USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Hanover > History of the town of Hanover, Massachusetts, with family genealogies > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63
After much discussion, the town agreed, on the 24th day of November, 1673, " that a committee of eight, appointed by the Court, with four appointed by the town, should have the sole management of dividing lands, and that what they should agree upon should be binding. The Court appointed Capt. James Cud- worth, Cornet Robert Stetson, Lieut. Isaac Buck, Michael Peirce,
42
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
John Bryant, Sr., John Turner, Jr., John Damon, and Isaac Chittenden. The town added. Charles Stockbridge, Michael Pierce, John Cushing and Thomas Turner. The principles agreed on by this committee were :
I. "That none shall have any interest in the undivided lands that is not an allowed and approved inhabitant of the town of Scituate by acte of this committee."
II. " All that had an ancient grant of land from the freemen before the surrender (that is, between 1636 and 1647), shall have an interest."
III. " All the successors of such as had owned a house before 1647."
IV. "The successors of such as had not received land from the freemen." By this, we understand such as were inhabitants before 1647, who had not asked for a grant, while the freemen had the disposal of lands in town meeting." (Deane, page 11).
The facts have been given with as much brevity as possible and Deane has been quoted.
Many pages of the old Scituate records are devoted to this subject and, while perhaps the following quotation from Page 121 of Vol. 2, of said Records should have preceeded this, it is given, as throwing additional light on the subject : - " By an order of the Honored Court of New Plymouth bearing date October, 1636, the Town of Scituate was allowed and the purchasers and freemen were commissioned to dispose of the lands thereof for the accommodation of a Society or Township, and the purchasers and freemen did accordingly receive many inhabitants and made many grants of land, until the 13th day of Dec., 1647, and then, on the 13th day of Dec., 1647, at a town meeting, they, the said pur- chasers and freemen did resign their power of disposal unto the whole inhabitants of the town."
While considerable land about the Four Corners must have been granted by the Colony Court and by the freemen previous to 1670, yet, on this date, the most of the lands in Hanover which were embraced within the limits of Scituate were "Common Lands; " but, soon after this date, allotments were made and, before 1727, substantially all of said allotments had been made, many of them to persons who never occupied the lands and doubtless never in- tended to occupy it.
After 1670, allotments were made by different committees, much of the land in large lots and with regularity, much of it in smaller lots and with irregular lines.
43
PHYSICAL CHANGES, LAND TITLES, INDIANS.
The Scituate records show in many cases just where the lots assigned were, while, in other cases, no possible clue is given. Even when the lots assigned were surveyed out, many surveys were never recorded and the records containing many of the record- ed surveys have been destroyed; so that, in very many cases, it is impossible to trace a title back to the Colony.
As stated, committees were chosen at different times to make allotments and, when these allotments were made, surveyors lo- cated the bounds and the following is a copy of two or three of. these surveys :-
" May 23, 1692 - Laid out to Samuel Clapp, a successor to Mr. Floyd, sixty acres butting on the share line, being the 6th lot of the 3rd allotment, beginning at the southwest corner of John Merritt's lot, then runs with said Merritt's lot east 400 rods, then south 25 rods, then near west 400 rods to said share line, then 25 rods to the first corner." (Recorded vol. 2, page 221,. Scituate records.)
JEREMIAH HATCH
" SAMUEL CLAPP
Surveyors."
The lot above described lies on both sides of Main street and: is the farm which William Curtis owned at his death and the same which is now owned in part by his son, George W. Curtis,- and in part by E. O. Damon.
The " share line," which is named in so many of the allotments. is the westerly bound of the original town of Scituate.
Lots the same length of the above and in most cases the same width, all abutting on the share line, and extending from the- present Norwell line to Plain street, were, about 1690, allotted to" different persons and we present a plan or map of these allotments. Within these allotments are the northerly part of Main street,. Walnut street, and a part of Webster, Union, Cedar and Plain streets.
The early settlers on this territory were the Baileys, Curtis', Stetsons and Manns.
Following is a fac-simile and a copy of the survey of a small lot, which like many similar surveys, gives to the present-day reader no possible information and offers no guide to the exact location of the lot. (Scituate records, book 2, page 38.)
" Sittuate Aperhill the 16: 1697, the day above written laid oute too Steaphen Clap 2 acors of swampe land granted too said" Steaphen Clape and one acor of It South to Thomas Perrie which:
.44
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
allaitement
no 4 No the expressou of nicholas trade.
no. 3 Thomas Jenkins
now the home place of
Frank Stockbridge
no. 2 Nhorrica Ring
220.1 Edward Wanton Successor is John Whistorii
320. 11 nathaniel Tilden
20.10 e cada Buchas how the home place of
E. Thatcher Perry
no. 9 . Josefala Gelio, Successor in Chonego Robinson, nos the Same place ?
20.8 Successor of James Battes
allotient
und
no. 7 John Vassal.
20. 6 Samuel Celapx!
now the home place 7- blouse Williams Curcio
20. 0 John merritt
no. It Successor of cinthiopy Dodson
now the home place no. 3 Successor of Joli; Hoan 7 8. Howard Brookes
no. 2 Samuel Willers a Jeremiah Burroughs
no. 1 Successor of Epfibaim Mempión
allotment
no. 3 Halier Match !!
2 nd
220. 2 Wellian Curtis
no. 1 Joseph to allambre Horace S. Crane
how the home place of
allotment
no. 3 William James, Succession of John Woodfield
no. 2 Successo of Gaytan White.
no. 1 Successor of national mann.
Probably Cape - John Williams
Probably Capi-, John Williams
Probably Willeran Peakes
Probably nicholas Backer
Probably John Oferecer
Normele Vous Live
The dotted line shows substantially how Main Street was laid out through these lots. We have given the names of the persons to whom the different allotments were made and in some instances the names of the present owners, as the latter information may be interesting to the present owners of the different lots.
Share Live. as the westerly line of lild scituate
Sittu ale apourtill the 16:4697
the day a Gove wuxittore Said autor too Houghton chay carros offmainzer Surguanta two fait groazhon Gland and our area of it fonts for the mof Bouvier which 2. arany Systh in a frange nome his house be giving at a marfor mans ousem the range of Sumowell withorally Soft and runsth west ward too ahorn fine food norra the Proof out with the Groof South wand 16 woods for marSat maghet for the Groggia the wunoth no rols nome saft toa amagle this one the up that nieren his fathers range then vinoth then vinoth 16 was to thefirst nameit comer
zing four mia hatsh
guerrayong Samell Clave
Chope and provided in the Rooms of Situat So 2 book folio 38
PHYSICAL CHANGES, LAND TITLES, INDIANS.
45
4.6
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
2 acars lyeth in a swampe neare his house beginning at a marked read oake in the range of Samewell witherells lott and runneth westward too a hornbine tree near the brook and with the brook southward 16 rods too a marked maple tree by the brookside, then runeth 20 rods nere east too a maple tree one the upland near his fathers range then runneth (Then runneth) 16 rods too the first named corner."
JEREMIAH HATCH,
Per us SAMUEL CLAPP,
Surveyers."
As showing who became the first owner of common lands at South Hanover, we give a summary of the survey of a parcel of seventy-five acres, which was alloted to Jeremiah Hatch, in 1692, by the Scituate committee.
This lot (in shape like this figure)
S
was bounded on the southeast and southwest by Indian Head river, the line after leaving the river running through the lands now owned by the estate of E. Y. Perry, continuing to the Scituate line. The northeast boundary extended across what is now Broadway, a few rods west of the house of Mrs. Elizabeth A. Fish, from the Indian Head river to the top of a "high sandy hill." The westerly boundary extended northerly along the Scituate line to near the residence of the late Benjamin B. Hall. (See description at the end of Land Titles.)
While, as stated, the power to grant lands seems to have been given to the town of Scituate, and few Colony Court grants are recorded after a very early date, yet the presumption is, by refer- ences in the Scituate records, that, for a long time, the Court continued to hold a reserved authority. The most of the lands in Hanover were granted previous to its incorporation, but even after 1727 the Scituate committee assigned certain lands to the town "of Hanover that were at that time within the borders of the latter town.
Perhaps too much space has been given to this subject; but it has been an interesting one to the writer and he has a copy of
47
PHYSICAL CHANGES, LAND TITLES, INDIANS.
the original surveys of at least one-third of the town. He regrets his inability to present the matter more clearly; but time is re- lentless, much is lost, and it is hard sometimes to understand the exact meaning of the early records.
Certainly the care and patience with which these allotments and surveys were made, must compel our admiration, in view of the fact that every part of the town was covered, so that to-day there is probably no acre unclaimed and very few, if any, with disputed bounds.
(Note: The following is a copy of the laying out of the lot to Jeremiah Hatch aforesaid).
June, 1692.
Laid out to Jere. Hatch 75 a. of land which lieth by the river called the Indian Head River having the river for the southwest- ward and southeastward of said land beginning at small walnut tree thence running near northeast and by east 160 rods to a tree standing on the top of a high sandy hill thence runneth near south- east 40 rods to the Indian Head River, thence with said river as it runneth near southwest 160 rods till the river turneth north- west then runneth near northwest 60 rods with said river to a small maple then continued the said northwest point into the woods 20 rods until it comes to the first named walnut which con- tains but 60 a. so enclosed. Then we run from said walnut being the cor. bound near northwest 1-2 pt. northward 90 rods to a tree standing on the side of a hill; then runneth over a narrow plain near northeast 27 rods to a stake on the side of said plain thence near so east 1-2 pt. southwardly to the point of beginning.
INDIANS. Mostly by John F. Simmons.
Gookins says the cuontry of the Pawkeennawkeets "for the most part falls within the Jurisdiction of New Plymouth." This name has been more commonly written Pocanockets. The Massachusetts lay contiguous to them on the north and there can be but little doubt that Hanover came within the country of the Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts, once a powerful tribe, numbering, as one old warrier estimated, three thousand souls, was decimated and al- most extinguished by the so called plague of 1617. The exact nature of this plague seems to have been unknown. Even the oldest writers and the first comers themselves could learn but little of it. It is commonly termed a " plague," a generic description, natural to the Englishmen who had had such horrible experiences
48
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
in Europe with the dread disease. The spotted appearance of those Indians who died of it leads to the conjecture that possibly it may have been small-pox. The first-comers, at any rate, re- garded it as a providential dispensation, to rid the country of its aborigines, expressly to provide themselves with an opening for settlement at Plymouth.
The Indians of the Massachusetts tribe were a tall race of men ; spare and muscular, owing to their enforced habits of life, their cheek bones high, eyes black, without beard, with coarse, straight, black hair and a skin of that shade of brown which led them to be universally called Redmen. Their endurance was wonderful and yet it was probably excelled by the whites, who adopted, as did the early pioneers, their wild, free forest life.
Barry says: " In their persons, the Indians were not taller than the white race." Wood, in his "New England's Prospect," pub- lished in 1633, describes themn as " black-haired, out-nosed, broad- shouldered, brawny-armed, long and slender-handed, out-breasted, small-waisted, lank-bellied, well-thighed, flat-kneed, handsome grown legs, and small feet."
Josselyn, also, in his "New England's Rarities," says of the women, "many of them have good features, all of them black-eyed, having even, short teeth and very white, their hair black, thick, and long, broad-breasted, handsome, straight bodies and slender, their limbs cleanly straight, generally plump as a partridge, and, saving now and then one, of a modest deportment."
Their women did the useful work, the men confining their labor to war, hunting, and fishing, and to such arts as preparation for these employments made necessary.
Barry says: "The bows, which were strong and elastic, were made of walnut or ash and strung with sinews of deer or moose. With these they could throw an arrow to a great distance and strike any object desired with remarkable precision.
Their arrows were made of elder, feathered with the quills of eagles, and pointed with sharp stones wrought for the purpose, or with bones or eagles' claws. Their tomahawks were of an oblong form, sharpened to an edge and fixed to the handle by a withe passed around the groove formed at the head, or blunt part of the weapon."
Their dwellings were not, as is usually supposed, always a prism- shaped wigwam or tepee. Often the lithe limbs, which formed the frail framework of their dwellings, were gracefully bent into a bow, or arch-shaped roof. This, covered with mats or boughs,
49
PHYSICAL CHANGES, LAND TITLES, INDIANS.
made a far more commodious dwelling-place than the sharp-pointed tepee which is so often pictured. The old prints, when depicting the dwellings of the Indians, are more apt to give this rounded form of habitation than the other. In fact, it is stated by an old authority that the pointed tent-like wigwam was usually that of the lazy or poorer Indian. The larger, rounded shape belonged to the Sachem and the better class of Redman. These larger houses often were of such size as to require two or more smoke holes in the roof. One of these houses, for they are almost worthy of the name, was seen, by an old authority, to be one hundred feet long and thirty feet broad. Such an one, would of course, hold several families.
The furnishings of the larger-class houses were of the most primitive style. A few cooking utensils and the wide fireplace, with the sleeping place, comprised the whole. The bed was usu- ally raised a foot from the floor and was, in the more luxurious houses, made of boards split from the tree, covered with boughs, or ferns, and skins, those made not uncomfortable places for rest.
The cooking utensils were of the most primitive sort. When the white men first came, the earthen or clay pot was most com- mon ; but the new-comers' iron or copper kettles were prizes which the average redman longed to obtain. Wooden utensils, dug or burned from the block were common and cumbersome. Bark and woven, or basket-like implements were made with surprising skill. With birch bark and a very common sort of knife, an Indian, in a short time, could manufacture a small square box which was water- tight and their baskets, woven from "splits," or rushes, and plastered with gum, were as water-tight as a modern pail and much lighter.
The origin of the American Indian, a subject of long continued discussion among ethnologists, is as much a matter of doubt as ever. The later learning lets in no light upon the solution of the problem. It has, however, removed, or shown to be untenable, some of the conceptions of the earlier theorizers.
Probably the most largely diffused theory up to twenty-five years ago was the Asiatic. According to its advocates, a migration to this continent from Asia across Behring Strait brought hither the first Aborigines; or, it has been surmised, a possible shipwreck on our Pacific Coast of some Mongolian crew first started man upon this hemisphere.
Although it has been demonstrated, by an actual occurrence, that a small Asian ship might have been blown across the Pacific,
.
50
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
yet the improbabilities are too great and the argument against such an origin for our Aborigines seems unanswerable. Nor does the Behring Straits explanation appear any more satisfactory. The discovery in recent times of an apparently unclassifiable race of Alaskan Indians, resembling in some particulars the Asiatics and in others the Indians of North America, was thought to give additional strength to the Behring Sea contention, as being a con- necting link between the two races, lying directly in the pathway of the supposed migratory movement. But further study of the ethnological characteristics have shown such divergence of racial habits, speech, and physical formation, that the new race of Alas- kans must, according to the better scientific opinion, be regarded as a barrier rather than a connecting link.
Nor can light be thrown upon the problem by the study of philology, or of craniology, or of comparative anatomy. The races now upon this continent differ among themselves in such impor- tant particulars in all these departments of study and possess so little resemblance in any of them, that the task of discovering their origin from the other side of the world seems hopeless. The only particulars in which all of the Aboriginal races of the Americas resemble each other are the universally black, straight hair and the polysynthetical character of their various tongues.
The first contact of the Indian with Eastern civilization upon this continent spelled destruction for him. A century of dishonor, as it has been not inaptly called, seems to have developed, in more recent years, the long-slumbering adaptibility of the redman to the new conditions, of life which white civilization has forced upon him and the latest census show that the Indian race is increasing. No longer can the romancer depict the proud yet unyielding chieftain grieving over the dying council fires of his race. A new era for the redman seems dawning, as he has at last learned how to take advantage of the tardy but persistently philanthropic efforts of the United States Government to help upward the race which the white man's ignorance and negligence have for so many miserable years ground down to the dust and decay of an unwar- ranted death.
Although the American Indians are commonly designated no- madic the tribe which made Hanover a part of its domain was not nomadic in the sense that the Arabs are. These Massachusetts tribes had habitations substantial, perpetual. They clustered in villages, the location of which was determined by some of the necessities of the tribal life; frequently the character of the soil,
51
PHYSICAL CHANGES, LAND TITLES, INDIANS.
which must be light in order to meet the requirements of their crude tools of tillage; or the vicinity of a pond, which from its finny denizens or the wandering fowl which it lured, furnished food as well as fertilizing agents for their crops. Sometimes the whole village would move toward the shore in the summer and return again in the fall, aboriginal forerunners of our modern summer travellers. Sometimes a village would move temporarily to the banks of a stream, to take advantage of the incoming from the sea of the herring.
The territory of Hanover seems never to have been the habitat of any tribe, as the evidence seems to show was the case of the territory about the ponds in Pembroke and other parts of the county of Plymouth. But temporary camps and places of resort for burial or for the making of arrow or spear-heads or canoe building may have been and probably were used from time to time within our own territorial limits.
The friendly Indians, who were here when the town was incor- porated, remained here, themselves or their descendants, for many years. People whose recollection goes back into the first quarter of the last century probably remember some of these redmen and certainly they have seen their dwelling places and relics. Some of these Indians lived on the so-called " Bank land," west of King street, and some on or near Main street, near the house of J. How- ard Brooks. Mrs. Helen M. Priest, who lives opposite Mr. Brooks, recalls the fact that her grandmother well remembered at least one family who lived in this neighborhood. One, George Toto had his wigwam on land now owned by Mrs. Stephen Bowker.
Here he lived with his wife, Mary, a few rods from where stood the barn now gone and in the adjacent low ground was "Toto's well," a shallow watering-place the Indian had used. Barry thinks George was the son of Mercy Toto and a brother of Rhoda and perhaps of Sarah, who married James Sill in 1764. Rev. Benj. Bass speaks of baptising Mercy Toto, an Indian woman, also George Toto her son, and Rhoda Toto her daughter.
On Pine Island near Hanover street, lived two Indians in the eighteenth century who were called King Dick and Queen Daphne.
The so-called Indian burial-grounds are scattered about town in several places. One is said to have been on Pine Island. Barry tells the remarkable story that the graves here were visible until the hurricane of 1815, since which all trace of them has disap- peared. The presence of Indian burial-grounds is often alleged, because arrow heads or other Indian utensils are found there.
52
HISTORY OF HANOVER.
The presence of a camping-place would seem, in most cases to be a more rational explanation; but the mind given to a survey of tradition revels in the occult and a superstitious reason is often believed, where the facts, if given, would be discredited.
Another Indian burial-place is said to have existed on land for- merly of Thomas Simmons at Assinippi, back of the Assinippi Hall lot; and Barry notes that some of the people known as " Old " in 1850 remembered the last burial which took place there. An- other Indian cemetery is located by Barry rather unspecifically, in " Rocky Swamp."
Many arrow and spear-heads of stone have recently been found in the grounds near the residence of the late Andrew Priest, on Main street.
Old Peter resided at the Centre on land owned by Turner Stet- son. Peg's swamp is named after his wife, who was a negro, and who died in 1815, aged eighty-seven years. She lived in a house on Centre street located where the Albert Stetson house was after- wards built.
An Indian woman named Joanna married during the Revolu- tion a Hessian deserter named John Fredericks, who came to Hanover and lived here.
Even to this day (1905) arrow-heads, spear-heads, pestles, and broken hatchets, or tomahawks, are picked up or turned up by the plow in many places. On the hillside sloping toward North river at Union Bridge, on the Norwell side, is one prolific field. Another is on the Scooset road in Pembroke.
Benjamin L. Stetson and J. Howard Brooks both have collec- tions of these relics. John Tower in his life time also had a large collection. He could find these relics anywhere. He had the in- stinct of Thoreau. It was said of the latter that he was walking in the fields with a friend, when the latter said "I can never find an Indian arrow head. Will you go with me sometime and find one for me?" Thoreau replied : "Yes, willingly," and, brushing the earth with the toe of his boot, stooped and picked one up and, handing it to his companion, said, " There is one now."
(Note :) The following is taken from Mitchells history of Bridgewater; the westerly part of Hanover was then a part of Bridgewater.
" 1676 a vote was called to see what should be done with the money that was made of the Indians that were sold last and it was voted that the soldiers that took them should have it."
53
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
CHAPTER IV.
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
By John F. Simmons.
The legal character of the movement of the Separatists from Ley- den to the shores of America, whatever its moral or religious bearing may have been, was that of a simple trading venture. The sinews of the voyage, without which the migration would have been impossible, were furnished by English merchants, who, in return for the transportation hither of the little flock and the expense necessarily attending their removal, expected fish and pelts and other products of the new country to be shipped to them. From this venture, as it was constantly called, these English undertakers of the movement expected not only a return of the capital furnished, but a handsome profit also. The Pilgrims, as they rightfully called themselves, were compelled to take this method of travel, owing to their own poverty. It was an exhibition of shrewd trading ability, thus compelling Mammon to serve the Lord, which has been per- petuated in their descendants, and has come to be known as "Yankee shrewdness."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.