History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

114 HIHTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
equal to the task of ruling the barbarous bauds of
the Pawtuckets ; and she succeeded ui re-establish-
ing and maintaining authority over the domain of
her deceased husband to the Connecticut River.
In 1632, says Increase Mather, "the Indians
began to be quarrelsome touching the Bounds of
the Land which they had sold to the English, but
God ended the Controversy by sending the Smallpox
among the Indians at Saugust, who were
before that time exceeding numerous." Whole
villages were swept away by this new enemy ; and
Wonohaquahara and Montowampate died, with the
most of their people. The former, at his own re-
quest, "was taken among the English, promising
if he recovered to live with the English and serve
their God." By the death of the Sagamores, their
brother Wenepoykin, then about seventeen years
of age, became chief of the few Indians remaining
in this vicinity. He was known to the English as
George Rumney Marsh, from the place of his abode
near Powder-Horn Hill, on the southern borders
of this town. He had one son, Manatahqua, and
Ihree daughters, who were named by the whites
Cicily or Su-George, Sarah, and Susannah; but
who were collectively styled by their own people
AVanapanaquin, or the Plumed Ones.
George Rumney Marsh appears to have lived in
friendship with his English neighbors until 1651,
when he produced evidence of " his interest and
just Title to the Lands of his late brother deceased
on mistick side," and " the Ground about powder
home hill," which, in the words of the record,
were " wrongfully detayned from him." In his
petition he prayed " that now at last out of your
Great clemency and compastion towards your poore
Indian and Petitioner you will be pleased to vouch-
safe him somme small parte parcell or proportion
of his inheritance for himself and company to plant
in." He was advised by the General Court, in
answer to his petition, to prosecute his claim in
some inferior court ; aud the worldly wisdom of such
advice was proved by the fact that he was twice
defeated in attempting to recover his own. The
matter was finally set at rest by an order of the
court to " lay out twenty acors of good plantinge
land in some convenient place for Sagamore George
to make vse off." Whether this land was ever
laid out or not is unknown; but the Indian's
friendship for the English thereafter was not strong,
[laving by the death of the Squaw Sachem in 1667
become chief of the Pawtuckets, and the nominal
if not the real head of the Nipmucks, who occu-
I of
I of
pied the land toward the Connecticut River, he
]
joined King Philip in the bloody war of 1675-76.
At the same time the Rumney Marsh Indians left
the Mystic and the Abousett and retired to the
Pawtucket Falls at Wamesit, now LoAvell. Wene-
poykin was taken prisoner, and was sent, with other
captives, a slave to Barbadoes. By some means
he was finally enabled to return to Massachusetts
Bay, and he died in 1681' in the house of Mumin-
quash, or James Rumney Marsh, the son of his
sister Yawata, at Natick. With him the line
the Pawtucket sachems came to an end. His
English surname survived many years, and an
Indian of that name did military service as late
as 1740.
Tradition has preserved the memory of the red
men in Maiden, and still points \ni\\ uncertain
finger to the place of their habitation on the high
lands of the tract long known as the Nichols farm
and, to enforce this vague testimony, the pickaxe
the laborer has at times uncovered the moul-
dering bones of the former lords of the forest.
There still remains the Nichols farm-house, a relic
of the days of the seventeenth century, within
whose time-worn walls the visitor _may see the spot
where household legend says the axe of the settler
clove the head of an Indian and insured safety to
the wife and child who were hidden from sight in
the ample fireplace near by.
It was not long after the Spragues passed over
the land before the " uncouth wilderness " became
attractive to the new-comers. In 1633 the terri-
tory between Island End River and Maiden, or
North River, " and soe vpp into the country," was
granted to the town of Charlestown ; and the next
year an allotment of land was made to the sev-
eral inhabitants. This land, which was afterwards
known as the five-acre lots, was apparently lea-land,
and lay between the forest and the marshes in the
extreme southern portion of the grant which now
began to be known as Mystic Side aud Mystic
Field, and was, long after the foundation of the
new village, within the bounds of Charlestown.
About the same time four hundred acres of land
upon the west side of "the North Ryv, otherwise
called the Three ]\Iyle Brooke," were granted to
Rev. John Wilson and Increase Nowell, and for
many years separated the towns of Maiden and
Medford. At this time several had actually settled
upon the ground. Governor Cradock's men
had crossed liu' Mystic and built the first house
upon its northern bank at Wilson's Point ; and it
;