USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Medford > History of the town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement, in 1630, to the present time, 1855 > Part 8
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"The 15th of the 2d mo., 1639: Wee, Web-Cowet and Squa Sachem, do sell unto the inhabitants of the towne of Charlestowne all the land within the line granted them by the Court (excepting the farmes and the ground on the west of the two great ponds, called Misticke Ponds), from the south side of Mr. Nowell's lott, neere the upper end of the ponds, unto the little runnet that cometh from Capt. Cook's mills, which the Squa reserveth to their use, for her life, for the Indians to plant and hunt upon, and the weare above the ponds they also reserve for the Indians to fish at whiles the Squa liveth; and, after the death of Squa Sachem, she doth leave all her lands, from Mr. Mayhue's house to neere Salem, to the present Governor, Mr. John Winthrop, sen., Mr. Increase Nowell, Mr. John Willson, Mr. Edward Gibons, to dispose of, and all Indians to depart ; and, for sattisfaction from Charlestowne, wee acknowledge to have received, in full sattisfaction, twenty and one coates, ninten fathom of wampom, and three bushels of corn. In witness whereof, we have here unto sett o'r hands, the day and year above named.
"The mark of SQUA SACHEM, m'c.
"The mark of WEB-COWET, m."
This queen died in Medford before 1662, as appears from the following documents in the 2d vol. of Middlesex Regis- try of Deeds : -
"Mr. Francis Norton and Nicholas Davison (Mr. Cradock's agent) do, in the name of the inhabitants of Charlestown, lay claim to the tract of land reserved to Squa Sachem during her life- time, and which is at present possessed and improved by Thomas Gleison of Charlestown; this land bounded on the east by Mystic Pond, on the west by Cambridge Common, on the south by the land of Mr. Cooke, on the north formerly in the possession of Mr. Increase Nowell.
" This demand and claim was made in the person of John Fen- nell and Mr. William Sims, the 25th of March, 1662, at the house of Thomas Gleison.
" Entered 29th of March, 1662, by T. DANFORTH.
" Signed, " JOHN FENNELL.
" WM. SIMMES."
.
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Sagamore John, whose Indian name was Wonohaquaham, lived in Medford, and probably occupied at times the house of his father. He was friendly to our ancestors ; he gave them permission to settle, and afterwards apprised them of the premeditated assault of the unfriendly Indians. He died in Medford, Dec. 5, 1633. His last hours are thus described in " New England's First Fruits : " --
" Sagamore John, Prince of Massaquesers, was, from our very first landing, more courteous, ingenious, and, to the English, more loving than others of them. He desired to learn and speak our language, and loved to imitate us in our behavior and apparel, and began to hearken after our God and his ways, and would much commend Englishmen and their God, saying (much good men, much good God) and being convinced that our condition and ways were better far than theirs, did resolve and promise to leave the Indians, and come live with us; but yet, kept down by the fears and scoffs of the Indians, had not power to make good his purpose ; yet went on, not without some trouble of mind and secret plucks of con- science, as the sequel declares; for, being struck with death, fear- fully cried out of himself that he had not come to live with us, to have known our God better. 'But now,' said he, ' I must die, the God of the English is much angry with me, and will destroy me. Ah! I was afraid of the scoffs of the wicked Indians; yet my child shall live with the English, and learn to know their God, when I am dead. I will give him to Mr. Wilson : he is much good man, and much love me.' So sent for Mr. Wilson to come to him, and committed his only child to his care, and so died."
The Indians were powerful on this shore ; and Gosnold, who was at Cape Cod in 1602, says " this coast is very full of people." Capt. Smith, who was here in 1614, says it " was well inhabited with many people." Sir Ferdinando Gorges adds, "At our first discovery of those coasts, we found it very populous, the inhabitants stout and warlike." Speak- ing of the Mattachusetts, Capt. Smith observes, "For their trade and merchandise, to each of their principal families or habitations, they have divers towns and people belonging, and, by their relations and descriptions, more than twenty several habitations. It is the Paradise of all those parts ; for here are many isles planted with corn, groves, mulberries, savage gardens, and good harbors. The seacoast, as you pass, shows you all along large cornfields."
This picture of Indian prosperity was almost wholly effaced by the terrible plague of 1617 and 1618. Morton says of it, "They died on heaps as they lay in their houses ; and the
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living, that were able to shift for themselves, would run away and let them die, and let their carcasses lie above the ground without burial. And the bones and skulls upon the several places of their habitations made such a spectacle, that it seemed to me a new-found Golgotha."
Dermer, who was at Cape Cod in 1619, says : " I passed along the coast, where I found some eminent plantations, not long since populous, now utterly void. In another place a remnant remains, but not free from sickness; their disease the plague."
Rev. Francis Higginson, in 1629, speaking of the Saga- mores, says : " Their' subjects, above twelve years since, were swept away by a great and grievous plague, that was amongst them, so that there are very few left to inhabit the country." Gookin says : " I have discoursed with some old Indians, that were then youths (in the time of the plague), who say that the bodies all over were exceedingly yellow ; describing it by a yellow garment they showed me, both before they died and afterwards."
It is estimated that, on the arrival of the English, there were about twenty thousand Indians within fifty miles of Plymouth. Their government was rather patriarchal than monarchical. Several hundreds, united under one head, made a family ; and their head was called Sagamore. When several families were united under one head, that head was called Sachem. The territory for many miles round Mystic River was owned and occupied by small tribes or detach- ments. each having its own head. The land on which we live belonged to Sagamore John. He had a brother James, who was Sagamore at Saugus. Their father bequeathed his sovereignty in equal proportions to his two sons, as was the common rule. The Sagamores were subordinates to the higher chief. The Naumkeags owned the territory from North River, in Salem, to Charles River ; and their numbers were computed at six thousand.
Hubbard says : "Near the mouth of Charles River, there used to be the general rendezvous of all the Indians, both on the north and south side of the country. It was the seat of the great Sachem, who was much venerated by all the planta- tions of Indians. At Mistick was the seat of a Sagamore, near adjoining which is a great creek that meets with the mouth of Charles River, and so makes the haven of Boston."
The records of Charlestown say: " About the months of
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April or May, A. D. 1630, there was a great design of the Indians, from the Narragansetts, and all round about us to the eastward in all parts, to cut off the English, which John Sagamore (who always loved the English) revealed to the inhabitants of this town."
Such threats as these induced Mr. Cradock's men to build brick houses which would answer the uses of forts. For this reason, Charlestown this year " erected a small fort on the top of Town Hill;" the women helped the men to dig and build.
So destructive had been "the plague " (or yellow fever) that Mr. Higginson says, 1629: "The greatest Sagamores about us cannot make above three hundred men (warriors), and other less Sagamores have not above fifteen subjects, and others near about us but two." Gov. Dudley, in 1631, says : " Upon the river Mistick is situated Sagamore John ; and upon the river Saugus, Sagamore James, his brother. Both these brothers command not above thirty or forty men, for aught I can learn." We have it from Gov. Winthrop, that in 1633 Sagamores John and James, and most of their people, died of the small pox. Of the subjects of John, thirty were buried in one day by Mr. Maverick. The disease spread to Piscatoqua, where it proved mortal to all the Indians, except two or three.
Thus we learn that the region round Mystic River was " almost wholly deserted." It became a dreaded region, and Indian superstition kept it so; for Johnson savs, "The neighboring Indians did abandon those places for fear of death." A writer of 1632 says the " peninsular," meaning the space between Boston and Medford, " is full of Indians." We apprehend that this statement needs qualification. Thus reduced and disheartened, it was not difficult for our Medford ancestors to govern them. Wisdom, virtue, and valor have a natural right to govern. The strong characters of our fathers carried a magnetic influence to the Indian's heart. He saw that they had intelligence to plan, courage to perse- vere, and power to execute ; and the natural consequence was submission. But it was not the rule of tyrants on the one hand, nor the subjection of slaves on the other : it was the friendly influence of Christian missionaries among hea- then, for whose conversion they labored and praved. Gov. Cradock writes to his agents here, " Above all, we pray you be careful there be none in our precincts permitted to do any
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injury (in the least kind) to the heathen people ; and if any offend in that way, let them receive due correction." Our Medford settlers were forbidden to buy lands of the Indians without leave ; and they were forbidden to sell them " strong water." We find the following record, May 9, 1632 : " It is agreed that there shall be a trucking-house appointed in every plantation, whither the Indians may resort to trade, to avoid their coming to several houses." The Indians had great confidence in our fathers; and nothing was omitted which justice or humanity required. An Indian was murdered in the Old Colony ; and three Englishmen, fairly convicted, were hung for it. Sagamore John complains (March 8, 1631) that two of his wigwams had been burnt by the English. He was immediately paid for them, and went away perfectly satisfied. Eliot's translation of the Sacred Scriptures into the Indian tongue (1648) was circulated by our fathers among the tribes of this region.
This godlike man speaks of " the Mistick Indians" with affection and respect in a letter, Nov. 13, 1649, and says they were ingenious and good and prayerful, and came often to the place where he preached. They were called " Praying Indians."
August 7, 1632: "Sagamore John promised against the next year, and so ever after, to fence their corn against all kinds of cattle." "Chickataubott and Sagamore John pro- mised to make satisfaction for whatever wrong that any of their men shall do to any of the English, to their cattle, or any other wares."
March 7, 1644 : By solemn compact, all the Indians in this jurisdiction put themselves under the government and pro- tection of the Massachusetts Colony. The General Court, with true Christian policy, institute special legal tribunals for the trial of their causes. The laws enacted concerning them were wise and tolerant. Among them were these: Titles to land to be purchased at satisfactory prices ; Indians never to be molested ; not allowed fire-arms ; a crime to sell them fire- arms or ammunition ; intermarriage with them discouraged ; strange Indians to be kept out. Governor Winslow, in a letter, dated May 1, 1676, says : "I think I can clearly say, that the English did not possess one foot of land in this Colony but what was fairly obtained by honest purchase of the Indian proprietors." Governor Cradock (1629) says : "If any of the savages pretend right of inheritance to all or any part of
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the lands granted in our patent, we pray you endeavor to purchase their title, that we may avoid the least scruple of intrusion."
Although our Medford ancestors took every precaution to conciliate their copper-colored neighbors, and although hos- tilities did not commence between the settlers and the natives till Philip's War, nevertheless the chiefs felt jealous of the whites. Of this there is as little doubt as there is that they sometimes had reason for it. The erection of forts in this plantation, and the placing of palisades about their houses, testify to the apprehensions of our fathers. Is it not natural to suppose that between the red men and the whites there might be suspicion ? The Indians led lives of hunting and war, and they saw the white men banded together for trade and self-defence. What so common in a savage breast as suspicion ? The English appeared to the Indians to be dan- gerous intruders ; and every new act was misconstrued into a premeditated encroachment. Philip's War (1675), as it brought the great question of supremacy to its crisis, gave form to the feelings of both parties, and settled the terms of future companionship. Six hundred whites were slain, which was one man in every eleven; six hundred buildings were burned, and twelve towns utterly destroyed. The Indians believed that they were called to fight for their wives and children, their homes and hunting-grounds. They felt them- selves to be great, as they knew themselves to be brave. They held themselves to be chieftains of the rivers and the waterfalls, lords of the mountain-pass and the mountain-peak, owners of the illimitable forests, and conquerors of the pan- ther and the bear ; and they felt that all was held by a title- deed, which ran back farther than human dates and parch -. ment registers. For such men, with such a faith, to succumb to foreign intruders they felt to be worse than death.
Philip's army numbered three thousand five hundred ; and our town furnished its quota of men and money to oppose it. Not a soldier nor a penny was furnished by the mother country to protect or aid the whites in that eventful struggle.
To the honor of the first settlers of Medford be it said, that they followed the advice of Mr. Cradock; and no instance of injustice or oppression towards the Indians can be traced in our history. The town often passed laws touch- ing those who dwelt among them ; but those laws were exe- cuted with kindness. There were some here as slaves ; for
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the General Court in early times passed a law that any Indian convicted of crime, or taken in war, should be sold as a slave. The law of 1646 gave them some trouble. It ran thus : "It is ordered and decreed that no Indian shall, at any time, powwow, or perform outward worship of their false gods, or to the devil, in any part of our jurisdiction." Penalty £5. In 1698, there were four thousand one hundred and sixty- eight Indians in Massachusetts ; and there were enough in this neighborhood to keep our fathers wide awake. It was common to go armed to the ploughing field ; and Mac Fingal, in his way, gives us the following history of those times : -
" For once, for fear of Indian beating, Our grandsires bore their guns to meeting ; Each man equipped, on Sunday morn, With psalm-book, shot, and powder-horn ; And looked in form, as all must grant, Like the ancient true church-militant ; Or fierce, like modern deep divines, Who fight with quills, like porcupines."
Wood describes the Indians of this region thus : -
" First, of their stature; most of them being between five and six feet high, straight-bodied, strongly composed, smooth-skinned, merry-countenanced, of complexion somewhat more swarthy than Spaniards, black-haired, high-foreheaded, black-eyed, out-nosed, broad-shouldered, brawny-armed, long and slender-handed, out- breasted, small-waisted, lank-bellied, well-thighed, flat-kneed, hand- some grown legs, and small feet. In a word, take them when the blood brisks in their veins, when the flesh is on their backs, and marrow in their bones, when they frolic in their antique deportments and Indian postures, and they are more amiable to behold (though only in Adam's livery) than many a compounded fantastic in the newest fashion. It may puzzle belief to conceive how such lusty bodies should have their rise and daily supportment from so slender a fostering; their houses being mean, their lodging as homely, commons scant, their drink water, and nature their best clothing."
Remnants of the Indian tribes were common till the be- ginning of the present century. In Medford they lived in " Turkey Swamp." So late even as our day, farmers in Medford have ploughed up stone arrow-heads, 'stone drills, and other Indian weapons and tools. No Indian necropolis has yet been discovered, though one probably exists on the borders of our pond. The last Indian here was " Hannah Shiner," a full blood, who lived with " Old Toney," a noble-
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souled mulatto man, who lived on the Woburn Road, in West Medford, opposite where the town schoolhouse once stood. Hannah was kind-hearted, a faithful friend, a sharp enemy, a judge of herbs, a weaver of baskets, and a lover of rum. Toney was once well off; and on Thanksgiving Day, when he was to give a rich dinner to a dozen of his colored friends, his house took fire, and was wholly consumed. They, of us, who remember the old liberated slaves, remember how much they suffered from winter's coldness. The black man's skin is made to bear the heat, the white man's to bear the cold ; and both races flourish best by regarding the law. " Deb Saco " was another specimen whom many remember, and who died about twelve years ago. "Sulk and Lucy " were the last couple in West Medford of the liberated slaves. They lived near the road leading to West Cambridge, in a small building, whose roof was turf, and which obtained the title of " Salt Box." We know that all these persons were tenderly cared for by their neighbors, and their last days made comfortable and happy.
We fear that the modern scheme of gathering all the In- dians within the limits of one free state, and that state to be wholly theirs, with all the powers and privileges of other states, will not succeed. It will be found extremely diffi- cult to persuade all the chiefs to abdicate and destroy their crowns ; to annihilate the deadly hostilities of ancient tribes ; to change the established habits of hunting, and substitute hard labor, and to reconcile the opposing religious beliefs.
This noble and peculiar people seemed doomed to retreat, before the resistless march of the Anglo-Saxon race, till they reach the shores of the Pacific ; and we can imagine the last Indian, the sole survivor on this western continent, standing on a lofty crag, which overhangs the sea, and there calling to mind the sad and eventful histories of his wasted country- men. He thinks of the time when the wigwams of his brethren were scattered over the entire region, from the spot where he stands to the borders of the Atlantic coast, and each wigwam filled with a happy and prosperous family. He thinks of their ancestral rights and their traditional glories, their feats in the hunt and their valor in the fight, their calu- met of peace and their dance of victory. He remembers the deeds of his father and the love of his mother, the sweet devotion of his wife, and the noble promise of his children ; and he sees now that all these have vanished. He sees that
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all those joys are over, those battles fought, those council- fires extinguished, and those hopes prostrate in the dust ; and, instead thereof, he sees the white man, who has wrought all these desolations, rushing towards him. For a moment he forgets himself. The avenging ire of the Indian rises within him, the blood crimsons his manly cheek, and he seizes with convulsive grasp his tomahawk and bow ; but the next instant tells him it is too late. All is lost. He drops his tomahawk on the ground, shoots his last arrow towards the east, lifts his right hand in adoration of the Great Spirit, and then, all unconquered, leaps from the precipice into the stormy sea, and closes the history of his race.
MATHEW CRADOCK.
Medford owes its first settlement to the influence of Gov- ernor Cradock and Governor Winthrop. The first gentleman was the richest individual attached to the New England Company ; and he gave his money with the freedom of an enthusiast. In vol. ix., No. 2, of the New England Genea- logical Register, is the genealogy of Gov. Cradock. He lived in Swithin's Lane, London, near London Stone ; and " had a house furnished at Rumford, in Essex." The first that we hear of him is as a distinguished merchant, taking a deep interest in the Puritan cause and in the settlement of New England. He was especially instrumental in forming the "Company of Massachusetts Bay," whose organization was the first systematic effort for the permanent settlement of this Colony. To obtain a charter was a primary object ; and he was among the foremost in petitioning the king. The boon was finally granted by Charles First, March 4, 1628-9, and called the " Charter of the Massachusetts Bay in New Eng- land." In this important document, the king says : " And for the better execution of our royal pleasure and grant in this behalf, we do, by this present, for us, our heirs and succes- sors, nominate, make, and constitute our well-beloved the said Mathew Cradock, to be the first and present Governor of the said company." The Governor was to be chosen annually ; and, May 13, 1629, Mr. Cradock was elected to that office. Whenever a "Court" was held in London (and they were held very often), the Governor presided. The Court consisted of the Governor, Deputy-Governor, Secre- tary, and Assistants. They were the government of the
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company, which was a commercial establishment in England, not vested with political power as rulers. Oct. 20, 1629 : Mr. Cradock was chosen an Assistant. In all subscriptions for helping the Colony, he gave the largest sum ; and to show how extensively he loaned for special purposes, we find the Court of Assistants, at London, Nov. 20, 1629, voting to pay him £800, to reimburse what he had paid for sailors' wages and other incidental expenses. In the annual Registers he was styled the " first Governor of the Colony ;" but he had not the full legislative and executive powers afterwards granted to Gov. Winthrop; for he did not need them.
July 28, 1629 : On this day Mr. Cradock brought before the Court the important proposition, namely, to transfer the government of the Colony. from London to New England. This bold measure, which would change an English com- mercial corporation into an organized transatlantic govern- ment, was second only, in importance, to the coming of the " Mayflower." The company say, in 1629: "The propaga- tion of the gospel is the thing we do profess above all to be our aim in settling this plantation." How rapidly does the mind travel from this prophetic fact to its natural conse- quences ! We see a positive provincial government, secured by a royal charter, taking root among Anglo-Saxon Puritans, three thousand miles distant from arbitrary masters ; and we readily infer that self-government will gradually strengthen till national independence is evolved. To Mr. Cradock belongs the honor of this movement in London; and that honor is not lessened by the fact that he was not going to America. His zeal in the project is proved by his subse- quent labor and contributions to promote it. Two of the ships which sailed with the "Arbella " belonged to him. They were the " Ambrose " (Capt. John Lowe) and the "Jewel " (Capt. Nicholas Hurlston) ; and in these vessels came Mr. Cradock's fishermen, coopers, and shipwrights ; and in them, doubtless, came most of the first settlers of Medford from Suffolk and Essex.
We will here give a copy of a letter which will be read with deep interest : -
Letter from Mathew Cradock, Governor of the Company ; addressed to Mr. John Endicott, then in New England.
" Worthy sir, and my loving friend : All due commendations pre- mised to yourself and second self, with hearty well-wishes from
3
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myself and many others, well-wishers and adventurers in this our plantation, to yourself and the rest of your good company, of whose safe arrival being now thoroughly informed by your letters, bearing date the 13th Sept. last, which came to my hands the 13 this instant February, we do not a little rejoice; and to hear that my good cousin, your wife, were perfectly recovered of her health would be an acceptable news to us all ; which God grant in his good time that we may. Meanwhile, I am, in the behalf of our whole company (which are much enlarged since your departure out of England), to give you hearty thanks for your large advice contained in this your letter, which I have fully imparted unto them, and, farther, to give proof that they intend not to be wanting by all good means to further the plantation ; to which purpose (God willing) you shall hear more at another time, and that speedily ; there being one ship bought for the company of - tons, and two others hired of two hundred tons each of them, one of nineteen, and one of - pieces of ordnance, besides not unlike but one other vessel shall come in company with these; in all which ships, for the general stock and property of the adventurers, there is likely to be sent thither twixt two and three hundred persons (we hope to reside there), and about one hundred head of cattle. Wherefore; as I wrote you in full, and sent by Mr. Allerton, of New Plymouth, in November last, so the desire of them is, that you would endeavor to get convenient housing, fit to lodge as many as you can, against they do come ; and, withal, what beaver, or other commodities, or fish, if the means to preserve it can be gotten ready, to return in the aforesaid ships. And likewise wood, if no better lading be to be had; that you would endeavor to get in a readiness what you can, whereby our ships, whereof two are to return back directly hither, may not come wholly empty. There hath not been a better time for sale of timber these two seven years than at present; and, therefore, pity these ships should come back empty, if it might be made ready, that they need not stop one day for it : otherwise, men's wages and victuals, together with the ships, will quickly rise too high, if to be rela- den with wood, and that the same be not ready to put aboard as soon as the ships are discharged of their outward lading. I wish also that there be some sassafras and sassaparilla sent us, as also good store of sumac, if there to be had, as we are informed there is. The like do I wish for a ton weight at least of silk-grass, and of aught else that may be useful for dyeing or in physie ; to have some of each sent, and advice given withal what store of each to be had there, if vent may be found here for it. Also, I hope you will have some good sturgeon in a readiness to send us; and, if it be well cured, two or three hundred thereof would help well towards our charge. We are very confident of your best endeavors for the general good; and we doubt not but God will in mercy give a blessing upon our labors; and we trust you will not be unmindful of the main end of our plantation, by endeavoring to bring the
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