USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume I > Part 6
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Our Indians were primarily hunters. The methods they employed in taking land animals and birds, fish and mollusca from fresh water, have been set forth in past records, and need not be repeated here.
Wheat has been considered the staff of life of other races. Maize was the staff of life of the Indian. Where it originated is still under discussion among eminent biologists and ethnologists. It is of ancient origin, for we find carbonized kernels of maize in ash pits, mounds, and upon village sites throughout the South and the Mississippi basin. It is supposed that corn comes from the tropics, and some students are of the opinion that its use, as Indian food, began in Central Mexico. Be that as it may, corn has been found in refuse pits at several points in New England. Our first explorers and settlers observed cornfields in New England, and the slender stocks stored by natives for winter use were factors in preserving the Plymouth settlement during those severe winters. One might be pardoned for digressing for a moment to say that corn is one of some twenty foods given the white race by the American Indian. Indeed, our red race has furnished a greater variety of plant foods than any other race in the world's history. In addition to corn, there is the potato, sweet potato, tomato, several
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THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
varieties of beans, the cocoa plant, and many others. The potato does not appear to have existed in this part of New England, although certain roots and bulbs growing wild were found to be edible. It is interesting to note that the artichoke was cultivated hereabouts, as Champlain found it at Gloucester in 1606, our settlers adapting and improving upon the Indian method. Beans were of several varieties. Josselyn states that the beans were white, black, red, yellow, and spotted.26 Our popular dish, succotash, a mixture of beans and corn,
Av -
SALEM-WIGWAM, PIONEERS' VILLAGE
A reproduction of one of the first habitations in Salem, it is a combination of Indian wigwam and English hut. Photo by Lantz
is of New England Indian origin. Tobacco was in use, but the plants were smaller than farther south.
"According to Williams some of the Indians did not smoke: 'But they are rare Birds: for generally all the Men throughout the Country have a tobacco-bag with a pipe in it
26 Hart: "Commonwealth History of Massachusetts," Vol. I, p. 149ff.
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ESSEX COUNTY IN INDIAN TIMES
hanging at their back; sometimes they make such great pipes both of wood and stone, that they are two feet long, with men and beasts carved, so big and massive that a Man may be hurt mortally by one of them.'
"Besides tobacco, the natives used Kinnikinnick, a com- pound of tobacco and the bark of the cornus or similar mate- rial for smoking; also several substitutes."27
The diet of our Essex County Indians does not seem to have been a restricted one. Besides the flesh of animals and fish and the great standby, maize, which was cooked in a variety of forms, there were numerous other dishes. There was a meal made from the acorns of the white oak, so treated as to remove the bitterness. This meal was used to thicken stews, and in preparing it a sweet oil was obtained which was eaten with meat and used for anointing. Hickory nuts pro- vided another valued food oil, and chestnuts were dried and served as delicacies. There was the ground nut, which bore upon its roots tubers about the size of a hen's egg, and the roots of the common yel- low water lily. Berries, of course, were an important article of diet, and wild currants and blueberries were dried and eaten through the winter. Oysters were also dried for future use, and the Indians delighted in clams, whose salty flavor added a zest to their meals.28
Indian methods of procuring meat and fish need not be dwelt upon. Methods of agriculture, however, are not well known. Willoughby describes them as follows :
"Agriculture was the mainstay of the tribes of this com- monwealth. Each family had its well-cultivated garden wherein were usually grown corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes, artichokes, and tobacco. According to Williams : 'The women of a Family will commonly raise two or three heaps (of corn) of twelve, fifteene, or twentie bushels a heap, which they drie in round broad heaps; and if she have helpe of her children or friends, much more.'
"Therefore, a family would usually raise twenty-four to sixty bushels of unshelled corn. This apparently does not include the amount of green corn consumed, which was consid-
27. Hart : "Commonwealth History of Massachusetts," pp. 156-57.
28. Hart: "Commonwealth History of Massachusetts," p. 149ff.
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erable. Judging by the average yield of the ordinary field of the New England farmer of today, which is but a reproduc- tion of an Indian garden, and taking into consideration the somewhat larger yield of modern varieties of corn, it seems probable that the amount of land ordinarily under cultivation by a single Indian family would be from half an acre to about one and a half acres ; or, in other words, a plot of ground one hundred and fifty feet to two hundred and fifty feet square. This estimate is corroborated by Gookin, who says the Indian fields at Wabquissit yielded forty bushels of corn to the acre. "The Indians taught the colonists their native agriculture -'to cull out the finest seede, to observe fittest season, to keep distance for holes, and fit measure for hills, to worme it, and weed it; to prune it and dress it as occasion shall require.' Wood also says that the Indians exceed the English husband- men in the care of their fields, keeping them clear with their clamshell hoes, not suffering a weed to 'advance his audacious head above their infant corn, or an undermining worm to spoile his spurnes.'
"When a field was to be broken up they had a 'loving sociable speedy way to despatch it; all the neighbors men and women, fortie, fiftie, &c. joyne and came in to helpe freely.' In preparing new land the trees were cut off about three feet from the ground and the branches piled against the trunk and burned. Corn was planted between the stumps and in course of time the stumps and roots were torn up.
"Each family had its garden, which was usually near the summer cabin, although sometimes a family had gardens a mile or two or several miles apart, and when the work of one field was over they would remove their cabin to the other. In many places along the Massachusetts coast, Champlain saw well-kept gardens with their accompanying cabins. He describes Nauset Harbor as three or four leagues in circuit 'entirely surrounded by little houses around each one of which there was as much land as the occupant needed for his support.'
"Planting time arrived when the leaves of the white oak were as large as a mouse's ear. On land already cleared the weeds were burned and the ground worked over with instru-
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ments of very hard wood shaped like a spade. The hills were three feet apart, and in each one were placed three or four kernels of corn and as many beans, and the earth heaped up with the shell of the horseshoe crab. Hoes of stone, wood, and clam-shell are also recorded. The Indians of the western portion of the state employed for this purpose an implement made of the shoulderblade of a bear, moose, or deer, fastened to a wooden handle. Two or three herring or shad were placed in the hill as a fertilizer. It was the woman's work to plant and cultivate the gardens and gather the crops; 'yet sometimes the man himself (either out of love for his Wife or care for his Children, or being an old man)' will assist.
"Great care was exercised to keep the ground free from weeds and to protect the young plants from the depreda- tions of birds. Watch-houses were erected for the latter purpose. . .
"The pumpkin and the squash (asqutasquash or isquonter- squash ) were raised throughout Massachusetts. In nearly all of the old-fashioned fields of the present day these vegetables are grown in the same hill with the corn, and it is probable that they were thus planted in the Indian gardens. .
"The corn was harvested by the women and thoroughly dried on mats, care being taken to cover it at night with other mats and to uncover it when the sun was shining. When thoroughly dry it was usually stored in wooden receptacles about three feet high made by cutting hollow logs into sec- tions, and stored in the wigwam.
"Morton writes: 'Their barnes are holes made in the earth, that will hold a Hogshead of corne a peece in them. In these (when their corne is out of the huske and well dried) they lay their store in greate baskets which they make of Sparke with mats under about the sides, and on the top; and putting it into the place made for it, they cover it with earth.'
"Green corn was a favorite food, and for the purpose of procuring this for as long a season as possible there was a second planting. It was usually prepared by roasting or boil- ing. The later crop, if not ripe when harvested, was boiled on
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the ear, shelled, and carefully dried on mats or bark. Thus prepared it would keep indefinitely. The crop of ripe corn was husked, and also dried before storing."
HEALTH OF THE INDIANS-Until the coming of the whites, except for injuries, Indians were practically free from physical discomforts such as afflict our white race. Prior to the great plague which deci- mated the tribes just before the landing of the Pilgrims, disease was practically unknown. One notes a decided contrast between the Indians of the period previous to the Narragansett War and those of subsequent times. Whereas they were at first upstanding, self- reliant people, as they came in contact with and were subjugated by our people, they lost self-assurance and became a disspirited and broken race. As a whole the Indians gained little or nothing through European contact. All the advantages accrued to the white man. The writer has considered Massasoit's greeting, "Welcome English- men," as both significant and prophetic, for no Indian of prominence after the time of Massasoit ever uttered similar sentiments. 29
UTENSILS-Our Indians were primarily concerned with cultiva- tion of the soil, manufacturing of various implements, weapons, and utensils, and the construction of primitive homes. They prepared large dugout canoes from trunks of certain trees and made light birch bark canoes. With abundant and suitable timber at hand, it is strange that they did not build log houses. Such dwellings would have been more comfortable and commodious. The Jesuits, who were careful observers, maintained that the Indian was satisfied if he pro- vided for his immediate wants. Here in New England he seems to have lacked ambition. Climatic conditions probably prevented him from developing arts and industries as did native Americans through- out the Ohio Valley, the South, and the Southwest. The writer does not believe that this failure was due to inferiority.
In fact, the Indians of Essex County must have had considerable skill in handicrafts. Charles C. Willoughby gives an interesting account of articles fashioned by Massachusetts Indians, whose ability was no doubt shared by the Essex County tribes.30
29. Some one at Plymouth told the writer that when that genial personage, Mr. Will Rogers, was asked to give his impression of Plymouth Rock, he, being part Cherokee himself, said: "The greatest mistake my race made was when they permitted the Puritan- Pilgrim outfit to land."
30. Hart: "Commonwealth History of Massachusetts," p. 154ff.
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"The Indians were very proficient in making wooden bowls and spoons, a few of which may be seen in our museums. Mor- ton says : 'They have dainty wooden bowles of maple, of highe price amongst them; and these are dispersed by barter- ing one with the other, and are but in certain parts of the Country made, where the several trades are appropriated to the inhabitants of those parts only.'
"Gookin writes of dishes, spoons, and ladles made 'very smooth and artificial, and of a sort of wood not subject to split. These they make in several sizes.' Josselyn refers to 'dishes, spoons, and trays wrought very smooth and neatly out of the knots of wood.' These were very skillfully made of the burly portions of maple, elm, and other trees, and were often ornamented with carved representations of the heads of dogs or other animals.
"The colonists early recognized the excellence of the mate- rial used by the Indians in making their wooden utensils, and serviceable bowls were wrought by them from birdseye maple. Examples may be seen in colonial museums. They have a clumsy appearance, however, when compared with native work: their walls are proportionately thicker, and they lack the pleasing outlines and variety of design shown by the better class of Indian bowls.
"Baskets and bags were made in great variety. Very few examples, however, have been preserved. The various forms of splint baskets and sieves used by many Algonquian tribes in the preparation of corn foods were doubtless in general use. In one of the houses at Cape Cod the Pilgrims found 'baskets of sundry sorts, bigger and some lesser, finer and some coarser; some very cunningly wrought with black and white in pretty works.'
"Gookin says that rushes, bents (coarse grass), maize husks, silkgrass, and wild hemp were used for baskets and bags, some of which were ornamented with designs of birds, beasts, fishes, and flowers. To this list, Josselyn adds spark (rush) and the bast of the lime tree. Wood says: In sum- mer the Indians gather hemp and rushes and material for
Essex-5
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THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
dyes 'of which they make curious baskets with inter-mixed colors and portraitures of antique Imagery.' Some of the bags and sacks woven of Indian hemp would hold five or six bushels.
"Birch-bark buckets, boxes, and dishes were common, espe- cially among the Pennacook. Josselyn writes: 'Delicate sweet dishes too they make of Birch-Bark sewed with threads drawn from Spruse or white Cedar-Roots, and garnished on the outside with flourisht works, and on the brims with glister- ing quills taken from the Porcupine, and dyed, some black, others red, the white are natural; These they make of all sizes from a dram cup to a dish containing a pottle, likewise Buckets to carry water or the like, large Boxes too of the same mate- rials, . . . . Kettles of Birchen-bark.'
"Gookin says: 'Their pails to fetch their water in, are made of birch barks, artificially doubled up, that it hath four corners and a handle in the midst. Some of these will hold two or three gallons: and they will make one of them in an hours time.' "
Our natives cannot be said to have been skilled potters. Wil- loughby is of the opinion that steatite, vessels of that material being more durable, was first employed, and that pottery was subsequent. Pottery-making probably originated in the South and spread gradu- ally into New England, as did the use of corn. Willoughby says in the "Commonwealth History":
"Pottery vessels were in general use, but there are few references to them by the early writers. Champlain says that the Indians boil their corn in earthen pots. Morton writes : 'They have earthen pots of divers sizes, from a quart to a gal- lon, 2 or 3, to boyl their vittles in, very strong though they be thin like our iron pots.'
"In Gookin's time there were few in use. He says: 'The pots they seeth their food in, which were heretofore, and yet are in use among some of them, are made of clay or earth, almost in the form of an egg with the top taken off. But now they generally get kettles of brass, copper or iron. These they find more lasting than those of clay, which were subject to be broken; and the clay or earth they were made of was very scarce and dear.'
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"A few of these pottery vessels have been taken from graves in this commonwealth, and many fragments have been recovered from the shell-heaps and old habitation sites."
FEW LEADERS OF PROMINENCE IN THE ESSEX REGION-Only one person of some consequence living in this region is mentioned in the "Dictionary of American Indian Place and Proper Names in New England." The author, Dr. Douglas-Lithgow, has presented stu- dents with translations of various place and proper names. He says : "Montowampate, son of Nanepashemet ; known as 'Sagamore James'; sachem of Nahant, Lynn and Marblehead; brother of Wonoqua- ham or Wonohaquaham. He married Wanunchus, daughter of Passaconaway."
Passaconaway, frequently mentioned in early records, lived north of Essex County, but appears to have ruled over a rather extensive domain, including lower Merrimac.
"A chief of the region about Pennacook or Merrimac r. as early as 1632 (Drake, Inds. of N. Am., 278, 1880). In 1629 his daughter married Winnepurget, sachem of Saugus, as told in Whittier's 'Bridal of Pennacook.' His son, Wanna- lancet, was afterward sachem of Pennacook. According to the chronicler, Hubbard, Passaconaway was 'the most noted powwow and sorcerer of all the country.' He formally sub- mitted to the English in 1644, and died at a very advanced age. (A. F. C.)"31 (Dr. Alexander F. Chamberlain. )
Assacumbuit, one who accompanied punitive expeditions, more or less inspired by the French, lived in the Saco River region of Maine. Yet he visited our section of New England. A concise account of him is found in the "Handbook of American Indians," as follows :
"Assacumbuit-An Abnaki ('Tarratine') chief who ap- peared in history about 1696. He was a faithful adherent of the French and rendered important aid to Iberville and Montigny in the reduction of Ft. St. Johns, N. B., Nov. 30, 1696. With two other chiefs and a few French soldiers Assacumbuit attacked the fort at Casco, Me., in 1703, then defended by Capt. March, which was saved by the timely
21. "Handbook of American Indians," Vol. II, p. 207. Washington, 1910.
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THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
arrival of an English vessel. He assisted the French in 1704-5 in their attempt to drive out the English who had established themselves in Newfoundland, and in 1706 visited France, where he became known as Charlevoix and was received by Louis XIV, who knighted him and presented him an elegant sword, after boasting that he had slain with his own hand 140 of the King's enemies in New England ( Penhallow, Ind. Wars, I, 40, 1824). Assacumbuit returned from France in 1707 and in the following year was present with the French in their attack on Haverhill, Mass. From that time until his death in 1727 nothing further in regard to him is recorded. He is sometimes mentioned under the name Nescambiouit, and in one instance as Old Escambuit. (C. T.)"32 (Cyrus Thomas.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY-Bailey, Sarah Loring: "Historical Sketches of Andover." Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1880. Miss Bailey's volume is devoted almost entirely to historic affairs in Essex County, yet contains much Indian data.
In the Widener Library at Harvard University there is an impor- tant manuscript of some 700 pages, entitled "Indian Relations in New England, 1620-1760: A Study of a Regulated Frontier." A thesis submitted to the Department of History in Harvard University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. By R. O. MacFarlane, 1933. It has been recommended to the Harvard authorities that this thesis be published. It is very important, indicates extensive reading and research, and contains some hundreds of references to Colonial and historical documents.
Wood, William: "New England's Prospect, 1629-34." (Boyn- ton's Reprint, Boston, 1898.) Much concerning Essex County natives. Charles C. Willoughby, Esq., our authority on New Eng- land Indians, considers this one of the best narratives.
Hart, Albert Bushnell, Editor: "Commonwealth History of Massachusetts" (Vol. I). The States History Co., New York City, 1927. Chapter 6 of this volume-"The Wilderness and the Indian" -by Charles C. Willoughby, former director of Peabody Museum. Harvard University, is our best, although brief, description of the Indians of this region.
32. "Handbook of American Indians," Vol. I, p. 102. Washington, 1907.
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ESSEX COUNTY IN INDIAN TIMES
Perley, Sidney: "Indian Land Titles, Essex County, Massachu- setts." Essex Book and Print Club, Salem, 1912. Valuable in that it presents names of leading Indians of Essex County with a brief description of their villages, etc.
Sears, Clara Endicott: "The Great Powwow." Houghton, Mif- flin & Co., Boston, 1934. An entertaining narrative, historically accurate, of Metacom (King Philip) and his people; Mount Wachu- sett and Nashua valley Indian powwows described.
Sylvester, Herbert Milton: "Indian Wars of New England. (3 vols.) W. B. Clarke Co., Boston, 1910. Military operations throughout New England, including Essex County troops against Indians; complete account of Indian raids along the lower Merrimac.
Winsor, Justin : "Narrative and Critical History of America." (8 vols.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1884. Winsor and his associates present much information as to early explorations in eastern United States. Vol. III includes an account of Indian affairs in New England.
Verrazano, John: "The Relation of Hakluyt's Divers Voyages" (1582). Reprinted. Interesting account of Massachusetts Indians.
Historical Collections of the Indians of New England ( Massa- chusetts Historical Society Collections, I). (First print, 1792.) General account of Massachusetts natives.
Mr. Charles C. Willoughby, our authority on New England natives of the pre-European and early European times, published a number of papers upon eastern Indians' activities. There are many references to this region.
"Textile Fabrics of the New England Indians." "American Anthropologist, N. S." Vol. VII, 1905.
"Dress and Ornaments of the New England Indians." "Ameri- can Anthropologist, N. S." Vol. VII, 1905.
"Houses and Gardens of the New England Indians." "American Anthropologist, N. S." Vol. VIII, No. 1, 1906.
"The Axe and the Ungrooved Adze of the New England Indians." "American Anthropologist, N. S." Vol. IX, No. 2, 1907.
"Wooden Bowls of the Algonquian Indians." "American Anthro- pologist, N. S." Vol. X, No. 3, 1908.
"Pottery of the New England Indians." Putnam Anniversary Volume. No. 3, 1909.
"Indian Burial Place at Winthrop, Massachusetts." Papers of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University. Vol. XI, No. 1, 1924.
Daily Life and Social Customs in the Early Settlements
CHAPTER III
Daily Life and Social Customs in the Early Settlements
By Miner W. Merrick.
The first settlements in Essex County were naturally along the seacoast. Some of these were made by men who came directly from the "old countries," and others were made by adventurers from earlier settlements. This chapter will attempt to catch the spirit of these first emigrants from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean who made their homes here and to describe the development of these set- tlements with special emphasis on the life that the people led.
Before coming to facts let us refer a moment to what may be fiction. Tradition has it that Thorwold, the Norseman, spent the winter of 1004 in Narragansett Bay and sailed around Cape Cod the next spring on his way back to Greenland. Upon sighting the prom- ontory now called Nahant, he exclaimed : "Here it is beautiful, and here I should like to fix my dwelling." The Norsemen fell to fighting with the Indians and Thorwold was mortally wounded. His last words were: "This is my death-blow; I desire you to depart as soon as possible, but first take my body to the shore and bury it upon the promontory before you, where I had intended to make my abode. I shall now dwell there forever. Place a cross at my head and also at my feet, and call the place Krossanes." It is very hard to say defi- nitely that Krossanes, the Cape of the Cross, was Nahant, but it is possible that it was.
It is not to be supposed that the early settlers knew nothing of the country to which they were going or that they simply stumbled upon Cape Cod or Cape Ann. In 1529, thirty-seven years after the
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first voyage of Columbus, Ribero, the Spaniard, knew enough about the coast of this country to show Cape Cod on his map and he gave a name to it. Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, an Englishman, had made an unsuccessful attempt to found a colony in New England in 1602 and had sighted Cape Ann as he sailed from the coast of Maine south to Vineyard Sound. The incident is thus described in Win- ship's "Sailors' Narratives," in the words of John Brereton, one of Gosnold's party :
"But on Friday the fourteenth of May, early in the morn- ing, we made the land, being full of fair trees, the land some- what low, certeine hummocks or hilles lying into the land, the shore ful of white sand, but very stony or rocky. And standing faire alongst by the shore, about twelue of the clocke the same day, we came to an anker, where six Indians, in a Baske Shallop with mast and saile, and iron grapple, and a kettle of copper, came boldly aboord us, one of them apparelled with a waist-coat and breeches of blacke serdge, made after our sea-fashion, hose and shoes on his feet; all the rest (sauing one that had a paire of breeches of blue cloth) were all naked. These people are of tall stature, broad and grim visage, of a blacke swart complexion, their eie-browes painted white; their weapons are bowes and arrowes; it seemed by some words and signes they made, that some Basks or of S. Iohn de Luz, have fished or traded in this place, being in the latitude of 43 degrees."
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