USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Our county and its people : A history of Hampden County, Massachusetts. Volume 2 > Part 27
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Lombardy poplars and other trees and shrubs brought across the seas, set along the borders of the ample front yards, seemed to link them with their English ancestry, while they pre- sented pleasing contrasts with the native trees and shrubs that seemed to glory in their superior power of enduring the vicissi- tudes of climate.
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The kindly rivalry in the attractiveness of the family home and its surroundings which has given the New England village such an enviable reputation had its origin in the desire of the settlers to be near the church and school and in the necessity of protection against the wiles of treacherous foes.
Summarizing the condition of the colonies in the Connecti- cut valley four years after the incorporation of Westfield, Hol- land says: "Fifteen hundred would doubtless be an extrava- gant estimate of the white population of the valley," in 1673. He reckons that the population of Westfield, Deerfield and Northfield taken together was probably from two to four hun- dred. Westfield was destined for some time to be the western- most settlement in the valley. For this reason it seemed less de- sirable as a place of settlement. For several years it contained only a few score of settlers.
Relation to the Indians .- The Indian inhabitants were not numerous, though it is not easy to estimate the number in the valley or in the immediate vicinity of Westfield. The rights of the Indians were generally respected. The settlers bought from them the lands they occupied. The Indians were well treated. It was for their interest to keep the peace that their trade with the whites might not be interrupted. They managed their own affairs, though when living in the neighborhood of a settlement it was their custom in this valley to look to the authorities main- tained in the settlement to administer justice. The records of these early times show that the settlers tried to be just to the In- dians as to their own people, consequently the Indians usually submitted to the verdicts of the settlers when penalties were vis- ited by the magistrates upon Indians who had wronged the Eng- lish. It was not uncommon for the magistrates in issuing a war- rant to arrest an Indian to give instructions to the constable to abstain from force. The Indians were allowed in several towns to place their clusters of wigwams on land owned by the town and to hold them unmolested. Under very reasonable conditions they were allowed in some towns to build forts upon town land.
When the Indians in Pochasic complained that the English had allowed their cattle to injure the corn of the Indians, claim-
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ing damages, the court ordered the claims of the parties to be ad- justed according to the following agreement :
"That the English there forever hereafter shall be free from doeing, making or maynteyning any finces about the Indians corne or lands about Pochasick: In consideration whereof the English at Westfield are sometyme this next winter to pay the Indians twenty bush. of Indian corne and (between this and the next spring, ) one hundred and twenty fadom of wampum, or ye value thereof. And that they shall cart for the Indians twenty load of fencing stuff, which fencing stuff the Indians are to get in places feazable for the carting: and the English having this performed, the Indians are to secure their own fields, or other- wise not to require anything of the English for damage etc."
The records give evidence that it was the endeavor of the courts to mete out even-handed justice. The settlers used very stringent measures to keep firearms and liquor from the Indians. Yet the frequent and severe fines imposed did not avail to pre- vent sales. Fines were increased until in some cases £40 and more were paid. Whole townships were sometimes sold for less. Yet drunkenness became fearfully frequent, and so anxious were the Indians to obtain firearms that they found men unprincipled enough to accept the large prices they were willing to pay in ex- change for guns. This statement is found in the records of the court of Hampshire county for the year 1670: "The woful drunkenness of the Indians calls aloud to use the most laudable means to prevent that sin among them." Indians when sober must be guarded against, for many of them were treacherous and cunning. When intoxicated and possessed of fire-arms, the worst results might be apprehended.
We have spoken of the fort erected in Westfield. As the settlement extended, fortified houses were built, to furnish outlying posts of defence and places of refuge for those living at a distance from the central fort. In every town a military organization was maintained, and men and boys above fifteen years of age were required to assemble several times in the year to receive military instruction and training. Delin- quents were promptly fined. Among the orders adopted at
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Springfield in 1639 occurs the following: "It is ordered that the exercise of trayning shall be practised one day in every month ; and if occasion doe sometimes hinder, then the like space of time shall be observed another tyme, though it be two days after one another. And whosoever shall absent himself without a lawful excuse, shall forfeit twelve pence, and all above fifteen years of age shall be counted for soldiers." Similar action was taken in other towns.
In 1643, the New England colonies formed a union or league by which they made all wars, whether offensive or defen- sive, chargeable upon all the colonies in proportion to the male inhabitants between sixteen and sixty years of age. In 1644, a general military organization of the militia was provided for. The several companies of the militia chose their own officers; but all officers higher in rank received their appointment from the general court. That religious qualifications were then regarded essential in public officers is evident in the selection of the first commander-in-chief, Thomas Dudley, "whose faithfulness," we are told, "and great zeal, and love for the truths of Christ, caused the people to choose him to this office, although he were far stricken in years."
Events were at hand which were to tax the military re- sources, the courage and the endurance of the settlers to the ut- most. The commanding influence and large authority of Massa- soit, the chief of the Wampanoags, not only over his own tribe, but over neighboring petty tribes, proved a strong bulwark to the Massachusetts colonies from 1621 to the time of his death in 1662-forty-one years. His two sons, Alexander and Philip, sur- vived him. Alexander held the position vacated by the death of his father, only one year, then Philip became the grand sachem of his tribe. He was the opposite of his father in nature and in his purposes. It is said that "for eight or nine years after the accession of Philip to the chieftainship, little is heard of him, save in business transactions with the English, involving the transfer of lands. During this time, however, and in these very transactions, he saw with prophetic forecast, the sceptre depart- ing from his hand and his land absorbed by strangers. During
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this time, too, his power had been increased by the acquisition of English arms and by the confirmation of friendly relations with the Narragansetts, established before the death of Massa- soit. Skilled beyond savage diplomacy in deception, possessing a mental power that, among the various tribes, carried with it great influence, brave even to ferocity, jealous of the English, and ambitious in proportion to the strength of his intellect, it is not strange that, trampling upon treaties, he should conceive the design of annihilating the English settlements in New England."
King Philip's War .- In 1675, only six years after the incor- poration of the town of Westfield, the storm that had been gath- ering burst upon the colonies. For three years the savages burned dwellings, sometimes destroying whole villages, slew men, women and children, and threatened the utter destruction of the English and all they had wrought. The terror, the anx- iety, the suffering of the settlers in the valley of the Connecticut during this period no pen can describe. Those living in West- field, few in number, and forming a sort of outpost on the ad- vancing line of settlement, seemed most exposed to attack. Yet they held their ground, though frequently urged to fall back to- ward the more populous towns. Perhaps the newness of the set- tlement, which prevented the accumulation of stores and other things desired by the Indians, led them to leave Westfield com- paratively unharmed, while they plundered and burned most of the other towns in the valley within the limits of Massachusetts. Northfield was bounded on the north by the line of the state, while Springfield was the town farthest to the south. Between these were Westfield, Northampton, Hadley, Hatfield and Deer- field. Springfield and Northampton were the older towns. The newer towns were composed largely of emigrants from the oth- ers. Farming was the business of the time, and when a new gen- eration came to manhood, finding the best lands along the river occupied, they felt the need of occupying new territory.
As a result of the terrible devastation of the first year of the war, Deerfield and Northampton were abandoned, and the stress of the war was so severe in the eastern part of the state that the authorities could not easily decide what course to pursue. The
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council at Boston, limited in means, in need of men to complete the depleted ranks, finding it impossible to properly garrison the towns in the valley, planned to concentrate the settlements by having the inhabitants of other towns move to Springfield and Hadley.
The plan was proposed to the towns in a letter, dated March 26, 1676, from Secretary Rawson to Major Savage, commander of the Massachusetts forces. The headquarters of the major were at Hadley, which seems at this time to have been more strongly fortified than Northampton. The letter, after setting forth the necessity of concentrating the inhabitants of the valley, adds :
"Some that know those places best, do apprehend that Springfield and Hadley are the fittest places for their fortyfying and planting."
Another letter of similar import was addressed by Secretary Rawson to Major Pynchon of Springfield, dated March 20, 1676. As this letter concerned the people of Westfield we quote from it. The secretary, doubtless expressing the conclusions of the gov- ernor and council, says that he can see no other way,
"But to come all together in some convenient place in the town and take in so large a fort that the proprietors may live in distinct houses or shelters and Westfield must join with you, and totally remove to you, for 'tis impossible to hold both towns, the enemy being so many in those parts and our army must remove from them, we are assaulted on every side. Most of our frontiers are away off; our present work is to secure the principal towns upon the sea-coast ; we can- not see how your people can remove at present, but must ride it out as best you can ; we speak not of particular persons but of the body of the people ; for whither will you go, or how will you remove your corn and goods? The like advice we have given for the other towns upon the river to come in all to Hadley and fortify it well, and there by united strength it may be kept, but otherwise all will be lost according to reason. Suppose the enemy should plant upon your deserted towns ; it is hoped when the corn is grown we may have ability to destroy it. We must
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strengthen the heart. Ammunition is scarce here. If your people be averse to our advice, we must be necessitated to draw off our forces from them, for we cannot spare them nor supply them with ammunition. We have ordered the major to leave some of the garrison soldiers to strengthen you, if you are able to provide food for them."'
Northampton protested stoutly against removal to Hadley, and Westfield still more stoutly to removal to Springfield.
A town meeting was held by the people of Westfield, and a committee chosen to show reason to the council why the people of Westfield should not remove to Springfield. The letter of the committee which we quote was prepared by the minister, Rev. Edward Taylor :
"Westfield letter
3 Aprill Rec'd
28 Aprill '76"
Honrd Councill: We Presume a Second time to trouble ye Worships with a few lines, ffor having cast orselves, upon ye Honored Counsells concerning or abiding here, or removing hence & for that End having faithfully represented our State unto you we were in Expectation of hearing yr advice. But at last perceiving yr thoughts by ye Order you gave unto Maj. Generall Savage the wch in pt ye have attended upon, viz., to gather op ye mindes of or town respecting or remoove where we made such an offer as this to any that should come to vs, that we would deny orselves to accommodate between twenty & thirty families of or Present tillage land if so many would come to vs & that during ye continuance of ye troubles : ye which in a town meeting was judged by all that we could do; But when or Commitee, came to Consult with or Neighbour towns, although singly, & apart it was generally thought strange that Springfield should be judged a better, & more Convenient place for ffortification than Westfield, they rather was silent, or moving for or remove to Springfield, the wch was & is altogether against or inhabitants, insomuch that there is not a man among vs hath any ye least in- clination to remove that way, & in that there is an intimation of such a thing in yr Honrd Order to ye Generall, as if Springfield
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&c: was fittest for ffortification, with great respect vnto ye In- formation we cannot but take ye boldness as to intimate ye grounds of or thoughts to ye Contrary, as 1. Its Situation lying on both sides of ye great River Connecticut, whose East Side is voyd of habitations being but a very few left, & those a great distance asunder those on ye West side being scattered above a mile up & down some of which are hid with brambles, & as for its tillidge ground ye most being a great distance from ye town & not cleare from brush in some places of it & to it, in so much as an indifferent person cannot but judge (as we suppose) yt ye Danger is double in mannaging ffield imploym'nt : to what ors is. 2. Its Preparation, It is a Place (with griefe of heart be it spoken) most of ye East side in ashes, vnbuilt & vnfortified vnlese some few houses. 3. Its Providentiall Dispensation. It hath been sorely under ye blasting hand of God, So that it hath but in a lower degree than ordinary answered ye labour of ye Husbandman, & sometimes his labour on it is wholely cast away, now these thoughts are very discouraging vnto all thoughts of or removall thither, for to remove from Habitations to none, from ffortifications to none, from a Compact and plain place to scatter'd, from a place of lesse danger in ye ffield to ye more, from a place under ye ordinary Blessing vpon ovr Labours to one vsually blasted, seems to vs such a strange thing that we finde not a man amongst vs inclining thereto, wherefore being by ye Honord Councill at Hartford, vpon address for strength from them, yt wth their own necessities could not dispence with, ad- viced not to desert ye place as yet, we are determined to draw in or out Garrison houses, and to Contract or ffortification into ye Compass of about 70 rodslong, yewich or thoughts are to ffortifie strongly and to keep with five flankers, and for this end ovr earn- est suit is that you would allow vs, if, it may bee a garrison of thirty souldiers, we are not without hope of gaining some Corn for our families as yet. But if you cannot allow any, then or present thoughts are that if we cannot have a safe Convoy from ye town to some place downward, it is judged that we had better abide here in or ffortification thus strengthened, and that al- though we have no help from abroad, with respect to or own
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safety than to go to Springfield. It grieves vs that we should ob- ject so much against Springfield for ye Worshipfull Maj'r Pynchon's sake, But we judge there is a better way for his safety than this, & although we would do much for his sake, yet we "cannot adventure on this ground into such great hazzard as ap- pears. Here are some young men with vs its said would inlist themselves in Country service to garrison if they could be ad- mitted, whom necessity will force from vs if it cannot be.
Ffurthermore, we are at ye Present altogether incapacitated for any removall, by reason of ye awfull hand of God upon us in Personall visitations, for here came a souldier sick of ye Bloody fflux, and dying amongst vs in Capt. Cook's family, hath infected ye ffamily therewith in somuch that he hath lost a son of it, his Wife lies at ye point of Death his youngest son is very weak of it, and he him selfe is almost brought to his bed by it, & there is another ffamily in his house hath it. We hope yr Worships will Pardon or teadiousness, & give or argu- ments a Patient hearing for surely it is against vs to say as we do, if great danger did not stare us in ye fface. The Good Lord Sanctifie, and deliver vs. We remain
Yr Servants, & Suppliants
in the name of the Towne.
ISAAC PHELPS, DAVID ASHLY, JOSIAH DEWEY.
Westfield, 3. 2m. 1676,
The letters from the council so vigorously met by protest by the people of Northampton and by the people of Westfield "'show," as Trumbull, the author of the recent admirable history of Northampton has well said, "that a state almost of panic pre- vailed among the leading men of the colony. Beset on all sides, the authorities knew not which way to turn. Needing their re- "sources for the defense of the eastern towns, they must devise some means by which the valley settlements could take care of themselves. The most feasible method seemed to be that of union for a common defense. Such a concentration and abandonment of towns must have resulted in the entire removal of the English from the valley. This advice was injudicious and disheartening.
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Fortunately the proposition found no supporters, among those who were most immediately interested in thesuggested movement. Strong, able and voluminous protests were showered upon the council. The authorities had misjudged the spirit of the settlers. They were not yet ready to give up all that they had toiled so hard, and suffered so much to gain. They refused to yield their homes, their land, and their household effects to the fury of the savage foe. Such a course, while it would greatly encourage the enemy, and proclaim the panic existing among the English, would also add impetus to the reported designs of the French, as shadowed by the statements of the Indians, that they intended to drive out the English and recolonize the country."
If the battle of the French and English upon the Plains of Abraham adjacent to Quebec in 1759 may be regarded as the Thermopylae of the occupancy of America by the English rather than by the French, the determined stand of the people of North- ampton and Westfield may be reckoned as the Marathon.
Events soon proved the wisdom of remaining at Westfield instead of moving to Springfield. October 5, Springfield was attacked and most of its houses burned. Owing to the destruc- tion of their corn mill, the people of Springfield resorted to West- field to have their corn ground. Fortunately for both towns, the mills owned by three Dewey brothers, Thomas, Josiah and Jeda- diah, and Joseph Whiting, on Two-Mile brook, the outlet of Congamond ponds, had been completed in 1672. These mills were on the Windsor road, a mile or more west of the school- house at Little river. The Dewey grist mill was the first grist mill built in Westfield.
The minister, Rev. Edward Taylor, noted some of the events of Philip's war. He says, beginning in the year 1675, "but sum- mer coming opened a door unto that desolating war began by Philip, Sachem of the Pokoneket Indians, by which this handful was sorely pressed, yet sovereignly preserved, but yet not so as that we should be wholly exempted from the fury of war, for our soil was moistened by the blood of three Springfield men, young Goodman Dumbleton, who came to our mill, and two sons of Goodman Brooks, who came here to look after the iron on the
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land he had lately bought of Mr. John Pynchon, Esq. Who be- ing persuaded by Springfield folk, went to accompany them, but fell in the way by the first assault of the enemy made upon us, at which time they burned Mr. Cornish's house to ashes and also John Sacket's with his barn and what was in it, being the first snowy day of winter; they also at this time lodged a bullet in George Granger's leg, which was, the next morning taken out by Mr. Bulkley, and the wound soon healed. It was judged that the enemy did receive some loss at this time, because in the ashes of Mr. Cornish's house were found pieces of the bones of a man lying about the length of a man in the ashes. Also in winter, some skulking rascals, upon a Lord's day, in the time of our af- ternoon worship fired Ambrose Fowler's house and barn ; but in the latter end and giving up of winter, the last snowy day we had thereof, we discovering an end of Indians, did send out to make a full discovery of the same, designing only three or four to go out, with order that they should not assault them, but to our woe and smart, there going 10 or 12, not as scouts, but as assailants, rid furiously upon the enemy, from whom they re- ceived a furious charge, whereby Moses Cook, an inhabitant, and Clemence Bates, a soldier, lost their lives. Clemence in the place and Moses at night. Besides which we lost none of the town, only at the Falls fight at Deerfield, there going nine from our town, three garrison soldiers fell. Thus, though we lay in the very rode of the enemy, we were preserved, only the war had so impoverished us that many times we were ready to leave the place."
During the first year of the war, and earlier, Westfield and other towns in Western Massachusetts repaired and completed their lines of palisades. This work went on during the winter of 1675-6, which is said to have been a mild season. The Indians seem to have retired beyond the northern boundaries of Massa- chusetts.
In March, 1676, we find the following action was taken: "The town considering the hand of God upon us in having or let- ting loose the Indians upon us, so that now we cannot carry on our occasion for liberty had as formerly ; and considering that it
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is not a time now to advance our state, but tardy our rate of our former advantage, that so we may carry on something together for the good of the whole, that so by God's blessing on our labors we may be in a way of getting food for our families, therefore in case the honored court laid not cost or repose, we agree to carry on as followeth; we agree to fence only the northeast field, and we agree to plow and sow and carry on the im- provements of this field in general; that is, such as shall agree hereunto as it shall be ordered by some men that we shall ap- point, who shall go out to work and who shall tarry at home from day to day ; and if it shall please God to give opportunity to rate the long fit of labouring, men shall resume an equal proportion according to his family. Necessary public charges, [if] any, first charged. And the rest, if any man sow more seed than his pro- portion, he shall reserve that again in the first plan [place]. The men chosen to order the whole matter for service and farming are Goodman Ashley Seignoir and Goodman Gunn. We who agree hereunto do promise and engage to submit ourselves to the said proportion as witness our hands.
GEORGE PHELPS,
JOSIAH DEWEY,
THOMAS GUNN,
NATHANIEL WELLER,
SAMUEL LOOMIS,
THOMAS DEWEY,
ISAACK PHELPS,
JOHN SACKET,
DAVID ASHLEY, EDWARD NEAL."
The above record is obtained from what seems to be a record but partly understood by the one copying it into the present books of the town. Hence its incoherency.
The condition of affairs in the winter of 1675-6 was in West- field most disheartening. Deerfield and Northfield, newer outly- ing towns like Westfield, had suffered terribly and had been abandoned. However mild the early winter, later the cold was intense, and the snow was deep ; yet this may have helped to hold the Indians in their wigwams in the valleys of Vermont. The population, as Edward Taylor said, was but a "handful," prob- ably less than one hundred and fifty, possibly not over one hun- dred, all told. Some of the men had fallen. Some, discouraged with the outlook, had moved to larger towns that seemed safer
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