USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Springfield > The history of Springfield in Massachusetts for the young; being also in some part the history of other towns and cities in the county of Hampden > Part 4
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One of the most interesting trials that ever took place in Springfield occurred in the last years in which Judge William Pynchon held Court. It was the trial of Hugh Parsons for witchcraft. In England many thousand people had been hanged because they were thought to be witches in league with the evil one to injure others. In Springfield this suspicion fell on Hugh Parsons, whose house was at the south end of the street, near Mill river.
Witches were always supposed to be ugly in appearance. Parsons was not a very agreeable man and probably not good
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WITCHCRAFT
looking. He was a brick mason and used to wear a red coat. Having, for some reason, got provoked with Blanche Bedortha, he said to her, "Gammer, I shall remember you when you little think on it." Parsons probably forget all about it, but no so Blanche Bedortha. She kept thinking of him and wondering if he was casting the evil eye upon her. Everything strange
WITCHES.
that happened she laid to Hugh Parsons aided by the devil. She looked out on the marsh, where Mill river entered the Connecticut and saw strange lights. No doubt it was innocent " Will-o-the-Wisp." One night, when she went to bed in the dark, some sparks came from her flannel waistcoat, such little sparks as electricity brings in cold weather. But she knew nothing of phosphorescence and electricity; neither did her neighbors; so they began to think that Hugh Parsons was really a witch. The belief spread up the street, encouraged by every trifling coincidence. Parsons called at Mr. Edwards house for milk and soon after the cow dried up. George Lancton took a bag pudding out of the pot and, laying it on
1 1
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12.
٦٠٠
Nur .
.
" AH, WITCH! AH, WITCH!"
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WITCHCRAFT
the table, it separated right in the middle. Jonathan Taylor dreamed that he saw snakes on the floor and that one of them with a black and yellow stripe hit him on the forehead, when a voice like that of Parsons seemed to cry "Death."
By this time the excitement was great and Parsons was arrested. As the constable was taking him past the house of Goody Stebbins, (where is now the southeast corner of Court Square), on the way to Judge Pynchon's, she cried out, "Ah, witch! Ah, witch!"' and fell in a fit. At the hearing before the Court it was decided that, on account of the im- portance of the case, Parsons must be sent to Boston where he would be tried on the charge of having "had familiar and wicked converse with the devil." His trial was accordingly held there and he was convicted by the jury, but he was finally acquitted by the General Court. Naturally he never returned to Springfield. In the picture the course of the town brook is seen and, in the distance, the wooded heights of the upper terrace from Crescent Hill to Fort Pleasant avenue.
John Pynchon, the first judge, the fair recorder, the honest dealer, the able manager with the Indians, the godly teacher in a pulpit that had no minister, lived through all the events narrated in the next two chapters. In these he appears as the brave captain, major and colonel. "Major" was the title by which he came to be generally known. As he grew old such was the respect in which he was held and the gratitude that in the dark days when his father and mother had left the plantation, he had remained to be its protector, leader and friend, that he is described in the old records as "the worship- ful Major," "the worshipful Colonel" and as "the worshipful Major Pynchon, Esquire." His residence was in a house which stood on Main street, near the corner of the present Fort street, a house of brick, built by him and designed partly for defence
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HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD
in war, so that it came at last to be known as "the old fort." Attached to the rear of it was a part of the old wooden building in which his father lived.
EX LIBRIS
The old fort stood until 1831, but nothing remains The Connecticut Valley Hiftorical Society of these relics of the past, except a box made from the wood of the wooden house and a hinge from one of its doors. These are the property of the Con- necticut Valley Historical Society. Major Pynchon, honored and loved, lived to a good old age and died in 1703. A good picture of his house is given on this page in the book plate of the Historical Society. The view behind the house as in old times takes in the river and the West Springfield meadows. Besides the Indian and the Puritan, the steeple of the First church is seen from another point of view, with Mount Tom in the distance. The plate was designed by Clare Gardner, once a pupil of the Springfield schools.
CHAPTER IV.
KING PHILIP'S WAR AND ITS CAUSES .- BATTLES AND BURNINGS IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.
U P TO the time at which we have now arrived there had been peace between the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth on the one hand and the various Indian tribes on the other. In the Connecticut colony there had been a war so bitterly waged by the whites, aided by their allies, the Mohegan Indians, that it had resulted in the utter destruc- tion of the Pequot tribe. The Pequot war happened about the time of the settle- ment of Springfield and though it made the settlers in this part of the valley very cau- tious in dealing with the In- dians, and taught them that they lived in the midst of danger, yet nothing hostile occurred. Massasoit, the fa- mous chief of the Wampa- noags, was a neighbor of the Plymouth colonists and had always been their friend. The Narragansetts, who lived in Rhode Island, influenced by KING PHILIP. From "Indian History for Young Folks" by Francis S. Drake. Copyright 1884 by Harper and Bros. the good will of Roger Wil- liams for them, had kept the peace after the close of the Pequot war.
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HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD
The tribes of the interior,-those living in what is now Worcester county and in that part of the valley extending from Hartford to Northampton,-were known by the general name of Nipmucks or "fresh water" Indians. They were small tribes, apparently independent of each other, and having each a chief, or sachem, who was advised by a few others of the most knowing of the tribe called Sagamores. The Indians who lived at the mouth of the Agawam, and had their fort, where, perhaps, they spent the winter, on Long Hill, were called the Agawams. They were about two hundred in number and their sachem was Wequogan.
It was only natural that when the whites of these colonies were so few in number they should make every effort to make friends with the Indians. Possessed as they were with fire- arms and the arts of civilization they were but weak, living in a wilderness among so many savages. Besides, they were taught by their religion that the Indian was a brother man to whom it was their duty to bring the blessings of the white man's religion.
There were men like John Eliot and Daniel Brainerd, who suffered great hardships and underwent much toil in order to get the Indians to accept Christianity. In fact they were reasonably successful, for in fifty years after the Pilgrims had landed on Plymouth rock, there were as many as two thousand "praying Indians." Some of these were sincerely religious but all were called "praying Indians" who had begun to desert savage life and attached themselves in friendship and service to the whites, showing a willingness to learn the civilized way of living. They afterwards showed their good will by taking English names. There was, for example, in the Plymouth colony an Indian named Toto, who went by the name of Sam Barrow, probably because of his friendly
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connection with a family of that name. Massasoit took his two boys, Wamsutta and Metacomet, to the governor, re- questing that they be given English names. They were therefore named respectively, Alexander and Philip. It was this Philip who figures so largely in this and the succeeding chapter.
But, sad to relate, not all the whites were good to the Indians. Many bad men came to America and settled in the colonies. William Pynchon and his companions realized what might be the evil results of this in various ways and for many years no one was allowed to settle in Springfield who was not acceptable to the town. For a new settler someone had to become responsible that he would behave himself. In the seacoast towns this was not so easy. Consequently troubles arose and the whites sometimes bore themselves proudly towards the Indians. This, of course, irritated the Indians, for they felt that they had courteously allowed the whites to settle in their country and were entitled to respectful treatment. Here is an example of what happened.
There was a sachem named Squando, chief of the Soko- nokis and a man of nobility and character. One day his wife was paddling down the river Saco in a canoe with her infant child. Some English sailors, coming along in a boat, said that they had heard that Indian children could swim like young ducks, and proceeded to upset the canoe. The child sank, at once, to the bottom of the river; the mother, by diving, brought it up, but although alive, it died shortly after. This, of course, was an extreme case but it illustrates the wicked way in which the more ignorant or grosser members of a superior race sometimes look down upon and annoy those of a weaker race.
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There were also, on the part of the Indians, those things that annoyed the whites. The Indians were inclined to thiev- ing; neither did they feel the importance of telling the truth. A long training in civilized life had taught the whites that truth telling is not only right but that without it business cannot well go on. The mind of a savage does not understand this; so that, as was said by Mr. Moxon, the first minister of this town, "An Indian's promise is like taking a pig by the tail."
But without regard to the right and the wrong in the character of the white man or the red man, there was another cause, perhaps enough in itself, to lead at some time to a union of Indians against the whites, provided any leader should appear great enough to unite them. The whites came more and more to possess the land. It is true that they bought it of the Indians and at a price that seemed fair to both parties ; but, all the same, the Indians saw their hunting grounds dis- appearing and the game growing more scarce. They were trained to hunt and not to dig; all the corn was raised by the women. Besides, if the praying Indians kept on increasing, the true glory, as they understood it, of the Indian character would be gone. No more war; no more scalping; no more of that wild life which they so thoroughly enjoyed. Instead of Indian braves there would only be peaceable Indian farmers. Today there are, on the Indian reservations, farmers, pros- perous and happy, having pianos and sewing machines in their comfortable homes: but an Indian, of colonial days, if he could have foreseen this as possible, would not have had it so, simply because he was born a wild Indian in a wigwam. A tame fox may be petted and well fed, but a wild fox, half starved, as he generally is, would never choose to become a tame one.
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So, after fifty years had passed since the settlement of Plymouth, the Indians were reasoning among themselves in this way: "Now is our time. If we do not at once unite our scattered tribes and destroy the English, they will, in the end, starve us out. They will soon grow so powerful that resist- ance would be hopeless. It is true that we cannot fight as they do. They have plenty of firearms and we must depend partly on our bows and arrows, but then we need not meet them in open battle. We can worry them out, we can shoot and poison their cattle, burn their houses and barns, and lie in wait for them in their fields and in the forest paths. When the men are away from home we can tomahawk the women and children. They may be more numerous than we are, but, in this way, we can in time destroy them all or drive them back whence they came."
Some of the old sagamores gave different counsel, but this was the spirit that possessed the younger men of the tribes in Massachusetts. The disastrous Pequot war in Connecticut had taught the Mohegans that such reasonings were in vain and, under the leadership of the wily Uncas, they had been for a long time the allies of the English and were prepared to join with them even in war against their own race.
To bring all this unfriendly feeling against the whites to a head, there was needed a warrior, who by his personal qualities, could unite under him the various tribes. Such a man was Metacomet, Massasoit's son, called Philip by the English. He had now become chief of the Wampanoags and was thoroughly convinced of the importance of making a stand against the whites. He is known in history as King Philip, and indeed, he had many kingly qualities. He was large in stature, of commanding appearance, agile and swift- footed as any Indian brave, and of superb muscular training.
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As a leader he was quick to see and to do; and what he did not think safe or wise for himself to do he knew how to set others on doing.
After war was once begun he would appear, now in south- eastern Massachusetts, now in Rhode Island and all at once in the Connecticut valley, like an angel of death, unseen in his coming or going, but his presence always recognized by the sign of burning villages and slaughtered English. He was, like other Indians, treacherous; yet, toward those who had befriended him personally, he proved, in the war, to be kind and magnanimous. Before an attack on a certain town, he directed that two small children of an old friend, should be spared; and he would not let Scituate be destroyed because in that town lived a family of Leonards who had befriended him.
Perhaps nothing could make Philip more impressive than he was by nature; nevertheless on state occasions, it was his habit to assume a certain splendor of decoration. One of his decorations was a belt about ten feet long which went over his shoulders and being brought forward, hung down before him, nearly to his feet. It was embroidered with black and white wampum in figures of beasts, birds and flowers. Still another belt embroidered was placed on the head and hung down behind, and a third, ornamented with the figure of a star, was worn on the breast. These belts were edged with the red fur of some animal.
The war began in June, 1675, within Plymouth colony, not far from Mount Hope, Philip's residence. Several villages were laid waste and some soldiers killed; but on the whole, thanks to the vigilance of Captain Church, a skillful Indian fighter, Philip was not very successful; so that he and his warriors were fortunate in escaping to the region of the
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Connecticut valley, where the settlements, being more sepa- rated, could be easier attacked.
It was in early August that a horseman came riding in hot haste into the Main street of Springfield, announcing to the excited inhabitants that their neighbors of Brookfield, thirty miles away, were in great dis- tress. The horseman was Judah Trumbull. He had left Springfield but a few hours before. Arriving at Brook- field he had found the village in flames and the villagers penned up in a single house, fighting for their lives against a horde of savages who were besieging JUDAH TRUMBULL'S RIDE. it. Concealing himself, Trumbull crept up near enough to take in the situ- ation, then rushed to Springfield, as fast as his horse could carry him.
Lieutenant Cooper immediately raised a troop of horse- men and hurried to Brookfield. On arriving he found that help had just come from another source. The Brookfield people were saved; but sad was their story. They had all, eighty-three in number, including women and children, gathered in a fortified house. To this the Indians tried to set fire in the hope of killing the inmates as they rushed out. To this end hay and fagots were piled against the side of the house and fired; but the blaze was put out from within. Blazing arrows were then shot upon the roof; but holes were
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cut in the roof and the fire put out. More water being wanted, a man who went to the well after it was shot. A woman, too, was killed by a bullet that entered through a loophole made for firing a musket from within. In a last effort to fire the house the Indians got a cart, lengthened the tongue or pole by splicing on other poles and, loading it with combus- tibles, set it on fire. Then they tried to push it against the
THE ATTACK ON BROOKFIELD.
house, but one wheel getting caught in a rut, the cart turned round and exposed those who pushed it to shots from the house. A shower, just then coming up, extinguished the fire.
Brookfield having been destroyed, it was naturally to be expected that Philip would now give his attention to the settlements up and down the valley. None knew whose turn would come next. Springfield was no longer the northern settlement. Above were Hadley and Northampton, Hatfield
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and Deerfield, and still further north, Northfield, the most exposed of all. The only settlement to the west, in the valley, was Westfield. Of all the forces in the valley Major Pynchon had command, and in each town of course there was a military company. In his plans Major Pynchon showed more wisdom than the commissioners of the united colonies, who had general charge of the war. He proposed to disarm the peaceful Indians, like the Agawams, before they had a chance to do mischief.
It was decided first to disarm the Nonotucks who lived near Northampton. For this purpose, two companies, under Captain Lathrop and Captain Beers, after relieving Brookfield, were marching thence northwards when they overtook the enemy near Mount Sugarloaf. The Indians suddenly stopped, plunged into a swamp, and poured a volley of bullets into the English. Into the swamp rushed the troops and, shelter- ing themselves behind trees, they and the savages fought for three hours. In this, the battle of Hopewell Swamp, a number were killed on both sides.
Then followed an attack on Deerfield and next on North- field, under the command of Sagamore Sam and One-Eyed John. Some of the inhabitants of Northfield were killed and eventually the settlement was abandoned for the rest of the war. While Captain Beers and his company were marching to the relief of Northfield they fell into an ambush. An ambush was a favorite mode of warfare with Indians. They would carefully pick out some narrow passage, through which they believed their enemy would go, where, concealing them- selves behind rocks and trees, and waiting until the enemy were so far in the pass as to make retreat difficult, they would make a sudden and deadly onslaught. Captain Beers and his force were thus caught while they were crossing a brook.
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Thrown at first into confusion, they finally rallied and fought their way out of the ravine. Then on a slope of a hill, now known as Beers mountain, they made a last desperate resist- ance; but the Captain and most of his company were killed. A few days afterwards, when Major Treat came along, he saw the heads of the slain stuck on poles by the travelled path, the sign and threat of Indian vengeance.
About the middle of September Captain Appleton with his company were marching from Deerfield to Hadley. In the
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11
nutinh
This cut is from "The Little Reader's Assistant," by Noah Webster, author of the Dictionary. It shows the clever escape of an Indian ally of the whites who, being pursued by one of King Philip's men, hid behind a rock and, raising his headgear on the barrel of his gun, drew the fire of his enemy. To reload the gun, a flint lock, took so much time that the first Indian escaped.
neighborhood of Mount Sugarloaf they stopped by a brook to pick the wild grapes that hung temptingly on the vines about them. It was an excellent place for an am- bush and the Indians well
knew it. No sooner were the troops scattered and their arms laid aside than the very bushes seemed on fire from the guns of, perhaps, hundreds of Indians, Pocumtucks, Nonotucks, Nashaways, Squakheags, led by Sagamore Sam, One-Eyed John, Muttaump, and, quite likely, Philip himself. The slaughter was well nigh complete. Almost the only person who escaped had thrown himself into the bed of the brook
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and pulled the bushes over him. Although stepped on by more than one Indian, he lay quiet until all was over. This conflict is known as the battle of Bloody Brook. A monument near by now marks the burial place of the slain.
CRADLE OF THE PYNCHON FAMILY. NOW IN THE OLD DAY HOUSE.
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THE STATUE OF THE PURITAN IN MERRICK PARK
With sober foot unswerving, lip severe,
And lid that droops to shield the inner sight;
Dark-browed, stern-willed, a shadow in the light Of alien times, and yet no alien here;
Revered and dreaded, loved, but yet with fear ; He moves, the somber shade of that old night Whenee grew our morn, the ghost of that grim might That nursed to strength the Nation's youth austerc. Mark the grave thought that lines the hollow cheek. The hardy hand that guards the sacred book,
The sinewy limb, and what the thin lips speak Of iron will to mould the era -look
In reverence, and as ye mutely scan
The heroic figure, see, rough-limned, a man! -Whitmore, 1852-
DEACON SAMUEL CHAPIN
-
)
1
THE INDIAN STOCKADE ON LONG HILL AS IT PROBABLY APPEARED, LOOKING S. E.
CHAPTER V.
KING PHILIP'S WAR CONTINUED .- THE BURNING OF SPRINGFIELD .- CAPT. HOLYOKE AND THE FALLS FIGHT .- CLOSE OF THE WAR.
1 HE war was by this time well begun throughout the two colonies. The upper settlements of the Connecticut seemed to be at the mercy of the savages. They were now gathering in the neighborhood of Hadley, which appar- ently was to be the next point of attack. It was to Hadley therefore that the English soldiers were sent. Major Pynchon believed that some troops should nevertheless be left in the
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other settlements for fear of a surprise; but the commissioners of the colonies made the mistake of not taking his advice. In another respect he was overruled. With his usual fore- sight and knowledge of Indian character he had suggested that the Agawams should be deprived of their firearms and a permanent guard placed in their fort. They were as yet peaceable and, being few in number, it could have been easily done. But he was obliged to content himself with taking a few hostages, who were then sent by him to Hartford for safer keeping.
The gathering of troops at Hadley of course required Major Pynchon's presence there as commander of the army in the valley, and in accordance with orders he felt obliged to take with him nearly all the able-bodied men. Scarcely any men were left in the town, except a few old men, like Deacon Chapin, who was then in his last sickness, and boys under eighteen.
Springfield's defenceless condition and importance gave Philip his opportunity. Through spies he knew what was going on. The blow was not to fall on Hadley, after all. To join forces with the Agawams, in the Long Hill stockade, was easy. He had only to hurry his light-footed braves down the line of the desolate Wilbraham hills and no one would be the wiser till it was too late. The farm houses of the open country were few and scattered and the occupants had fled into the villages for protection.
By what defences had Springfield been made ready for an Indian onslaught? Major Pynchon and his fellow townsmen had their own way in this respect and they were fairly prepared. The Pynchon house, by its construction, being of brick with walls two feet in thickness, was in itself a good defence. There were two other houses in the lower part of the street,
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which, although built of wood, were especially protected against assault. Into these the inhabitants could flee. The ordinary means of garrisoning houses was by palisades.
A palisade was made in this way. Trees of convenient size were cut to such a length that when placed firmly in the ground they would rise above it to the length of ten or twelve feet. Having been roughly hewn to a post-like form, or, if the work was hurried, perhaps not hewn at all, they PALISADED HOUSES. were then set close together around the house to be protected. They were also fastened together by a rude rail, held, it may be, by nails or withes. Sometimes several houses, or as at North- ampton, a whole hamlet, were thus enclosed. Loopholes were made here and there through which those from within could fire at an approaching enemy without much danger that a bullet or arrow would enter the loophole itself. At the entrance of the stockade or palisaded place, one line of posts was made to overlap the line from the other direction at a distance just wide enough for a man to pass. The narrow passage could thus be easily defended. Of course, if the enemy could get upon a rock or tree in the near neighborhood, they could fire upon the house, so that occasionally some one was shot when opposite a window. Feather beds, as was the case in Brook- field, could be hung against the inside wall to deaden the bullets that might penetrate the wall itself. It was with palisades that the Long Hill fort was constructed and the settlers wisely adopted the Indian mode of defence. The Indian fort or stockade was situated on the spot where now stands the house of the Vincentian Fathers. When exca- vations for this building were made the ashes of the
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