History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, 1622-1918, vol 1, Part 3

Author: Cook, Louis A. (Louis Atwood), 1847-1918, ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: New York; Chicago, The S.J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 644


USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, 1622-1918, vol 1 > Part 3


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NOTE-Indian names are spelled in various ways, every writer on the subject adopting the form best suited to his ideas. In this chapter the form used is that sanctioned by the United States Government and employed in the reports of the Bureau of Ethnology.


NAME AND DISTRIBUTION


When the first European explorers came to America they found here a race of copper-colored people. Believing that Columbus had opened the way to the eastern coast of Asia, and that the country was India, they gave these people the name of "Indians." Their error regarding the geography of the earth has long since been corrected, but the name they conferred upon the natives still remains.


At the close of the Fifteenth Century, when the first explorations were made along the Atlantic Coast, this race was divided into groups or families, each of which was distinguished by certain physical and linguistic characteristics. The groups were subdivided into tribes, each of which was ruled by a chief. New England was in the territory occupied by the Algonquian family, the most nu- merous and powerful of all the groups, and numbered almost as many tribes as all the others combined. The Algonquian country may be described as a great triangle, roughly bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and by lines drawn from the most northern point of Newfoundland and Cape Hatteras to the west- ern end of Lake Superior. The tribes with which the early settlers of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies came chiefly in contact, and which figured most conspicuously in New England history, were the Massachusett, Narragansett, Nipmuck, Pequot and Wampanoag, all of Algonquian origin.


THE MASSACHUSETT


According to J. Hammond Trumbull, of the American Antiquarian Society, the name Massachusett is derived from three Indian words, "Massa" (great). "wadchu" (hill or mountain), and "eset" (place). The Indians bearing this name were known as "The people of the great hill," the eastern slope of the Blue Hills,


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in what is now the Town of Milton, having been "the cradle, the home and the grave of the race." They claimed the country along the Atlantic Coast from Plymouth to Salem and, according to their traditions, at the beginning of the Seventeenth Century they were a powerful tribe, numbering about three thou- sand warriors, under the great sachem, Nanepashemet.


Capt. John Smith, in his account of his voyage in 1614, describes the Massa- chusett Indians as "tall and strong-limbed people, very kind, but in their fury no less valiant ; possessors of large cornfields and dwelling in plantations which covered the islands in the bay." At that time they had about twenty villages, eleven of which Smith mentioned by name in his report. Among them were Conohasset, Neponset, Wessagusset, and Passonagessit, all names familiar to the student of Norfolk County history.


In 1615, the year following Smith's voyage, Nanepashemet made war upon the Tarratine or Penobscot Indians and the tribe suffered heavy losses through repeated defeats. This war lasted about four years, or until 1619, when Nan- epashemet was killed at his village near what is now the Town of Medford by a war party of the Tarratine. He was the last great sachem of the Massachusett. While the war with the Tarratine was going on, a number of the Massachu- sett villages were depopulated in 1616-17 by a pestilence, which some writers state was nothing more or less than an epidemic of smallpox, but that is not certain.


When the first white men came to Plymouth and Wessagusset, they found a remnant of the tribe living about Passonagessit (now Mount Wollaston) under the chief Chickatabot ( House Afire). North of the Neponset River was another band under the sachem Obbatinewat, and south of the Monatiquot, in what is now the Town of Weymouth, dwelt a few under the chief Aberdecest. Prof. A. F. Chamberlain, of Clark University, in the Handbook of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, says that in 1621 Chickatabot, who was then the ruling sachem of the tribe, submitted to English authority and entered into a treaty of peace which was kept sacredly as long as he lived. Ten years later he vis- ited Governor Winthrop at Boston, "behaving like an Englishman." The tribe then numbered about five hundred, all that was left of what had but a few years before been one of the most powerful Indian tribes in New England. Chickatabot was a man of note and influence among his people and a firm friend of the white man. He died of smallpox in 1633. A few years after his death most of the surviving members of his band joined the "Praying Indians," as the converts of the misionary John Eliot were called, and lived with them in the villages of Natick, Nonantum and Ponkapog.


THE NARRAGANSETT


The Narragansett (People of the small point) lived west of the Narragansett Bay, in what is now the State of Rhode Island, and extending northwest to the country occupied by the Nipmuck. They had a number of deities, such as the sun, moon, water, fire, and certain animals, and celebrated numerous feasts. As they did not live in Massachusetts, the early settlers of Norfolk County did not come in close touch with them except at rare intervals. They joined the Wam- panoag in the conflict known as King Philip's war, and in the swamp fight near


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Kingston, Rhode Island, December 19, 1675, lost nearly one thousand men in killed, wounded and prisoners. After this war the members of the tribe became exiles among the other tribes in the vicinity.


THE NIPMUCK


The name Nipmuck, or Nipamaug, means "Fresh water fishing place," and was applied to these Indians on account of the location of their habitat, which was in the southern part of what is now Worcester County, Massachusetts. Some ethnologists have classified them as one of the Massachusett subtribes, but James Mooney, of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, says: "Their villages had no apparent political connection, and the different parts of their territory were subject to their more powerful neighbors, the Massachusett, Wampanoag, Nar- ragansett and Mohegan."


From this it would appear that, even if they had at some time been related to the Massachusett Indians, they afterward became an independent tribe, though small in numbers. In 1674 the missionaries had seven villages in the Nipmuck country and felt encouraged over the progress the Indians were making toward Christianity and civilization. But the next year nearly all the able-bodied Nip- muck braves joined the hostile tribes in King Philip's war. After the war those who had taken part against the whites fled to Canada or New York.


THE PEQUOT


In the native language of this tribe they were called the Paquatong, which meant "Destroyers," a name that well describes their character and warlike dis- position. Before they were conquered by the English in 1637, they were the most quarrelsome and dreaded of all the southern New England tribes. Tradi- tion says they were originally one people with the Mohegan, from whom they separated and came to the country of the Niantic, where they drove out the natives and took possession. At one time the Pequot tribe numbered over three thousand, but war and pestilence had done their work, so that when the first white men came to Rhode Island the tribe did not count more than half that number.


Their principal sachem at the time the first English settlements were made in New England, and for several years thereafter, was named Sassacus. Nearly every schoolboy has heard the story of how this Sassacus sent to the Plymouth colony a bundle of arrows wrapped in a snake skin ; how Squanto, or Tisquantum, the friendly Indian, explained that this was equivalent to a declaration of war; and how Capt. Miles Standish filled the snake skin with gunpowder and bullets and sent it back to the Pequot sachem.


THE PEQUOT WAR


This answer to the challenge, as bold as it was unexpected, had the tendency to dampen the warlike ardor of Sassacus for a time. But the vindictive nature of the Pequot could not long be restrained. In 1636 some members of the tribe killed a trader who they thought had not treated them right, and early the next


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year they began committing depredations upon the infant settlements of Rhode Island and Connecticut. The white settlers of New England made common cause against the Pequot. Roger Williams enlisted the cooperation of the Mohegan chief Uncas, with seventy of his warriors; Capt. John Mason of Hartford raised a force of ninety men; Captain Patrick of Plymouth recruited a company of forty volunteers in that colony ; and Captain Underhill took twenty men from the Massachusetts Bay settlements, about one-half of whom went from Norfolk County.


These combined forces marched against the Pequot fort on the Mystic River, which was defended by practically all the fighting men of the tribe. The fort was surrounded and set on fire and about six hundred Indians perished in the flames or were shot down while trying to escape. A number of captives were ยท taken, some of whom were sold into slavery in the West Indies, small parties of those who escaped joined other tribes and the name of the Pequot became extinct. Says Barber, in his "Historical Collections of Massachusetts": "This first war with the Indians struck such terror into the surrounding tribes, that for forty years afterwards they never openly commenced hostilities with the English."


THE WAMPANOAG


During the greater part of the Seventeenth Century this was one of the lead- ing tribes of New England. Their habitat was along the eastern shore of Nar- ragansett Bay, the name Wampanoag meaning "People of the east." From the Narragansett Bay they claimed the territory northward to the country occupied by the Massachusett confederacy. The Nauset Indians, a subtribe of the Wam- panoag, were found on Cape Cod in 1602 by Gosnold, who traded with them, but a few years later the French explorer Champlain found them inclined to be unfriendly.


Massasoit, the principal sachem of the Wampanoag, was the first Indian chief- tain to enter into a treaty of peace with the early colonists, which treaty he kept in good faith as long as he lived. He lived in a village called Pokanoket, a name which has sometimes been incorrectly applied to the Indians of this tribe. Massa- soit had two sons-Wamsutta and Metacom-and on the occasion of one of his visits to the white men, he requested that his sons be given English names. The result was that Wamsutta was called Alexander, and Metacom took the name of Philip.


KING PHILIP'S WAR


Upon the death of Massasoit, about 1659 or 1660, Alexander became sachem of the Wampanoag. He lived but a short time and in 1662 the scepter passed to the younger son, who is known in history as King Philip, or Philip of Pokanoket, and who has been called "the most remarkable of all the Indians of New England."


Philip was quite unlike his father. He was cunning, ambitious, and filled with an unalterable hatred of the white people, who he believed were robbing the Indians of their hunting grounds. Soon after becoming sachem, he renewed the treaty of peace made by his father some fifty years before, but about 1670 the settlers reached the conclusion that he was engaged in some work of treachery.


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So grave did this suspicion become that in 1673 some of the towns of Norfolk County were ordered by the General Court to place themselves in a state of defense.


In Dedham a barrel of gunpowder and other ammunition were procured; the small cannon which had been given to the town by the General Court in 1650 was mounted on wheels; a garrison was organized, a watch set, and the meet- ing house was designated as a depository for supplies in case of an attack or siege. Through these preparations Dedham was spared the fate of some of her sister towns three years later. Similar preparations were made in a few of the other towns, and they likewise escaped an Indian attack.


All doubts as to Philip's bad faith and hostile intentions were removed in the winter of 1674-75, when John Sausamun, a Praying Indian, informed the governor of the Plymouth colony that the wily sachem was engaged in an effort to unite all the Indian tribes in a general uprising against the whites, hoping thereby to exterminate them or drive them back across the sea, and thus regain full possession of their hunting grounds. Not long after this Sausamun's body was found under the ice in Assawomset Pond, near Middleboro, in the western part of what is now Plymouth County.


Three Indians were arrested, charged with the murder, and one of them confessed that they had been incited to the act by Philip. The three were hanged at Plymouth on June 8, 1675. The hanging of these men told Philip that his conspiracy was fully known to the hated palefaces, and he hastened forward his movements. He was then living at Mount Hope, Rhode Island, and from there sent out the order to his warriors to be ready to move against the white settlements. The Indians had a superstition that the party which struck the first blow in a fray would be vanquished in the end, and the plan was to provoke the settlers to an assault by killing their cattle while they were attending church on Sunday. The first hostile demonstration was made against the Town of Swan- zey, Bristol County, at the head of Narragansett Bay, on Sunday, June 24, 1675. Nine men were killed and several wounded before the white people had time to organize for resistance. Brookfield, Worcester County, was the next point of attack, and every house in the town but one was burned. Before the close of the summer Hadley, Deerfield and Northfield in the Connecticut Valley were attacked, a number of white people killed and many buildings burned.


In the fall the commissioners of the United Colonies called for one thousand men to suppress the insurrection and appointed Governor Winslow of Massa- chusetts commander-in-chief. Massachusetts furnished six companies of infantry and a troop of horse, under command of Major Appleton ; five companies under Major Treat came from Connecticut; and Major Bradford recruited two com- panies in Plymouth.


Mention has already been made of the overwhelming defeat of the Narra- gansett Indians in the winter of 1675-76. Among the chiefs of that tribe was Pumoham (commonly written Pumham), sachem of Shaomet, "one of the stout- est and most valiant sachems that belonged to the Narragansett." Some years prior to the breaking out of the war he had quarreled with Miantonomo, chief sachem of the tribe, to whom he was subordinate, and placed himself under the colonial government for protection. Upon the death of Miautonomo, his son Canonchet became the chief sachem, Pumoham returned to his allegiance and Vol. 1-2


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the two chieftains joined Philip in 1675 with about one thousand Narragansett warriors. Next to Philip, Pumoham "was the most dreaded of the Indian leaders."


It was against the Narragansett Indians that the expedition raised in the fall of 1675 was sent. Pumoham and Canonchet, when they learned that a large force was marching against them, took up a strong position in a swamp in the northern part of Rhode Island and awaited its approach. After a toilsome march over rough roads, in severe winter weather, the white men surrounded the swamp and the assault was made on December 19, 1675. What followed is thus told by John Davis in the "New England Memorial."


"The attack on the enemy's fort was completely successful. It was a counter- part to the memorable exploit against the Pequots, forty years before, by the men of Connecticut. A day of horrible conflagration and slaughter inflicted a blow, from which the Narragansett nation never recovered. Seven hundred of their fighting men fell in the action, and it was computed that at least three hundred more died of their wounds and from the hardships which ensued. Such are the numbers given by Hubbard in his Narrative, derived from the confession of Potock, one of the Indian chiefs, afterward taken at Rhode Island and put to death in Boston. It was a dear-bought victory to the assailants. Five brave captains were slain in the action: Davenport of Boston, son of Capt. Richard Davenport, distinguished in the Pequot war, Johnson of Roxbury, Gardner of Salem, Gallop of New London, and Marshall of Windsor. Captain Seeley of Stratford was mortally wounded and lived but a few days. The whole loss sustained by the assailants was eighty-five killed and about one hundred and fifty wounded. Among the wounded were Major Bradford and Captain Church, of Plymouth Colony, and Lieutenant Upham of Massachusetts. The latter died of his wounds some months later."


Up to this time the war had not seriously affected Norfolk County. Her trials were yet to come. On February 12, 1676, a party of Indians made a sudden descent upon the Town of Weymouth and burned several houses. Hurd's History of Norfolk County gives the date of this attack on Weymouth as Feb- ruary 12, 1675, but all the histories of the war consulted by the writer, except one, agree that the hostilities began with the attack on Swanzey, June 24, 1675, more than four months after the date mentioned by Hurd. The exception is the account given by Niles, who fixes each of the events connected with the war one year earlier than their actual occurrence. It is possible that this may account for the statement made by Hurd.


Early in February, 1676, the main body of the Indians assembled at Wachu- sett Mountain, in the Town of Princeton, Worcester County. Here they divided, one party moving northward toward Concord and Haverhill, and the other against Lancaster, Marlboro and Medfield. The latter was commanded by the chief called Monaco. Lancaster was burned and pillaged on the 10th, and late on the 20th the citizens of Medfield observed signs of the enemy's approach. A strong watch was set during the night, but the Indians, under cover of darkness, managed to elude the pickets and the next morning found a considerable number of them secreted in the outbuildings and even under some of the dwelling houses. As soon as the watch was removed, these skulkers came forth from their hiding places and applied the torch. Altogether about fifty buildings were consumed. The records of the town contain the names of seventeen residents who were


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killed and a number received dangerous wounds, from the effects of which a few afterward died.


In anticipation of an attack, the minister, Mr. Wilson, had sent a letter to the governor and the council asking for soldiers to defend the town. About a hundred men were sent there, but they were distributed around at the houses of the citizens and could not assemble in time to drive off the enemy until the damage was done. The cannon was fired, hoping that the reports could be heard at Dedham and bring reinforcements. The Indians were afraid of artillery, and at the first discharge retreated across the river, setting fire to the bridge as they departed. Then across the river, in full view of the burning town, they indulged in a grand feast. The number of savages engaged in this nefarious work was estimated at five hundred.


Shortly after the destruction of Medfield, Indians were seen prowling about in the woods near Wrentham and the General Court, "in consideration that many Indians were skulking about our plantations, doing much mischief and damage," offered a bounty of three pounds per head "to every person who should surprise, slay, or bring in prisoner any such Indians." In March, 1676, the in- habitants of Wrentham left their homes and went to Dedham for protection, remaining there until the spring of 1677.


In April. 1676, John Jacobs was killed by the Indians while working in his field in the Town of Cohasset. then a part of Hingham, and four or five dwelling houses were burned. On the 19th of the same month Thomas Pratt was killed at Weymouth. These outrages were the work of a small marauding party and not that of the main body of Philip's army. It was probably the same party that went into Braintree, where they killed three men and a woman. The ac- count of this raid says they carried the woman "about six or seven miles, and then killed her and hung her up in an unseemly and barbarous manner by the wayside leading from Braintree to Bridgewater."


Pumoham, who had managed to escape at the time of the "Swamp Fight" in December, 1675, gathered a handful of warriors and commenced preying upon the unguarded settlements. About the middle of July, 1676, it was learned that this predatory band was in Dedham woods, waiting for such time as they could catch the people unawares to commit further depredations. Captain Hunting quietly organized a small company of Dedham and Medfield men, with a few friendly Indians, and went in pursuit. Thirty-five of the Indians were captured without resistance, but Pumoham refused to surrender. After being fatally wounded he seriously injured one of Hunting's men with his tomahawk, and Barber says "he was slain raging like a wild beast." Fifteen Indians were killed in this action, which took place on July 25, 1676.


Sometime in the summer of 1676, the exact date is uncertain, a man named Rocket, while looking for a stray horse, came upon an Indian trail near the present line between Franklin and Wrentham. Suspecting that it was the trail of a war party, he followed it with great caution until almost sunset, when he dis- covered the Indians preparing to go into camp at the foot of a rocky eminence near the Mill River. He hurried back to the settlements and reported what he had seen. A company of thirteen men was collected and, under command of Capt. Robert Ware, was guided to the encampment by Mr. Rocket. Captain Ware stationed his men in the thickets about the camp, with instructions not


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to fire until it was light enough to aim with certainty. About sunrise the Indians arose and began their preparations for resuming their march. Instantly thirteen muskets were discharged and as many savages fell killed or wounded. The sudden and unexpected attack threw the others into consternation and they sought safety in flight. They were pursued and several of them killed. The rock where. this encounter took place is still known as "Indian Rock."


From the time of the first attack on Swanzey to August 1, 1676, fifty-two towns were attacked and twelve of them almost or quite totally destroyed. Then, seeing that the colonists were thoroughly aroused, Philip retired to a wild tract of country, known as the Pocasset Cedar Swamp, in the northern part of Rhode Island. Capt. Benjamin Church of Plymouth, with a force of white men and friendly Indians, made the last march of the war and reached the swamp on the afternoon of August 12, 1676. In drawing a cordon about the swamp the men were placed in pairs-a white man and an Indian together. It was dark before Captain Church could perfect his arrangements, and a night attack was made upon Philip's swamp fortress. Many of the Indians fell at the first volley and others were killed while trying to escape. Philip made a bold dash for liberty and succeeded in getting through the first line, when he encountered one of the pairs mentioned. The white man's gun missed fire, when the Indian fired and the bullet sped true to its mark. Thus ended the career of Philip of Pokanoket. whose war of fourteen months cost the colonies six hundred brave men, the destruction of a dozen towns, several hundred dwellings scattered through the rural districts, and about half a million dollars in money. Philip's wife and son were captured and sold into slavery. The defeat of the Indians was complete. and never again did any of the tribes make open war upon the New England colonies.


THE PRAYING INDIANS


In October, 1646, John Eliot, the "Indian Apostle," preached his first sermon to the natives at what afterward became known as Newton Corner. The Indian village that subsequently grew up there was called Nonantum, or "Place of re- joicing." In 1650 Mr. Eliot founded the village of Natick, where the "Praying Indians," as his converts were called, were given a reservation of six thousand acres. A few years later Natick had a population of over two hundred, and until the time of King Philip's war, it was probably the most important Indian village in New England. In 1663 there were fourteen praying villages.


Mr. Eliot translated the Bible and some other works into the Indian language, established schools among the children of the forest, and taught them many of the customs of the white man's civilization. After his death the Praying Indians gradually decreased in numbers. Some of them took part in the French and Indian war and at its close the population of Natick was only thirty-seven.


INDIAN DEEDS


It was the policy of the Massachusetts colony, in granting tracts of land to companies of persons for the purpose of founding towns, to make such grants subject to the Indian title. The Council of New England advised the grantees




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