USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Lancaster > The story of colonial Lancaster (Massachusetts) > Part 3
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Since this place was the chief garrison it probably was sur- rounded by a stockade. Its site is now marked by a stone monu- ment. Pieces of old brick still are turned up in the garden beyond. The location is one of the lovely spots in Lancaster, and before the forbidding wall of the railroad bed obstructed the view to the south, must have taken in a charming landscape away to "the meeting of the waters." Here Major Willard made his home for thirteen years. Often he was called away by his duties as a military officer, as Counselor, and in "Keeping County Courts." With John Prescott he shared the honors of "first citizen" of old Lan- caster.
"At a training" in 1658, we find Goodman Prescott again coming forward with a new proposition-"for the good of the towne." This time he offers to set up a saw mill, and desires the town to grant in return, to him and his heirs forever, a parcel of land, lying near to his water-mill, containing 120 acres, more or less, and he further asks that he be freed from "rates" upon such land, saws, and saw mill, for a stated period of time. What- ever he asked seemed always to be granted freely by the town, and in 1659, he was given permission "to fall pines on the Comons to supply his sawmill."
There is neither picture nor description of any house in Lan- caster before the destruction of the town in 1676. All we have to go by are descriptions of houses built in other parts of the state at that time. It is probable that up to the time of Prescott's saw mill, the houses were crude, one-story structures of hewn timbers with a big central chimney of stone or of clay spread over logs. Probably some roofs were thatched, after the English custom, as
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thatching tools were mentioned in inventories of the time. All nails or hardware used in construction were made by hand. Paint was unknown. When Prescott's mill began to furnish boards, the houses probably were made in the styles then common in other Massachusetts towns, of which either engravings or descriptions have been preserved.
Often these houses were of two stories in front, with a roof which sloped to a single low story in the rear; and sometimes the second story projected a foot or two over the lower. There was an occasion- al house with gambrel roof, and always the huge central chimney. Sometimes the walls were lined with brick, or flat stones, to make them bullet proof. Doors were unpaneled; each had the heavy wooden latch, and a string which could be pushed out through a hole to one wishing to open from the outside. Windows were square holes in the walls, covered by a board shutter. Later on there were little panes of greenish glass, held in the sash with lead.
The last house in Lancaster known to have had such tiny panes stood where the Thurston House now stands at the parting of the two ways to Sterling. The last log house probably was that of a mulatto blacksmith, and stood on the west end of the Rigby road, on the old road to Boylston.
When frame houses were built the timbers were very heavy- commonly of oak-boarded, then covered with "clove boards," as clapboards were called, which, with staves, also shingles, were cut out by hand with a tool called a "froe."
With Prescott's saw mill in operation a new epoch in house- building must have started in the town. All we know about the Rowlandson's house is that it had a "flanker" and a "leanter." One of the garrisons had "gates," and another a "watch box" and a "parade."
We also read of "gates in the common field."
Daniel Hudson, a brick-maker and mason was here in 1651, but what work he did we have no way of knowing.
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CHAPTER VI
1657-1670
The Book of Lands-Town Roads-Treatment of Undesirable Persons
INTERESTING TO NOTE ARE SEVERAL ORDERS OF THE SELECTMEN of Lancaster recorded in 1657, including one for having "the high- ways amply recorded for posterity." Another directs that some men be deputed annually at town meeting to review all the high- ways for common use in and about the town.
The Book of Lands, dating from this time, is the only town book that contains records made between the massacre of 1676 and 1716. The original volume is missing, but a transcript was made in 1763, by Caleb Wilder, then proprietors' clerk.
All the early allotments, special grants, and divisions of land are recorded in The Book of Lands, begun by Ralph Houghton, clerk, in 1856, by order of the Arbitrators. In this book are the records upon which all of the titles to real estate in Lancaster, Clinton, Bolton and Berlin, and many of those in Harvard, Boylston, Sterling and Leominster, and the northern part of West Boylston are founded. Even a corner of both Boxboro and Hudson are found over the line of Lancaster's grant to Harvard and to Bolton.
The roads laid out by the pioneers are about the most nearly permanent memorials of their achievements. Three times the civic center of the town has changed; but the earliest roads, with some straightening and much grading were much the same as those in use today. We could wish that they had been more explicit in giving names to these roads. In some cases they had no names. As all the land in what is now the center of the town was called "the Neck," the bridge connecting the villages was at first called the "Neck bridge" but today that would not be under- stood. It has since been called Sprague bridge, and Vose bridge, for two honorable gentlemen who long occupied the house nearby now known as the Lancaster Unitarian parsonage.
ABOUT HALFWAY BETWEEN "MAPLEHURST" AND "HILLSIDE"
"For the site of the trading post they chose a spot by the side of a little brook, at the parting of two trails; one that led to the westward towards Wachusett Mountain, the other, to the southwest towards the home of the Quabog Indians."
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Perhaps the Ponikin bridge is the first to bear a nearly per- manent name, and even that was "Quasaponikin." That district was mentioned first in the division of the meadow lands in 1655. The contraction "Ponikin" does not appear until 1718.
The first road, or Lancaster's present Main Street, turned east above the Neck bridge, which was then several rods upstream from its present location. The street from this point to the North Village ran west of the present line of houses. The road leading to the North Village cemetery and beyond was laid out "as a way to Quasaponikin medow."
Another was the present Neck Road, laid out as "a way to Quasaponikin Hill."
A way was made "to the mill" which ran from the first county road to John Prescott's mill site at the west end of Water Street in Clinton. Even after a hundred years that now busy street was but a mill path.
What is now known as the Back Road, extending along the eastern base of George Hill range, made a direct course towards the Washacum ponds.
"A way to the plum trees and Groten" was first laid in the broad intervales near the Still River and the Plum trees Meadows which were in Harvard. On account of frequent damage by freshets that road necessarily was moved to the higher ground of the present road to Harvard. The old road bed was used again for a short distance during the World War, in 1918 when the German Prison Camp, No. I, was located on the intervale north of the Seven Bridge Road.
The road from South Lancaster street over the Atherton Bridge was much the same as today, but a portion of it, east of the river, ran through the intervales of the Nashua and Still rivers. This was changed many years ago.
The average width for these roads seems to have been five rods on the highway, two rods in the intervales, and in some cases "as wide as may be."
At times short roads have been laid out by the town to ac- commodate certain industries or whims of individuals. Many of these have been discontinued.
A few new roads have been built to shorten distances, such as the so-called "new road" to Clinton, though now nearing a half century of use. However the main arteries of travel have changed little in 300 years.
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The selectmen met at John Tinker's home one Monday in May, 1659, and repealed the vote which restricted the number of inhabitants to thirty-five families. They had decided that as many more families might be taken in as residents "as may be meetly accommodated, provided they are such as are acceptable." There was not much chance of "undesirables" getting past the watchful eyes of the selectmen and of the counselors, for newcomers must be "worthy of acceptance according to the Committee appoint- ment."
There are documents which show the methods used for ridding the town of people undesirable because they were poor. Such a case was that of one William Lincoln, who was found unwelcome in 1661. He received the following message: "For William Lincorn be it known unto you ****** *for as much as you have proved yourself an intruder into this town of Lancaster without consent, contrary to order, therefore in his Majesties name you are required to withdraw yourself and family, and to depart the town forth- with, in regard the townsmen utterly disclaim you as an inhabitant. ********* The penalty of your intruding yourself into the town is twenty shillings per month, which will be a burden it may be too heavy for you to bear though procured by yourself." William Lincoln remained however, and never became a public charge.
In another case accusations were brought against George Newby "for high-handed contempt for God's word; reproaches of the minister and profane neglect of God's public worship on the Lord's day, and high-handed debauching." The documents in this case include two penitent petitions from Newby; but the sentence was that he should receive twenty stripes on his naked body and give bonds of twenty pounds for his appearance at court in Cambridge.
Such were their methods of trying for the goal they had set for themselves. On the whole they were God-fearing, honest people, working for better conditions and education for their children, and for some degree of comfort in their own old age.
That there were scandals in and out of the church is true, as it is true of any story of humanity. Such stories have come down to us and added zest to many an old tale; but Lancaster was probably no worse than any of the towns about. It grew and prospered.
In the quaint hand writing and original spelling of Master
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Tinker, translated into modern style, we read: "And the town (is) in some silence at least, and we hope in good preparation to after peace, yet it is hard to repel the boilings and breaking forth of some persons difficult to please, and some petty differences will arise amongst us, provide what we can to the contrary." This was written in 1658.
All of this goes to show that human nature and town meetings have not changed much in 300 years, for we know that there are still "boilings" to be repressed, and people who are "difficult to please."
But the days had come when "some silence," at least was en- joyed, and for several years the town's affairs moved along in a quiet way under the excellent council of Major Willard and his colleagues, and the selectmen, who worked together in great harmony.
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CHAPTER VII
Paving the Way to Diasaster 1670-1675
HISTORIANS AGREE IN DRAWING A PICTURE OF PEACE AND prosperity in the Valley as the fateful year of 1675 drew on. At the 200th anniversary of the founding of the town in 1853, the historian, Joseph Willard, a descendant of the noted Maj. Simon Willard, was the speaker of the day. He told of the prosperous condition of the town at this time; of the early marriages and rapid increase both by births and new settlers; of the respect for the minister. He spoke of the deaths of fifteen of the earliest planters and mentioned their names: Thomas Rowlandson, father of the minister, Thomas James, Thomas Joslin, John Whitcomb, Stephen Gates, John Tinker, Edward Breck, Richard Linton, Thomas Wilder, Stephen Day, Philip Knight, John Smith, William Kerley, William Lewis and John White.
The Planters' sons had married the daughters of their neigh- bors, and the number of births had far exceeded the deaths. At this time the first of the pioneers, John Prescott, had thirty-five grand-children, nearly all living within sight of the trucking house lot. Their homes were still in two groups of about equal numbers; one group on the "Neck," near the river, the other extending along the slope towards George Hill; John Prescott and two of his sons had moved a mile away, along the path which led to their grist and saw mills. John Moore and James Butler had built upon Wataquadock Hill.
Drawing upon his own imagination, Mr. Willard enters the humble dwellings and pictures their home life. He fancies the older men, after a busy day, gathered at some home, talking over events of their early lives in England, and of their adventures in crossing and founding new homes; of arguments about town politics, and of such festive occasions as raisings, huskings and paring-bees. He adds; "Thus in quiet they would pursue the even tenor of their ways, fearing nothing so much as danger to their sheep folds from the prowling wild beasts, or the failure of their crops through the irregularities of the season."
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But there was even then, lurking in ambush, a foe much more to be dreaded than any wild beast.
There is little to show in any of the records that there was in the minds of the settlers at that time any fear of the Indians. The feeble condition of the Indians of the Nashaway and Nipmuck tribes, and of their distance from any strong allies was known. There were converts to Christianity among them, and the white men believed they could be trusted. Then, too, the Englishmen were becoming more confident of their own powers, especially since they had united in a confederation with Plymouth, Con- necticut and New Haven Colonies. What they did not take into consideration was, the change that had come in the attitude of the Indians toward the white men.
There was no longer a friendly sachem, like Sholan. In his place was Sagamore Sam, who hated the white men-grown so dominating and scornful-and whose one desire was to drive them from the land.
The Indians were quick to feel insults. One can but read in the books written at the time that the white men treated the red men with such scorn and contempt as could not have been felt for any beast. The Indians were considered hardly human, neither were they granted any of the rights which had been promised in the agreement. The white men could not understand the workings of the Indian mind, nor have any patience with the "heathen" customs. The red men, too, were superstitious, and afraid of what they could not understand. Perhaps even today we might find it a little hard to believe there was a love of beauty and high aspira- tions in the skulls beneath their painted faces. We might find it hard to choose between meeting a wild animal or an Indian warrior, wrapped in the skins of wild animals, or wearing a loin- cloth-his body greased, his face painted vermilion or with one side white, his hair stuck full of long bright feathers-carrying in his hand a tomahawk and scalping knife. Perhaps we would like the warwhoops and powwows no better than did the simple minded colonists-for they believed such noises could come only from devils incarnate.
Then again the Englishmen seemed to be unaware that through their own greed, they were furnishing the Indians with weapons. To be sure there was a man appointed by the government to regu- late traffic in furs. The sale of rum to the Indians was forbidden
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by law. Nevertheless, one gun would buy many furs. A quart of rum would bring to an unscrupulous trader big return in value. Such traffic was a sure road to wealth, and some found that it was not to be resisted.
So little attention was paid to the laws, and so little was done to enforce them, that slowly and steadily, the Indians were armed with white men's guns. Some of the red men became expert shots, and they were as cunning as foxes.
It seems incredible that the settlers could have failed to see that the day was coming when those guns would be turned upon themselves. They knew that the Indians drank rum only to get drunk; to enjoy the passion and the fury it arouses. The white men must have known that the "fire-water" would intensify the savagery in the Indian natures and increase the menace.
The Indians knew their own weakness, but they felt that the land was their rightful possession. The attitude of the white men had become intolerable. They were driving the red men away from "their pleasant places by the sea." Knowing they were scorned and hated, the Indians smarted under the sting of outrageous insults.
Worse, far worse, was the dread of becoming slaves to the white men. To Indians death was much to be preferred. The desire for revenge became a passion: they resolved to banish the hated Englishmen from the land. The Indians had been shown how to do this when the white men put an end to the Pequot tribe, on the borders of Connecticut. Apt pupils in cunning, strategem and slaughter were the Indians!
Another grievance: when the Mohawks had made a devastating raid upon the Indians friendly to the Settlers, the white neighbors had refused help; and when the Nashaways, Nipmucks, and their allies retaliated in a raid upon the Mohawks, in 1669, again the English stood aloof. These raids greatly reduced the numbers of the Nashaway tribe. They were not likely to forget the kind of neighbors the white men had shown themselves to be. Deter- mination to avenge these slights was their one ambition, and was undertaken with the fury and the passion of their savage natures.
A great change came over the Valley of the Nashaway in the spring of 1675. Rumors were heard that the Indian chief, Philip of Pokanoket, Sachem of the Wampanoags, was seeking to over- come tribal differences and to join all the tribes to battle against
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the English. Agents were sent out from Lancaster to find out if these rumors were true but they brought back only tales of renewed pledges of friendship from the older chiefs.
As the rumors persisted, Ephraim Curtis, long familiar with Indian wiles, volunteered to go into the woods on a scouting trip. Curtis returned in July with the alarming news that even then the tribes were mustering for war: that Shoshanin and Monoco, leading the Nashaways, were already with Philip. No one knew that the Nashaways had left their homes at Washacum until King Philip's War had begun.
It was then that Governor Leverett and the Council became aroused sufficiently to send a mounted troop to deal with the savages but, showing how little he realized the situation, the Governor added "If necessary, to endeavor to reduce them by force of arms."
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CHAPTER VIII
The Indians Strike Their First Blow 1675
WHAT IS KNOWN AS KING PHILIP'S WAR HAD BEGUN IN THE Plymouth Colony, but was spreading rapidly to the north and west.
Major Simon Willard and his men rode away to meet the enemy on the morning of August 4, 1675. Hearing that Brookfield was beseiged he hastened to give assistance there, reaching the garrison that night. He remained in the vicinity of Brookfield for a month, and during that time the wily foe struck at Lancaster and Groton.
Major Willard was warned that "One-eyed John" Monoco and Shoshanin, with a band of Indians, were in the neighborhood of Lancaster. Immediately he despatched Captain Moseley with a company of dragoons to pursue the foe. Only too well the Indians knew every inch of the territory and, at the approach of troops, could disappear into the swamps.
In this way Captain Mosely passed them by, and, arriving in Lancaster on the evening of August 15, 1675, found nothing to cause alarm. The next day he pressed on to Groton and Chelms- ford, whence reports had come of an attack.
This was the Indians' opportunity. In the rear of their pursuers they slipped in and made their first disastrous attack upon Lan- caster on August 22. "A harvest of blood followed where folly had planted."
The first intimation of an attack came with the dreaded war- whoop. It was on a Sunday afternoon. Monoco led the attack. He gave no quarter to man, woman or child.
The scene was near what is now the North Village Cemetery. The victims were Mordecai MacLoud, his wife Lydia, and his two small children; Jacob Farrar, Joseph Wheeler, George Bennett and William Flagg. All were scalped and their bodies terribly mangled. The buildings were burned. All the livestock was plundered.
No longer was there peace in the valley. Dread, fear and gloom prevailed. Realizing now how inadequate were the defenses, steps were taken at once to strengthen the fortifications.
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There were three garrisons: one at Prescott's Mills, at the south end of the town, now in Clinton; one at the Sawyers garrison in South Lancaster, and a third at Cyprian Stevens' in the center. The minister's house was partly fortified, and was across the north branch of the river, within gunshot of the Stevens garrison. A lone pine tree marks the spot.
A successful attack was made in December by the English soldiers of three colonies-Massachusetts, Plymouth and Con- necticut-for the purpose of breaking down the power of Philip among the Narragansetts. When the news that Canonchet's fort had been taken, and that men, women and children belonging to the various tribes in the fort were lying in heaps upon the ground, some hope came to the hearts of the settlers in Lancaster. It was short-lived. Soon rumors came that 500 stout warriors had escaped from the Narragansett country and had joined Philip in his winter quarters in the western part of the state.
The early part of that winter had been unusually severe; snow was deep in the woods. Worn with fatigue from the campaign in the Narragansett country, and suffering from shortage of food, the soldiers had returned to their homes to recruit. Thus the whole frontier was left unprotected and exposed to savage onslaught.
Matters became worse as a great thaw came, and the snow disappeared, making the forest trails again passable. Stories of approaching danger were heard and, as the weary winter dragged on, fears and forebodings could not be quieted. Work was rushed to strenghten the defenses. Outlying farms were abandoned at night and the people swarmed to the garrisons.
There were at this time five villages of "praying Indians" as those who had been converted to Christianity were called. The nearest to the Lancaster settlement was the village of Nashoba, now Littleton. The attitude of the colonists towards the Christian red men varied. There is no doubt that the brightest among the tribes had been quick to see the advantage to themselves, resulting in the change of attitude, once they accepted the Englishman's God. Equally obvious was the advantage taken by the white men to trick the Indians with presents and promises, to get them to spy upon their own people. Nor is there doubt that some of these red men proved true friends to the English, and furnished invaluable service as scouts. No white man did more for the colonists than a "praying Indian" named Quinapaug, alias James
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Wiser, whose bravery and fidelity would have saved Lancaster, had his warnings been heeded.
Quinapaug and another Indian, named Job Kattenanit, were selected by the chief military officer of the state-Major Gookin- to visit the Indian camps in the western part of the state, and bring back a report of the numbers, condition, and plans of the enemy. The journey of eighty miles was full of peril, but these two men started out on snowshoes for the camp at Menameset, new New Braintree, on the 30th day of December, 1675, with only a little "parcht meal" for sustenance. They were armed only with knives and hatchets. These scouts were distrusted and their lives were threatened by some of the hostile Indians, and but for the intervention of a powerful friend, they would have been slain. James was known to Monoco. They had fought together in the Mohawk war, and had been friends many years. So Monoco took James into his own wigwam. This protection made it possible for Quinapaug to accomplish his mission and to carry to the Governor and Council full details of the plans of the sagamores.
Hearing that Philip was about to visit the tribes gathered there for war, and, knowing that he would be obliged to meet Philip if he tarried longer, James made his escape. He arrived in Boston on January 24, 1676. From the Nipnet outposts he brought back the news that an onslaught was to be made upon Lancaster, Groton, Marlboro, Sudbury and Medfield: that the first thing planned was to destroy the bridge at Lancaster and thus hinder the settlers from flight or from receiving assistance: that the time set for the slaughter was "about twenty days from Wednesday last."
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