USA > Massachusetts > The story of western Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 27
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While the women were more or less industrious, the men were found undependable and the settlers learned to place little reliance on them. "If you do your business by Indians", said Pynchon in 1644, "you will find it dearer than to send an Englishman". Pynchon always took the position that such natives as did not sell their domain must be considered an independent and free people, subject only to their own laws, but if they sold their land and yet continued to occupy it, then their interests were common with those of the other occupants, and as their rights and privileges were equal, so their duties and restraints must be equal, as well. But restraint the Indians could not understand and though they were treated as members of the body politic, and were subjected to the same system of government as the English, they were unable to recognize the value of a code of ethics of which they had no comprehension. They were of a sociable nature, enjoying nothing so much as idling about the village homes, with no comprehension of why their constant presence was unwelcome.
In November, 1639, as a measure of safety, it was ordered that no person should give, trade or lend any powder to an Indian and that every man should "train" one day in each month. In December, 1641, it was required that every member of the train band should have his gun at all times ready for instant service, keeping by it, a
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pound of powder and twenty bullets. However, the careless acts of thoughtless and selfish individuals set at naught such provisions for the general welfare. Though Colony law prohibited the supplying of guns to the natives, the law was but lightly observed. In 1640 the widow of Thomas Horton was called before Magistrate Pynchon charged with "selling her husband's piece to the Indians". She pro- tested that she had merely "lent it to an Indian because it lay spoil- ing in her cellar. The Indian is suddenly to bring it again and he left about six fatham of wampum in pawn for it. She knew of no order against it, and dothi promise to take it home again. She cannot tell the Indian's name but it is an Indian of Aguam". She was ordered "to get it home again speedily or else it would cost her dear, for no commonwealth would allow of such a misdemeanor". She, poor soul, was without influence, yet in 1659 the Worshipful Major John Pynchon, himself then a magistrate, had no hesitancy in boldly charg- ing on his ledger for a gun that he delivered to Umpanchala, the Indian chief, in exchange for land. In 1656 John Pynchon, in a list of his personal tools at the shop of John Stewart the smith, included "a tool for making Indian hatchets", that is, tomahawks. Thus they sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind.
The seeds of the Indian assault on Springfield, on October 5, 1675, had been long in the sowing. The Indian of bow and arrow. the Indian of Pequot War days, was the occasion of little alarm, but the Indian of powder and ball was a menace to be seriously considered.
About 1661 there died Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags, who for forty years had been a steadfast friend and ally of the Pilgrinis, leaving two sons, Wamsutta and Metacom, known to the English as Alexander and Philip. Alexander succeeded his father as head of the clan, but soon came to an untimely death, for which Philip accused the English of being responsible. He long sought an opportunity to avenge his brother, but had been chief for thirteen years before his plans were completed and he had confederated the various native groups into one organization bent on the extermination of the English.
ยท The initial blow came in June, 1675, at Swanzey, when the savages sacked the village, burning houses and slaying the people. Similar destruction was wrought at Dartmouth, Middleborough, Taunton, and Mendon. In August, Brookfield was assaulted and the scene then shifted to the Connecticut Valley, where the Indians were driven off at Hatfield, but September first, attacks were made on Deerfield and Hadley and the following day at Northfield. On September 11th, came the Bloody Brook Massacre. The Indians felt confident of their supremacy and the frontier trembled at the thought of where the next blow might fall.
A decade before the outbreak of the conflict, the Indians of Springfield had been domiciled on the Long Hill reservation known as the Indian Fort, provided by the English for segregating them where their activities could be under constant supervision. The group com- prised the entire body of local Indians, perhaps seventy-five in all,
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including not more than twenty active men. At this juncture, inquiry being made amongst them, "the firmest assurances and pledges of their faithfulness and friendship were given".
There were then two schools of thought as to the most effective method of conducting the campaign. One provided for the calling out of the more active men of each town to provide a mobile army ready to promptly take to the field whenever disaster threatened. John Pynchon and many others objected to this plan, which left the indi- vidual towns unprotected. However, that group was overruled and Pynchon was given command of the valley troopers with headquarters at Hadley, where the forces were directed to assemble on October 4, 1675. Before setting out on that expedition, three substantial houses were garrisoned for the protection of the inhabitants. One of these was at the extreme lower end of the town, the home of Jonathan Burt (Main and Elmwood Streets) which had been built by Hugh Parsons. Further up the street the home of the widow Margaret Bliss was chosen (Main and Loring Streets). The third was the impregnable "Mansion House" of John Pynchon (Main at Fort Street).
In 1677 William Hubbard, pastor of the Ipswich Church, pub- lished a Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians which is of especial interest to Springfield, for in 1672 the author's daughter, Margaret, married John Pynchon, Jr., thus providing him with a peculiar knowledge of the details of the local situation, which he outlined as follows :
"After the affair at Brookfield, the Indians were driven more westwardly into the woods between Hadley and Squakheag (North- field) where they soon effected their design to leaven the Indians in that part of the country with the same prejudice and malice against the English with which they themselves were embittered, and in a few days the Hadley and Deerfield Indians withdrew from the English and assisted Philip and the Nipnets to destroy all the towns. At first, some of the Hadley Indians pretended real friendship for the English and offered to fight against Philip, but they fell into great suspicion and were required to bring in their arms to the English, but that very night they fled away.
"The Indians gathered together in those parts, growing more confident because of their success, began to talk of great matters, hoping that by degrees they might destroy all the towns thereabout. Their hopes were heightened by the accession of the Springfield Indians to their party, who had in appearance all this time stood firmest to the English of all in those parts. But they were easily persuaded to join with those of Hadley, there being so near alliance between them for the sachem of the Springfield Indians was the father of the Hadley sachem.
"The inhabitants of Springfield were not insensible of their danger and upon the first breaking forth of these troubles, had been treating with the Indians and had from them the firmest assurance of their friendship both by promises and hostages. Yet did those
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faithless monsters plot with Philip's Indians to burn and destroy all Springfield. To that end they enticed away the hostages from Hart- ford and then received three-hundred of Philip's Indians into their fort, privately, in the night time, so that they were neither discerned nor suspected. So confident were such of the inhabitants as were most conversant with the Indians at their fort, that they would not believe that there was any such plot in hand, when it was strangely
Home of Jonathan Burt, South Main Street, Springfield Garrisoned during King Philip's War.
revealed by one Toto, an Indian at Windsor, better affected to the English and so tidings were brought to Springfield, the night before, but the lieutenant of the town, Cooper by name, was so far from believing the stratagem, that in the morning, himself and another ventured to ride to the fort, to see whether things were so or not. The fort was about a mile from the town. When he came within a little thereof he met those bloody monsters, newly issued out of their Equus Trojanus to do their intended mischief. Divers of them pres- ently fired upon him and shot him in several places through the body, yet being a man of stout courage, he kept to his horse until he recovered the next garrison house. His companion they shot dead, by this means giving an alarm to the town of their intended mischief, which was instantly fired in all places where there were no garrisons.
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No doubt the whole town would have been destroyed but that a report of the plot being carried overnight, Major Treat came from West- field in time for their rescue, but wanting boats to transport his men, could not do as much as he desired".
"Major Pynchon, coming from Hadley with Captain Appleton and what forces they could bring along with them, thirty-two houses being first consumed, preserved the rest of the town. Amongst the ruins, the most sad was the house of Mr. Pelatiah Glover, minister of the town, furnished with a brave library. After some time spent in garrisoning the place and helping the inhabitants to secure what they had left, most of the soldiers returned to their headquarters at Hadley".
Besides Lieutenant Thomas Cooper and Thomas Miller, killed at the first onslaught, Pentacost Bond, wife of John Matthews the cooper, was also slain. Richard Waite and Edmund Pryngrydays were shot, the latter dying the following week of his wounds. That short autumn was a busy time for the survivors as the sun set shortly after five o'clock and much was to be done before dark. Live- stock was rounded up, three graves were dug; three bodies were interred. It was imperative that a report be made to headquarters. This Pynchon addressed to the pastor of the Hadley Church and sent it off by a post rider in the dark of the night. The letter read :
"Springfield, Octo. 5, 1675.
"Reverend Sir, ---
The Lord will have us lie in the dust before him. We that were full are emptied. But it is the Lord and blessed be His holy name. We came to a lamentable and woeful sight. The town in flames; not a house nor barn standing except old Goodman Branch's till we came to my house and then Mr. Glover's, John Hitchcock's and Goodman Stewart's burnt down, with barns, corn and all they had. A few stand- ing about the meeting house and then from Mirick's downward, all burnt to two garrison houses at the lower end of the town. My grist mill and corn mill burnt down with some other houses and barns I had let out to tenants. All Mr. Glover's library burnt with all his corn so that he hath none to live on as well as myself and many more that have not for subsistence. They tell me thirty-two houses and the barns belonging to them are burnt and all the livelihood of the owners and what more may meet with the same strokes, the Lord only knows.
Many more had their estates burnt in these houses so that I believe forty families are utterly destitute of subsistence. The Lord show mercy to us. I see not how it is possible for us to live here this winter and if so, the sooner we are helped off, the better.
Sir, I pray you acquaint the honored Governor with this dispen- sation of God. I know not how to write, neither can I be able to
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attend any public service. The Lord in mercy speak to my heart and to all our hearts is the real desire of,-
Yours to serve you.
JOHN PYNCHON.
I pray send down by the post, my doublet, coat linen &c, I left there, and papers &c."
Pastor Russell forwarded Pynchon's letter to Governor Leverett, and it is preserved in the State Archives in Boston. On otherwise vacant space on the sheet are appended sixty lines of shorthand of a system at present unknown. It is impossible to say whose hand penned it, but that it relates to the Springfield situation is evident, for in the text, the name of the Indian Wequogan is plainly to be seen in longhand. One day, some cryptogramist will decode the message and new bits will be added to the story of that disastrous day.
When forwarding Pynchon's letter to Governor Leverett, Pastor Russell supplemented it with one of his own, which read in part: "Right. Worshipfull,-
The enclosed from the Honored Major will give you such account as is with us to make. We have little to add, only that the houses standing are about thirteen. There appeared not, according to their estimate, above one-hundred Indians, of whom their own were the chief. Their old sachem, Wequogan, in whom as much confidence was put as in any of the Indians, was ringleader in word and deed. Another of their principle men cried out that lie was one that burnt Quabaug and now would make them like to it. They were gone before Major Pynchon came in with his forces, which was about two or three of the clock. They signified their sense of his approach by their whoops or watchwords and were presently gone. Major Treat got down some hours sooner on the west side of the river, whose coming being perceived, five men went out of town and although persued by twenty Indians, carried over a boat which was filled with men, but the Indians, standing on the rivers bank, shot at them and shot one through the neck, who is not likely to recover. They durst not adven- ture to pass the river till Major Pynchon was come in and the Indians gone.
It was but the day before, viz, on the fourth of October that the garrison soldiers, about forty-five in number, left them. Our army had prepared all things in readiness to go forth on Monday at night against a considerable party discovered about five or six miles from Hadley, which was the occasion of calling forth these from Springfield. But the three alarms we met with and the tidings from Springfield wholly disappointed us."
On October 12th Captain Appleton wrote to the Governor that "in the account of Springfield houses we only presented the number of them on the east side of the river and in the town platt; for in
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all on the west side and in the outskirts on the east side, there are about sixty houses standing and much corn in and about them".
From the facts as related it is possible to reconstruct the situa- tion rather completely. The forty-five men who had been engaged in protecting Springfield set off for Hadley on Monday, October fourth. News of the impending danger was received in Springfield late that night and was relayed to Hadley the following morning, but as the sun did not rise until after six o'clock, the post-rider did not set out in time to reach Hadley until the middle of the forenoon. It was well on toward noon before the two hundred troopers could be assembled, yet they reached Springfield by early afternoon.
Their route coincided rather closely with the present-day roads, but crossed the Chicopee River at the ford where Grape Street now is. From there the way followed much the line of the present Springfield Street to the Upper Causeway (Carew Street), thence to the Town Street.
From the height above the Springfield Hospital, the smoke from the ruins could be discerned and as Round Hill was neared, it was apparent that the numerous Pynchon buildings there had all been destroyed, as were the few scattered houses on North Main Street. Nothing remained of the Miles Morgan home at Wharf Lane (Cypress Street), nor of the buildings on the Lane itself.
The first house standing intact was that of William Branch (Railroad Row) which had been built by John Cable in the earliest days of the town. Then wholly unharmed were the Pynchon Man- sion, Elizur Holyoke's home and the Henry Smith House, then owned by Thomas Cooper. Entirely destroyed were the parsonage (Vernon Street), Deacon Chapin's House, then owned by John Hitch- cock his son-in-law (north side of Pynchon Street) and the home and shop of John Stewart the blacksmith (south side of Pynchon Street). Between that point and the present Bliss Street, all seven houses were standing, including that of Thomas Merrick (Bliss Street), due to the protection given by the snipers located in the watch-tower of the church. From Merrick's to the garrisoned Bliss House (Loring Street) all were gone and from there to Mill River, nothing remained but the garrisoned Burt House (Elmwood Street). In addition, both the grist-mill and the saw-mill on Mill River were wholly destroyed as was the House of Correction (Maple Street at Temple).
Richard Saltonstall said in 1675, that "on the first of October news came to Boston that the Indians had burnt the farmhouse of Major Pynchon, situate near Springfield (Suffield) and killed many cattle and burnt much corn. It is judged that Major Pynchon's damage may amount to eleven or twelve hundred pounds sterling. Following that disaster Pynchon repeated a former plea that he be relieved of any public duties. On September 30, he wrote the Council :
"It is too much that I should still trouble you with my con- tinued desire for a rebate from the charge you have laid on me,
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which I am necessitated to do, that the work may not miscarry by so unable a manager. It were far better some more meet instru- ment were employed in the service and I discharged. Besides the distressed state of my affairs at home, the sorrows and afflictions of my dear wife undergoes and her continual calls to me for relief and succor, she being almost overwhelmed with grief and troubles and in many straits and perplexities, which would be somewhat helped and alleviated by my presence there". In 1677, Hubbard said that after the assault on Springfield, "Major Pynchon, being so full of incumbrances, by reason of the late spoils done to him and his neighbors, could not any longer attend the service of commander-in-chief as he had done before, whereof according to his earnest request, the Council eased off that burden and Captain Samuel Appleton was ordered to succeed in taking charge of the soldiers in those upper towns".
At the age of forty-nine, John Pynchon was a broken man. He advocated the abandonment of the town, but stouter hearts prevailed and the inhabitants were directed by the Council to maintain their position as a frontier outpost against the enemy.
As the Indians had destroyed the town's grist-mill it was neces- sary to carry grain ten miles to Westfield for grinding. Hence, three weeks later, on October 27, 1675, tragedy came again to those harassed people. The diary of the Rev. Edward Taylor of Westfield relates that "our soil was moistened by the blood of three Spring- field men, young Goodman (John) Dumbleton, who came to our mill and two sons of Goodman Brooks (John, aged eighteen and William, aged twenty) who came here to look after some iron ore on the land he had lately bought of Mr. John Pynchon, who, being persuaded by Springfield folk, went to accompany them but fell in the way by the first assault of the enemy".
Long unused implements were brought out and grain was ground by hand. There were anxious days, and sad days. Three of the town's stalwarts died; Deacon Samuel Chapin on November 11th, Nathaniel Ely on Christmas day and Elizur Holyoke on February 6th. At Longmeadow died Lawrence Bliss, son of a gallant mother, Margaret Bliss. John Leonard was killed by the Indians on Febru- ary 24th, Pelatiah Morgan March 1st, and William Hunter July 4th. On October 31, 1676, Captain Samuel Holyoke died of exer- tions at the Falls Fight.
The heart of the native confederacy collapsed with the death of King Philip in August, 1676. Hubbard said in 1676, that "as for the Indians that joined in Philip's quarrel, it is apparent what end they came to. As for the rest of the Indians, whether Nipnet, Nashaway, Pacomptuck, Hadley or Springfield Indians, after their separation about last July, they went west and about the middle of August last (1676) a great party of them were observed to pass by Westfield and were judged to be about two hundred. They were pursued by troops under Major Talcott as far as Ausatunnoag river (Housatonic) in the middle way betwixt Westfield and the Dutch
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river and Fort Albany where he overtook them, killing and taking forty five prisoners, twenty five whereof were fighting men, without the loss of any of his company save a Mohegin Indian. Many of the rest were badly wounded as appeared by the bushes being much besmeared with blood. It is written since from Albany that there were sundry lost besides the forty five afore mentioned, to the num- ber of three score in all and also that an hundred and twenty of them are since dead of sickness. This day also (1677) letters were received from Major Pynchon of Springfield, but without mention
Turners Falls
of any appearance of the enemy in that quarter, whereby we are encouraged to believe that they shall never rise any more to make further disturbance".
John Pynchon gradually recovered his confidence. An unhurried survey of the situation showed that in the town plat there had been forty houses in all, of which thirty had been destroyed, while in the outlying districts of Longmeadow, West Springfield and Chico- pee were sixty houses, none of which had been molested. Hence, out of a total of one hundred and two houses, seventy-three remained, or nearly three-quarters. Unfortunate as the outlook was, it was by no means hopeless, if further devastation could be prevented. Pynchon's eldest son Joseph, who had been engaged in the practice of medicine in England, returned to Springfield, and at the June, 1679, session of the Court he was made Associate Magistrate for the County, and in 1681 and 1682 he represented Springfield at the General Court. He died in Boston, unmarried, December 30, 1682.
Joseph's younger brother, John Pynchon, Jr., was married in September, 1672, to Margaret Hubbard of Ipswich and settled in
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Boston as a trader, where two sons and a daughter were born to them. After the Springfield disaster, John also returned to Spring- field. In 1678 the elder Pynchon built for this son, a substantial home on the north half of his own home lot (Main Street, at Hamp- den). Even then the Indian menace was in his mind for, on June 3, 1678, he was granted "liberty to set up a flanker into the street at the east end of his new house that is now building on the north side of his own homelot, which flanker he desires to set into the street five feet broad and ten feet in length, so long as there may be need of a flanker".
In 1809, the church parsonage having been sold, this house was bought by Rev. Samuel Osgood, newly ordained pastor of the First Church, who occupied this home and so continued until he sold it in 1836, to provide for the laying out of Hampden Street.
CHAPTER XXVII
The Indian Fort at Springfield
"Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set." Proverbs XX :28.
S IXTY years ago the site of the present Saint Vincent's Mission House on Long Hill in Springfield, was known as "the Storrs lot". From its plowed fields youngsters of successive generations gleaned quantities of stone implements. Their fathers told them that these had been fashioned by Indians who had a fort there in the seventeenth century, in which was concocted the plot to burn the little town of Springfield in 1675. So the tale was passed on from father to son for more than two centuries.
It was all a matter of such common knowledge as to be unques- tioned, until, on a map accompanying the report of the Springfield Park Commissioners for 1899, a section at the western limits of Forest Park, known as the Field-Rumrill lot, was designated as the site of the old Indian Fort.
The germ of this fallacy seems to have originated with Daniel J. Marsh, then President of the Park Commission. In the Commission- ers' report for 1893, was a story signed by him, entitled "Forest Park, Now and Then", which read in part:
"The point of land on the Connecticut River front known as the Field and Rumrill lots has all the indications of having been a stock- ade or fort and grand lookout. This point is where the beautiful river makes a great bend to the south, thus giving the most extended and noble view to the north, west and south of any place on the river. Long Hill, or Fort Hill, of which Storrs' lot is a part, was also occu- pied as a stronghold. On what is now the southern promontory of the Park, on October 4, 1675, King Philip, with about three hundred braves, joined the local sachems. That night they moved forward to Fort Hill. The next day, October 5, 1675, the whole force of the Indians rushed upon the town, killing three men and one woman, and destroying with fire, fifty seven buildings."
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