History of eastern Vermont, from its earliest settlement to the close of the eighteeth century with a biographical chapter and appendixes, Part 2

Author: Hall, Benjamin Homer
Publication date: 1858
Publisher: New york : Appleton
Number of Pages: 828

USA > Vermont > History of eastern Vermont, from its earliest settlement to the close of the eighteeth century with a biographical chapter and appendixes > Part 2

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* Book of Council Minutes, 1751-1768, xxvi. 442: also, 1764-1772, xxix. 250. Act of 12th George III., in Laws of New York, 1691-1773, Van Schaack's ed., pp. 698-700. Act of 15th George III., in New York Colony Laws, 1774, 1775, pp. 127, 128. Acts and Laws of General Assembly of Vermont, February 11, 1779, p. 7. Also, those of February, 1781, p. 1. Brattleboro' Eagle, June 10, 1850, and September 27, 1849. Slade's Vermont State Papers, pp. 294, 295.

1672-1675.] PHILIP'S WAR.

particulars at least, the usual amount of exaggeration and fancy .*

Owing to the comparatively small immigration, and the diffi- culties incident to a new and dangerous mode of life, settlements did not extend very rapidly ; and it was not until more than sixty years had passed, that any settlement was made within the territory which Champlain described, either from the lake side or from the banks of Connecticut river. In the year 1672, a township was granted to John Pyncheon, Mr. Pearson, and others, at Squakheag, afterwards Northfield, on Connecti- cut river, and in 1673, a few people removed there from North- ampton, Hadley, and Hatfield. The township was laid out on both sides of the river, and inclosed an area of six miles by twelve, extending several miles into the present states of Ver- mont and New Hampshire, and including a valuable tract of interval land. The northern boundary of Massachusetts being undetermined at that time, the whole of this town was supposed to be within that province.t

For several years preceding the settlement of Northfield, the Massachusetts Indians had carried on a war with the Mohawk tribe who dwelt on the banks of the river of that name in the province of New York. As the English extended their boun- daries, the enmity of the Indians towards one another seemed partially to abate, and centre upon those whom they regarded as their natural foes. The war of Philip, which raged most fiercely during the latter part of 1675, was characterized by the savage- ness and determination with which the red man hunted the white, and the white man, in turn, attacked the red. To detail the events of this period, would be foreign to the purpose of this work, as it would involve the recital of acts but little connected with the history of the territory afterwards known as Vermont. It may not, however, be out of place to refer to some of the in- cidents which occurred within the limits of Northfield. Philip, having made an attack upon Swanzey, on the 24th of June,

* Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, 6.

+ " A deed to William Clark and John King, of Northampton, agents for the pro- prietors of Northfield, covering the grant, was made August 13th, 1687, by Naw- elet, Gongegua, Aspiambelet, Addarawanset, and Meganichcha, Indians of the place, in consideration of 'two hundred fathoms of wampum, and fifty-seven pounds in trading goods.' It was signed with the marks of the grantors, and wit- nessed by Jonathan Hunt, Preserved Clap, William Clark, Jr., Peter Jethro, Jo- seph Atherton, and Israel Chauncey." Northfield Town Book in Hoyt's Indian Wars, pp. 77, 78

HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.

[1675.

1675, deserted Mount Hope, his favorite retreat, and was imme- diately pursued by Capt. Benjamin Church, and others, con- spicuous as leaders at that time. With the removal of Philip, the scene of the war was changed from the neighborhood of Plymouth ; and Lancaster, Marlborough, and Brookfield, towns in the more inland parts of Massachusetts, soon began to suffer from the incursions of the Indians. After they had burned Brookfield, a large military force was stationed at that place, under the command of Major Simon Willard, and the country adjacent being thoroughly scoured by detached parties, the Indians fled westward and joined their allies at Deerfield. Small garrisons were now posted at Northampton, Hatfield, Deerfield, and Northfield; and Hadley was made " the English head-quarters for this part of the country." But no vigilance could ward off the invasions of the Indians. Deerfield, slightly guarded, was attacked on the 1st of September, 1675, and before assistance could be brought, one man had been killed and seve- ral houses burned. Shortly after, nine or ten persons were killed in the woods at Northfield, and a garrisoned house saved the lives of a larger number, who otherwise would have been exposed to a similar fate. For some time after, these two towns were wholly deserted by the English, and served as rendezvous for the Indians. Depredations were now constantly recurring, and scarcely a day passed that did not record some story of pil- lage or slaughter. An expedition for the purpose of driving the Indians from Northfield was at length decided upon, and the Connecticut and Massachusetts commanders having joined their forces, proceeded up Connecticut river in two columns, one on either bank. They destroyed quantities of fish and other articles which the Indians had collected and concealed ; saw the places where the Indians had tortured and burned their captives, and the very stakes to which these captives had been tied. Of the living enemy, they made no discovery, but the effective measures taken, proved of great security to the towns on Con- necticut river.

With the death of Philip, departed the power which had given life and direction to the enmity of many of the Indians. Some of the settlers who had been driven from their homes on the Connecticut, now returned; but the Indians in the north- western parts of Massachusetts, who had not depended upon Philip as a leader, still continued their depredations. Some of these tribes having attacked Hatfield on the 19th of September,

1677-1698.] SKIRMISH WITH THE INDIANS.

1677, were pursued by the English. Resting one night at Northfield, they continued their retreat northward, and at a place in the neighborhood of the present town of Rockingham, Vermont, built a cabin, where, secure from the scouting parties of the whites, they remained for some time.

From the year 1689, when the French papists began to spread their doctrines among the Indians in Canada, until the year 1763, the border settlements on the Connecticut and Mer- rimack rivers were constantly exposed to the ravages of the French and Canada Indians, and the territory of Vermont would have become the seat of war, had there been attractions enough within her borders to excite the feeling of lust, or wealth sufficient to arouse the desire of plunder. Poor as they were, he early settlers patiently bore their share of suffering and violence ; manfully sustained the attacks of the enemy, and cheerfully contributed their quota of men and arms for defence. The peace of Ryswick, signed in September, 1697, and pro- claimed at Boston on the 10th of December following, closed the war between England and France, but it did not put a stop to incursions against the English colonies. Among the incidents which occurred at this period, the following, related by Hoyt, may be mentioned. One evening in the month of July, 1698, a short time before sunset, " a small party of Indians killed a man and boy in Hatfield meadow, on Connecticut river, and captured tw lads, Samuel Dickinson, and one Charley, put them on board of canoes, and proceeded up the river. The intelligence bing received at Deerfield, thirteen miles above, twelve men vere detached from that place, to intercept the Indians."

Advancing bout twenty miles, they chose a favorable spot on the right baik of the river, within the present town of Ver- non. Here the lay till morning, " when they discovered the Indians coming up near the opposite bank with the captured lads, in two caoes. Carefully marking their objects, the whole party gav the Indians an unexpected fire, by which one was wounded. The others, with one of the lads, leaped from the canoes, and gined the shore. They then attempted to kill the lads, but recerring another well directed fire, they fell back, on which the lad on shore joined his companion in the canoe, and both escaped cross the river to their deliverers. Five or six of the party the embarked with the design of seizing the other canoe, which it this time had lodged on an island a little

HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.

[1702-1704.

below. Two Indians who lay secreted not far distant, fired and killed Nathaniel Pomroy, one of the party. The Indians then retired into the woods, and the English returned to Deer- field."*

On the death of William III. of England in 1702, and the accession of Anne to the throne, war was again declared between France and England, and as a natural consequence, between the French and English colonies in America. North- field, at the commencement of King William's war, had been protected by small works, and occupied by a few settlers. The people having been compelled to abandon it, the houses and forts were destroyed by the Indians, and the place was not re- occupied at the beginning of Queen Anne's war. Intelligence was received in the summer of 1703, that an attack vas to be made on the frontier towns, and the truth of the report was soon after fully realized. In the winter of 1704, Mapr Hertel de Rouville, aided by his two brothers, and a force o' two hun- dred French, and one hundred and forty-two Indians, æt out from Canada for the purpose of attacking Deerfield, then one of the most flourishing, and with the exception of Northfield, the most northern town in Massachusetts. Proceeding up Lake Cham- plain to the mouth of Winooski river, and followng up that stream, they crossed over to Connecticut river, down which they passed on the ice, and reached Deerfield or the evening of the 29th of February. At midnight the attack was made, and by sunrise they had killed forty-seven of the inhabitants, taken one hundred and twelve captive, and burned every build- ing in the town, with the exception of the meeing-house, and one dwelling. The story of the capture of the Reverend John Williams, the minister of this town, and his family, has long been familiar to every American schoolboy, and its fame has now become world-wide as connected with the late attempt to identify the Reverend Eleazer Williams, th reputed great- great-grandson of the Reverend John Willams, and Louis XVII. the dauphin of France, whose fate has been so long shrouded in obscurity.

During their march to Canada, the catives suffered the most cruel privations. They rested at the close of their first day's journey, at what is now the town of Greenfield, the Indians having first taken every precaution available to prevent

Hoyt's Indian Wars, p. 161

THE MARCH TO CANADA.

1704.]

their escape. The second night was spent within the limits of the present town of Bernardston. The fourth day brought them to a spot probably in the upper part of what is now the town of Brattleborough, where light sledges were constructed for the conveyance of the children, the sick and wounded. The march, being now performed on the ice, became more rapid. On the first Sunday of their captivity, the prisoners were allowed to rest. Their halting-place is said to have been at the mouth of Williams's river in the present town of Rockingham, where the Reverend John Williams delivered a discourse from these words : "The Lord is righteous ; for I have rebelled against his commandments : hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow ; my virgins and my young men are gone into cap- tivity."* From this circumstance the river received its name. At the mouth of White river, Rouville divided his company into several parties, and thence they took different routes to the St. Lawrence. That party which Mr. Williams accompanied ascended White river, and passing the highlands struck the Winooski or Onion, then called French river. Journeying down that stream to Lake Champlain, they continued their march on the lake to Missisco bay. Thence they proceeded to the river Sorel where they built canoes, and passing down to Chambly, continued on to the village of Sorel, where some of the party remained, but Mr. Williams was conveyed thence down the St. Lawrence to the Indian village of St. François, and was subsequently sent to Quebec.

Another party ascended Connecticut river, and halting some time at Coos meadows, their provisions being exhausted, barely escaped starvation by procuring wild game; two of the party actually died of hunger. The majority of the captives were soon afterwards redeemed, and were allowed to return to their friends. One of them, however, Eunice the daughter of the Rev. John Williams, became so much attached to Indian life, that she married an Indian, and became the ancestor of the Indian branch of the Williams family.+

The enemy, emboldened by the success they had met with at Deerfield, were continually harassing the frontier settlements, and endeavoring to cut off the scouting parties which were

* Lamentations, chap. i., v. 18.

+ Biographical Memoir of Rev. John Williams, Greenfield, Mass., 1837. Hoyt's Indian Wars, pp. 186-194. Williams's Hist. Vt., ed. 2d, 304-307.

HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT. [1704-1713.

sent out from them. On the 31st of July, 1704, they attacked Lancaster in Massachusetts, and reduced most of the dwellings to ashes, and in the years 1705 and 1706 many towns in New Hampshire and Massachusetts suffered severely from their de- predations. In order to put an end to these incursions by de- stroying the sources whence they emanated, an army was sent in 1707 against Port Royal in Canada, but the issue was unsuc- cessful, and the troops returned home, having effected nothing of importance. The next year Hertel de Rouville, at the head of a party of French and Indians, plundered and burnt the town of Haverhill in Massachusetts on the 29th of August, killed about forty of the inhabitants, and took a large number of them captive. Not long after, as a scouting party from Deer- field was returning from White river in the present state of Vermont, one of its members, Barber by name, was killed by the Indians, and another, Martin Kellogg Jr., was captured.

Calling into service a larger body of troops, the British government again resolved, in 1709, on the reduction of Canada. The event of this attempt was like that of the former. The English squadron did not arrive, and the New York forces being greatly lessened in numbers by sickness, the expedition proved a complete failure. The French, notwithstanding the threatened invasion of Canada, kept small parties of Indians on the English frontiers. By some one of these straggling forces Lieut. John Wells and John Burt, while on a scouting expedi- tion, were, in May, 1709, killed in a skirmish on Onion river in the present state of Vermont. Enraged at this loss, the scout to which they belonged penetrated to Lake Champlain, and killed several of the enemy. In June of the same year another attack was made on Deerfield by a force of one hundred and eighty French and Indians, under the command of one of the De Rouvilles, but on account of the vigilance of the inhabitants the effort proved unsuccessful. In 1710 an armament raised in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, in conjunction with forces from England, all commanded by Colonel Nicholson, sailed from Boston, besieged and captured Port Royal, and changed the name to Annapolis.

During the year 1711 another expedition was fitted out against Canada. The fleet accompanying it sailed from Boston on the 30th of July, but was wrecked at the mouth of the St. Lawrence on the 25th of August following. As the result of this disaster, by which a thousand lives were lost, the expedi-

1713.]

EQUIVALENT LANDS.

tion, the third which had been made against Canada in the space of four years, was abandoned. The treaty of Utrecht was signed on the 11th of April, 1713, and on the 29th of the following October, was proclaimed at Boston. A formal peace was made with the Indians on the 11th of July, 1714, at Ports- mouth, New Hampshire, and for a few years the land had rest from war .*

Previous to, and during the late wars, the General Court of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay had granted several large tracts of land, which were supposed to be situated within the provincial limits. Upon this presumption these tracts had been taken up and surveyed by the grantees, and many of them had already become the centres of permanent and flourishing settle- ments. On determining the boundaries between this province and the colony of Connecticut, in the year 1713, 107,793 acres of the land so granted, were found to be without the true limits of the former government. Massachusetts, wishing to retain all the territory which she had hitherto supposed her own, entered into an agreement with her sister colony, in accordance with which it was determined, "that the said colony of Connecticut should have 107,793 acres of land as an equivalent to the said colony for lands allowed and granted to belong to the said pro- vince, that fall to the southward of the line lately run between the said province and colony." Although the southern bound- ary of Massachusetts was fixed by this determination, yet it was still uncertain how far her territory extended to the north.

The equivalent lands were located in four different places. One of the portions containing 43,943 acres, situated above Northfield, on the west bank of Connecticut river, within the bounds of the present towns of Putney, Dummerston, and Brat- tleborough, in the state of Vermont, was limited in the following manner : "The north east corner boundary is the mouth of the brook, at the northward end of the Great Meadow, where sd brook emptieth itself into Connecticut river att the foot of Tay- ler's island, from whence it bounds upon Connecticut river (as the river runs,) eastwardly down to the mouth of the brook that emptieth itself into Connecticutt river att the lower end of the Meadow, about three miles southward of the West river. And from the mouth of sd brook it extends west north west by the needle of the surveying instrument six miles and half and from

* Hoyt's Indian Wars, pp. 196-203.

HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.

[1713.

thence it extends nearest north north east by the needle of the surveying instrument twelve miles, which is the westerly bound- ary of sd lands, and from thence it extends east south east by the needle of the surveying instrument six miles and half to the mouth of the brook at the uper end of the Great Meadow."*

The colony of Connecticut, having received all the land to which she was entitled, caused it to be sold in Hartford at public vendue, on the 24th and 25th of April, 1716. It was divided into sixteen shares, and was bought by gentlemen from Con- necticut, Massachusetts, and London, who paid for it six hundred and eighty-three pounds, New England currency, which amount- ed to " a little more than a farthing per acre." The money thus obtained was applied to the use of Yale College.t

The purchasers of the land, being then tenants in common, made partition of the whole amount, and the tract situated above Northfield, on the west bank of Connecticut river, fell to William Dummer, afterwards Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, Anthony Stoddard, William Brattle, and John White. By a deed from the Honorable Gurdon Saltonstall, Governor of Connecticut, and the rest of the proprietors, this tract was conveyed to the four above named gentlemen, "as their part and proportion," and was by them, and those holding under them, improved and possessed for many years .¿

The colonies being now at peace with the Indians, the frontier settlements began to assume a more prosperous appearance, and the losses which had been sustained by the ravages of the enemy were in a great measure repaired. But by the time that affairs had become so arranged as to invite immigration, and warrant the safety of new settlements, Massachusetts and New Hamp- shire were again compelled to prepare to defend their borders against the Indians. By the instigations of Sebastian Rale, a French Jesuit, who had gained the esteem and respect of the Indians, they, in 1721, began their usual depredations, and the next year war was declared against them by Massa- chusetts.

Northfield and Deerfield were still the frontiers of this pro-

* Records in the office of the Secretary of the State of Connecticut, entitled, " Colonial Boundaries, vol. iii., Massachusetts, 1670-1827."

+ See Appendix A. Trumbull's History of Connecticut, i. 471. Williams's His- tory of Vermont, ii. 10. Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv. 547, 548.

# Petition of Joseph Bryant, dated August 11th, 1766, in office of the Sec. State N. Y., Land Papers, 1766, vol. xxi.

1721-1724.] BUILDING OF FORT DUMMER.

vince on Connecticut river, and these, with other exposed towns, were rendered defensible against the attacks of the enemy. In order more effectually to secure the safety of the inhabitants, the General Court of the province of the Massachusetts Bay voted, on the 27th of December, 1723, "that it will be of great service to all the western frontiers, both in this and the neighboring government of Connecticut, to build a Block House, above Northfield, in the most convenient place on the lands call'd the Equivalent Lands, and to post in it 40 able men, English and Western Indians, to be employed in scouting at a good distance up Connecticut river, West river, Otter creek, and sometimes eastwardly, above great Monadnuck, for the discovery of the enemy coming towards any of the frontier towns, and that so much of the said Equivalent Lands as shall be necessary for a Block House be taken up with the consent of the owners of the said land, together with five or six acres of their interval land, to be broke up or plowed for the present use of the West- ern Indians, in case any of them shall think fit to bring their families thither."*

To fulfil the provisions contained in this vote, to which Lieu- tenant-Governor Dummer gave his assent, Col. John Stoddardt of Northampton was ordered to superintend the building of the block house. The immediate oversight of the work was committed to Lieut. Timothy Dwight,¿ who with a competent force, consisting of " four carpenters, twelve soldiers with nar- row axes, and two teams," commenced operations on the 3d of February, 1724.§

Before the summer had begun the fort was so far completed,

* Massachusetts Court Records, 1723-1725, p. 153.

+ An estimate of the character of " this distinguished man " is given in Dwight's Travels, i. 331-335.

# Lieut. Timothy Dwight of Northampton, Mass., was the first commander at Fort Dummer, and probably occupied that position from February, 1724, until the close of the year 1726. But this office did not engross his whole attention. In July and August, 1724, he superintended the erection of a fort at Northfield, and in 1725 was engaged as a surveyor. He was afterwards a Judge of Probate in the county of Hampshire, and was preceded in that station by John Stoddard of Northampton, and Samuel Partridge of Hatfield, and succeeded by Israel Wil- liams of the latter place.

§ "It [the fort] was built by carpenters of Northfield at 5 shillings per diem, except Crowfoot [John Crowfoot, an Indian of Springfield] who received 6 shil- lings. The soldiers slept in the woods, and earned 2 shillings per diem besides their stated pay. The horses worked hard, eat oats and nothing else. They earned 2 shillings for service, per diem."-Records in office Sec. State, Massachu- setts, lii. 32.

HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT. [1724.

as to be habitable. It was situated on the west bank of Con- necticut river, in the south-east corner of the present town of Brattleborough, on what are now called "Dummer Meadows," and was named Fort Dummer, in honor of Sir William Dum- mer, at that time Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts .* This was the first civilized settlement within the borders of the present state of Vermont. The fort was built of yellow pine timber, which then grew in great abundance on the meadow lands. In size it was nearly square, the sides measuring each about one hundred and eighty feet in length. It was laid up in the manner of a log-house, the timbers being locked together at the angles. In a letter dated February 3d, 1728, written by Col. John Stoddard to Lieutenant-Governor Dummer, in reference to its construction he said, "I forgot to take notice of your thought of setting stockadoes round the fort to keep the enemy at a distance. I don't well apprehend the benefit of it, for we intend the fort shall be so built that the soldiers shall be as safe, if the enemy were in the parade, as if they were with- out the fort." In an answer to this letter, Governor Dummer advanced other suggestions. "Untill," wrote he, " the frost be out of the ground how will you lay yr foundation, and I think there ought to be a good one of stone and that carried some height above ye Ground, and also cellars for the use and con- veniency of so many people." The houses within were so con- structed that the walls of the fort formed the back wall of each building. The roof was a single one, slanting upward to the top of the fort walls. All the houses fronted on a hollow square, and were arranged in such a manner, that in case the enemy should burst the large gate which closed the entrance to the fort, and gain access to the parade, they could be instantly rendered defensible by barricading the doors and windows. Besides the small arms with which the soldiers were furnished, the garrison was also defended by four pat- tararoes.

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History of eastern Vermont, from its earliest settlement to the close of the eighteeth century with a biographical chapter and appendixes, Part 2

Author: Hall, Benjamin Homer Publication date: 1858 Publisher: New york : Appleton Number of Pages: 828

Author: Hall, Benjamin Homer
Publication date: 1858
Publisher: New york : Appleton
Number of Pages: 828