Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 3
historical address has recently assumed that the Windsor, Hartford,
and Wethersfield parties came down the Chicopee valley, and thence
drifted south. Dr. Holland also accepted tradition, and used it in
his history, as well as for his purposes of fiction, when he described
the approach of the Springfield pioneers from the " Old Bay Path."
But the " Bay Path " was not opened until 1673, nearly forty years
later.
The Indian situation ma}' enlighten us somewhat upon this sub-
ject. The English explorers of that early day found that the site
of Woodstock, Conn., was in a rich corn region, where the grain was
stored in Indian " barns," or cellars with baked-clay walls. From
Woodstock ran old trails in every direction. It was, in fact, an
Indian trail centre. Governor Winthrop was supplied with corn in
1()30 by Indians, wdio bore it in skins upon their backs to the Bay.
This early supply-train proceeded from Woodstock past the site of
Dudley, Grafton, Hopkinton, South Framingham, Cochituate pond
(Framingham), nortli bank of Charles river, and thence to Cam-
bridge and Boston. Nor did these Indians even then break through
an untrodden forest. They took the trail known later as the Old
Connecticut Path, the one followed by John Oldham on his way to
the site of Wethersfield in 16oo. Hooker and Stone took this route
in June, 1636. It had been developed from an Indian trail to an
English bridle-path for horses and cattle. No one ever accused
William Pynchon with any lack of business qualities. He was a
practical man of affairs. It is absurd, therefore, to suppose that he
rejected the forest-trail connections of the country, and pushed on
with his little company of men, women, and children through a
trackless wilderness.
We have spoken of Woodstock as a trail centre. One trail ran
from thence to the Narragausett country and to Norwich ; another
north-west, through Southbridge to Sturbridge, there splitting, — one
continuing to Springfield, and the other to the Falls on the Connect-
icut, at Holyoke. There was still another Indian trail, whicli left