History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

290 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
in behalf of the Natick Indians, for an exchange
of land with them. This exchange was completed
in 1679, and the township thus rendered more
compact. The negotiations were commenced in
1675; but a terrible calamity suspended the work
for two years, and paralyzed every effort that was
not required for self-preservation. This was noth-
ing less than tJie horrors of an Indian war.
The inhabitants first "assembled for the ordering
the aflairs of Shearborn,^' on January 4, 1674 - 75,
fourteen persons being present ; and the records of
the town then commence. A committee was chosen
to view the land granted by the General Court for a
township, and to lay out the same ; and another
committee to treat with the Natick Indians for the
desired exchange of lands. Only one other town-
meeting was held for about two years, and that was
in March, 1676, for the transaction of indispensa-
ble business.
At this time Philip, the great sachem of the
Wampanoags, was on the war-path, scattering fire
and death wherever he went; and the consterna-
tion excited in the minds of the settlers was something
of which we can have no adequate idea. The
rapidity of the movements of the Indians through
the by-paths, the thickets, and the forests, with
which they were perfectly familiar, their stealthy
advances, their sudden appearances, and violent
murderous attacks as they swooped down on a vil-
lage or a settlement, caused them to be peculiarly
dreaded by a people who were wholly unaccustomed
to this savage mode of warfare. More-
over, as Philip truly stated in a paper which he
left on a portion of the bridge between Medfield
and Boggestow, destroyed by him on the retreat
following his desperate assault on the former
town, "the Indians lose nothing but tlieir lives.
You must lose your fair houses and cattle." The
fear of so much loss undoubtedly added to tlie
pangs of dread for tiie loss of life; for tlieir farms
were of little use in this wilderness without their
buildings and cattle. His bold threat in the same
paper tliat tlie Indians " will war tiiis twenty-one
years if you will," dirt not give them much hope
for the future, although, as Hubbard quaintly ob-
serves, Philip fell short of this time by more than
nineteen years. l?ut of his early death, efl'ected by
a party under Captain Church, tlie colonists could
then know nothing, and they had oidy the jiros-
pect of continual watchfulness and defence for an
indefinite period. During the known ))resence of
the enemy in the vicinity, the jjcople all retreated
to the garrison-houses, of which there were two,^
and lived there. Many remained for a long time,
and there some of their children were born. One
of these garrisons was the house of Daniel Morse,
Sr., near the present road from Sherborn to Dover,
and not far from Charles Eiver; and the other on
the farm of Benjamin Bullard, near the present
boundary line between Sherborn and Medway, and
also near Charles Eiver. The latter was attacked
by the enemy on February 21, 1676, the same
day that Medfield was burned, and after their retreat
from that jjlace. This garrison was made
with great care and strength, and resisted the as-
saults of the Indians, some of whom were picked
off by shots fired through the admirably arranged
loop-holes. Finding their efforts vain, they next
attempted to burn the building by pushing down
the declivity above it a cart of burning flax. De-
struction now seemed imminent ; but fortunately
the progress of the cart was arrested by a rock,
still to be seen, and the lives of the garrison saved.
Some writers place the date of this attack at a later
day, in May, but Hubbard, who wrote about
1677 - 78, is probably better authority. The only
other concerted attack by the Indians was made
either in May or July following (writers differing
as to date), when they met with such a notable re-
pulse that " they never dared to show their faces
there afterwards.'" But there were single attacks
by scattered Indians, and some deaths occurred
among the whites. These were troublous times,
and tried to the utmost the nerve and endurance
of our ancestors. They never meditated a retreat
from their possessions, but resolutely adhered to
every means of defence, and were obliged to be
watchful against surprise for a long time, not
knowing the day nor the hour when they migiit be
again attacked by their treacherous foe. Philip
commanded not only his own tribe, but also In-
dians of other tribes, whom he had persuaded to
enlist in his attempt to extinguish the new settle-
ments of English people. Some of these Indians
had hitherto been friendly to the whites, and among
them the Nipmucks, who inhabited this and the
neighboring region of country. Says S. G. Drake,^
" These were the most distressing days that New
England ever beheld. Town after town fell a sac-
rifice to their fury. All was fear and consternation.
Few there were who were not in mourning
' Tliac olhci- pnirisons were aftcrwnids built.
^ Note to Church's llistoiij of I'/u/ijt't War, [). 05 : Boston,