USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Woburn > The history of Woburn, Middlesex County, Mass. from the grant of its territory to Charlestown, in 1640, to the year 1680 > Part 14
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11 An Abraham Parker, according to the Records, was married in Wo- burn, in 1644, and had children. A son, Abraham, was born to him, March 8, 1650, but died Oct. 20, 1651. No mention is made subsequently of the father in the records, nor is his name on the tax lists of 1666, 1672, 1674, '75, '76, whence it is Inferred that he had removed from the town.
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Simpson, then a garrison soldier at Hadley, and needing clothes, might be released and come home, that " so his lether now in the fatts may not be spoyled.10 Of the other thirteen, Peter Bateman, originally from Concord," died at Woburn, Feb. 13, 1675-6, not improbably of sickness contracted at Narraganset the December before. Chamberlin, Coddington, Crisp, Fletcher, Hood, Abraham and Thomas Parker, do not appear to have returned to Woburn to remain there after the war was over. John Bateman (a brother, perhaps, of Peter: See Savage's Genealogical Dict.) came back, married, and reared up a family in Woburn. Clopson, also Roberts, Wallis, and Wilkinson returned, and were taxed here after the war had ended; Wil- kinson died in the place, a pauper, 1683; and Roberts married and had a family in Woburn, lived much respected in the place, and died as late as 1724.
The other forty-four soldiers in Philip's War from Woburn, named above, were all citizens of the town, or the minor sons of citizens, when the war began; were most of them here born and brought up; descendants of a majority of them, are still re- membered, or yet live in the place, and they constituted almost a third part of all the male ratable persons in the town in 1675, who were then in number only 140.12
December 19, 1675, was fought that memorable battle between the English and the Indians, called the Swamp Fight, or Narra- ganset Fort Fight, from the circumstance of its being fought at a fort in the midst of a swamp in the Narraganset country, within the present bounds of South Kingston, Rhode Island. As all the soldiers impressed about the first of that month from Woburn, and also a considerable proportion of the others enlisted in the war from the same place, appear to have taken part in that bloody engagement, a brief account of it here may not be amiss.
The Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England (viz., Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut) having deter- mined, in November 1675, to undertake an expedition in the
11 Savage's Genealogical Dictionary.
12 Woburn i own Records, Vol. I., pp. 62, 63.
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midst of winter into the enemy's country, they ordered a thou- sand men to be raised for this service with all possible despatch. Of this army, Massachusetts furnished 527 men, viz, six com- panies of foot, containing 465 men, under the command of Major Appleton, and Captains Mosely, Gardener, Davenport, Oliver and Johnson, and a troop of horse led by Capt. Prentice. Plymouth found 158 men, in two companies under Major Brad- ford and Capt. Gorham. Connecticut's quota was originally set at 315 men, but she sent, eventually, into the field 300 English, and 150 Mohegan and Pequot Indians, distributed into five companies commanded by Major Treat, and by Captains Seely, Gallop, Mason, Watts and Marshall. The whole army, now amounting to 1,135 men, English and friendly Indians, was com- manded by Major Josiah Winslow, Governor of the Colony of Plymouth. The Massachusetts forces marched from Boston, Dec. 8th, and from Dedham, Dec. 9th, and were joined by those of Plymouth soon after, and by those of Connecticut, Dec. 18th, about evening. After spending that night, which was cold and stormy, in the open air, they moved on at break of day, Dec. 19th, wading through the snow, fourteen or fifteen miles, "with- out cither fire to warm them, or respite to take any food, save what they could chew in their march."
At one o'clock, P. M., they arrived at the edge of the swamp, the place of their enemy's retreat, whither they were conducted by Peter, a disaffected Indian, who told them that here " they should find Indians enough before night." In the midst of this swamp, which was large, the Indians had made, upon a rising ground of five or six acres, a fort, or an enclosure of palisades, surrounded by a hedge of about a rod in thickness. The only way by which our forces could venture to attempt an entrance into it, with any chance of safety and success, was over a long tree elevated four or five feet from the ground ; and even this had a log house erected over against it, in which many Indians were stationed, ready to defend the passage against all who should approach it. By this passage, the Massachusetts men, who were in advance of the rest upon entering the swamp, made a bold effort to throw themselves into the fort: but two of their
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captains, Johnson and Davenport, were instantly shot down mortally wounded; the former upon the tree, the latter upon getting within the palisades. And here commenced a long and sharp conflict between the English and Indians. For a consid- erable time, the former were obstinately resisted by the Indians, who fought with a desperate resolution against their assailants, as they attempted an entrance into their fort, or when they had succeeded in throwing themselves into it. But nothing could daunt the English, or repress the ardor of their attack. As fast as one company was driven back, another stood ready to take its place, and to renew its efforts. At length, while the main body of the Connecticut forces (who had been stationed in the rear) were strenuously fighting their way over the tree and before the block house, into the fort, another party passed unobserved to the rear of the fort; and there find- ing a vacancy in the palisades, they clambered over the high and thick hedge, and, rushing along through the opening, " they poured a heavy and well directed fire upon the back of the enemy." And now the Indians, attacked both in front and rear, were gradually compelled to give up resistance, and by one way or another to make their escape from the fort. In the mean while, the English fired their wigwams, in which were col- lected not only their stores of corn for their subsistence during the winter, but also many of their old men, women and children : and then, having completed this work of destruction, they commenced at dusk marching to their head-quarters fifteen or sixteen miles off, taking with them their wounded, and the greater part of their dead.
But who can describe the horrors of that night! The groans of the dying warriors, as they lay thickly strewed on the ground in the fort; the hideous yells of those who escaped, enraged at their defeat, and at the loss of all that was dear to them; the heart-rending shrieks of old men, women and children perishing in the flames of about six hundred wigwams : all concurred to render the scene inexpressibly shocking, and deeply affected, it is said, the hearts of some of the victors themselves. The loss of the Indians by this battle has been differently estimated.
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According to the confession of one eminent among them, who was afterwards taken in Rhode Island, and put to death in Boston, there. fell that day seven hundred warriors; and three hundred were wounded, who subsequently, the most of them, died of their wounds. "It was supposed," saith Rev. Dr. Trum- bull, concerning the Indians, -" It was supposed that three hundred warriors were slain, besides many wounded, who after- wards died of their wounds and with the cold. Nearly the same number were taken, with three hundred women and children. From the number of wigwams in the fort, it is probable that the whole number of the Indians was nearly four thousand. Those who were not killed in battle, or did not perish in the flames, fled to a cedar swamp, where they spent the night without food, fire or covering." Of the English, " six brave captains fell in the action, and eighty men were killed or mortally wounded. A hundred and fifty men were wounded, who afterwards recov- ered." Many of the wounded died in consequence of their sufferings from the cold, and from the hardships they endured in their long fatiguing march the night after the battle. "The cold was extreme," saith Dr. Trumbull, " and the snow fell so deep that night, that it was difficult the next day for the army to move. Many of the soldiers were frozen, and their limbs exceedingly swollen. Four hundred were disabled and unfit for duty." 13 Of those returned after the battle from the several companies as dead or wounded, the following six belonged to Woburn, viz :
"Of Major Samuel Appleton's company, Illia Thathane (or, as the name doubtless should have been recorded, Eliah Totting- ham) " wounded and left at Rhode Island, January 6, 1675-6.
" Of Capt. Nathanael Davenport's company, Caleb Simonds, Zechariah Snow and John Baker, wounded.
" Of Capt. Prentice's troop, John Wyman, jr., [son of Lieut. John Wyman] slain, and Nathanael Richardson, wounded.10
Beside these six officially returned, as dead or wounded,, belonging to Woburn, may be named Francis Wyman, Jr., son
15 Trumbull's Connecticut, Vol. I., look 1, Chap. xiv., pp. 337-40. Sco also Hutchinson's Massachusetta, Vol. I., pp. 298-301. Hubbard's Indian Wars, pp. 100-112.
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of Francis, tanner, of Woburn; and Peter Bateman. They were both soldiers in Philip's war from Woburn; the former apparently by voluntary enlistment, the latter by impressment, about Dec. Ist, when preparations were making for the Narra- ganset expedition ; they both appear to have fought in the Fort fight; and they both died shortly after, Bateman 13 Feb., and Wyman 26 April, 1676, not improbably from wounds received, or sickness contracted, in that memorable battle.
But the six soldiers from Woburn, officially returned as killed or wounded at the Fort fight in Narraganset, were not all of its inhabitants whose blood was shed in Philip's war. The town was visited the following spring by two or three of their savage enemies upon a work of death, which they but too successfully accomplished. In the afternoon of April 10, 1676, as Mr. Samuel Richardson, who lived upon what has been recently called the Miller Farm in Richardson's Row, was employed in carting manure into his field, accompaned by his son Samuel, a boy between five and six years of age, he was surprised in look- ing toward his house, to see feathers flying about it, and other tokens of mischief within. Apprehending that Indians might be there, he hastened home, and there found two of his family murdered, viz : his wife, Mrs. Hannah Richardson, who had been lately confined; and his son Thomas, twin brother to him who had been with him in the field. Upon further search, it was ascertained, that the infant also, a daughter named Hannah, had been killed by the same ruthless hands. The nurse, it appeared, had snatched it up in her arms, upon the alarm of danger, and hurried away to a garrison house in the vicinity for protection. But so closely was she pursued by the enemy, that finding she could not save herself and the babe too, she let the babe drop, and the Indians despatched it upon coming up. Mr. Richardson now rallied some of his neighbors, who went with him in pur- suit of the enemy. After following them some time, they espied three Indians sitting together on a rock, and discharged their muskets at them. The Indians instantly fled to a piece of woods hard by; and it being near night, their pursuers fearing that they themselves might be waylaid by them, or decoyed into
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danger, desisted from following them, and returned home. Upon going afterwards to the place where the Indians entered the woods, they discovered blood on their track; and upon further search, they found an Indian buried under the leaves, who was doubtless one of the three, who had been fired upon by Mr. Richardson and company, and who, being mortally wounded, had died upon the spot where found, and had been buried there by his associates.
To this period, too, may be assigned another occurrence of the same melancholy character with the foregoing, which took place in the opposite quarter of the town. Hubbard, in the Preface to his " Narrative of the Indian Wars," edited in 1677 (as quoted by Drake in his "Biography and History of the Indians of North America "), observes, " a murther was commit- ted at Farmington, another at Woburn, by some Indians in their drunken humors upon a maid Servant or two, who denied them drink." The murder here referred to by Hubbard, appa- rently as perpetrated a little before Philip's War, was not improbably the same as one committed in the West part of Woburn, now Burlington, the story of which has been transmit- ted there by creditable, uninterrupted tradition from time imme- morial. This story, which differs in some circumstances from that of the Reverend historian just named, is briefly as follows. On a certain Sabbath, an Indian concealed himself in a hop house, the kiln of which is still pointed out, about a mile from Burlington meeting-house, on the road to Bedford, between the house belonging to the Poor Farm, and that of Miss Ruth Wilson. When he supposed the neighbors generally had gone to meeting, he came out from his lurking place, and went to the house, which stood on the spot where Miss Wilson's now is. Upon entering, he asked for cider of a young woman who had been left at home. In compliance with his request, she went to the cellar to draw some; but upon her return, he knocked her in the head with his tomahawk. The cellar door was dashed with her blood, which was never wiped off; and when the house came to be taken down, about 1760, to make way for the erec- tion of the present one on its site, this blood-stained door was
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removed, as it was, to the barn; and when the barn was after- wards taken down, to make room for a new one in its stead, the door was transferred to another barn in the vicinity; and thus continued to be exhibited in these several places for many years, as a memorial of this instance of savage cruelty.
1
The period of this war of Philip was one of the darkest, if not the most so, in the history of New England. The thinness of the English settlements in the country at that time, and the thorough acquaintance with their dwellings, fields, roads, and all their common places and times of resort, which the Indians possessed, gave the latter numberless opportunities for attacking them unawares to advantage, which they were not slow to per- ceive or improve. They were enabled hereby, as Rev. Dr. Trumbull strikingly observes, " not only in small skulking par- ties, but in great bodies, to make their approaches undiscovered, almost into the very midst of them; and under cover of the night, to creep into their barns, gardens and outhouses; to con- ceal themselves behind their fences, and lie in wait for them on the roads and in their fields. Sometimes they concealed them- selves before their very doors. No sooner did they open them in the morning, than they were instantly shot dead. From almost every quarter, they were ready to rise upon them. At midnight, in the morning, or whenever they could obtain an advan- tage, they were ready to attack them. While the English were hunting them in one place, they would be slaying the inhabitants and plundering and burning in another." .... And thus they " kept the whole country in continual fear and alarm. There was no safety to man, woman, nor child ; to him who went out, nor to him who came in. Whether they were asleep or awake, whether they journeyed, laboured or worshipped, they were in continual jeopardy." 14 But happily, this dreadful state of consternation and dismay did not last long. After April 1676, the affairs of Philip rapidly declined ; and his death, August 12th, of that year, put a stop to the war which he had been the chief instrument of exciting, about fourteen months from its commencement. Within
14 Trumbull's Connecticut, Vol. I., Chap. xiv., p. 333.
11
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this short period, according to a statement in Trumbull's His- tory of Connecticut,15 " About 600 of the inhabitants of New England, the greatest part of whom were the flower and strength of the country, either fell in battle, or were murdered by the enemy.". " Twelve or thirteen towns in Massachusetts, Plymouth Colony and Rhode Island, were utterly destroyed, and others greatly damaged. About 600 buildings, chiefly dwelling houses, were consumed with fire." And even this estimate, the reverend historian just named considers, with reason, as falling short of the truth.
Scarcely was this town delivered from the common burdens, sufferings and terrors of this Indian war, than it was visited by another grievous calamity, (as it was then considered, and really was,) the small-pox. This loathsome distemper, which our ancestors were wont to regard with most painful apprehensions, whenever it appeared among them, before inoculation for it was introduced, was brought at this time into the country by a ship infected with it, which arrived at Nantasket, July 10, 1677.16 Eight hundred persons in the whole are supposed to have fallen victims to it in different places at this visitation.16 " Multitudes" died of it in Boston in 1678. In Charlestown, among other valuable citizens to whom it proved fatal, was the elder Rev. Mr. Thomas Shepard, one of the most talented and excellent ministers of that town, who caught the disorder from a parishioner whom he ventured to visit on his death-bed, and died of it shortly after himself, December 22, 1677. From Charlestown or Boston, it seems to have gradually spread to Woburn. A number here were sick of it at the close of 1678, which led the selectmen, alarmed by the danger in which it involved all the inhabitants, to pass at a meeting of theirs, January 6, 1678-9, the following order :
" Whereas the hand of God is stretched out against many of the Inhabitants of this Towne in the disease of the small pocks, for the prevention of the spreading of the said disease, it is ordered by the Selectmen of this towne of Woburne, that from this time
15 Trumbull's Connecticut, Vol. I., Chap. xlv., p. 350.
16 " 1677, July 10, the Ship Infected with the Small Pox (whereof more than 800 died, came to Nantasket." - Diary of Ree. Peter Hobart, Hingham.
.
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forward all and every person that hath been infected with the said disease, shall not goe forth to the Meeting hows or to their neighbours howses before eight weeks are accomplished after they are first taken, or into the streets, or near any person, so as to infect them, and then to have leave from the Selectmen to come forth ; also all watchers and tenders with the persons aforesaid are, when they come to the meeting hows, to sit in such seats as are from time to time appointed for that end; and, when meetting is done, to goe forth first, and hasten awaye, and not mix with the assembly : and that there be care had in the hanging out bedding, or cloathes, or throwing out excrements or any other thing, so as may tend to the spreading of the said disease : and that all persons that have not had this disease come not at those howses or persons infected, unless it be those in the same family : and that all visitors be care- ful in chainging their apparel when they come to the meeting hows : and all persons transgressing this Order, being legally convicted before the Selectmen, shall paye to the use of the Towne twenty shillings for each offence." 17
But, notwithstanding all the precautions taken by the fathers of the town for preventing the spread of this dreaded disorder, it continued apparently to prevail here, more or less, as late as May 1679. For at a meeting of the Selectmen on the 5th of that month, Eliah Tottingham was fined twenty shillings for a breach of the above Order respecting it.17 From a memoran- dum in the Day Book of the Selectmen, (i. e. Town Records, Vol. II.,) it appears that twenty-seven persons in all were sick of it in Woburn at that time, viz : Isaac Brooks, three of his children, and John Cutler, Senr., then a resident in his family ; Gershom Flagg; James Thompson and a daughter; three of goodman Houlten's [Holden's ?] daughters; goodwife Gilson ; David Wyman; Zechariah Convers' wife and child; Edward Farmer, Isabel Farmer; Matthew Johnson and daughter; Salah Adford; Craggen's daughter; Ephraim Buck's wife; Jacob Farrar; Thomas Peirce; George Reed; goodwife Richardson. Of these, four died of the disease, viz: John Cutler, Senr., in the family of Isaac Brooks; Jacob Farrar; David Wyman, and goodwife Convers.18
17 Town Records, Vol. II., pp. 112, 120.
18 Town Records, Inverted, Vol. II., p. 163.
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September 5, 1684, died Rev. Mr. Thomas Carter, first pastor of the church in Woburn, in the 74th year of his age,19 and 42d of his ministry. He was born in England, and educated in St. John's College, at the University of Cambridge, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, 1629, and of Master of Arts, 1633.20 He came to this country, " a young man," and while yet a student in divinity, in 1635 :20 and may reasonably be supposed to be the Thomas Carter, who (accord- ing to a publication of Hon. James Savage, entitled Gleanings for New England " History ") was allowed, April 2d of the same year, at the age of twenty-five, to embark with forty others at London, on board the Planter, Capt. Nicholas Travice, bound to New England.21 This Thomas Carter, it is true, is described in the Register of his permission, as being a servant of Mr. George Giddins, a husbandman, on board the same ship. But then such were the difficulties experienced at that day by men of edu- cation and influence, in obtaining liberty to emigrate from Eng- land to this country, in consequence of orders from the govern- ment, that many were tempted in one way or other to clude those orders, especially by concealing their proper business and profession, or giving but an imperfect description of it.21 And it is some confirmation of this conjecture, that the age of the emigrant in the Plauter above stated exactly agrees with the age assigned to Rev. Mr. Carter at his death. On his arrival in this country, Mr. Carter was admitted an inhabitant of Dedham shortly after its incorporation in September 1636.22 From Dedham, he removed to Watertown, where he united himself with the church at that place; and where he was employed in some service by the church or town to good acceptance. For, when he was first invited to preach at Woburn, Nov. 3, 1641, it is mentioned as a reason for his not being applied to sooner, that it had been doubted whether Watertown would be willing to part with him.23 He preached for the first time in this place. December 4, 1641; and was ordained, November 22, 1642.23
19 Woburn Records, Mr. Houtelle.
Savage's Gleanings, pp. 246-248. " Savage's Gleaning«, pp. 253, 234, 272, 273. Savage's Genealogical Dietionary.
22 Genenlogical Dictionary.
" Town Records, Vol. I., pp. 4, 5.
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At his ordination, the town presented him with a house, which they had built for his use, on the spot where the house known as the Coolidge or Silvanus Woods' house now stands.23 They also engaged to give him a salary of £80 annually, one fourth of which was to be in silver, the remainder in various necessaries of life, at the current price : a compensation, which was enlarged in 1674 by the grant of twenty cords of wood annually, to be delivered at his door. From the time of his ordination, he min- istered constantly to this people without aid thirty-six years, till Rev. Mr. Jabez Fox was invited to assist him ; and from that time, in connection with Mr. Fox, about six years more, till his death.
Mr. Carter appears to have lived secluded in great measure from the world; and hence he is seldom if ever named in history among the eminent clergymen of his day. Still, there is abundant evidence, that he was a very pious, exemplary man, an able and sound preacher of the gospel, and one whom God honored and prospered in his work. Under his ministrations, the church was greatly enlarged and built up, and the town flourished, and was for the most part, in peace. Capt. Edward Johnson, one of the principal founders both of the church and of the town, speaks of him in his " Wonder-working Providence " (published in 1654) as a "reverend, godly man, apt to teach the sound and wholesome truths of Christ"; and one who had "much encreased with the encreasings of Christ Jesus." 24 And in the following lines addressed by him in the same work to Mr. Carter, he is repre- sented as a plain, but very faithful and successful minister; a pastor of distinguished humility and meekness, and in gentleness towards his flock, as rather exceeding than otherwise.
" Carter, Christ hath his wayes thee taught, and thon Hlast not withheld his Word, but unto all With's word of power dost cause stout souls to bow, And meek as lambs before thy Christ to fall : The antient truths, plain paths, they fit thee best, Thy humble heart all haughty acts puts by ; The lowly heart, Christ learns his lovely hest, Thy meekness shews thy Christ to thee is nigh.
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