USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > North Brookfield > History of North Brookfield, Massachusetts. Preceded by an account of old Quabaug, Indian and English occupation, 1647-1676; Brookfield records, 1686-1783 > Part 42
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MAJOR NATHAN GOODALE.
shut up in the old Jersey prison-ship at New York, as his children have a tradition that he was poisoned, from the fact of a long sickness he suffered after his return home. But it is more probable that the poison was that of human malaria, received in that pest-house of British cruelty, which killed more Americans than all those who fell in battle during the whole war, being estimated at twelve or fourteen thousand. It is one of the foulest stains on the English nation, that ever disgraced their character.
During the war he received one other wound in the leg, from a mus- ket or grape shot. Could all his adventures be collected they would make one of the most interesting of biographies ; but time, and a fire which destroyed his papers at Belpre some years after his death, have put this matter to rest, and these scanty gleanings are all that are left of his military life.
At the close of the war he entered into mercantile business, in com- pany with Col. Cushing, a brother officer. Not succeeding in this to his expectations, he sold out, and bought a farm on Coy's hill, in the north part of the town of Brookfield. In the pursuits of agriculture he was as much at home as in military matters, having a natural taste for cultivation, and engaged in this primitive employment with his charac- teristic ardor and perseverance, at a time when improvements of all kinds were at a low ebb; the country during the war having retrograded, amidst the trials of that eventful period. Mr. Goodale was remarkable for his industry, and thorough, neat manner in which he conducted all the operations of the farm. The forecast and wisdom of the man may be seen before setting out on his journey to Ohio, in the course he pur- sued in preparing for it. Knowing that a superior breed of neat-cattle is all-important to the farmer, and more especially to one beginning in a new country, instead of taking a team of oxen, or horses, as other men did, to haul their wagons, he, after deciding on joining the new colony, selected three of the best cows and one of the finest bulls to be found in that vicinity, and trained them to work together in a team. With this novel working power, he drew on the wagon, with a part of his family and household goods, to Marietta, performing the journey with as much ease, and in as short a time, as the best of oxen. He had also the profit of their milk for the use of the family along the road. The stock from this breed of cattle has been spread through the country, and is held in high estimation at this day, for their perfect forms, gentle dispositions, and great abundance of rich milk; constituting them, on all accounts, the best dairy stock ever introduced to the country. They are known as the "Goodale breed," still retaining many of their original charac- teristics.
Maj. Goodale arrived at the mouth of the Muskingum on the 2d of
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July, 1788, in company with several other families from Massachusetts, descending the Ohio, from Wheeling, in a flatboat. In August he was appointed, by Gov. St. Clair, who soon organized the militia, captain of a company of light-infantry, selected from amongst the most active men of the colony. This company held regular musters, until the com- mencement of the war, when each man was confined to the defence of his own garrison, in the settlement where he lived. His experience in military affairs rendered him a very able and efficient officer, familiar with all the details of actual service.
In April, 1789, he moved his family to Belpre, being a leading associ- ate of the colony. During the short period he was permitted to live in that place, he was considered to be one of the most industrious, perse- vering, and thoroughly educated farmers in the country ; clearing his land in the most rapid manner, fencing and cultivating it in the best style. In the famine of 1790 his family suffered, with the rest of their neigh- bors, for wholesome bread-stuff. When the war broke out in 1791, he was one of the most active and resolute men in planning and erecting the fortified village called Farmers' Castle, in which they all resided dur- ing the first two years of the war. In making the arrangements for the defence and military government of the garrison, he was the leading man ; and the command was, by unanimous consent, given to him, as the most experienced in warlike matters. In the winter of 1793 the place had become too strait for the numerous families congregated within its walls, and it was decided to erect two additional stockades ; one a mile and a half below, on Maj. Goodale's farm, and one on Capt. Jonathan Stone's land, just below the mouth of the Little Kenawha, called the "Upper Settlement."
He had been but a week in his new garrison, when the colony met with the most serious loss it had yet sustained from their Indian ene- mies, in the captivity and death of Maj. Goodale. On the first day of March, 1793, he was at work in a clearing on his farm, distant about forty or fifty rods from the garrison, hauling rail timber with a yoke of oxen. It lay back of the first bottom, on the edge of the plain, in open view of the station. An Irishman, named John Magee, was. at work, grubbing or digging out the roots of the bushes and small trees, on the slope of the plain, as it descends on to the bottom, but out of sight of Maj. Goodale. The Indians made so little noise in their assault, that John did not hear them. The first notice of this disaster, was the view of the oxen seen from the garrison, standing quietly in the field, with no one near them. After an hour or more they were observed to be still in the same place, when suspicion arose that some disaster had happened to Mr. Goodale. John was still busy at his work, unconscious of any alarm, when one of the men sent up from the garrison, passed him to
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inquire what was the matter. In the edge of the woods there was a thin layer of snow, on which the messenger discovered several moccasin tracks. It was now apparent that Indians had been there, and taken him prisoner, as no blood was seen on the ground. A small party fol- lowed the trail some distance, but soon lost it. The following day a larger body of men, with some of the rangers, were sent in pursuit, but returned without making any discovery. The Ohio river at this time, with many of the smaller streams, was at nearly full banks, and less dan- ger was apprehended on that account ; it was also rather early in the season for Indians to approach the settlements. The uncertainty of his condition left room for the imagination to fancy every thing horrible in his fate ; more terrible to bear, than the actual knowledge of his death.
Great was the distress of Mrs. Goodale and the children, overwhelmed with this unexpected calamity. His loss threw a deep gloom over the whole community, as no man was so highly valued amongst them, neither was there any one whose council and influence were equally prized by the settlement. He was, in fact, the life and soul of this isolated com- munity, and left a vacancy that none of his companions could fill. One of the early colonists thus speaks of him : "His memory was for many years fresh and green in the hearts of his contemporary pioneers, now all passed away, and is still cherished with respect and affection by their descendants." (Judge Barker's notes.) So greatly depressed were the inhabitants at his loss, that they awoke with new feelings in regard to their dangerous position on the outer verge of civilization. While he was living amongst them a certain degree of safety was felt, that vanished at his loss.
On the 14th of March they forwarded a petition to Gen. Washington, whom they regarded with parental veneration, a copy of which has been preserved, setting forth their exposed situation and losses by the Indians. It is stated that six of their number have been killed, besides the recent loss of Maj. Goodale; that one-third of their cattle, and produce of their lands, had been destroyed by the Indians, and they were fearful of a total breaking up of the settlement, unless the government afforded them a larger number of men for protection, their usual United States guard being only a corporal and four privates, detailed from the post at Marietta. The number of the settlers at the three stations were fifty-two men, and one hundred and forty-nine women and children.
At the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, when the captives were given up by the Indians, some intelligence was obtained of nearly all the persons taken prisoners from this part of the territory, but none of the fate of Maj. Goodale. A deep mystery seemed to hang over his destiny, never to be revealed. At length, about the year 1799, Col. Forrest Meeker, since a citizen of Delaware County, Ohio, and well acquainted with the
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family of Maj. Goodale, and the circumstances of this event, when at Detroit, fell in company with three Indians, who related to him the par- ticulars of their taking a man prisoner at Belpre, in the spring of 1793. Their description of his person left no doubt on the mind of Col. Meeker, of its being Maj. Goodale. They stated that a party of eight Indians were watching the settlement for mischief; and as they lay concealed on the side of the hill back of the plain, they heard a man driving, or talking to his oxen, as they expressed it. After carefully examining his movements, they saw him leave his work and go down to the garrison, in the middle of the day. Knowing that he would return soon, they secreted themselves in the edge of the woods, and while he was occupied with his work, sprang out and seized upon him, before he was aware of their presence, or could make any defence, threatening him with death if he made a noise or resisted. After securing him with thongs, they commenced a hasty retreat, intending to take him to Detroit and get a large ransom for him. Somewhere on the Miami, or at Sandusky, he fell sick and could not travel, and that he finally died of this sickness. A Mrs. Whitaker, the wife of an Indian trader at Lower Sandusky, has since related the same fact. She says the Indians left him at her house, where he died of a disease like the pleurisy, with- out having received any very ill usage from his captors, other than the means necessary to prevent his escape. This is probably a correct account of his fate; and although his death was a melancholy one, amongst strangers, in captivity, and far away from the sympathy and care of his friends, yet it is a relief to know that he did not perish at the stake, nor by the tomahawk of the savages.
GEN. RUFUS PUTNAM.
[Compiled in part from "Lives of the First Settlers of Ohio," by S. P. Hildreth, M.D.]
RUFUS PUTNAM was the youngest son of Dea. Elisha and Susannah (Fuller) Putnam, and was born in Sutton, Mass., Apr. 9, 1738. His father died when Rufus was seven years old, and he was sent to live with his maternal grandfather in Danvers, where he remained until Sept., 1747, in which year his mother married Capt. John Saddler of Upton, and the boy made his home with his step-father till 1753. He had few advan- tages of schooling, and no school books of his own. But by respectfully serving the travellers who stopped at Mr. Saddler's tavern, and tending their horses, he occasionally received gratuities of a few pence, which he laid by until he could purchase some powder and shot : with this ammu- nition and an old shot gun, he killed partridges, or pheasants, and sold from time to time until the proceeds bought him a spelling book and an arithmetic. With these two invaluable articles, the foundation of all, even the most profound learning, he soon made considerable progress
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in the rudiments of education, without any teacher but his own patient ingenuity. In the same way he learned to write, and make figures in a legible manner, progressing in a short time to the rule of three, guided only by the directions laid down in the book. How delightful must have been his sensations when he could put his own thoughts into tangible sentences on paper, and understand the rules of calculation, so important in all the concerns of life !
In March, 1754, when nearly sixteen years old, he was bound as an apprentice to the mill-wright trade, under his brother-in-law, Daniel Matthews, of Brookfield. He was a man who had nearly the same opinion of the inutility of learning, as Mr. Saddler, and entirely neglected to send his apprentice to school. He, however, was more favorable in one re- spect, as he did not refuse him the use of candles for light, when pursu- ing his studies in the long winter evenings. His attention was chiefly directed to the acquisition of arithmetic, geography and history ; while orthography, etymology, and the rules of grammar were neglected. Hav- ing no books in these branches, and no one to teach him, his attention was chiefly directed to that which would be more immediately useful in the common affairs of life. In penmanship he had no aid from those nice copper-plate engravings, published in after years, nor any one to guide him in the art of neat hand-writing, so that those two important branches, spelling correctly, and writing handsomely, did not receive that attention they otherwise would have done, and left him during all his future life to regret his deficiencies in these respects. Could he have looked into futurity, or had the least intimation of the public stations of trust and honor which he was destined by Providence to fill in manhood, he would doubtless have been better prepared for their arduous duties. The greatest wonder of all is, that with the discouragements and priva- tions which environed him, he had the fortitude and perseverance to overcome these obstacles, and acquire so much really useful learning as he did. Ninety-nine boys in a hundred would never have made the attempt, but have lived and died in ignorance.
During this portion of his life, from sixteen to nineteen years, he was busily occupied under Daniel Matthews, in acquiring the practical art of the mill-wright, and in working on his farm. It required some knowledge of geometry, to form perfect circles, divide them into numerous equal portions, and lay out the exact angles necessary in the frame-work of the mill ; thus gradually enlarging his knowledge of mathematics, for which he had naturally an ardent attachment, and a mind well fitted to compre- hend. During this time his physical frame grew full as rapidly as his mind, so that when he was eighteen years old, he possessed the brawny limbs, the muscular power, and the full stature of a man six feet high. In all athletic exercises, he was renowned for his great strength and
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activity ; and thus eminently fitted for the fatigues and privations of the military life he was destined so early to enter.
The war between Great Britain and France, in which the colonies were much more deeply interested than the mother country, commenced in the year 1754, when he entered on his apprenticeship. The accounts of the several battles, the defeat of Gen. Braddock, and the exploits of his martial relative, Capt. Israel Putnam, no doubt filled his youthful mind with ardor, and led him while yet only in his nineteenth year to enlist as a private soldier, in the company of Capt. Ebenezer Learned, consisting of one hundred men, many of whom must have been his acquaintances or associates. The term of service was a little short of a year, commencing the 15th of March, 1757, and ending the 2d day of February, 1758. By the 30th of April the detachment was ready for marching, and that day left Brookfield, on their route for Kinderhook, on the Hudson river, about eighteen miles below Albany, which place they reached on the 6th of May.
In this and his subsequent campaign, he turned the art of writing, which he had with so much difficulty acquired, to a useful purpose, by keeping a regular journal of the events which took place; and without this precaution would have been lost or forgotten. He remarks that Capt. Learned prayed regularly, night and morning, with his men, and on the Sabbath read a sermon in addition - a proof of the general prev- alence of piety amongst the New England people, and which if more common in this day, would suppress much of the profanity and wicked- ness so universal amongst the soldiery of modern times. On the 18th of May, they left Kinderhook, and marched the same day to Greenbush, opposite the town of Albany.
On the 21st of May, the company moved to Scaghticoke, a Dutch settlement on the banks of the Hoosack river, three miles from the Hudson. It was deserted by the inhabitants on account of the Indians, and now lies in the north-westerly corner of Renssellaer county.
On the 9th of June, the detachment joined Col. Fry's regiment, at Stillwater, a spot subsequently famous for the battle at Bemis' Heights, which turned the tide of Burgoyne's success, and finally led to his sur- render. On the 11th they marched to Saratoga, a place still more cele- brated in military history, for the conquest of his army, thirty years after this time, in which Mr. Putnam acted a conspicuous part.
On the 14th of this month, Fry's regiment, composed of seventeen 'companies of provincials, decamped, and on the following day reached Fort Edward. This celebrated military post, so often noticed in the events of the old French war, was built two years before this time, and was now in the pride of its strength. It stood on the east or left bank of the Hudson river, about fifty-two miles above Albany, and was con-
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GEN. RUFUS PUTNAM.
structed by a body of colonial troops under Gen. Lyman, and named after Edward, Duke of York, the eldest son of King George the Second, of England. It is thus described in Mr. Putnam's journal : "The river washed one side of its walls. The form was somewhat irregular ; having two bastions and two half bastions. The walls were high and thick, composed of hewed timber - a broad rampart, with casements, or bomb-proof - a deep ditch with a draw-bridge - a covered way, glacis, &c." In an after note, he says, " I have been particular in this descrip- tion, because in 1777, there was by no means so great an appearance of there having been a fortification here as we find in the ancient works at Marietta and other parts of the Ohio country." It stood at the head of the carrying place, between the Hudson and Lake George, and also Wood creek, a tributary of Lake Champlain. The village of Fort Edward stands near the site of the old fort, and serves to perpetuate its name. The tragical fate of Miss McCrea happened in this vicinity in I 777. White Hall, at the head of the Lake, the port from which steam- boats now run to St. John, in Canada, was, in the Revolutionary war, called Skenesborough ; and was named after Maj. Skene, presently noticed by Mr. Putnam in his journal.
Being determined to see as much as possible of the adventures and hardships of a military life, he joined the corps of Rangers, as a volun- teer, and on the 8th of July, marched on a scout under Lieut. Collins, with twenty-two men, to reconnoitre South Bay, the southerly extremity of Lake Champlain, distant about twenty-five miles from Fort Edward. On the 9th, having approached, as they thought, near the bay, the main party was halted, and three men, of whom Mr. Putnam was one, sent forward to learn its situation. Supposing it would occupy but a few hours, they left their blankets and provisions with the men that remained in camp. It proved to be much further than they had anticipated, and after fulfilling their orders, it was nearly night when they got back to the encampment. Much to their vexation and disappointment, they found that the lieutenant and his men, had left the ground, carrying with them their blankets and provisions. It seems that the leader had taken alarm at their long absence, supposing them either killed or captured by the Indians, and had hastily retreated in confusion. The deserted Rangers fired their guns, to give notice of their return, but no answering signal was heard. Two nights were thus spent in the woods, exposed, without their blankets, to the annoyance of gnats and mosquitoes, which swarmed in vast numbers over this humid region. The dress of the Rangers was similar to that of the Indians, leaving their thighs bare, and exposed to their attacks. They reached Fort Edward on the 11th, having been forty-eight hours without food, thus realizing a little foretaste of a ran- ger's life. Lieut. Collins did not get in until the following day, and con-
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fessed that he heard their signal guns, but supposed them fired by the Indians. He, however, by various excuses, pacified Mr. Putnam and his comrades ; yet he remarks on the transaction, "It was extremely unsoldierlike to leave us in the woods in the manner he did. If our long absence gave cause of alarm, he ought to have withdrawn but a short distance, placed himself in ambush, and posted two men under cover to watch for our return, or give notice of the approach of the enemy.
On the 23d of July, about eight o'clock in the morning, a large party of Indians fired on the Carpenters' or Mechanics' Guard, within half a mile of the fort, and killed thirteen men, with one missing. This was the first view he had of Indian butchery ; and says, " It was not very agreeable to the feelings of a young soldier, and I think there are few who can look on such scenes with indifference." In the afternoon, two hundred and fifty men, under Capt. Israel Putnam, were sent out in pur- suit, They followed the trail until sunset, when the main body was halted, and three men, of whom Mr. Putnam was one, sent forward a mile or more, with orders to secrete themselves near the trail until after dark, watching closely for any scout that might be sent back, " for," said the captain of the Rangers, "if they do not embark to-night in their boats, they will send a party back to see if they are pursued." They went as ordered, but made no discovery. He remarks, "It was a maxim I treasured up in my mind, as applicable, especially in the woods, whether you are pursuing, or are pursued by the enemy," and was the beginning of his military knowledge.
On the 8th of October, the campaign being closed for that year, the provincials, who composed the corps of Rangers, were discharged. He, however, continued to do camp duty some days longer, and then attached himself to a company of artisans, who were employed, until the roth of November, in completing the defences of Fort Edward. On that day, the remnant of Col. Frye's regiment, himself, and the larger portion of his men, having been captured at Fort William Henry, marched down to the Half-moon, a post twelve miles above Albany. His providentially joining the Rangers, no doubt, saved him from parti- cipating in this slaughter and captivity.
On the 18th of November, three hundred and sixty men of the detach- ment were drafted into four companies, and ordered to different posts for winter quarters. This was a vexatious disappointment, as the Pro- vincials expected to be discharged at the close of the campaign, although, according to their enlistment, they were to serve until the 2d day of February, 1758.
Capt. Learned's company, to which Mr. Putnam belonged, was ordered up to Stillwater, on the east side of the Hudson ; while he and
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several other mechanics were detained and employed in completing the king's works at the Half-moon, until the 29th of December.
The first of January, 1758, was celebrated by the men in great festiv- ity, with an earnest looking forward to Candlemas, or 2d of February, as the period of their release from servitude.
From the movements of the commander of the stockaded garrison, Capt. Skene, afterwards major, and proprietor of Skenesborough, they began to suspect he intended to retain them in service beyond the time of their enlistment. The Provincials were quartered in huts by them- selves, a short distance from the post, which was guarded by a company of British regulars. Having decided on making a push for home, as soon as they considered themselves fairly at liberty, previous arrange- ments were made for the journey, by preparing snow-shoes for each man, as there was no possibility of marching through the woods, where the snow was three or four feet deep, without this ingeniously contrived In- dian apparatus, which had been adopted by the New Englanders from them. Capt. Learned, who had just returned from a furlough to Mass- achusetts, when made acquainted with the design of his men, approved of their plan, and said he would lead them, unless he could procure their regular discharge. Mr. Putnam observes on this transaction, that he thought well of the captain at the time, but had since learned, that for an officer to desert his post is unpardonable.
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