USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Lancaster > History of the town of Lancaster, Massachusetts : from the first settlement to the present time, 1643-1879 > Part 9
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" The point taken (supposed to be in the cellar of Mr. Rowlandson's house) bears S. 59º 5' W. 819.8 feet from the S. W. corner of the south abutment of the Sprague
ARRY EMIC
SITE OF THE ROWLANDSON GARRISON.
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THE GARRISON BURNED.
bridge, and N. 84° 21' W. 662.12 feet from the S. W. cor- ner of the Old Burying Ground.
" The S. W. corner of the Old Burying Ground bears 82° 25' E. 227.5 feet from the N. E. corner of the Middle or Central Cemetery."
Into this house the people living in the neighborhood, and perhaps some from the Neck hastily ran for protection. The enemy tore up the planks of the bridge, to prevent passing, but doubtless there were boats then as well as now on the river. It may be observed that the meeting-house stood where it was visible from every habitation on both sides of the Neck, and in South Lancaster. It is believed that some had taken refuge in other fortified houses, and others had fled to the woods and swamps, as only about one in six of the inhabitants was killed and captured. The remainder were in some way preserved from the fury of the savages.
There were at least forty-two persons, old and young, male and female, in the house of Mr. Rowlandson. This garrison was guarded only on the front, (which probably faced south, ) and the two sides, with no flankers to cover the rear, and no port-holes in that direction. This is the statement of Mr. Harrington ; but Hubbard, the historian, says that the " fortification was on the back side of the building, but covered up with fire-wood, and the Indians got near and burnt a leanto."
The attack was made early in the morning, and says Mrs. Rowlandson, "quickly it was the dolefullest day that ever mine eyes saw." The house was defended upwards of two hours with determined bravery. The Indians, "after several unsuccessful attempts to set fire to the building, filled a cart with combustible materials, and approached the defenceless rear. In this manner the house was soon enveloped in flames. According to Mrs. Rowlandson's recollection of that " amazing time," the Indians had been near the house about two hours before setting it on fire. The enemy from the barn, or behind the hills, or any shelter, watched every
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
opportunity to shoot the defenders, if any one were exposed at window or loophole. " The bullets seemed to fly like hail." Soon one man was wounded, and then another, and then a third. The fire from the combustibles in the cart seized on the house, when one brave man ventured out and quenched the flames. Would that his name was on record ! But the fire was again lighted, and soon spread over the house. Some in the house were fighting for their lives, and some wallow- ing in their blood. The fire was over their heads, and the " bloody heathen ready to knock all who stirred out on the head." Now might be heard mothers and children crying out for themselves and one another, "Lord, what shall we do ?" Then, says Mrs. Rowlandson, in her touching narrative : "I took my children, (and one of my sisters hers,) to go forth and leave the house ; but as soon as we came to the door, and appeared, the Indians shot so thick that the bullets rattled against the house, as if one had taken a handful of stones and thrown them, so that we were forced to give back." Their six stout dogs, at other times brave, and ready to fly at an enemy, lost all spirit, and would not stir. The fire increasing behind them, they were forced out of doors, where the Indians were eagerly watching to shoot them. Im- mediately Thomas Rowlandson, (brother of the minister,) who had been shot in the neck while in the house, fell down dead, whereupon the enemy shouting fell upon him, and stripped him of his clothes. A bullet went through the side of Mrs. Rowlandson, and also through the hand and bowels of her little daughter, six years old, by her side. The son of a sister, Mrs. Kerley, wife of Henry Kerley, had his leg broken, when the Indians knocked him on the head. "Thus," says her narrative, "were we butchered by those merciless heathens, standing amazed with the blood running down to our heels." She goes on in these words : "My elder sister being yet in the house, and seeing those woful sights, the infidels hauling mothers one way and children another, and some wallowing in their blood, and her eldest son telling
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GREAT SLAUGHTER.
her that her son William was dead, and myself wounded, she said, ' Lord, let me die with them ; ' which was no sooner said, but she was struck with a bullet, and fell down dead over the threshold. Then the Indians laid hold of us, pull- ing me one way and the children another, and said, ' come, go along with us.'" Of all in the house, whether thirty-seven or forty-two, only one, Ephraim Roper, escaped. Twelve were killed, some shot, some stabbed with spears, and some knocked on the head with hatchets. One was " chopped into the head with a hatchet and stripped naked, and yet was crawling up and down." All of the dead were " stripped naked by a company of hell-hounds, roaring, ranting, sing- ing and insulting as if they would have torn our very hearts out."
All accounts speak of the great bravery of the defenders. One writer tells us that eight men sacrificed their lives in the effort to rescue Mrs. Rowlandson. The true statement is that ten or twelve men, with women and children, took . refuge in the garrison with her family, and the men were victims, with one exception. The rest were either put to death on the spot, or were reserved for torture. Mr. Har- rington states that there were twelve men, and he gives the names of the eleven following, " Ensign Divoll, Abraham Joslin, Daniel Gains, Thomas Rowlandson, William and Joseph Kerley, John McLoad, John Kettle and two sons, and Josiah Divoll." He adds an " &c.," which completes the twelve. William Kerley was probably the brother of Capt. Henry Kerley. The wife of Ephraim Roper was killed in attempting to escape. Mrs. Drew, sister of Mrs. Rowland- son, was taken captive; also the wife of Abraham Joslin, and other women and children to the number of about twenty.
The fight was over. How many of the savages were killed is not recorded, but it was supposed that many were slain or wounded. The remainder, who were numerous, imme- diately began to plunder the houses, strip the dead of their
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
clothing, and remove every valuable which could be taken away. They also drove off all the live stock that were at hand. Fearing the arrival of troops from Marlborough, they started before night for the summit of George hill. There the hours of darkness were spent by the Indians in savage revelry. The poor captives were kept awake, near the great boulder, by the singing and howling of the victors ; and according to the intimation of one writer, by the dying groans of some of the victims. Lurid lights rose from the burning timbers of numerous houses ; and the flames where the husbands, and fathers, and brothers were enduring tor- ture, gave a tenfold horror to the darkness.
The women and children were taken into captivity with the purpose of obtaining ransom. And nearly all, after almost incredible sufferings, were restored to their friends. A son and daughter of Mrs. Rowlandson, one sixteen, and the other eleven years of age, were of this number. One woman, Mrs. Joslin, met a different fate. She had a little child about two years old, and expected soon to have another. Wearied by travel through the wilderness and over the snow, after several days of extreme suffering, she was, as we might well suppose, extremely unhappy, and often begged the Indians to return her to her friends. At length, when in or near Bayquage - now Athol, or Orange - impatient with her complainings, they built a fire, deprived her of clothing, killed her child, knocked her on the head, and cast her into the flames. The remainder were spared, though the little child of Mrs. Rowlandson, worn out by wounds, hunger and cold, died on the way. Leaving for the present, the fortunes of the captives, we return to the scene of devastation.
Different accounts vary in regard to the whole number of the slain, and the captured. There were fifty persons at least, and one writer says fifty-five. Nearly one-half of them suffered death on the spot, or in the wilderness. When Mr. Rowlandson, Capt. Kerley and Mr. Drew, all
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SCENES OF HORROR.
brothers-in-law, who had been seeking aid from the general court, in Boston, returned, a scene of horror met their eyes. The anguish they felt cannot be described, yet the tradition is that the minister was sustained by a strong persuasion that his wife would be restored. But this was uncertain. One child was wounded ; the whole three, with their mother, were in captivity, and many of his friends, as well as the friends of his two companions, were killed or taken. Their dwellings had been burned. The wife of one, though he knew it not, was buried in the ruins. The wives of the other two were in the power of the savages, threading their way through the trackless forest in the midst of winter, with no comforts, and no friends to cheer them, either starving with hunger, or preserving life by eating the most loathsome offal, separated from each other, and with nothing but death or hopeless captivity in prospect.
One incident seems affecting almost beyond parallel. When Henry Kerley assisted in burying the dead, there was one woman whose body was burned beyond recognition. He supposed or hoped that Mrs. Kerley was among the captives, and when, about eleven weeks after the event, Mrs. Rowlandson returned, he inquired of her in relation to her sister. He was then informed that the poor, blackened remains which he had helped to bury in the earth, were those of his own wife.
Some of the houses, but not all, were burned on the day of the massacre, as the Indians made haste to escape. The flames glared luridly all over the Neck, on the east and west roads, as far north as the settlement extended, and through South Lancaster as far as Clinton. The cause of the hurried departure of the enemy was their fear of the valiant and famous Capt. Wadsworth, who marched immediately from Marlborough, where he then was, with forty brave men, to the relief of the town. " As there was then a considerable flood," says Mr. Harrington, "and the river of consequence everywhere unpassable but at the bridge ; the Indians had
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
taken from thence the planks to prevent the passing of horse- men, and ambushed to prevent the passing of footmen ; but had left their ambushment before the arrival of Capt. Wads- worth, who therefore passed it unmolested, and entered the town undiscovered, and forced the enemy for the present to quit it. He quartered his men in various parts of the town, and tarried some days ; but before his departure, lost one of his men by the Indians." This was George Harrington, who was killed or taken at Prescott's mill.
The remaining people soon came from their lurking places, and with the aid of the soldiers, buried their dead. Some of them were probably interred near the spot where they fell. Those who were killed at the minister's garrison house, may have been buried on the spot; but it is supposed that their remains are somewhere in the old burying yard east of the railroad. The survivors would naturally lay the victims with those who had previously passed away, whether moved by sentiment or convenience, as the yard was near. But no mortal knows of their sepulchre. Not a slab, or mound, or group of unlettered stones, give any indication of their rest- ing place. We only know that they were buried, hastily, it may have been, but not without sad and solemn rites, and thus left in " God's acre " till the resurrection.
The survivors took shelter, with what they could gather, whether of goods, provisions, grain or stock, in and near two fortified houses or garrisons ; one of them on the land of Lawrence Waters, not far from the house of Mr. Symmes, F, and the other at Thomas Sawyer's, not far in the rear of the house now occupied by J. A. Rice, E. In these circumstances, they sent a most moving petition to the gov- ernor and council, signed by the occupants of both garri- sons. The names of those who were in the garrison on the east side of North river, were Jacob Farrar, John Houghton, sen., John Houghton, jr., John Whitcomb, Job Whitcomb, Jonathan Whitcomb, John Moore and Cyprian Stevens. The signers in Sawyer's garrison were John Prescott, sen., Thomas
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DEPARTURE OF THE SURVIVORS.
Sawyer, sen., Thomas Sawyer, jr., Jonathan Prescott, Thomas Wilder, John Wilder, Nathaniel Wilder, John Rigby, John Roper, and widows Wheeler, Fairbanks and Roper. The absence of several names will be remarked, as White, James, Parker, Gates, Rugg, Kerley, Drew, Rowlandson, and others who were still alive. The probability is that many families who were " burned out of house and home," left as soon as possible for the lower towns. The petition of those who remained implored the governor and council that a " guard of men with carts might be ordered to Lan- caster, to remove them to a place of safety." They go on to say : "Our state is very deplorable in our incapacity to subsist; as to remove away we cannot, the enemy has so encompassed us ; otherwise for want of help and cattle, being most of them carried away by the barbarous heathen ; and to stay disenabled for want of food. The town's peo- ple are generally gone, who felt the judgment but light, and had their cattle left them with their estates. But we, many of us here in this prison, have not bread to last us one month, and our other provisions spent and gone for the generality. We are sorrowful to leave this place. Our women's cries does daily increase beyond expression ; which does not only fill our ears, but our hearts full of grief." The above was drawn up by those in garrison on the east side of North river. Those on the other side add touch- ingly, " We are in like distress, and so humbly desire your like pity and fatherly care, having widows and many fatherless children." According to Mr. Willard, "more than a hun- dred and seventy births are recorded" before the year 1676, and many of these were young at the time of the massacre. The parents of others had died in their beds, so that the fatherless, as well as the widows, were numerous in propor- tion to the whole population.
The place being considered untenable, troops were sent up with carts, who transported the people, with their remain- ing movable property, to the eastern towns, where they
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
found homes with their friends. Then the Indians, who seemed to have been lurking around, came out of their lairs, and set fire to the buildings still standing ; and with the exception of the house of God and one dwelling, when they ceased to burn, there was nothing left but smoking and blackened ruins in this lovely valley. The settlers in the outskirts of the town, as well as in the center, withdrew under the protection of the soldiers. The settlement was abandoned. The town was destroyed. For a year or two it was without a white inhabitant. Thus closes the second act in this awful drama ; this carnival of arson and murder. Both acts were included in the latter half of the year 1675, according to the computation then in vogue, when the year began in March. From August 22, to February 10, 1675, old style ; or from September 2, 1675, to February 21, 1676, new style, the town was a scene of alarm, violence and death. And thus was brought to pass a result which may be expressed in words of ancient writ : " I will wipe Jeru- salem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down !"
Two or three matters require a brief notice before closing this chapter. The sufferings and release of Mrs. Rowland- - son are known to thousands who have read her " Removes." It may be said here, that after being taken, by slow but painful marches, as far north as Fort Dummer, below Brattleboro', according to some authorities, or even to Charleston, N. H., according to others, less trustworthy, she was slowly brought back to Lancaster, where she was met by Mr. Hoar, of Concord, who took her, on horseback, to her husband and friends. She, her surviving children, and her sister, Mrs. Drew, were all ransomed.
Quite a number of aged people escaped massacre or cap- tivity by previous decease. In this number Mr. Willard places "Joane the wife of goodman John White, and mother of Madam Rowlandson ; Mary, the wife of goodman Richard Smith ; Mary, the wife of goodman John Smith ; Elizabeth,
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FATE OF THE NASHUA INDIANS.
the wife of goodman Edmund Parker; Ann, the wife of goodman John Moore ; Martha, the wife of goodman John Rugg, surviving one of her twins but six days, and dying on the same day with the other ; Ann, and after her, Bridget, the wives of goodman William Kerley, senior." Not only the matrons, but the fathers of the settlement had been thinned out by the reaper death. Richard Linton, the old man of the settlement, who had built the first house on the southeast corner of the Neck, Thomas James, John Smith, William Kerley, sen., together with Thomas Joslin, John White, sen., John Whitcomb, sen., Thomas Wilder, and Thomas Rowlandson, the father of the minister, had all passed to their long home. The old burying yard held their ashes, where not a single lettered stone marks their resting- place.
The fate of the Nashua Indians cannot be read without a feeling of sadness. For though there is no proof that the fathers of the town ever violated their agreement with the natives, or treated them unjustly, yet there is something painful in the thought that the first occupants of these plains, hills and forests were involved in a contest, by the arts of Philip, which led to their death, or dispersion. Some were killed in Philip's war; some were sold into slavery with other Indians; some were dealt with as malefactors; and the rest abandoned the homes of their childhood, and the graves of their fathers. Some joined the Nipmucks and other Indians, to the number of two hundred and fifty fight- ing men, besides women and children. They fled westward, were overtaken beyond Westfield, and many of them slain or captured. More than two hundred crossed the Hudson below Albany and became incorporated with a tribe of Ind- ians in that vicinity. Another part of the tribe took their way eastward to the right bank of the Piscataqua, where they were surprised by the troops, and those who had been engaged in the war were separated from the rest, taken to Boston, and sold into perpetual slavery in the West Indies.
8
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
Shoshanin and several other leaders were executed, a fate which they preferred, doubtless, to banishment and servi- tude. Those Indians who escaped capture, took refuge among the Pennecooks, and nevermore returned, unless as strag- glers, to revisit the scenes of childhood, and drop a tear over a mother's grave.
CHAPTER V.
REBUILDING. KING WILLIAM'S WAR.
IN a few hours the work of a generation had been burned, and many of the workers slain, while the remainder were scattered. Cultivated farms, gardens and orchards had re- doubled the natural loveliness of the valley ; but these were left without cultivation. The lowing of cattle, and the friendly greeting of neighbors, and the voice of song were heard no more. Besides one dwelling, the location of which is unknown, the meeting-house stood alone, on the brow of the Middle Cemetery hill, keeping watch and ward over the scene of desolation. It has come down to us that the Indians feared to set fire to " God's house." Therefore it re- mained, inviting the former worshipers within its plain, but hallowed walls to return.
But for years they did not come. The minister received an invitation to settle with the large and intelligent congrega- tion in Wethersfield, Conn., and not knowing when, if ever, his people would rebuild the old wastes, he accepted the call, and in 1678 entered on his ministry there. But his time of service was brief, since his death occurred in 1680. The church provided liberally for Mrs. Rowlandson and the chil- dren. They became connected by marriage with respectable families in the place, and descendants were there in the early part of the present century.
One relic of the family of Master Rowlandson remains, and came into the possession of the town recently in so singu- lar a manner, that it properly finds mention in this connec- tion. Early in the year 1876, the Postmaster of Lancaster,
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
Mr. Humphrey Barrett, received a letter from J. W. Dunlap of South Hadley, saying that he had in his possession an arti- cle of furniture that once belonged to the Rev. Joseph Row- landson, and that he would sell it for the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars, though reluctant to part with it on account of its history. The Library Committee, on learning the facts, requested one of their number, Horatio D. Humphrey, to visit the owner, see what he had to sell, and learn, if possible, its descent ; or in other words, its connection with the first settled minister of the town. The quest was suc- cessful. The article, whether bureau, buffet, sideboard or locker, was of solid English oak. It was four feet and seven inches high, four feet and one inch long, and nineteen inches deep. It had drawers, and a closet or cupboard, and other capabilities of a useful piece of household furniture. There was considerable carving on the doors, and it was adorned with egg-shaped balls made of a softer wood. The owner- ship was traced directly back to Mr. Rowlandson. Mr. Hum- phrey being authorized to give one hundred dollars, made the offer which was accepted.
Happily the committee did not have to draw from the an- nual income of the Library. Miss Mary Whitney, in her will, had left one hundred dollars for the library, to be used according to the discretion of the committee. It had been their intention to purchase some costly, illustrated work, and inscribe her name upon it in lasting honor. It now seemed that the best use to which the money could be applied, would be to exchange it for the antique sideboard or locker. This was done. The article was covered with a coat of paint, and two of varnish. An ingenious painter removed the covering and brought out the real surface. It stands now in the cabinet, in Memorial Hall, with a suitable inscrip- tion in reference to Miss Whitney. The. Chairman of the Committee, Rev. Mr. Bartol, with great felicity, selected the following motto for the plate which is fastened to the furniture. Sic siti Lares laetantur.
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THE ROWLANDSON LOCKER.
One interesting question remained to be decided, if it were admitted that Mr. Rowlandson was formerly the owner. The question was this. Was the article ever in Lancaster? It was the general opinion that the furniture was burned in the universal conflagration. Therefore the probability was that the locker, if such it may be called, was bought when Mr .. Rowlandson began house-keeping in Wethersfield. But inquiry elicited the fact that it had belonged to John White, who brought it from England. He came over in the early years of the colony. The minister married Mary, the daughter of Mr. White. The latter died not long before the massacre. Hence it follows that the article was brought to Lancaster, and at the division of Mr. White's personal estate, probably fell to the Rowlandsons. The connection was complete. It is supposed that the sideboard had valuables in it, and that the Indians, after getting possession of the burning garrison, hastily carried it out, in order to save its contents from the fire, and then rifled it at their leisure. These things being so, Memorial Hall, Lancaster, is the fittest depository for it in all the earth, and truly as well as classically may it be said to rejoice in being so placed.
It is too late to learn what became of the other fugitives during the years of their absence. And a thousand thrilling incidents and anecdotes, which once were told around roar- ing fireplaces, till the children's hair stood on end, have passed from human remembrance. The orators of the town, at successive commemorations, from Mr. Harrington onward to more recent times, have referred to these events, as well known to their hearers, but have failed to commit them to paper. Tradition has been fading out, in each succeeding generation, till now nothing but the shadow of a shade re- mains of all that once was stamped deep on the memory of the sufferers and their descendants.
Nor have we any Records of the town to instruct us in regard to this portion of our history. From 1670 to 1717, a
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HISTORY OF LANCASTER.
period of forty-seven years, there is a total hiatus in the town and the Proprietors' Records. A volume of Records was " mysteriously lost," says Willard, about ninety years ago. The " Book of Lands " gives the patient searcher a few stray facts ; but the main dependence of the historian, for these years, is the history of the Province, and the Records in the State House in Boston. These last are rich in facts, and well reward the explorer.
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