Springfield, 1636-1886 : history of town and city, including an account of the quarter-millennial celebration at Springfield, Mass., May 25 and 26, 1886, Part 14

Author: Green, Mason Arnold; Springfield (Mass.)
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: [Springfield, Mass.] : C.A. Nichols & Co.
Number of Pages: 740


USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Springfield > Springfield, 1636-1886 : history of town and city, including an account of the quarter-millennial celebration at Springfield, Mass., May 25 and 26, 1886 > Part 14


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We have seen in the deeds executed and signed by Indians and in


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the records of the town-meetings, that while the natives retained sundry hunting and fishing privileges they were continually brought under restrictions in their personal movements.


The following important deed, secured in 1652, furnishes an instance in point : -


This Indenture made the fourteenth Day of April : 1652 : between Coe (or) Coa. one of the Indians of Agawam, who is the cheife & ye proper owner of al the Land below the Long medow brooke, in the East side of Quinnecticot River, down to the Falls, on the one party, And John Pynchon of Springfeild on the other party Witnesseth that the sd Coe the Indian, for & in consideration of one broad Essex shag Coote of 1. yard & 3 quarters & more to him in hand paid. hath bagained, sold & granted, & by these prsents doth sel give & grant to the said Jolm Pynchon a certaine parcel of wet medow upon the head of a River, Running into the great River, above the fals, comonly called by the English Freshwater River which River is by the Indians called Asnuntiek at ye mouth of it & a little higher Is called Allows, & at the head of said River is called Siek- compsqu, where the said wet medow lyes. the which medow is called by the Name of Quellicksqu.


Also the said Coe doth sel give & grant free & ful Liberty for the English to gather & make use of Candlewood, called by ym weakshackquock, in all the grounds adjoining thereto, & from the Long medow brooke downward, & also free Liberty for Cattle to feed fro the spring til winter, in al the sd grounds, for & in consideration of one yard 3 quarters of Red Essex shag cloth to him by the s John Pynchon in hand paid : Al the sd prmises ye sd Coe doth Condition as the Trne owner that the said John Pynchen shall absolutely clearly & for ever enjoy al the said p'mises, to him his heires and assignees for ever. Submitted, this 14th of April, 1652.


The notable point in this deed is the privileges granted the English in regions still held by the Indians, who were thus establishing prece- dents dangerous to their interests.


Among the many innovations which English rule brought about was the gradual observance of the Sabbath, in form at least, by the Indians. In 1669 the County Court had occasion to admonish a con- stable for roughly handling some Indians found abroad upon the Lord's day : -


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Certayne Indians being found at Worronoco travelling on ye Sabbath & carry- ing burdens, vizt bringing apples wch they said they had from Windsor & own shooting a Gun when he came to the house there, the Constable there seized 4 guns & one of them called (name omitted ) to appear at this Court to answer the offense. The wch being prooved & owned the Courte judges the Constable striking the Indian and the dog biting him he should be only admonished.


There was no end of trouble in keeping savage hands off from portable property. They would dodge into kitchens and steal food, cider, and any articles in reach, and they would also run off cattle. In 1668 it was recorded in the County Court that " Whereas the In - dians called Magnaws made Spoyle among the Cattell or swine of these 3 Townes of the county neere about 2 yeere synce And there being gayned from those Indians 20£ wch being sent to Mr. Bryan is in ye hands of Lyman Lobdell of Springfeild in Leather," it was or- dered that this sum be distributed. Springfield parties received £5 of this.


The selling of liquor to the Indians was strictly forbidden ; but the natives were continually securing drink on the sly, and this class of cases was very common before the magistrates. Indians were some- times put under bonds to keep away from liquor, wampum being de- posited as security.


The mill of Preserved Turner was robbed in about 1664, and the Indian Wenawen was caught and put under bonds, a companion named Sopos and another Indian becoming his sureties. At the next court, in 1665, Wenawen did not appear, and the property of the bondsmen was levied upon for 40s. eachı.


There was given the Indians, in 1666, a convincing proof of the sense of justice among the whites. The town paid fifty fathom of wampum to satisfy a claim set forth in an ancient document, which opens as follows : -


This writing witnesseth That Neesahegan alias Squomseat & Kepaquomp alias Squinnamoh for themselves, & in behalfe of an old woman called Potueksisg af- firming, that the English at Springfeild never bought the Lands over Agawam


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River in the higher medows, that is to say, the Lands between the middle medow, & so round the hills, fro that pond by the midle medow to Ensigne Coopers House, & so to Agawam River, & yet acknowledging that the midle medow & house medow called Qnana & Agawam, were Long since bought by the English : etc.


The first land transaction with the Indians was carried on by a committee or agent for the town, as has been noticed but eventually private parties secured the Indian titles directly from the natives. This was a long step forward, and clearly contrary to public policy. The occasion of these private transfers was the habit of running in debt among the Indians. They were not satisfied with their arrows after they had seen the blunderbuss, and while the lending of flint- locks or snaphances, like the selling of fire-water, to the Indians was prohibited, it did not break up the practice. They also secured blankets, food, and agricultural tools on credit often, and thus the mortgage system grew up as naturally as garden weeds after a rain. The Indians also hired the English to plow their planting-grounds, and sometimes planted English land on shares.


To meet these obligations security was demanded. A very in- teresting specimen of this is found in our probate records, under date of April 2, 1661. A mortgage was made by Coa, Menis, Cuttonus, and other Indians, who figure in our first Indian deed to William Pynchon and his associates, and is made out to that active land spec- ulator, Samuel Marshfield. The mortgage which is here given was duly.approved by the selectmen, however : -


Severall debts wch wee owe Samull Marshfield for goods already received wch wee did ingage to pay in bever, & we doe still ingage to doe the same if we can gett it, any tyme this summer, or else we soe ingage to pay him in Corne at 2s per bush by heape or if in wampum, then to allow the said Samuell six fathom for every five fathom due unto him, or if we can gett mooseskins or otter or good deare skins, then to pay them unto him at a reasonable rate. or guns wch the fore said Samuell hath in his hands, weh if he doe Lend to any of us, wee ingage to return them to Him when he shall call for them : and if we doe not pay the aforesaid Samnell in any of these prises, to his content by Michelmas next en-


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suing the date thereof, then we give the aforesaid Samuel full power to ceaze on all our lands & corne as his proper right, and if that we Indians whose Names are above written, doe ingage that if wee & the aforesaid Samuel cannot aggree about the price of any of the aforementioned pay, then wee will stand to wt Captayne Pynchon, & Lieutenante Holyoke shall appoynt.


Cuttonus figured occasionally in the records. He was fined in 1660 for not keeping up his " water fence." He owned lands on the west side of the " Greate Ryver," and had previously sold some planting- grounds to Ensign Cooper, who, the year following the above mort- gage, secured a record of this transaction. Cooper had himself ob- tained Indian lands by the foreclosure process. He had taken from a Woronoco Indian, named Amoaenssen, a mortgage in 1660, and in 1664 he received an absolute deed upon the Indian's failure to pay. John Pynchon also foreclosed, in 1666, upon a large tract of land in Woronoco, mortgaged by an Indian and his squaw. Mr. Cooper was before the General Court in reference to the Amoacussen transaction. It was claimed by Allignot, Neemp, and Wallump, sachems of " Pochosick near Westfield," that Amoacussen was not the sole owner of the lands deeded to Cooper. These Indians appealed, as they had a right to do, to Boston, and the General Court referred the case to the Hampshire County Court, which compelled Cooper to give the sachems due satisfaction. It cost Cooper one hundred and ten fathom of wampum to get out of this scrape ; but he doubtless made money even at that.


We transcribe the following deed of Westfield land : -


These present writings Dated September the 29th in the yeere One six hundred Sixty-ffive showeth yt wee Spanosa & Poxonock both of us joyntly & severaly have upon a valluable consideration to us seenred & by these presents doe alien- ate & Sell unto Daniell Clark & Samuel Marshall of Windsor their heirs & as- signes one peell of meddow Land lying at Woronoco on ye South Side of ye River part whereof hath been already planted wch peell of Meddow is in quantity fforty acres, such peell of meddow Land, it shall be Lawfull for the Said Daniell & Samuel their heirs & assigns to enjoy & possess & inheritt forever. And for


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the more full assurance of the said Land unto ye Said psons wee the Grauntors doe hereby morgage or fully engage that if we make not the title of the Land good to these two grantees, then Samuell Marshall is to have our little Daughter now about ffoure yeares old to enjoy her & dispose of her as his own estate. And wee the Said Grantors doe hereby promise & oblige our selves unto the said Grantees that when we be minded to make Sale of the other of our Land at Worronoco they the said Grantees shall have the right tending to them to take or refuse uppon such termes as we shall aggree unto.


The following entry is found in the records of the County Court held at Springfield in September, 1665 : -


There being presented unto ye Gen" Court at Boston in May last a Petition to consider of the complaynts of the Indians of Springfeild agt Samll Marshfeild who hath gotten the lands of the Indians into his hands by virtue of a deed of mortgage from ye Indians whereby they are impovished haveing little or nothing left to plant but are constrayned to hire of ye English & The said Gen" Courte referred the said business of ye Indians complt to ye County Court of this shire ; This Court therefore upon agitation of the business advised Samuel Marshfeild & the Indians to accord amongst themselves & also advised the said Samuell for ye making of fynall issue of all complaynts & trouble from ye Indians about the Land that he hath of them to allow the said Indians some of the Land weh before ye Courte he manifested himselfe willing to doe :


Whereupon the Courte appoynted John Dumbleton & Miles Morgan to go over ye River with Samll Marshfeild & the Indians to see wt land the said Samuell Marshfeild would allow & how far it might be to ye satisfaction of ye Indians :


And the said Persons returning wth ye Indians to ye Courte they made report yt Samuell. Marshfield according to ye Indians desire shewed the Indians where they should have fifteen acres of land to themselves for ever : . that is to say twelve acres in one place & three aeres in another place : And the Judges ex- pressed themselves well satisfied therewith.


It will be asked whether Mr. Marshall would have held the Indian girl in slavery in case he had been compelled to insist upon the bond as indicated by the instrument as executed in September, 1665. Most certainly, but he would not necessarily have kept her as a bond-ser- vant in his family. Indians became slaves in New England, it would


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seem, in three ways, -through life sentences for crimes, through captivity in war, and through legal process as security for loans, as above shown. The Peqnot war seems to have led directly to slavery. Merchants sent captive Indian maidens and boys to the West Indies or Africa and traded them off for negroes.


We now have the necessary facts of the coming together of the three races, and the enlargement of one at the expense of the other two. New England practised negro slavery by and through its own- ership in Indian flesh and blood, and Springfield shares in the unen- viable distinction of contributing to its extension.


The claim to the land was still in many points defective, and the " worshipful major," with his usual business thrift, made haste to perfect the title. The tract bounded on the south by an east line at Freshwater river, near Enfield Falls, on the east by the mountains, on the north by the Chicopee river, and on the west by a line running through the Five-Mile pond, was considered at this early day a part of the town ; but the Indians refused to admit the elaim, and calculated upon a liberal payment of wampum therefor. The land in dispute was claimed by Wequogan, Wawapaw, and Wecombo. After a good deal of trouble Mr. Pynchon assembled these Indians, probably in his garrison-house on the main street, and succeeded in negotiating a sale, there being also present Elizur Holyoke, George Colton, Benja- min Cooley, Samuel Marshfield, and Anthony Dorchester, the town committee authorized to receive the Indian deed. There had been many informal meetings, and apparently a good deal of dickering, the Indians proving apt scholars in the science of making bargains. The price fixed upon was one hundred and eighty fathoms of wam- pum, and it was left to Mr. Pynchon to draw the deed and deliver the money. This he did ; but curiously enough he delivered the wam - pum before the deeds were signed, thus breaking his revered father's rule, and by this means getting into trouble. The Indians came to him one by one to affix their marks to the instrument, but Mr. Pyn- chon followed an ancient custom calculated to impress upon the sav-


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age mind the solemnity of the act, and refused to allow them to sign separately, insisting that they should come in a group. Thus mat- ters drifted on through the whole year, and in fact until the spring of 1675, when the plantation entered upon a terrible chapter in its history. The Indians never signed the deed, and this strip of farmi- ing land has never been technically relieved of its Indian claim. The title may not be called clouded, but it rests upon Mr. Pynchon's oath, made in 1678, declaring that while the Indians never signed the deed, they showed a " readiness to come altogether & subscribe."


Springfield was now about forty years old. Many of the first set- tlers had passed away. The children had grown up and assumed public burdens. Rev. Mr. Glover, a man of great energy and stu- dious application, had contributed materially in the direction of the town's activities. There were scores of Agawam Indians who had never put on war-paint nor remembered the time when the whites had not dwelt here. They had prattled in the door-yards of the white man, had followed the deer and elk, and trapped beaver with them, had planted and harvested with them, and had come to look upon our people as just, humane, and friendlike. The feeling of trust among the whites was quite as deep-seated. One generation had grown up and another started, and no outbreak had disturbed the cordial rela- tions of the two races.


It is therefore not to be wondered at when the Pokanoket country became disturbed, and the ambitious and treacherous King Philip undertook to stampede the New England tribes into a war of ex- termination, that the local plantation had little fear that the Aga- wams and the Woronocos would listen to him. This cordial feeling had even led some squaws of Nonotuck to divulge the secret that Springfield was to be attacked, but the same feeling prevented the whites from believing it. The Indians up the river - so John Win- thirop, Jr., tells us - had "assured Major Pynchen of their fidelity to the English."


The Indian situation in Massachusetts in 1675 needs no extended


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description of this place. Enough to say, the gentle-mannered Lev- erett was governor. The general worldly condition of the colonies was good, and in the main the Indians had been bettered by their contact with the whites ; but the Narragansetts, Pokanokets, and Mohegans had resisted the Christian missionaries. The Pokanoket sachem, Massasoit, had died in 1660. The Plymouth authorities gave the name Alexander Pokanoket to one of his sons, and Philip to the other. Alexander soon died, and Philip became sachem in 1662. His suspicious actions, indicating hostility to the English, resulted in his enforced signature to a document acknowledging that he was a subject of the English king. King Philip was a natural leader and good fighter, in whom distrust of the English, however, was deeper than his word given under duress. He was repeatedly forced to sign pacific treaties with the English, but this never obliterated the English fear of him. In 1674 Sausamon, a praying Indian, made definite charges of treason against King Philip. In June of the following year Sausamon was murdered, and three Indians executed for the crime. Philip kept himself constantly armed, and the forests were filled with his runners. In June, 1675, he partially burnt and plun- dered Swanzey. While forced to evacuate Mount Hope, he was able to send bands to plunder the Plymouth towns. The English secured an alliance with the Narragansetts and Mohegans. Philip made a dash for the Nipmuck country. On August 3, by the light of the moon, the Nipmucks set fire to a fortified house at Brookfield, the only settlement between the Connecticut river and Lancaster. This mode of attack the English had taught them in the Pequot war. Arrows with burning brands as well as fireballs were thrown upon the roof, but quickly extinguished. The house was besieged for three days, when it was relieved by a company of troopers from the east, commanded by the white-haired Major Simon Willard. Philip arrived just as the Nipmucks had been driven back from Brookfield, and he refreshed their tired spirits by presenting the sagamores a peck of wampum. When the Nonotuck ( Northampton) Indians, who were connected


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with the Nipmucks by marriage, heard of the Quabaug fight, they gave " eleven triumphant shouts " for the number of the English killed.


The moment the news of the attack upon Quabaug reached Spring- field Major Pynchon sent forward Lieut. Thomas Cooper with twenty-seven horsemen and ten Indians, reenforced by a company from Hartford, under Capt. Thomas Watts ; but the danger was over before their arrival on the 7th. After scouring the surrounding country Cooper returned to Springfield three days later. Willard pressed on to Hadley, which had been selected as the head-quarters of the English commander, and after a stay of a fortnight returned east.


Captains Richard Beers, of Watertown, Thomas Lathrop, of Ips- wich, and Samuel Mosely, of Boston, as well as Major Treat. of Milford, Conn., with some Mohegan Indians, were hurried towards the Massachusetts towns in the Connecticut valley. Beers and Lathrop made a stop at Brookfield, and Pynchon sent Lieut. Samuel Wright to hold Northfield. The whole country was searched for Indians to no purpose. The Indians, in their fort a little below Hatfield, towards Northampton, caused great uneasiness. They were in a sullen mood.


Watts, Lathrop, and Beers had massed their men at Hatfield on the 23d, and, perceiving the temper of the Indians, had demanded a sur- render of their arms. Night came on before anything was done beyond hurried negotiations. Deep in the night an order was sent to North- ampton for a force to cut off the Indians if they escaped in that di- rection, while the Hatfield men were to watch the northern approaches to the fort. The Indians meantime had been holding a powwow ; the young warriors were for war ; there was no time for deliberation. An aged sachem opposed war. He was struck dead in his tracks, and the whole party made a dash for the forests ; they hastened north before daybreak, and the dreadful valley campaign opened. Lathrod and Beers hotly pursued the fugitives, and on the 25th engaged them in battle in a swamp in the town of Hadley and drove them back, losing nine men, and killing about twenty-five.


It was six days later, according to a tradition in Governor Leverett's


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family, that an attack upon Hadley took place during meeting-time, when the outlawed regicide, Colonel Goffe, emerged from his hiding- place, gave the alarm, and led the men to battle and victory. The incident was used by Sir Walter Scott, but is now discredited, owing to the investigations of George Sheldon, of Deerfield.


Northampton, Hatfield, Deerfield, and Northfield were hastily garri- soned. September had opened in blood, as has been noted, with attacks upon Hadley and Deerfield. Captain Beers fell dead, with twenty-one of his men, near Northfield, September 4, while attempting to relieve that place. The Indians lost twenty-five, but the survivors became drunk from the rum found in one of the English casks. Major Treat, at Hadley, who had sent Beers to the north with an in- adequate force, burdened with an ox-team, to carry away the effects at Northfield, hastened forward with one hundred men, September 5. As they approached Squakheag (Northfield) they discovered a range of twenty high poles, on which were stuck the ghastly heads of the Beers party. After the Indians had drunk liberally of the rum found in the ox-cart they plunged into a perfect death revel, even to burning two or three at the stake and hanging a man alive to a tree, with a chain hook caught in his jaw. We have it on good authority that this disaster provoked in the minds of the strug- gling yeomen of that time not so much the instant vows of revenge common to poor human nature, as a fear that the hand of God had set up these bloody impalements as a warning to the people to turn away from pride of rich dress and long hair and the frivolities of a sinful world.


Treat pushed on and brought away the terrified families from Northfield, and upon the return was met by Captain Appleton. There was a small force at this time, at Deerfield, under the command of Captain Mosely, and Lathrop, with ninety of the best fighters, was sent up there to thresh and bring away the grain. The savages, fully aware of the importance of this supply of grain, gathered their forces in the vicinity, and upon the morning of September 18 the supply


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train started for Hadley. Lathrop seemed to think that his Essex troopers were equal to any emergency which the savages might pre- eipitate. In crossing a brook in South Deerfield the soldiers were attracted by some wild grapes, and at this unguarded moment 600 savages made a murderous attack. An ancient oil painting of this event represents the soldiers in the trees gathering the wild grapes, their guns having been put aside. The short story of that day is one of the most revolting in our valley history. Barely seven men es- caped. Mosely hastened on from Deerfield ; Treat, with 150 soldiers and Indians, arrived later in the day and drove away the savages from this dreadful slaughter-place. The bodies of these men, includ- ing Lathrop, were buried the next day on the bank of the brook where they fell, and the murmuring waters of " Bloody Brook " still tell the grim story of that day of death which sent a piteous cry to heaven from every town in New England.


Northfield and Deerfield had been extinguished and 128 lives taken within two months. Almost a panic prevailed in the valley. While King Philip nowhere showed himself in battle, his cunning hand was felt. His runners kept him well informed of the movements of the whites, and his own forces moved in comparative obscurity.


It is difficult to tell how much military authority Major Pynchon had at this time, although he was nominally in command. The United Colonies commissioners seemed to think it was their province to give minute directions as to the defence of the valley. After the Bloody Brook fight the commissioners renewed the order that the army be kept together, even if some towns were left ungarrisoned.


Pynchon did not approve of this, but was unable to meet the emer- gency as a genuine soldier might have done. The game of hide-and- seek in the wilderness was just what King Philip wanted, and Pynchon knew it. He distrnsted the friendly Indians, and by that time even the bravest feared extermination.


Pynchon wrote to the governor September 8th in a thoroughly dis- turbed state of mind. " Is the Lord about to ruin us ?" he asks, " and to


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leave us to be distroyed ? It is matter of lamentation ; some of our people speak of breaking up, and will be gone, and discouragements enough are on all."


Meantime Major Pynchon's desire to be relieved of the duties of a commander-in-chief took the form of a formal request to the council of Massachusetts for a permission to withdraw ; he wrote a private letter to Boston from Hadley, September 30, 1675, in which he said :




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