History of the town of Sutton, Massachusetts, from 1876 to 1950, Volume II, Part 2

Author: Sutton (Mass. : Town); Benedict, William Addison; Tracy, Hiram Averill; Dudley, John C., d. 1951
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: [Sutton, Mass.]
Number of Pages: 656


USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Sutton > History of the town of Sutton, Massachusetts, from 1876 to 1950, Volume II > Part 2


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However, so far as the early history of our neighborhood (Sutton) is con- cerned, it makes little difference which branch of the trail Oldham followed from Oxford. That he and his companions passed through Sutton over the trail I have just described seems to be beyond serious doubt; and that they were the first known white men ever to set foot upon our soil is probably true. One of Oldham's white companions was named Samuel Hall. No record has been found which gives the names of the other two. Oldham traded largely with the Narragansett Indians and was murdered by some of them on Block Island in July 1636.


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HOOKER


About July first, 1633 Rev. Thomas Hooker and his congregation numbering about 100 left England for America and landed in Boston September 4. Upon their arrival they were assigned to Newtown (now Cambridge), then a village of about 100 families, "having many acres of ground paled in with one general fence about a mile and a half long which secures all the weaker cattle from the wild beasts." Hooker's house stood in what is now Harvard College ground.


Hooker seems never to have been satisfied with conditions at Newtown and early in the year 1636 he sold most of his possessions there and on May 31 with most of his congregation set out for Connecticut.13


After a two weeks' journey, he stopped at what is now Hartford and estab- lished there the first permanent English settlement in the Connecticut Colony. There in 1636 was held the first General Court of the Colony and there in 1639 the first Constitution of Connecticut partly, if not largely, the work of Hooker was framed and adopted. The route followed by Hooker was doubtless the same old Indian trail which Oldham had followed at least as far west as Oxford. He came down from Hassanamisco, crossed the Blackstone River at Saundersville, then to Wilkinsonville, up through Sutton Center, over Freeland Hill, through West Sutton and on to the West. This little band of pioneers took with them all of their earthly possessions including horses, pigs, goats and 160 head of cattle.


Of this expedition Governor Winthrop writes:


"Mr. Hooker, Pastor of the Church at Newtown and the most of his congregation went to Connecticut. His wife was carried in a horse litter;14 and they drove 160 cattle and fed of their milk by the way."


Imagine if you can about 100 men, women and children tramping along a narrow Indian trail through the wilderness driving 160 head of cattle besides horses, pigs, and goats, with the horses doubtless carrying most of the baggage.


It is said that at night bonfires were built around the animals to keep them from straying away and to protect them from bears and wolves.


During the three centuries which have since rolled away, there has probably been no scene in this neighborhood so unique and picturesque as Hooker's expedition.


Hooker was of almost giant size and great ability and was one of the foremost men of his time. Governor Winthrop said, "he might be compared with men of greatest note". He has often been called the "Founder of Hartford" and the "Founder of Connecticut" and Walker names him as one of the seven Makers of America.


The Declaration of Independence says that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed". One hundred and thirty-eight years earlier Hooker had said: "The foundation of authority is laid firstly in the free consent of the people" - "The choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people, by God's own allowance" - "They who have power to appoint officers and magistrates, it is in their power also to set the bounds and limitations of the power and place to which they call them."


Who first advocated government by the people we do not know, but the first man of prominence to advocate it in America was Thomas Hooker. John Fiske


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in his "Beginnings of New England" in speaking of the first Constitution of Connecticut, says:


"It was the first written Constitution known to history that created a government, and it marked the beginnings of American democracy of which Thomas Hooker deserves more than any other man to be called the father. The government of the United States today is in lineal descent more nearly related to that of Connecticut than to that of any other of the thirteen colonies."


Hooker died in Hartford of an "epidemical sickness" in 1647 at the age of 61. After three hundred years the people of Hartford are erecting a monument to his memory.


JOHN ELIOT


After Hooker, one of the first white men to venture into this region, of whom history gives an account was John Eliot. Eliot was born in England about 1604, was educated at Cambridge, migrated to this country and landed in Boston, November 3rd or 4th, 1631.15 He settled in Roxbury where he kept his home until his death May 21, 1690. Soon after his arrival in this country he became deeply interested in the native Indians. It was his ambition to educate and Christianize all the tribes in New England. He went from place to place preach- ing to them. His first preaching was in 1646 at an Indian Village at Watertown Mill and was in English. He was learning the native tongue, however, and in the summer of 1647 he had so mastered it that he began preaching to the Indians in their own language. He established churches among them, the first at Natick in 1660; the second at Hassanamisco in 1671.


Aided by a few Indians he performed the remarkable feat of translating the Bible into the Indian tongue, the Algonquin dialect. Chief among his assistants in this work was a young Nipmuk, born at Hassanamisco and educated at Harvard College, named James the Printer, or James Printer. Some years ago an American historian16 said there probably was not more than one person in the world who could then read a chapter of this translation. Eliot became known as the "Indian Apostle".


In 1674 Eliot and Daniel Gookin journeyed through the Nipmuk Country, chiefly for the purpose of increasing the number of Indian converts to the Christian religion.


Gookin was born in Kent, England in 1612 and is said to have come to Virginia in 1621. He returned to England, came back to Virginia where he remained a year or two, then went to Maryland and came to Boston May 20, 1644. "He, too, was greatly interested in the welfare of the Indians and his efforts in their behalf were second only to those of Eliot."


For many years he was in charge of the Indian Affairs for the colony. In 1667 he was head of a Committee appointed by the General Court to determine whether Worcester was suitable for a town and was one of the original pro- prietors of that place. Eliot and Gookin probably knew more about the Indians of Massachusetts than any other white men who ever lived.


Eliot's Indian followers or disciples were called "Praying Indians".


A few of the last survivors (13 in all) were buried in a little plot of ground just east of the Blackstone River in Grafton. A rough field stone marks each


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EARLY DAYS


grave. The stones are numbered 1-13, but there is no name. In the center of the plot is an old stone mortar, standing about three feet high.


At the time Eliot and Gookin made this journey (September 1674), there were in the Nipmuk Country 14 towns of Praying Indians; 7 old praying towns and 7 new praying towns. The seven old praying towns were Natick, Ponkapog (now part of Stoughton), Hassanamesit or Hassanamisco (now Grafton), Okamma Kamesit (now Marlborough), Wamesit (now Tewksbury), Nashobah (now Littleton), and Magunkaquog (now Hopkinton).


The seven new praying towns were Manchage, Chabanakongkomum, (Maa- nexitt, Quantissett, Wabquissit), Pakachoag or Boggochoag, and Wacuntug (now Uxbridge).


An account written in 1674 referring to the new praying towns says:


"The Indians of some of these towns began to hearken unto the gospel about three years since, or thereabouts. In July 1673 Mr. Eliot and myself made a journey to visit some of them, and to encourage and exhort them to proceed in the ways of God".


"This year again on the 14th of September last (1674) we both took another journey. Our design was to travel further among them and to confirm their souls in the Christian religion and to settle teachers in every town, and to establish civil government among them as in other praying towns. We took with us five or six godly persons who we intended to present unto them for ministers."


These Indian towns or villages were places where Indian settlements of a more or less permanent nature had been established.


Again I quote:


"The first of these new praying towns is Manchage which lieth to the westward of the Nipmuck River, about eight miles; and it is from Hassanamesitt, west by south about ten miles; and it is from Boston about fifty miles on the same rhumb. It is seated in a fertile country for good land. To it belongeth about twelve families and about sixty souls; but the people were generally from home, though we spoke with some of them afterward. For this place we appointed Waabesktamin, a hopeful young man, for their minister, whom the people with whom we spoke afterward, accepted. There is no land yet granted by the gen- eral court to this place, nor to any other of the new praying towns. But the court intendeth shortly, upon the application and professed subjection of these Indians unto the yoke of Christ to do for them as they have done for other praying Indians."


Where was this old Indian village located? Probably the best record in existence to aid in answering that question is the one just quoted, which says: "it lieth to the westward of the Nipmuck river about eight miles; and is from Hassanamesitt west by south about ten miles and it is from Boston about fifty miles on the same rhumb." This record was written in 1674 by Daniel Gookin, who had visited the village several times and who doubtless personally made the measurements. In another place this same record states that another Indian village, Chabanakongomun, which was at the northerly end of the pond of the same name, was about five miles westerly from Manchage. All of these distances were of course, measured on Indian trails. There were no roads at this time and all travel followed the Indian paths. In front of the former home of Fred L. Batcheller stands an old milestone erected in 1771, forty-eight miles from Boston. In Oxford Center, is another old milestone erected in 1771, fifty-three and a half miles from Boston. These milestone distances were measured on roads which coincided very closely with the old Indian trail followed by Eliot and Gookin (as far as West Sutton).


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From the Batcheller milestone over Freeland Hill, up through West Sutton to the present Oxford line is a trifle over 2.3 miles; the two mile limit, which would be fifty miles from Boston is almost exactly opposite the home of Mrs. Louisa Plummer. Eight miles from the place where Eliot and Gookin crossed the Nipmuck or Blackstone river (at Saundersville) bring us to almost exactly the same place, which is almost exactly five miles this side of Chabanakongomun and three and a half miles from Oxford Center. These measurements would seem to fix the location of this Indian village so definitely that no serious doubt about it could exist. This place and this place only seems to fit all these measurements. The measurements, however, are supported by several other considerations, some of which we will notice:


1. Gookin says the Village was "seated in a fertile country for good land." No other location in this vicinity so perfectly fits this quaint description as do the beautiful hills which stretch southerly from a point on the present road fixed by the measure- ments just given.


2. Here the old Boston Road and the old Mendon Road, both Indian trails, met. It may very well be and it is our firm opinion that these trails met here because the village was here. Marvin in his history of Northbridge (1879) says: "In old times the great road from Boston to Connecticut passed through Mendon, Northbridge and Oxford." Of course, this road necessarily passed through Sutton and is, and always has been known here as The Mendon Road. It was not, however, The "great road" from Boston to Connecticut. August 16, 1677 John Wampas, an Indian Chief, who knew the territory thoroughly gave a mortgage on a large tract of land at "Quonsoucamond Pond" (Lake Quinsigamond) which he said was "ptly (partly) butting upon Connecticott highway." This Indian record seems to be positive proof that the red man's main road from Boston to Connecticut was near the southerly end of Lake Qinsigamond and not through Mendon. Much other evidence supports Wampas. Gookin in 1674 said Hassanamesitt is near the old roadway to Connecticut. But that another less direct way went through Mendon seems equally certain.17


3. The village, beyond doubt, was on the old Indian trail, which passed right through West Sutton and probably substantially where the present road is located.


4. Manchaug pond was, until within a very few years most excellent fishing ground. This pond in its natural condition covered about 250 acres. The pond with its tributary streams and surrounding territory doubtless teemed with wild life and are known to have been a favorite haunt of the red men. The hundreds of Indian relics found around this pond furnish ample proof that the red man roamed and hunted here for many, many years. Nothing could be more probable than that his village would be located near this territory which furnished an abundant supply of food.


5. The Indians had no wells but relied largely on springs for water. An area with a more abundant supply of spring water would be hard to find.


6. In 1681, William Stoughton and Joseph Dudley were sent by the General Court to investigate the condition of land ownership in the Nipmug country. They came here and secured an Indian deed of all of the Nipmug lands, west of the Kuttatuck or Blackstone river. As a reward for their services, the General Court granted to each of them 1,000 acres of land, to be selected wherever they might choose. In the spring of 1685 John Gore, a "sworne surveyor" was sent to survey the land thus granted and establish the boundaries. Gore made the survey of 1800 acres in one tract and presented to the General Court a plan of the same which was ratified and confirmed June 4, 1685. This tract as originally surveyed was 674 rods long and 424 rods wide.


The record of the General Court in confirming this grant is as follows:


"This court doth allow of, rattefy and confirme the platt offered to this court by Mr. John Gore, sworne surveyor, conteyning eighteen hundred acres with allowance of addition


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of two hundred acres more next adjoyning to compleat the same two thousand acres which was granted unto Wm. Stoughton, Esq. and Joseph Dudley, Esq. at the General Court, on adjournment, held at Boston 15th of February 1681 to be to themselves, their heires and assignes for ever, the plat whereof is on file, the land lying in the Nipmug country at a place called Marichouge, the line being marked with rainging markes on the corners with S.D."


This 1800 acre tract was held in common by Stoughton and Dudley or their heirs until 1712 when it was re-surveyed by Josiah Chapin and John Chandler. They found Gore's survey to be accurate but proceeded to add the 200 acres above mentioned. This was done by extending the east and west lines (which were the side lines) 81 rods to the southward. The tract as re-surveyed was 755 rods long and 424 rods wide and contained almost exactly 2000 acres. Chapin and Chandler also divided the tract into two parcels of 1000 acres each by running a line lengthwise through the center. Dudley became sole owner of the westerly half and, (Stoughton having died) Stoughton's heirs became sole owners of the easterly half.


Stoughton and Dudley were two of the most prominent men of their day. Stoughton was Lieutenant Governor for about 9 years, acting Governor for a year or so and was Chief Justice of the Court which tried the Salem witchcraft cases in 1692. Dudley was Governor for about 13 years and under a commission of King James II he was for about 7 months "President of New England", a title which, I think, no one else has ever held. These two men were close personal friends and were two of the founders of the town of Oxford.


Stoughton died in 1701. William Tailer of Dorchester was one of his heirs and one of the Executors of his Will. He was Lieutenant Governor for some 7 years and acting Governor for a year or so.


The 2000 acre tract of land in the Nipmug country at a place called Marichouge (Manchouge) was for many years known as the "Manchaug Farm"18 and after its division into halves each half for a long time bore that name.


After the partition of the 2000 acre farm in 1712 Tailer became sole owner of the Stoughton or eastern half. December 8, 1720, he sold the entire 1000 acres to Richard Waters of Salem and Samuel Rich of Bellingham for 600 pounds. This farm was, as I have said, for many years known as the "Manchaug Farm." It was 212 rods or about 5/s of a mile wide and 755 rods or about 21/3 miles long. It extended roughly from the present southerly boundaries of the Bullard or Tuttle farm and the Stockwell or Wallace farm northerly to the Eight Lots road near the home of Mr. Gerber. It included the entire village of West Sutton, the Town Farm, most of the Whittier farm and a large area further north, including the farm now owned by George H. Thompson.


In 1722 this farm was divided lengthwise by a line running in a general northerly-southerly direction.19 Two-thirds of the farm was on the easterly side of the division line and one-third on the westerly side. As a result of the parti- tion deed Mr. Waters became sole owner of the larger portion and settled at the Bullard or Tuttle place and Mr. Rich became sole owner of the smaller portion and settled at the Stockwell or Wallace place.


This farm was first granted before either the town of Oxford or the town of Sutton was established and originally belonged to neither. In 1723, however, both the Waters farm and the Rich farm were annexed to Oxford for a period


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of three years. At the expiration of the three year period, in 1726, the Waters farm was annexed to Sutton and two years later (June 14, 1728) the Rich farm was also annexed to Sutton. In other words in 1728 the entire Stoughton or Tailer farm of 1000 acres became Sutton territory and has so remained ever since. The Dudley farm became permanently a part of Oxford in 1734.


The "Manchaug Farm" was undoubtedly the farm on which the little Indian Village of Manchage had stood. The farm in all probability took its name from the Village. The range of hills to the southwest of the Village of West Sutton were long known as the "Manchaug Hills".20


The foregoing considerations coupled with the measurements and distances given by Gookin seem conclusively to prove that the historic spot on which this ancient village stood was on the southerly side of the present West Sutton- Oxford road, a short distance southwesterly from the church in West Sutton and well within the borders of the town of Sutton.21 It is doubtful whether the loca- tion of any of the other old Indian Villages has been, or can be, more definitely established.


The importance of the "Manchaug Farm" in this connection lies in the fact that its location is definitely known, we know just where it was.


I may perhaps be pardoned if I say that I believe this is the first serious attempt ever made to fix definitely the location of the Old Indian Village of Manchage. It is the first time I am sure that the claim has been made that this historic spot was within the present boundaries of the town of Sutton.


We get a reasonably accurate idea of the size of this ancient village from the fact that its inhabitants numbered about sixty. At present the number of persons living in West Sutton is about 70.


It is clear that the Village of Manchaug was a well known Indian settlement as early as 1668. How long prior to that time it was first inhabited we do not know. It was abandoned as the abode of the red man during, and because of King Philip's war, in 1675.


No site for an Indian village was chosen either by the Indians themselves or by Eliot until years of experience had demonstrated that the locality yielded fish and wild game in abundance and had a fertile soil which, when cleared, was easily tilled.


Such a place was Manchaug. And while we do not know that it became the fixed abode of the red man until about 1668, there is every reason to believe that Indians had lived here "off and on" for many years, perhaps centuries, before that time.


The first mention of Manchaug we have found is contained in a document signed about May 1, 1668 by certain Indian Chieftains representing various groups in this vicinity. By this writing they submitted themselves to be ruled and protected by the white government of Massachusetts Bay. The name here is spelled Monuhchogok and it seems fair to assume that this is the best spelling of the Indian name.


Eliot and Gookin visited Manchaug in 1670 or 1671, again in 1673 and again in September 1674. It seems highly probable that Eliot at least had visited Manchaug prior to 1670. Upon this last visit they left here as a minister a young Indian named Waabesktamin, who had been educated in English, perhaps at Harvard College. At the same time they appointed Black James of Chabana- kongkomum as constable.


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In the spring of 1675 King Philip's war was threatening and on June 13 a committee was sent out by the white government to secure pledges of loyalty from the Indians. This committee visited Manchaug.


June 24, King Philip's war began and great excitement prevailed in the Nipmuck Country. The Praying Indians were sought as allies by both sides. Unkas, Chief of the Mohegans, was known as one of the ablest, yet one of the most cruel and treacherous of the Indian leaders. At this time he professed friendship toward the whites and sent six representatives to Boston to offer aid to them. When their mission had been performed these representatives wished to return to Connecticut but feared to go back unprotected, and the white gov- ernment sent an armed guard, headed by Ephraim Curtis, to go with them. Curtis passed through Manchaug, both going and returning, and made a report July 16, 1675 in which he says:


"I conducted Uncheas his six men safly while I com in sight of Wabaquesesue new planting fields; first to Natuck, from thence to Marelborrow; from thence to Esenemisco; from thence to Mumchogg; from thence to Charbanagonkomug; from thence to Maye- necket; from thence over the river to Senecksig."


Curtis was the first known white settler of Worcester. In 1673 he lived with his dog at what is now about 500 Lincoln Street. Although at this time only a little over thirty years of age, he had gained an enviable reputation as a scout and guide.


About this same time, June or July 1675, Philip himself came into the Nipmuck Country to arouse the Indians in his support and it seems highly probable that he visited Manchaug.


In the winter of 1675 Job Kattonnet and James Quanapohit were chosen to go among the hostile Indians and report as to their strength. A more dangerous mission than this would be difficult to imagine. A report22 states that


"They took ye jorny from Cambridge the 30th of December and from Naticke they set forth the 31st., December being Friday early in the morning. that day they passed through the woods directly to Hassomesed where they lodge yt. night. on Saturday morn being the first of Janury they past over Nipmuck river & lodged at Manchage yt. night."


Of the fourteen towns of "Praying Indians" ten were completely blotted out by King Philip's war. Among the ten was Manchaug. What became of its inhabi- tants probably no one will ever know. Eliot in a letter written December 17, 167523 before the war ended, says:


"Another great company of our new praying Indians of Nipmuck" (which may have included those at Manchaug) "fled at the beginning of the wars first to Connecticut, offered themselves to Mr. Pinchon, one of our magistrates, but he (though willing) could not receive them. They fled from thence, to Unkas (who is not in hostility against the English) and I hope they be there.


Gookin, however, at a little later date when the facts were probably better known, speaking of the new praying Indians says:


"Being raw and lately initiated in the Christian profession most of them fell off and joined the enemy."


It is clear that some of the new praying Indians joined Philip. Waabesktamin, the young minister who had been left at Manchaug, is heard of no more. But at


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the Brookfield fight which occurred in August (1675), one of the praying Indians found in Philip's camp was Black James the Manchaug constable. It is to be noted, however, that while Black James was a constable at Manchaug he lived at Chabanakongkomun. It is also to be noted that while the Brookfield fight was in August the Indians probably did not leave Manchaug until a little later.




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