History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 89

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III > Part 89

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).

Among the other factories may be mentioned the wool factory of Capt. Joseph Crafts, later John W. Hollis's on Galen Street; the knitting-factory of John W. Tuttle, succeeded by the Porter Needle Company, later by the Empire Laundry Machinery Company, on California Street; the bicycle factory of Sterling Elliott and the Stanley Dry-plate Company on the river bank south of Maple Street.

Ths ice business of Howard Bros. is located on Cali- fornia Street. The White and the Derby type factories, no longer in existence, were in the vicinity of Watertown Street. On Morse Street, near the

ponds, still remains an old silk-mill, now a paint-mill, and the factory of knit and woolen goods of Mr. Thomas Dalby, while ou the same street near Galen is Sanger's sash and blind factory.

In 1871, by Chapter 184, the legislature granted the right to the Massachusetts Central Railroad Com - pany, to extend its tracks from Weston through Wał- tham, Newton, Watertown, Cambridge and Brighton, or any of them to some point adjacent to the location with the Boston and Albany Railroad Company, and it was expected that the site would be laid out along Water Street to Faneuil to connect with the Boston & Albany Railroad.

In 1868, Chapter 151, the " Nonautum Ilorse Rail- road Company " was chartered by the Legislature. Miles Pratt, Nathaniel Whiting and James F. Simons, Jr., were the incorporators, and they were empowered to build and maintain a track from the flag-staff op- posite the Spring Hotel, Watertown, to Lowe's apothe- cary store in Newton ; the capital stock being fixed at $50,000.

In 1874 commenced the agitation and petitioning for various causes, for the annexation of the whole or part of this territory to Newton, and ten times has this effort been made without success, though in 1889, fifty-nine out of one hundred and twenty voters were petitioners, with only eleven neutrals.

This territory financially is valuable to the town ax it consists of ninety-four acres, valued with the factories and buildings for taxable purposes at eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

In 1888 there was completed in conjunction with the City of Newton, a system of surface drainage for Morse Field. The sewer system known as " Charles River Valley," adopted in 1889 by the State Legisla- ture, will pass through this territory along the banks of the Charles River through Faneuil and Brighton into the main sewer in Boston and out into the har- bor.

This territory well drained, supplied with pure water, electric lights, good municipal privileges at low taxation, in a few years will be covered with the homes of law abiding citizens attracted by its superior advantages.

Whatever in the future may be its municipal government-town or city-one thing is certain, the south side of Watertown has been no unimportant factor in the history of the old town of Watertown.

CHAPTER XXXII.

WATERTOWN-(Continued).

MILITARY HISTORY.

Indian wars-The Revolutionary Period-The Civil War.

THE military history of this town has never been written. Perhaps it is yet not time to separate this

978

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

important part of our common history and trace from Captain Patrick of the carly train bands to Com- mander Edward E. Allen of the Ancient and Honor- able Artillery, all that brilliant list of names of men who were so essential to the more existence of society and who so abundantly filled the important civil posts of duty. The pages of our history are thickly strewn with military titles.

The original danger from the Indians, and during the first 150 years, is shown in the following article on the Indians by Rev. Mr. Rand. Something of the condition of military affairs can be seen in the article on the Revolutionary Period by Mrs. Bradford. The contribution of our town to the great Civil War is seen in Mr. Ingraham's record.

But the war of 1812, the Mexican war of 1845-48, and the dread of war at other times have kept alive the military spirit and brought out and trained those fitted to command or willing to serve their county in this way. These always have the respect and the gratitude of their more qniet neighbors.

THE INDIANS OF WATERTOWN.1-Cotton Mather who is never dull says of the Massachusetts Indians : "Know then that these doleful creatures are the ve- riest ruins of mankind which are to be found any- where upon the face of the earth. . . . One might see among them what an hard master the devil is, to the most devoted of his vassals. These abject creatures live in a country full of mines; we have already made entrance upon our iron; and in the very surface of the ground among us, there lies copper enough to supply all this world; besides other mines hereafter to be exposed. But our shiftless Indians were never owners of so much as a knife till we came among them. Their name for an Englishman was a knife- man. . . . They live in a country where we now have all the conveniences of human life. But as for them, their housing is nothing but a few mats tied about poles fastened in the earth, where a good fre is their bed clothes in the coldest seasons. . . . łn

most of their dangerous diseases, 'tis a powow that must be sent for ; that is, a priest who has more famil- iarity with Satan than his neighbors. This conjurer comes and roars and howls and uses magical cere- monies over the sick man, and will be well paid for it when he has done. If this don't etlect the eure, the man's time is come, and there's an end. . . . Their way of living is infinitely barbarous. The men are most abominably slothful, making their poor squaws, or wives, to plant and dress and barn and beat their corn, and build their wigwams for them."

One other thing this versatile pen has placed on record, that the Indians in their wars with the Eng- lish, finding inconvenient the yelling of the English dogs, "sacrificed a dog to the devil; after which no English dog would bark at an Indian for divers months ensuing. This was the miserable people

which our Eliot propounded unto himself the saving of." [Life of Eliot].

The inquiry arises when in Watertown's history do we first meet with Indians?

If Professor E. N. Horsford be correct, it was in that memorable battle which Thorfinn and his brother Norsemen fought with the Skraelings, this side of Cambridge Ilospital, a battle-field which justly can never belong to any other than the children of Nor- umbega. It was then about the year 1000 that the Watertown Indians loomed up above the misty hori- zon-line of history.

We have, however, in the seventeenth century a sight of the Indians that cannot be questioned.

Capt. Roger Clap (so printed in Shortleff's " Bos- ton ") came to this country in the year 1630. He arrived at Hull May 30th, in the ship "Mary and John," which " Great Ship of Four Hundred Tons," as he calls it, did not bring the colonists any farther than " Nantasket Point." There the hard-hearted Captain Squeb left them to shift for themselves, "in a forlorn place in this Wilderness." The colonists, though, " got a Boat of some old Planters " and toward the west they went sailing. They came to Charlestown, which had "some Wigwams and one House," and may have been a mighty city, but all in embryo.

This did not satisfy their ambition. Capt. Clap says that they "then went up Charles river, until the river grew narrow and shallow, and there we landed our goods with much labor and toil, the bank being steep, and night coming on, we were informed that there were hard by us Three Hundred Indians. One English Man that could speak the Indian language (an old Planter) went to them and advised them not to come near us in the Night ; and they harkened to his Counsels and came not. I myself was one of the Sentinels that first Night. Our Captain was a Low Country Souldier, one Mr. Southcot, a brave Souldier.

" In the Morning some of the Indians came and stood at a distance off, looking at us, but came not near us, but when they had been a while in view, some of them came and held out a great Bass toward us; so we sent a Man with a Bisket and changed the Cake for the Bass. Afterwards they supplied us with Bass; exchanging a Bass for a Bisket Cake, and were very friendly unto us.

" ( Dear Children ] Forget not what Care God had over his dear servant-, to watch over us, and protect us in our weak beginnings. Capt. Squeb turned ashore Us and our Goods like a mercyless Man, but God, even our merciful God, took pity on us ; so that we were supplied, first with a Boat, and then caused many Indians (some Hundreds) to be ruled by the Advice of one Man, not to come near us ; Alas, had they come upon us, how soon might they have de- stroyed us 1 I think we were not above Ten in Num- ber. But God caused the Indians to help us with fish at very cheap rates."

In this account which Capt. Clap addressed to his

1 Condensed from Boy. Edward A Rand.

379

WATERTOWN.

children a short time before his death, he proceeds to say that the party did not stay there on the banks of the Charles many days. They had "orders to come away from that Place (which was about Water- town) unto a place called Mattapan (now Dorches- ter)."

When Capt. Clap told his simple, touching, rever- ent story, little did he think that his item about the bass would suggest to some ingenious mind a scene for our picturesque town seal.

The inquiry arises who were these Indians found on the banks of the Charles ?

A part of the aboriginal population called the Massachusetts Indians. Drake, in his work on the Indians, tells us that it has been affirmed that Massachusetts means, " An hill in the form of an arrow's head." Roger Williams said that the Massa- chusetts were called so from the blue hills.

Gookin, in his Historical Collections, says :

"The Massachusetts, being the next great people northward, iohab- ited principally about that place in Massachusetts Bay, where the hody of the English now dwell. These were & uumerons and great people. Their chief sachem held dominion over many other petty governours, as those of Weechaga skas, Nepoositt, Puokapaog, Nonantum, Nasha- way, some of the Nipmuck people, as far as Pokomtakuke, as the old meo of Massachusetts affirmed. This people could, in former times, arm for war about three thousand meo, as the old Iodians declare. They were io hostility very ofteo with the Narragausitte ; but held am- oity, for the most part, with the Pawkuobawkutts, who lived on the south border, and with the Pawtucketts, who inhabited on their borth aod southeast limite. In Ao. 1612 and 1613, these people were also sorely emitten by the hand of God with the same disease before mention- ed io tbe last section ; which destroyed the most of them, and made room for the English people of Massachusetts colony, which people this country and the next called Pawtuckett. There are not of this people left at this day above three hundred men, besides womeo aod children."

The Indian names occurring in these " collections " have all the peculiarity of Indian pronunciation. Some of the words have a sound as easy, sonorous and musical as a brooklet's flow, and to pronounce others, one fears he must lose his teeth before he gets through.

We recognize Nonantum in the quotation as a name preserved to-day in this neighborhood.

The Indians, naturally, would be attracted to the Charles River Valley. Here they found a water-way for their canoes. Here in this neighborhood were unfailing and abundant fisheries. It was a loamy land for their corn. It sparkled with springs. We then can readily imagine how its smoke from their fires were mingled with the haze hanging above our beautiful fields. I recently visited the land in the rear of Mr. Cassidy's residence and on the banks of the Charles River. That industious historical stu- dent, Mr. Jesse Fewkes, has told me of a bluff once in that neighborhood, but now removed. His testi- mony is that " the verge of the bluff about 300 or 400 feet to eastward from the southeast corner of Mason's land " contained many Indian relics. " After the black loam had been removed," there were found by him " nearly one hundred implements of stone."

Indians once peopled all this land, as has been

shown. What was our beautiful winding Mount Auburn Street but an ancient Indian trail ? That trail, with its picturesque turns through forest and across meadow, only needed to be widened and leveled that our ancestors might use it.

We have an Indian name associated with the town in the title Pequossette, or as in the town records, Pequussett.

One summer day in 1630, into this Indian land came the head of that long column of civilized life that has been streaming through Watertown for over two hundred and fifty years. Those first settlers came up the river in boats, landing somewhere on the present Arsenal grounds, it has been asserted, but more recent opinion favors the old landing-place in the rear of Cambridge Hospital. They must speedily have come in contact with Indian life, and it is a very interesting question whether there may have been any meeting for a land-trade with the old occu- pants of the soil, and whether the men paid anything for the land they took. As far as we have any written evidence, it was squatter sovereignty of a very bad, bold kind that was practiced, and to-day we are living on ground that, in one sense, has never been paid for. It will interest us to know that in the early history of the Colony an interesting controversy raged on the subject of the purchase of land from the Indians. Roger Williams was a storm centre of that controversy.

He differed with the General Court of the Colony in several particulars. In one he questioned and denied the right of the civil power to say what a man should believe, or how he should worship, or whether a man should worship at all. That very convenient as- sumption of power on the part of the King to grant and distribute Indian territory as he might please, Roger Williams also disputed. He prepared a docu- ment in which he defined his views on ownership and soil.

No Indian, though, ever closed his wigwam door on Roger Williams. Providence Plantation was paid for when the exile started his new home.

If the first Watertown settlers, unlike Roger Wil- liams, took the land they found, but made no payment for it, the conscience of the public was not entirely at ease upon the subject. We find a spasm of repentance in an act of the General Court, Sept. 6, 1638 : " It was agreed that the Court of Assistants should take order for the Indians, that they may have satisfaction for their right at Lynn and Watertown." This seems to have been only a preface to other action. March 12, 1638-39, "the Court desired Mr. Gibbons to agree with the Indians for the land within the bounds of Watertown, Cambridge and Boston." Still again on May 13, 1640, the Court took action : " it was ordered that the £23-8-6 laid out by Captain Gibbons shall be paid him, vidt. £13-8-6 by Watertown and £10 by Cambridge ; and also Squa Sachem a coat every win- ter while she liveth."

Whether Squa Sachem went round cvery winter

380

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

gay and comfortable in Cambridge's new or second- hand finery, I cannot say. The matter of greater in- terest to us just now is how much land that piece of Cambridge dry goods may have helped to pay for. This is Bond's interpretation of the whole transaction : " it was probably the Indians' claim to the 'ware lands' and Nonantum on the south side of the river. This conjecture is favored by the circumstance that Cambridge (Newton) and Boston (Muddy River) were embraced in the commission, and that Water- town and Cambridge paid the expense."

In 1671 the Indians tried to buy back the previous fishing property and privileges in Watertown with which they had parted.

All the above attracts our curious attention. Here in this beautiful Charles River valley ahounded the Indians, owning all these lands, and in arrow-tip, spear-point and hammer-head they have left along the green river banks, by pond, and spring, and brook, the chirography of their ownership. And of any payment for that territory as a whole, what evidence have our ancestors left behind ?

The Charles River valley was traversed by Indian raids, as when King Philip's warriors swept their swath of fire through that little Medfield hamlet by the winding river. Indians though did not fire Watertown, which was so far down the picturesque valley. Our town was rather a garrison-house to which the settlers of other towns might flee. It be- came, too, a reservoir from which went out streams of aid to those in distress.

It is true there was friction accompanying the intercourse of Watertown people with the Indians. There was too much human nature on both sides to assure smooth running of all the machinery. The very first year of the young colony's life, trouble broke out among the servants of that Sir Richard who headed the Watertown colonists.

There is in the colonial records an item proving this: " Upon a complaint made by Sagamore John and Peter, for having two wigwams burnt, which upon examination appeared to be occasioned by James Woodward, servant to Sir Richard Saltonstall, was therefore ordered that Sir Richard should satisfy the Indians for the wrong done to them (which he did by giving them seven yards of cloth), and that, his said servant should pay unto him for it at the end of his time, the sum of $5 (505)."

Gov. Winthrop in his history makes reference to a Watertown man who was guilty of putting tempta- tion in the way of the Indians. This is Winthrop's reference to it made under the date of Sept. 4, 1632, in the Governor's famous diary history :

" One Hopkins of Watertown was convict for sell- ing a piece and pistol with powder and shot to James Sagamore for which he had sentence to be whipped and branded in the cheek. It was discovered by an Indian, one of James' men, upon promise of conceal- ing him (for otherwise he was sure to be killed)."

Savage, in his notes on the text of Winthrop's his- tory, adds this quotation from the colony records :

" Hereupon it was propounded if his offenee should now be punished hereafter by death." The raising of this question shows how serious an evil in the mind of somebody was this traffic in ammunition with the Indians. The proposition though, was not allowed to embarrass the men in council, for they put in practice what has proved to be a convenient device nowadays : " Referred to the next court to be determined." One escape from any perplexity to-day is to bequeath its settlement as a thorny inheritance to the people com- ing after ns.

Watertown Indians were not involved in a bloody war to which I am about to make reference, the Pequod War, but it is a singular fact that a Water- town man was the innocent occasion of it. That was John Oldham. This is Francis' version of Oldham's fate : " He became a distinguished trader among the Indians, and in 1636 was sent to traffic with them at Block Island. The Indians got possession of Old- ham's vessel, and murdered him in a most barbarous manner. The boat was discovered by one John Gallop, who on his passage from Connecticut was obliged by change of wind to bear up for Black Island. He recognized Oldham's vessel, and seeing the deck full of Indians, suspected there had been foul play. After much exertion and management, he boarded this and found the body of Oldham cut and mangled and the head eleft asunder." Winthrop's account of the discovery is very realistic. You can seem to see the little pinnaee off on the blue water, while John Gallop courageously dashes in upon them; scattering them like a lot of ship rats that were swarming on the deek. It was a foul, bloody murder they had committed.

When the news was carried home, flying from ham- let to hamlet, it aroused an intense excitement. The fighting men of the towns were quickly on the march. In August ninety men were sent off to find and pun- ish the savages. One of the commanders was Ensign William Jennison. He acquired glory enough from that campaign to be made a captain, the next month of March. George Munnings, another Watertown man, was not so fortunate. He came home again, but left an eye behind him, so that the Court gave him five pounds and " the fines for one week," whatever those may have been. This campaign only made an- other necessary. The succeeding spring, Massachu- setts resolved to equip and send to the war one hun- dred and sixty men, and Watertown was directed to raise fourteen.

The now Capt. William Jennison was on the com- mittee to marshal and furnish that foree, and also on a committee to divide a quota of fifty additional men among the towns. Watertown's share of glory this time was four men. These figures would prove that our town contained about one-twelfth of the fighting force of Massachusetts. Prominent in this Pequod campaign was Capt. Patrick, of Watertown.

381

WATERTOWN.

Conneetient had a hand-a bloody one-in this war. Her forces were commanded by Capt. John Mason. It is thought the Robert Seeley next in command to Mason may have been a Watertown man who had moved to Connecticut. Bond says, " prob- ably." I wonld that it might be shown that no Water- town man had a hand in that part of the fight. Winthrop says, "Our English from Conneetieut, with their Indians and many of the Narragan-etts, marched in the night to a fort of the Pequods at Mistiek, and besetting the same about break of the day, after two hours' fight they took it (by firing it) and slew there- in two chief sachems and one hundred and fifty fighting men, and about one hundred and fifty old men, women and children, with the loss of two Eng- lish, whereof but one was killed by the enemy."

This fort was surprised at an early morning hour. After the astonished sentinel's ery, "Owanux ! Owan- ux ! " (English ! English !) came a volley from Ma- son's men. These now forced their way into the en closure, finding sixty or seventy wigwams and a foe bewildered and in their power. The ery of fright- ened savages confused by this fierce, abrupt assault rent the air. How suppress them ? "Fire the wig- wams !" some one must have eried. The fire-brand was adopted as a weapon.

"This decided the battle," says Barry. "The flames rolled on with terrific speed, craekling and flashing upon the stillness of the morning air, and mingling with shouts and groans of agonizing de- spair, as body after body disappeared and was con- sumed." .

With such an awful holocaust was John Oldham, of Watertown, avenged. A defence of the cruelty of this reparation has been attempted. What defence can be maintained ? Oldham was savagely murdered, and the Indians were savagely punished. The only thing that can be said is that Capt. Mason's men in an hour of awful excitement, fearful lest the enemy might be too strong for them, confused and bewil- dered, appealed to a power which, once in motion, feels neither fear nor pity. It is a relief to know that Massachusetts, which afterwards brought up its forces and helped finish the war, did not apply the torch to any "old men, women and children."

It has been said that Watertown territory was not invaded by hostile Indians. Neither was there any insurrection raised by resident Indians. Alarms doubtless were frequent. A tremor of fear very soon agitated Watertown's early history. Franeis speaks of a trouble which was misinterpreted, but shows that the early settlers of Massachusetts were apprehensive ; " Among the wild animals, the wolf was a very com- mon annoyance, and against him they were obliged to keep special wateb. On one occasion in the night, we are told, the report of the musket discharged at the wolves by some people of Watertown, was carried by the wind as far as Roxbury, and excited so much

commotion there, that the inhabitants were, by beat of drum, called to arms, probably apprehending an attack from the Indians." A less formidable crea- ture than the wolf was the occasion of an alarm re- corded by Winthrop, the responsibility for which, I judge from the context, was shouldered by outsiders upon the Indians. This was one early spring-day after the settlement of our beautiful valley-town, and the alarm was succeeded by a visit from the Indians. "John Sagamore, and James, his brother, with divers sannops, came to the Governor," says Winthrop. "James Savage has some reason, though slight, for assigning the residence of these Indians to the neighborhood of Watertown, or between the Charles and the Mistick Rivers."

Concerning the alarm connected with this visit, Winthrop says, "The night before alarm wasgiven in divers of the plantations. It arose through the shoot- ing off' some pieces at Watertown by occasion of a calf which Sir Richard Saltonstall had lost : and the soldiers were sent out with their pieces to try the wilderness from thence till they might find it."

Would that behind all the shiverings of fright there had been only a poor little calf astray in the Charles River wilderness. I have referred to the Pequod War, one season of alarm that had serious foundation. I have noticed the fact that its occasion was a Watertown man. It was in 1675 that all New England was shaken by King Philip's War as by an earthquake. It is singular how deep a dent in New England's his- tory this war made, and yet not so strange when we remember that the combatants on either side were actuated by a grim purpose, that of extermination. To-day, any historical trace of that war is viewed with strangely fascinating interest.

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. III, Part 89

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1278

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278