USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Littleton > Proceedings of the Littleton Historical Society, No. 1 1894-1895 > Part 2
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3. Bond in the sum of £50, Salmon Whitney to Moses Whitney for wintering cattle and horses, furnishing rye and oats and the privilege of the east end of Salmon Whitney's house, dated Nov. 8, 1746.
4. A town paper giving a portion of highway rate and war- rant for collecting the same; date torn off, but from names on it, it must have been previous to June 25, 1792, the date of death of Capt. Joseph Harwood, and not earlier than 1763, when Joseph Harwood, jr., became of age.
These papers, and the pocket book which contained them, were found in the old house of Frank A. Patch, in Box- borough, and were given to the society by Mr. Patch.
Voted that the thanks of the society be sent to Mr. Patch for these gifts.
The following persons were elected honorary members of the society :
Clement S. Houghton,
Miss Elizabeth G. Houghton,
Julius H. Tuttle.
GEORGE A. SANDERSON, Secretary.
MEMBERS OF LITTLETON HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
DECEMBER 30, 1895.
Herbert Joseph Harwood, A. B.,
Frank Bigelow Priest,
Daniel Cooledge Fletcher, Alan Avery Claflin,
Hon. George Webster Sanderson, Sarah Patten Conant,
Nellie May Houghton, Julia Sophia Conant,
Ann Maria (Whitcomb) Hendley Sarah Foster White,
Lucy Maria (Hartwell) Harwood,
Charles Merriam Lawrence,
Caroline Augusta (Whitcomb) Hosmer, Emelie Augusta (Green) Harwood,
Edwin Hamilton Priest, Dr. Edward Young White,
Frank Everett Tenney,
Minna Eliot Tenney,
Waldo Emery Conant,
Hon. Joseph Alfred Harwood, Peter Stevens Whitcomb, Edward Benson Bigelow, Isabelle Augusta (Evans) Tenney, Emily Kendall (Porter) Adams, Lizzie Cobleigh (Wright) Conant, Charles H. Conant,
Lucy Maria (Goldsmith) (Houghton) Kimball.
HONORARY MEMBERS.
* Joel Proctor, Charles Stearns, Clement S. Houghton,
*Rev. Thomas Treadwell Stone, D. D., George Amos Dorsey, Ph. D. Elizabeth G. Houghton, Julius Herbert Tuttle.
* Deceased.
Biographical blanks in the following form have been printed : LITTLETON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
1. Name in full (autograph) ?
2. Date and Place of Birth ?
3. Name of Father and maiden name of Mother, both in full, with dates ?
George Augustus Sanderson, A. B., L.L. B. Rev. Isaac Francis Porter, Edward Frost, A. B., Charles Frederick Johnson,
Albert Francis Conant, Lucy Ann (Metcalf) Phelps, Eliza Ellis (Williams) Porter,
Mary Jones (Bigelow) Priest,
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4. What Schools attended, or what College ?
5. Degrees or Honors, when and where conferred ?
6. Occupation or Profession, when and where ?
7. What Society Membership, Offices or Public Offices held ?
8. What Literary work done, and dates of publication ?
9. Military Services, with dates ?
10. Married to whom, with full name, when and where ?
II. Names of Children and dates of birth, to whom married and date?
12. Present Residence and Address, with date of filling this blank ?
13. Please give, so far as you have the facts, names and dates of births marriages and deaths, of your brothers and sisters and of your ancestors ?
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THE GARRISON HOUSE AT NASHOBA. Read at a Meeting of the Society, November 2, 1894, by Frank Bigelow Priest.
At our last meeting, Sept. 3, 1894, on the ground of what was once a part of Concord Village, we found that the interest of the members centered around the probable location of the first block house. .
We had then mainly the information given us by Mr. Charles Reed, together with extracts from the notes of Mr. Francis P. Knowlton and Rev. Edmund Foster's sermon. Since then we have obtained information as to its location, of indis- putable correctness. We have had on the ground, Mr. Amos Leighton, of Westford, and just one word here about Mr. Leighton.
He was born in Westford, near where he now lives, in December 1814. His father was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, having served the last ten months. His grandfather, with Col. Robinson, of Westford, went to Concord on the 19th of April, 1775, but the present Mr. Leighton is unable to state whether he took part in the fight or not.
He says of these times, that his grandmother was about to take to the woods with her children, this 19th of April, when a second messenger, in the afternoon, reported that the British would not come further than Concord.
Mr. Leighton's grandfather, Francis, lived on what is now the Murphy place, in the edge of Westford. At his death, the farm was carried on by one of his sons, uncle of Amos, and it was in his visits to this uncle that he saw the first block-house.
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We had on the ground with him, Mr. Francis Flagg, who was born in 1812. They came onto the ground separately, and without conferring with each other at all, located the house in a space, not two rods square.
They had it about two rods directly in front of the place now occupied by Mrs. McElligott, and a little east of the well.
There was a cooper shop stood where the house now stands and the barn stood on the other side of what was then the old road.
Mr. Leighton says of the old house, that it was as he re- members, about a story and a half in height, consisting of two rooms on the ground floor, with a covered passage between, with a door opening into the middle of each room in the centre ; the passage way was about ten feet wide.
Above, was a passage way connecting the two upper rooms or attics. He remembers very distinctly that the floor of this passage way above, was made of rough logs. He cannot re- member whether the whole structure was of logs or not, but it probably was. He has no recollection at all of any under ground passage.
Mr. Flagg remembers when about ten years old, going to to this old house to see Mr. Samuel Reed, after he was laid out.
Now going back to Mr. Foster's sermon, you will find that at the time it was written, the house was then occupied by this same Samuel Reed.
Mr. Flagg remembers the passage way as running into the hill, at a point at or near where the present barn stands. He says, that at that time it had no connection with the house, although it might have been connected in the old days.
It was covered with large flat stones and he thinks it was a place into which they could retreat if driven out by the Indians.
The old block-house was destroyed about 1828, so that
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while we are indebted to Mr. Charles Reed, for bringing us very near to this spot, we feel that the information from Mr. Leigh- ton and Mr. Flagg, takes us back one generation further, or to the times of Jefferson Reed, father of Charles, and from whom he got his information.
For the benefit of those who were not with us on Sept. 3rd, I would say that Mr. Reed's location varied from the others only by a little less than three rods, and what he had for the old cellar was more than likely the remains of an old- fashioned vegetable pit. The remains of what Mr. Reed said was the underground passage was evidently a ditch for conveying water from the stream above, as we find on the opposite bank, the same traces of a water way.
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LETTER FROM MR. CHARLES STEARNS. Read at a meeting of the Society, September, 3, 1894.
West Townsend, August 1894. MR. HERBERT J. HARWOOD,
Sir: I read in the Townsend Tocsin, an article written by you about Historic Landmarks, and I learned that they have formed a historical society which is to visit Nashoba in a few days to look them over. I will mention one that is nearly extinct. I think there is visible evidence that will prove my statement. It is to show how they got the water to run the saw-mill. They built a dam on the John Kimball brook, near the first wall, about thirty rods west from the road, and from there they dug a ditch southerly, across Shaker lane on nearly a straight line to the next brook, which runs near by where one of the Powers houses stood (about forty rods west of Daley's house, formerly Ben Reed's house) and on the opposite side of the brook there stood a log barn until 1830. It stood about one-half in the lane and the other half in the lot, with the house, and on the west of the barn, a few rods from where it stood, you will find a valley that extends from the brook to the Pickard farm, and at the brook I think you will find evidence that there was a dam built there, and if they have not disturbed the ground you will see where the ditch was dug. I traced it across the lot that the brook is in, to the other side of the lot, and at that end it was within three or four rods of Mr. Marshall's land. It was then a pasture, and I could see a little valley nearly the whole length. A ditch was dug from this brook into Mr. Pickard's land to an- other brook, and the water ran from there into the brook that
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you cross before you get to Solomon Stillman Flagg's, and then to the mill. In the spring it made them a good supply. There were some boards in the old barn that Mr. Pickard took down when he built his new one, that were sawed in this mill ; they were pitch pine, about sixteen or eighteen inches wide.
About the old Powers burying ground. It was on the east side of the hollow next the wall and I should say would be in- cluded in a piece extending eight rods from the wall and six rods wide. They were buried feet toward the wall, that is, the headstones were all on the end of the grave from the wall. Madison Reed and myself went among the graves and read all the inscriptions we could. I do not remember any of the inscriptions, but I think there were one or two stones that had the full name on them. The stones were about two feet out of the ground, and less, most all of them less, and sixteen or eighteen inches wide, and less. There might have been some- where from ten to twenty with stones. There were a number that had head and foot stones, and some that had only one. The graves were plain to be seen and I believe there were more without stones than with. I have an impression that there were two or three that resembled slate stone, the rest were common flat stone. I do not recollect seeing anywhere else any graves. Once after I had viewed the stones, I had a conversation with Samuel Smith about the burying ground. He told me two men by the name of Powers, from Boston, had been up, and he went with them to find the Powers burying ground, but it was all ploughed over and cultivated. He wanted to know if I knew where it was. I told him I did. He said the men thought they should come again and he wanted to know if I would go with them to show where it was. I told him I would, but they never came. He said they were very much disappointed and thought of prosecuting for its being destroyed. In one place there were three graves by the side of each other. If the town should
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LITTLETON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
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ever want to fence the ground I feel very sure the location I have described is correct. My conversation with Mr. Smith would naturally impress it more strongly on my mind. I re- collect talking with Uncle (Noah Stearns) about it. I think I must have been about twelve or thirteen years old. The road from John Kimball's brook used to go to the right to Shaker lane and came into it not many rods from the foot of the hill. There used to be a house in the lot on the south side of the lane. I forget whether it was west or north of a little pond hole there was there ; it was but a few rods from it either way. There were a number of apple trees in the lot. I think you will find a num- ber where it was. The road then followed the lane and turned to the right on the east side of Quagony Hill and went around the lot that George Vinal built his house on and came to where it crosses Ben Reed's brook and followed the brook until it got over what I call Flagg's brook and then went into the lot on the right and went by a house that Simeon Proctor owned and then went near Solomon Stillman Flagg's buildings and across the west end of three lots next to Mr. Flagg's farm and then turned and came out at the pond. The road, for a number of years after Nashoba was settled, my uncle told me, went from the brook on the north side of the Ben Reed house into the road near the bury- ing ground and down through a valley across the brook and through the woods to what used to be Wheeler's mill (a man by the name of Buttrick afterwards owned it). The milldam was the road, which went from there to Concord, over the old North Bridge. There were three or four farm houses on the road fifty years since.
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Please excuse me for troubling with so long a letter.
Respectfully yours,
CHARLES STEARNS.
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JOHN ELIOT-THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS. Read at a meeting of the Society, November 2, 1894, by Rev. Isaac Francis Porter.
Let me anticipate my story in part, with that which is for us perhaps the chief point of interest. About 1646-7 Rev. John Eliot and a few other benevolent souls were busily occu- pied in establishing something like civilized communities of In- dians at Nonantum or what is now Newton, and at Neponset.
While these efforts were in progress we are told that the attention of Eliot was called to another quarter. The doings at Nonantum had been reported among the Indians in other sec- tions, and had excited a good deal of interest. Tahattawan, a sachem near Concord, with some of his people went to Nonan- tum and heard Mr. Eliot preach. Whether Tahattawan received any religious impressions at this time we know not, but we learn that he was smitten with a desire to rise above the wild course of savage life, and to imitate English habits. Having learned that this project was secretly opposed by many of his people, he summoned his chief men around him and assured them that what the English were doing was for their good. " For " said he, " what have you gained, while you have lived under the power of the higher sachems, after the Indian fashion ? They only sought to get what they could from you, and exacted at their pleasure your kettles, your skins and your wampum ; but the English, you see, do no such things; they seek only your welfare, and instead of taking from you, they give to you." The effect of the sachem's speech was to draw his people to this way of thinking. The result appeared in a body of twenty-nine
4
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" Conclusions and orders " which were estalished as rules of government and behavior. Some of these regulations related to moral points : forbidding drunkenness, lying, powowing and adultery, and enjoining humility, peaceful living, improvement of time, observance of the Sabbath, etc. Others were designed to promote neatness, order, and mutual respect in their daily conduct.
It is said that these rules were generally well observed, and that most of the Indians set up morning and evening prayers in their families.
In drawing up these regulations they had the assistance of the wisest Indians at Nonantum, and probably through them, of Mr. Eliot. They requested Capt. Willard, of Concord, to put them in writing, and to act as their recorder. They also desired the apostle Eliot to visit and preach to them, and wished to have a town granted to them near the English. Such an opportunity for usefulness in his own beloved way, Mr. Eliot would, of course, rejoice to improve. He visited the Concord Indians as often as his pressing duties would permit : he met their wants, and answered their inquiries with affection and good judgment.
Spark's biography claims that land was granted to them according to their request, but Shattuck, the historian of Con- cord, doubts whether there was any definite grant of land to the Indians either at Concord or Nonantum, and thinks " they lived by suffrance on lands claimed by the English prior to their gathering at Natick." But after a delay of several years be- cause of strong opposition on the part of some of the Indians, an Indian town Nashobah-a name given to a territory lying partly in Littleton and partly in Boxboro'-was constituted. They had the institution of christian worship, and an Indian teacher, probably one trained by Eliot.
The language of the Concord historian, about the Indians
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living on suffrance on lands claimed by the English, prior to their gathering at Natick, would seem to imply that this Indian town of Nashobah was of short continuance, and that the praying Indians, in the main, finally removed to Natick. The Indian town of Natick was organized about 1651 by the Nonantum In- dians. How soon the Nashobah Indians joined them-if at all -I have no means of determining. Probably they did not move immediately upon the establishment of Natick, for they had hardly got Nashobah started.
Although they instituted Christian worship at Nashobah, I do not understand that they had a regularly organized church. Eliot was slow about organizing churches. They had to be recognized by other churches before obtaining a right to be, and the churches made up of English people were disposed to scrutinize pretty closely as to the character of the Indian church they admitted to fellowship.
At the most, the Indian town of Nashobah could only have had an existence of about twenty-five years, as King Philip's War well nigh destroyed all attempts to civilize and christianize the Indians of this region, and brought Eliot's work to almost complete ruin.
But this record of final disaster in the great work of his life should not dim the lustre of John Eliot's career. In such a course it was far better to have spent one's strength in efforts that were apparently vain, than not to have made the effort.
Shameful as is the record of the Englishman's dealings with the Indians, it would have been far more shameful without the work of which Eliot was the central figure. He outlined the work which still issues its imperative summons to the American people, and it matters not with how much of warrant faithless souls may assert that money spent upon attempts to civilize the Indians is money buried in the earth, still, if only as salve for the mighty rent in the national conscience which the Indian's
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wrongs have entailed, it were money well spent, even though it were ten times the amount already spent or likely to be spent.
John Eliot's life would have elements of interest in it even though his Indian labors had had no existence. It would still have represented a busy conscientious life-fifty-eight years pastor of one of the leading churches of Massachusetts Col- ony. He could not have failed of labors equal to any ordinary man's strength and ability, even if his local pastorate had ap- pointed the bounds of his life work.
John Eliot was born in 1604, in Nasing, Essex County, Eng- land-probably in November, it is said-so, it may be, we are call- ing him to mind at about the two hundred and ninetieth anni- versary of his birth. His parents were of such pious character and religious habits, that he could say-" My first years were seasoned with the fear of God, the Word and Prayer." He was educated at the University of Cambridge, where he was particularly proficient in the study of philology, which especially fitted him for his later labors in connection with the language of the Indians. On leaving college he became a teacher in a school established by the pious Hooker, who was afterward one of the leaders in the settlement of Hartford and other places in Connecticut. He was a member of Hooker's family, of which he says, " When I came to this beloved family, I then saw, and never before, the power of godliness in its lively vigor and effi- cacy." He determined to become a minister, but there was no place for a Puritan minister in England at that time. It was during the time of that terrible persecutor, Archbishop Laud, to escape which, Hooker was soon obliged to give up his school and flee to Holland.
So Eliot set sail for this country and landed at Boston, November 3, 1631. (Again we have hit almost an anniversary this eve). His intended wife followed him from England about a year later and they were married about the time of his final
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settlement at Roxbury. But previous to this and soon after landing in Boston he found employment as preacher for the First Church in Boston-their settled minister, a Mr. Wilson, being then in England. His preaching was so acceptable that the First Church would gladly have settled him as colleague to Mr. Wilson, but he had pledged himself to friends in England that he would become their pastor should they follow him to America. They came and settled at Roxbury, and Eliot became the minister of the First Parish, which is now of the Unitarian fellowship-the present pastor being the Rev. James DeNor- mandie.
Becoming pastor of the Roxbury church in 1632, it was not till 1646 that he began active labors among the Indians ; but he had begun preparations for his work with the Indians, several years before. Mastering the language so as to address the In- dians in their native tongue, was no small undertaking. For this purpose he had an Indian interpreter-one Job Nenestan, in his family. His interest in the subject was heightened be- cause of his holding the theory that the Indians were descend- ants of the lost tribes of Isreal. This was quite a favorite speculation of those days among scholars. His first visit to the Indians at Nonantum for the purpose of holding a religious ser- vice was Oct. 28, 1646, and this he continued to do fortnightly. Soon after, he began preaching at Neponset, but apparently Nonantum was deemed the more hopeful field, perhaps, because Waban, the Indian chief there, was a more reliable character than the chief at Neponset. These visits and preachings were on week days for the most part, as his duties to the Roxbury . church occupied his Sundays.
At first, it is said, he did not venture to pray in the In- dian dialect, lest he might stumble and make blunders that would disturb the solemn effect, but he soon found that the Indians had started the idea that he thought God would not
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understand the Indian dialect ; so, to correct that idea, he henceforth prayed in the Indian tongue, and found the result far more satisfactory.
This was only one of the many difficulties and misunder- standings he was obliged to meet and surmount. The Indians were far from being fools, and their questions which followed each preaching were calculated to tax the wits of the one who undertook to answer them. While most of the questions were put in an earnest vein, he sometimes had to deal with those that were rude and insolent ; thus, one half drunken fellow cried out, " Who made sack, Mr. Eliot, who made sack ?"
For several years Eliot prosecuted his work at his own ex- pense mainly, and this must have been considerable, aside from his expenditures of time and for means of conveyance from point to point ; for he saw at once that preaching was but a small part of the work needed.
The Indians needed to change their whole habit of life. So his problem was to teach them to construct better houses, use better facilities in cooking, cultivate the land, etc., and for these purposes tools and other appliances were necessary.
Meanwhile, also, he had a number of Indian boys on his hands who sought to be educated in English fashion. He had some little assistance from the Colonial legislature and from in- dividuals, but it was very little considering the need.
About 1649, a corporation was formed in England by act of Parliament, which was authorized to solicit funds for the further- ance of the work of christianizing the Indians. It was far from being a popular mission, but yet, a considerable sum was col- lected and a fund established, which I believe has existed from that day to this. It is mentioned that in 1662 Mr. Eliot's salary from this source was £50. Aside from this, his work was helped by donations of tools, etc.
During the years from 1650 to 1660 Mr. Eliot made trips to
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a place called Pawtucket on the Merrimac, to Nashaway now Lancaster, and as far west as Quabaug now Brookfield, also to Cape Cod ; but his chief interest centered in the Indian town of Natick, where the first regularly organized Indian church was established in 1661.
In place of this catalogue of dry facts it would be more in- teresting could we rehearse some of the incidents attending his work, but a brief paper is the demand of the evening's program, and I must hurry on.
The great assistance which Eliot received from England was in enabling him to print the Indian Bible, after he had per- formed the great labor of translating it. How great a task this was we cannot estimate. The Indian language had no affinity with anything with which he had been previously acquainted. It was like exploring a jungle single handed. But still it is re- markable, and a proof that the Indians were by no means in the lowest state of barbarism, the fact that their language was equal to the expression of scripture ideas. A noble work, nobly pursued, and yet, alas, doomed to defeat.
King Philip's War broke out and the praying Indians were between two fires, distrusted on both sides, and plundered on both sides. Compelled often to take sides and then marked for sure destruction by the opposite side. Soon only the Natick Indians remained unscattered, and soon these were com- pelled to leave their homes and submit to imprisonment on Deer Island, where they endured so much hardship and ex- posure that death thinned them fast.
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