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

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576

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

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Thus far in the town's history houses must have been constructed of logs or hewn timber, stone and clay. Prescott's saw-mill was in operation early in 1659, after which more commodions framed structures doubtless began to appear. It having been found im- possible to obtain the services of either of the sur- veyors designated by the court to lay out the bounds of the town, consent was given for the employment of Ensign Thomas Noyes, of Sudbury, a return of whose survey is as follows :

April 7b, 1659 In obedience to the order of the honoured generall Conrt to the now inhabitants of lancaster layd ont ye bonnds of lancaster accordinge to the sayd grants, wee begane at the wading place of nassDa riuer and rune a lline three mille vpon a west north west poynt one degree westerly, and from the end of ye three mill we rune two perpen- dicular lines beinge fine mills in length each line, the one line runing north north est one degree northerly, the other line running south south west one degree sontherly wee made right angls at the ends of the ten mille line, runing two perpendicular lines, runninge both of them vpon an east south east poynt on degree esterly, one of the sayd lines beinge the north line wee did rune it eight mill in length the other being the south line, wee did rune it six mill and a halfe in length and ther meet- ing wib the midell of the line, which is the line of the plantation granted to the petition's of Sudbury whos plantation is called Whipsuffrage and so runinge their line four mill wanting thre score perches to the end of their line at the nor west Angle of Whipsuffrage plantation and from the zayd angle of Whipsnfrage runing six mille and three quarters ther meeting with ye fore sayd east end of the eight mile line and sve period all the sayd lines and hounds of lancaster which sayd grants rune eighty square milles of land

this by me THOMAS NOYES

The deputyes approne of this returne. our Honord Magist consenting hereto. 14 October 1672. WILLIAM TORREY, Cleric.

The magists consent thereto provided a farme of a mile square 640 acres, be layd out wthin this bounds for the countrys vse in such place as is not already Appropriated toany-their brethren the deputyes hereto consent- ing. And that Major Willard, Ralph Houghton & Juo Prescot see it donne.

Consented to by ye deputies EnWD RAWSON Secretary 18,8.72 WILLIAM TORREY, Cleric.

Why the report was not approved until thirteen years after the actual survey, and six years after the death of the surveyor, does not appear in records. Neither is there further allusion anywhere found to the mile appropriated for the State, and the provision was perhaps disregarded at first and finally overlooked. The measurements of the survey were made with the liberal allowance usual at that time in laying ont town grants, and can hardly he explained by the allowance for swag of chain and irregularity of ground, that being customarily only about one rod in thirty. The ten-mile line of Noyes was, by modern methods of survey, over eleven miles in length, and the other di- mensions were proportionably generous. The method of defining the limits of a purchase from the Indians, by distances and courses from a central point, was not unique. Major Simon Willard, in bargaining for Concord in 1636, "poynting to the fonr quarters of the world, declared that they had bonght three miles from that place east, west, north and south, and the sª Indians manifested their free consent thereto." So Sholan and the white men probably stood, in 1642, at the wading-place of the Nashaway, which was very near the bridge known as Atherton's, and agreed upon the transfer of a tract of land five miles north- erly, five miles sontherly, five miles easterly and three miles to the westward. John Prescott, who was per- haps present at the time of purchase, and certainly the only one of the first proprietors now resident in the town, and acquainted with the exact terms of the compact, accompanied Noyes to see that the mutual. intention of grantor and grantees was satisfied. It is to be presumed that the three-mile base-line was run twenty-three and one-half degrees north of a true east and west course, to accord with Prescott's knowledge

LANCASTER.

of that intent. In running the southern boundary Noyes came upon the north line of the Whipsufferage plantation, which had been settled by court grant and laid out the year before. He could not therefore com- plete the rectangle called for by Sholan's deed, but added a sufficient triangle on the east to make up for that cut off by this Marlborough grant. The original

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WADING PLACES X

territory of Lancaster was therefore an irregular pen- tagon containing, by Noyes' record of survey, eighty and two-tenths square miles, but actually embracing not far from one hundred.

The extent of their magnificent realm and its ca- pacity for human support seems to have dawned upon the town after the viewing of their boundaries, for this year the restriction of families to thirty-five was re- scinded, and a new policy declared that "soe many in- habitants bee admitted as may be meetly accommo- dated, provided they are such as are acceptable."

From his letters it may fairly be inferred that Master Tinker was neither by physical constitution nor tastes well adapted to the rough life of the pioneers, and this, added to the fact that his ambition and abilities natur- ally demanded a larger sphere for their exercise, de- prived Lancaster of his services. In June, 1659, he had removed to New London, Ct., and died three years later, when on the high road to wealth and political preferment. There were accepted as citizens during the year before, Major Simon Willard, Jonas Fair- banks, Roger Sumner, Gamaliel Beman, Thomas Wil-

der and Daniel Gaiens. Wilder was at once appointed selectman in place of John Tinker, bought the lot next north of the trucking-house and there resided for the rest of his life. He came from Charlestown. Roger Sumner was of Dorchester, and was, like Wilder, a freeman. He had, in 1656, married Mary, the daugh- ter of Thomas Joslin. He seems to have been the first deacon in the Lancaster Church, although but twenty-eight years of age; being dismissed from the Dorchester congregation August 26, 1660, "that with other Christians at Lancaster a Church might be begun there." At this date doubtless Mr. Rowlandson was ordained-though no record of such fact is found- and the church thus formally organized. Beman also came from Dorchester, bringing a large family. Both he and Sumner were assigned home-lots upon the Neck. Jonas Fairbanks, of Dedliam, and Lydia Pres- cott, the youngest daughter of John, were the first couple whose marriage was solemnized within the limits of Lancaster, the ceremony being performed by John Tinker by authority of special license. They set up their roof-tree upon the next lot south of Pres- cott's on George Hill, now owned by Jonas Goss. Daniel Gaiens, so far as is knowu, brought no family with him. He was assigned a house-lot between Rugg and Kerly in the George Hill range.

Major Willard succeeded to the greater portion of Tinker's Lancaster land rights, and occupied the house before often mentioned as the first built in the town. Its site is in the garden of Caleb T. Symmes. Whether the major rebuilt or enlarged the dwelling which had been occupied successively by Waters, Hall, Smith and Tinker is not told, but the Willard home must have been of ample proportions to fill the needs of his natural and enforced hospitality as a magistrate, and also furnish the suitable accommodations for a garri- son and military headquarters. That it was a substan- tial structure, largely of brick or stone, we know from the fact that at its abandonment in 1676 it was partially blown up, which means would not have been used if fire alone could have effected its destruction. It was probably surrounded by a stockade, being the chief garrison. Here Major Willard lived for about thir- teen years, often called from home for public duty, now in Council, now in "Keeping County Courts," now in exercise of his military office.

The three commissioners continued to appoint select- men until, in March, 1664, the town legally assembled confirmed all that had been done and recorded in past years, and elected Major Willard, John Prescott, Thomas Wilder, John Roper and Ralph Houghton selectmen, empowering them "to order all the pru- dencial afairs of the towne only they are not to dispose of lands." This action of the people was accompanied with a request to the commissioners to ratify their doings and allow them thereafter the full liberty of a town, to which they gladly consented. The General Court did not formally discharge the commissioners, however, until May 7, 1672.

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

For several years the town's affairs apparently moved on in very quiet fashion. Lancaster had become a vigorous, healthful community, with as much indi- viduality as the jealously paternal nature of the colo- nial government wonld permit. The few scant records of town-meetings tell only of the harmonious and com- monplace, for under the discreet leadership of Major Willard and Prescott the contentious and the busy- bodies were soon silenced. That a minority existed who led unedifying lives in the midst of the children of grace is now and then disclosed by the Middlesex County Court records, but seldom were the sins of these such as would call for any court's attention now- adays.

A sermon-scorner, Edmund Parker, who lived squalidly in a hovel, was arraigned, convicted and ad- monished "for neglect of God's public worship;" Daniel James was presented before the grand jury "for living from under family government;" John Adams was summoned to answer "for lying and false dealing; " William Lincorne " for forcing of himselfe into the towne as an Inhabitant," contrary to law, was warned out and had his goods attached to secure the fine. Nothing more criminal than these examples ap- pears. It may be deemed rather complimentary than otherwise that the town was once presented for not having stocks; it had no use for them.

Jannary 2, 1671, Cyprian Stevens married Mary, he daughter of Simon Willard, and the next year is found in possession of the " Honseings, Barns, Sta- les, Orchards, Lands, Entervales, meadow lying and being in Lancaster," lately the property of his father- n-law, who had removed to his Nonaicoiacus Farm, hen within the bounds of Groton.

No record of the town's doings between 1671 and 1717 are found, save in the register of the proprietors' livisions of common land. This lamentable gap in the manuscript annals of the town is by tradition attributed to the loss of a volume of records by fire. Whatever church records may have existed prior to he pastorate of Rev. John Prentice, in 1708, have ikewise disappeared. The facts of the town's history for this period of forty-six years must be chiefly gleaned from county and State archives.

Daniel Gookin, writing the year previous to the breaking out of war with the Wampanoags, says the Nashaways had become reduced by disease and battle with the Mohawks to fifteen or sixteen families; that is, to less than two hundred men, women and children. Matthew, the Englishmen's friend, was dead, and his nephew, the treacherous Sam, alias Shoshanim, alias Upchattuck, reigned in his place. The tribe was not only few in numbers, but sadly degenerate. In fact, the average savage was always a dirty loafer, often besotted, who would not work so long as he could beg or live upon the toil of the women of his wigwam. The tidy English housewife shuddered whenever she saw one entering her kitchen. His habits were repulsive, his presence unsavory, his appetite insa-

tiate. He was quick to take offence, and never forgot an injury or slight.

The Nashaways at first stood in great awe of the white men as superior beings ; feared their far-reach- ing muskets; hoped for their protection against the predatory Mohawks, and craved the hatchets, knives and other skilled handiwork of the smiths, and the cloths, kettles, fish-hooks and gewgaws of their traders. In Sholan's day the strangers were few and gracious, brought with them valned arts, and were much to be desired as neighbors. Bnt familiarity cast ont awe and was fatal to mntnal respect. The younger war- riors, after a time, began to look askance at the increasing power, encroachments and meddlesome- ness of the English, and the planters made little con- cealment of their contempt for the communists of the forest. When, in 1663, the Mohawks made a san- gninary raid into Central Massachusetts, the white men stood aloof, offering no aid to the children of the soil against the marauders. When again, in 1669, the Nashaways, Nipmucks and other Massachusetts tribes combined in an expedition to wreak vengeance upon their life-long foes, the English proffered no assist- ance. This species of neighborliness was not likely to be forgotten by the defeated warriors. Most of the braves now possessed guns and had learned to use them with more or less skill.

So early as 1653, George Adams, who lived at Wa- tertown, but claimed proprietorship in Lancaster, was convicted of selling guns and strong waters to Indians, and, having nothing to satisfy the law, was ordered to be severely whipped the next lecture day at Boston. When a valnable otter or beaver skin could be got in exchange for two or three quarts of cheap rum, the temptation was too great for Adams, and he was per- haps neither poorer nor less honest than other traders. Even John Tinker broke the law, by his own confes- sion. The red men had not learned the white man's art of transmuting grain into intoxicating drink, but they had quickly acquired the taste for rum, and like wilful children indulged their appetites without restraint when opportunity offered.

Then, as now, there were stringent laws restrictive and prohibitory respecting the sale of strong drink. Then, as now, these laws were evaded everywhere and constantly. Then two sure roads to financial pros- perity were the keeping of a dram-shop and buying furs of Indians. What with the refusal to aid against the Mohawks, the peddling of rnm, the greed of the peltry-buyers, and the nagging of proselyting preach- ers and laymen-very few of whom possessed a tithe of the prudence and willingness to make haste slowly which characterized the Apostle Eliot-it is hardly to be accounted strange that degenerate sagamores, succeeding the generous Sholan and Matthew, fol- lowed their savage instincts; and that a harvest of blood followed where folly had planted.

Early in June, 1675, before the actual breaking out of hostilities between the colonists and the Wampa-

LANCASTER.

noags, it was suspected that Philip had solicited the assistance of the Nipmucks, and agents were sent to discover their intentions. The Nashaways were ap- parently not distrusted. The agents were deceived, and returned with renewed pledges of friendship from the older chiefs. A shrewder messenger, Ephraim Curtis, familiar with Indian wiles, in July came from a similar mission, bringing news that startled the Governor and Council from their fancied security. The inland clans were already mustering for war, and with them were Shoshanim and Monoco, leading the Nashaways. The Council promptly sent a mounted troop to treat with the savages, or if needful to " en- deavor to reduce them by force of arms." Connting, in their foolish self-confidence, one trooper equal to ten Indians, this platoon, which should have been a battalion, invited ambush and met disastrons defeat at Menameset, August 2d. Major Willard, at the head of less than fifty men, set ont from Lancaster on the morning of Angust 4th, under instructions from the Council "to look after some Indians to the westward of Lancaster," probably the Nashaways. While on the march, news came to him that Brookfield was beleaguered, and he hastened to the rescue, re-enforc- ing the besieged garrison the same night. In that quarter he remained until September 8th, five or six companies arriving from the Bay to join his command. Lancaster and Groton were thus stripped of their natural defenders, and wily foes recognized the opportunity.

The Nashaways, led by their two bloodthirsty and cunning sachems, Sam and One-eyed John-who was also known as Monoco and Apequinash-had been conspicuous in the Brookfield fight. On the 15tlı of Angust, in the evening, Captain Mosley with a company of sixty dragoons arrived at Lancaster, having been sent thither by Major Willard to pursue a band of savages, reported to be skulking in the woods about the frontier settlements. On the 16th Mosley started out in search of the enemy, but their chief, Monnco, intimately acquainted with all the region around, warily avoided the troopers, got into their rear, and on August 22d made a bloody raid npon Lancaster. Daniel Gookin says that twenty of Philip's warriors were with Monoco, and this is plansible, for Philip, who came into the camp of the Quabangs with the small remnant of his tribe the day after the siege of Brookfield was raised by Major Willard, there met the one-eyed sachem and gave him a generous present of wampum. From that time Philip seems to have been no more seen in battle, and if his men fonght at all, it must have been under other leaders.

Monoco gave no quarter. The foray was made in the afternoon of Sunday. The house of Mordecai McLeod, which was the northernmost in the town situated somewhere near the North Village Cemetery, was burned, and McLeod with his wife and two children were murdered. The same day three other men were slain, and a day or two after a fourth, all

of whom were mangled in a barbarous manner. Two of these victims, George Bennett and Jacob Farrar, Jr., were heads of Lancaster families; the others, William Flagg and Joseph Wheeler, were probably soldiers detailed for service here from Watertown and Concord. This massacre was but the prelude to a more terrible tragedy, the most sanguinary episode in Lancaster history.

Over thirty years had passed since the building of the first dwelling in the Nashua Valley. There had been one hundred and eighty-one recorded births in the town, and, including the recent murders by the savages, there had been but fifty-eight deaths. Ten of the oldest planters had died in Lancaster and five elsewhere: Thomas Rowlandson, Thomas James, Thomas Joslin, John Whitcomb, Stephen Gates, Johu Tinker, Edward Breck, Richard Linton, Thomas Wilder, Steven Day, Philip Knight, John Smith, William Kerly, William Lewis, John White. The sons, as they reached manhood, had nsnally sought wives among their neighbors' daughters, built homes on the paternal acres, and their families grew apace. John Prescott could number thirty-five grandchil- dren, nearly all living in sight of the old trucking, honse. With its two mills, its skilled mechanics, its spinning-wheels buzzing in every cottage, the town was independent of the world. Its nearest neighbors were Groton and Marlborough, ten miles away. Numerous barns and granaries attested the farmers' prosperity. Cattle, horses, sheep, swine and poultry had multiplied exceedingly. Time and thrift had increased domestic comforts. Frame honses, in which the windows, though small, were glazed, had succeeded the gloomy log-cabins. Orchards had come into bearing and yielded bountifully. All kinds of grain flourished. Wheat was received for taxes at six shillings the bushel, corn at three shil- lings six pence, and apples were sold at a shilling per bushel. Potatoes were unknown until fifty years later, but of most other vegetables, and especially of peas, beans and turnips, large crops were raised.

The dwellings, as at first, were mainly in two scat- tered groups of about eqnal numbers, one occupying the Neck, the other extending along the slope of George Hill. But Prescott with two of his sons now lived near his grist and saw-mills, a mile to the south, the " mill-path " leading thither. John Moore and James Butler had built upon Wataquadock. Several of the houses were more or less fortified, being fur- nished with flankers or surrounded with a stockade. Of those known were: Prescott's, at the mills ; Rich- ard Wheeler's, in South Lancaster; Thomas Saw- yer's, not far north from the house of Sally Case, his descendant; Rev. Joseph Rowlandson's and Cyprian Stevens'. It is supposed that a few soldiers from the older towns were distributed among these garri- sons.

The Christian Indians, despite the flagrant abuse with which they were treated after the breaking out

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

of war, generally proved faithful to the English, and their services as scouts were invaluable. Among these none deserves better to be honored in Lancas- ter story than James Wiser, alias Quanapaug or Quanapohit, whose courage and fidelity would have saved the town from the massacre of 1676, had not his timely warning been unwisely discredited by the apparently lethargic Governor and his slumberous Council.

Quanapaug was a Nashaway, for he owned lands at Washacum in 1670. He was so noted for his brave conduct in the contests between the English and the Wampanoags, when he served as captain of the Chris- tiau Indians, that Philip had given orders to his lieu- tenants that he must be shown no mercy if captured. Governor Leveret having ordered that scouts should be sent out to ascertain something of the numbers, condition and plans of the foe, Major Gookin selected James Quanapaug and Job Kattenanit for this peril- ous enterprise, and these two men, carrying a little "parcht meal " for sustenance and armed only with knives and hatchets, made the terrible journey of eighty miles upon snow-shoes to the Indians' camp at Menameset, setting out from Cambridge December 30th. They were greatly mistrusted and their lives threatened by some of the Indians; but fortunately James found a powerful friend in Monoco, who re- spected him as a brave comrade in the Mohawk War, and took him into his own wigwam. But James knew that his every motion was watched by suspi- cious enemies, and that even Monoco's protection might be powerless in the presence of Philip, who was expected soon. Finding that a meeting with that dangerous personage was inevitable if he de- layed longer, and having effected the main purpose of his errand, he escaped by stratagem, and on the 24th of January, 1676, brought to the Massachusetts au- thorities full information respecting the hostile camp, and especially the intentions of the sagamores; Mo- noco declaring that "they would fall upon Lancaster, Groton, Marlborough, Sudbury and Medfield, and that the first thing they would do should be to cut down Lancaster bridge, so to hiuder their flight and assistance coming to them, and that they intended to fall upon them in about twenty days from Wednesday last."

It can scarcely be believed, but the result proves that no heed was paid to this seasonable warning ; no steps were taken to ward off the coming blow. A body of troops, who had been in pursuit of the flee- ing Narragansetts not far from Marlborough, had, less than a week before, because of a lack of provi- sions, been withdrawn to Boston instead of being used to garrison the threatened towns. Even the chief military officer of the State, Daniel Gookin, afterwards confessed that the report of Quanapaug " was not then credited as it should have been, and consequently no so good means used to prevent it, or at least to have lain in ambushments for the enemy."

The fact is, little energy or skill of generalship was shown then or afterwards, and the savages wreaked their vengeance in due time upon all the towns named according to Monoco's programme.

Meanwhile some premonition of the approaching tempest reached the valley of the Nashua, and in fear and discouragement the people wrought at such defences as were possible. The outlying houses were abandoned or visited only by day. The chief mili- tary officer, Henry Kerly, the minister and perbaps some of the other prominent citizens finally went to Boston to beg for additional soldiers. In their ab- sence the storm burst upon the devoted town. About ten o'clock at night of the 9th of February, Job Kattenanit reached the door of Major Gookin in Cambridge, half dead with fatigue, He had left his wife and children in the hostile camp at New Brain- tree, and traveled night and day to notify his Eng- lish friends of their imminent peril. He confirmed every word that his fellow-spy, Quanapaug, had told. On the morrow Lancaster was to be assaulted, and Job had seen the war-party of "about 400 " start out upon their bloody errand.

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

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1576

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576