USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Wilbraham > The history of Wilbraham, Massachusetts; > Part 3
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This survey or measurement, while it was doubtless made in a straight line, as laid out by the compass, seems to have been very near the Old Bay Path, and it mentions names of localities with which we are to-day familiar. We know that Five Mile Pond, Eight Mile Gutter, Nine Mile Pond, were given those names because they are about that distance from Springfield. But the name, "Twelve Mile Brook," as applied to the stream running into Chicopee River, where the river comes down from the north and makes almost a square turn to the west, has always seemed to me to be out of place. But I am glad to learn that it had in those early days the more appropriate name of Eleven Mile Brook and that Twelve Mile Brook is about where it ought to be, a mile further to the eastward, and about twelve miles from Springfield. It is also very near the eastern border of our town. I have also found those names applied to those streams in the early records of alterations and changes made in the Old Bay Road. It is interesting to know that our Nine Mile Pond was once called Manchonish Pond,
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THE HISTORY OF WILBRAHAM
probably named for some Indian, and that, previous to 1698, rosin was made at the north end of Stony Hill, very near the place where the electric railway now passes over the tracks of the Boston and Albany Railroad.
On April 1, 1717, a committee was chosen to fix the line between the Inward and Outward Commons. I have not found any record of a survey until that of Roger Newbury in 1729.
The following is a copy of Mr. Roger Newbury's survey as I have found it in the records of Hampden County in the Registry of Deeds.
Page 2, Second Section, Records of Outward Commons:
"To Colo John Pynchon, Lt Willm Pynchon Mr Glover and Mr Parsons (Comtee for the Proprs of Springfield Eastern Outward Commons.
"Gentn According to and in pursuance of the Instructions delivered to me from you With Respect to the finding out the length of your sd Commons and dividing them into three equal parts I have with my Utmost Care and according to the best of my skill measured sd land and divided it as followeth, Viz; on the 20th & 22nd days of May last I began at the Northwest Corner of sd Outward Commons at a Stake and heap of stones which according to the best light and Knowledge that I could anyways gain was the end of the four miles measured out for sd Outward Commons by Mr. John Chandler Jun' and from sd Monumnt I run a due South line and measured down to Enfield bounds and found that there was twelve miles and one hundred and fifteen rods, which being divided into three Equal parts Each part or division will Contain four miles and thirty Eight rods and five feet and one half and at the Northwest Corner of the Upper Division by the Stake and heap of stones from whence we first set out we dug a Ditch East and South, And Another at the Northwest Corner of the Second Division in a low plain North of the west End of a certain Hill about half a mile North of Chickabee River, and another Ditch at the Northwest Corner of the third or last division at the South End of a little Marsh South of Worlds end Brook and another Ditch at the Southend of the sd outward Commons Next to Enfield sd ditch runs North and East.
Dat. at Springfield June 4th 1729 by Roger Newbury Surveyor."
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"June ye 23: 1729
"At a Meeting of the Proprietors of the Outward Commons on the East Side of the Great River in Springfield Wm Pynchon Moderator Voted an acceptance of the within Return of Mr Roger Newbury Surveyor, and that the within Monuments made by the sd Newbury shall be the Standing Monuments for ye three Division of ye sd Outward Commons."
Also at a meeting held March 27, 1738, it was voted to accept the Newbury survey.
A few years ago I discovered a depression in the ground, in a piece of woodland south of "World's End Brook," (now Pole Bridge Brook), which seemed to me at the time, to have been made artificially. The place is in the woodland, about 40 to 60 rods south of the Tinkham Road, and about 60 to 90 rods west of West Street, very near the east side of the woodlot, and it may be the same ditch which Surveyor Newbury had dug, to fix the northwest corner of the third division. I have been informed by Mortimer Pease of Hampden, that there is a some- what similar ditch in, or near, the meadow, about 70 to 100 rods westerly of where the main road to Somers crosses the Scantic in that town. The Connecticut line, in those ancient days, was supposed to be about one mile north of where it now is. If these ditches are the bounds established by surveyor Newbury, they should be one-half mile east of the present west bounds of the two towns. They must be very near that.
So far as I have found, Newbury's survey only fixed the west bounds of the Outward Commons.
The land in the Outward Commons was divided into three divisions, and a lot in each division allotted to each one of the 125 original proprietors, in 1685, but it was forty-one years before the lots were definitely fixed, and established on the ground itself. The report of the laying out of the lots on the east side of the river, seems to be included in the records of the laying out of the lots on the west side.
On April 12, 1726, a committee, consisting of Joseph Miller, Henry Rogers and Frances Ball reported as follows: (I have only copied what seems to relate to the east side.)
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"Accordingly we have measured out allottments proportion- able to Each Originall lott on ye East side of ye River and headed ye Same on ye East End of Each allotment with Suffi- cient bound stones or other Sufficient monuments fairly marked with ye Number of Each lott agreable to ye list by wch the sd lotts were drawn as appears upon Record and by which the particular lotts may be known in time to come. Viz. in ye Eastward Teer or range ye monuments are Set at ye South East Corner-but in ye Middle Range they are set on ye North East Corner of ye lotts and ye marks are all facing to the breadth of ye lotts."
Such was the division made of the land; and the vote of the town of Springfield, by which this distribution of the territory of this town was made among those early proprietors, consti- tutes the original legal title which the present occupants have to the soil.
It was about ninety-four years after the first settlers reached Springfield, before any attempt was made to start a settlement in the Outward Commons. The appearance of the land was not attractive. Nearly the whole territory, called by the Indians Minnechaug, "Berry land," had been so devastated by fires, that in many places there were no forest trees-and in other portions hardly any shrubbery grew. The low, swampy grounds and swales afforded a coarse grass which was mowed and cured for the support of cattle during the winter season, and the hills furnished pasturage during the summer. The tradition is handed down to us, from those early days, that the country was so bare in many places that a deer could be seen from mountain to mountain. Game was very abundant, and continued to be till long after the settlement of the town. Deer filled the pastures and the woods; wild turkeys ran in flocks over the fields and hills; the ponds were covered with ducks, and the squirrels on the trees, filled the air with their barking. Muskrats swarmed upon the banks of the streams and beavers built their dams on Pole Bridge Brook.
About half a mile north of the centre of our Centre Village, there is a cart path running off westerly from our Main Street, on the farm of the late John W. Bliss, now owned by his
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THE HISTORY OF WILBRAHAM
daughter, Mrs. Gillet, and about one-third of a mile from Main Street the path crosses a narrow strip of swampy land on ground that has evidently been filled in at some time. It used to be said that the beavers did it, and within my recollection the place was called "Beaver Dam." Shad were in the streams in springtime, and salmon, weighing from seven to twelve pounds, came up the Chicopee River as far as Eleven Mile Brook-now frequently called Twelve Mile Brook-where they were caught in great abundance with seines.
Beasts of prey were not abundant, but sometimes bears made their appearance and feasted on the unripe corn, much to the annoyance of the planter and the terror of his children. It was not uncommon for devout aunts to still the restlessness of the children, who were left in their care, both on Sundays and on other days, when their pranks were annoying, by telling them that the bears would hear them and come and carry them away into the woods and devour them. And I think it safe to say that some who take part in this anniversary may have been told that story. Not many Indians inhabited this territory at that time. The Stebbins History says but one. But I have learned from two independent sources, that a family, or several Indians, lived about a half mile west of our West Street, and about midway between our Springfield Street and the Peggy's Dipping Hole Road, at a place still known as Indian Rock, (there is a lane or cart path, running north and south, now con- necting those two roads), and that some of those Indians fre- quently came over into the village, to Charles Brewer's tavern, to procure supplies, and possibly some of the white man's fire- water.
Dr. Merrick says in his address, delivered here in May, 1831, "I have been told by the first settlers that when they were boys, the place was covered with them," (Indians) "but I have no idea that they were ever by any means so populous as we are." Still, there must have been a large number of Indians here at some time, or they must have dwelt here for a long time. The thousands of stone implements, spears, arrow heads, axes, hoes, hatchets and soapstone dishes which have been found in these
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THE HISTORY OF WILBRAHAM
fields, and many which must still remain, will substantiate that statement. One Indian squaw lived alone in her wigwam by a little brook, some fifty or eighty rods southeasterly of the present residence of Mr. Bolles, and that fact gave the name to "Wigwam Hill," on which his house stands, and where the first meeting-house and parsonage were erected. I have gathered from the traditions of the first minister's family, that her name was We-sha-u-gan, and that she was sometimes invited to take dinner with the minister's family, and that once she invited them to come and have dinner with her. Before accepting the invitation, the minister's wife felt a little anxiety to know what she intended to have for dinner. She approached the subject in a round-about way, and the Indian woman told her she had caught a nice fat skunk for roasting, and she wished them to taste the cooking of Weshaugan. To partake of such a dinner was, of course, out of the question. But Mrs. Merrick did not wish to hurt the old squaw's feelings, and so she told her, in as kindly a way as she could, that while it was perfectly proper for the Indian woman to eat at the minister's table, his position would not permit him to eat at hers. Doubt- less the disappointed woman went down to her wigwam, by the little rivulet, wondering at the strange fancies of white folks.
In his History Dr. Stebbins says of her: "Alone, the last of that mysterious race who had chased the deer over these fields, trapped the beaver in these streams, speared the salmon in these rivers, enjoyed the freedom of these hills, kindled their evening fires by these springs, and, as they smoked their pipe, beheld the western sky lighting up when the sun went down, as if with the smile of the Great Spirit and of the heroes who had fallen in battle, and buried their kindred under these trees, she lived solitary, the curiosity of the early settlers, harmless, quiet, meditative, seldom entering any dwelling, and providing for her own wants. At last even she disappeared. Of the manner of her death, or of her burial-place, no man knoweth. She passed away, as a shadow of the vanished race, 'the hunter and the deer a shade,' in the land of the sunset, beyond the western
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hills which she had so often seen empurpled at eventide." A poem, entitled "Minneola," published in 1905, represents that ancient woman, realizing "that the morning will soon dawn when she will not see its sunrise," telling the story of her people to a white hunter who had given her some game, and telling him how, when the others of her tribe had trailed away towards the sunset, she had remained here, to care for her blind and helpless father. And the author closes the story with this tribute to the old Indian squaw.
Weshaugan! Weshaugan! Thrice a thousand moons have risen Since you heard the voice of duty Sounding in your heart from heaven; Since you stifled love and longing, Since you slew desire, ambition, To become a household angel Unto one of earth's afflicted; And the action is recorded. When the seals of time are broken, And the Great Book lies wide open, And the deeds of earth are spoken, We may hear the Herald calling, "Come up higher! Come up higher ! Weshaugan! Weshaugan!"
When I was a child, my great-aunt [Mrs. Gideon Kibbe], told me an experience of her mother [perhaps her grandmother], when she was a child of about eight or ten years of age, probably about 1740, or 1750. She was riding on a sled with her father, mother and other children near the close of a winter day, and they saw, a short distance in front, three Indians come out of the woods and stop in the road. The hearts of the children sank down into their little shoes as they cowered under the blankets, but the father drove right on to where the Indians were standing in the snow by the side of the road, and each was holding out his hand saying, "tobac," "tobac," "tobac." In a sermon some thirty years ago, our Pastor said, "Tobacco is good-to kill flies." [We have the same Pastor now.]
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An account of the occupation of this territory by the Indians would be incomplete without mentioning the soapstone dishes, and fragments of dishes, which have been found in considerable numbers, and for a long time, in the eastern part of our town.
About ten years ago, the place where those dishes were made was discovered. It is about a mile, perhaps a little more, northerly of the Glendale Meeting-House, and about one-fourth
SOAPSTONE BOULDER.
From which the Indians made soapstone dishes.
of a mile easterly of the East road, or street, and just beyond a little brook running southerly through the swampy land there. The dishes were evidently made from some soapstone boulders, probably deposited in the glacial period, and the tools were pieces of trap-rock, probably procured from the Holyoke range of mountains. It must have been a slow, tedious process, which we cannot very well understand, any more than we can tell how those strange people made the arrow and spear heads which besprinkle our fields. About 1890, there were discovered, on
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THE HISTORY OF WILBRAHAM
the top of the first hill, at the north edge of our center village, near the present home of Wm. H. McGuire, and about ten or fifteen rods west of our Main Street, three Indian fireplaces, in a triangular position, about twenty feet apart. They were made of stones, nonc larger than a person's head, laid together, so as to form a circular wall, leaving a space in the center about twenty inches across, and about eight or ten inches deep. Two of them had been disturbed by the farmers' plows, but one was enough below the present surface of the ground so that it had not been injured. It was well filled with the ashes of many fires, and the soil within the others was blackened by the same cause. There are other places in town, which, when plowed, show where similar fires have burned, "When the smoke from many wigwams, Oft ascended at the sunset."
But the control, or occupation of this territory by the red men was practically ended. The land in the Outward Com- mons had been allotted to the 125 proprietors of Springfield in the year 1684-85, and each proprietor's portion had been defi- nitely fixed by the survey of 1726. In this measurement of the width of the lots, the surveyors only allowed sixteen feet to the rod. Probably fearing that in measuring off 125 lots they might gain on the actual distance. The survey of Roger Newbury in 1729 fixed the western bounds. There was nothing to hinder the enterprising from entering in and taking posses- sion of the Outward Commons of Springfield.
In the year 1727 Nathaniel Hitchcock purchased part of the lots drawn by John Hitchcock, No. 69 in 2nd Division, and No. 51 in 3rd Division. In 1728 Nathaniel Warriner purchased the lots in each Division drawn by Thomas Cooper, which are No. 119 in 2nd Division and No. 11 in 3rd. Each lot 18 rods, 7 feet, 3 inches wide. Also the 14 part of Thomas Merrick's 3 allotments, which are No. 106 in 2nd Division and No. 46 in the 3rd. The 14 part of each lot would be 4 rods, 11 feet, 11 inches wide. Also the 12 part of the lots drawn by Thomas Swetman, which are No. 62 in 2nd Division and No. 33 in the 3rd. The 12 part of each lot would be 1 rod, 5 feet wide.
In 1744 Moses Warriner, brother of Nathaniel, purchased
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THE HISTORY OF WILBRAHAM
lots Nos. 15, 16, 17 and 18 in the 3rd Division. The entire width of the four lots would be 49 rods, 13 feet, 8 inches, which would make about 399 acres. But as each rod in the width of the lot was 6 inches short, we must deduct about 12 acres.
In 1737 Samuel Warner purchased the easterly part of lots Nos. 99, 100, 102, 105, in the 2nd Division, "Extending westerly
INDIAN FIREPLACE.
so far as to the top of the Mountain to a small Gutter Running across said Lots Whereabouts there is a Highway Proposed to be laid out." At another time he purchased "12 of the width of the lot granted to Widow Riley." (It is lot No. 101.)
In 1728 and the ten years following, David Mirick purchased lots Nos. 99, 100, 12 of 101, 12 of 104, 14 of 105, 106, 107, 108,
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THE HISTORY OF WILBRAHAM
109, 120. Also Nos. 12, 23 of No. 28, 14 of No. 65 in the 2nd Division, and ? of No. 4, Nos. 8, 9, 12, 14, 43, 44, and 14 of No. 48, in the 3rd Division.
In the summer of 1730, one hundred and eighty-three years ago, Nathaniel Hitchcock came out from Springfield Street, and cleared and broke up two acres of ground, and erected a log hut on the west side of our present Main Street, and about one- half mile south of our center village.
After sowing his two acres with wheat, Hitchcock returned to Springfield Street to spend the winter and make the few prepara- tions which were necessary to remove his wife, whom he had married that year, to his hut by the "Mountains." In the following spring, May, 1731, he came out with his wife to his narrow field and low hut, and resided here a full year, with no neighbors nearer than Springfield Street, nine miles away. He planted his crops, mowed his grass, dried and stacked his hay, husked and stored his corn under the roof of his cabin, gathered his wheat; "and when the long, dark, stormy winter evenings came, he was solaced with the music of his wife's song, and the voice of his child, and the crackling of the fire in his great open fireplace." "At last the spring opened, and not only the robins and the bluebirds returned, but what was better for him and for Hannah, his wife, Noah Alvord came and settled on the east side of the street," about 40 rods to the south, where Mr. Calkins lives now.
The report of the land was good; and the next year, 1733, Daniel Warner came and settled on the east side of the street, five or six rods north of the lane, which, when I was a boy, used to be called Federal Lane. The place is now owned by Mrs. Mary (Howard) Green. And the next year, 1734, Mr. Nathaniel Warriner, afterwards a prominent citizen, the donor of the ministry and school-fund, located on the west side of the street, about 20 rods north of Hitchcock, at the house recently sold by Mr. and Mrs. Martin to Thomas H. Nims.
"Of these four earliest settlers no descendant remained in town in 1863. Nathaniel Warriner had no children. Of Noah Alvord's four children, none had children, and the descendants
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THE HISTORY OF WILBRAHAM
of Nathaniel Hitchcock and of Daniel Warner all left the town years ago." It is possible that some other settlers may have come before 1734. Moses Burt, an industrious weaver and reed-maker, purchased the land where the stone house is, in 1733. Samuel Warner, and his father Ebenezer, settled on the west side of main street, where my home now is, in 1733 or 1734. I have not found that Samuel Warner was ever elected Precinct or Town Clerk, but he kept the record of births and deaths in the "East or fourth Precinct of Spring- field" for almost fifty years. The record is still in existence. The first entry was made "March ye 15th 1734," the last, August 28, 1783. For forty-nine years and five months, the faithful "Clark," as he was called, performed his labor of love, and 12 days after the last entry, he laid down his pen forever.
The Town Clerk at that time, Mr. James Warriner, made the following entry, which closes the record which Samuel Warner had kept for so many years. "Samuel Warner Who had the title of a Clark Dyed 10th day of September 1783, at Hancock: 70: miles from home, at his Daughter Rhoda's for a visit, near the warm pool, and was brought home to be buried by his Desire, when he lay upon his Dying bed-aged 75 years, wanting one month 4 days."
About 1734, Samuel Stebbins settled on the first road leading up the mountain, north of our present south boundary, on the easterly side of Main Street. This road runs easterly for about one-third of a mile, then turns and runs nearly due south for perhaps one-fourth of a mile, then turns easterly, and continues on up the mountain to the ridge road, to what is now known as the Burleigh place.
Samuel Stebbins built his house near where the road turns from its southerly to the easterly course, probably a little south of what was the Foskit place a few years ago; where Mr. Richards lived fifty years ago. I find it very unsatisfactory to locate places where "somebody lives now." It will answer very well for to-day, but fifty years hence it will not be very
Wommen The Daniel women and fernsehen gran his wife was Born Much w 15th 5934
2 avons alvord the son of Noah advan na hannah his Parte aus born why 29 1434 The hus ante ChD Born here
3) Sans Bout the Daughter of Moses Bort and hannah his was born March 11735
way hit cheoch The lavet
his wife was Roma have 30 1735
Hannah browner the Less Pavel quemen an
by the 13 W1735 CM his throat and five lot better the one you
COPY OF FIRST PAGE OF THE "CLARK" WARNER RECORD.
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THE HISTORY OF WILBRAHAM
definite. I intend to call this road, for its entire length, on both sides of our Main Street, Stebbins Road, in remembrance of this first settler in that locality. Nathaniel Bliss soon settled on the east side of this road, a little north of Stebbins, where Mr. Powers now lives, and a little later Philip Lyon located a little north of Mr. Bliss, where Mr. Lines lives now.
I think there have never been any other places settled on that road, east of Main Street. David Merrick built his house on the west side of Main Street, near the brook which crosses the street, which I will call Merrick Brook. There he, and his descendants, lived for about one hundred and sixty years, until about twenty years ago, when the place was sold to Mr. M. C. Wade who lives there now. Abel Bliss located on the Ridge Road about twenty or thirty rods south of where the Old Bay Road branched off to the eastward. Daniel Lamb, on the Bay Road in the northwest part of the Outward Commons; Thomas Merrick, father of the young man bitten by a rattlesnake, immortalized in song, on the east side of Main Street, about twenty or thirty rods north of the present south boundary of our town, where Mr. Walter Bliss lives. David Warriner on the west side of Main, and the south side of Faculty Streets, about where the north end of the Academy Boarding House is. Isaac Brewer on the west side of Main Street, eight or ten rods south of Springfield Street. He and his descendants occupied the place for more than one hundred and sixty years until 1898, when it was sold to Mrs. Gurney, who lives there now. Moses Bartlett on the Ridge Road, near where the present highway, which leads off from the Main Street, just south of the Stone Church, enters that road, and about where the old stone chimney is now standing. I desire to name this road, which leads up the mountain at this point, "Waukegan's Trail," in remembrance of those earlier inhabitants who have lived, and loved, and died here. (A story of those ancient people in this vicinity, written a few years ago, represents their pioneer, "Waukegan," as having come down the mountain at that place.) David Chapin settled over the mountain near the present Ridge Road. So far as I have learned there were no set-
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