USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Lancaster > The story of colonial Lancaster (Massachusetts) > Part 4
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It seems incredible, but the fact remains that, having sent Quinapaug to gather this information, accomplished with so much heroism on his part, the Governor and his Council did nothing whatever to ward off the blow. Less than two weeks before, a body of troops, who had been in pursuit of the fleeing Narragansetts, had been withdrawn to Boston on account of food shortage in the camp. These troops easily could have been billeted in the garrisons of the threatened towns. Absolutely nothing was done to meet the emergency.
Meanwhile rumors of the approaching attack had reached Lancaster, and some of the leading citizens, with the minister, Mr. Rowlandson and the chief military officer, Henry Kerley
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went to Boston to stir up the authorities and beg for aid. It was too late.
The other scout, Job Kattenanit, about ten o'clock on the night of the 9th of February, half dead with fatigue, fell before Major Gookin's door in Cambridge and confirmed every word that Quinapaug had spoken. Job had traveled night and day to cover the eighty miles from the enemy's camp to Boston, in order to warn the English of their danger.
Now the Governor and his Council were stirred to action. Again it was too late. Death stalked down the beautiful valley with tomahawk and scalping knife.
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CHAPTER IX
The Massacre of 1675 |6
DAY DAWNED ON THE TENTH OF FEBRUARY, 1675/6, UPON THE most tragic event in the history of Lancaster. The people were gathered in the three garrisons, and in the partly fortified house of the minister, awaiting-they knew not what! The crackling of flames was heard. They looked out to find fires raging in all directions, set in five places at once.
Mr. Rowlandson and Lt. Kerley had not returned from seeking aid in Boston. The attack was centered on the house of the minister. Well might Mrs. Rowlandson write, "Now is the dreadful hour come, that I have often heard of-but now mine eyes see it-and quickly it was the dolefulest day that ever mine eyes saw."
The assault, made about sunrise, was led by Shoshanin and Monoco of the Nashaways, Muttaump of Quabaug, Quinnaipin, a Narragansett sachem, and a brother-in-law of Philip; and prob- ably Pakashoag and Matoonas of the Nipmucks. Sewall, in his diary speaks of Maliompe as "the general at Lancaster." Sagamore Sam and "One-Eyed John" planned the attack.
In every part of the town buildings outside the stockades were set on fire and soon became one general holocaust. The first slaugh- ter was at the least protected garrison-the Rowlandson house. There was no stockade and its rear flankers were unfinished, therefore useless.
The Indians hauled a cart, loaded with hemp and flax, from the barn and pushed it against a lean-to in the rear, then set it on fire. Some heroic men rushed from the house and put out the fire, but it was re-kindled.
Within that dwelling were forty-five persons. They had to choose quickly between being burned alive or rushing out into the hands of the savages.
Soon more than forty people-an eighth of the Town's whole population-were driven before the roaring flames, to death or into captivity. The warwhoops of the savages mixed with the
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shrieks of the women and children and the groans of the wounded and the dying. Mrs. Rowlandson wrote in her narrative:
"Some in our house were fighting for their lives, others wallowing in their blood, and the house on fire over our heads, and the bloody heathen ready to knock us in the head if we stirred out .**** But out we must go, the fire increasing, and coming along behind us, roaring, and the Indians gaping before us with their guns, spears and hatchets to devour us .**** The bullets flying thick, one went through my side, and the same through the bowels and hand of my dear child in my arms. Thus were we butchered by these merciless heathen, standing amazed with blood running down to our heels.
1157672
"The Indians laid hold of us, pulling me one way and the children another, and said 'Come, go along with us.' I told them they would kill me. They answered if I were willing to go along with them, they would not hurt me. Oh the doleful sight that now was to behold at this house. 'Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolation he has made in the earth.'
"There was one who was chopped into the head with a hatchet, and stripped naked, and yet was crawling up and down. It is a solemn sight to see so many Christians lying in their blood- like a company of sheep torn by wolves-all of them stripped naked by a company of hell-hounds, roaring, singing, ranting and insulting .**** Yet the Lord by His almighty power preserved a number of us from death, for there were twenty-four of us taken alive and carried away captive."
We get most of our knowledge of the events of that dreadful day from "The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson," a little book first printed in 1682. Of that first printing no copy is known to exist, and only one or two copies are known of other early editions. These bring a great price. Few books of its time had so many editions as this pathetic story written by a comparatively uneducated woman of Lan- caster. It is the record of her experiences in captivity, of her physical sufferings, borne so patiently, and of her great sorrow over the death of her little daughter Sarah, shot in the mother's arms and carried, in a dying condition, for days.
Throughout the narrative Mrs. Rowlandson shows unfaltering faith in the wisdom and mercy of God.
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Mrs. Rowlandson tells of only thirty-seven persons, but prob- ably reckoned only those whose homes were in Lancaster. There were known to have been five soldiers stationed in the garrison.
Reliable authorities give fifty-five as the number who fell that day. John Ball who, for some unknown reason, had remained in his home on George Hill, was killed, as were his wife and baby. His two older children were carried away, captives.
At John Prescott's garrison, in the extreme south end of the town, his grandson, Ephraim Sawyer was killed. Five were killed at the garrison in South Lancaster. Three of them were shot by Indians who climbed to the roof of a barn. They were Richard Wheeler, Jonas and Joshua Fairbanks.
Henry Farrar and another man were caught while on an errand outside of the garrison, and scalped. Following is a list of those known to have been victims of the Indians.
KILLED IN ROWLANDSON GARRISON
Ensign John Divoll.
Josiah Divoll, son of John, aged 7.
Daniel Gains.
Abraham Joslin, aged 26.
John MacLoud.
Thomas Rowlandson, nephew of the minister, aged 19. John Kettle, aged 36.
John Kettle, Jr.
Joseph Kettle, son of John, aged IO.
Mrs. Elizabeth Kerley, wife of Lieut. Henry.
William Kerley, son of Lieut. Henry, aged 17.
Joseph Kerley, son of Lieut. Henry, aged 7.
Mrs. Priscilla Roper, wife of Ephraim.
Priscilla, child of Ephraim Roper, aged 3.
CARRIED CAPTIVE FROM THE ROWLANDSON GARRISON
Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, wife of the minister, ransomed.
Mary Rowlandson, daughter of the minister, aged 10, ransomed. Sarah Rowlandson, daughter of the minister, aged 6, wounded, died Feb. 18.
Joseph Rowlandson, son of the minister, aged 13, ransomed. Mrs. Hannah Divoll, wife of Ensign John, ransomed.
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John Divoll, son of Ensign John, aged 12, died captive? William Divoll, son of Ensign John, aged 4, ransomed. Hannah Divoll, daughter of Ensign John, aged 9, died captive? Mrs. Ann Joslin, wife of Abraham, killed in captivity. Beatrice, daughter of Abraham, killed in captivity. Joseph Joslin, brother of Abraham, aged 16. Henry Kerley, son of Lieut. Henry, aged 18. Hannah Kerley, daughter of Lieut. Henry, aged 13. Mary Kerley, daughter of Lieut. Henry, aged IO. Martha Kerley, daughter of Lieut. Henry, aged 4.
A child-Kerley, name and age unknown. Mrs. Elizabeth Kettle, wife of John, ransomed.
Sarah Kettle, daughter of John, aged 14, escaped. Jonathan Kettle, son of John, aged 5.
A daughter of John Kettle.
Ephraim Roper, in some miraculous way, made his escape, and sped away towards Marlboro, seeking help.
A soldier, George Harrington, was slain the next day, near Pres- cott's mills, and John Roper killed a few days later. As reliable authorities give the total number killed as fifty-five, the names of seven remain unknown.
The other garrisons successfully resisted the attack. Partly because the Indians were so eager to share the day's spoils they became scattered on both sides of the river, nearer the minister's garrison, so that fewer were left to continue the attacks.
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CHAPTER X
Help Sent too Late
Meantime authorities in Boston were thoroughly aroused. When Job Kattenanit (the Scout) arrived at Major Gookins' with the report confirmed that the Indians would be at Lancaster the next day, a post-rider was sent hurriedly to order what soldiers there were at Concord and Marlboro to the aid of Lancaster.
It was at dawn on the day of the massacre that the rider reached Marlboro. Captain Wadsworth, on duty there with about forty men, started in great haste for Lancaster, ten miles away; but the troopers did not arrive in time to be of any assistance. Avoid- ing an ambush laid on the main road, Captain Wadsworth marched his troops safely to the garrison-house of Cyprian Stevens just across the north branch of the river.
The Indians had taken their terror-stricken prisoners to the summit of George Hill, where the night was passed in celebrating their triumph, and feasting upon the loot from the farm-yards.
Mrs. Rowlandson wrote, "This was the dolefulest night that ever my eyes saw. Oh the roaring and singing and dancing and yelling of those black creatures in the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell." A stone called the "Rowlandson rock" marks the place on George Hill where Mrs. Rowlandson passed that first night. She asked permission to stay in an empty house nearby, but was not allowed to do so. Probably it was the trucking house, vacant since the Prescotts had moved near the mills.
The mounted companies of soldiers arrived the next day. They drove away the savages who then were plundering in the debris. That day also Mr. Rowlandson and Lt. Kerley returned to find the minister's wife and children carried away into captivity, Lt. Kerley's wife and two children slain, and five of his children taken captive.
Such of the surviving inhabitants as had means to get to friends or relatives in the Bay towns soon made their escape. Those who were left crowded into the garrison houses of Thomas Sawyer,
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and Cyprian Stevens. With them, eighteen soldiers had been stationed as a guard. But the situation was desperate. Indians lurked in ambush all about them. Their farm animals were gone, their barns were burned. It was winter. Provisions were low. Humbly expressing their condition in a letter to Governor Leverett and Council that "our state is very deplorable" they asked that a guard of men and carts be sent to remove them to places of safety nearer Boston. This letter written by Cyprian Stevens is in the Massachusetts archives. The letter said "we are sorrowful to leave this place, but hopeless to keep it unless maintained by the country."
It was a pitiful state of affairs, and "sorrowful to leave" must have expressed very mildly their state of mind. Over twenty-five years of hard work to establish their homes was gone in a single day.
The name "John Prescott Senr" stands at the head of the list of the signers from the south garrison. He asks for twenty carts "the settlers having widows and many fatherless children among them." The blow fell heavily upon Prescott, now aged and feeble, the rest of his life's work gone for naught.
Major Willard, on the 26th of March, sent a troop of forty horse- men, with carts, to carry the survivors and what they could take of their goods and provisions to Concord. There they separated to other towns, wherever they could find lodging.
Then the Indians finished their burning and plunder. Probably during this time the church was fired. They left nothing standing in what is now Lancaster. On Wattaquadock Hill in Bolton two houses were left. The valley of the Nashua, stained with blood, and blackened by fire, was now a silent and desolate ruin, and for four years following the massacre so remained.
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CHAPTER XI
Raids Extended to Other Settlements-Mrs. Rowlandson's Ransom-1676-1680
ELATED BY THEIR SUCCESS, THE INDIANS MADE RAID UPON RAID, and carried destruction into all the outlying towns. Many of the villages were abandoned and the settlers gathered in the Bay towns. Even the citizens of Boston were alarmed at reports that the Indians were planning to attack them.
Smarting under defeat, every fresh massacre made white men the more determined to wipe out the hated red men. The English were quick to learn the cunning of Indian warfare and to adopt the Indian methods and, eventually, to outwit the savages.
The struggle soon became one for existence on both sides. The Indians, although they had been successful in carrying death and destruction into the homes of the white men, nevertheless, were having a very hard time. Unable to get a regular supply of food, they were often near starvation between successful raids. Then, the old tribal jealousies and distrust were creeping in, especially after the capture and death of Canonchet, head sachem of the Narragansetts. Canonchet was master mind in the confedera- tion of the tribes. Philip was bloodthirsty and revengeful, but he had no great hold upon his subjects, nor did he exhibit any great personal bravery.
Philip left the camp on the Connecticut river above Northfield in the late spring, and started back with the Nashaways towards their hunting grounds around Mt. Wachusett. Quinnaipin and some of the Narragansetts were with Philip, as well as that most important captive, Mrs. Rowlandson, who had been made to act as servant to the squaw sachem, Weetamoo, one of the three wives of Quinnaipin. It was expected that a great sum would be paid by Mr. Rowlandson for his wife's ransom.
Philip was opposed to bargaining with the English for the ransom of the captives but no heed was paid to him, and word was sent to Boston that the Indians were ready to negotiate. Then Governor Leverett ordered Major Gookin to go to Deer Island
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in Boston harbor, where Indian captives were held, and bring back one or two Indians, who, for a reward, would go to the enemy and bargain for the redemption of the captives. Not one of the Indians would go; so nothing further was done for a time.
Mr. Rowlandson interested John Hoar, of Concord, a man who had won the respect of the Indians. Probably through his influence, an Indian from the same town, named Tom Doublet, alias Nepponet, volunteered to carry a message into the enemy's camp.
Nepponet was "fitted and furnished for this enterprise" and set out upon his journey on the third of April 1676. He returned in nine days with an answer from two sagamores demanding that two men be sent. So Nepponet was sent a second time and with him went Peter Tatatiquinea, alias Conway. They brought back a second letter from the chiefs, written by James Printer, an Indian who had passed sixteen years' apprenticeship in Samuel Green's printing office in Cambridge. The original letter is in the Massachusetts Archives, but no copy is known of the letter which the Indians carried on this second trip. In reply the Indians asked that Mr. Rowlandson and Mr. Kettle come and get their wives, but evaded any reply about the rest of the captives. A sharp reproof was sent in the third letter and a demand that a plain and direct answer be returned by Tom and Peter.
Mr. Hoar went with the messengers on this third venture, and took with him twenty pounds in money and goods raised by friends of Mr. Rowlandson in Boston. This mission was successful, and on the second day of May, Mrs. Rowlandson was freed from her captivity. Escorted by Mr. Hoar and the two scouts, she left the camp near Mt. Washusett, overjoyed at her release from captivity. A huge boulder, suitably inscribed, marks the spot in Princeton where Mr. John Hoar effected the ransom of Mrs. Rowlandson. The land was bought by Mr. Hoar's descendants and the stone was inscribed to commemorate the event. Of her return Mrs. Rowlandson wrote: "About the sun going down, Mr. Hoar and myself and the two Indians came to Lancaster and a solemn sight it was to me. There had I lived many comfortable years amongst my relations and neighbors, and now not one Christian to be seen nor one house left standing."
They passed the night at a deserted farmhouse, probably on the trail to Marlboro, and the next morning went on to Concord,
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where Mrs. Rowlandson met her brother, Josiah White, and her brother-in-law, Lt. Henry Kerley, who inquired where his wife was. He had returned from Boston on the day of the massacre and had buried his wife without recognizing her charred remains. They went on to Boston that afternoon where Mr. Rowlandson awaited her.
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CHAPTER XII
Recovery of Captives-Punishment of Indians-1676
TOM DOUBLET AND SETH PERRY WERE SENT THE NEXT DAY, with a letter "for the sagamores about Wachusett, Philip, John, Sam, Washaken, Old Queen and Ponhom," demanding terms for the release of all the English captives at once. A verbal answer was sent to this letter, and the Governor appointed Jonathan Prescott to arrange for a meeting with the sagamores. A letter written eight years later is recorded in the Massachusetts Archives, which tells that the sachems met the representatives of the English between Concord and Groton, and that arrangements were made for payment of ransom for some of the captives. From other sources we find that nine captives were freed without ransom.
From the records of this meeting we learn that after eight years it was decided that some attention should be paid to the request of Tom Doublet for remuneration for all the difficult and hazardous journeys he made to and from the enemy's camp in behalf of the captives. Jonathan Prescott suggested giving him thirty or forty shillings, but the Council ordered that the state treasurer give him "two coates"-a niggardly recompense for all he had accomplished, especially when the ransoms had been paid in pounds.
In Drake's "Biography and History of the Indians of North America" there are printed letters coming from Shoshanin who had said "if the English would first beg peace of him, he would let them have peace, but that he would never ask it of them." By summer time, however he was thoroughly humbled, especially after Capt. Henchman, guided by Tom Doublet, had surprised thirty-six Indians fishing at Washacum, of whom seven were killed and the rest taken captive. Among the latter were the wives and sons of Muttaump and Shoshanin. This severe blow brought entreaties for a covenant of peace. The council replied that the treacherous persons who had brought on the war must not expect to have their lives spared, but that those who had been drawn into the war, and acted only as soldiers, would have their lives spared if they promised to give up arms and live peaceably.
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Finally, worn out with privations and hopeless, the sachems came in at Cocheco (Dover, New Hampshire) in September and gave themselves up. Philip and Quinnaipin had fled back to their tribal haunts when they found that their allies were weakening.
The Diary of Samuel Sewall has the following significant entry; "1676 Sept. 26. Tuesday Sagamore Sam & Daniel Goble is drawn in a cart upon bed cloaths to execution' One eyed John, Maliompe Sagamore of Quabaug, General at Lancaster & Jethro (the father) walk to the gallows." Daniel Goble was one of four English soldiers who, in August, had surprised and murdered three Indian women and three children near Hurtlebury Hill in Concord. With him were Stephen Goble, Daniel Hoar and Nathaniel Wilder; the last was one of the most promising young men of Lancaster. The stern hand of the law reached them and the four were sentenced to death.
The victims in this case were "two squaws, wives of two Chris- tian Indian soldiers, the one named Andrew Pittime, the Captain of the Indian Company, and the other his sister, wife to Swagon alias Thomas Speen." Their bodies were found "not far from one another, some shot through, others their brains beat out with hatchets."
At the trial it was proven that Nathaniel Wilder and Daniel Hoar were guilty of "being present and seeing the act done and consenting" yet did not take part in the murders. For them the sentence of death was remitted upon payment of prison charges and a heavy fine of ten pounds apiece-half to go towards pay- ment of witnesses and half to the two Indians who prosecuted the white men.
The Goble brothers were the ring leaders in the attack and were hanged on the same day with the captive Indian chiefs who planned and carried out the destruction of Lancaster.
Refugees from Lancaster were scattered far and wide in their exile. Most of them had friends or relatives in the eastern towns. Reverend Joseph Rowlandson went to Wethersfield, Conn. as successor to Reverend Gershom Bulkeley and died there in 1678.
The Prescotts, Hudsons and some of the Sawyers were at Concord; the Wilders, Willards, Houghtons, Waters, and Ropers were in Charlestown; the Farrars, at Woburn; the Whitcombs, at Scituate; the Lewises, Beamans, Rogers, Sumners, and Ather- tons, at Dorchester.
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Now that the savages had been subdued, their leaders hanged, the fears of the colonists were quieted, and they began to look longingly towards their deserted homes. They had "gone through many straits and difficulties" but were anxious to begin over again.
There seems to have been nothing to warrant the belief that the valley was safe from savage attack, yet seventeen or eighteen families joined in a petition to the General Court for permission to build the plantation again, and asked that they be exempted from "country rates" for a few years. At the head of the list of petitioners was the name of the earliest pioneer, John Prescott. His coat of arms bore the legend, "He conquers who endures or bears."
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CHAPTER XIII
Rebuilding the Town-1680-1690
AMONG THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO HAD SIGNED THE COVENANT we find that of Ralph Houghton, "clerk of the writs" from 1656 to 1682. Although the first pages of the oldest records were written by John Tinker, who acted as scribe for the first prudential managers, Ralph Houghton seems to have had entire charge of the town's business for more than thirty years. His last entries in the town book were made in 1670, but his signature is attached to the records until the year of the massacre; and again upon the resettlement in 1680 and 1681. A yellow and torn leaf from the original records, in Ralph Houghton's handwriting, is all that remains.
If any records were kept during the abandonment and resettle- ment of the town, and on until 1700, no trace of them exists. Therefore all the story of the rebuilding of Lancaster has come from County and State archives, from records of other towns and from newspapers, as well as from manuscripts in private collections.
An order was sent out by the General Court in 1679 that the places deserted on account of the Indian wars should not again be inhabited until the people first should make application to the Governor and the General Court.
In compliance with this order Lancaster's petition was sent in and, according to the Middlesex files, a committee of three men was appointed by the Court "to settle ye rebuilding of Lan- chaster." Those men were Capt. Prentice, Deacon Stone, and Corporal Wm. Bond. When and where the meetings took place was not recorded; but there were births recorded here in 1679 and 1680.
John Prescott died in 1681. He gave to his eldest son, John, his house and lot, and his saw and grist mills, which shows that the elder John already had reestablished his home and was at work again helping to rebuild the town. At his death John Prescott, Sr. owned about 700 acres of land. Three hundred of these acres
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lay about Washacum ponds, including what is now Sterling camp grounds: he owned a long strip of land in South Lancaster, extend- ing from the summit of George Hill to the meeting of the rivers. His land and buildings in Clinton covered the sites of nearly all the present big factories and the business section of the town. In spite of these large holdings the value of his estate at his death was but £330. Prescott's land and mills at Nonacoicus (Ayer) were willed to his son Jonas. Just how the rest of the estate was divided among the numerous descendants can not now be told, for there were nine children and fifty grandchildren. For five generations the family name of John Prescott was passed down. There are many who claim descent from Prescott now living in Lancaster, but no longer any family by that name in the town.
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