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THE

HISTORY

Old Town of Derby,

CONNECTICUT,

1642-I88O.

* BIOGRAPHIES AND GENEALOGIES.

BY

SAMUEL ORCUTT,

A nthor of the Histories of Torrington and U'olcott, Com, AND

AMBROSE BEARDSLEY, M. D.

PRESS OF SPRINGFIELD PRINTING COMl'ANY,

SPRINGFIELD, MASS.

1880.

Thus once more our journey is ended ; our track hath been centuries long;

We liave heard tiie wild whoop of the savage, and the rude note of puritan song ;

We have watched the briglit wave of progression as it broke o'er our valleys and

hills; We've seen builded the castle of beauty Ijy the lake, with its chattering mills ;

E'en we've tarried a while in the present, (so soon to be counted the past!)

And have caught at the sparks of the furnace that holdeth the future in " blast ; "

We've followed the thread of the stoiy as traced up this history's page.

And have seen that forever \.\\^ present was the rose that was crowning the age.

There were struggles, and crosses and trials ; and days when the sun was withdrawn ;

Vet forever there came in the morning the light of encouraging dawn ;

Our men have been men with a purpose, and our maidens have been gentle and

true, — With a faith that was strong, and as rugged as the rocks where from childhood they

grew.

Though the names that these pages have rescued, forgetfulness nearly had claimed, \"et heroes were they that had borne them, as ])roud as our country e'er hath named. So farewell, ancient ])ilgrims! we have sung to your memory our best song. Which in the ages to come, may cheer the travelers on the journey so long.

\

PREFACE

History is the record of experiences in the ages that are past; and experience, while varying through the changing of circumstances, is a teacher worthy to be carefully studied, and to whose voice it is wise to listen.

The person who is indifferent to the past is too selfish to be of much benefit to the world in the present, and too heedless of wisdom to accomplish much for human good in the future.

One object sought in the writing of this book has been the promotion of reflection on the past, which would result, it is believed, in careful consideration of what shall be the life of the future, for it would be un- pardonable to give a book to the world without some high motive of good, in the mind of the author. How well or poorly the purpose may have been attained is not a question now, the existence of the motive is the only fact of which we can be certain.

As to the completeness of the book, it may be said that no work of the kind which has fallen under the author's observation is more so in the amount and defi- niteness of the matter printed, and yet much remains

IV PKKFACE.

unwritten that would be of great interest, while the time occupied in putting the material into form has been too short to allow perfectness in any single department.

The Indian History, for which the community as well as the authors are under great obligation to the Rev. Joseph Anderson, D. D., of Waterbury, and the prepara- tion of which, so far as he prepared it (more than one- half), cost many weeks of study and research, — he being peculiarly competent for the task, — is but the outline of what might be, and it is to be hoped will be, some day, placed before the public in book form.

The Historical and Biographical parts are much more extended than was originally intended, or promised in the circular given to the community ; and the Genealo- gies, although very incomplete, being confined almost wholly to the town records, except such items as dil^er- ent families have by their own effort placed in the hands of the authors, have been obtained by great effort and carefulness, and should give much satisfaction.

It is to be hoped that the subject will be taken up by a patient hand, for such only can succeed, and another volume secured to the memory of those who, otherwise, will soon be forever forirotten.

The authors present their thanks to the town for their generous purchase of a copy of the work, for without this aid the jjrice must have been greater, or the book much abridged; and even now thev are at their wit's

PREFACE. V

end to know how to work out of the undertaking with- out loss.

They are much indebted to those who have allowed their portraits to enliven the pages of the book, this being a very great addition, and one for which thousands will be thankful as well as the authors.

They are specially indebted to the Ousatonic Water Company for help in procuring a picture of the Dam; also to Mr. Wjlliam E. Miller, photographer, for his gen- erous and very satisfactory aid rendered in taking a num- ber of pictures without charge ; to the Town Clerk, Mr. D. E. McMahon, for his genial courtesy in the frequent and oft-repeated calls made upon him to search the rec- ords under his care ; to Mr. Charles Reed who has greatly assisted in hunting up the lost tribes of the benevolent societies, and for many other little attentions in obtaining various items from the records, which were very highly appreciated; and to Mr. George W. Beach, who, in behalf of the Naugatuck Railroad, has furnished several illustrations for the book.

Special thanks are tendered to Mr. John W. Storrs for his poem, " The Story of the Years" (page 680), written at the request of the authors, the which they would not be without for a large consideration, and which, as a poem, would do honor, — penned in a hurry as it was — to many a well-read and celebrated poet. The story of the book is thus: When the History of

r\ I'KEI'ACE.

Torrington, Conn., had been completed, Mr. George W. Beach, Superintendent of the Naugatiick Railroad, see- ing it, remarked to the author, " If you will write a like history of Old Derby, I will see that a portrait of my father is furnished for the work." He then recom- mended a call on Doctor A. Beardsley as being the source most likely to furnish proper information as to anything already done or likely to be done in the matter. Some six months afterwards this su2:o:estion was fol- lowed, but the Doctor spoke discouragingly and the sub- ject was fully dropped. After three months the author met the Doctor again on other business, at which time he urged somewhat the undertaking as very desirable ; a proposition w^as made which was at once accepted and the next day the work was commenced. Whatever matter the Doctor has furnished, being written neces- sarily in great hurry, has been carefully rewritten but designedly left in the Doctor's style, which has hereto- fore been so agreeable to the community.

Samuel Orcutt.

Birmingham, June i, 1880.

During a residence of nearly half a century in Derby many pleasant memories have been awakened and attach ments formed, while endeavoring to aid in beautifying the local surroundings and improve the advantages of the growing population of the tow^n; and being familiar with so many households by reason of forty-four years' practice of my profession ; and, withal, naturally fond of reviewing the historic past, I had gathered interesting, reminiscences at the ,. suggestion of many friends for twenty years, with a view, some day, of publishing them in book form ; but had nearly abandoned the project, wdien the Rev. Samuel Orcutt called upon me and offered to join in the undertaking, and soon the work was com- menced.

The researches into musty records, the work of in- quiry for confirmatory evidence of traditions among the oldest families, and the varied correspondence to gain trustworthy information, have been far more onerous than at first was expected. Of this none can know but those who attempt to write a Town History. Much that had been written is omitted in the printing, for want of room. The authors have aimed at correctness, and have endeavored to make such selections as would be most interesting and appropriate in such a work, thus

VIU PREFACE.

rescuing from oblivion many facts and traditions which would otherwise have slept in the ages of the past. Whatever has been contributed by the undersigned has been written by piece-meals, as Sallust wrote his history of the Roman Empire.

The genealogies are necessarily imperfect fr-om the great difficulty in procuring facts and dates from reliable sources, but the authors have been faithful to this depart- ment, and as a whole have published a work far more extended than was promised to the subscribers.

With this brief statement of my connection with this book, I tender my cordial thanks ^o the town and those individuals who have aided and encouraged its publica- tion ; resting assured that when the hand that now writes is moldering in the dust, many will feel grate- ful to the authors who have given to the public this

History.

A. Beards LEY.

Yale College, New Haven, Conn.,

February i, 1880.

This may certify that I have looked whh much interest

through the History of Derby, by Rev. Samuel Orcutt. It

seems to me to have been prepared with great fidelity and

thoroughness, and to take rank with the best town histories

which are so interesting and valuable to every son ot New

England.

Noah Porter.

CONTENTS

INDIAN HISTORY.

CHAPTER r. Primitive Condition, ........ xvii

CHAPTER H. Ethnographic History, ....... xxviii

CHAPTER in. Chuse and the Last Families, ...... xli

CHAPTER IV. Further Authentic Records, ...... Ivii

CHAPTER V. The Indian as an Enemy, ....... Ixxiv

HISTORY OF DERBY.

chapter I. Paugasuck and Paugassett, I

chapter h. Derby, 1675-1680, ......... 45

chapter hi. A Mill, a Meeting-house, and War, ..... 75

CHAPTER IV. Education, Enterprise and Improve:ments, . . 102

CHAPTER V. Dissenting Derby and the Episcopal Church, . , . 134

CHAPTER VI. Derby in the Revolution, 165

C HAPTER VII. After the Revolution, 201

CONTEiXTS. XI

CHAPTER VIII.

The Town of Oxford, . . . . . . .228

chaptp:r IX. Commercial Enterprises, 245

CHAPTER X. The First Church of Derby and the War of 1812, . 282

CHAPTER XI. Roads, Bridges and Floods, 304

CHAPTER XII. Birmingham, .......... 343

CHAPTER XIII. The Dam and Shelton, . . . . . . .391

CHAPTER XIV. Ansonia, 413

CHAPTER XV. The Town of Seymour, ....... 442

CHAPTER XVI. The War of the Rebellion, ...... 486

Biographies, .......... 523

Genealogies, .......... 693

Appendix, 785

ILLUSTRATIONS.

STEEL ENGRAVINGS.

A. Beardsley, Samuel Orcutt, . John I. Howe, Franklin Farrell, Lewis Hotchkiss, . Joseph Arnold, J. H. Bartholomew, Royal M. Bassett, Sharon Y. Beach, Wm. E. Downes, • Almon Farrell, Charles Pinney, '1'homas Wallace, W.M. B. Wooster,

Benjamin Hodge, Willis Hotchkiss,

LITHOGRAPHS.

I I

366

420 438 523 525 528

533 545 547 633 663 674

556 5<'H

ARTOTYPES.

Abram Hawkins, Sylvester Colburn, Sullivan Colburn, Josiah Colburn, William Hawkins,

PHOTO-ELECTROTYPES.

Zephaniah Hallock, Zephaniah Swift,

WOOD CUTS.

First Meeting house, Second Meeting-house, First Episc:opal Church.

358 364 3^4

543 555

554 659

79 126 149

ILLUSTRATIONS.

XIU

Gen. Humphreys delivering the flags,

Oxford in 1836,

Derby Landing in 1836,

Old Stone Building,

The Schooner Modesty

Train at Hich Rock,

Beacon Falls Dam,

High Rock Glen,

Sherman's Cut,

Birmingham in 1836, .

M. E. Church and Parsonage,

Birmingham Iron Foundry,

Sterling Organ Co , .

Allis's Book Store,

St. James's Church,

Public Square, Birmingham,

Congregational Church and Parsonage,

Public School, Birmingham,

Residence of Geo. S. Arnold,

OysATONic Dam,

N'orway Iron Bolt Works, Shelton,

Wilcox and Howe Hardware, Shelton,

Indian Well, .....

OsBORN and Cheeseman Co., Ansonia,

Christ Church and Parsonage, Ansonia,

Rock Rimmon,

Humphreysville,

Falls of the Naugatuck,

Swan's Mills,

Gen. David Humphreys,

Edmund Leavenworth,

John Lindley,

Abiram Stoddard,

Stephen N. Summers, .

BiRMI

ngham,

199

242

255 258

266 317

318

320 321

349 359

365 368

370 374 376 379 387 388

390 407 409 411 421 425

445 472 481 483 593 615 617 632

657

E RRATA.

Page 1 6, 5th line from top, read Pomperaug for Pompesaug.

Page 87, loth line from bottom, read 1688 for 1668.

Page 90, read Agur for Agar, etc.

Page 96, read Major for Mayor Johnson.

Page 158, read Shelton for Shelon.

Page 196, Nathan Mansfield is supposed to be a son of Dr. Mansfield,

which is an error. Page 197. James's Church of Hartford is an error. Page 199, last line read 1781 for 1761. Page 214, 3d line from top read credulity for incredulity. Page 248, 9th line from top, read 1773 for 1763. Page 264, 23d line from top, read packets for pickets. Page 442, H. h. Munson is said to have been Representative in 1850,

which is an error as to the date. Page, 488, read fires of evil passion, instead of fire's evil passion.

PREFACE

"TO the: INDIAN HISTORY.

This part of the History of Derby has grown far beyond the limits contemplated in the original plan of the work. After some of the material for it had been collected, information was received that the Rev. Joseph Anderson, D. D., of Waterbury, was preparing a brief course of lectures on the aboriginal history and antiquities of the Naugatuck valley, and at once a request was made for the use in this work of such parts of those lectures as related to Derby. The request was very cordially granted and the offer made of any further assistance which Dr. Anderson might be able to render in giving com- pleteness to this part of the work.

From Dr. Anderson's researches it was evident on the one hand that the Milford tribe was the stock from which the abo- riginal inhabitants of the lower Naugatuck and Ousatonic val- leys had sprung, and on the other hand, that the Tunxis Indi- ans, who came into the Naugatuck valley from the east, were related to these others in various important ways ; so that any large and thorough treatment of the subject would naturally embrace the whole field covered by the lectures. It was there- fore determined to make the lectures the groundwork of this part of the History. They are given entire, and such other facts are added as could be obtained by diligent search from whatever sources, the additions being chiefly from the Indian deeds recorded in Derby, Milford and StratfortI, which were not within the lecturer's reach at the time his lectures were

XVI PREFACE.

prepared. These deeds were forty in lumiber, coverino- the space of time from the date of the first to the hist one of over one hundred years.

The public, therefore, as well as the authors of this work, are indebted to Dr. Anderson, who is second to few in regard to the extent and thoroughness of his researches in this depart- ment, for something more than one-half of this aboriginal his- tory. His accurate description of the Naugatuck valley, and his brief ethnological sketch of the Indian tribes our readers will without doubt appreciate.

In view of all the facts it is believed that the treatment of this field equals in thoroughness and accuracy, if it does not exceed, that accorded to any other piece of territory within the bounds of Connecticut. To the thoughtful reader it will not ojily afford instruction and pleasure in the perusal ; it will aid him in forming a truer judgment respecting the mutual rela- tions of the native inhabitants and the early settlers of New England. The Authors.

INDIAN HISTORY

>.*.^

CHAPTER I.

PRIMITIVE CONDITION.

CAREFUL review of the geographical position and re- lations of Derby is important in order to a full under- standing of the movements of the Indian tribes within its borders in historical times, their gradual extinction, and the complete acquisition of the territory by the incoming English. It is also important, because of the close connection, now generally recognized, between a people and the physical characteristics of the region in which they dwell. It seems appropriate, therefore, to begin with a geographical survey, cov- ering the valleys of the Ousatonic and Naugatuck rivers.

The chief river of western Connecticut is the Ousatonic (more properly the Owsatunnuck, and known in former times as the Pootatuck and the Stratford river). It enters the state from the north, about seven miles east of the western boundary, and flows in a direction somewhat west of south for about thirty miles. Having almost touched the New York state line, it bends toward the east, and for a distance of thirty-five miles flows in a south-easterly direction, when it turns again and flows nearly due south for nine or ten miles, and empties into Long Island Sound between Stratford and Milford. Between the two bends of which mention has been made (in that part of its course in which it flows to the south-east) it receives several tributaries from the north — prominent among them the She- paug river which drains Bantam lake in Litchfield and smaller lakes in Goshen ; the Pomperaug, which flows through Wood- bury and Southbury ; and P2ight-milc brook, which drains Lake- Ouassapaug. Just above the second bend, where it turns to go c

XVlll INDIAN HISTORV.

southward, and, as we have observed, nine or ten miles from its mouth, it receives the Naugatuck river. The Naugatuck belongs to this group of southward-flowing tributaries, but is much the largest, and constitutes the main branch of the Ousatonic. Its general course from Wolcottville to Birmingham is south- ward and parallel to the other tributaries. Its length, running between these two points, is thirty-eight and a half miles. The river is formed by the union of the east and west branches at Wolcottville, near the southern boundary of the town of Tor- rington. The west branch rises in Norfolk and flows through the north-east corner of Goshen, and through Torrington in a south-easterly direction ; the east branch rises in Winches- ter and flows more nearly southward. Between the two branches there is a range of hills which terminates abruptly at its southern extremity in a hight known as Red mountain. South of Wolcottville, the hills on opposite sides of the stream are about a mile ai:)art ; but just above Litchfield station they come close down to the river, and the valley for many miles below is narrow, and flanked by precipitous bights. All along its course there are alluvial lands, curiously arranged for the most part in triangular pieces on the east side of the stream ; and between Waterville and Naugatuck these lands broaden out into extensive meadows — the " interval [or inter-vale] lands " of Mattatuck, which attracted the first settlers to this part of the state. In the neighborhood of Waterbury, not only are the meadows wide, but the hills which overlook them are low, and partake of the character of bluffs, while on the eastern side there is an opening in the hills large enough to afford room for a thriving little city. Below Naugatuck the water-shed be- comes narrow again, and the hillsides precipitous. This is especially true of the section below Beacon Hill brook. The hills are not only steep, but high and rocky, and the valley is gorge-like. The "dug road" on the eastern bank, and the rail- road on the western, are cut into the foundations of the mount- ains, and at the same time overhang the rushing waters. From Beaver brook to the mouth of the river at Birmingham, about two miles, there is a fine tract of meadow land about half a mile in width. In the ujiper part of the valley (for example, just above Waterville) there is much that is wild and pictur-

BROOKS AND RIVERS. XIX

esque ; but the entire section between Beacon Hill brook and Seymour is of cjuite exceptional beauty and grandeur.

The Naugatuck has many tributaries ; for instance, Spruce brook which flows through East Litchfield and empties near Campville ; Lead river which rises in New Hartford and flows through Harwinton ; the West branch, which rises in Morris and Litchfield, and divides Thomaston from Watertown and empties at Reynolds's bridge ; Hancock's brook, which rises in the north-east part of Plymouth, and empties at Waterville ; Steele's brook, which flows through Watertown and empties at the north-west boundary of the city of Waterbury ; Mad river, which rises in the north part of Wolcott, and flows through the city of Waterbury ; Smug brook, which empties at Hopeville ; Fulling-mill brook, which flows westward and empties at Un- ion City ; Hop brook, which comes from Middlebury, and emp- ties at Naugatuck; Longmeadow brook, which rises in Middle- bury, drains Longmeadow pond, receives a tributary from Toan- tuck pond and empties at Naugatuck ; Beacon Hill river, (an- ciently the boundary between Waterbury and Derby) one branch of which rises in the north of Prospect, the other in Bethany ; Sherman's brook, which tumbles through High Rock glen ; Lebanon brook, which rises in the south of Bethany and emp- ties at Beacon P^alls ; Chestnut Tree Hill brook, which comes from the west and empties at Pines Bridge ; Bladen's brook, which rises in Bethany and Woodbridge and empties at Sey- mour ; Little river, which rises in Middlebury, drains Oxford and empties at Seymour ; and Beaver brook, which empties a little below Ansonia. These are all rapid streams, plunging- downward into the deep valley of the Naugatuck. Compared with our western rivers it has but an insignificant water-shed ; yet there are eighteen or twenty towns embraced in it. Those which border upon the river are Torrington, Litchfield, Har- winton, Plymouth, Thomaston, Watertown, Waterbury, Nau- gatuck, Beacon Falls, Seymour and Derby.. Those which, although lying back from the river, are drained in part by its tributaries, are Morris, Middlebury, Wolcott, Prospect, Beth- any, Woodbridge and Oxford.

It may be seen from this rapid sketch, that this region of country is but a narrow valley drained by a tributary river

XX INDIAN HISTORY.

of very moderate size, is of limited extent and has a decided geographical unity. Besides this, it has come to possess in modern times a unity of another kind. The township divisions and the centres of population are numerous ; but industrially the valley is one. The district extending from Winsted, just be- yond the head waters of the river and in the same valley, to Birmingham at its mouth, has become the seat of one of the greatest manufacturing industries of our country. As in other valleys of New England, the populations of the hills have crowded to the water courses, drawn by opportunities of lucra- tive employment ; and, at the magic touch of the finger of trade, have sprung up or risen into a larger life such busy cen- tres as Wolcottville, Thomaston, Waterbury, Naugatuck, Sey- mour, Ansonia, Birmingham and Derby. If we take railway connections into account, the thrifty village of Watertown should be included in the list.

To dwell upon the physical features of the Naugatuck valley is important, because the Indian history commences at a pe- riod when these characteristics were almost the only ones to be noticed. To obtain a clearer understanding of that history the reader must rid himself, so far as possible, of modern associa- tions, must lose sight of all political divisions of the territory, must forget the existence of these business centers which have just been enumerated, must suppose this dense population, and these dwellings and shops and streets and highways and bridges, and these extensive manufactories, and the railroads with their depots, stations and rolling-stock, all swept away — in fact, all the multitudinous products of modern civilization ; and go back to the primitive period in the history of New England. The river was here and the brooks flowing into it. The hills were here, and the occasional patches of meadow land ; and the entire region — the meadows excepted — was covered with stately forests. The woods abounded in game, and the streams in fish ; but the country was a pathless wilderness — the heritage and the pos- session of the red man. It was not divided as it now is among individual owners, but it belonged to the natives who roamed through its woods, and established their camp'ing grounds upon its streams. The statement in the " History of Waterbury," that at the time of its discovery by white men there was no

SOURCES OF INFORMATION. XXI

Indian settlement within the limits of the ancient town, might safely be applied to the entire valley, if a spot near the river's mouth be excepted. Rut what was true two hundred years ago may not have been always true ; and besides, although there may not have been settlements here, it does not follow that the valley was totally unoccupied. The Indians not only claimed it ; they roamed over it as a well tried hunting ground. The lands in the upper part of the valley were especially attractive in this respect ; and it is said that in the section which is now known as Litchfield, " many of the hills were nearly cleared of trees by fires" which Indian hunters had kindled.

It is to the traces of Indian occupancy in the territory thus described, that attention is directed, in order to a better knowl- edge of the clans that dwelt in and around Derby, from just before the settlement of the English to the final disappearance of the natives from this territory. These traces might be pur- sued in the light of three sources of information : the land rec- ords, the traditions and place names, and the Indian relics dis- covered—the arrow heads, spear heads and knives, the larger ground-stone implements and the soapstone dishes ; but the first of these (the land records) will afford the largest source of information in this brief account of the departing footsteps of the Red man.

The primitive condition of things in the Naugatuck valley continued until the hiiddle of the seventeenth century. Pre- vious to this date, however, a number of settlements had been made within the territorial area now embraced in Connecticut. It was in 1635 that parties of emigrants from the neighborhood of Boston pursued their way through the wilderness to the Connecticut river, and settled at Wethersfield, Windsor and Hartford. After the Indian war of 1637, those who pursued the fleeing Pequots toward the west saw for the first time the lands on Long Island Sound lying westward of the mouth of the Connecticut. Their value soon became known, and in 1638 a colony went from Boston and established its head-quarters on New Haven bay. One of the three New Haven companies went still further west and settled at Milford in 1639. In the same year lands were purchased at Stratford, and a settlement was begun, but by a different company of emigrants. All these

XXll INDIAN HISTORY.

plantations were upon the sea coast, or on navigable waters ; but in 1640 some of the Hartford settlers, attracted by the meadow lands of the Farmington river, removed westward and established a settlement at Farmington.

Now, how were the aboriginal inhabitants situated at the time when these settlements were made, that is, from 1635 ^^ 1640, and for some years afterward ?

It must be remembered that they all alike belonged to the great Algonkin stock — a division of the Indian race which at the Discovery extended along the Atlantic coast all the way from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Peedee river. Of this extensive family, the most important branch were the Dela- wares. The Abnakis, far to the north-east, were also important. But in N'ew England the native population was broken up into numerous petty tribes, speaking divergent dialects of the one stock language. On the western bank of the Connecticut, an Algonkin people is found extending for some distance up and down the river, constituting a group of tribes, or a confed- eracy, ruled by a sachem named Sequassen. The precise nat- ure of the bond which held them together it is impossible to ascertain ; but it is certain that when the English first came among them Sequassen claimed jurisdiction over territory occu- pied by other chiefs, and sold land to the magistrates of Hart- ford, extending as far west as the country of the Mohawks. His dominion embraced therefore the tribes of the Farmington river, some of whom had their principal seat at Poquonnock, five or six miles from its mouth, and others at the bend in the river, eight or ten miles west of the Connecticut, where Farm- ington was afterwards settled. The first Poquonnock chief known to the P^nglish was named Sehat. He was succeeded by one whose name is familiar to Watcrbury people under the form of Nosahogan, but whose true name was Nassahegon or Nesaheagun.

The Indians of F'armington are known as the Tunxis tribe. They had a camping ground also at Simsbury, and claimed all the territory west of that place as far as the Ousatonic river. They are spoken of by Mr. J. W. Barber in his "Historical Col- lections," as a numerous and warlike tribe ; but Mr. J. W. De- Forest, in his " History of the Indians of Connecticut," esti-

THE PAlTCiASUCKS AND POOTATUCKS. XXUl

mates their number at " eighty to one hundred warriors, or about four hundred individuals." Whatever other chiefs they may have had, the autliority of Nassahegon seems to have been recognized, and also the necessity of securing his consent in the disposal of lands.

If now attention is directed from the centre of the state to the shore of the Sound, the country of the Quiripi (or Long Water) Indians comes into view, — a people known around New Haven harbor as Ouinnipiacs. They claimed the land for many miles to the north, and the north-west corner of their territory may be considered as lying within the bounds.of the Naugatuck val- ley. To the west of these on the coast we enter the country of the Paugasucks. The tribe was a large one, occupying a consid- erable territory on both sides of the Ousatonic. It extended in fact from the West river, which separates New Haven from Orange — or at any rate, from Oyster river, which separates Orange from Milford — all the way to Fairfield. On the west of the Ousatonic they claimed all the territory now comprised in the towns of Stratford, Bridgeport, Trumbull, Huntington and Monroe; and on the east side, as far north as Beacon Hill brook, and, as we shall see, still further, overlapping the hunting grounds of the Tunxis. This large tribe was under the domin- ion of the well known sachem Ansantaway, whose " big wig- wam " is said to have been on Charles Island. Outside of Milford, his son, Towetanomow, seems to have held the reins of power, as he signs the deeds as sachem at Stratford and Derby until his death, about 1676' ; and after this a younger son, Ockenunge (spelled also Ackenach), signed the deeds in Derby some years, beginning in 1665. About this time Ansantaway removed from Milford with^most of his Milford tribe, to Turkey Hill, (a little south of the Narrows on the east side of the Ousa- tonic, just below the mouth of the Two-mile brook), where he soon after died, and where some of his people remained about one hundred and forty years. Molly Hatchett and her children were the last of the tribe there.

If at this time there were any of the Weepavvaug Indians remaining east of the Ousatonic, they were, probably, absorbed in this settlement at Turkey Hill. This was a strip of land

1 Lambert, 131.

XXIV INDIAN HISTORY.

between Milford and Derby plantations, bought by Alexander Bryan, and turned over to the town of Milford, containing about one hundred acres. It was set apart by that town as the home of the Milford Indians, and to it they removed some time before the death of Ansantaway ; for in one of the deeds, that chief is named as residing in Derby. It was so near Derby that he is spoken of as belonging there, but it remained under the care of Milford until after the Revolution, when, Lambert says, " This land was lastly under the care of an overseer appointed by the county court."

As early as 1671 Chushumack (also spelled Cashushamack) signed deeds as sachem at Stratford, and a little later at Poota- tuck, opposite Birmingham Point, west of the Ousatonic river. In 1673 there was here a fort, which must have been .standing some years before the English first came to Derby, and proba- bly before they came to Milford. Not long after this, these same Pootatucks built a fort about a mile further north, on what is now known as P'ort Hill, on the same side of the river. They are said to have built it for the purpose of keeping the English from ascending the Ousatonic, and therefore it must have been a new fort. It was after this fort was built, and probably about the time when the title was confirmed by several Indians, in 1684, to the town of Stratford, that the Pootatucks collected higher up the river, and established the Pootatuck village at the mouth of the Pomperaug, where they continued many years on land reserved by them in their sales to the Woodbury people. They may have been moving up the the river gradually for some years, but about that time they seem to have been collected at that place in considerable num- bers, and many remained there until the removal to Kent.

One of the chief seats of the Paugasucks was at the " Great Neck," between the Ousatonic and the Naugatuck, in the vicin- ity of what is now called Baldwin's Corners. Here they had a fort, mentioned several times in the records as the Old Indian Fort, which was, very probably, built before the English came to the place. There was a large field at this place, frequently called the Indian field, which contained about sixty acres, and was once sold for that number. The Indians of this locality established a fort on the east bank of the Ousatonic, nearly half

WESQUANTOOK. XXV

a mile above the present dam, which, like that on the opposite side, was built to keep the English from sailing up the river, and which is referred to several times in the records as the New Indian Fort. The Indians of the Neck collected about this fort along the river bank for some years and then removed to Wesquantook", where a good many were living in 1710, and from which place they removed, some to Kent, some to the Falls, afterwards Chusetown, and some to Litchfield and per- haps as far north as Woodstock, in Massachusetts. Wesquan- toock seems to have been the last residence of the Sachem Cockapatana, if he did not remove to some distant place. It is a curious fact, possibly connected with the fate of this chief, that some years ago (that is, within the memory of per- sons now living), there resided in Goshen or in Torrington a white man who was habitually called "Old Kunkerpot." The nickname was given to him because he reported that while en- gaged in some war he had killed an Indian by the name of Kunkerpot. Cockapatana was sometimes called Konkapot, as an abbreviation of his real name. Most of the Indians had nicknames as well as their white neighbors. It is said, how- ever, that this Cockapatana died in 1 731, and if so, he could not have been killed by a man living more than a hundred years later. But it is quite possible, that some of Cockapatana's sons removed to Stockbridge, and that one of them may have borne the same name, for the name is found there. The name Paugasuck seems to have included at a certain time all the minor families of the Indians who descended from the Milford tribe, but it was afterwards used to designate those only who resided on Birmingham Neck, and their descendants.

After the death of Ansantaway the proprietorship of the lands inhered definitely in the two tribes, the Pootatucks and Pauga- sucks ; the lands of the former extending on the west and south of the Ousatonic, and those of the latter east and north of the same river ; yet they signed deeds, as is said in one case, " inter- changeably." The Pootatuck chief signed two deeds to the Derby people, one of quite a large tract of land above the Neck. How the Pootatucks came into possession of the lands sold to

'^Wesquantook was the original FtKlian name, not Squntook. D

XXVI INDIAN HISTORY.

the Woodbury settlers is not known, but conjecture is not se- verely taxed to answer the query. There are about forty In- dian names given in the "History of Woodbury" as names of Pootatuck Indians, which are found on deeds given by the Pau- gasuck tribe to the Derby settlers, and some of these names are on quite a number of deeds. Again, the Paugasuck Indians (several of them) signed a quit-claim deed to Milford lands, near the Sound, nearly or more than forty years after these lands were first sold. Another thing seems quite clear : that the Paugasucks, at least, divided the territory among themselves, after the English began to buy ; so that different parties sign the deeds of different tracts of land. Sometimes the sachem signs the deed ; at other times it is signed by others, but the deed says, the land is sold "with full consent of our sachem," but by the "rightful owners."

As in Stratford, two sales covering the same territory that was at first deeded to that plantation are recorded, (sales for which payment was made,) some thirty years after the first pur- chase, so in Derby, several pieces of land were sold and deeded three or four times; and had the Indians not removed it is doubtful whether the time would ever have come when the whites would have been done paying for the right of the soil. A careful perusal of the Indian deeds will reveal the masterly ability of the Red man to sell land over and over, without ever buying it, and the wonderful depth of the white man's purse to pay for Indian lands. The land on Birmingham Point and some of that above Birmingham, along the Ousatonic, was deeded four times by the Indians, and each time for a consideration, except once, when that at the Point was given to Lieut. Thomas Wheeler ; and this was probably done so as to sell other lands on the Neck. The prices paid at first were, apparently, every dollar and cent and button and bead that the land was worth, or that they were able to pay. The Indians urged the sale of their lands, and the English bought as fast as, and faster than they could pay for it. In the case of Camp's Mortgage Pur- chase, they hired the money of Merchant Nicholas Camp of Milford to pay for it, and gave a mortgage as security, which mortgage was finally paid, after a number of years, by a town tax, at the rate of four pounds a year.

STRATFORD INDIAN DEEDS. XXvii

The following items taken from the Stratford records confirm the foregoing statements :

" May 26, 1663. An agreement of friendship and loving correspon- dence agreed upon between us and the town of Stratford. — We will no more plant on the south side of the great river Pugusett, to prevent a ground of future variance between us in order to any damage that might be done to corn. And also do hereby engage that we will not either directly or indirectly sell, bargain, alienate or make over lands or any part of our land at Paugasett or thereabouts, with privileges thereon adjoining to any other English resident in any part of the country except Stratford.

Okenunge, his mark. Nompunck, hi.s mark.

Nansantawav, his mark. Jemiogu, his mark.

Amantanegu, his mark. Ahuntaway, his mark.

Munsuck, his mark. Ronuckous, his mark.

Asynetmogu, his mark.

Four of these are leading names attached to Derby deeds during thirty or forty years afterwards.

A deed of land lying on the west of land already deeded to Stratford was given April 22, 1665, signed by Okenonge, and witnessed by Ansantaway and Chipps.

An agreement to deed lands in Stratford was made May 17, 1 67 1, and signed by Musquatt, Nesumpau and Robin Cassasin- namin. And another was signed a week later by :

Musquatt, Takymo,

Nisumpaw, Sucksquo,

Sasapiquan, Ponseck,

Shoron, Totoquan.

CHAPTER IT.

ETHNOGRAPHIC HISTORY.

HE settlement of the Naugatuck valley must be consid- ered in what may be called its ethnographical rela- tions, in order to bring to view the significance and bearings of the various purchases made by the first settlers. The valley was claimed by the Paugasetts^ on the south, the Pootatucks on the west and the Tunxis Indians on the east. With one or other of these tribes the white men had to deal, and in Watcrbury the settlers found it expedient to purchase the same lands from different tribes, without attempt- ins: to decide between their rival claims.

Considering the Naugatuck valley as ending where that river enters the Ousatonic, the first sale of land in the valley made by the Indians was previous to 1646, and was probably the land on which Mr. Wakeman's men were employed in 1642 ; which was on what is now Birmingham Point. The then governor of New Haven is authority for the statement that this land was purchased of the Indians,'' but no deed has been seen of that sale. The next purchase was made in 1653, by Mr. Goodyear' and others. It consisted of a tract of land at Paugassett, which was sold to Richard Baldwin and nine other men of Milford, in the spring of 1654, and a settlement was made at that time, of three or four families. All this land lay east of the Nauga- tuck, but no deed is found of this sale of it ; the fact, however, is recorded on Derby books. The next year, in the spring, the settlers petitioned the General Court of New Haven to be made into a separate plantation, which was granted and the name of the place called Paugassett, but in the next autumn, in conse- quence of the strong opposition of Milford, the decree of the court was informally revoked.

^This name was written for many years Paugasuck by the best spellers, but after- wards the name Paugasett became more familiar and it has been mostly used in pub- lic prints.

*Ncw Haven Col. Rec. I. 265.

3Ibid. 156.

VARIOUS INDIAN DEEDS. Xxix

In May, 1657, >a deed of land on what is now Birmingham Point, was given to Lieut. Thomas Wheeler of Stratford, if he would settle upon it, which he did, and remained there until 1664. This deed was signed by Towtanemow, Raskenute and others. In 1665, after the death of Towtanemow, his brother Okenuck (or Ockenunge) confirmed the Goodyear purchase east of the Naugatuck and this land was given to Mr. Wheeler ; making the western boundary of Paugassett on the Great river (Ousatonic) instead of the Naugatuck as at first. From this time forward the Paugasuck Indians sold lands piece by piece, northward, to the Derby people, until the town bounds reached Waterbury and Woodbury on the north ; and some twenty-five or more deeds were recorded, with one hundred or more differ- ent Indian names attached thereto ; the last deed (except of reservations) being given in 171 1. The names recorded as sachems or sagamores, are Ansantaway, Towtanemow, Ocke- nuck, Atterosse, Ahuntaway, Nanawaug, Cockapatana of the Paugassucks and Chushumack of the Pootatucks.

The W^oodbury lands were purchased in the same way by pieces, only fewer in number ; and of the forty-five names of Indians attached to those deeds as given in the Woodbury his- tory, one-half are names found on Derby deeds, but the former deeds are later in date and indicate that some of the Derby Indians had removed and joined the Pootatucks, or else that they signed the Woodbury deeds in behalf of the Paugasucks.

The same year that Lieutenant Wheeler received his deed of land on Birmingham Point (1657), a transfer of land took place in the upper part of the valley, which found record in a curious deed preserved in the town records of Farmington. Two of the Farmington settlers, Stanley and Andrews by name, in their excursions to the west had discovered somewhere a de- posit of plumbago or something which they mistook for that valuable mineral. Their discovery attracted some attention, and doubtless led to the purchase just referred to. The deed was made on the eighth of P'ebruary, (O. S.) by Kepaquamp, Querrimus and Mataneage and the land was sold to William Lewis and Samuel Steele. The document is as follows :

"This witnesseth that we, Kepaquamp and Querrimus and Mata- neage, have sold to William Lewis and Samuel Steele of Farmington,

XXX INDIAN HISTORY.

a parcel or tract of land called Matecacoke, that is^o say, the hill from whence John Stanley and John Andrews brought the black-lead, and all the land within eight miles of that hill on every side, — to dig and carry away what they will, and to build on it for the use of them that labor there, and not otherwise to improve the land. In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands ; and these Indians above mentioned must free the purchasers from all claims by any other Indians."

This piece of territory, sixteen miles in diameter, was pur- chased by Lewis and Steele in behalf of themselves and a com- pany composed of other inhabitants of Farmington. For what " consideration " it was disposed of is not known. " Precisely where the hill referred to was situated " says Mr. George C. Woodruff in his " History of the Town of Litchfield," " I have been unable to discover ; but from the subsequent claims of the grantees, from tradition and from the deed itself, it would seem that it was in the southern part of Harwinton." The name of Mattatuck still survives in that part of the valley. From a supplementary deed given some years afterwards, it appears that " a considerable part " of this tract was comprised within the bounds of ancient Woodbury ; but the Waterbury planters, as will be seen, paid no regard to this early transac- tion, nor do they seem to have been any way hampered by it.

The deed to Lewis and Steele was made, as has been ob- served, in 1657. At that date, Farmington had been settled seventeen years and the forests to the westward had become familiar ground to the Farmington hunters. From year to year they continued their excursions, and in course of time the Nau- gatuck river became well known to them. Their attention was particularly attracted to the so-called "interval lands" which now constitute the meadows of Waterbury. For obvious rea- sons, such lands were specially valuable in a forest-clad region. Their discovery was duly reported and was enough to arouse the spirit of enterprise. A committee was sent to examine the place and their report being favorable the Farmington people petitioned the General Court for permission to make a settle- ment, "at a place called by the Indians Matitacoocke. This was in 1673, nineteen years after the first settlers took up their residence at Derby. After due investigation the petition was granted and a committee of prominent men of the Colony was

WATERBURV LANDS. Wxi

appointed " to regulate and order the settling of a plantation at Mattatuck." One of their first duties was to procure the extinguishment of any title to the land on the part of the na- tive proprietors, which they did by honest purchase. A copy of the deed given to this committee by the Indians is pre- served in the land records of Waterbury/ and is dated Au- gust 26, 1674. The consideration was "thirty pounds in hand received and divers good causes thereunto us moving," in re- turn for which the purchasers received a " parcel of land at Mattatuck, situate on each side of the Mattatuck river, hav- ing the following dimensions and boundaries : Ten miles in length north and south and si.\ miles in breadth: abutting upon the bounds of Farmington on the east, upon Paugassett on the south, upon Paugassett, Pootatuck and Pomperaug on the west and upon the open wilderness " on the north. It was to this purchase the first settlers came in 1674, and again, after a serious interruption, in 1677. The dimensions of the town remained as indicated until 1684, when they were greatly ex- tended by the purchase from the native proprietors of a large piece of territory on the north. This territory was bounded on the south by the former grant, or, more definitely, by an east and west line running through Mount Taylor, the precip- itous rock which overhangs the river not far above Waterville. From this line it extended northward into the wilderness, eight miles. It was bounded on the east by Farmington and on the west by a north and south line which if extended southward would run " four score rods from the easternmost part of Ouas- sapaug pond." By this purchase, which cost the proprietors nine pounds, the area of the town was nearly doubled. But it seems to have become necessary at the same time, to buy again from the natives the tract already bought by the com- mittee of the General Court of 1674. The original owners may have claimed that they did not comprehend the significance of their act and were not adequately paid ; but for whatever rea- son Messrs. Judd and Stanley, on the second of December, 1684, purchased again the land lying between Mount Taylor on the north and Beacon Hill brook on the south, extending

*Vol. Ti.

XXXU INDIAN HISTORV.

eastward to Farmington bounds and westward three miles to- ward Woodbury. The amount paid, this time, was nine pounds.

These deeds have been examined carefully, to obtain if possi- ble some items of knowledge concerning the aboriginal own- ers, who are described in one of the deeds as " Indians now belong- ing to P'armington." The earliest deed (that of 1674) contains the names of fourteen Indians, eleven of whom (if the copy has been correctly made) affixed to it their mark. The first name is that of Nesaheagon, the sachem at Poquonnock, whose juris- diction has already been described. The occurrence of his signature here indicates what position he held in relation to the Tunxis tribe. The second name is John Compound, which if not of English origin has been forced into a strange resemblance to English. He has been handed down to immor- tality as the original proprietor of Compound's (Compounce) pond. The third name is Oueramoush, which has already been met with, in the deed of 1657 ; for it was Ouerrimus with two other Indians, who deeded to Lewis and Steele the land around the "hill where John Stanley found the black-lead." The other names in the order in which they occur are as fol- lows: Spinning Squaw, Taphow, Chery, Aupkt, Caranchaquo, Patucko, Atumtako, James, Uncowate, Nenapush Squaw and Alwaush. To those who hear them, these names are a mean- ingless jargon ; but it is pleasant to think that originally every one of them meant something and that some of the meanings may have been beautiful. In studying them upon the time- stained pages where they are preserved, one or two points of interest have been discovered. One of the prominent names in the list is Patucko, who will be referred to again. Next to this follows Atumtucko. A relation between the two was sus- pected and this was afterward confirmed by finding in another deed that Patucko's squaw was Atumtucko's mother. In sign- ing this first deed Patucko first promises for James, and then for himself; whence it may safely be inferred that between Patucko and James, who seems to have been well known by his English name, there was some kind of family relationshi]). It is possible that Caranchaquo may have been a member of the same family.

Between this first deed and that by which the northern half

INDIAN CLAIMANTS. XXXIU

of the town was disposed of, nearly ten years had elapsed, so that it would hardly be expected to find precisely the same sig- natures attached to both, even if Indian society had been more stable than it was. In the second deed Patucko's name stands first and Atumtucko's second ; then Taphow, then Wawowus. This fourth name sounds like a new one, but making due al- lowance for inaccurate hearing and spelling on the part of the early scribes, it may be easily identified with Alwaush in the former list. The rest of the signers are new ; Judas (another English name), Mantow, Momantow's squaw, Mercy (Sepuses's squaw) and Quatowquechuck, who is described as Taphow's son.

Between this second deed and the third, by which the south- ern half of the town was sold the second time to the settlers, a few months only elapsed, but the names for the most part are different. Patucko has disappeared, but we have in his stead Patucko's squaw, who is here described as Atumtucko's mother. John a-Compound appears again, and Warm Compound appears, who is described as Nesaheag's son. This fact suggests that John a-Compound, whose name stands next to Nesaheagon's in the first deed, may have been an elder son of the same chief. Spinning Squaw also appears and Aupkt under the form of Abuckt ; and besides these there is Mantow, who signed not the first deed, but the second. In addition the following appear : Hachetowsock (and squaw), Sebockett, the sisters of Cocoesen, whoever he may be, and a daughter of one of them. It is prob- able that Cocoesen's sisters were the daughters of James ; ap- parently the same James for whom Patucko promised in the first deed. As one of them was Patucko's squaw and Atumtucko's mother, a connection between the two families is established ; a connection which becomes specially interesting when it is known who James was.

But, as already indicated, the Tunxis Indians were not the only claimants. The Paugasucks on the south roamed over the same hunting grounds, and apparently considered their right to them as valid as that of their neighbors on the east. Messrs. Judd and Stanley, without inquiring particularly into the jus- tice of the claim, deemed it expedient to extinguish it by pur- chase. A deed was accordingly drawn, dated February 28,

XXXIV INDIAN HISTORY.

1685, and signed by sixteen Paugasuck Indians, by which in consideration of " six pound in hand received " twenty parcels of land, named and described in the deed, all of them appar- ently embraced in the first and third purchases fi'om the Farm- ington Indians, were conveyed to the settlers of Mattatuck. The deed which is contained in the volume of land records already referred to, is peculiarly interesting because the twenty parcels of land are designated each by its Indian name.^ Nine of these were on the east side of the river, the others on the west side. The grantors were sixteen in number. Prominent in the list is the name of Conquepatana, [Konkapatanauh] who signs himself sagamore, the same already spoken of as sa- chem at the mouth of the river until 1731, when he died. In the body of the deed, however, his name is preceded by that of Awowas. Already among the signers of the second deed an Awowas has appeared, apparently identical with Alwaush, who signed the first. It might naturally be supposed that the name occurring among the Paugasucks designated a different per- son, but there are facts which establish a connection between

^Twenty parcels of land, by their names distinguished as follows : Wecobemeus, that land upon the brook, or small river that comes through the straight [Straitsville] northward of Lebanon and runs into Naugatuck river at the south end of Mattatuck bounds, called by the English Beacon Hill brook ; and Pac- awackuck, or Agawacomuck, and Watapeck, Pacaquarock, Mequuhattacke, Mus quauke, Mamusqunke, Squapma sutte, Wachu, " which nine parcels of land lie on the east side of Naugatuck river southward from Mattatuck town, which comprises all the land below, betwixt the forementioned river, Beacon Hill brook and the hither end of Judd's meadows, called by the name Sqontk, and from Naugatuck river eastward to Wallingford and New Haven bounds, with all the lowlands upon the two brooks forementioned.

And eleven parcels on the west side ; the first parcel called, Suracasko ; the rest as follows : Petowtucki, Wequarunsh, Capage, Cocumpasuck, Mcgenhuttack, Pa- nooctan, Mattuckhott, Cocacoko, Gawuskesucko, Towantuck, [the only name that has survived] and half the cedar swamp, with the land adjacent from it eastward ; which land lies southward of Quasapaug pond ; we say to run an east line from there to Naugatuck river; all which parcels of land forementioned lying southward from the said line, and extend or are comprised within the butments following : from the forementioned swamp a straight line to be run to the middle of Towantuck pond or the cedar swamp, a south line which is the west bounds toward Woodbury, and an east line from Towantuck pond, to be the butment south and Naugatuck river the east butment, till we come to Achetaqupag or Maruscopag, and then to butt upon the east side of the river upon the forementioned lands, — these parcels of land lying and being within the township of Mattatuck, bounded as aforesaid, situate on each side of Naugatuck and Mattatuck rivers."

WESTERN LANDS. XXXV

the two tribes. For among the signers of this Paugassett deed there is found the name Cocoesen and not only so, but Co- coesen's sisters also, who signed the third deed given by the Tunxis tribe. Their names are Wechamunk and Werumcaske, and in the Tunxis deed they are described as the daughters of James. In the deed given to Lieutenant Wheeler at Paugassett, in 1657, there is the name Pagasett James. It is almost impos- sible to avoid the conclusion that Cocoesen was his son and Co- coesen's sisters his daughters, that one of these was Patucko's squaw, that a connection by marriage between the two tribes was thus established, and that this relationship was recognized in the various sales of land. Besides the names thus far mentioned there are the following : Curan, Cocapadous (Konkapot-oos, perhaps Little Konkapot), Tataracum, Cacasahum, Wenunta- cum, Arumpiske, described as Curan's squaw, and Notanumke, Curan's sister.

To this instrument the following note is attached : " Milford February, 1684 (o. s.). Awovvas, the Indian proprietor, appeared at my house and owned this deed above mentioned to be his act, and that he has signed and sealed to it. Robert Treat governor." On the i8th of April Conquepatana made a similar acknowledgment of the deed before the governor, " and said he knew what was in it." Several years afterward (June 28, 171 1,) the same sagamore and "Tom Indian," his son, for twenty-five shillings, deeded to the proprietors of Waterbury " a small piece of land," north of Derby bounds, west of the Naugatuck river, and south of Toantuck brook.

The original owners of all the land in the Naugatuck valley have thus far been traced, except of what lies in Ilarwinton and Litchfield. This territory has a history of its own. On Janu- ary 25, 1687, the General Court of Connecticut, for the pur- pose of saving the so-called " western lands " from the grasp of Sir Edmund Andros, conveyed to the towns of Hartford and Windsor as follows : " Those lands on the north of Woodbury and Mattatuck, and on the west of Farmington and Simsbury, to the Massachusetts line north, and to run west to the Housa- tunock or Stratford river."^ As has already been seen, a por- tion of this territory, sixteen miles in diameter, had been con-

^Conn. Col. Rec. 3, 225.

XXXVl INDIAN HISTORY.

veyed in 1657 to William Lewis and Samuel Steele of Farming- ton. The General Court, in its action in 1686, paid no regard to this old conveyance, and on the other hand the Farmington company, represented by Steele and Lewis, insisted on their claim. On the eleventh of August, 17 14, they obtained from the successors of the original grantors a deed by which the title to this whole tract was conveyed, " in consideration of the sum of eight pounds received from Lieut. John Stanley about the year 1687, and other gratuities lately received," to Stanley, Lewis, Ebenezer Steele and their associates and successors. To Lieut. Stanley, in especial, fifty acres were laid out and confirmed, near the hill where he found the black lead, " and fifty acres more where he shall see cause to take it up, or his heirs." This deed was signed by Pethuzo and Toxcronuck, who claimed to be the successors of Kepaquamp, Querrimus and Mattaneag, and in the following October it was signed by Taphow the younger and his squaw, by Awowas, whose name (written also in this same deed Wowowis) has been previously noticed, and Petasas, a female grandchild, probably of Awowas. By the action of the General Court, the title to all this land had been vested in the towns of Hartford and Windsor, and these towns therefore claimed the exclusive right to purchase the Indian title and to survey and sell the lands^. In the final settlement of the mat- ter, however, the claim of the Farmington company was to some extent recognized. In 1718 they received from the two towns a grant of one-sixth of the township of Litchfield, in considera- tion of their making over to said towns their interest in the disputed territory.

The management of these western lands was intrusted to a joint committee appointed by the towns. In 1715 this commit- tee entered upon an exploration of the region lying west of the Naugatuck river, and appointed as their agent Mr. John Marsh,

'These lands were claimed by Connecticut under its then existing charter, and fearing lest Andros might wrest them from the state and sell them to others, or an- other colony, the General Court gave them to the towns of Hartford and Windsor, to hold until the danger should be past, with the private understanding that the lands should revert to the state as soon as the danger should be past. When the danger was past these towns would not surrender the lands, but claimed them as their property. It was one of the clearest cases of betrayal of trust that ever oc- curred in the settlement of the country, and will be a lasting disgrace to the actors.

LAND IN LITCHFIELD. XXXVli

one of their number, who in May of that year undertook what was then a perilous journey into a pathless wilderness. When the committee had concluded to commence a settlement they proceeded to purchase the Indian title to the lands. But they did not recognize any claim to these lands on the part of the Tunxis tribe, but applied instead to the Pootatucks, from whom the settlers of Woodbury had made their various purchases, who had their chief village, at that time, it will be remembered, on the Ousatonic at the mouth of the Pomperaug. Mr. Thomas Seymour, a member of the joint committee of the towns, vis- ited Woodbury in Januar}^ 1716, and again in May, and ob- tained the necessary deed. " In consideration of the sum of fifteen pounds money in hand received," the Pootatucks sold a tract of land lying north of the Waterbury and Woodbury lim- its, bounded on the east by the Naugatuck river, on the west by the Shepaug and its east branch, and on the north by a line run- ning from the north end of Shepaug pond easterly to the Nau- gatuck. It comprised nearly 45,000 acres. This deed, dated March 2, 1716, was signed by twelve Indians and witnessed by three others. The witnesses were Weroamaug (whose name is familiar to many as connected with a beautiful lake in New Preston and Warren), Wagnacug and Tonhocks. Among the names of the signers appears the name Corkscrew, which has a very civilized sound. It was originally Coksure or Cotsure. The other names as given in " Woodruff's History " are as fol- lows : Chusquunoag, Ouiump, Magnash, Kehow, Sepunkum, Poni, Wonposet, Suckquunockqueen, Tawseume, Mansumpansh, and Norkquotonckquy. Comparing these names with the names attached to the Woodbury purchase of May 28, 1706, it appears that although that deed precedes this by ten years, yet several of the names are the same in both. Chusquunoag appears in the earlier deeds as Chesquaneag (or Cheshconeag of Paugas- sett) ; Magnash is evidently an error of the copyist for Ma- quash^ (or Mawquash of Paugassett) ; Kehow appears as Kchorc, Sepunkum as Wusebucome, Suckquunockqueen as Wussocka- nunckqueen, and in a still earlier deed, Corkscrew as Cotsure. It appears that Ouiump, under the form of Aquiomp, was also

^Mauquash, the last sachem of the Pootatucks, died about 175S. Wooodbury Hist.

XXXVlll INDIAN HISTORY.

the name of the sachem of the Pootatucks in 1661 at Pom- peraug. As that was fifty-five years before this, it was proba- bly not the same person, although possibly a relative. Such identifications as these are of but little account to the world to-day, but to the explorer of ancient records, preparing the way for the more stately historian, they are as interesting and perhaps as valuable as the discoveries of the modern genealo- gist or the devotee of heraldry.

It thus appears that the aboriginal ownership of the Nauga- tuck valley was divided among three quite distinct tribes, and that the claims of these tribes were recognized by the early set- tlers. It would be interesting to consider the nature of this primitive proprietorship, for it has decided bearings upon the great modern question of the origin of property, and the signifi- cance of that " institution," in the history of civilization. It was said by Sir Edmund Andros that Indian deeds were " no better than the scratch of a bear's paw," and there are those at the present day who for different reasons from those which shaped the opinion of Andros, would deny that the aboriginal ownership of the soil was of any account whatever. Because their system was a kind of communism, their rights amount to nothing in the eyes of these modern thinkers. The early set- tlers, however, either from a sense of justice or out of regard to expediency, and possibly somewhat of both, made it a rule to extinguish the titles of the natives by actual purchase ; and now, in their recorded deeds with the signatures, is treasured up a large part of the only history the world will ever have of the Red man of the forest. And when the value of the money of that day is considered, the unimproved condition of the lands and the fact that in almost all cases the grantors reserved either large sections as hunting grounds, or else the right to hunt every- where, as before the sale, it can hardly be said that the Indians were dealt with unfairly. The late Chief-Justice Church of Litchfield, in his centennial address in 185 1, commented severely upon the action of the early settlers in this respect, but he seems to have looked at the subject in an unjudicial way. The other side is strongly presented in Dr. Bronson's " History of Waterbury^.

"Hist., pp. 64-65.

THE LAST VISIT. XXxix

The Indian usually reserved, or supposed that he reserved, the "right to hunt and fish everywhere, the same as before the lands were sold. In most of the towns he remained harmless and unmolested in the neighborhood of the settlements, from generation to generation. The relations of the aboriginal in- habitants to the whites are well illustrated in the statements of an aged citizen of Farmington, who died within the present century, and who was born about 1730, "that within his recol- lection the Indian children in the district schools were not much fewer than those of the whites. In their snow-balling parties the former used to take one side and the latter the other, when they would be so equally balanced in numbers and prowess as to render the battle a very tough one and the result doubtful." But however good the intentions of the white man may have been, the transformation of the wilderness into a fruitful field must go steadily on, and the red man must inevitably fall back, seeking new hunting grounds. For example, the Paugasucks of the sea-coast removed inland, as we have seen, and made their principal seat at the lower end of the Naugatuck valley, which thus became practically a new settlement, which was their head- quarters from before the English settlement until after King Philip's war, or about 1680, when they began to collect at Wesquantuck and to join the Pootatucks at Pomperaug. After the death of their sachem, Konkapatana, who resided either at Wesquantuck or at the Falls (Chusetown,) but almost certainly at the former place, the " nation " broke up, and as such be- came extinct, except those who remained at Chusetown. " Some joined the Pootatucks," it is said. Quite a large num- ber must have done so, since nearly half the names given in the "History of Woodbury" as being Pootatucks are Paugas- uck Indians and signers of the Derby deeds. Those who col- lected at the Falls were there earlier as well as in larger num- bers than has usually been supposed. " Some went to the coun- try of the six nations." This is quite probable. " In the spring of 1831 a company of Indians, consisting of about thirty, men, women and children, from the shores of Lake Champlain came to the Point [Milford] and encamped for a number of days, per- haps fifteen. They were led by an old patriarch or chieftain of ' eighty winters,' whom they appeared to obey and reverence.

xl INDIAN HISTORY.

They conversed in the Indian tongue, and some of them knew but little of English. They had a tradition that some of their ancestors lived at Poconoc Point, and said they had come for the last time to the hunting ground of their fathers.""* These were no doubt descendants of the Paugasuck tribe, whose an- cestors had removed from Milford to Turkey Hill, Paugassett, Pootatuck or Newtown, and who went back yearly to Milford to catch and dry oysters, " spending the summer at a watering place." Again, " some emigrated to Scatacook," but this was some years after the decease of Cockapatana. At Turkey Hill a few remained, their number growing less year by year until about 1830, when Molly Hatchett only was left; but ere long she passed on to the far away hunting land of the Indian. There are indications, indeed it is very probable, that some of these Indians removed to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The last deed of Derby lands that Cockapatana signed was in 17 10. but his son, Waskawakes {alias Tom), seems to have signed a deed, given by the Pootatuck Indians, in 1706, indicating his active part in the business transactions of that tribe. In 1724 the Stockbridge Indians gave a deed of land to the white men which was signed by Konkapot and twenty other Indians. In 1734 Konkapot received a captain's commission from the Massachusetts government; in 1735 he was baptized in the Christian faith, and he died previous to 1770, one of the first fruits of the Housatonic Mission, of which the Rev. Sam- uel Hopkins, born in Watcrbury, was the founder. Konkapot's name became celebrated through the northern part of Litchfield county, and is perpetuated, after a fashion, in connection with one of the streams of Stockbridge, which was originally called Konkapot's brook. It was afterwards known as Konk's brook, and latterly has been degraded to Skunk's brook.

i°Lambert, p. 130.

CHAPTER III.

CHUSE AND THE LAST FAMILIES.

CATACOOK in Kent became one of the largest In- dian settlements in the state.

It was composed of wanderers who retreated be- fore the advancing colonists, and was founded by Gid- eon Mauwee' (or Mawvvee), who was a resident for a time in or near Derby, and was the father of Joseph Mauwee whose nick- name " Chuse " gave rise to the name Chusetown (now Sey- mour). Considerable has been written about this man ; and most writers have followed what is said of him by Mr. John W. Barber in his " Historical Collections." Mr. Barber says he was a Pequot (or Mohegan) ; but Mr. DeForest says that while "various connections might be traced between the Narragan- setts and the tribes of western Connecticut," "both united in holding the Pequots in abhorrence and seldom bore any other relations to them than those of enemies, or of unwilling sub- jects.'"^ Hence it would have been almost impossible for a Pe- quot to come among the Paugasuck Indians, after the English began to settle here, and become a chief.

Chusumack succeeded Tovvtanimo as sachem at Stratford and at Pootatuck, across the river from Derby Landing, and signed a deed as such in 1671. His son, one of several, signed the same deed, and also a grandson. It is barely possible that Chusumack was a Pequot, but not probable. This Chusumack signs three deeds of land conveyed to the Derby settlers, dated respectively 1670, '71 and 'ji, thus indicating ownership with the Paugasucks ; and there are many evidences of this close relation between these tribes. Chusumack may have been the son of Tovvtanimo, but this would make Ansantaway quite aged at his death, which is possible, as he had apparently been chief some years when the English came to Milford. It is worthy of remark that if Joseph Chuse was descended from

iSo spelled on Derby records and not Mauwehu.

-Hist. Conn. Indians, p. 60. F

Xlii INDIAN HISTORY.

Chusumack, his nickname could be accounted for as an abbre- viation according to the custom of those days. Another fact must be remembered, that the Indians' land at the Falls lor Chusetovvn) was a 7'escrvation made by Ockenuck in 1678, when the land on both sides of the river at that place was sold to the town. It was reserved in the following words : " Only the said Indians do reserve the fishing place at Naugatuck, and the plain and the hill next the river at the fishing place ; further, the Indians do grant to the inhabitants all the grass and feed and timber on the plain against Rock Rimmon, and do en- gage to sell it to them if they sell it." This reservation com- prised thirty or more acres and belonged to the Paugasuck Indians, and the Pootatucks so far as the latter were inherit- ors with the former. How then could Gideon Mauwee give this land to his son Joseph about 1720, as stated by some writers } He did it only as a chief relinquishes his claim, for it belonged to the Paugasuck tribe. He could surrender his claim as chief, but how did he possess any claim over this land, unless by ancestral right, running back to a time anterior to the date of the reservation.-' And how did Gideon Mauwee become sachem of this land before 1720, when the rightful sachem, Cock- apatana, was living at Wesquantuck until 1731, and his son with him .'

Again, Joseph Mauwee is said to have been brought up, or ed- ucated at the home of Agar Tomlinson'' of Derby. But the first man of that name, and quite a spirited business man he was, was first married in 1734, about fourteen years after Joseph was himself married and settled at the Falls, according to report. From this and other facts, it is probable that Joseph Mauwee did not settle at the Falls until a later date. An item in the town records confirms this opinion. It was customary when a man became an inhabitant of the town, to record the mark he was to put, on the ears of his sheep, swine and cattle. The fol- lowing entry has force, for the reason that if Joseph was brought up among the English, which is most probable, he would not have remained thirty-nine years at the Falls before being in possession of animals upon which he would need an ear mark. '* Joseph Mauwee, his ear mark is two halfpennies of the fore

»[. W. Barber, 199.

INHERITORS OF THE RESERVATION. xliH

side of the right ear and a half tenant [tenon] the underside the left ear. June 27, 1759." It is said, however, that his young- est child, Eunice, was born in 1755, and that he had ten children, which would indicate that his marriage took place about 1730. Barber says, " He married a woman of the East Haven tribe." The Seymour history says she was " of the Farmington Indians."

The " striking statement " reported to have been made by Eu- nice Mauwee, that she " had seen an old Indian who had seen King Philip," requires only the age of ninety-five in the old Indian, to have made it abundantly possible. It was from this woman that Mr. Barber received most of his information about the In- dians of Derby, as he says,^ and, making some allowances for the memory of an Indian woman seventy-two years of age, the source of information is as reliable as any but actual records, except when it comes to opinions or interpretations, or leg- endary stories, when the stoty is all there is of value.* The story that Chuse's name resulted from the peculiar manner of pronouncing "choose" is not credited by the author of this book. There is no doubt, however, that the story was told to Mr. Barber, as well as several others, which the town records prove to be erroneous. It is more probable that " Chuse " was the abbreviation of a full Indian name, for although among the Indians in early times names were not hereditary, yet later, after much intercourse with the English, the paternal name was used in designating families. Hence, from Moll Hatchett we have Joseph Hatchett and David Hatchett. And we have, as early as 1702, Will Toto, John Toto, Jack Toto.

Mr. Barber's account of Chuse and the Indians at the Falls is interesting and worthy of preservation, and is as follows :^

" For a long period after the settlement of this place, it was called Chusetown, so named from Chuse, the last sachem of the Derby Indians, who is said to have derived this name from his manner of pronouncing the word " choose." His proper name was Joe Mau-we-hu; he was the son of Gideon Mauwehu, a Pequot Indian, who was the king or sachem of the Scatacook

*Page 200.

^This subject will be further treated of in the history of Chusetown, or Hum- phreysville.

^Hist. Col. 199, 200.

Xliy INDIAN HISTORY.

tribe of Indians in Kent. It appears that Gideon, previous to his collecting the Indians at Kent, lived in the vicinity of Derby, and wishing to have his son brought up among the white people, sent Joe to Mr. Agar Tomlinson of Derby, with whom he lived during his minority. Chuse preferring to live at Derby, his father gave him a tract of land at the Falls, called the In- dian field. Here he erected his wigwam, about six or eight rods north of where the cotton factory now [1836] stands, on the south border of the flat. It was beautifully situated among the white-oak trees, and faced the south. He married an Indian woman of the East Haven tribe. At the time Chuse removed here there were but one or two white families in the place, who had settled on Indian hill, the bight of land east of the river and south-east of the cotton factory, in the vicinity of the Methodist and Congregational churches. These settlers wishing Chuse for a neighbor, persuaded him to remove to the place where the house of the late Mrs. Phebe Stiles now stands, a few rods north of the Congregational church. When Mr, Whitmore built on the spot, Chuse removed back to the Falls, where a considerable number of the Indians collected and built their w'igwams in a row, a few rods east of the factory on the top of the bank extending to Indian hill. Near the river in the Indian field, was a large Indian burying-ground ; each grave was cov- ered with a small heap of stones. Mr. Stiles, of this place, pur- chased this field about forty-six years since of the Indian pro- prietors, and in ploughing it over destroyed these relics of antiquity. The land on the west side of the river from this place, where the Episcopal church stands was formerly called Shrub Oak. Both the Indians and the whites went to meeting on foot to Derby. Those of the whites who died here, were con- veyed on horse litters to be buried at Derby: these litters were made by having two long poles attached to two horses, one of which was placed before the other ; the ends of the poles were fastened, one on each side of the forward horse, and the other ends were fastened to the horse behind. A space was left be- tween the horses, and the poles at this place were fastened to- gether by cross pieces, and on these was placed whatever was to be carried. Chuse lived at this place forty-eight years, and then removed with most of the Derby Indians to Scatacook, in

SHOT BY MISTAKE. xlv

Kent, where he died, at the age of about eighty years. He was a large, athletic man and a very spry and active hunter. He had ten children. Eunice, aged seventy-two years, the young- est daughter of Chuse, is still living [1836] at Scatacook and it is from her that most of the particulars respecting Chuse and the Indians are derived.

" Chuse and his family were in the habit of going down once a year to Milford ' to salt,' as it was termed. They usually went down in a boat from Derby Narrows ; when they arrived at Milford beach they set up a tent made of the sail of their boat and stayed about a fortnight, living upon oysters and clams. They also collected a considerable quantity of clams, which they broiled, then dried them in the sun and strung them in the same manner as we do apples which are to be dried. Clams cured by this method were formerly quite an article of trafific.

" The Indians in the interior used to bring down dried ven- ison, which they exchanged with the Indians who lived on the sea-coast, for their dried clams. Chuse used to kill many deer while watching the wheat fields ; also great numbers of wild turkeys and occasionally a bear. Some of the whites also were great hunters ; the most tamous were Gideon Washborn and Alexander Johnson. Rattlesnakes were formerly very numer- ous about Niumph, near Rock Rimmon, and occasionally have been known to crawl into the houses in the vicinity. About the time of the first settlement at Humphreysville, a white man by the name of Noah Durand, killed an Indian named John Sunk, by mistake. They were hunting deer on opposite sides of the river, Durand on the west side and the Indian on the east ; it was in the dusk of the evening, in the warm season, at the time the deer went into the river to cool themselves. Du- rand perceived something moving among the bushes on the east side and supposing it to be a deer, aimed his gun at the place and fired. Sunk, mortally wounded, immediately cried out, 'You have killed me.' Durand sprang through the river to the assistance of the dying Indian, who begged for water. Durand took his shoe, filled it with water and gave it to Sunk, who, after drinking, immediately died. This took place perhaps twenty or thirty rods south of Humphreysville, just below where Henry Wooster lived. A kind of arbitration was afterward held

Xlvi INDIAN HISTORY.

upon this case by the white people and the Indians. One of the Indian witnesses remarked that he never knew of deer wearing red stockings before, alluding to the common Indian dress. The Indians, however, appeared satisfied that their countryman was killed by mistake and ever afterwards made Mr. Durand's house their stopping place."^

" Anecdotes are preserved of Chuse, which show that he was somewhat addicted to the use of ardent liquors and considered rum or whisky essentially superior as a beverage to cold water. He used to come when thirsty, to a fine spring bursting from a hollow rock at the foot of the hill and there sit on the bank by the side of the spring and drink the sweet water as it gushed from the rock, and praise it and say that if there was only another spring of rum, flowing by the side of it, he would ask for nothing more, but should Be perfectly happy.

" In 1760, he sold an acre and a half of land on the east side of the Falls, including the water privilege, to Thomas Perkins of Enfield, and Ebenezer Keeney, Joseph Hull and John Woos- ter of Derby, who had formed a company for the purpose of put- ting up some iron works. After living at Humphreysville forty-eight years Chuse removed to Scaghticook, where, a few years after, he died at the age of eighty. His land was not dis- posed of until 1792, when it still amounted to thirty-three acres ; and only a part was sold at this time, the rest being sold in

I8l2."»

On the day-book of the selectmen of Derby are found the following items :

" 1809. Abigail Short, credit, by keeping Frederick Fronk, one of the proprietors of the Indian land at Rock Rimmon Falls, and tending him in his illness, $6.^0. By horse and carriage to move Frederick Fronk, one of, etc., $0.67.

"Sept. 4, 1809. Isaac Pease, credit, by making a coffin for Frederick P>onk, one of proprietors, etc., $4.50. Abraham Harger, credit, by digging Frederick Fronk's grave, $1.34. Daniel Todd, credit, by tending on Lydia French and Freder- ick Fronk's funeral, $1.00.

" 1808. Augustus Bagden, credit, by keeping his mother, Hes-

'Hist. Col. 199, 200.

*DeForest's Hist. 406, 407. Town Rec.

chuse's removal. xlvii

ter, one of the proprietors of the Indian land at Rimmon Falls,

Thus did' the town do for the Indians the same as for others under the same circumstances ; and whatever may be said of the treatment rendered to the Indians in America, Derby has paid them for all she ever had of them, over and over and over; living in peace and great friendship with them, caring for them just as for citizens and neighbors, and at last laying them in their last sleeping place as brothers. What more " would ye that men should do unto you .'* "

Since preparing the above concerning Chuse, the following items have come under observation : Joseph Mauwee, the sa- chem of Humphreysville, removed to Scatacook about 1780, and in 1786 his name was attached to a petition to the Assem- bly, and hence, he was still living. In 1792 his land was sold (some of it, so said) at Humphreysville, upon the petition of his heirs. Therefore, he died between 1786 and 1792, and is said to have been eighty (or about eightv) years of age. Hence, he was born about 1710, and probably did not settle at Chuse- town before 1740, or when he was about thirty years of age. It is probable that after his marriage he remained some few years at Turkey Hill or Derby Narrows, which was then in- habited only by Indians, and then settled at Chusetown, which agrees with the tradition that his family were closely associated with the Turkey Hill locality. It also appears from these items that he may have lived with Agar Tomlinson a few years after 1734, and after he was twenty-three or twenty-four years of age, to fit himself to become the sachem of the remaining Derby In- dians.

It is within the legitimate scope of this brief record, to fol- low Gideon Mauwee to his hunting grounds in Kent. " The clan which collected at New Milford was quite considerable in size, although I cannot find that it had a distinctive name. It was unquestionably a mere collection of refugees and wander- ers, who had migrated hither from the southern and eastern parts of Connecticut, to escape from the vicinity of the English settlements."^

This opinion is not only probable, but demonstrated by the

^DeForest 389.

xlviii INDIAN HISTORY.

fact that Paugasuck Indians were there, forming no inconsider- able part of that settlement. The New Milford settlers bought the township from the native proprietors, on the eighteenth of February, 1703, for sixty pounds in money and twenty pounds in goods. The first Indian name mentioned in the deed, and the first on the list of signers, was Papetoppe ; from whence it is possible that he at that time was sachem, or at least the leader. The others are Rapiecotoo, Towcomis, Nanhootoo, Hawwasues, Yoncomis, Shoopack, Wewinapouck, Docames, Paramethe, Wewinapuck, Chequeneag, Papiream, Nokopurrs, Paconaus, Wonawak and Tomassett. The deed is witnessed by John Minor of Woodbury and Ebenezer Johnson and John Durand of Derby, Of these seventeen names, sixteen are given in the Woodbury history as belonging to the Pootatucks, and it is possible that they were taken from this deed and placed to the account of the Poota- tucks, but this would be such a stretch of history as seemingly no author would venture upon, unless they were all found previ- ous to the date of this deed among the Pootatucks. Chequeneag is Cheshconeag of the Derby deed, dated 1698; Wonawak is Nonawaug alias Nonawaux of the same deed ; Tomassett is Tomasoot or Chomasseet of the same deed. Taking into con- sideration the different spelling of the same names by different town clerks in Derby, we need not be surprised to find other New Milford names identical with names in Derby previous to the date of the New Milford deed ; as for instance, Paconaus may be the same as Pequonat of Derby.

Hence, in his westward emigration, Gideon Mauwee was not peculiar nor alone, nor did he go among entire strangers. It would be interesting to know whether Cheraromogg, signer of a deed at Stratford in 1684, was Raumaug of New Milford in 1 7 16, and finally Weraumaug, of undying fame, at New Pres- ton. Gideon Mauwje finally rested at Scaghticook'" and gath- ered about him many wanderers, until his company became large enough to attract the special attention of missionaries. The name on white lips became Scatacook, and these Indians were known only as Scatacook Indians. Here Eunice Mauwee lived (as have her descendants after her) on a state reservation, and died in 1859, aged about one hundred and four years.

10" Pish-gach- ti-gock, — the meeting of the waters." Benson J. Lossing.

THE HATCHETT FAMILY. xlix

Her father was the last chief. " Until within a few weeks of her death, she often talked with freedom of the Indians and their habits. It was interesting to hear her pronunciation of Indian words which have now become local property and are attached to so many names. In almost every instance the mod- ern use of them is merely a reduction of larger and more un- manageable ones ; words which, as they are now used, have been shorn of a half or a third of their original syllables. She was in- telligent and accustomed to talk, and remembered many curious things. She made this statement, that she saw when a girl, an old Indian who had seen King Philip. The Indian was telling her father of the personal traits and appearance of this brave hero."^" This last item leads us back to the hypothesis, that Chuse was descended from the Pootatuck chief Chusumack, who signed several deeds about 1670, and whose family consisted of several sons and grandsons ; whose residence was at Pootatuck, opposite Birmingham Point in Stratford, and afterwards at Pomperaug or Newtown. The old Indian in this case might have been her great grandfather.

In various other parts of the Naugatuck valley is traced the Red man, lingering amidst the institutions and customs of civ- ilization, and suffering more or less in the contact.

MOLLY HATCHETT.

Some particular account of the Hatchett family is given by Dr. A. Beardsley, who, having some personal knowledge of the family, has continued the inquiry until the following result has been obtained :

On the right of the old Milford road at Turkey Hill, just be- low Two-mile brook, there was once an Indian burying-ground. Around the base of a high hill overlooking the Ousatonic, rough field-stones have within a few years marked the resting place of many Red skins who once occupied these regions. An old saying is that many Indians were buried there. Some of these stones were small, others of large size.

In early times the wild turkeys, seeking to escape from the hunter, flew from this hill across the Ousatonic, — a fact which

i°Sharpe's Hist, of Seymour, p. 37. G

1 INDIAN HISTORY.

gave it the name of Turkey Hill. These lands, long in the possession of Mr. David Burt were held sacred. He did not even allow his ploughshare to disturb the rude grave-spots which told so sad a story of the poor Indian. Like Hippocrates of old, who dug up grave-yards in the night season for imperisha- ble bones, so did the medical students of Yale College search here for materials to aid them in their anatomical pursuits. The New Haven and Derby railroad has extinguished all traces of this ancient cemetery, Indian skulls and bones in large quan- tities having been exhumed in excavating at Turkey Hill.

Upon this hill stood the head-quarters of a tribe of Indians. Here they built their wigwams, held their war councils, joined in the noisy dance and smoked the pipe of peace, while the old sachem of Milford, Ansantaway, with his son Ockenuck of Stratford, set his mark upon Derby.

It may be inferred from the most reliable sources that the New Milford Indians and the Paugasucks at one time lined the banks of the Ousatonic from Old to New Milford. They had a trail, many traces of which are still visible, along which, by sig- nal and war whoop, they could telegraph from the one place to the other "between sun and sun." They had several fortresses along this trail. The Paugasucks, however, possessed the land of Derby and one of the last of this tribe is still fresh in the memory of our citizens.

On the line of Two-mile brook, near the Ousatonic, over an old cellar still to be seen, stood the little hut of Molly Hatchett. Leman Stone, agent for Indian land reservations in Derby, in the goodness of his heart caused it to be erected for her home. Truman Gilbert was the boss carpenter, and David Bradley and Agar Gilbert his apprentice boys, both of whom are still living, assisted. The building was only twelve feet square. Here lived and died Molly Hatchett. She was a wanderer upon the earth, but wherever she went she always found a hearty welcome, and was never turned away with an empty basket. She was a favor- ite among the people, and was looked upon with sad sympathy. The children in the streets flocked to meet her, and the old folks always paid her deference. A hundred families or more she visited once or twice a year, selling her little fancy stained baskets, and wherever a child was born she was sure to appear,

MOLLY HATCHETT. H

and present the baby with a basket-rattle containing six ker- nels of corn. If the mother had more than six children she put in one more kernel, and so on in arithmetical proportion.

In her old age, when she could no longer go her rounds, she was often visited by the good people of Derby Narrows, who gave her great comfort and consolation. Parting with her one day when her death was approaching, a good woman remarked, " Molly, it is too bad that you should die in such a hut as this." " Oh no," she replied, " I shall soon have a better home in heaven, where I shall go and meet the pale faces with the Great Spirit." Her funeral was decently attended, Leman Stone ar- ranging the ceremonies, his workmen acting as pall-bearers. In the parish records of St. James's church, in the hand-writing of the Rev. Stephen Jewett, appears the following :

" 1829, January 17, died Molly Hatchett, Indian, aged nearly one hundred, buried by Rev. W. Swift."

There is no date of her birth or marriage, but she was the wife, according to Indian custom, of John Hatchett, who died at an early age and is said to have been a descendant of old Chuse, who lived at Humphreysville. Molly had four children. She lived with her son Joseph many years, but most of her family afterwards joined the Scatacook settlement in Kent.

Molly Hatchett was a good specimen of the Paugasucks. Nearly six feet tall, muscular, erect, of stately step, with long, black hair falling over her shoulders, with piercing black eyes, of polite and commanding appearance, she was a noble relic of a barbarous race.

It was a fashion of her own, always to wear a white blanket shawl and a man's hat, and to carry a cane or her little hatchet. Shrewd and witty, she was seldom overreached in her jokes. She was rather fond of " uncupe," as she called rum, and this was her besetting sin, for which she blamed the whites.

One day she called at the store of Mr. S , and asked for a

drink of "uncupe." "Can't give it to you," said the conscien- tious merchant, " it is against the law to sell by the glass." " Uh,"" said she, "there is no law against Indians." Thirsty and full of importunity on her part, the rumseller finally yielded, when he said, " Molly, if you will lie down on your back on this

Hi INDIAN HISTORY.

floor, and let me put a tunnel in your mouth, I will pour down your throat a good horn of uncupe." The action was suited to the words, and both seemed gratified with the evasion of the law. A few days after, calling on her benefactor, smiling and talka- tive, he said, " Well, Molly, what do you want to-day ? " " Oh ! I only called to see if you did not want to tunnel me again."

Many years before her death Molly was often heard to say she could remember when the main road through Derby Nar- rows was only a foot-path by the river bank, dense with forest trees.

She used to correct the white man's pronunciation of the names of our rivers. " You must call them as did the old ' Ingins,' Nau- g2Litick and Ons>2iX.onuck" When she received a gift her reply was, " Ariunshemoke, thank you kindly. Now you must say Tuptttney, you are welcome." Her real name was unknown, but she was often called, " Magawiska."

In the evening of her days, when taking a last survey of the departed glory of her ancestors and standing on their graves, their wigwams leveled, their council fires almost forgotten, this poor, lonely Paugasuck is imagined as thus soliloquizing :

" Deserted and drear is the place,

Where huts of my fathers arose, Alone, and the last of my race,

I watch where their ashes repose. The calumet now is no more,

No longer the hatchet is red ; The wampum our warriors once wore,

Now smolders along with the dead. The day of our glory is gone,

The night of our sorrow is here ; No more will our day-star arise,

No more our sunlight appear. Once we listened to hear the war song,

Once we sailed on the Naugatuck's wave, When the arm of the hunter was strong.

The soul of the warrior was brave. Now lonely and drear is the place

Where huts of my kindred arose. Alone ! and the last of my race,

I watch where their ashes repose."

The above lines, so full of pathos were written by Dr. J. Hardyear, a native of Derby, a young man of talent and prom-

OPINION OF A MINISTER. lili

ise, who located in Stratford, where he died at the early age of twenty-nine years.

Just above Two-mile brook, on the Whitney farm was also an Indian settlement, established there many years after the one at the spot originally called Turkey Hill. This latter place is the one more familiarly known at the present time, and for some years past, as Turkey Hill.

An anecdote or two concerning the Indian Chuse, have not appeared in print. Living among the white settlers he became partially civilized, often going to church and thereby obtaining some knowledge of the doctrines of the gospel.

Having a child dangerously ill, he became impressed with the desire of having it baptized, and called on the Congregational minister to perform the ceremony. The parson asked him if he was in full communion with the church. He replied that be was not. " Then I must refuse to baptize him," said the par- son. "Do you call yourself a minister of Christ.-*" asked Chuse. " Yes," was the reply. Said Chuse, " You are not ! You are the devil's minister. Christ commanded to teach all nations, baptizing them in the Lord." The sick child, however, received the rite of baptism from the Episcopal minister. This story is authenticated by one who was familiar with all the parties.

After removing to Scatacook, he often visited the few who lived at Turkey Hill. Mrs. Deborah Riggs, deceased some years since, well remembered when one of his daughters was married, and the bridal party walked through the drifting snow from Turkey Hill to Chusetown in the night season, to solemnize the nuptials.

Some few marks or foot-prints of the Red man in Derby still remain. Close by the New 'Haven and Derby railroad on the Whitney farm, is an Indian corn mill, or mortar, sunk in the bed rock. It is about eight inches in diameter at the top and the same in depth. Here, for many years, the Indians ground the corn for their daily bread. This is a little south of the ravine called the Devil's Jump ; near which are said to be two more mortars sunk in the bed rock. Lover's Leap is a little

liv INDIAN HISTORY.

further up the river, consisting of a high rock almost over- hanging the river.

One Indian ax, of bluestone, has been seen, of the size of an ordinary ax, but from the roughness of the stone it is inferred that it had remained long exposed to the elements after it was made, before it was found.

THE MACK FAMILY.

The last remnants of the Paugasucks in Derby were the Mack Indians as they were called, who formerly inhabited Bethany. The selectmen of that town, fearing that these In- dians would become paupers, purchased a small tract of land in Deerfield, situated within the limits of Derby, and placed them upon it, so as to be rid of them. They assisted them in build- ing some cheap huts, and in these they dwelt, securing a living by hunting and making baskets. There were James and Eunice Mack, who lived by themselves near the turnpike that leads from Seymour to New Haven. Jerry Mack and four other Indian men, two squaws and three children lived over the hill south of James Mack's about eighty rods. For a long time the place was called the Indian settlement.

In 1833, a squaw came from Milford, who became the guest of James and while there was taken sick and was immediately removed back to Milford, where she died of small-pox. In due time these ten Indians sickened with the same disease, and all died except the three children. These children were run down into the woods, and vaccinated by Dr. Kendall, and thus saved from the terrible scourge. The Indians were buried by Samuel Bassett and others, who had had the small-pox, in the garden near their huts. Derby paid all expenses and great excitement prevailed as to the disease, and to make sure that no more Indians should become paupers from that settlement, the torch was applied in the night season by order of the select- men to these modern wigwams, and thus they were reduced to ashes.

Of these Deerfield Indians, Mr. DeForest says :

" One of the women, old Eunice as she was commonly called, died a number of years since. Her two children, Jim and Ruby, I have

INDIAN BURYING GROUNDS. Iv

often seen coming into my native village to sell parti-colored baskets and buy provisions and rum. Ruby was short and thick and her face was coarse and stupid. Jim's huge form was bloated with liquor, his voice was coarse and hollow, and his steps, even when he was not intox- icated, were unsteady from the evil effects of ardent spirits. At pres- ent I believe they are all in their graves."

There was another family called the Pann tribe, who were described by Mr. DeForest thirty years ago, as wandering about in that part of the country and owning no land. In a letter from a correspondent in Derby (W. L. Durand, Esq.) their settlement is described as located on the west side of the Ousatonic, above the Old Bridge place. He says : "They were called the Pann tribe and the old chief was named Pannee. I remember seeing some of the Panns when I was a boy. In dig- ging a cellar on the plains there, a great many bones were dug up — so many that the wife of the man who was intending to build, would not go there to live. He got the house inclosed, and after it had stood unoccupied a good many years, he sold it."

Those Indians who gathered around Joseph Mauwee at Nau- gatuck Falls, where Seymour now stands, were most if not all of them of the Paugasucks. When the Indian census was ta- ken in 1774, there were four of Joseph's band within the limits of Waterbury.

INDIAN BURYING-GROUNDS.

The first place in which the Indians buried was most proba- bly at Derby Narrows, some years before the English discovered the region. More bones, indicating such a ground, have been exhumed at this place than at any other.

Not many years since, when Mr. Lewis Hotchkiss was en- gaged in putting up some buildings near the Hallogk mills, a large quantity of bones was discovered, and the indications were that they had been a long time buried. It is most likely that the Paugasuck tribe buried at this place a long time after the English began the settlement here.

The burying-ground at Turkey Hill was commenced proba-

Ivi INDIAN HISTORY.

bly after that place was set apart for occupancy by Milford, about 1665.

Another ground was arranged soon after the beginning of the settlement of the English here, at the new fort on the Ous- atonic, a little above the dam on the east side.

A ground of this kind of considerable extent was at Seymour, where many fragments have been found within the memory of the living.

Another is said to be in existence, and the graves still visible, near Horse Hill, or, as it is called in one of the very early land records, White Mare Hill.

Across the Ousatonic from Birmingham, in the southern part of Shelton, was another burial-place, where the Pootatucks laid their departed to rest ; and there were others still further up that river on both sides.

As the Farmington Indians have been included in this survey of the ancient tribes, the monument erected at that place in 1840 may be referred to. On the bank of the river looking out upon Farmington Valley and Indian Neck, stands a block of coarse red sandstone bearing the following inscription, which is becoming rapidly obliterated : ,

"In memory of the Indian race, especially of the Tunxis tribe, the ancient tenants of these grounds.

" The many human skeletons here discovered confirm the tradition that this spot was formerly an Indian burying place. Tradition fur- ther declares it to be the ground on which a sanguinary battle was fought between the Tunxis and the Stockbridge tribes. Some of their scattered remains have been re-interred beneath this stone."

The reverse side of the monument bears the following lines :

" Chieftains of a vanished race, In your ancient burial-place, By your fathers' ashes blest. Now in peace securely rest. Since on life you looked your last, , Changes o'er your land have passed ;

Strangers came with iron sway, .'\nd your tribes have passed away. But your fate shall cherished be In the strangers' memory; Virtue long her watch shall kcjcp. Where the Red man's ashes sleep."

CHAPTER IV.

FURTHER AUTHENTIC RECORDS.

ROGRESS in disintegration and decay in the native tribes may be traced a little further by the examina- tion of documents and records. Mr. J. W. DeForest in his " History of the Indians of Connecticut," a book which, after all deductions are made, is a remarkable production for a youth of one-and-twenty years, makes the following re- marks upon the retirement of the Red men before the aggressive race that had landed on their shores :

" Knowing little of European modes of life and judging of the colo- nists greatly by themselves, they supposed that the latter would culti- vate but a little land, and support themselves for the rest by trading, fishing and hunting. Little did they think that in the course of years the white population would increase from scores to hundreds, and from hundreds to thousands ; that the deep forests would be cut down ; that the wild animals would disappear ; that the fish would grow few in the rivers ; and that a poor remnant would eventually leave the graves of their forefathers and wander away into another land. Could they have anticipated that a change so wonderful, and in their history so unprece- dented, would of necessity follow the coming of the white man, they would have preferred the wampum tributes of the Pequots and the scalping parlies of the Five Nations to the vicinity of a people so kind, so peaceable, and yet so destructive." — (Pages 164, 165.)

Of course the natives knew not that they were parting with their homes forever ; neither did the new settlers know how swiftly their predecessors upon the soil would melt away before the glow and heat of a Christian civilization. But the process was inevitable, and in New England, at least, however it may have been elsewhere, it was as painless and as little marked by cruelty as it well could be.

INDIAN SLAVES.

Through several documents still preserved there come be- fore us certain Derby Indians in the peculiar character o( s/<t7'i-s.

Iviii INDIAN HISTORY.

To Students of colonial history it is a known fact that not only negroes but Indians were held as slaves in New England. That slavery should have existed in the colonies was almost a matter of course, in view of its recognition by the mother coun- try. The Massachusetts code, adopted in 1641, known as the " Body of Libertiies," recognized it, and provided for its regula- tion and restriction ; and Connecticut in its code of 1650 fol- lowed in the same path. The ninety-first article of the Massa- chusetts code was as follows : " There shall never be any bond slavery, villanage or captivity among us, unless it be lawful cap- tives taken in just wars, and such strangers as willingly sell

themselves or are sold to us This exempts none

from servitude who shall be judged thereto by authority." Ac- cording to this, persons might be sold into slavery for crime ; might be purchased in the regular course of trade ; or might be enslaved as captives taken in war ; and it will be observed that no limitation is made in reference to color or race. Probably, however, the English distinction was tacitly recognized, which allowed the enslavement of infidels and heathen, but not of Christians. Of the fact that Indians became slaves in the dif- ferent ways here mentioned, there is abundant evidence. In Sandwich, Massachusetts, three Indians were sold in 1678 for having broken into a house and stolen. Being unable to make recompense to the owner, the General Court authorized him to sell them. In 1660 the General Court of Connecticut was em- powered by the United Colonies to send a company of men to obtain satisfaction, of the Narragansetts, for an act of insolence they had committed upon the settlers. Four of the malefactors were to be demanded ; and in case the persons were delivered, they were to be sent to Barbadoes and sold as slaves. In 1677 it was enacted by the General Court that if any Indian servant captured in war and placed in service by the authorities should be taken when trying to run away, it should be "in the power of his master to dispose of him as a captive, by transportation out of the country." That the regular slave trade included traffic in Indians as well as negroes appears from several enact- ments of the General Court. For instance, it was ordered in May, 171 1, "that all slaves set at liberty by their owners, and all negro, mulatto or Spanish Indians, who are servants to mas-

SELLING CAPTIVES. JlX

ters for time, in case they come to want after they be so set at liberty, or the time of their said service be expired, shall be re- lieved by such owners or masters respectively." At a meeting of the Council in July, 1715,11 was resolved " that a prohibition should be published against the importation of any Indian slaves whatsoever." The occasion of this was the, introduction of a number of such slaves from South Carolina, and the prospect that many more were coming. In October following, the Gen- eral Court adopted an act in relation to this matter, which was a copy of a Massachusetts act of 17 12, prohibiting the importa- tion into the colony of Indian servants or slaves, on the ground of the numerous outrages committed by such persons. Of In- dians captured in war, a considerable number were sold into slavery, but what proportion it would be impossible to say. It was a defensive measure, to which the colonists were impelled by the fact that they were " contending with a foe who recog- nized none of the laws of civilized warfare." It was resorted to in the war with the Pequots, and again in the war with King Philip.

In a manuscript, sold with the library of the late George Brinley of Hartford, namely, the account book of Major John Talcott (1674-1688), which includes his accounts as treasurer of the colony during King Philip's war, there are some curious entries indicating how the enslavement of Indians in certain cases originated. The following account stands on opposite pages of the ledger (pp. 54, 55) :

" 1676. Capt. John Stanton of Stonington, Dr., To sundry commis- sions gave Capt. Stanton to proceed against the Indians, by which he gained much on the sales of captives.

" Contra, 1677, April 30. Per received an Indian girl of him, about seven years old, which he gave me for commissions on the other side or, at best, out of good will for my kindness to him."

Further light is thrown on this matter by the following docu- ments, which are interesting, also, in themselves'^

The first is a deed drawn up in Stratford, June 8, 1722 :

" Know all men by these presents, that I, Joseph Gorham of Strat- ford, in the county of Fairfield, in the colony of Connecticut, for and

"They are the property of the Hon. C. W. Gillette of Waterbury.

Ix INDIAN' HISTORY.

in consideration of sixty pounds money in hand received, and well and truly paid by Col. Ebenezer Johnson of Derby, in the county of New Haven and colony aforesaid, to my full satisftiction and content, have sold and made over unto the said Ebenezer Johnson and to his heirs, executors and assigns forever, one Indian woman named Dinah, of about twenty-six years of age, for him, the said Johnson, his heirs, ex- ecutors or assigns, to have, hold and enjoy the said Indian woman Di- nah as his and their own proper estate from henceforth forever, during the said Dinah's life ; affirming the said Dinah to be my own proper estate, and that I have in myself full power and lawful authority to sell and dispose of the said Dinah in manner as aforesaid, and that free and clear of all incumbrances whatsoever. In witness I set to my hand and seal in Stratford, this eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord God, 1722. Samuel French,

Attorney for Capt. Gorham. " Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of us,

John Curtiss,

John Leavenworth."

The second document traces Dinah's history a little further. It is dated at Derby, November 22, 1728. Before this date Col. Johnson had died, and this is the deed by which his widow dis- poses of a part of the estate to her son Timothy :

" Know all men by these presents, that I. Hannah Johnson, widow of the late deceased Colonel Ebenezer Johnson of Derby, in the county of New Haven, in the colony of Connecticut, in New England, for the parental love and good will which I have towards my beloved son, Tim- othy Johnson of Derby, in the county and colony aforesaid, and for divers other good and well-advised considerations me thereunto mov- ing, have given and do by these presents fully, freely and absolutely give, grant and confirm unto my beloved son Timothy Johnson, him, his heirs and assigns forever : that is to say, one Indian woman called Dinah, and also a feathe* bed that he hath now in possession, and by these presents I, the said Hannah Johnson, do give, grant and confirm and firmly make over the above named Dinah and feather bed, with all their privileges and profits ; and unto him, the said Timothy Johnson, his heirs and assigns forever, to have and to hold ; to occupy, use and improve, as he, the said Timothy Johnson, his heirs and assigns, shall think fit, without any interruption, trouble or molestation any manner of way given by me, the said Hannah Johnson, or any of my heirs, ex- ecutors or administrators, or any other person or persons from, by or

OI.l) RECORDS. Ixi

under me. And furthermore, I, the said Hannah Johnson, do by these presents, for myself, my heirs, executors and administrators, covenant and promise to and with the said Timothy Johnson, his heirs and assigns, that we will forever warrant and defend him, the said Timothy Johnson, his heirs and assigns, in the peaceable and quiet possession and enjoyment of the above named Dinah and feather bed against the lawful claims and demands of ail persons whomsoever. In confirma- tion of all the above mentioned particulars, 1, the said Hannah John- son, have hereunto set my hand and seal this 2 2d day of November, in the second year of the reign of our sovereign lord. King George the Second, and in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight.

Hannah Johnson. " Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of,

Joseph Hulls, Charles Johnson.

" Derby, November 22, 1728. This day Hannah Johnson, the sub- scriber of the above written instrument, personally appeared and ac- knowledged this to be her own free act and deed, before me.

Joseph Hulls, Justice of the Peace."

At no time in the history of American slavery has the recog- nition of human beings as chattels been more complete than it is in this old document, in which " the Indian woman Dinah " and " the feather bed " are classed together in so unceremonious a way.

That the purchase of Dinah in 1722 was not Col. Johnson's first experiment in slave-holding is evidenced by another docu- ment pertaining to the Indian literature of the Naugatuck val- ley, also in the possession of Judge Gillette. It is a brief paper from the hand of Colonel Johnson, relating to an Indian named • Tobie, and certifying to his manumission. It is given just as recorded :

" these may cartifi whome it may consJrn that tobee a Ingan that lived with me I had of a moheg Indian at new london 307 years agoo. he lived with me 12 year and is now and has bin a free man ever senc. October the 6 17 13 Ebenezer Johnson."

There is an Indian deed given by Cockapatana and Ahunta- way, as sachems, and six other Indians, of land at the place still known as Tobie's Rocks, deeded to this same Tobie, in which he is said to be " a Narragansctt Indian, formerly servant unto

Ixii INDIAN HISTORY.

Capt. Ebenezer Johnson of Derby." The deed is dated Sep- tember 7, 1693. The deed and the legend concerning Tobie's capture will be found in their chronological order in the body of this work.

The record shows that Tobie was taken in the time of King Philip's war, 1676 ; that he was twelve years a slave, being made free in 1688; in 1693 received the tract of land from the Nauga- tuck Indians " in consideration of ten pounds and a barrel of cider," and in 171 3 this certificate was made. What circum- stances called for such a paper at that time is a question con- cerning which we have no information ; nor has there been seen anything in the records upon which to found a supposition, ex- cept that it was the time when he had petitioned, or was about to petition, the legislature for a patent for his land, as the town had just received a patent, although it proved to be unsatisfac- tory. And what reason the town could have had, if not a self- ish one, for opposing Tobie's petition, it is impossible to guess. It is probable that the certificate was given to show his right to hold property and become a citizen.

In 1709, Major Ebenezer Johnson sold another Indian girl, placing her in a vastly more satisfactory relation, according to modern ideas, than either of the other sales effected. The In- dians in deeding a certain tract say : " On account of a squaw Sarah, sold unto said Chetrenasut, and three pounds, ten shil- lings in hand received of Major Ebenezer Johnson of Derby." This tract of land was " lying in a place called ' Nayumps,' bounded northerly with Beacon Hill river, easterly with Milford, westerly with Naugatuck river, south with Lebanon river." This was a happy sale in this, that the Indian Chetrenasut obtained a bride. Well done, thou noble Red man of the forest, thou dost make a woman free^ while thy white brother possesses the land that is the price of human, living flesh and blood ! O, slavery, what corrupting sin hast thou not committed in the land of Bibles and religion ! But there is a favorable thought on the slave-holder's side : he had given one man his liberty. " Seven pounds" was no price for a young slave woman ; for a few years later Mr. Johnson paid sixty pounds for one, apparently of about the same value. We may hope that the price was but nominal and the real object benevolent.

THE TUNXIS INDIANS. Ixiii

Turning again to the Tunxis Indians, with whom the Pauga- sucks are related, and from whom the Waterbury purchases were made, we find the same process of gradual decay taking place among them which we trace in other tribes. The main body at Farmington was joined from time to time by re-enforcements from the Connecticut valley ; and it is very probable that some of the Paugasucks joined them, since we -are informed in one deed that some had settled in Hartford, where they were re- siding when they executed a deed of land in Derby. A school was established among them, a few were admitted as freemen, and a few became members of the church. But, notwithstand- ing the friendly feeling which existed, the lands which the In- dians had reserved slipped gradually from their grasp, and they found it desirable to emigrate. In 1761, the tribe was esti- mated at less than twenty-five families. They had moved back from their original position and were residing in the north-west part of Farmington and in New Hartford. In 1774, they num- bered fifty-six persons. Not long after, some of them removed to the country of the Mohawks ; others, subsequently, to Scata- cook, and from there to Stockbridge. The Tunxis Indians, as we have seen, had no established camping ground in the Nau- gatuck valley at the time of its settlement by white men ; nei- ther is there any strong evidence that they resided in the val- ley after they had begun to retire from their old reservation. It is probable, however, that some of the Indians who are still remembered as living in Waterbury, Litchfield and Wolcottville, belonged to that tribe. It is within the present generation that a family living in the Park road, in the western part of Water- bury, has entirely disappeared. Persons are still living who re- member Indian families in Wolcottville and Torringford. In the latter place a wigwam used to stand, in the very door-yard of a prominent citizen, Captain Shubael Griswold, some time after the Revolutionary war. Another family had their wig- wam, within the present century, in the field west of the brass mill in Wolcottville, where they had resided some years. In the edge of Goshen, a little north of Hart's Hollow, is a cave which used to be the recruiting station for the Indians while on their hunting excursions through that region. Many arrow- heads and other implements have been picked up at this place.

Ixiv INDIAN HISTORY.

indicating considerable occupation of it by these hunters. vVnother like place is found in Wolcott, or in the edge of the town of Bristol, near Wolcott, where implements have been found and which tradition, as well, claims to have been a resort of the Red man. Wist pond, in the western part of the town of Torrington was so called from an Indian by that name, who, it is said, was drowned in its waters. There used to be an Indian family in a cave in Harvvinton, nearly opposite the mouth of Spruce brook, and another on the tract of land called the Wig- wam, lying along " West branch," not far back from Reynolds's bridge. In 1850, Mr. DeForest spoke of" one miserable creat- ure, a man named Mossock," as living in Litchfield, "perhaps the sole remnant of the Tunxis tribe." There may be other similar traces of the departing Red man, which by a little effort could be discovered and, if it were worth while, recorded.

It is important to take a further look at the Pootatucks, from whom the extensive Litchfield purchase was made. As to their numbers, it is difficult to determine anything, but some conclusions may be drawn from the number of different individ- uals who signed the Indian deeds in Derby. From 1657 to 1678, or to the close of the sachem rule of Okenuck, a space of twenty-one years, there were over fifty different signers to these Indian deeds of the Paugasuck Indians. Sometimes only Oke- nuck's name is attached to a deed ; at other times two, five, seven and ten are recorded. The fact (which is demonstrated) that only a few signed when there were others who might have signed but did not, indicates that it was necessary for but a few to sign at a time. Hence, if during that time one in three of the men in the tribe signed, then the tribe consisted of one hundred and fifty men ; and, making allowance for deaths and removals, the tribe may have numbered one hundred men, or, on a small estimate, between three and four hundred persons at any time during the twenty-one years. It is quite apparent, nay, almost demonstrable, that the Indians increased in num- bers from 1657 to 1700, and afterward. Many of the Pauga- suck Indians united with the Pootatucks, from 1680 to 1730.

It is probable that the chief seat of the Pootatucks in 1660 was at the old fort opposite Birmingham Point, on the west side of the Ousatonic, and that the settlement at Pomperaug was

A GREAT POWWOW. IxV

mostly effected afterwards. In 167 1, when this tribe deeded to Henry Tomlinson land on both sides of the river, at what is now Birmingham Point, fifteen names were placed on the deed, and in the next month to a quit-claim deed in confirmation of the territory of the town of Stratford, four others were added and in 1684, to another deed of the same character, eleven more were recorded. Here then, in the space of thirteen years, there are thirty men ascertained ; and on the calculations, as in the case of the Paugasucks as above noted, we estimate, making due allowances, there were about seventy men in the Poota- tuck tribe, and from two hundred to two hundred and fifty persons. When then, this tribe had increased, as most prob- ably it did, of its own numbers and by accessions from the Paugasucks, up to 1700, it very probably numbered over one hundred men. Hence, when President Stiles of Yale College, in his " Itinerary" in 1760, estimated the number of warriors of this tribe to have been fifty half a century before, he was not far out of the way.

The same writer preserves the account of a great " powwow," which took place at the village of the Pootatucks, somewhere from 1720 to 1725. The ceremonies lasted three days, and were attended by five or six hundred Indians, many of whom came from distant places, as Farmington and Hartford. While the Indians were standing in a dense mass, excited by dancing and other wild rites, a little Indian girl was brought forward, gaily dressed and covered with ornaments. She was led in among them by two squaws, her mother and her aunt ; and as she entered the crowd they set up a great yelling and howling, threw themselves into strange postures and made hideous grimaces. After a while the squaws, stripped of their orna- ments, emerged alone from the crowd and walked away, shed- ding tears and uttering mournful cries. Many white people stood around gazing at the scene ; but the savages were so ex- cited that none of them dared to interfere. A little white girl, who afterwards related the incident, ran up to the squaws and asked anxiously what they had done with the child, but the only reply was that they should never see her again. It was generally believed by the whites that the Indians had sacrificed her, and that this was an occasional custom. I

Ixvi INDIAN HISTORV.

In 1742, the Pootatucks petitioned the legislature for a school and a preacher, so that, as they expressed it (or some white friend in their behalf), "our souls need not perish for want of vision in this land of light," and their petition was granted. At this time they numbered forty persons. Previous to this, however (in 1733), they had sold about three-fourths of their reservation in Southbury, and many of them had joined the Wyantenucks of New Milford, whither they had been emigrating for more than thirty years. To the fragment of land and the Indian village which remained, known as the Pootatuck Wigwams, they re- tained a title for a quarter of a century longer; but in 1758, they parted with it and took up their abode with other tribes. A clan of the Pootatucks resided alternately at Bethlehem, Litch- field and Nonawaug, and have been sometimes designated Ban- tam Indians. In 1761, the Pootatucks who remained in the vicinity of their old reservation consisted of one man and two or three broken families.

One year previous to the presentation of the petition just re- ferred to, asking for a school and a preacher (that is, in May 1741), a petition had been presented by a member of the Poota- tuck tribe asking the legislature, first, to allow something to- ward the schooling and supporting of his children ; secondly, to help him to a division of the Indian lands at Pootatuck. The document which is reproduced in full in Mr. Cothren's history of Woodbury,'^ is a very curious one; but it demands our atten- tion just now because of the name of the petitioner, who speaks of himself as a poor Indian native, " Hatchett Tousey by name." Hatchett Tousey, notwithstanding its English sound, is obvi- ously the same name which appears repeatedly in the Woodbury and Litchfield records as " Atchetouset ; " and it is all the more interesting to us because we meet with it under the form " Hatchatowsuck" among the Tunxis and Paugasuck names af- fixed to the Waterbury deed of December, 1684, and again as connected with the Hatchett family of Derby. It would not be safe to consider the petitioner of 1741 identical with the signer of 1684; but we can certainly trace him in another quar- ter— in the town records of Litchfield. On the third day of August, 1732, John Catlin sold to "a certain Indian resident of ''Pp. loi, 102.

A BRAVE SOLDIER. Ixvii

Litchfield, commonly known as Hatchatousset, for eight pounds lawful money, one acre more or less of land in the crotch of Bantam river;"' and on the 14th of May 1736, Hatchatousset sold this land to John Sutliff for ten pounds, making, as prob- ably he supposed, a fair profit.^ The idea of individual owner- ship had evidently taken hold of this native of the soil ; for in his petition, as we have seen, he prayed the legislature to help him to a division of the Indian land at Pootatuck — " that I might have my right and just part set out to me, so that they might not quarrel with me ; for they say if I am a Christian then I shall not have my land." He had learned, too, that being a Christian does not by any means take away the desire to have land ; and that being a Christian secures sometimes the oppo- sition of nearest kindred.

Another personage comes before us, whose name is already inscribed in history among the noble and honored defenders of our country. The name of one of the Indians who sold to the Litchfield settlers was written Corkscrew, apparently an im- promptu joke of the clerk at the time, who ought to have writ- ten Cotsiire or Cocksure. This name within a generation or two became Cogswell ; a worthy member of the family which it represents is still living at New Milford, and another, William H. Cogswell, won a lieutenant's commission in a Connecticut artillery company in the late war. The Cornwall History'* speaks thus of this honored soldier :

"Lieut. William H. Cogswell died Sept. 22, 1864, aged 25 years, 2 months and 23 days. He enlisted as a private in the Fifth regiment, C. v., June 22, 186 1, and was promoted to the Second Connecticut Artillery, for gallant services, Sept. 11, 1862. He was in the battles of Peaked Mountain, Winchester, Cedar Mountain, Cold Harbor and Opequan, and died from wounds received in the last battle.

" A handsome freestone monument, with the above inscription, erected by his fellow-townsmen, stands as a tribute to his memory. As a val- iant, faithful soldier he had no superiors, while in power to endure fa- tigue, ai^ility, strength and never-failing spirits, he had few equals. The writer remarked to his colonel (Wessells) that William was one of

^These items were furnished by D. C. Kilbourn of Litchfield. *T. S. Gold's, p. 223.

Ixviii INDIAN HISTORY.

a thousand soldiers. He replied, ' You might well say, one of ten thousand.'

" It is related of him that when on the march many were falling out of the ranks from fatigue, he grasped the muskets of three or four, car- rying them for miles, showing his men what strong and willing arms could do.

" Before he went into the army he was a noted runner at all our local fairs, surpassing all competitors, so that when it became known that he was to run there would be no race.

" He was the eldest son of Nathan Cogswell, to whose skilled hands Cornwall farmers are indebted for many of their fine stone walls, and grandson of Jeremiah Cogswell, a member of the Scatacook tribe."

This grandfather was probably Jeremiah Cocksure, who, re- moving with the remnant of the tribe from Pootatuck, became one of Gideon Mauwee's principal men. He was one of the converts of the Moravian missionaries, and his name often ap- pears in their lists.

When we consider the Indian's character, the stage of devel- opment he had reached, and the ordeal necessarily involved in his being brought suddenly into contact with an aggressive civ- ilization, his behavior in this trying period of his history seems worthy of high commendation. However cruel and bloodthirsty he may have been by nature, in his intercourse with peaceable white men he was peaceable ; if they showed themselves friendly he was their friend. Much is said of the Indian's treachery, but it was mostly reserved for enemies, and does not differ es- sentially from the deception and stratagems which in all ages civilized people have considered legitimate in war.

As a rule the conduct of the Indian was peaceable and friendly, but there were exceptions, — most of them traceable, it is pre- sumed, to the intemperate use of spirituous liquors. Among these exceptions may be mentioned a murder which was perpe- trated in the town of Litchfield, in February, 1768. The mur- derer was an Indian named John Jacob, and his victim was also an Indian. The guilty man was tried and executed the same year. Mention should also be made of Moses Cook of Water- bury, whose residence was on the north-east corner of Cook and Grove streets, where another branch of the family still resides. The crime was committed in the town of Bethany, on the

AN INDIAN S CRIME. IXIX

7th of December, 1771, by an Indian named Moses Paul. It appears that Paul was born in Barnstable, Mass., about 1742. He lived at Windham, Conn., until twenty years of age, when he enlisted in the Provincial service in the regiment of Colonel Putnam. After the campaign was ended he became a sailor and followed the sea for several years, becoming confirmed in bad habits which he had contracted while in the army. After re- turning to Connecticut he lived in a very unsteady way for three or four years, staying but a little while in a place, and often be- coming intoxicated. On the evening of December 7, 1771, at the house of Mr. Clark of Bethany, while under the influence of liquor, he quarreled with the proprietor. He seized a flat- iron weighing four and a half pounds (Paul himself testified that it was a club), and aiming a blow at Mr. Clark, missed him and struck Mr. Cook who was standing by. The wound termi- nated fatally five days afterward. Paul was pursued and arrested the same evening. He was tried in February, and after a fair and impartial hearing, which lasted a whole day, was found guilty of murder, and sentenced to be hanged in June. The General Assembly, however, on petition, granted a reprieve for three months. At Paul's execution, which took place at New Haven, Sept. 2, 1772, a sermon was preached "at the desire of said Paul," by Samson Occom, a well known Indian preacher and missionary ; the author, by the way, of the once popular hymn,

" Awaked by Sinai's awful sound."

A large assembly of whites and Indians had come together to witness the execution, and Occom, taking for his text the words, " For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord," delivered a quite elaborate and impressive discourse, in which there were some characteristic specimens of Indian eloquence. The sermon was subsequently published in several editions, and re-published in England in connection with the treatise of the younger Jon- athan Edwards upon the grammar of the Muhhekaneew (Mohc- gan) Indians. Mr. Occom in his preface says it was "a stormy and very uncomfortable day when the discourse was delivered," and hopes that it may be serviceable to his poor kindred, the

IXX INDIAN HISTORY.

Indians, and that people may be induced to read it because it comes from an uncommon quarterl

It is said that before the settlement of Torrington, a white man hunting on the hill which rises between the two branches of the Naugatuck river, just above where Wolcotville now stands, saw an Indian and shot him ; and from this instance the hill was named Red Mountain. The reason the man gave for his deed, so closely similar to many committed on our Western frontier, was that he "knew if he did not shoot the Indian, the Indian would shoot him, so he shot first and killed him." But the white man's logic was at fault, unless he had good reason to believe that the Indian belonged to some remote and hostile tribe. Indians knew, as well as white men, who were friends and who were enemies, and there was no period subsequent to King Philip's war when any of the Indians of Connecticut would have been likely to shoot down a white man at sight, or without the utmost provocation. The shooting of this Indian was, therefore, without excuse, and the name Red Mountain stands as a dishonor to the white man.

The consideration of King Philip's war, and the other Indian wars of the colonial period, in their relations to the Naugatuck valley, must now engage our attention. Thus far we have been tracing the footsteps of a departing friend ; we have also to trace the coming and going tracks of a wily and cruel enemy.

The first war in Connecticut was that waged against the Pe- quots, in the very beginning of its history as a colony. The Pequots were of the Algonkin stock, but did not belong to the same family as the other Connecticut tribes. "The Pequots and Mohegans were, apparently, of the same race with the Mohicans, Mohegans or Mohicanders, who lived on the banks of the Hudson**." They were, therefore, without allies in the

^It is a fact worth mentioning in this connection, that the skull of Moses Cook was not buried with his body. It was probably prepared for examination and ex- hibited at the trial of Paul, and was afterward returned to the family. It was for many years in the possession of Mr. Cook's daughter, the wife of Titus Bronson, and mother of the late Deacon Leonard Bronson of Middlebury. This strange sou- venir was kept by Mrs. Bronson in a little cloth bag (it was in several pieces), and at her request was buried with her in 1841. Her grandson, Edward L. Bronson, re- members having seen it repeatedly in his boyhood.

^DeForest, 59.

KING Philip's war. Ixxi

war, and were not only defeated, but practically extinguished by it. This was in 1636, and King Philip's war did not begin until forty years later. In the interval, which was a period of undisturbed peace, the settlement of Farmington took place on the one side, and of Milford on the other. The settlement of Derby, as we have seen, was begun as early as 1654, and in 1657 the deed was given in which Mattatuck is first mentioned — the land around the hill where the black-lead was found. It was during this era of peace that the meadow lands of the Naugatuck were discovered. Preparations had been begun for the settlement of Waterbury, when the colony was startled by the cry of war. The first intimation of a misunderstanding be- tween Philip, who was the chief of the Wampanoags in south- eastern Massachusetts, and the colonists, was in April, 1671. From this time, if not before this, Philip skillfully planned to unite all the New England tribes against the whites in a war of extermination. The want of friendship among the tribes ren- dered this a difficult undertaking, but he succeeded so far as to extend his operations from the St. Croix river to the Ousatonic. An Indian league was formed, and the result was the most for- midable war the colonists ever had to sustain. Hostilities ac- tually commenced on the 24th of June, 1675, and were termi- nated by the defeat and death of Philip fourteen months after- ward.

In this bloody conflict the colonists lost six hundred men. Thirteen towns were totally, and eleven partially, destroyed. The eastern part of Connecticut, being nearer the center of the conflict, suffered more seriously than the western ; but the val- ley of the Naugatuck was by no means exempt from anxiety, danger and trouble. If there had been no other sources of hard- ship, the enactments passed by the General Court and the Council — which have been correctly characterized as " equiva- lent to putting the whole colony under martial law" — must have come heavily upon such new settlements as Derby. At a meet- ing of the Council, held on the ist of September, 1675, it was reported " that the Indians were in a hostile manner prepared with their arms near Paugasuck ; " and this, with other similar reports, led the Council to pass a stringent law in reference to carrying of arms by Indians :

Ixxii INDIAN HISTORY.

" The Council sees cause to order that whatsoever Indian or Indi- ans with arms shall be espied traveling in any of the precincts of our township without an Englishman be with them, if they do not call to such English traveling as they may see, and also lay down their arms, with professing themselves friends, it shall be lawful for the said English to shoot at them and destroy them for their own safety ; which it is our duty to provide for thus in time of war."

Two days afterward, it was ordered by the Council, that in each plantation a sufficient watch should be kept "from the shutting in of the evening till the sun rise," and that one-fourth part of each town should be in arms every day by turns. " It is also ordered that during these present commotions with the Indians, such persons as have occasion to work in the fields shall work in companies ; if they be half a mile from the town, not less than six in a company, with their arms and ammuni- tion well fixed and fitted for service." In October, the Gen- eral Court, in view of "great combinations and threatenings of the Indians against the English," ordered that sixty soldiers should be raised in each county, " well fitted with horse, arms and ammunition, as dragoons ; " that places of refuge should be fortified in every settlement, to be defended by such persons as the chief military officer in each town should appoint to that work ; and in case of an assault by an enemy or an alarm, any one who should willfully neglect the duty to which he had been appointed should be punished with death, or such other pun- ishment as a court martial should adjudge him to. The " places of refuge " were fortifications constructed of timbers placed vertically in the ground, so close together that no one could pass between. Such a wooden wall, with doors properly se- cured, afforded good protection against hostile Indians ; and to a house thus defended the population could resort with safety at night, and return in the morning to their own houses. In the following March, it was further ordered by the Council — " in regard of the present troubles that are upon us and the heathen still continuing their hostilities against the English, and assaulting the plantations," — that the watch in the several settlements, an hour at least before day, should call up the several inhabitants within their respective wards, who should forthwith rise and arm themselves and march to their several

PROTECTION AGAINST INDIANS. Ixxiii

quarters, there to stand upon their guard to defend the town against any assault of the enemy until the sun be half an hour high. Mounted scouts, also, were to be sent out from every town to watch for the enemy, " going so far into the woods as they may return the same day, to give an account of what they shall discover."

It was under such circumstances as these that the inhabi- tants of Derby sought the advice and aid of the General Court.

In answer, the Court advised them to secure their grain and remove to a more populous village for protection. A few did remove, but some evidently remained.

For further account of this subject, see pages 55 and 56 of the body of this book.

CHAPTER V.

THE INDIAN AS AN ENEMY.

ING Philip's war and its influence upon the fortunes of Waterbury, we should naturally suppose, must have been slight, for the simple reason that Waterbury was not yet settled. Yet it is probably owing to that war that Waterbury is where it is ; and it would not be unreasona- ble to connect the course of its later history as a manufacturing center, and therefore its modern prosperity, with the same event. As we have seen, the first purchase of land around Waterbury Center was made in August, 1674. It was during the same season that a site was selected for the contemplated village, and there seems to have been no thought at first of any other site than the elevated plateau on the west side of the river, overlooking the meadows and the amphitheater amidst the hills where the city is now situated. The land on the east side was low and swampy and full of springs ; that on the west side was elevated and airy ; and accordingly in this latter situ, ation (known ever since as the Town Plot) roads were laid out, the one which ran north and south being sixteen rods wide. The " home lots," measuring eight acres each, were ranged along this road or street, sixteen on each side. This was ac- complished in the autumn of 1674, and apparently nothing more than this. So far as we can see, the settlers would have returned in the course of the following year to resume their work and erect dwellings on the Town Plot ; but in June, 1675, the war with King Philip began ; and not only was all thought of establishing new settlements abandoned, but some of those already commenced were broken up. There was no assured peace until the latter part of 1676, and meanwhile the Water- bury proprietors (unless indeed some of them went forth to the war) remained in their Farmington homes. In the spring of 1677, tranquillity being restored throughout the colony, they began again to make plans for a new settlement ; but in the meantime they had learned to think of the dangers which sur-

THE FIVE NATIONS. IxXV

rounded them. For several reasons they had become dissatis- fied with the site they had chosen on the west side ; but the chief reason, the imperative argument against it, was the in- creased exposure it involved to attacks of hostile savages. At the best, Farmington was twenty miles away — the only place they could look to for succor or refuge in case of attack — and they did not deem it best to place between them and their friends, in addition to this broad expanse of wilderness, a fickle and sometimes destructive river. A meeting of proprietors was accordingly called in Farmington, and a committee ap- pointed " to view and consider whether it will not be more for the benefit of the proprietors in general to set the town on the east side of the river, contenting themselves with less home lots." On the east side of the river it was set, and the com- mittee of the General Court, in the October following, ordered that the inhabitants of the new plantation "should settle near together, for the benefit of Christian duties and defense against enemies." It thus appears that the present position of the city of Waterbury, the industrial and vital center of the Naugatuck valley, is itself a memorial of the Red man ; a reminder of the perils of war and the cruelty of the Indian as an enemy.

It was natural that the colonists, knowing the character of the Indian and his modes of warfare, should live in a state of chronic anxiety. But from this time forward the people of Con- necticut had no trouble with the Connecticut Indians. The league with King Philip was an episode in the history of these tribes ; their normal relation to the white men was one of friendship, and in fact of dependence. They were the more anxious to be on terms of friendship with the settlers, espe- cially in the western part of the Colony, because they could then look to them as their allies and defenders when exposed to at- tacks from their relentless foes, the Mohawks. As already pointed out, the Indians of Connecticut, the Pequots included, belonged to the great Algonkin family of the Red race. The Mohawks belonged to an entirely different stock : they were one of the " nations " of the great confederacy which occupied the territory now comprising the state of New York west of the Hudson, and part of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and repre- sented the Iroquois family of the Red men. So totally distinct

Ixxvi INDIAN HISTORY.

were these two families or stocks, that between the one group of languages and the other — the Algonkin languages and the Iroquois — no verbal resemblances can be traced. There are of course resemblances in grammatical structure, for all the Indian languages seem to be formed upon the one plan of thought, but the vocabularies are totally different. As indicated by the stage of development they had reached, the Iroquois were the foremost people in aboriginal America north of Mexico, and the Mohawks were the foremost of the Iroquois. At the time of the Discovery they were waging wars of conquest, if not of ex- termination, upon their neighbors on every side, and the tribes of Connecticut, west of Connecticut river, were tributary to them ; paying an annual tax, and groaning under the capricious cruelties which they inflicted. The coming of the white man to Connecticut shores was therefore a welcome relief to these feeble tribes, and it was of course desirable in their eyes to have the white man for a friend.

The Connecticut colonists had nothing*to fear from the Con- necticut tribes on the one hand, nor from the Mohawks on the other, because the confederacy of the Five Nations were on terms of friendship with the English, and after 1684 had a treaty with them. But trouble came frequently from another quarter. The Indians of Canada — hostile alike to the Mohawks and the New England tribes — were the constant allies of the French, and were constantly employed by the French in war. When- ever, therefore, war raged between France and England, the French let loose their Indian allies upon the New England set- tlements, and terror reigned among the colonists. Now the condition of these settlements may easily be imagined when we are reminded that from 1689, the year when William and Mary ascended the throne of England, to 17 13, when peace was proclaimed at Utrecht, with the exception of three or four years, England and France were continually at war, and the colonies continually involved in hostilities. The French aimed to expel the English from the northern and middle provinces, if not from the continent ; and the English, on their part, made repeated attempts to dislodge the French from Canada ; a re- sult which they effected at a later period. As the French availed themselves ot the services of their Indian allies, they kept the

NEW FORTIFICATIONS. Ixxvii

frontiers in a state of continual alarm. The savages often pen- etrated into the heart of the colonies, spreading terror and des- olation in every quarter. They destroyed crops, drove off cat- tle, burned dwellings, and murdered the inhabitants or carried them away into captivity.

During this later war-period the town of Derby, in the lower part of the valley, could hardly be considered a frontier settle- ment ; but Waterbury was decidedly so, at least until the set- tling of Litchfield, in 1720, and shared in all the alarms, dan- gers, disasters and burdens of the times. Through a large part of the period now under consideration, Waterbury in common with the other frontier towns (Simsbury, Woodbury and Dan- bury), was required to keep two men employed as scouts. The business of these men was to keep a good lookout, to discover the designs of the enemy, and to give intelligence should they make their appearance. The citizens performed this duty in rotation, taking their stand on elevated places overlooking the village and meadows where men were at work. In 1690 the danger of invasion and attack was considered so imminent that the General Court established a military watch throughout the Colony, upon which " all male persons whatsoever (except ne- groes and Indians), upwards of sixteen years of age," were com- pelled to do duty. Widows and aged or disabled persons, whose estates were valued at fifty pounds, were to serve by proxy, and those absent at sea or elsewhere were to provide substitutes. At the same time (April 1690) it was ordered "that the fortifica- tions in each town appointed to be made be forthwith finished according to the appointment of the authority and commission officers and selectmen in each town." Several years afterward, in March, 1704, another order was issued in regard to fortifica- tions : " The inhabitants of every town in this colony shall be called together with as convenient speed as may be, to consider what houses shall be fortified." But already the town of Water- bury had moved in this direction ; for, on the 9th of April, 1700, they had voted to fortify the house of Ensign Timothy Stanley, "and if it should prove troublesome times, and the town see they have need, two more, should they be able." It was voted also to " go about it forthwith — all men and boys and teams that arc able to work, and to begin to-morrow." Four years

IxXViii INDIAN HISTORY.

later — not long after the order of the General Court concern- ing fortifications was issued — they voted to build another fort, and selected for this purpose the house of their pastor, the Rev. John Southmayd. In the meantime they had provided other means of defense. On the 15th of April, 1703, the town in- structed the selectmen " to provide a town stock of ammunition according to law," — a law which required that each town should keep "a barrel of good powder, two hundred weight of bullets, and three hundred flints, for every sixty listed soldiers, and after that proportion." The stock was duly purchased, and Timothy Stanley, who was by this time Lieutenant and com- mander of the train band, was made keeper of ammunition for the town. The order of the General Court in respect to forti- fications was followed up, at the regular session in May, by other enactments affecting the town of Waterbury. Eight towns, one of which was Waterbury, were designated as " fron- tier towns," and it was ordered that these should not be broken up or voluntarily deserted without permission from the General Court. It was also ordered as follows :

" That ten men shall be put in garrison in each of these towns, Dan- bury, Woodbury, Waterbury and Simsbury ; and that the rest of the men to be raised out of the counties of New Haven and Fairfield, with such Indians as can be procured, .... shall have their chief head-quarters at Westfield : . . . . and said company of English and Indians shall, from time to time, at the discretion of their com- mander, range the woods to endeavor the discovery of an approaching enemy, and in especial manner from Westfield to Ousatunnuck " [that is, Stockbridge].

As already stated, the whole period now under review was a time of anxiety and alarms. But early in 1707, the Colony was aroused to special diligence in preparations for defense, by the intelligence " that the French and enemy Indians were prepar- ing to make a descent upon the frontier towns of New Eng- land." There was also reason to suppose that the Pootatuck and Owiantonuck Indians (the Woodbury and New Milford tribes) had been invited to join the enemy, and that measures must be taken to secure their fidelity and to preserve the small frontier towns. The Council of War was immediately convened at Hartford, and it was ordered, first, that the suspected tribes

\VAR ALARMS CONTINUE. Ixxix

should be removed with all convenient speed to Fairfield or Stratford, or if the sickness prevailing among them should pre- vent this, then two of their chiefs should be conveyed to Fair- field to be held as hostages. It was also "resolved, for the preservation of the frontier towns of Simsbury, Waterbury, Woodbury and Danbury, that order be sent to the inhabitants of these towns to provide with all possible speed a sufficient number of well fortified houses, for the safety of themselves and families in their respective towns." It was further "re- solved, that the inhabitants of Waterbury fortify their houses sufficiently for their safety;" and in view of the great losses which the town had recently sustained through extraordinary floods, it was agreed to recommend to the General Assembly an abatement of the Colony taxes of the town. At the same session it was resolved still further, " that the ^habitants of Woodbury, Waterbury and Danbury do every one of them maintain a good scout, out every day, from their respective towns, of two faithful and trusty men to observe the motions of the enemy," These resolutions were passed in council, in February, 1707. In the same month the town of Waterbury responded, by voting "to build the fort that is at Lieutenant Stanley's strong'' and "build a new fort at the east end of the town." These defenses were left for a time incomplete ; but in June, aroused perhaps by some new alarm, it was voted, " considering our troubles and fear of an enemy, to lay aside cutting bushes " (that is, clearing away underbrush on the com- mons) "and this day forthwith to go about finishing and re- pairing the forts, and to finish them by Wednesday next, at night." That they were duly finished and the defenses of the settlement made satisfactory to the General Assembly, appears from the fact that at the October session the Assembly " al- lowed to the town of Waterbury fifteen pounds out of the coun- try rate," in view of the expense they had incurred in fortifying. A year afterwards, in an act "for the encouragement of mili- tary skill and good discipline," it was ordered by the Assembly that the committee of war in Hartford county should establish garrisons in certain towns, one of which was Waterbury, at the charge of the Colony or of the respective towns as the commit- tee should order. Two garrisoned forts were established at Wa-

IXXX INDIAN HISTORY.

terbury at the expense of the Colony, and a third at the expense of the town. One of these forts was at the west end of the town, around Mr. Southmayd's house ; one at Lieutenant Stanley's, and the third at the house of John Hopkins, the grandfather of the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D. D., the famous theologian. This house, in which Dr. Hopkins was born in 1 72 1, stood a short distance east of the center of the city, on the corner of East Main and Brook streets. The forts, it will be seen, were situated so as to accommodate the scattered popu- lation.

All these defenses were prepared with reference to attacks coming from the hostile savages of the north, the allies of the French. The Connecticut Indians were habitually employed by the colonial government as reliable soldiers. An act was passed by the General Court in May, 1704, in the following terms :

" It is ordered by this Court that as many of our friend Indians as are fit for war, and can be prevailed with and furnished with all things suitable, shall go with our forces against the common enemy ; and Major Ebenezer Johnson [who has already been noticed as the owner of Indian slaves] is hereby empowered and ordered to employ suitable persons to acquaint the Indians in the counties of New Haven and Fairfield of this conclusion concerning them, and to furnish such of said Indians as shall offer themselves for the service as aforesaid, with arms and ammunition and what else may be needful to fit them out for war, and cause them forthwith to repair to Derby, to march with our Eng- lish forces under the command of the chief officer for the said service.

And this court allows the [same] wages to such Indian

volunteers as those have that have gone to the eastward

And for the encouragement of our forces gone or going against the enemy, this court will allow out of the public treasury the sum of five pounds for every man's scalp of the enemy killed in this Colony, to be paid to the person that doth that service, over and above his or their wages and the plunder taken by them."

This last mentioned provision shows that the General Court not only recognized the Indian taste of scalping, but was quite willing to encourage it. And when, in 1710, an Indian scout was established, the same encouragement was held out. The scouting company were promised, for each Indian scalp of the

SNOW-SHOES. Ixxxi

enemy brought to the committee of war, the sum of ten pounds to be divided equally amongst them. In 1724, the award was fifty pounds for every scalp. Another order, passed at the October session of the General Court in 1704, shows that the colonial authorities were familiar with the difficulties of Indian warfare and considered it necessary that the settlers should adopt the Indian's method, — not, indeed as regards scalping, but to the extent of wearing moccasins and snow-shoes. It was ordered :

" That every town and plantation in this Colony shall be provided with a number of snow-shoes and Indian shoes, no less than one pair of snow-shoes with two pair of Indian shoes for every thousand pounds in the list of the estate of such town, which snow-shoes and Indian shoes shall be provided at or before the tenth day of December next, by the selectmen in every town, at the charge of the Colony, and shall be kept by them in good repair and fit for service wlien there may he occasion to make use of them."

During the October session of 1708, it was enacted that there should be "allowed and paid out of the public treasury of this Colony the sum of fifty pounds, in pay for the bringing up and maintaining of dogs in the northern frontier towns in this Col- ony, to hunt after the Indian enemy." It was also ordered, that no person whatsoever should furnish lead, or sell, even to friendly Indians, any gun for any time longer or shorter; and that those who had lent guns to friendly Indians, should re- cover them as soon as possible.

From all this it is evident that the towns and the general government understood the situation of affairs and were deter- mined to be thoroughly prepared for emergencies. If the de- fense of the frontiers had been neglected, we know not what disasters might not have overwhelmed the settlements. As it was, the one frontier town of the Naugatuck valley suffered but little. The only Indian raids upon Waterbury were in 17 10. A party' of savages came down through Simsbury into what is now the southern part of Thomaston, and killed a man named Holt ; probably a hunter from another town. The place where the deed was committed is named Mount Holt, a spur of Mount Toby. Another party from Canada, having made their way into the upper part of the town, ascended a hill on the west side

K

Ixxxii INDIAN HISTORY.

of the Naugatuck, opposite Mount Taylor, to reconnoitre. To the south, in Hancock's meadow, they saw Jonathan Scott, one of the Waterbury settlers, and his two sons, one of them fourteen years of age, the other eleven. Scott was seated under a large oak tree eating his dinner ; the boys were a little distance from him. The Indians approached stealthily, taking such a course that the tree hid them from view ; reached him without being discovered, and made him prisoner. The boys took to their heels and would have escaped, but their father was given to understand that it would cost him his life if he refused to recall them, so he reluctantly brought them back. To prevent him from offering resistance, they cut off his right thumb. The three were taken to Canada, where they remained until after the proclamation of peace in 171 3. Scott and his eldest son, Jona- than, then returned to Waterbury ; but the younger son, John, having become accustomed to savage life, preferred to remain among the Indians and never came home.

It is an interesting fact that the wife of Jonathan-Scott, whose name was Hannah Hawks, was the daughter of John Hawks of Deerfield, and that her mother was killed in the Indian attack upon that town, on the 29th of February, 1704. Her only sis- ter was taken prisoner and was put to death on her way to Can- ada. Her only brother, his wife and his three children were also killed. Mrs. Scott was the sole surviving child, and John Hawks spent his last days with her in Waterbury. After his return from captivity, Scott continued to reside in Waterbury until about 1720, when he removed to Wooster Swamp in the northern part of Watertown, near Scott's mountain. There he built a saw-mill and lived with his sons. There is a tradition that he died by violence, at the hands of the Indians, while on his way to the north ; but it seems to have no foundation in fact. The other tradition is more probable — that he was buried on Scott's mountain, where his supposed grave is stil^ pointed out.^

The capture of Scott and his sons, very naturally produced great excitement in Waterbury. The settlement was very weak, for in 1713 it numbered only thirty families and not more than

'Bronson's Hist. Waterbury, pp, 105, 106, 1S5.

CAPT. JACOB GRISWOLD. Ixxxiii

two hundred souls ; and the greatness of the impending danger could not be known, neither could disaster be completely guarded against by the utmost vigilance. In July, following the capture of Scott, the town appointed a committee, consist- ing of the Rev. John Southmayd and three others, " to draw up in writing the circumstances of the town in this time of war," and to present the memorial to the General Court in New Ha- ven, in August. The General Court in response made special provision for the protection of the town, by appointing " a com- mittee of war, with full power upon the application of the inhab- itants of the said town of Waterbury, and in case of danger on the approach of the enemy, to raise and send men thither from the county of New Haven for their relief, by scouting or lying in garrison there, as occasion may require."

There was no further trouble, however, and the proclamation of peace in 1713 brought relief from apprehension. But the upper part of the valley was exposed to similar dangers after- ward. Before war broke out again a settlement had been ef- fected at Litchfield, and when Indian raids from the north were renewed Litchfield was the frontier town and exposed to the same perils which Derby and Waterbury had experienced be- fore. Between 1720 and 1730, five houses in different parts of the town were surrounded with fortifications, that is, with pal- isades similar to those with which we have already become fa- miliar in Waterbury. Soldiers were stationed in the town to guard the inhabitants while in the fields and also while at pub- lic worship on the Sabbath. Notwithstanding these precau- tions, attacks were made by northern savages, and settlers were taken captive. In May, 1721, Captain Jacob Griswold, while at work alone in a field about a mile to the west of the present Court House, was suddenly seized by two Indians who had rushed upon him from the woods. They pinioned his arms and carried him off. Traveling in a northerly direction, they reached by night a spot within the limits of what is now Canaan. They kindled a fire and having bound Captain Griswold, hand and foot, lay down to sleep. In the night Griswold succeeded in disengaging his hands and feet, and although his arms were still pinioned, he seized their guns and escaped. After travel- ing a short distance through the dark woods, he sat down and

Ixxxiv INDIAN HISTORY.

waited for the dawn, when he resumed his journey, still carry- ing the two guns. When the savages in the morning found their captive was gone, they pursued him and soon overtook him. During the greater part of the day they kept in sight of him, but when they came too near he pointed one of the guns at them and thus kept them at bay. In this manner he traveled until near sunset, when he reached a high place in an open field about a mile north-west of where the Court House now stands. He then discharged one of the guns, which immediately sum- moned his townsmen to his assistance. The Indians fled and Griswold was restored in safety to his family.

After this occurrence, the settlers were more cautious ; but their watchfulness did not last long, for in the following August a more serious misfortune came upon them. The victim this time was a Mr. Joseph Harris. He was at work alone in the woods, not far from the spot where Griswold was captured, when he was attacked by a party of Indians. Attempting to escape, the Indians pursued him; and when they found that he was likely to outstrip them they shot him dead and scalped him. As Harris did not return home at the usual time, the inhabitants became alarmed about him. They searched for him at night as long as they could see, and again in the morning, when his body was found near the north end of the plain, where the road turns toward Milton. From that time forward the plain was called Harris's plain. He was buried in the west burying-ground, near the church. His grave remained unmarked for more than a century ; but in 1830 a suitable monument was erected over his dust, which bears the following inscription, in which it will be observed there is no reference to his attempt to escape :

" In memory of Joseph Harris, who was murdered by the Indians in the year 172 1. While ploughing in the field, about three-fourths of a mile north-west of the grave-yard, he was shot by the Indians con- cealed in ambush. He was found dead, sitting on the ground, his head and body reclining against the trunk of a tree. To record the first death among tlie original settlers, and to perpetuate the memary of a worthy but unfortunate citizen, this monument is erected, 1S30, by the voluntary benefactions of individual subscribers."

The war between the French and English was not ended un- til some time after this, and the attacks of the northern Indians

FEAR OF THE INDIANS. IXXXV

upon the frontier settlements were still continued. In Au- gust, 1723, tidings were brought to the Governor and Council, of an attack upon Rutland and the massacre of several persons by the hostile Indians. They were also advised that about three hundred French Indians were come over Lake Cham- plain toward Connecticut, probably with evil designs. It was therefore " resolved, that Simsbury and Litchfield are frontier towns of this Colony, westward of Connecticut river, which are most exposed to danger by these parties of Indians ; " and in view of the impending dangers, it was decided that the com- missioned officers of these towns should immediately call to- gether the householders in the respective towns, agree upon suitable places for garrisons and encourage the inhabitants to establish such fortifications with speed ; also, that the sachems of the several bodies of Indians in the Colony should " forthwith call in all their Indians that were out a hunting in the woods, and that they do not presume to go out again in the woods to hunt north of the road that goes from Farmington through Waterbury and Woodbury to New Milford," without leave from the Council ; also, that tw^o scouting parties, consisting each of three Englishmen and six Indians, should range the woods above Simsbury, westward to Stockbridge, to be so ordered that they should meet each other about midway between the two places ; and finally, that a military watch should be kept in the towns of Simsbury, Waterbury, Woodbury, Litchfield and New Milford. In May following, the rule in relation to Indians hunt- ing was enacted as a law by the General Court; and in July, in view of the danger of giving false alarms, the same rule was ex- tended by the Council to English and Indians alike. The spring and summer of 1724 was a period of special alarm and excitement. In that year, the Assembly gave Waterbury authority to em- ploy six men "to guard the men in their outfields, at the discre- tion of the commission officers of said town." The authority thus given was exercised about a month. In Litchfield a small party of Indians was discovered lurking about the town on the night of the 19th of May. Word was immediately sent to the Council at Hartford, and it was ordered that a company of thirty-two men be immediately raised in Hartford, Wethersfield and Farmington and marched to the threatened town without

IxXXVi INDIAN HISTORY,

delay, to serve as a scouting party. On the 2ist of June, it was ordered that ten men be impressed, armed and equipped and sent to Litchfield for the defense of that town against the enemy. As some of the proprietors of home-lots in Litchfield tried to escape from serving on the military watch, Capt. John Marsh was instructed to see that the law was duly executed upon all such persons. A line of scouts was established, ex- tending from Litchfield to Turkey Hills, curving around the most northerly and westerly settlements in Simsbury. Capt. Richard Case, of the latter town, was directed to employ ten men on his scouting party, to rendezvous at Litchfield. These men continued in the service until October. So serious were the apprehensions of attack and so threatening the danger, that some of the more timid of the Litchfield settlers deserted their new homes and sought refuge elsewhere. As the inhabitants who remained felt themselves greatly crippled by these deser- tions, they petitioned the Assembly for aid and it was ordered (October ii, 1724) that whoever had left the town because of difficulties which had arisen there on account of the enemy, and should fail within a month of the close of that session of the Assembly to return to the town to abide there, or else to send some man in his stead to perform military duties, should forfeit all his right and estate in the lands of the town. At the same session of the Assembly, it was ordered that the gar- rison soldiers at Litchfield be withdrawn and disbanded. But in the following April, tidings were brought "from Philip Schuyler of Albany, that the enemies were all come over the lake," and thereupon the soldiers in the several frontier towns, including Litchfield and Watcrbury, were ordered to " be in perpetual readiness to defend themselves and offend the en- emy;" and a constables' watch was set up in the towns. A company of twenty-one men was also raised and sent to Litch- field, " to be improved in scouting, watching and warding for the safety of said town." In May, 1725, the Assembly, "taking into consideration the difificulties of the town of Litchfield in this time of trouble with the Indians," ordered that non-resi- dent proprietors should pay and forfeit toward defraying the cost of defending the town the sum of thirty pounds each per annum, and pro rata for any time they should be absent with-

THE FRENCH WAR. IxXXVli

out permission ; " provided, however, that the right of Joseph Harris is saved from any forfeiture by force of this act."

The stringency of these enactments shows that the General Court not only appreciated the great importance of defending the frontier rather than abandoning it, but anticipated a pro- longed and severe conflict. There is little trace, however, of further troubles until many years afterward. A quarter of a century passed away ere another French and Indian war broke out, and that was the last of the series. In 1752 the old allied enemies of the Colony were making encroachments on the northern and western frontiers ; those frontiers not having yet advanced beyond the present bounds of the country. In a historical sketch of the churches and ministers of that region, we read :

" The times, circumstances and duties of these pastors were in some respects peculiar. Their location was in the frontier settlements, and open to the incursions of savages. Instead of directing their attention to Christianizing the heathen, they had, in common with others, to ex- ert all their influence to prevent their coming under the dominion of a persecuting Roman Catholic government. In the former part of this period, the great question was, Shall we continue to enjoy the blessings of civil and religious liberty, or fall under the domination of a colossal anti-Christian power?"

In 1756 war was formally declared by England. The capture of Fort William Henry, in 1757, by the French and Indians under Montcalm, and the Indian atrocities connected there- with, aroused the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and a force was raised which was meant to arrest the further progress of the French, In 1759 the invasion of Canada was actually undertaken, and on the i8th of September, as every- body knows, Quebec was captured, the dominion of the French on the St. Lawrence was broken, and the New England colo- nies were delivered from further incursions of the hostile tribes of the north.

In this war the towns of the Naugatuck valley were well rep- resented. Waterbury sent a company of thirty-five men, under the command of Captain Eldad Lewis, and besides these thirty- five, eighteen or twenty others are mentioned in the history of the town as having been engaged at one time or another in the

Ixxxviii INDIAN HISTORY.

war, including the Rev. Mark Leavenworth, who went as chap- lain. Another Waterbury man, Israel Calkins, played a part not altogether unimportant in shaping the course of events. When Fort William Henry, situated at the head of Lake George, was besieged, the English general, Webb, with an army of four thousand men, was at Fort Edward, fourteen miles away. In- stead of marching to the relief of the imperiled fort, General Webb wrote a letter to Colonel Monroe advising him to capitu- late. The messenger was interrupted by the Indian allies of Montcalm. But the French commander, thinking that the de- livery of the letter to Colonel Monroe would promote his own interests, forwarded it to its destination, and the surrender of the fort quickly followed. Now the messenger who carried the letter of General W^ebb was Israel Calkins of W^aterbury. After the surrender of the fort he remained in the hands of his Indian captors and was taken by them to Canada. Here he was " redeemed by a French gentleman," sent to France as a prisoner of war, and finally sent in a cartel-ship to England to be exchanged. He landed at Boston on the 6th of October, 1758, and immediately petitioned the Legislature of Connecti- cut "for an allowance of wages during his captivity," and also a gratuity, in consideration of the severe calamities he had suf- fered, which, he affirmed, "were more than words can express or imagination paint." He speaks of his property as having been dissipated during his absence, and of his family as ex- tremely destitute, and "implores the pity and compassion of the honorable Assembly." His prayer was heard and thirty pounds were granted him.

There is one more story belonging to the early history of Litchfield, which it is proper to record here. It illustrates, like other incidents which have been mentioned, the Indian mode of warfare, but at the same time brings to view some of the better traits of the Indian nature. It is taken, in a some- what abridged form, from the " Travels in New England and New York," of President Dwight of Yale College, who vouches' for its authenticity.

Not many years after the settlement of Litchfield, a stranger Indian came one day to a tavern in the town, in the dusk of even- ing, and asked the hostess for some drink and a supper. He

THE INDIAN AS A FRIEND. Ixxxix

told her he could pay for neither, as he had had no success in hunting, but promised payment at some future time. The hostess refused him, called him a lazy, good-for-nothing fellow, and told him she did not work hard to throw away her earnings upon such creatures as he. A white man who sat by, saw in the Indian's face that he was suffering severely from want and weariness, and directed the woman of the house to feed him at his expense.

When the Indian had finished his supper, he turned to his benefactor, thanked him, and assured him he would remember his kindness and if possible repay him for it. For the present he could only reward him with a story. "I suppose," said the Indian, " you read the Bible ? " The man assented. " Well," said he, "the Bible say, God made the world, and then he took him and looked on him, and say, ' It's all very good.' He made light, and took him and looked on him, and say, ' It's all very good.' Then he made dry land and water, and sun and moon, and grass and trees, and took him and looked on him, and say, ' It's all very good.' Then he made beasts and birds and fishes, and took him and looked on him, and say, 'It's all very good.' Then he made man, and took him and looked on him and say, 'It's all very good.' Then he made woman, and took him and looked on him ; and he no dare say one such word."

Having told his story, the Indian withdrew, with a sly glance at the landlady.

Some years after, the man who had befriended him, having occasion to go some distance into the wilderness between Litch- field and Albany, was taken prisoner by an Indian scout and hurried away to Canada. When he arrived at the principal seat of the tribe, on the southern bank of the St. Lawrence, it was proposed that he should be put to death ; but an old In- dian woman demanded that he should be given to her, that she might adopt him in place of a son whom she had lost in the war. He was given to her, and spent the succeeding winter in her family. The next summer, while at work alone in the for- est, an unknown Indian came to him and asked him to meet him at a place which he pointed out, on a given day. The cap- tive agreed to the proposal ; but before the day arrived, his ap- prehensions of intended mischief had increased to such a degree

XC INDIAN HISTORY.

that he determined not to keep the engagement. Soon after, the Indian found him at his work again, reproved him for break- ing his promise, and made another appointment with him for another day and hour. This time, the white man was true to his word. When he reached the spot, he found the Indian provided with two muskets, two knapsacks and ammunition for both. The Indian ordered him to follow him, and set off to- ward the south. Within a short time the white man's fears subsided, although his companion preserved a profound silence concerning the object of their expedition. In the day-time they shot such game as came in their way, and at night kin- dled a fire and slept by it. After a tedious journey of many days through the wilderness, they came one morning to an em- inence whence they beheld a cleared and partially cultivated country and a number of houses. The man knew his home; it was Litchfield ! His guide reminded him that some years before he had relieved the wants of a famished Indian at a tav- ern in that town, and said, " I that Indian ! now I pay you ! go home." Without another word he bade him farewell, and the white man hastened joyfully to his own house.

The Indian looks out no more from any hill-top upon the cultivated fields of Litchfield, or any part of the valley which was once his own hunting ground. He is gone, and the suc- ceeding race is glad to be well rid of him. The only remains, except the title deeds and traditions to which reference has been made, are the few names of places which echo on the white man's lips the strange tones of their language, and the stone implements which are turned up by the plough in our fields. He is gone. But it is pleasant to think of him, the untutored child of the woods, and to reflect that he had much that was good in him, and not a little that is worthy of remem- brance. It may be hoped that what is here given will serve to interest us in his character and render us wiser and kinder in our estimate of those who bear the same name, who in the far West are still carrying on the same hopeless fight with the re- lentless forces of the Anglo-Saxon civilization.

INDIAN NAMES.

XCl

INDIAN NAMES.

The following Indian names are attached to deeds recorded in Derby, and three or four deeds in Stratford. Some of the different spellings are given : —

Ackcutrout.

Aennhe.

Agonahog.

Ahennosse, sagamore.

Ahuntaway (Huntawa), sachem.

Amonequon.

Ansantaway (Ansantawa), sachem.

Arkumi.

Atownhood.

Atrechanasett, Chetrenaset.

Atterosse, sagamore.

Caapatonce.

Charles.

Chawbrook (Chebrook).

Cherakmath.

Chesousamoke, sagamore.

Chenamash.

Chushamack, Cheshushumock, Cosho- shemack, Chushawmack, and prob- ably Momanchewaug alias Cush (or Chuse) at Pootatuck, sachem.

Chetemhehu.

Chickins.

Chips.

Cheroromogg.

Cheshconeeg.

Chuse, sachem.

Cockapatana (Cockapatanay, Cockapa- tanah), sachem.

Cockapatouch.

Coskoske.

Chubbs (Chupps).

Creahore, brother of Puckwhompe, Cre- hero, Kehore (Kehow).

Curens (Curex),

Durgen.

Hannah Tous.

How.xon (Heu.xon).

Husks.

Indian Shot.

Jacob.

James.

Johns.

John Banks.

John Cuckson, in 1731 (and John Cock- shure, in 1742. In a Waterbury deed, Cocoesen).

John Howde, alias Towsowan, (the suc- cessor to Cockapatana).

Ke Kesumun.

Lyonson.

Machet Numledge, Machetumhege. (Ma- chet means "bad.")

Mamook.

Manchero.

Manomp.

Mashekes. (Mashok-ees.)

Matach (Mataret).

Will Mashok.

Mawquash.

Melook Took (Tock).

Meskilling (Skilling).

Mohemat.

Munsock.

Musquatt.

Nannatouse, son of Creahore.

Nanavvaug (Nanawauk) sagamore.

Nanatoush (Nanoques).

Nasquero.

Nebawkumme.

Neighbor Putt.

Nesinpas.

Okenuck (Ochenung, Okenug, Okenac, Akenants, Ackenack), sachem.

Oranquato.

Oshoron.

Pagahah.

Pagasett James (Pagasite James).

Papiscounos.

Papuree.

Pawanet (Paquonet)

Peowse.

Piunquesh.

Pocono.

Ponomskut.

Poquanott.

Pomuntock.

Puckwhomp.

XCll

INDIAN HISTORY,

Punwan.

Pussecokes.

Quoconoco.

Raretoon.

Rashkanoot (Rashkanute).

Rawneton.

Ringo.

Robbin.

Rowangasuck.

Rourkowhough.

Sagnett.

Sasaoso (Sasaouson, Sassoughsough).

Sashwake James (Susqua James).

Sauquett.

Sasepaquan (Sassapagrem, alias Piun-

quesh). Sowsonnamon. Secochanneege. Shoot Horn. Shoran. Siacus. Sisovvecum. Squaw Sarah. Stastockham. Succuscoge. Suckcoe (Suckskow). Sui)kaquene.

Tackamore, or Sackamore (Tatiymore). Tarshun (Tazchun). Tijackomo (Tisachomo). Thomassoot (Thomasseet). Towheag (Powheak). Tone.

Toto.

Jack Toto.

John Toto.

Will Toto.

Tom (son of Cockapatana).

Tom's Squaw.

Totoquan.

Towtanemo (Towtanamow, Towtanemoe,

Tountonimo), sachem. Towsowwam, squaw. Untaguenock. Younkitihue. Yyou Pon (Yyouson). Wampegon, sachem. Wankascum. Warrashgonoot. Waskawakes, alias Tom. (Waskawases,

possibly the same as Wasawas). Wasawas. Watakis (Wattaki). Watagunock (Wataquenock). Watiens. Waukacun. Wauwumpecum. Weepooks. Wequacuk. Weroces. Wesonco. Wetupaco. Will Doctor. Will Mashock, Winham. Wookpenos.

The following names are found in deeds recorded in Water- bury, Litchfield and Farmington, relating to early sales of land in the upper Naugatuck valley. Some of them are included in the foregoing list, but are reproduced here because attached to a different series of deeds : —

Alwaush, Awowas, Wawowas, Wowo-

wis. Arumpiske, described as " Curan's

squaw." Atumtacko, Atumtockquo (that is, Atum-

patucko. He was the son of Pa-

tucko). Aupkt, Abuck. Caranchaquo.

Chere.

Chusquanoag.

Conquapatana (known as Konkapot). Cocapadous (that is, Konkapot-oos). Cocoeson.

Corkscrew (elsewhere Coksure, Cotsure). Curan.

Hachatowsock (elsewhere Hatchet Tou- sey .')

NAMES OF PLACES.

XClll

James (Pagasset James).

John a-Compound.

Judas.

Kehow, Kehore (elsewhere Creahore ?)

Kekasahum.

Mansumpansh.

Mantow, Momantow.

Maquash.

Mattaneage.

Mercy, described as " Sepus's squaw."

Momantow's squaw.

Nenapush squaw.

Nesaheagun (perpetuated in the name of an Odd Fellows' Lodge as " No- sahogan " : the old style e was mis- taken for an o).

Norkgnotonckquy.

Notamunk, described as " Curan's sis- ter."

Patucko, Patuckquo, Puttcko.

Patucko's squaw.

Petasus, described as "a [female] grand- child," probably of Awowas {^^ her mark").

Pethuzo.

Poni.

Quatowquechuck, described as " Tap- how's son."

Querrimus, Queramousk.

Quiump (elsewhere Aquiomp?).

Sebocket (Aupkt, Abuck?).

Sepunkum (elsewhere Wussebucome).

Spinning Squaw.

Suckquunockqueen (else where Wussockan- ockqueen; " Suckquunock's squaw" ?).

Taphow.

Tataracum.

Tonhocks.

Toweecume.

Toxcronuck.

Uncowate.

Warun-Compound, described as " Nesa- heag's son."

Wechamunck, described as " Cocoe- sen's sister."

Wenuntacum.

Weroamaug (elsewhere Waramaug).

Werumcaske, described as "Cocoesen's sister."

Wognacug.

Wonposet.

INDIAN NAMES OF PLACES.

The following place-names, mostly in the Naiigatuck valley, are either of Indian origin or embody some reminiscence of the period of Indian occupancy. They are arranged geograph- ically, beginning at the lower end of the valley.

POOTATUCK, POHDERTOKE, ETC.

An ancient name of the (lower) Ousatunnock River ; also of a tribe of Indians ; also of a village on the same river; called later the " Pootatuck Wigwams'''' : at the present time it is the name of a brook which flows through the town of Newtown.

Paugasuck, Pagasset, Pawgasett, etc.

The original name of Derby, applied by Governor Eaton and others to the Ousa- tunnock River, perhaps also to the Naugatuck River.

Squantuck, originally Wesquantook.

A small place on the Ousatunnock, at the mouth of Four-Mile brook, in the town of Seymour ; the name also of the school-district in which it is situated.

Hessekee Meadow.

A meadow at Great Hill, about three miles below the village of Seymour. Hesse- kee Meadow Brook separates Seymour from Derby.

XCIV INDIAN HISTORY.

PUNKUPS.

A small place on the Ousatunnock, at the mouth of Eight-Mile brook. Perhaps named after the Indian Puckwhoitip.

Naugatuck, Nawcatock, etc.

The original name of the spot where Seymour now stands; said to mean "one tree " — nequut tukh. At an early date it was applied to the River ("the river which Cometh from Nawcatock") by those in the lower part of the valley. The town to which the name is ftow attached was formed from Waterbury, Bethany and Oxford in 1844, and the "Naugatuck Railroad Company" was incorporated in 1845.

Chuse-town.

The name given to Seymour when it was the camping-ground of Joe Chuse (Joseph Mauwee/iti) and his band, and by which the place was known until it became Humphreysville.

Indian Field and Indian Hill.

Localities in the village of Seymour, a little north of the Falls. The Hill is on the south part of the Field.

RiMMON Falls and Rock Rimmon.

The Falls are at the centre of Seymour ; Rock Rimmon is the name of a bold and craggy hill on the east side of the Naugatuck, near Pines Bridge. The names are probably not of Indian origin.

Jack's Brook.

A tributary of Little River, in Oxford. It is supposed to have been so called after an Indian who bore the English name of Jack.

Skokorat, originally Scucurra.

A long hill or ridge to the east of the Naugatuck, about a mile back from the river, and lying parallel to it, and along Bladen's brook. Also called " Snake Hill" (the Indian for "snake " is askug).

Nyumphs.

A school district in the town of Beacon Falls, about two miles back from the Naugatuck. In a Stralford deed of 1659 the name Nayump is attached to a "small river " emptying into the Pootatuck, apparently some miles below Derby.

Hockanum.

A brook which flows southward and empties into Lebanon brook about a mile east of where the latter empiies into the Naugatuck, at Beacon Falls. (There is a Hockanum river that empties into the Cunneclicut at East Hartford.) The base of the name is Hocqican, meaning " hook-shaped."

Toby's Rocks.

A precipitous ledge on the west side of the Naugatuck, the northern extremity of which is now known as " High Rock." It extends about a mile southward from "High Rock Grove," at Sherman's brook. The name was derived from an Indian who was once the slave of Colonel Ebenezer Johnson, and to whom land was deeded by the town of Derby.

Lopus.

A plain in the north-west part of the town of Beacon Falls; also called Loper's plain ; probably not an lad. an name.

NAMES OF PLACES. XCV

TOWANTUCK, TOANTICK.

A pond on the borders of Oxford. The name occurs, along with nineteen others, designating small parcels of land in the southern part of Mattatuck (the original town of Waterbury) in a deed of 1685. The other names, now obsolete, are as follows :

Wecobemeas.

" The land upon the brook or small river that comes through the Straight north- ward of Lebanon [at Straitsville ?], and runs into Naugatuck river at south end of Mattatuck bounds, called by the English Beacon Hill brook."

Pacawackuck or Agawacomuck.

Watapeck.

Pacaquarock.

Megunhattacke.

Musquauke.

Mamusquake.

Squapmasutte.

Wachu (the "mountain," probably Beacon Hill).

These "nine parcels of land lie on the east side of the Naugatuck river, betwixt Beacon Hill brook and the hither end of Judd's meadow." (Deed of 16S5.)

Sqontk, the same as Squantuck.

This name, which has occurred before, is the name given in the deed to "the hither end of Judd's meadow." The ten names which follow, together with To- ■wantiick, designate " eleven parcels of land on the west side " of the Naugatuck.

suracasks.

Petowtucki.

Wequaruush.

Capage.

cocumpasuck.

Megenhuttack.

Panoetan (perhaps Panootan.)

Mattuckhott.

Cocacoks.

Gawuskesucks.

Achetaqopag or Maruscopag.

These are the two names given in the deed of 1685 to the point at which the eastern boundary line crosses the Naugatuck. In both the name Capage, given above, reappears — which stands perhaps for ktippo-oke, meaning "narrow place" — possibly the narrows in the river at Beacon Hill.

Mattatuck.

The old name of Waterbury, designating a territory of much greater extent than the present town. It has survived until recently as a name of East Litchfield. In the earliest records it is Mattetackoke {Malta-tiihk-ohke), meaning perhaps "place with- out trees."

XCVl INDIAN HISTORY.

KiSSEWAUG.

A name said to belong to Long Meadow Pond, which empties by Long Meadow Brook into the Naugatuck at Naugatuck village.

Malmanack.

A locality in Waterbury, lying south-west of the Town Plot, about two miles from the centre of the city. It is a high ridge or knoll, said to have been the site of an Indian camping-ground.

Manhan.

The spot known as " the Manhan," lies half a mile west of Centre Square, Water- bury, on both sides of West Main street. It was originally an island — whence the name. The name was taken some years ago by a manufacturing company.

Oronoke (the same as Orenaug, Waronoco, etc.)

A school district in the western part of Waterbury, extending from Westside Hill to Middlebury.

Saul's Swamp.

A swamp lying about half a mile from the Park Road, in the western part of Waterbury ; so named from Saul, one of the Indians who lingered in " the Park " until recent times.

QUASSAPAUG.

This beautiful lake can hardly be said to be in the Naugatuck valley, as it flows through Eight-Mile brook into the Ousatunnuck, but it is much visited by Water- bury people. Mr. Cothren, in his History of Woodbury, gives the meanings " Rocky Pond " and " Beautiful clear water." Possibly the name represents quunosii-paiig, that is " Pickerel Pond " (compare Mr. Cothren's reference to the fishing there).

Abrigador.

A high hill half a mile south-east of the centre of Waterbury, now a thickly set- tled district of the city. The name is sometimes supposed to be of Indian deriva- tion ; but it seems to be a Spanish word {abrigado) meaning " a place of shelter." The occurrence of a Spanish name in such a connection is remarkable, and invites investigation. There is a cleft rock on the south-west side of the hill which used to be called the Indian's House.

Tucker's Ri.ng and Ptuckering Road.

" Tucker's Ring " is a locality on the borders of Waterbury and Wolcott. It is so calltd from Po/ucko, one of the signers of the first Waterbury deed, who is said to have kindled a fire in the form of a large ring around a hill, in hunting deer, and to have perished within it. (It is at least a curious coincidence that in the Indian language /'//^/(•^/ means "round.")

Jack's Cave.

A large shelving rock, in the town of Wolcott, on the old Indian trail from Far- mington to Waterbury, where the Indians used to encamp at night.

WOODTICK.

A district on the borders of Wolcott, commonly supposed to have been so called from an insect of that name. (For the tradition, see Orcuti's History of Wolcott, note on p. 182.) As it is no special honor to a place to be named after an insect too insignificant to be mentioned in Web^tcr's " Unabridged," no harm will be done by suggesting that the name is of Indian origin. At all events, wudtuckqun, in Roger

NAMES OF PLACES. XCVll

Williams's " Key " means "a piece of wood," and in Eliot's Bible Wtittuk means a " branch " or " bough," hence " wood for burning."

-Spinning Squaw's Land.

A locality in the north part of Watcrbury, apparently well known in early times, and mentioned in one of the first deeds.

Wigwam Swamt.

Also in the north part of Waterbury, drained by a stream which empties into Hancock brook, and thus into the Naugatuck at Waterville.

The Wigwam.

The name given to a strip of land about a mile long, lying along the West Branch of the Naugatuck, which empties near Reynolds Bridge. It is said to have been the residence of an Indian in late years. The West Branch used to be called

VVigwaiii Brook.

Bantam.

The original name of Litchfield, which still survives in Bantam River, Lake, Falls, and Village. There has been much discussion as to whether the name is of Indian derivation or not. Its origin is shrouded in mystery.

Red Mountain.

One of the hills of Torrington ; the southern end of the oblong hill which lies between the east and west branches of the Naugatuck. The name is said to be de- rived from the fact that, previous to the settlement of the town, a white man shot an Indian on this mountain. (See Orcutt's History of Torrington, note on p. 169.)

Shawngum.

The name of a hill and a valley in Torrington, above Wolcottville. The hill rises from a plateau between the east branch of the Naugatuck and Still River. The valley to which the name is attached lies along these two streams. " It was originally called the Shaiinigitvi valley after an Indian, or an Indian tradition."

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HISTORY OF DERBY

CHAPTER I.

PAUGASUCK AND PAUGASSETT. 1 642- 1 674.

ERBY is situated at the junction of the Ousatonic and Naugatuck Rivers, nine miles by the old turn- pike road from New Haven and thirteen miles from Bridgeport on Long Island Sound. The land at this, place, lying between these rivers, is formed by high rocky bluffs on the Ousatonic, and, in the general, descends gradually towards the Naugatuck, and to the Point whereon is situated the village of Birmingham, and is one of the most beautiful locations for a city, in either the valley of the Ousatonic or Naugatuck Rivers. The land east of the Naugatuck rises eastward gradually, except at the lower portion where it is a liftle abrupt and culminates in what has been called, from the earliest settlement. Sentinel Hill,^ from which a most charming view of Long Island Sound and the surrounding country may be had. The portion of land between the rivers in the rear of Birmingham has been called the Neck from the first laying out of farms in that quarter. Northward of the Neck the territory of the original town is hilly, and Great Hill being the largest elevated portion was well named, and the most elevated part of it affords one of the finest views of the surrounding country and the Sound, that there is in the State.

The course of the Naugatuck through the town is south, that of the Ousatonic, on the western boundary, south-east, and these rivers, after their union, form a beautiful water view, from Birmingham, of nearly three miles in extent, closed in on each side by wooded hills.

1 The story that Sentinel Hill was so named from sentinels being stationed on it in the Revolution, to watch war vessels on the Sound cannot be true, since the name is recorded more than a hundred years before the Revolution.

2 HISTORY OF DERBY.

The territory of the town as granted by the General Court in 1675, and for which a satisfactory charter was not obtained until 1720, extended from Two Mile Brook on the south, twelve miles northward, and on the southern boundary, eastward from the Ousatonic two and a half miles, and on the northern bound- ary seven and a half miles, making an area of about fourteen thousand acres, in the original township. At present, however, the extent of territory does not equal half the original, by reason of parts having been taken to form other towns.

In 1642, four years only after the settlement of New Haven, some workmen were employed by Mr. John Wakeman of New Haven^ within this territory, now known as Derby, but then called Paugasuck by the Indians, and afterwards named Pau- gassett by the English, and because thus employed, they were excused from standing on night guard for the protection of New Haven. The object of Mr. Wakeman in this work appears to have been the biiilding of a trading house for the establish- ment of direct mercantile relations with the Indians in the valleys of these rivers, and perhaps to secure trade with the Mohawk Indians also.

This was the beginning of the Englishman's work on these hills and along these rivers, and the end to which this work lifts now come is to be the story of this book. The present number of inhabitants is about ten thousand ; in i860, it was 5,443, and in 1870, 8,027.

At this mercantile enterprise at Paugasuck, the suspicious