in a vague sort of way vested in the Sachem or sagamore of the tribe. The first settlers in Boston and vicinity were careful to secure titles to their lands from the highest authority of the Massachusetts tribe. At the time of their coming that authority was the Squaw-Sachem, widow of Nanepashemet, who, some time after his death, married the chief Pow-wow, or "Medicine-Man " of the tribe, whose name was Webcowits or Wibbacowits. This marriage, however, did not transfer any of her hereditary rights or titles to him; and he seems not to have been recognized as a ruler, or anything more than a Pow-wow, as before the alliance. It was probably by the precaution of the English that he was joined in the deeds given by the Squaw-Sachem. Just when the earliest of these deeds were given is uncertain, but not certainly until after 1629-30. It is probable that at the beginning of the settlements upon the peninsula between the Mystic and Charles Rivers, and the surrounding ter- ritory, the settlers, as soon as might be, obtained deeds from the Squaw-Sachem. In order that there might be no question about the titles gained from the Indians, the General Court, March 13, 1638-39, em- powered Major Edward Gibbons to agree with the Indians for the land within the bounds of Watertown, Cambridge and Boston. Subsequent deeds and rec- ords show that the conveyance was made by the Squaw-Sachem to Watertown and Cambridge, although no deed or copy of deed has been preserved, so far as is known. The first deed, relating to any of these lands given by the Squaw-Sachem, was dated April 18, 1639.

Deed of Squaw-Sachem and Webcowet to the inhabitants of Charlestowne.

"Wee, Webcowet & Squaw Sachem, do sell unto the inhabitants of Charlestowne, all the land within the lines granted them by the Court excepting the farmes & the ground on the West of the two Great Ponds called Misticke Ponds from the South side of Mr. Nowell's lott, Deere the upper end of the ponds, unto the little runnet that cometh from Capt. Cooke's mill, which the Squaw reserveth for their own use for her life, for the Indians to plant and hunt upon ; and the weare above the poods they also reserve for the Indians to fish at while the Squaw (Sachem liveth, and after the death of Squaw Sachem shee dotli leave al her lands from Mr. Mayhnes honse to neere Salem to the present Gov- ernor John Winthrop, Sent,, Mr. Increase Nowell, Mr. John Wilson & Mr. Edward Gibons, to dispose of, and all Indiana to depart, and for sat- tisfaction from Charlestown, Wee acknowledge to have received io full sattisfaction, twenty and one coates, nineteen fathoms of Wampum & three bushels of Corne, In witness whereof, wee have herennto set our hands the day & yeare above named.

" the Marke of SQUA SACHEM, the Marke of WEBCOWET."

In the Middlesex Court Files, in the case of "Charles- towne vs. Glaison," relative to the possession of some of these lands, dated April 1, 1662, there are several very interesting papers, among them the original of the above deed, and a deposition of Edward Johnson concerning this conveyance of Squaw-Sachem. It is here given on account of its casual references to the Indian Queen, etc .:

" Edward Johnson, aged 60 years, witnesseth :

" That abt one or two and twenty years agoe the deponent being at the wigwam of Squa Sachem, there was prsent Mr. Increase Nowell, Major Edward Gibbons, Leift. Sprague and Edward Converss, and some others of Charlestowne, at wch time, according to the interpretation of her and her husband's meaning by the above named Major Edward Gib- bons, they did grant and sell unto Charlestowne, all their land within the limittsof Charlestowne except that on tho West side of the ponde called Misticke, where their Wigwam then stood, wob they reserved for term of her life, & after her decease they did then declare it should come and remaine to Jnº Winthrop Esqr, Mr. Increase Nowell, Mr. Jno Wilson & the above named Major Edward Gibbons, & the persons and contract this deponant, at his returne llomo, did enter into his day-hooke from remembrance yt of this is ye whole truth rembered, so sayth

"Sworne in Court 4 (2) 1660 EDWARD JOHNSON.

as attest THOMAS DANFORTH, Record".

" Vera Copia

THOMAS DANFORTH, R."

It was evidently considered the safest course for the inhabitants to secure the reversion of all the Indian lands reserved, in order that after the Squaw- Sachem's death they might not be troubled with any heirs or other claimants, and might also be rid of the Indians. And for these and other reasons Major Edward Gibbons (who was well acquainted with the Indians and their language, and possessed apparently special influence over the Squaw-Sachem, as well as power in the colony) again became active in the mat- ter, and this time the Squaw-Sachem executes a deed of gift to Jotham Gibbons, the young son of Major Gibbons, conveying the reversion of all her lands hitherto reserved. The following is the deed :

"Be it knowne unto all men by these presents that wee, Webcowites and the Squa Sachem of Misticke, wife of the said Webeowites, calling to minde and well considering the many kindnesses and benefitts we have received from the bands of Captaine Edward Gibones, of Boston, in New England, in parte of requitall whereof and for our tender love and good respect that wee doe hear to Jotham Gibones Sonne and heire apparent of the said. Captain Gibones, doe hereby, of our own motion and accord, give and grant unto the said Jotham Gibones the reversion of all that parcell of land which lyes against the pondes at Misticke afore- said, together with the said pondes, all which wee reserved from Charles- towne and Cambridge, late called Newtowne, and all hereditaments and appurtenances therennto belonging after the death of me, the said Squa Sachem. To have and to hold the said Reversion of the said parcell of lands and pondes and all and singulare the premises with the appurte- nances unto the said Jotham Gibones, his heires and assignes forever. In witnesse whereof wee have herennto sett our hands and scales the thirteenth day of the Eleventh moneth in the year so declared by Christians One thousand six hundred thirty and nyne, and in the fif- teenth yeare of the Raigne of King Charles of England, and willing that these he recorded before our much honored ffriends, the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay in New England and the rest of the Magis- trates there for perpetuall remembrance of this thing.

" Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of " ROBERT LUCAR, The Squa Sachem's marke.

EDMOND QUINSEY,

ROBERT GILLAM. Webcowites1 marke."

This original document is preserved in the court files of Middlesex County. An imperfect copy also is in the Massachusetts Archives, volume 30, page 1.

The transactions with the Squaw-Sachem went on up to near 1660. The English seem to have treated her with marked consideration, and to have faithfully performed thicir promises to her in their payments of corn, "coates," etc. Many items appear in Cambridge Records relating to these transactions.

CAMBRIDGE.

It would appear that after the death of Nanepashe- met, the Squaw-Sachem exercised little control over ary of the Massachusetts Indians south of the Charles River. These seem to have become subject to Massa- soit. There were several noted Sachems among them, like Chickatawbut, who claimed to be rightful owner of the lands about Boston, and from whom the Boston settlers bought them ; Kutshamakin, who lived upon the Neponset River, and sold what is now Milton to the English; Wampatuck, son of Chickataw- but, etc. To the north, Masconomo, Sagamore of Ag- awam (Ipswich). These repudiated the authority of the Squaw-Sachem, and, indeed, all authority was merged into English rule, when the Sachems, in 1643, formally submitted to the General Court and put themselves under the protection of the English.

It is said that Nanepashemet left five children, and four of their names are given in the "History of the Lynn," by Mr. Lewis, viz .: 1. Montowampate, Sachem of Saugus, called by the English "Sagamore James." 2. A daughter, called by the English " Abigail."

3. Wonohaquaham, Sachem of Winnesimet, known to the settlers as "Sagamore John."

4. Winnepurkitt, or "George Rumneymarsh," but after he succeeded his brother " James " as Sachem of Saugus, called "Sagamore George." It was Winne- purkitt who, according the story in Morton's "New Canaan," married the daughter of Passaconaway, the great Sachem of the Pennacooks. Upon Morton's story is founded the legend of Whittier's poem, "The Bridal of Pennacook."

Squaw-Sachem died sometime before 1662, as in April of that year suit was begun by the town of Charlestown to recover the lands granted to Jotham Gibbons in reversion, from F. Gleison, who was then in possession, Maj. Gibbons and his son having died several years before. The small-pox scourge of 1633, almost utterly destroyed the people of Nanepashemet's sons at Rumneymarsh, Saugus, Nahant and Marble- head.

The glowing accounts of the first explorers of the coast of North America were greatly disappointing to those who came into the country to settle in 1620 and soon after. We have seen that the pestilence and war had been especially destructive to the great Mas- sachusetts tribe. The death of their chief Sachem had broken the tribe into factions, which neither the Squaw-Sachem nor any one of the lesser Sachems of the tribe seems to have had the disposition or power to re-unite. But the pestilence and war and poverty and constant fear had broken their spirits, and they had no feeling of hostility or resistance when the English came, but rather found them a protection from their hereditary enemies. The Massachusetts Indians had nothing but their lands which the English wanted, and these, by command of the government, they easily obtained in a legal way. The Indians were glad to be allowed to remain in the vicinity of their old homes and near the English, and to be tolera-

ted even through half-contemptuous pity and ill-con- cealed distrust.

The people of the town of Cambridge seem to have maintained unbroken terms of friendship with the Indians, and to have tacitly allowed them many privileges which elsewhere had been refused. They made them useful also in many ways, employing them, both men and women, upon their farms, though they did not generally consider them reliable, capable or in- dustrious. There is no doubt that their hereditary ten- dency to vagrancy still clung to them. The people of the Squaw-Sachem, as we haveseen, after the settlement of Charlestown and Cambridge, etc., gathered to the lands reserved for them at the Mystic Ponds. There was another company of Indians on the south side of Charles River at Nonantum, within the bounds of what was then Cambridge (now Newton.) These Indians were under the Sachemship of Kutshamakin, who claimed to be "Sachem of Massachusetts." Waban was the chief man of this Nonantum colony, though not a Sachem. His wife was Tasunsquam daughter of Tahattawan, Sachem of Concord, which relation doubtless gave him some authority ; but he was a man of intelligence and ability, and it was largely due to these qualities in him that, under the earnest Christian zeal of John Eliot, of Roxbury and the equally earnest and wise direction of Major Daniel Gookin, of Cambridge, this small village at Nonantum reached the highest point of Christian civil- ization ever attained by any American Indians. The history of this little colony on Nonantum is, however, synonymous nearly with the history of the Christian Indians, which is not properly a matter for this chapter, but as that movement had its actual formal beginning here in the wigwam of Waban at Nonantum, it may he proper to note a few points. We may see at a glance, what I think has never been particularly referred to in a published account, that the forlorn condition of the Massachusetts Indians, their help- lessness, abject poverty and broken spirit, put them in a condition to receive any word of life from the English, which might in any way give them courage or restore a way of hope. And then again, opposition to the efforts of Mr. Eliot to convert the Indians, was based upon the same reason of their Sachems and rulers, which they gave for not formally submitting to English laws : either process destroyed the author- ity of the hereditary ruler of the tribe. The Massa- chusetts Indians in the vicinity of Boston and Cam- bridge, had come almost imperceptibly under the control and direction of the colonial laws. The result was that hardly more than the name of authority was left to the Sachems, and little objection was made to the christianizing endeavors of Mr. Eliot and Major Gookin.

Rev. Mr. Eliot, who came over in 1631, and was settled over the church in Roxbury, carly appreci- ated the opportunity and realized its importance. He began soon to fit himself for the work, by gaining a

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

thorough knowledge of the Indian language; and also prepared the public, especially of England, for assist- ing the work, by publishing tracts in London, giving account of the great field for missionary enterprise, in which the French Catholics had been so successful. In both his personal preparation and in the public mind he was successful. His tracts published in Lon- don stirred up the whole kingdom with a missionary fervor, and from the churches and from benevolent people contributions poured into the fund of the "Society for Propagating the Gospel in New Eng- land," until about £12,000 had been collected and invested in real estate in England, the income of which was to he expended in missionary work among the Indians of New England, to pay the wages of school-teachers and missionaries. But the General Court of Massachusetts were not behind in zeal, and in 1646 (before the society in London had been organized) passed an act for the same end as above.

Upon the 28th of October, 1646, Mr. Eliot, in com- pany with Major Gookin and two others, went to Nonantum, and there, in the large wigwam of Waban, for the first time preached (in their own language) to an Indian congregation, mainly called together by the endeavors of Waban, the chief man, though not Sachem, of Nonantum. Mr. Eliot continued preach- ing through a part of the winter and the following spring. Many of the prominent ministers and laymen often attended these meetings, and sympathized and assisted as actively as possible in his work. Among the foremost of these were Rev. Thomas Shepard, Major Gookin and Mr. Dunster, of Cambridge. It was early realized that these Indians must be reduced to ways of civilized life as well as taught Christian doctrine. It was soon seen that they must be taught something of the industrial arts. A large tract at Nonantum was set apart for the occupancy of the Indians, and it was sought to gather all within the neighboring towns to this place. Those who came were encouraged to cultivate farms and build better houses. They were furnished with farming and carpenter's tools, etc. They surrounded their town with ditches and stone walls, planted orchards and laid out regular roads and streets, enclosing their fields with fences. The young men were taught trades ; many learned farming by working upon the farms of the English.

At Nonantum (where all Indian history for Cam- bridge and other towns near by centres at this period) the first civil laws for regulating an Indian community were established. The success of the colony at Nonantum had encouraged Mr. Eliot to widen his efforts, and itinerant teachers were fitted among the natives and sent to the various tribes to open the way for Mr. Eliot ; and six communities of " Christian Indians" had been established by the ef- forts of Mr. Eliot and Major Daniel Gookin, who had been made superintendent of the general work in New England. These communities were located in 1674 in what are now the towns of Canton, Grafton,

Marlborough, Tewksbury, Littleton and Hopkinton. Some five or six others, called the "New Praying Towns," were started. But we must follow the for- tunes of the Nonantum village.

In 1650, at the earnest wish of the friends of the Christian Indians, led by Mr. Eliot, a township of six thousand acres, on the Charles River, at Natick, was granted for the use of said Christian Indians for a town. This Indian town was regularly laid out in 1651, and thither that year Waban and the Nonantum Indians removed, and thereafter became identified with that flourishing community.

In Bacon's " History of Natick" this town is de- scribed as consisting of "three long streets, two on the north side and one on the south side of the river, with a bridge eighty feet long, and eight feet high, and stone foundations, with the whole being built by the Indians themselves. To each house on these streets was attached a piece of land. The houses were in the Indian style." But one of the houses was built in English style, large and commodious. This was used on week-days as a school-house, and as a church on Sundays.

Waban was chosen ruler of the town and proved a wise, prudent and useful leader. He was active iu gathering the Indian church at Natick. He died in fullness of years, having survived the terrible disap- pointments and shared the persecutions imposed upon the Christian Indians hy the bitter prejudices of the people at large during the war with Philip and his allies, 1675-77. When, to satisfy the popular rage, their village was broken up, and all were seized and carried down the harbor and imprisoned upon Deer Island through the winter and spring, Waban, then seventy-five years old, went with them and shared all their privations, and lived to return again with them to their village, though, as Major Gookin relates, he was near dying at their return to Cambridge, where they were received and kindly treated by many who had formerly known them. Waban himself and some others of those who were very sick were received into Major Gookin's own house and cared for by him- self and wife and friends till they recovered. There was no place where the Indians had more friends, or more powerful friends, than in Cambridge. Captain Thomas Prentice was the first of the military leaders to conduct the friendly Indians as soldiers into the war, and commended them earnestly for what they accomplished. The leading men of the Colony, the Governor and Council and the magistrates, and nearly all the military leaders believed in the Christian In- dians, and urged their employment in the war ; but the bitter jealousy and prejudice of the people pre- vailed for the time, and the Indians, so willing and proud to serve, and so much more capable of carrying on the peculiar tactics of Indian warfare than the slow and cumbersome ranks of the colonial militia, were thus shut out, persecuted, insulted, and many driven into hostility by the popular frenzy against all

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 23

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034