USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Northfield > History of the town of Northfield, Massachusetts : for 150 years, with an account of the prior occupation of the territory by the Squakheags : and with family genealogies > Part 9
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' Cupt. Beers's baggage wagon was left about midway of the plain nearly opposite the pre- sent house of T. J. Field, and perhaps marks the spot reached by the rear of the column.
" A note in Mather's Brief History, says : " It seems that Capt. Beers and those 36 men that were with him fought courageously till their powder and shot was spent, then the In- dians prevailed over them so as to kill about 20 of them, only 13 escaped with their lives, at which time a cart with some ammunition fell into the hands of the enemy."
' The tradition which marks this as the spot where Capt. Beers was killed and buried, is of undoubted authenticity. The old men in each generation have told the same story, and identified the place. And the existence here from time immemorial of two stones - like head and foot stones - set at the proper distance apart, certainly marks the place of a grave ; and the care to erect stones indicates the grave of more than a common soldier. The new house of Capt. Samuel Merriman, built about 50 years ago, was set directly across
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The authorities of the time are substantially agreed as to the num- ber of men sent out on this expedition, viz., the Captain, with 36 troopers and one teamster. But they differ widely in regard to the numbers saved and killed in the action. According to Hubbard's Narrative, " Capt. Beers and about twenty of his men were slain."- Rev. Mr. Russell of Hadley reports 16 slain in all, and gives the names of II, viz., Capt. Beers, John Chenary, Ephraim Child, Benjamin Crackbone, Robert Pepper, George Lyruss, John Gatch- ell, James Miller, John Wilson, Joseph Dickinson, William Mark- ham Jr .- The note in Mather's Brief History says : " The Indians killed above 20 and only 13 escaped :" i. e. 13 returned to Hadley with the horses that night.
ยท A paper has been discovered in the State archives, which differs in some respects from the other accounts, but which helps us to a satis- factory solution of the question. The following is a copy : " List of the killed at Northfield, Sept. 4, 1675. Capt. Richard Beers, John Getchell, Benj. Crackbone, Ephraim Child, George Lickers, John Wilson, Thomas Cornich, Robert Pepper, John Ginery, Jeremiah Morrell, Elisha Woodward, William Markham Jr., Joseph Dickin- son, James Mullard, and eight killed at Squakheag with Capt. Beers of whom there is no account." This makes the number of killed, 22. But one on the list, Robert Pepper, of Roxbury, was found alive and in captivity the next year. Add this one to the 16 that re- turned to Hadley makes 17 saved, and 21 killed ; and thus the full number is accounted for. Joseph Dickinson was a Northfield set- tler ; William Markham Jr. was from Hadley ; most of the others were from Watertown, Boston and Roxbury.
The guard left with the horses, and those that escaped with them, 13 in all, " got to Hadley that evening, the 4th ; next morning another came in, and at night another, that had been taken. by the Indians and bound, and was loosed from his bond by a Natick Indian : he tells that the Indians were all drunk that night (on the rum found among the rations in the cart)" that they mourned much for the loss
the ravine, which was made to answer for a cellar by filling in the space in front and rear. Capt. Ira Coy informs the writer that, before any thing was disturbed, he and Capt. M. dug into the grave. They found the well defined sides and bottom, where the spade had left the clay solid ; and at the depth of about twenty inches (the shallowness indicating haste) was a layer of dark colored mould, some of it in small lumps, like decayed bones. The grave was then filled up, a large flat stone laid over it, and the hollow graded up. It can be found by the highway side, about ten feet outside the fence, a little to the west of a direct line extending from the front door of the house through the front gate.
1 Some of the iron belonging to this cart was found on Beers's plain a half century since, and was worked up by Samuel Alexander the blacksmith.
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of a great captain, that the English had killed 25 of their men. Six days after, another soldier came in who had been lost since the fight, and was almost famished, and so lost his understanding that he knew not on what day the Fight was " (Stoddard's Letter). This last was probably the man who, when he found his way of retreat to the horses cut off, leaped into a gully, and covered himself so effectually as to escape the notice of the keen-eyed savages. The gully is known as old soldier's hole to this day.
Sergt. John Shattuck (son of William of Watertown), was one of the saved. He was despatched to the Bay with news of the defeat ;. and was drowned in crossing the ferry between Charlestown and Boston, Sept. 14. John Parke (son of Thomas of Cambridge vil- lage), was shot in the elbow joint, and his bone broken to pieces so that several of the pieces were taken out by the surgeon. He re- mained at Hadley till Maj. Appleton went down Nov. 24, at which time he and several other wounded men were sent home.'
John Harrington (son of Robert of Watertown), was wounded by two balls, but escaped, recovered, and lived to a good old age.
Robert Pepper, before named, was wounded in the leg, but ma- naged to get into the crotch of a great tree which had fallen down, and lay there till he was discovered by Sagamore Sam, who dragged him out and abused him. After lying cold and hungry for two days, Sam took him into his own wigwam, not far off, and told him that if he did not die of his wound, he should not be killed. Afterwards he was treated kindly. The next January he was found in this saga- more's keeping, at Wennimisset, by James Quannapohit. In the mean time, as he informed the spy, he had been taken to Philip's quarters near Albany. " He saith that once since he was well, his master, carrying him abroad with him, left him at Squakeake, near where he was taken prisoner, his master wishing him to go to the English, whither there was a cart-way led ; but he was afraid the Indian did it to try his fidelity, and entrap him, and that if he should have gone away towards the English, they would have intercepted him !"2 Mrs. Rowlandson saw him at the same place, February 12. He told her that " after his wounding he was not able to travel but as they carried him ; and that he took oak leaves and laid to his wound, and by the blessing of God, was soon able to travel again."
Another captive, whose name cannot be ascertained, was tied to a tree, and reserved for torture. the next day ; but in the night a
* Muss. Archives, LXIX, 198.
7 Manuscript copy of Relation, in Conn. Archives.
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friendly Natick Indian (probably Peter Jethro, who was attached to the Nashaways at this time) let him loose, and he escaped. Still another captive was hung to the limb of a tree by a chain hooked into his jaw, in which position he was found, dead, by the relief party. And it is a current tradition that there were three others taken prisoners, who were burned to death at the stake !1
On the return to Hadley of the first fugitives (the 13 that escaped with their horses), with news of the disaster, preparation was made to send up a sufficient force to meet the emergency. Major Treat, who had arrived from Hartford on the 3d with his company, set out the next morning (Sabbath Sept. 5) with above 100 men. He camped for the night probably below Four-mile brook ; and the next day, Monday, pushed forward for Squakheag. As he reached the line of Beers's retreat, he saw the heads of many of the slain, which the savages had cut off, and stuck upon poles, standing in ghastly array beside the traveled path. He paused only long enough to perform hasty funeral rites. Arrived at the village, he found the stockade unbroken, and the inmates - who had been shut up there five days - safe.
A party of the soldiers and citizens went into the meadows (per- haps for grain for their horses), but hearing some guns fired about the fort, they ran up to see what was the matter, and by the way were fired upon by about 14 Indians as they judge, out of the bushes. Returning the fire, one or two Indians were slain. Major Treat was struck upon the thigh, the bullet piercing his clothes, but it had lost its force and did him no harm. Seeing the posture of affairs, he called his council together, and they concluded to bring off the gar- rison : so they came away the same night, taking what they could, but leaving the cattle there,2 and the dead bodies unburied. (Stod- dard's Letter).
This last statement probably refers to the bodies of the 8 men slain on the 2d. As they had been dead five days and may have been in an advanced state of decomposition, there is some excuse for neg-
" My brother, Sharon Field, late of Northfield, led by the tradition to make search, found what he regarded as the place where three men perished by fire. There were three spots of dark earth mingled with fine bits of charcoal, near each other, and in one of them. while stirring up the ground, he found what appeared to be a melted pewter button. The Inca- tion, and number of places of burnt earth agreed with the tradition. It was on the plain, east of where Jonathan Lyman now lives, and north of the old road that led up the mount- ain. - Dea. Phinchas Field.
2 " Seventeen of their cattle came a great part of the way themselves, and have since been fetched into Hadley."- Stoddard.
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lecting the rite of sepulture. But no such reasons existed in the case of Capt. Beers and his men ; and the supposition is scarcely credible that the Major passed them in the morning without giving them a decent burial. And the tradition in regard to, and discovery of the grave in the ravine, with the head and foot-stones in place, and the signs of hasty interment, confirm the inference that the captain and his slain companions were committed to the earth.
Where the numerous company of men, women and children, thus deserting their homes, camped for the night is not known. But the next day Major Treat was met by Capt. Appleton with a company of Massachusetts troops, that had been sent up after him. Capt. A. "would willingly have persuaded them to have turned back, to see if they could have made any spoil upon the enemy ; but the greatest part advised to the contrary, so that they were all forced to return with what they could carry away, leaving the rest for a booty to the enemy." 1
After Major Treat left, the Indians burnt the fort and remaining houses at Squakheag. And thus this little village passed out of ex- istence.
[A brief notice of Capt. Richard Beers is in place here. In a petition to the General court, dated Watertown, 1664, he says : " Whereas y' pet' hath been an inhabitant of this jurisdiction ever since the beginning thereof, and according to his weak ability served the same, not only in times of peace, but also with his person in the Pequod War in two several designs when the Lord delivered them into our hands, as also upon his return such a weakness fell upon his body that for eight years space he was disabled to labor for his family, spending a great part of the little he had upon Physicians, and having hitherto not had any land of the country, and of the town but one and a half acres, besides that which he hath purchased," asks for a grant of land. The court granted him 300 acres.
He served in the Pequod war in 1637; was licensed "to keep an ordinary " in Watertown in 1654, and continued in the business till his death. He was selectman 31 years ; representative 13 years, holding both offices at the time of his death. He was on the com- mittee to lay out Quinsigamond in 1669, when he explored the country to the northwest and first visited Squakheag. He also served the colony in other important civil trusts. When news of the burn- ing of Brookfield reached Boston; Capt. Beers and his company were ordered westward. He left home Aug. 6 (having made his will
1 Hubbard's Narrative.
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on that day), reached Brookfield the 7th, where he had head-quarters till the 23d, when he marched to Hadley. He was in command at the Swamp fight near Mount Wequomps, Aug. 25, and was killed at Squakheag Sept. 4. His age was about 63. He left a widow and 8 children.]
It would be gratifying if we could know the Indian side of this af- fair, and could state definitely who planned the attack on Squakheag, and the number of savages engaged in the fight with Capt. Beers. The whole thing was managed by the Indians with great adroitness, and their victory was complete. The writers of the time commonly took for granted that Philip was omnipresent ; but the facts - so far as facts were recorded - do not warrant such a conclusion. Indeed, positive evidence is wanting that he was in a single fight with the English in this valley.
A like uncertainty exists in regard to the numbers engaged in the several assaults. The Indians never showed themselves in the open field. They always fought under some cover. The only means of judging of their numbers was from the report of their guns. In the excitement of the conflict cool calculation was impossible. And the published reports were too often the wild guesses of some escaped soldier, or the estimate of some friendly partisan, who would account for the defeat and destruction of our forces by the great superiority of their assailants. Hubbard says: "Capt. Beers and his men were set upon by many hundreds of the Indians out of the bushes by the swamp side." Mather says : "Hundreds of Indians from a thick swamp fired upon them." These two statements undoubtedly ex- press the belief of all parties interested. But the estimate- is very indefinite. Besides the Squakheags, it is known that two bands of Nashaways, a part of the Quaboags, and a few Natick and Marl- borough Indians, were engaged in this affair. The Nashaways had at this date about 40 fighting men. If the Quaboags sent an equal force, the whole number that ambushed Capt. Beers must have been about 130.
There is less uncertainty about the leaders in this assault, than about the numbers engaged. Robert Pepper, the spared captive, says that Sagamore Sam was in the fight.' And the Relation of James Quannapohit,2 who was sent out into these parts as a spy, by Major Gookin, the succeeding January, gives sufficient particulars to
' See ante, p. 77.
' James Quannapohit was a friend and former companion in arms of this sachem : his story, as events proved, was entirely reliable ; and he had sufficient shrewdness to detect any attempt at imposition on his credulity.
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make it certain that One-eyed John was also here. He says he was in the fight with Capt. Beers ; and the inherent probabilities confirm the declaration. The cutting off the heads of the slain English, and setting them upon poles, was his method of treating the dead in all his successful assaults.
The Indian name of this chieftain was Monoco. The seat of his tribe was at Nashaway (Lancaster). He was an experienced war- rior, having been one of the braves that went on the expedition against the Mohawks in 1669. He was one of the first to take up the hatchet in the summer of 1675 ; was blood thirsty and cruel in the last degree. He led the attack on the town of Lancaster, Aug. 22, where 8 persons " were slain and mangled in a barbarous manner." He was at Squakheag in the assaults of Sept. 2 and 4 ; was at the Bloody brook massacre Sept. 18 ;1 took part in the attack on Lan- caster Feb. 10; boasted that he was at Medfield Feb. 21 ; was certainly in command of the savages that destroyed Groton March 13, 1676 ; and may have been in other engagements. When the tide of success was turning against the Indians in the summer of this year, Monoco and his tribe, with the others living about Lan- caster, " did cunningly endeavor to hide themselves amongst those Indians about Pascataqua, that had newly made their submission to the English, by Maj. Waldern's means, and concluded a Peace."? By a statagem, of questionable propriety even in war, these Indians, to the number of 400, were entrapped by Maj. Waldron at Cocheco (Dover, N. H.), Sept. 6, 1676.3
Monoco, alias One-eyed John, and 8 others of the leaders were hanged in Boston, Sept. 26, 1676. With all his bloodthirstiness, this savage had one redeeming trait ; he was true to an early friend- ship. James Quannapohit (before named) a Natick Indian, and he were boys together ; hunted together ; were together in the expedi- tion against the Mohawks. And when James joined the Praying Indians, and became, in the estimation of Philip, a traitor, on whose head a price was set, Monoco stood up for him ; and to a proposition of some to kill him or send him to Philip, he answered " I will kill whomsoever shall kill Quannapchit."+
The other Nashaway chief who took part in the battle of Beers's
' James Quannapohit's Relation.
' Drake's Hubbard, 11, 131.
' " The English commanders got up a mock training, and invited the Indians to take part in it. This they assented to ; and in the sham fight which was to close the exercises, were ull made prisoners."-S. G. Drake, note to Hubbard's Narrative.
* Guokin's Praying Indians.
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plain was Uskatugun, better known by his English name of Sagamore Sam (when he was first appointed sachem of his tribe, he was called Shoshanim). The head-quarters of his tribe was near the Washakum ponds in Lancaster. He seems to have shared the honors with his ally, One-eyed John, in many raids ; and he made some daring expe- ditions of his own. His treatment of Robert Pepper has been al- ready narrated. In the course of the autumn, he went (taking Pepper with him) to visit King Philip in the neighborhood of Albany ; and in January he was at Wenimisset. Feb. 10, he was in command of the large force that assaulted Lancaster ; Feb. 21, he was with Monoco in the attack on Medfield, and probably in command of the united clans. He was prominent in securing the redemption of Mrs. Rowlandson, early in May, some of the letters to the council being signed by him. In the summer, he and his clan went to the east- ward ; were made prisoners at Cocheco, Sept. 6, and he was hanged at Boston, with the other chiefs, Sept. 26.
The number of Indians killed in the Beers fight was reported by the fugitive English to be 25, one of them "a great captain.". Monoco told James Quannapohit that he lost only one. The other clans probably lost more ; but the true total cannot be known. In all their skirmishes the Indians carefully conceal their losses. When one is shot down, his nearest comrade crawls to him, and fixing a tump line to the body, slowly drags it to the rear. Except in some few instances, where the whites came upon them by surprise, and drove the Indians from their position, the number of the killed and wounded in an action, was never known. And the common estimates were pro- bably twice or thrice too large. If a captive squaw or wounded brave confessed to a given number of his comrades killed, it was such a number as would please his captors, and, as he shrewdly supposed, might help to mitigate his fate.
The Squakheag families, having been driven from their new homes, returned to their old homes in Hadley and Northampton.
The Indians, flushed by the success that had thus far attended all their hostile plans, took quiet possession of their old hunting grounds. The Nashaways, and their allies, brought on their families, and set up their wigwams, near the deserted English fields, and lived on the spoil, and watched the neighboring settlements. Major Pynchon, writing Sept. 8, says: " And when we go out after the Indians, they do so skulk in swamps, we cannot find them ; and yet do waylay our people to their destruction."
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The attempt, Sept. 18, to bring off the year's crop of grain from Deerfield, to meet the unexpected demand for food at Hadley and Northampton, caused by the influx of fugitives from Northfield, and the troops quartered there, furnished the savages the coveted oppor- tunity for another ambuscade ; and the English captains seem to have learned no lessons of caution from their previous disasters. The destruction, at Bloody brook, of Capt. Lathrop and his company of young men, appropriately styled " the flower of Essex county," was a natural consequence of want of circumspection, and added another to the list of Indian surprises and victories.' And this distressing affair rendered necessary the abandonment of the settlement at Deer- field. Thus in less than two months, three frontier towns had been destroyed, and no less than 127 lives sacrificed -to which 21 more were to be added before the end of October. Of this 148 slain, 44 were inhabitants of the county, the rest being soldiers from other parts of the colony.
The savages were always on the alert, and usually appeared just when and where they were least expected. Springfield was burnt Oct. 5, the very day on which an attack on Hadley from the north was expected. An extract from a letter written by Maj. John Pynchon, dated Hadley, Sept. 30, will give a vivid picture of the situation : " We are endeavoring to discover the enemy, and daily send out scouts, but little is effected. Our English are somewhat awk and. fearful in scouting and spying, though we do the best we can. We have no Indian friends here to help us. We find the In- dians have their scouts out. Two days ago, two Englishmen at Northampton, being gone out in the morning to cut wood, and but a little from the house, were both shot down, having two bullets apiece shot into each of their breasts. The Indians cut off their scalps, took their arms, and were off in a trice." Oct. 19, Hatfield was assaulted ; 7 were killed, and 2 taken captive, and carried towards Albany.
In the early part of November, the Nashaways returned eastward, and with the Quaboags took up winter quarters at Wenimisset. The River Indians proper had previously gathered at Coasset, which was a piece of pine woods on the west bank of the Connecticut a little above the South Vernon railroad station, then in Northfield, now in Vernon, Vt. Philip and his band were here with them for a short time ; but he soon moved off towards Albany with his own
: One-eyed John and Sagamore Sam, with their bands, were in this fight with Capt. Lath- rop. The former last one of his men.
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warriors, and a considerable part of the Pacomptocks and their allies. James Quannapohit in his Relation says : " Some of the River Indians with Sancumachu had winter-quarters near Albany with King Philip." Gov. Andross writes :
" New York Jan. 6, 1676.
" This is to acquaint you that late last night I had intelligence that Philip and 4 or 500 North Indians,1 fighting men, were come within 40 or 50 miles of Albany northerly, where they talk of continuing this winter : that Philip is sick, and one Sahamoschaha the com- mander in chief."?
The Squakheags made their winter-quarters at the Coasset before named. Probably the old men and some of the women and child- ren of Philip's party and of the Pacomptocks, staid here. Food was plenty. The cattle and hogs captured at our village and at Deerfield lasted for a while. The corn and wheat taken at the same places lasted longer. And it is an attested historical fact that deer and other game were unusually abundant, and owing to the depth of snow, were easily caught.
Winter set in early and with uncommon severity. Travel was next to impossible, except upon rackets ; and both whites and Indians kept in close quarters till the latter part of January, when a sudden thaw cleared off the snow.
The destruction of the Narragansett fort in Rhode Island by an army of Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut troops, under Gen. Josiah Winslow, the 19th of the preceding December, changed directly the whole aspect of Indian hostilities, and led to a great gathering of the tribes at Squakheag.
The Narragansetts had thus far stood aloof from Philip's cause, or only aided him indirectly. Now that the English had commenced a war of extermination against them, it was plain policy to unite their fortunes with the Sachem of Mt. Hope. In the latter part of Janu- ary the larger part of this tribe, viz., those that adhered to Canonchet, are found on their way to the Nipmuck head-quarters near Quaboag. Pessacus, a brother of Miantonimoh, and Quinnapin,3 who had mar-
' Philip had about 100; and Sancumachu not over 150 men.
? It is quite likely that the Nonotuck sachem was in command ; and Philip may have had reasons of state for reporting himself sick. It will be noticed that the date of this letter only determines when the intelligence from Philip was received by the governor. He had been in that region more than a month.
3 The reader of Mrs. Rowlandson's Narrative, will remember that this Quinnapin bought Mrs. R. of her Narragansett captor ; and that his squaw, " the proud dame Wettimore," was her mistress during her captivity.
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