USA > Rhode Island > Newport County > History of Newport County, Rhode Island. From the year 1638 to the year 1887, including the settlement of its towns, and their subsequent progress > Part 93
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We have considered somewhat the title rights of the first white settlers, and shall concern ourselves chiefly with the course of events under their occupancy, but a glance at the relations the Indians sustained for a few years toward the rudiments of onr present civilization is of local interest in relation to the pe- ninsula, which was one of the last tracts to pass by deed from the Wampanoags.
Just prior to the landing of the Pilgrims, a pestilence had swept over this region and wasted the strength of the natives, making them an easy prey to the Narragansetts. The Wampa- noags were formerly the ruling tribe east of Narragansett bay and south of Massachusetts. Massasoit, their sachem, was the first to recognize the importance of making friends of the Pu- ritans, and by formal treaty he enlisted the English upon his side in throwing off the yoke of the Narragansetts. His treaty with the Pilgrims was faithfully kept until his death. His two sons, Wamsutta and Metacomet, survived him. The treaty made by the father was not so well kept by the sons. The in- crease in strength of the English and decay of their own nation made a deep impression on their minds. The elder son, Wam- sutta, survived the father but a brief time. He had been a short time associated with his father in the government, and at his death became chief sachem.
When the sway of Massasoit as their sachem, and practically as the monarch of thirty New England tribes, closed with his death of 1662, this territory and the peninsula of Bristol were
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all the lands which they had not compromised. Their repre- sentatives had signed the deeds and the white men were in pos- session. The generations which sold the lands and enjoyed the proceeds had passed away, but the deeds remained, and the young warriors began to apprehend the significance of what their fathers had done, as they found the settlements of the white man multiplying. The ring of his axe had seared the wild game from their richest hunting grounds; his net had taken the fish from their streams, and upon the resources they had called their own a shrewder race had come to subsist. These considerations, more than all else, led to the Philip war, the adverse influence of which upon the development of Little Compton has been ob- served.
The Indians were a people with as generous impulses, as lofty purposes, as chivalrous withal as paler men, when hampered by their environments, but by the irresistible logic of events, a power forever potent, forever controlling those who control and leading those who lead, it seems to have been decreed that another people, fewer, weaker, poorer, and not they, should have palaces where they had huts, should sow and reap where they had hunted, and should develop on their soil a higher civilization.
The strength of the Wampanoags came less from their num- bers than from the intellectual power and military genins of Massasoit, and neither of his sons ever succeeded him in the influence which he wielded, by the force of his character, be- yond the limit of his material power. Their name for this pe- ninsula was Sanghkonet-The Black Goose comes-and the varying orthography only indicates how, to the eye, the settlers tried to show how the natives spoke the word. Sagkonate, Seaconnet, Seconnet and other forms are modern, the latter having obtained, apparently, the most nearly general use. The Indians found here, maintaining a rude system of domestic government, were tributary to the great Wampanoag confed- eracy, which, in the lifetime of Massasoit, included all east of the Narragansett bay. Two of these tribes occupied portions of Tiverton, and while also tributary to the Wampanoags, main- tained their separate tribal governments. Of the Puucatest Indians, appearing to be the weakest of the clans, only the name is preserved. The Pocassets, so conspicuous in the Philip war, were a tribe under the chieftainship of Corbitant, who was
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succeeded by Wetamoo. One of the tribe was Daniel Page (74), the Indian who went from Tiverton in Colonel Barton's squad and aided at the capture of Prescott on Rhode Island.
The clan possessing what is now Little Compton were known to the whites by the name they gave to the haunt of the black goose. Their squaw sachem was Awashonks, said to have been a sister of Wetamoo. She appears in the character of a queen beloved by her people, and in her business and treaty relations with the settlers seems to have regarded her obligations as sacred. One of her subjects was Alderman, the Indian who shot King Philip.
An important compact was made between Awashonks and Colonel Benjamin Church on the 1st of August, 1675, with ref- erence to the attitude she and her people should maintain in the Philip war and toward the proposed settling enterprises of the white men, then scarcely begun. This compact was of signal importance in its bearing npon the issues of those times, and was the result of great skill and foresight on the part of Colonel Church. He came from his home at Plymouth to Portsmouth, on the island, and thence across the Seconnet, and was met by Awashonks and her warriors near the shore, on the farm now occupied by Mr. Chase (120). The exact spot is gen- erally referred to as an immense flat rock on his farm, a few rods from the water's edge. "Treaty Rock " is a term as defin- ite as any used in local reference, and the rock itself is probably the most certain and lasting landmark named in the old writ- ings. South of this, on the Macomber place, an adjoining farm, recently purchased by Ripley Ropes, president of the Brooklyn Trust Company, is another rock with some hiero- glyphics; of which two words are distinguishable, which seem to have been intended for the words sun and moon. Ont of this small investment of fact has come a remarkably large income of fiction and speculation. An Indian named Solomon is known to have lived here among the latest of his tribe, and if these strange words on the rock are simply his rade attempt to leave his name on granite, a great many pleasant fancies will be chased away by this fact. In this question of where the peace treaty was made, we have followed the authority of Colonel Chureb himself who, in his autobiography, is very explicit on this point. Of the event itself he modestly says very little.
Awashouks' warriors aided Colonel Church in those critical
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days and were compensated by awards of the public lands at Seconnet, as this, from the records of the Plymouth Court, of March, 1677, indicates :
" Libertie is granted nnto eight of the soldiers whoe have bine in the service May sit downe and plant att Seaconnett, Cap- tain Church accommodating them with land on condition that they shall be ready to march forthe under command of Captain Church when he shall see canse to require them for the further pursuing our Indian enemies, hee satisfying the Indians had the sole prophetts of such an adventure."
This "libertie " was exercised by those who, with other In- dians, became residents of the town under the white man's re- gime, but they were not called out again to pursue the Indian enemy. Several points in the town have yet a local historical interest growing out of their residence here. Northeast of Pot- ter's corners, on the farm of George II. Gifford, is the grave of Aaron Succenash who, with his wife Mary, lived there since the place has been owned by the Gifford family. The site of his house and his grave are a few rods south of Mr. Gifford's, and on the east side of the highway. The field, now a meadow, contained also the wigwam of Wainer, an Indian who married Mary White. Their son, Rodney, a man of remarkable phys. ique, was a whaler, remembered by persons still living.
North from Mr. Gifford's house, a few rods, in a field still known as " Meeting house meadow," stood the place of worship where religions meetings were held by the Indians. During Rev. Billings' pastorate of the Congregational church he fre- quently instructed the little congregation of Indiaus in this building. It is to be regretted that so little is known of this in- teresting element in the early ecclesiastical history of the town. When the Congregational church was organized, there were over two hundred Indians residing here. Their village, a col- lection of unpretentious huts, was northwest of the present res- idence of Caleb Mosier. In January, 1703-4, Indian slaves were taken from here to Newport and offered for sale. When Little Compton was annexed to Rhode Island eighty-six Iu- dians were included in the population, and the census of 1774 shows that twenty-five Indians yet lived in the town, fifteen of whom were connted as belonging to the households of white people. In the next eight years their whole number was re- duced to thirteen and probably nine tenths of the present resi-
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dents of Little Compton never saw a resident Indian in the town. On Mr. Gifford's farm west of " Meeting house meadow, was the habitation of the Indian priest. His name was Jehu. Here he and his daughter Alice lived and died-a brief record for one of the last of a race. His only monument, the tree whose roots have pierced his mold, bears no testimony to his character and no man may say whether 'twas to the God of the Israelites or to the Kish-tan of the Wampanoags, that he at last commended his spirit. The tree points simply to the better land he hoped for. and in its rugged trunk and gnarled old limbs was given his body, whatever became of his soul, a resur- rection and another life.
In September, 1803, Rev. William Emerson of Boston, father of Ralph Waldo Emerson, published a pamphlet entitled: " Notes on Compton, a township in Newport County, State of Rhode Island." This highly curious source of information preserves the name of John Simon, an Indian, as a preacher to his people. Reverend Emerson was a brother-in-law of Rev. Mase Shepard and may have had special facilities for securing the data for his pamphlet. Some incidents which he there con- nects with the priest, John, are very like the traditions still preserved among the people here as relating to the priest Jehu, above mentioned; we have, however, found no mention of Jehu as a justice of the peace. Reverend Emerson says of John:
"Their stated preacher was John Simon, one of their breth- ren-a man of strong mind, prevailingly temperate, but occa- sionally devions, whose object was the welfare of the Indians, and who thought it right to use cunning in obtaining it. So in- fluential was this Indian preacher, that he was made a jus- tice of the peace. Accordingly, when the Indians were at fault, John was associated with the English justice to do away wrongs. It happened on a time that some Indians were delinquent. Col. Almy and John were judges in the case. After examination was had, said the former to the latter, concerning one and another of those in default, 'how many stripes shall these Indians re- ceive ? I think they should receive eight or ten stripes.' 'No,' said John, 'four or five are enow. Poor Indians are ignorant, and it is not Christianlike to punish as hardly those who are ignorant as those who have knowledge.' So John's opinion prevailed. But John's squaw was among the delinquents. ' Well,' said Justice Almy, 'what shall she receive?' 'Double,'
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replied John, ' because she had knowledge to have done better.' Col. Almy, however, knowing that John loved his wife, and thinking to do him a favor, had her punishment wholly remit- ted. John was silent npon this subject whilst the offenders were present, but assigned another time and place where he met Col. Almy, and severely remonstrated against his unjust sentence in favor of the squaw, saying: 'To what purpose, Col. Almy, do we preach justice, if we do unrighteousness in judgment. Here you have given stripes to such as were less guilty than my wife, but to her you have given none.' The Colonel so poignantly felt the reproof, as most cordially to wish that the squaw had been flagellated."
The relations which obtained between the Indians here and the tribes to the northward made their trail, which was ap- proximately along the line of the present Great West road, very important, and along this the first white settlements ap- pear to have been made. They had another line of communi- cation by way of the head of Westport harbor, passing east of Simmons' hill. Near this trail on Mr. Simmons' farm (156) was one of their burial places. From one of the graves here was exhumed a skeleton, evidently of a man fully eight feet tall. The skull, which was of remarkable proportions and huge dimen- sions, is now in the Fowler & Wells collection in New York city.
For five years after the allotment of the building lots at the Commons and that revival of interest in the proprietors' prop- erty at Seconnet which has been observed to have followed the settlement of the doubts and questions involved in the King Philip war, the community had practically an independent government-a pure democracy. The public acts, if public they may be called, were such as partners in business or tenants in common might do for the regulation of their property interests.
Their records, the proprietors' records of the Seconnet pur- chase, the oldest writings extant concerning this period, have furnished, largely, the statistics and dates of this chapter thus far. The original of these records is in the possession of Frederick R. Brownell, Esq., of this town, to whose courtesy the writer is indebted for the abstracts used and quotations cited.
In the winter of 1681 the people sought to secure different
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relations to the general government and applied to the general court of Plymouth for some order in the premises. The result appears in a record of that court directed
" To Joseph Church of Seaconnett. Whereas the Court are informed that your neighborhood is destitute of leading men either to call a meeting or otherwise to act in your publick concerns, this court empowers you to call your neighborhood together at Seaconnett in convenient time to make such neces- sary and wholsome orders as may be for your common good and peace, and to choose and present some fitt person or per- sons to inform the court of the present state of the said neigh- borhood, respecting the premises, to the court of his majesty to be holden att Plymouth aforesaid in June next."
The meeting was called and men were chosen to serve as grand jurors and one was elected to act as constable. The fol- lowing document shows how and when the town was incor- porated. It is the official record of the court of Plymouth as transcribed by the Seconnet proprietors.
"July Seventh 1682. Att the court of his Majesty held att Plymouth for the jurisdiction of New Plymouth the seaventh day of July 1682 before Thomas Hinckley Esq Gov. upon the petition of Mr. Joseph Church and the rest of the proprietors and inhabitants that are or shall be there admitted orderly ac- cording to the laws of this Collonie, shall from this time be a Township and have the liberties of a Towne as other Townes of this Collonie, and shall be called by the name of Little Compton."
No dated records are extant in the town of a town meeting held until one in the following January, which is noted on the first page of the town book thus:
"At a meeting of the inhabitants of Seacon ... this 26thi day of January 1682 in obedience to the order of the court of Plymouth Sargt. Edward Richmond was chosen moderator."
In this entry the scribe used the Indian name of the com- munity although the name " Little Compton " had been officei- ally proclaimed in June prior. From the lack of general attendance no business was transacted at this meeting. The next entry is this:
"At an adjournment of a town meeting of the inhabitants of Little Compton from the 26th day of January 1682 to the 29th day of the same month inst. and voted that Joseph Church was chosen moderator.
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Some remedy seemed to be demanded for this indifference ou the part of the freemen toward the public concerns, and as one of the sources of misrule the people sought to eliminate it by penal legislation at the ontset. They enacted that every legal voter in the town should be required to attend all legally warned meetings or pay a line of one shilling. This seemed to meet the case, and on the 19th of the following June, " At a meeting of the inhabitants of Little Compton, Joseph Church was chosen town clerk for this present year." Within that year William Briggs was elected constable; John Irish and William Brownell, surveyors of highways; and Captain Richmond, Joseph Church and William Southworth, selectmen. Thus providing for the control of their local affairs, they chose Simon Rouse as a grand juror, and sent Henry Head as deputy to represent them at the great and general court of Plymouth.
One of the citizens, Joseph Church, was subsequently given the office and title of "One of his Majesties Justices of the Peace," and the little settlement embarked decently and in or- der upon that career of domestic prosperity and internal peace which, almost uninterruptedly, covers the whole period of its history.
The division of the Plymouth colony, in 1685, into three coun- ties, placed Little Compton with Bristol county, and with name and area unchanged, it became, in 1691, a part of the common- wealth of Massachusetts, and thus entitled to a voice in its government. The officers chosen for this purpose were styled, "Deputies to the General Court." The town's record of these elections begins in 1697, when Joseph Church was chosen. In 1698-9, John Woodman was the deputy; 1700, Henry Head; 1701, William Jacobs; 1702, John Palmore; 1703, William Southworth; 1704, Joseph Church; 1705, William Briggs; 1706, Joseph Church, William Jacobs; 1707, Capt. William Sonth- worth; 1709, Benjamin Church, William Jacobs; 1710, Benjamin Church; 1711-17, Capt. William Southworth; 1718-21, Capt. Thomas Church; 1722, Jonathan Davenport, Joseph Southworth; 1723.4, Joseph Southworth; 1725-9, Thomas Church; 1730, Thomas Church, David Hillard; 1731, Thomas Church: 1732, Sylvester Richmond; 1733-8, Thomas Church; 1739-41, William HIall; 1742-6, William Richmond.
In the history of Tiverton is quoted the act of the Rhode Island general assembly incorporating these two towns. The
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eastern line of Little Compton was located somewhat east of where it had previously been, and included a portion of the old town of Dartmouth, which then included what is now West- port. The first town meeting in Little Compton, after the act of incorporation, was held on the 10th of February, 1746-7, of which they recorded that "William Hall, Esq. was chosen Moderator of ye meeting and took his engagment according to a late act of the General Assembly of the Colony of Rhode Island and then proseaded to qualify the Freemen of ye town according to ye act of Assembly."
The status in Rhode Island of the former citizens of Massa- chusetts was thus defined, and the general assembly from year to year admitted various persons as freemen of the colony. In May, 1757, John Brownell, Daniel Ormsby, George Simmons, James Pierce, Jonathan Peckham, Samnel Pearce, Adam Sim- mons, George Pearce, Joshua Brownell, Aaron Davis, Benjamin Brownell, Peter Simmons, Peleg Wood, Christopher White and John Briggs were thus admitted, and in 1758 William Carr, William Brown, Benjamin Stoddard and Nathaniel Stoddard were added to the list from Little Compton. In 1759 and 1760 the following named persons were made freemen of the little colony: John Peabody, Jr., Gideon Taylor, Constant Woodman, Gideon Salisbury, Thomas Davenport, Philip Taylor, Fobes Little, Jr., William Davenport and Joseph Salisbury.
Fifty years before Little Compton was annexed to Rhode Island its colonial government consisted in part of the house of deputy governors. In the schedule of June, 1797, the title of " The Deputies " was changed to representatives from the sev- eral towns. These officers are now generally styled representa- tives or members of the general assembly. The following list shows those who have represented Little Compton since the an- nexation: 1747, John Hunt, William Wilbore; 1748, William Hall, James Wood; 1749, William Hall, Nathaniel Searles; 1750, John Hunt, Joseph Peckham; 1751, Lient. Col. John Hunt, Charles Brownell; 1752-3, William Hall, Richard Greenhill; 1754, Nathaniel Searles, Joseph Wood; 1755, Moses Palmer, Joseph Wood; 1756, Richard Brownell, Thomas Church; 1757, Thomas Church, William Wilbore; 1758, William Hall, Con- stant Southworth; 1759-60, William Hall, Benjamin Simmons; 1761, William Ilall, Thomas Brownell; 1762-65, William Hall, Oliver Hilyard; 1766, Captain Thomas Brownell, Captain George
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Simmons; 1767, Captain George Simmons, Elihu Woodworth; 1768, Nathaniel Searles, Elihu Woodworth; 1769-70, Thomas Church,'Nathaniel Searles, Jr. : 1771, Philip Taylor, John Peck- ham; 1772, Thomas Church, George Pearce: 1773-4, Thomas Church, Daniel Wilbur; 1775, Thomas Brownell, William Rich- mond; May, 1776, Thomas Brownell, Daniel Wilbur; October, 1776, Perez Richmond, Nathaniel Church: 1777 78, Nathaniel Searles, Jr., Adam Simmons: 1779, Thomas Brownell, William Richmond; 1780, William Ladd, William Richmond: 1781, William Richmond, Isaac Bailey; 1782, William Richmond, Edward Simmons; 1783-84, Daniel Wilbur, Joseph Gifford; 1785, William Ladd, William Brown; 1786-87, George Sim- mons, Nathaniel Searles: 1788, George Simmons, Thomas Palmer; 1789, George Simmons, Fobes Little; 1790-91, Philip Taylor, John Davis; 1792-93, William Richmond, Jolin Davis; 1794, George Simmons, Isaac Bailey; 1795, Natha- niel Searles, John Davis ; 1797-9, Isaac Bailey, John Davis ; 1800, Andrew Taylor, John Davis; 1801, William Wilbor, An- drew Taylor; 1802, John Davis, Andrew Taylor; 1703-4, Wil- liam Wilbour, Isaac Wilbour; 1805, Daniel Wilbor, Isaac Wil- bour; 1806, Edward Woodman, John Brown; 1807, William Wilbour 2d, John Brown; 1808, Thomas White, John Brown; 1809, Isaac Bailey, Andrew Taylor; 1810, Robert Seabury, Ed- ward Woodman; 1811, Philip Wilbour, Godfrey Pearce; 1812, Philip Wilbour, Edward Woodman; 1813, Edward Brownell, Jediah Shaw; 1814, William Wilbour, Jediah Shaw, Abraham Bailey; 1815, Edmund Brownell, Jediah Shaw, Abraham Bailey; 1816, Abraham Bailey, Sylvester Gifford ; 1817-18, Sanford Almy, John Brown, Abraham Bailey, Sylvester Gifford; 1819- 20; Sanford Almy, John Brown, William Howland; 1821, San- ford Almy, Jediab Shaw, Tillinghast Bailey, William Howland; 1822, Sanford Almy, John Brown, Nathaniel Tompkins; 1823, Tillinghast Bailey, John Brown, Sanford Almy. Nathan Tomp- kins; 1824-7, John Brown, Jediah Shaw; 1828, Sanford Almy, Peleg Bailey; 1829, Sanford Almy, Ebenezer P. Church; 1830, Sanford Almy, Nathaniel Tompkins ; 1831-2, Jedial Shaw, Nathaniel Tompkins ; 1833, Jediah Shaw, Pardon Brownell : 1834-6, Jediah Shaw, Nathaniel Church; 1837.40, Nathaniel Church, Christopher Brown; 1841, Nathaniel Church, Jediah Shaw; 1842, Nathaniel Church, Christopher Brown.
By the provisions of the state constitution, the town, since
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May, 1843, has been entitled to one representative and one state senator. Christopher Brown was the representative in 1843-5; John Church, 1846-8 ; Christopher Brown, 1849 ; Oliver C. Brownell, 1850-62; Benjamin Seabury, 1863; O. C. Brownell, 1864; C. W. Howland, 1865; William S. Church, 1866-7; Thadens H. Clinrch, 1868; Orin W. Simmons, 1869-70; H. T. Sisson, 1871- 72; Isaac W. Howland, 1873; Frederick R. Brownell, 1874; Richmond Brownell, 1875; Jediah Shaw, 1876; Albert T. Sea- bury, 1877-8; Benjamin F. Wilbur, 1879; O. C. Brownell, 1880- 81; Oliver P. Peckham, 1882-4; Nathaniel Church, Jr., 1885-6; John B. Taylor, 1887.
To the state senate, under the constitution of 1842, Little Compton has elected the following persons : In 1843-5, Natha- niel Church; 1846-8, Otis Wilbor; 1849-62, Nathaniel Church; 1863, Charles W. Howland; 1861, Benjamin Seabury; 1865, O. C. Brownell ; 1866-7, N. Church ; 1868, O. C. Brownell ; 1869, Isaac B. Richmond ; 1870, no election and Mr. Richmond held over ; 1871-2, N. Church; 1873, Henry T. Sisson; 1874 6, N. Church; 1877-8, Jediah Shaw; 1879, Albert T. Seabnry; 1880-81, Benjamin F. Wilbur; 1882-5, O. C. Brownell; 1886, O. P. Peck- ham; 1887, Nathaniel Church.
PUBLIC CHARITY .- The stages of moral and social develop- ment in a community or a state are generally well measured by the care which the people manifest for the helpless and needy of their own number. The public policy of the Little Compton people has always been liberal toward the unfortunates of their own number. The first generation of settlers here deemed the loss of an ox by one of their number a public calam- ity, and considered the subject of sharing with the owner in the loss. Children have been raised here as wards of the town from their birth. The indigent people of the town have always been comparatively few, and for many years the apartments of the meeting honse of 1694 were ample for their accommodation. Before this building passed into private hands the people in the town meeting of April, 1827, appointed a committee relative to " the purchase or hiring a house and land for the poor of this town as a home." The result of this action, and the delibera- tions of which this was a part, has been to provide a fine farm and a comfortable house in the sonth part of the town, where the dependent people are well cared for in the "Town Home."
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