History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I, Part 4

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 700

USA > Massachusetts > History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I > Part 4

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The subdivisions of geologie time are eras, ages, and periods. The eras are five in number, marked in all by seven ages and each by various periods.

I .- ARCILEAN ERA, including Azoic and Eozoic (The Dawn of Life).

1. The Laurentian Age-Upper and Lower.

II .- PALEOZOIC ERA (Old Life).

2. The Silurian or Age of Mollusks.

3. The Devonian or Age of Fishes.

4. The Carboniferous or Age of Coal Plants.

III .- MESOZOIC ERA (Middle Life).

5. The Reptilian Age.

IV .- CENOZOIC ERA (Plant Life).

6. The Age of Mammals (Tertiary).

V .- PSYCHOZOIC ERA (Era of Mind).

7. The Age of Man (Quaternary).

The geologieal formations found in the Connecticut Valley and its bordering mountain ranges present roeks which mark only a few periods of the ages indieated by the above table, but those represented present many features of peculiar interest to the seientifie inquirer.

II. ARCH EAN ROCKS.

It seems to be the favorite theory of the New England geol- ogists of the Hiteleoek and Dana sehools that all the older roeks of the region have been metamorphoscd, that is to say, these roeks were originally sedimentary sandstones, lime- stones, and elays deposited in the ocean's bed, like the Silu- rian beds of central New York, and that by the action of heat and the presence of superineumbent strata they were changed into granite, gneiss, sehists, slates, and other hard erystalline roeks. That during the change the most of the fossil remains of the primeval animals and plants they contained in their original structure were obliterated. Indeed, Mr. Dana claims

HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

that even the oldest Laurentian rocks of Northern New York and Canada are all metamorphic in their nature. Yet, while this theory would seem to be the true one in regard to most of the New England strata, it is open to grave doubts as to the Laurentian. Rather does it seem that the old or Lower Laurentian rocks, and perhaps the Upper Laurentian, not- withstanding the high authority of Mr. Dana is to the con- trary, are not metamorphic in their nature, but are original rocks, in which the materials which constitute their structure have stood through countless ages in changeless relation to each other since they first crystallized, as it were in each other's arms, in the slowly-cooling erust of the intensely-heated pri- meval earth.

Yet, whether these crystalline beds in Massachusetts are metamorphic, or are the result of successive upheavals of original rocks, in tracing out the developments of the conti- ment from its Archæan beginnings in the old Laurentian, such has been the disturbance and upheaval of strata in the region bordering the valley of the Connecticut, that it has been so far a matter of extreme difficulty to correlate their various groups with those of known age in the State of New York, west of the Hudson River, which have given to geologi- cal science its American nomenclature.

It would seem, however, that the Azoic and Eozvic rocks were pretty well represented in various beds of granite, gneiss, syenite, mica schist, and other crystalline rocks found in the region. But all these formations belong to an age, it would seem, far younger than the Laurentian.

The Eozoic rocks are divided by geologists into three great series, constituting the lowest accessible portion of the earth's erust.

These three series of old crystalline roeks are the old or Lower Laurentian, the Upper Laurentian, sometimes called the Labradorian, and the Huronian. To some one, if not all, of these three divisions of the ancient roeks geologists now refer the gneissic rocks of the Hoosae Mountain range, the gneiss flanking on both sides the sandstones of the Connecticut Valley, and the mica schists associated with the granite about Amherst and Leverett.

GNEISS .- In the mountain towns of the eastern portions of the three counties of Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden, which border the beds of sand rock on the east, the prevailing and almost the only rock found is Gneiss, sometimes wrongly called granite. Gneiss, like granite, is composed of the three minerals,-feldspar, quartz, and mica; but the crystals of these minerals in granite are confusedly mixed together, while in gneiss they are arranged in a stratified form or in layers. This rock here is mostly light gray in color. An example of this gneiss is seen in what is commonly called the " Mon- son Granite," much used for building purposes.

West of the sandstone region of the valley the crystalline rocks underlying the western mountain towns of the coun- ties of Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden are much more diversified than those east of the valley. While on the east the prevailing rock is gneiss, on the west there are belts of talcose schist, mica schist, calciferous mica schist and granite, as well as gneiss.

CALCIFEROUS MICA SCHIST .- A wide belt of this rock un- derlies most of the western mountain towns of Franklin and Hampshire and the northern towns of Hampden County, the belt terminating in a point in Granville. Above Northamp- ton this belt borders on the sandstones of the valley.

In this belt " numerous thin beds of dark siliceous lime- stones," says Prof. C. H. Hitchcock, of Dartmouth, "are in- terstratified with the schists. These increase at the expense of the other beds in passing north, and in Canada they pre- dominate, containing characteristic fossils of the Upper Si- Jurian system, especially those belonging to the Niagara limestone of New York. ... In Bernardstown there is a thick bed of limestone containing numerous fragments of the 3

stems of enormous crinoids. Similar ones occur in the upper Heklerberg group of New York, belonging to the Devonian system." Soapstone is also found in Blandford, Chester, Rome, Granville, and other towns.

TALCOSE SCHIST .- West of the above-named belt of cal- eiferous mica schist, a narrow belt of taleose schist stretches across the extreme western ends of the three valley counties and borders the easterly line of the gneiss belt of the Hoosac Tunnel range in eastern Berkshire County. In this there are bands of magnesian rocks,-either dolomite, serpentine, or soap- stone. In Middleford, Hampshire Co., in the line of this belt, is found the most important soapstone quarry in the country.

In Chester there has lately been discovered and worked the rare mineral called emery. This bed of emery was discovered by Dr. H. L. Lucas, of Chester, in the year 1856, and has since been profitably worked.

GRANITE .- There are several beds of granite, of small ex- tent, lying within the limits of the three counties, the most important of which is the formation extending from the corners of Ashfield and Goshen, southerly through parts of Goshen, Williamstown, Chesterfield, Northampton, West- hampton, Easthampton, and Southampton, and so on, bor- dering the sandstone on the west to the Connecticut line, between Granville and Southwick. In this granite bed, and between it and the miea schist, lead ore has been found in con- siderable quantities in several of the towns above named. In Northampton lead was known to exist as early as 1767, and bullets were east of it during the Revolution.

TRAP OR BASALT .- In the midst of the sandstone beds of the valley a remarkable formation, possessing but little eco- nomic value, but of great interest to the student of geology, exists in a singular upheaval of the rock belonging to the Archæan age, known as trap, basalt, or greenstone. This formation consists of the Mounts Tom and Holyoke range. In some wonderful convulsion of nature the beds of valley sandstones, although supposed to have been of the remarkable thickness of many thousand teet, were suddenly rent asunder, and up through the fissures came in molten form these im- mense masses of trap rocks, which, cooling as they rose, har- dened into abrupt mountain ranges. This trap range ex- tends from the northern part of Massachusetts down through the valley of the Connecticut River in somewhat lengthy mountain ranges, or in isolated groups of hills to New Haven, where it ends in East and West Rock. This rock is intensely hard, and much dreaded by railroad men in making exca- vations.

Besides the minerals mentioned in the foregoing pages as occurring in and among the crystalline rocks, are several others, including ores of iron, oxide of manganese, etc., a description of which will be found in the histories of the towns in which they occur.

PALEOZOIC ROCKS.

To the Paleozoic era, the era of old life, the rocks of which rest in their natural position upon and next above the okl crystalline rocks, belong the stratified deposited rocks of the Silurian, or age of mollusks, the Devonian, or age of fishes, and the Carboniferous, or age of coal plants.

The rocks of this era are searcely represented within the boundaries of the three river counties. Small isolated patch es exist here and there.

MESOZOIC ROCKS.

In the valley of the Connecticut the Mesozoic era,-the era of middle life,-distinguished by the age of reptiles, finds its fit- ting representative in the vast beds of what is commonly called red sandstone, and known to science as Triassic sandstone and conglomerate. This rock is above all others the distinguish- ing feature of the groundwork of the Connecticut Valley. It is in great part of a dark-red color, and lies in stratified heds.

HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

The upper beds seem to consist of fine sand hardened into rock, and often present the appearance of slates and shales. The lower beds consist mainly of coarse sand and gravel, often mixed with bowlders, some of which are known to measure four feet in diameter. This difference in the structure of this rock has led some geologists to suppose that it consisted of two formations,-the Permian of the upper coal measures, belonging to the Paleozoic era, and the Triassic period of the Mesozoie era. But the better opinion now seems to be that it all belongs to the Triassic period.

On the Connecticut State line the bed of sand rock is nearly twenty miles in width. As it extends up the river it covers a space from four to eight miles in width until it narrows to about one mile on the north line of the State. This bed is com- puted to be of an average thickness of from three thousand to fourteen thousand feet. The strata of this rock, throughout its whole extent in the valley, have a dip or indication varying from fifty to thirty degrees,-always in an easterly direction,- the dip being the greatest on the western side throughout the valley. This dip of the sand roek strata does not seem to have been affected in the least by the trap irruption through its centre part. It is probable that this red sand rock onee filled the valley nearly to a level with the summit of Mount Tom, more than a thousand feet of it having been ground up and carried away by glacial action and the war of the elements.

The question arises, How was this immense bed of sand rock formed ? The obvious answer to this question is, the valley far back in the geologic ages was an estuary, or arm of the sea. Its bottom and shores were formed by the gneiss rocks on the east, and the mica schist on the west, while the two met together somewhere in the centre of its bottom, perhaps where the trap afterwards came up through. Into this com- paratively quiet estuary the streams from the hills and moun- tains around washed the sand and gravel formed by the wearing away of the rocks by the action of the elements. The sand and gravel so washed into this estuary settled to the bottom, and in the course of long ages it became gradually hardened into rock and filled up the valley. After the valley was filled with the sand rock to such great depths, the whole continent must have arisen from the water into something like its present position. After the glacial denudation this valley must have again sunk below the sea-level, and have been again filled up with the beds of sand, clay, and gravel that are now found in it. Again rising from the waters, it became fit for the habitation of man.

FOOT-MARKS.

But the most interesting things about this bed of sand rock are the fossil foot-prints to be found between its strata. The ancient foot-marks occur in some thirty places in the valley of the Connecticut between the upper strata. They must have been made by the animals and birds of the period walking in the soft mud of the shallow bottom of the estuary while the tide was out and the water low. During low tide the mud dried rapidly in the then warmer than tropical atmosphere. On the coming in of the waters these tracks were at once filled with another layer of sand, and the impression made permanent as the rock itself.

These foot-prints being mostly those of birds, their existence has given rise to a new branch of natural history called Ich- nology, or the " science of tracks."

The " bird tracks" are the most interesting of all these fos- sil foot-prints. The largest bird that frequented the muddy shores of the primeval estuary of this valley had a foot eigh- teen inches long, and must have been five times the size of the ostrich of to-day. The smallest bird was like the snipe. Many strange animals now unknown to man left on these rocks their foot-prints. Among these were an order of reptilian birds or horpetoids. The largest foot-mark was made by a gigantic frog, called Otozoum Moodii. Its track is twenty inches long.

To President Edward Hitchcock, late of Amherst, is due the

first scientific description of these interesting remains. Dr. Hitchcock made the first geologic survey of the State of Mas- sachusetts, and from 1832-the date of his first report-to 1865 he published numerous works upon the subject, all of which are of high scientific authority.

In speaking of these strange foot-prints on the red sandstone rocks of the valley of the Connecticut, President Hitchcock eloquently says, " Now I have seen in scientific vision an ap- terous hird some twelve or fifteen feet high-nay, large flocks of them-walking over the muddy surface, followed by many others of an analogous character, but of smaller size. Next comes a biped animal-a bird, perhaps-with a foot and heel nearly two feet long. Then a host of lesser bipeds formed on the same general type, and among them several quadrupeds with disproportioned feet, yet many of them stilted high, while others are crawling along the surface with spreading limbs. Next succeeds the huge Polemarch, leading along a tribe of lesser followers, with heels of great length and armed with spurs. But the greatest wonder of all comes in the shape of a biped batrachian with feet twenty inches long. We have heard of the Labyrinthodon of Europe-a frog as large as an ox-but his feet were only six or eight inches long, a mere pigmy com- pared with the Otozoum of New England. Behind him there trips along, on unequal feet, a group of small lizards and Salamandrida, with trifid or quadrifid feet. Beyond, half seen amidst the darkness, there move along animals so strange that they can hardly be brought within the types of existing organization. Strange, indeed, is this menagerie of remote sandstone days ; and the privilege of gazing upon it and bring- ing into view one lost form after another has been an ample recompense for my efforts though they should be rewarded by no other fruit."*

CENOZOIC ERA. 7

The Cenozoic era, or era of recent times, is represented in the Connecticut Valley by the Tertiary age, or age of mammals, and the Quaternary age, or age of Man.

The geologic formations of this age are composed of two dis- tinet subdivisions, the Glacial or Drift, and the Recent or Ter- race formations, which overlie all the others in depths varying from a few inches to one hundred and fifty feet or more. The bottom layers lying directly upon the rock formations are com- posed largely of coarse bowlders graduating into pebbles and sand, while the Terraces are mostly or wholly of finer sands or clay and marls, the last two sometimes beautifully arranged in thin layers, and often curiously convoluted and complex in their arrangements, as may be seen at the brick-works in the southern suburbs of the city of Springfield. The lower de- posits are of Diluvian or Drift origin, while those on and near the surface are of Fluvial or Lacustrine formation. The Ter- race formation is finely exhibited to the west and southwest of Holyoke, and on the east side of the river below Springfield.

CHAPTER V. INDIAN OCCUPANCY.

THE INDIAN TITLE TO THE SOIL.

THE New World was the natural home of the Indian. Ile was the sole proprietor of its soil. His title was the clearest of all titles, the right derived from undisputed, immemorial possession. llis tenure was that of absolute property in the soil, covered by no shadow of incumbranee. The white man was first an invader and trespasser, and then a purchaser. No white man's title to the soil to-day is worth a straw in the eyes of absolute law, unless it can be traced back to some In- . dian deed. It may be true that Sir Edmund Andros once

* Quoted in Holland's Hist. West Mass., Vol. L., p. 348.

HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

said that an Indian deed was worth no more than the "scratch of a bear's paw," but no sound jurist will consider Sir Ed- mund's dictum worth anything in the case.

On the 16th of February, 1629, Governor Cradoek wrote in behalf of the Company as follows: " The earnest desire of our whole company is that you have a diligent and watchful eye over our own people, that they live unblamable and without reproof, and demean themselves justly and courteously to- wards the Indians."

When William Pynchon, the father of the settlements in the Connecticut Valley,-the founder of Roxbury and Spring- field,-in the year 1636, first led his little band of pioneers along the old " Bay Path" through a hundred miles of how]- ing woods to the garden-banks of the great river at Ag-a-wam, he found the fertile meadows of the stream owned by a few feeble, broken bands of Indians, each governed by its own petty sachem or sagamore.

From each of these petty tribes the early settlers of the valley took exceeding care to obtain deeds of the lands by them owned and occupied.

Thus, from "Cut-to-was, the right owner of Ag-a-wam and Qua-na," his mother Kew-e-nask, the Tam-a-sham or wife of We-nu-wis, and Ni-ar-com, the wife of Co-a, the English bought the ancient site of Springfield, by deed bearing date the 15th day of July, in the year 1636,-a fac-simile of the record of which may be found farther on in this volume, in the history of Springfield. From Chick-wal-log, alias Waw- hil-low, Hen-es-scha-lant, Nas-si-co-ha, Re-unks, Pa-quah-a- hat, As-sel-la-quom-pas, and A-wo-nunsk, wife of Wal-lut-ha, all Indians and right owners of Non-o-tuck, they took a deed of Northampton, bearing date 24th September, 1653 .*

From Chick-wal-lopp, Um-pan-cha-la, and Wamp-shaw, sa- chems of Nol-wo-togg, they took a deedt of Hadley, bearing date 25th December, 1658. And again, on the 8th day of Au- gust, 1662, H'e-qua-gon, his wife A-wo-nunsk, and Squomp, their son, also deeded land in Hadley.

From Um-pan-cha-la, alias Woms-com, sachem of Nol-wo- togg, they took a deedt of Hatfield, dated July 10, 1660.

From Al-quot, the Indian sachem of Ho-rc-noak, they took a deed? of Westfield, bearing date June 30, 1669.

From We-qua-u-gan and Wa-wa-paw they took the title of lands for the " use and behoof" of the town of Springfield, by deed | bearing date in the year 1674, being parts of the present towns of West Springfield and Agawam, and Nee-sa-hea-gan, alias Squam-scat, and Ke-pa-quomp, alias Squi-ma-mop, also decded part of West Springfield by deed"[ dated 20th June, 1666.

From Mas-se-met, Pa-noot, Pam-mook, Ne-ne-pou-man, his squaw, Wom-pe-ly, and Nes-sa-cas-com, Indians of Squak-heag, in the year 1671, they took a deed of ten thousand five hun- dred and sixty acres in Northfield; and again, on the 9th September, 1673, they took a deed from Nal-lah-am-com-gon or Na-ta-nas, Mas-hep-e-tot, and Kis-quan-do Pam-pat-e-ke-mo, " a squaw, which is Mas-hep-e-tot's daughter," of another part of Northfield. For an account of the Pa-comp-tuck Indian deeds of Deerfield see history of that town in this work.

II. TWO FAMILIES OF NATIONS.

When the Europeans first landed on this continent the Indians who inhabited the Atlantic slope of the Alleghany range, the basin of the great lakes, and the valley of the St. Lawrence were divided into two great families of nations. These two families were soon known and distinguished by the

whites as the Iroquois and Algonquin families, so named by the French.

These two families differed radically, both in language and lineage, in the manner of building their wigwams, as well as in many of their manners and customs.

III. THIE IROQUOIS.

The Iroquois proper, the best types and leading people of this family, were the Five Nations of Central New York, called by themselves the Ho-de-no-sau-nee. To the south of the Five Nations, in the valley of the Susquehanna, were the Andastes, and to the westward of them, along the southern shore of Lake Erie, were the Erics. To the northward of Lake Erie lay the Neutral Nation, and near them the Tobacco Nation, while the Hurons, another tribe of the Iroquois, dwelt along the eastern shore of the lake that still bears their name. There was also a branch of the Iroquois family in the Caro- linas,-the Tuscaroras,-who came north and united with the Five Nations in 1715, after which the confederacy was known as the Six Nations .**

On every side these few kindred bands of Iroquois were sur- rounded by the much more numerous tribes of the greater Algonquin family.

Among all the aboriginal inhabitants of the New World there were none so politie and intelligent, none so fierce and brave, none with so many germs of heroic virtues mingled with their savage vices, as the true Iroquois, the people of the Five Nations of Central New York. They were a terror to all the surrounding tribes, whether of their own or of Algonquin speech and lineage. In 1650 they overran the country of the Hurons; in 1651 they destroyed the Neutral Nation ; in 1652 they exterminated the Eries ; in 1663 they ravaged the coun- try of the Pu-comp-tucks and Squak-heags, in the valley of the Connecticut ; in 1672 they conquered the Andastes and reduced them to the most abject submission, calling them the women of their tribe in derision.

They followed the war-path, and their war-cry was heard westward to the Mississippi, southward to the great gulf, and eastward to the Massachusetts Bay. The New England na- tions mostly, as well as the river tribes along the Hudson, whose warriors trembled at the name of Mohawk, all paid them tribute. The Montagnais, on the far-off Saguenay, whom the French called the paupers of the wilderness, would start from their midnight sleep and run terror-stricken from their wigwams into the forest when but dreaming of the dreadful Iroquois. They were truly in their day the conquerors of the New World, and were justly styled "The Romans of the West." " My pen," wrote the Jesuit Father Ragueneau, in the year 1650, in his Relations des Hurons-" My pen has no ink black enough to paint the fury of the Iroquois."

The Iroquois dwelt in palisaded villages upon the fertile banks of the lakes and streams which watered their country. The houses of all the Iroquois families were built long and narrow. They were not more than twelve or fifteen feet in width, but often exceeded one hundred and fifty feet in length. Within they built their fires at intervals along the centre of the earth-floor, the smoke passing out through openings in the top, which likewise served to let in the light. In every house were many fires and many families,-every family having its own fire within the space allotted to it.

From this custom of having many fires and many families strung through a long and narrow house comes the significa- tion of the Indian name the league of the Five Nations called themselves by. This Indian name was Ho-de-no-sau-nee, " The people of the Long House." They likened their con- federacy of five nations or tribes, stretched along a narrow valley for more than two hundred miles through Central New

* Recorded in office of Register of Deeds at Springfield, Book A, B, p. 13.

+ Recorded in Book of Deeds A, p. Il.

Į Recorded in Book of Deeds, Book A, p. 6.

¿ Recorded In Book of Deeds A B, p. 50.

[] Recorded in Book of Deeds A B, page 19.

T Recorded in Book of Deeds A B, page 21.

** See Colden's History of the Five Nations.

HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

York, to one of their long wigwams containing many families. The Mohawks guarded the eastern door of this typical long house, while the Senecas kept watch at the western door. Between these doors of their country dwelt the Oneidas, the Onondagas, and the Cuyugas, each nation around its own family fire, while the great central council-fire was always kept brightly burning in the land of the Onondagas.

The nation of the Iroquois to whom the Indians of the Con- necticut Valley paid unwilling tribute was the Mohawk.

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History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. I, Part 4

Author: L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts Number of Pages: 700

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 700