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

16 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
powerful ally against warlike tribes both to the south aud the west,
audit increased the value and importance of their planting-grounds.
The middle meadow adjoining the Agawam meadow was known as
Quana. The region at Longmeadow was called Masacksick ; Mill
river was called Usquajok ; Springfield, including the Chicopee
plains, was Nayasset ; and Westfield was called Woronoco.
John Oldham was killed by the Indians near Block Island a few
days after the Agawam deed had been signed, and a terrible struggle
with the savages was precipitated. On the following May, 1637,
war was declared at Hartford against the Pequots. Pynchon was
not present, but it was voted that " Mr. Pincheons shallopp shal be
taken to be imployed in this designe." Mr. Ludlow apologized for
this liberty a few days later.
The new plantation by that time had quite a number of honses
along the west side of our present ]Main street, and they were
tolerably well fortified. But they lived in constant fear, and if they
had been attacked at that time they might easily have been exter-
minated. The Agawam and Woronoco Indians showed no disposi-
tion to fight. Indeed, they had looked upon the wliites from the
start as allies.
The year 1637 was a trying and exciting one, as no one could tell
at what moment the whole Indian population would rise and join the
Pequots in a war of extermination. House-building and land-clear-
ing and the opening of the main street were attended with an
ever-present sense of insecurity.
It was not until over a year had passed that the first article of the
original town compact was carried out, and a minister secured. Rev.
George Moxon, of Boston, arrived at Agawam in the autumn of
1637. He was a short, stout man of five and thirty, and was a per-
sonal friend of Mr. P37nchou. His arrival was an occasion of great
felicitation, for the allotments of land and the clearing of the forests
were merely the preliminaries. The great work of the settlers was to
establish and spread the kingdom of Ood in the New World. There