USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Our county and its people : A history of Hampden County, Massachusetts. Volume 1 > Part 5
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The Wampanoags, who, with the Narragansetts, inhabited the southeast country of New England, and who occupied a high place in Indian councils, were at this time under Massasoit, their chief (whose memory is perpetuated in the name of Springfield's leading hotel). He pledged his people in peace with the col- onists in 1621, and was faithful to his promise to the year of his death, 1662. He left two sons Alexander and Philip, the former of whom succeeded his father as chief, but died the same year. Philip then became chief, or sachem (accounts differ as to his office, the sachem being supreme in the civil councils of the tribe and the chief commanding in time of battle), and from that time until his death he schemed to undo all the good his father had done, and to surpass in outrage and inhuman slaughter all the chiefs of tribes in the New England colonies. In this re- spect he was successful, and he involved the colonies in a war which continued two years and which cost the whites hundreds of lives in battle and massacre, while during the same period the Indian loss amounted to thousands of lives of warriors, women
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and children. With craftiness worthy of a higher purpose King Philip drew to his standard nearly every tribe in the colonies and waged a warfare that taxed the strength and resources of the United Colonies ; and when at last he fell it was by the hand of one of his own savage followers, whose brother he had slain in passion for suggesting that peace be again established with the English.
King Philip plunged heedlessly into the war, and while he had spent several years in spreading the seed of dissension among the tribes of New England, he was not prepared for the contest when it came. By some mischance a converted Indian found temporary lodgment with Philip's people, and discovered that while they were proclaiming friendship with the English, they nevertheless were secretly planning their destruction. This was reported to the planters at Natick, and for that offense the "praying" Indian was killed at Philip's command. The Ply- mouth colonists arrested and hanged the murderers, who hap- pened to be three of Philip's warriors, which so enraged the chief that he was no longer able to restrain himself and plunged into the war in June, 1675, by attacking Rehoboth and Swanzey. But he was so closely pursued by the Massachusetts militia that after a series of secret attacks and sudden retreats, the latter part of July found his forces in the vicinity of Brookfield, approach- ing and threatening the Connecticut valley, where the Indians generally flocked to his aid, although almost to the very hour of their departure they professed friendship for the whites. The prospect of blood and plunder was too much for their weak na- tures to resist, and true to savage instincts they allied themselves to Philip's cause and waged a bitter war against the settlers who had been their chief support for nearly a score of years.
After the treacherous1 attack upon and burning of Brook-
1The Nipmucks, who occupied the central portion of Massachusetts, made the direct attack on Brookfield, although they were aided by a part of Philip's men and some of the Connecticut river Indians. The Nipmucks had promised to meet a party of Massachusetts officers and troops at Brookfield and discuss a treaty with them, but on the appointed day not an Indian appeared in the town. The party went out to meet them in their own territory, where they were drawn into an ambuscade and frightfully slaughtered.
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field (Quaboag), the affair covering a period of several days and costing many lives, Philip's force was compelled to seek shelter in the forests and swamps in the direction of the Connecticut river. News of the attack was sent into the valley and Spring- field's company, under Lieutenant Cooper, accompanied by thirty Hartford militia and a number of professedly friendly Indians, marched to the relief of the besieged settlement. But before they arrived the attacking party had retired. In a few days after the disaster at Brookfield, Philip's men attacked Deer- field, burning a number of houses, and on the next day killed several men at Northfield. On September 3 a force of thirty- six men under Captain Beers, designed for the garrison at North- field, were attacked, and twenty of them, including Captain Beers, were killed. Just two weeks later followed the fearful slaughter at Bloody Brook, one of the most lamentable events of its character in early New England history. Philip's men had now overcome every opposing body of whites and the whole lower Connecticut valley was virtually laid open to the ravages of his merciless horde.
When the news of these attacks was communicated to colonial authorities of Massachusetts and Connecticut, prompt measures were taken to defeat the purpose of the savages, but instead of at once increasing the defensive force of the valley by men from the east, they made the unfortunate mistake of calling upon the companies of the towns in the valley to relieve each other, thus leaving some of them unprotected against a secret at- tack. A mistake of this character resulted in the burning of Springfield, with a loss of several lives and a large amount of property.
Early in October the news reached Springfield that a con- ·siderable body of Indians had appeared in the vicinity of Hadley with evident design to attack the town, whereupon Major Pyn- chon and his force of forty-five of the strongest young men of Springfield hastened to reinforce the garrison at that place. Thus Springfield, on the night of October 4, was wholly at the mercy of a savage horde who were only waiting a favorable moment for attack. For some weeks the Springfield Indians had been rest-
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ive and all their movements indicated ill feeling toward the whites. They were sullen and morose, and instead of mingling with the settlers, as had been their habit for years, they kept in the vicinity of their fort in the south part of the town ; and while Major Pynchon's little company was marching with all speed to the relief of Hadley, the treacherous Springfield Indians were harboring King Philip's savages within their fort and only wait- ing to strike the defenceless settlement unawares.
However, by mere chance the scheme was discovered before the attack was made. In the family of a Windsor settler named Wolcott lived Toto, a friendly Indian, who disclosed the plot to the family, and the latter at once dispatched a messenger to Springfield with the news. Word was quickly sent to Major Pynchon, and in the meantime the inhabitants removed their families and some of their effects to the fortified houses. The young men of the settlement were with the militia at Hadley, and only a few men of more advanced years remained at home. Among the latter were Thomas Miller, Deacon Samuel Chapin, one of the magistrates, Jonathan Burt, the town clerk, and Lieu- tenant Cooper, the latter also beyond the middle age, but who recently had led the Springfield company to the relief of Brook- field. Rev. Mr. Glover, the minister, also was with the settlers.
All through this long October night the inhabitants of Springfield kept a ceaseless watch for the dreaded savages, but the morning dawned without a sign of the enemy. The settlers felt in a measure reassured and at last began to hope that the rumor was false. Rev. Mr. Glover even returned with his library to his own house, having previously kept it at Major Pynchon's for safety. At length the fear of an attack began to pass away, and to satisfy themselves as to the truth of the report spread abroad, Lieutenant Cooper and Thomas Miller mounted their horses and rode off in the direction of the Indian fort. They passed beyond the settled portion of the town and as they entered a piece of woods a little north of Mill river, both were shot by a concealed enemy, Miller falling dead from his horse, and Cooper having a mortal wound. He nevertheless struggled to his feet, remounted his horse and rode swiftly back into the town, where he died near the entrance to the nearest fort.
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"The Indians then burst upon the town with great fury.1 Unable to gratify their thirst for blood by the slaughter of the people within the forts, they began the work of destroying their undefended houses, barns and other property. The whole num- ber of dwelling houses in the town was forty-five, and in a short time thirty-two of these dwellings and twenty-four or twenty- five barns were in flames. The house of correction was de- stroyed. Major Pynchon's corn mill and saw mill were burned and in general the corn and hay in store for the coming winter were consumed. Besides Cooper and Miller, one woman, Pente- cost Matthews, wife of John Matthews, the drummer, who lived near the south end of the street, was killed. Four other persons were wounded, one of them, Edward Pringrydays, so severely that he died a few days afterward."
"From one end of the street to the other, this scene of havoc and devastation was exhibited. The beleaguered people looked out guardedly from the windows and loop-holes of the fortified houses and saw the Indians whom they had known familiarly for years as neighbors and friends-to whom they had done no . wrong-ruthlessly apply the torch to their dwellings, and con- sign them, with their furniture, their stores of food, and all the little provisions they had made for the comfort of their families during the approaching winter, to a remorseless destruction."
"In this diabolical work the Springfield Indians, some forty in number, were not a whit behind the strangers, whom they had admitted to their fort. Indeed, first and foremost in this work, 'the ringleader in word and deed', was Wequogan,2 the chief sachem of the Springfield Indians. Another chief, well known to our people, while actively engaged in this mischief, loudly
1We quote freely from Henry Morris's narrative on the burning of Spring- field, that being one of the most reliable accounts extant.
2 Wequogan is believed to have been killed near Dedham during the latter part of King Philip's war. He was one of three Indians who in 1674 sold to Elizur Holyoke and others, "for the use and behoof of the town, a tract of land bounded northerly by 'Chickuppe' river, southerly by the Scantic and Freshwater rivers, and extending from the foot of Wilbraham mountains on the east as far as Five Mile pond on the west." In the sale of 1674 Wequogan is mentioned as formerly called Wrutherna, but probably was not the Indian of that name who signed the deed to Pynchon in 1636 ; but he may have been his son .- Morris.
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proclaimed to them that he was the one who had burned Quaboag, and would serve them the same way."
Several of the Indians who participated in the burning of Springfield were shot by the besieged people from their fortified houses, but the larger part of them escaped injury and took away all the plunder they could carry. They disappeared as suddenly as they had come, and their subsequent encampment at Indian Orchard was not known to the whites for some time. While they were busy with their work of destruction Major Treat and his company of Connecticut militia appeared on the west side of the river, having learned of the attack and made a forced march from Westfield. Not being able to cross the river, they were of little real service, yet their presence in the neighborhood had the effect to deter the Indians from a combined attack on any of the fortified houses.
About the middle of the afternoon, October 5, Major Pyn- chon's men came hastily into the town, tired and worn with their rapid movements, yet the murderous horde of savages fled be- fore their approach and sought safety in the densely wooded regions south of the settlement. But what a scene of desola- tion greeted the returned men as they approached the town from the north, for the ruins of fifty-seven buildings were still smoul- dering and not a single house north of Major Pynchon's was standing, except that of William Branch. "Between Pynchon's house and the meeting house, the house of Rev. Mr. Glover, John Hitchcock, John Stewart and several others were burned, as were their barns. A few houses were standing about the meeting house, or the present Elm street. From the house of Thomas Merrick, a little below where West State street now is, down to the two garrison houses at the lower end of Main street, all were destroyed. In one of those garrison houses lay the body of Lieut. Thomas Cooper." He was a carpenter by trade, and built the first meeting house here in 1645; was deputy to the general court in 1668, and appears to have possessed considerable knowledge of surgery.
According to reliable authority it is believed that the whole number of Indians engaged in the destruction of Springfield was
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about six hundred, of which number two hundred and seventy were King Philip's savages and the remainder were Connecticut river and other Massachusetts Indians.
In describing the situation of the town after the burning, Holland says: "The inhabitants were thus left houseless and almost penniless. There were no mills to grind their corn, or to saw stuffs for new dwellings, and in deep discouragement they came near abandoning the settlement and leaving their estates as the settlers at the north had done. Major Pynchon was much disheartened; the accumulations of a lifetime had been swept away, and it is not unlikely that the graceless return which the Indians had made for all his kindness had an effect upon his mind. His were the buildings destroyed previous to the gen- eral conflagration. He felt, too, the weight of responsibility that was upon him in his position as the leading man of the town. Mr. Glover, the minister, lost one of the most valuable private libraries that New England then contained."
Major Pynchon unquestionably was the greatest loser by the disaster, and his sentiments and feelings are pretty well de- scribed in the following extract from his letter to Governor Leverett, written from Springfield three days after the burning of the town : "Our people are under great discouragement ---- talk of leaving the place. We need your orders and direction about it. If it be deserted how wofully do we yield to and en- courage our insolent enemy, and how doth it make way for the giving up of all the towns above. If it be held it must be by strength and many soldiers, and how to have provision-I mean bread-for want of a mill, is difficult. The soldiers here already complain on that account, although we have flesh enough. And this very strait-I mean no meal, will drive many of our inhabit- ants away, especially those that have no corn, and many of them no houses, which fills and throngs up every room of those that have, together with the soldiers now (which yet we cannot be without) increasing our numbers, so that indeed it is very un- comfortable living here, and for my own particular, it would be far better for me to go away, because here I have not anything left-I mean no corn, neither Indian nor English, and no means
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to keep one beast here; nor can I have release in this town be- cause so many are destitute. But I resolve to attend to what God calls me to, and to stick to it as long as I can, and though I have such great loss to my comforts, yet to do what I can for de- fending the place. I hope God will make up in himself what is wanting in the creature, to me and to us all."
As is unmistakably indicated by the tenor of Mr. Pynchon's letter, the people of Springfield were indeed reduced to great extremity as the result of the attack, and many of the settlers seriously contemplated a removal to the better protected towns in the east part of the province. The disasters in the upper part of the valley, followed by that at Springfield, filled the peo- ple of Northampton and Hadley with great apprehension, for in the order of things those towns probably would next suffer; and now with Major Pynchon resigned from the militia command, the settlers had no one person upon whom they could lean for advice. Capt. Samuel Appleton succeeded to the command of the Massachusetts troops in this region, and established himself at Hadley. Captain Seeley with the Connecticut men was at Northampton, but not being in supreme command in the absence of Major Treat, he declined to co-operate with the Massachusetts militia. Later on the Connecticut authorities corrected this blunder and sent Major Treat with a force sufficient to garrison and protect Northampton.
On October 19, while the commanders of the detached forces in the valley were arranging defensive plans, King Philip's warriors, some seven or eight hundred strong, surprised Hat- field, then defended by Captains Moseley and Poole. The at- tack was well planned, but evidently the Indians miscalculated the defense of the place, for they were repulsed with loss in every quarter ; and on the arrival of Captain Appleton from Hadley they were utterly routed and put to flight. This was the first severe punishment administered to Philip during the year, and it had the effect to change his plans for the winter ; and instead of remaining in the valley he soon afterward betook himself, with his Wampanoag warriors, to the Narragansett country, where he remained in comparative quiet several months, although he
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was at one time reported to be in the vicinity of Albany with sev- eral hundred braves. Had this been true the Mohawks would have saved New England the expense of a campaign in the year 1676.
Notwithstanding the withdrawal of Philip's forces from the valley about the first of November, the region was by no means pacified, nor were the settlers at all secure in their homes, for the river Indians were implacable, mean and perfectly devilish in their treatment of the whites throughout the winter months. Soon after the attack on Hatfield several settlers engaged in harvesting corn near Northampton were surprised by a party of Indians and barely escaped with their lives; and before Major Treat could organize a pursuit the savages had burned several buildings and made a safe retreat into the forests. A few days later the grist mill was attacked, but was saved by a party of soldiers kept there for its protection.
During the winter, which, providentially, was exception- ally mild, Westfield was twice attacked by marauding bands; first, soon after the affair at Northampton, when Mr. Granger, a planter, was wounded, and the dwelling of Mr. Cornish and the house and barns of John Sacket were burned, with their con- tents. About the same time three young men of Springfield, one a son of Mr. Gumbleton and the others sons of Mr. Brooks, went out to examine some iron ore lands owned by Mr. Pynchon, and were killed. In this manner depredations were continued all through the winter, and the people of Springfield were almost daily alarmed by the reports of Indians in the vicinity. They had thought to abandon the settlement, but were strictly enjoined. not to do so by an order of the general court.
During the more severe winter months the Indians were comparatively quiet, but when spring approached they resumed their depredations. In the meantime the colonial authorities had organized a powerful force to crush the savages in their eastern strongholds. For this expedition Massachusetts fur- nished 527 men, commanded by Major Samuel Appleton; Con- necticut furnished 315 men under Major Treat, and Plymouth furnished 158 men under Governor Winslow, who also was to
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serve as commander-in-chief. The details of the expedition are not necessary to this chapter, and it is sufficient to state that as its result seven hundred Indians were killed outright, three hun- dred were mortally wounded, while hundreds of others, men, squaws and papooses, perished in the flames of their burning wigwams. The colonists lost about two hundred men in battles, and a few others who died from exposure. It was a terrible pun- ishment, however, for the Indians, yet severe as it was, King Philip's power was not broken. Of his warriors who escaped some fled to the Nipmucks while others found refuge in the wig- wams of the Connecticut river Indians in the vicinity of Spring- field, Deerfield and Northfield, where Philip had faithful allies.
In the latter part of March, 1676, the people of Long- meadow, having all through the winter been deprived of the privilege of attending worship in their meeting house, deter- mined to visit the sanctuary in Springfield, four miles distant. On Sunday morning, March 26, they set out under a strong and apparently determined guard; but when in the vicinity of Pe- cowsic brook a party of eight Indians surprised them, routed the guard and attacked the unprotected people, killing John Keep, his wife and child, wounding others, and making captives of two women and two children.
About the same time the settlement at Westfield was sub- jected to a second visit from the Indians, but upon the first indi- cations of their presence in the vicinity a party of a dozen deter- mined armed men went out and drove them from the place, kill- ing and wounding a number of them and losing only two of their own men-Moses Cook, a planter, and one of the soldiers of the garrison.
The severe punishment inflicted on the Indians in the east- ern part of the colonies during the winter had the effect to change the seat of subsequent events from that region to the val- ley of the Connecticut, and early in the spring Springfield, Northampton, Hadley and Hatfield became important points of operations. The Indians, however, were early on the move, and about the middle of March made a furious attack upon North- ampton, following it two weeks later with a similar assault upon
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Hatfield, the latter without injurious results except to them- selves. They then returned to Northampton, but passed with- out an attack, and next turned up at Westfield, as has been men- tioned.
These marauding depredations were continued at frequent intervals by small bands of Indians, and at length the Massachu- setts council suggested that the smaller plantations consolidate with those of greater strength for the general security of all. Thus Longmeadow and Westfield were urged to unite with Springfield until the troublous period should have passed. Long- meadow, by reason of its recent visitation, had no objection to the plan, but Westfield with a spirit of determination and inde- pendence that has ever characterized its people in all generations, repudiated the suggestion to leave a strongly defended plantation for one of less strength and without habitations or means of sup- port even for its own people. Isaac Phelps, David Ashley and Josiah Dewey acted for the town in this matter, and their coun- cils were aided by the advice of Mr. Taylor,1 their minister ; and with such art did these worthies address themselves to the coun- cil that their argument prevailed and there was no consolidation of towns. On the contrary, a defensive force of one hundred and eighty men was granted the locality.
Soon after the beginning of operations in 1676 the Indians established themselves in camp in the vicinity of Deerfield, and with Philip in command they regarded themselves able to resist any force the English were likely to send against them. From this point small bands made sudden assaults on the frontier set- tlements, burning buildings and driving off cattle. About this time it was learned from an Indian who was captured near Chico- pee (three others being killed at the time) by Captain Samuel
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1In a letter to the council Mr. Taylor sets forth several reasons why the Westfield people cannot remove from their town, one of his arguments being as follows: "We are altogether incapacitated for any removal, by reason of the awful hand of God upon us, in personal visitations, for there came a soldier sick of bloody flux, and, dying amongst us, in Capt. Cook's family, hath infested the family therewith, insomuch that he hath lost a son by it, his wife lies at the point of death, his youngest son is very weak of it, and he himself is almost brought to bed by it, and there is another family in the house hath it."
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Holyoke's men, that the whole number of Indians in the camp in the upper valley was 3,000, of whom 1,000 were warriors, chiefly Narragansetts, Nipmucks and Quaboags, with some river In- dians, but that there were no foreigners (Mohawks) among them. He said that they were poorly supplied with clothing and food, but had an abundance of ammunition and plenty of guns which they had bought from the Dutch traders.
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