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 15
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It is to much yt I should still troble you wth my Continued desires for a rebate for ye charge you have laid on me wch I am necessitated to doe yt ye worke may not miscary by so much & unable a manager. It were for better some more thorough & meete Instrument were imployed in ye service & I discharge upon yt very acct : But besides (not to mention some scruples upon my spirit) The dis- tressed state of my affaires at Hom, ye sorrows & afflictions my Deare wife un- dergoes. & her continual calls to me for releife & succor, she being almost over- whelmed with greife & Troble, & in many straites & pplexitys, wch would be somewhat holpen & alleviated by my presence there.
Mr. Pynchon had written his more formal request the day before, and in answer to this he was relieved of his military command Oeto- ber 4, and Captain Samuel Appleton chosen as his successor. Before this change was announced at Hadley stirring events had taken place.
Our Agawam Indians had up to this time remained quietly in their wigwams on the river-side, and in their fort that overlooked the beautiful bend of the river. This fort was situated upon what is known as the Storrs lot, on the old Long Hill road, below Mill River. The owner of this property sixty years ago (Chester Osborne) named it Fort Pleasant, and took much interest in identifying the Indian landmarks. A little plateau on a prominent spur of a hill, with abrupt declination shaped like a sharply truncated cone, afforded natural advantages for a fort. There is a deep ra- vine on the south side, which was probably the fortified approach to the fort. Many stone arrow-heads and hatchets have been found in this ravine, and on the plateau pottery and pestles for bruising
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corn have been turned up by the plough. It has been assumed by some that only a part of this plateau was included in the fort. The capacity of the fort, however, was sufficient to shelter at least four hundred Indians, and as the rule of the Algonquins was to build a pali- sade of sufficient size to admit the putting up of rows of little round wigwams made by concentring poles, covered with skins or bark, it is fair to conclude that the whole brow of this hill was surrounded by a stockade. The neck joining it with the main land was but a few rods wide, and a living spring in the ravine furnished an abundant supply of water. Upon the north side of the hill stands to this day an ancient chestnut-tree. Its gnarled limbs, hollow trunk, and rugged bark indicate an antiquity quite sufficient to have been flourishing at the time of King Philip's war. Artists have painted it, tourists have climbed the hill to look at it, and it is withal a sacred though speech- less monument of the local past.
The inhabitants of this section were now thoroughly roused to a sense of danger. "Our English," wrote Major Pynchon from Hadley, as far back as September 30, "are weak and fearful in scouting and spying, though we do the best we can." Two weeks before that the Massachusetts council, recognizing the danger of a contagious panic, had written Major Willard, at Brookfield, to ride over to Springfield, and " give Major Pynchon a visit and encourage him and the people in those parts." It was only after the whole valley was aroused that any definite precautions were taken against the Agawams in the shape of hostages, which were exacted and sent to Hartford for safe keeping.
There were at the beginning of the war communities of praying Indians, who refrained from going on the war-path. John Eliot, in a letter dated December 10, 1675, says : " Another great company of our new praying Indians of Nipmuck fled at the beginning of the war, first to Connecticut, offered themselves to M' Pinchon, one of our magistrates, but he (though willing) could not receive them. They fled from thence to Unkas (who is not in hostility to the English)
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and I hope they be there." The Agawams could not be called pray- ing Indians, but faith in them was quite as strong at first.
On Monday morning, October 4, 1675, Major Pynchon, following the direction of the commissioners, rode at the head of a company of troopers to Hadley, where he proposed, with others, to arrange for a hot pursuit of the enemy. But King Philip was not longing for a pitched battle. He undoubtedly knew of this move, and may have been waiting for it, as over two weeks had passed in silence since the Bloody Brook fight.
But the Agawam Indians had been secretly prevailed npon to join in the war of extermination. At the dead of night a large num- ber of warriors stole into the fort of the Agawams on Long Hill. Historians doubt very much whether King Philip commanded this expedition in person. Mosely said at the time that he did, but upon what evidence is not known. The fort may have been filling up for some nights, or runners may have brought the news before, for some Agawams had been down to Hartford and effected the escape of the hostages held there. Upon their way back the word was passed among the Indians that Springfield was doomed. Toto, an Indian living with a Windsor family, became agitated on the night of the 4th, and the family succeeded in extracting from him the terrible secret. It was long after dark when Toto made the confession, and in post-haste a man was sent to carry the news to Springfield. He rode into town at the dead of night, and roused the inhabitants, who were doubly terrified, the soldiers having gone off on the Hadley cam- paign. The alarm was sounded at every door in the village. What few men there were seized their guns and ammunition, and with all haste escorted the women and children to the three garrison-houses of the place, which had been recently repaired and fortified. It was a night of dramatic consternation. Among the men known to have been in Springfield at that time were the disabled Deacon Chapin, Jonathan Burt, Rev. Mr. Glover, David Morgan, Lieutenant Cooper, and Thomas Miller. Messengers were at once despatched to Pynchon,
INDIANS FROM THE STOCKADE PREPARE TO BURN SPRINGFIELD, 1675.
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at Hadley, and to Captain Treat, then at Westfield. Mr. Glover succeeded in transferring his " brave" library to Mr. Pynchon's house, and Tuesday's sun rose with a community of empty houses, - all but three, and those uncomfortably full. With the morning meal, and possibly some religions services in the three forts, courage re- turned, and Lieutenant Cooper went so far as to discredit Toto and his frightful secret. Mr. Glover was easily convinced, and carried his library back to the minister's house, and very likely others paid visits to their homes in order to complete their dressing, made in such undignified haste during the night.
Lieutenant Cooper knew by name every Indian of the Agawams, he having been for over a quarter of a century a familiar figure among them. Sometimes he would apprehend one of them, as an officer of the law ; sometimes he would aid them by loans of seed or utensils. He had, personally, no fear of the Agawams, and he induced Thomas Miller, who was always ready for adventure, to accompany him to the fort quite early in the morning. In less than half an hour from the start the horse of Cooper returned on a full run up the village street from Mill river. Upon his back was his bleeding master clinging in the saddle. The horse ran directly toward the Pynchon house from which he had started, and when he stopped at the door Cooper fell to the ground dead. Miller was killed at the first volley from the Indians, just as they were entering the woods this side of Mill river.
The dreadful secret was out. Springfield had indeed been set apart for fire and slaughter. The Indians were already making the air dismal with their yells. Some of Mr. Pynchon's mills at the South End were soon in ashes. The wife of John Matthews who lived at the South End was probably found at her home and there butchered. The torch was applied to the deserted houses by the excited savages that poured through the street in great numbers. At the head of the horde the astonished planters saw the old sachem of the Springfield Indians, the friend of the whites, - Wequogan, whose
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name figures in the unsigned Indian deed referred to at the opening of the chapter. He was sometimes called Wrutherna, a name at- tached to the original Indian deed of 1636. If it was the same person who knew William Pynchon and had been the recipient of his liberality, if not his bounty, the sachem's treachery was all the more marked, and it may be here said that he was probably killed in battle a year later at Dedham.
One party fired the house of correction on the hill, and after the flames were leaping from thirty-three houses and from twenty-five barns, the savages seemed determined on more blood, but the three houses were too well built and defended for the Indian mode of attack. An importunate savage having secured a pewter platter held it before him and marched toward one of the houses, but it only served as a guide to the bullets that pierced his heart. This platter, with two bullet-holes, was owned by Joseph Ferre, but a domestic sold it to a junk-dealer about thirty years ago.
The Indians secured rich plunder but little blood upon this dread- ful 5th of October. Edmund Pringrydays was fatally wounded, and about noon David Morgan received a bullet wound in his neck, while attempting with others to bring over some of Major Treat's soldiers who had arrived in great haste on the West Springfield bank. The Indians had little trouble in keeping the reinforcements at bay, but three hours later Major Pynchon and Captain Appleton with 200 troopers rode into Springfield on a dead run all the way from Had- ley ; but all that was left for them to do was to scare off the In- dians, who had no notion of joining battle. They were heavily laden with plunder. The ashes of the town was the evidence of their wrath, and off they went into the forest.
The Indians retired with their booty to Indian Leap ( Indian Orchard), built up twenty-four fires on that naturally fortified spot. overhanging the waters, slept in perfect security, and awoke in triumph ; but Springfield slept in smoke and danger, and awoke in fear. The town never knew a darker day.
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An Indian squaw was captured by the English, and she said that there were 270 warriors in the attack upon Springfield. It is prob- ably nearer the truth than the 600 which some writers claim. Rev. Mr. Russell, of Hadley, even considered 270 too high. The captured squaw said that King Philip intended to burn three towns in one day, and his divided army makes the smaller estimates as to the force at Springfield seem more probable. This squaw, by the way, had a terrible fate, according to Mosely, who writes: "This aforesaid Indian was ordered to be torn to peeces by Doggs and she was soe dealt withall." Mosely was a typical Indian-hater. We decline to believe that this was done by the order of the English, who received too much valuable information from captured Indians to kill them after such service. If the squaw had returned to her people and suffered death for serving the English, that story might be believed.
The opinion was general, at first, that Springfield had received its death-blow. Winter was approaching and retreat seemed inevitable. Mr. Pynchon so wrote the Massachusetts authorities. Not a house nor a barn was standing between Round Hill and Mr. Pynchon's house, except that of William Branch. While Pynchon's garrison-house was saved, the Indians had levelled his barns and ont-buildings, thus destroying much hay and grain. Many of Pynchon's neighbors owed him money, and this, with mills and property outside destroyed, almost bowed him down with sorrow. There were a few houses standing about the old meeting-house, but otherwise there was a blackened district between that and Mr. Pynchon's, the losses in- clnding the minister's house and Mr. Hitchcock's. From Mr. Mir- rick's place to the garrison-houses in lower Main street was another burned district. Mr. Pynchon had quite a property in that part of the town, -grist and corn mills, four tenement-houses, - all de- stroyed, with possibly one mill, and with them much corn. " Ye Ld shew mercy to us," writes the down-hearted magistrate, "I see not how it is Possible for us to live here this winter If so the sooner we were holpen off ye Better." There were left standing fifteen houses
MAJ. JOHN PYNCHON'S RIDE.
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on the street, and in all, with those in the outskirts and over the river, about forty-five survived the attack. That is, forty-five occu- pied houses had to accommodate forty families more, as well as a garri- son of two hundred soldiers. They were in great need of medicine for the wounded, and provisions were scarce. Several whose houses were saved lost their goods in other houses, whither they had carried them on the night of the 4th. The soldiers, many of them from the east, complained that there was no bread to be had, but meat seemed to be plenty. Major Treat was called upon by the Connecticut authorities to hasten south for the defence of the towns below. The "Worshipful Major " was alive to the unmilitary move in leaving Springfield undefended. and in his report of October 8 to the Bay anthorities he takes occasion to refer to his calling off the soldiers to Hadley, "leaving none to secure ye Towne bee ye commissioners order was so strict." He was not aware at this time that he had been superseded in command, and he says : " To speake my thoughts, all these Townes ought to be Garrisoned, as I have formerly hinted & had I bin left to my selfe I should I think have done yt wch possibly might have prvented this damage."
The loss of Lientenant Cooper was severely felt. For many years he had been a wheel-horse in the town affairs. He was auditor of the selectmen's accounts at the time of his death. Ilis various accom- plishments showed how wide were the demands upon the early dwellers. He was a practising attorney before the County Court ; he was a practical carpenter and farmer ; he was a bone-setter and a surveyor ; he had been a deputy at the General Court, and townsman, and had been an invaluable agent in dealing with the Indians. His descendants may well place him beside the good and noble Deacon Samuel Chapin as a pillar of the town. His deeds fully warrant it. Thomas Miller was constable of the town when shot.
It is one of the admirable traits in the men of these times that they did not for a moment lose an abiding faith in the religion they had come here to spread. They might think of abandoning the
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plantation, but not the gospel ; and the words of Pynchon to his son Joseph, written October 20 of this dreadful year, were the words of Springfield : "How sweet is our interest in JJesus Christ in these distracting tymes ! "
John Pynchon was of a sensitive nature, and he was a great suf- ferer, personally, under this affliction. When he first began his ap- peals to Boston to be relieved of his military post, he had referred among other things to the " lashes of the tongues of men " against him, and his sharp sense of the foolishness of the Hadley expedition was not a bit lessened by the plea that he had done a rash thing even though under strict orders. A bolder man - his father, for example - would have chosen rather to stand the ordeal of explaining to his superiors how he saved the town by disobeying orders.
Captain Appleton received from Lieutenant Upham the news of his promotion to the command of the valley forces, and on the 12th re- turned to Hadley, where he wrote Governor Leverett that he proposed to use his own judgment about garrisoning the towns. He spoke feel- ingly of Major Pynchon's misfortunes, but opposed the idea of aban- doning Springfield. He continued : "As to the state of poor desolate Springfeild, to whose relief we came (though with a march that had put all our men into a most violent sweat, and was more than they could well bear) too late, their condition is indeed most afflictive . I have in regard to ye present distress of ye poor people, adventured to leave Capt. Sill there, to be ordered by the Hon. Major until further order be received. What hazard I run, I am not insensible, but do rather choose to adventure hazard to myself than to the public, and so throw myself on your worship's mercy in so doing . . . In the account of Springfeild houses we only presented the number of them on the East side of the river, and that in the town flatt; for in all on the West side, and in the outskirts on the East side, there are about sixty houses standing, and much room in and about them : which coming into the Indians' hands will yield great support to them. We had been considering the making of a boat or boats, and find it not de-
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sirable ; first, because the river is not navigable, and so none made here can be had up. Secondly, should we make any above the falls, there must be an army to guard the workmen in the work : - Thirdly, we find exceedingly hard, by any provision, to secure our men in the boats by reason that the high banks of the river giving the enemy so great advantage of shooting downward upon us."
Three days after the above letter was penned Edward Rawson wrote Major Pynchon, by order of the Massachusetts Council, explaining that the order of the Commissioners concentrating the troops did " not, in the least, obstruct your quartering of soldiers in such wise as may be for your greatest security, nor did it enforce your drawing them off to so great a disadvantage as hath happened."
This 'attempt to escape the responsibility of the burning of Spring- field reads very strangely in face of express military orders, and Major Pynchon's frequent protests against such a policy. Still, Pynchon should share the blame of the disaster, as he ought to have taken the responsibility of using the natural means of self-defence within his reach.
The General Court, immediately after the burning of Springfield, issued a military manual for the government of the army in the field. This was the first provision of the code : " Let no man presume to blaspheme the holy & blessed Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, upon payne to have his Tongue bored with a hott iron."
Appleton was a man of pronounced character. Indeed, he had lost his seat in the General Court because he had signed in 1666 the peti- tion from Ipswich recommending submission to the King's order to send agents to his Majesty at once. The mark of favor shown him after being so long under a cloud did not lessen the courage of his convictions. He deplored the commissioners' plan of defending the valley by concentrating troops. He followed ont the declarations in his letter to his superiors, and distributed his little army in a way to protect all the towns.
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Hartford sent up some ammunition to Springfield just in the nick of time, the stock up the river being very low.
The destruction of the mills forced Springfield to go to Westfield for flour, which was a very dangerous journey at that time, and the withdrawal of Treat and his Connecticut soldiers added to Appleton's embarrassment. Appleton sent to Hartford calling upon the anthor- ities once more to send him reinforcements. It appears that besides the alarm over a reported advance of savages in that colony, there was a disposition to look out for number one, because Plymouth had neglected to send its quota of troops.
Scouts were sent in all directions from Hadley, to secure some trace of the enemy. The men were affected with "timorousness," as they had been when Major Pynchon was in command, and nothing came of it. After two days Appleton became very uneasy. On the 14th of October, Mosely at Hatfield, and Seeley at Northampton, were or- dered to report at Hadley for action. Mosely, with his company, were soon on the ground, and Seeley came alone and doubted the le- gality of the order. A new one was made out, to appear on the 15th. That night he sent a message from Northampton to Hadley, saying that Major Treat had ordered him to remain at Northampton until further orders. Seeley was a Connecticut officer, and his force Con- necticut men. Here was a conflict of authority, growing out of the apparent refusal of Connecticut to fight in Massachusetts because Plymouth had failed to respond.
On the 16th Appleton started with some Massachusetts troops for Northfield, but a messenger overtook him with word that the In- dians had appeared on the west side of the river. He immediately crossed, marched to Hatfield, and pushed on north by night. The report of a gun showed that the enemy was near. Appleton proposed to advance to Deerfield. Mosely did not want to get so far from the towns. A thunder-storm finally forced them back to Hatfield. It seemed that Philip was at Deerfield, and that his scouts were lurking about Hadley, Hatfield, and Northampton, watching a chance for an
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attack. On the evening of the 17th Appleton, then at Hadley, was beset with couriers. Seeley sent from Northampton for aid, as the enemy had been seen there ; Mosely reported the Indians within a mile of Hatfield ; and word came from Connecticut that troops would be sent up the river at once. Detachments were sent to Hatfield and Northampton that night. The Indians failed to attack, but on October 19th the forces of the great Pokanoket chief, flushed with the destruction of four towns and almost unlimited plunder, closed in upon Hatfield with a large force. Mosely and Poole bravely de- fended the town, and Appleton, hearing the sound of battle from Hadley, dashed to the rescue. The Indians outnumbered the whites three to one, but the place was saved. Only about nine of the English fell.
The fighting season was now over. The winter closed in early, and many Springfield families probably were forced to live in closed cellars and dug-outs. Some of the Indians went east ; many, especially the aged, wintered above Northfield ; and Philip, with a band of about five hundred, pushed over to the Hudson river. He was a sick man, and although he survived to do much harm, his career was drawing to a close.
The second year in King Philip's war is in the main but re- motely connected with Springfield. The new board of selectmen were Ensign Cooley, Jonathan Burt, John Keep, John Hitchcock, and Eli- zur Holyoke. The winter was passed in a state of practical impris- onment for fear of skulking Indians. Mr. Pynchon visited Westfield, where the mills were, with Goodman Dumbleton and two young men, and three men were killed by Indians. Mr. Pynchon attended the May General Court, and was chairman of a committee to consult with Captain Mosely as to the military situation.
A new valuation for Springfield was ordered on account of the fire, and later in the year £150 was taken from the colony tax on account of Springfield's losses. In February the town met to elect a select- man, "God having taken away Captain Holyoke." Samuel Marsh-
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field was elected to fill his place. The brave Samuel Holyoke was made " Clarke of ye writts."
The Longmeadow settlers were not able to visit the village on Sun- day to attend service. In March a party attended by a guard ven- tured to make the journey. They were attacked by eight Indians, and Selectman Keep, his wife and child, killed, and several wounded. There was a story told at Boston at the time that the guard took to their heels the moment the Indians fired. Major Pynchon pursued the savages with a company of horse, but to no purpose. Anthony Dorchester was chosen as Keep's successor.
The snow suddenly disappeared in the latter part of January, and a kind Providence gave the planters a mild winter and early spring. The discovery of the treachery of the Narragansetts and the destruc- tion of their fort, with slaughter far more dreadful than that of the Pe- quot fort, sent hundreds of savages again into the Connecticut valley, who met the desperate King Philip. In the latter part of March Ca- nonchet, together with Sancumachu, a Nonotuck sachem, to whom the Agawams had acknowledged sovereignty, were with Philip a few miles above Northfield. Canonchet lost his head while attempting to bring seed-corn from the Narragansett country ; but the maid of Quinnapin, who undertook the errand, was more successful, bringing away a peck and a half of seed. They then scattered into planting and fishing parties to provide against famine. Hatfield, Northamp- ton, and Hadley were garrisoned. An Indian attack on Northampton in the middle of March was successfully resisted. The Massachusetts council renewed its advice about the concentration of forces, sug- gested Springfield as the best place to fortify, and directed the aban- donment of Westfield. Protests were sent to Boston from the various towns ; Westfield in town-meeting voted that the inhabitants were ready to go down the river if properly protected by soldiers, but re- fused to remove to Springfield, although they would like to do it for the " worshipful Major Pynchon's sake." The assertion of some writers, that Westfield did not want to go to Connecticut, but
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