History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

362 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
Brook, and a new highway was built out from the
gravel pit on the west side of the river to the said
mill, six rods wide."
March 26, 1677, " Ordere/J, That Peter King,
Thomas Reed Sen, John Goodnow, Jos. Freeman,
Jo° Smith have liberty granted to build a saw-mill
on Upper Hop Brook above Mr. Peter Noyes' corn
mill, at a place viewed by a committee of the town,
which if they doe they are to have 20 tons of tim-
ber and earth for the dam." This mill was built,
probably, on the site of Moore's and Perry's saw-
mill.
Tlie first settlement in Sudbury was on the east
side of the river, where were the first burying-
ground and meeting-house, the parsonage, the
scliool-house, and tlie blacksmith-shop.
The town was divided into East and West Sud-
bury, by the river in part, in 1780. The land was
more extended on the west than on the east side.
The population, before the division, was larger on
the west side than on the east, and long before the
division of the town took place the church had
been divided, — the church on the west side taking
the name of the First Church of Sudbury. For a
long time before the division the annual town-
meetings were held alternately on the east and
west side, and the town officers were selected from
each side in about equal jjroportion.
The division of the town became a necessity for
the accommodation of the people. From year to
year, for some years before it took place, the divis-
ion of the town was discussed both in a private
way and in town-meeting ; but the step of dividing
the town was not taken till 1780, four years after
the Declaration of Independence, and about in the
middle of the Eevolutionary "War.
We do not desire to introduce matter into tliis
sketch of Sudbury that properly belongs to the
history of Wayland, as that history will have a
place in this volume.
1648 [Winthrop's Journal, Tol. II. p. 333].
"About the midst of tliis summer there arose a
fly out of tlie ground, about the bigness of the top
of a man's little finger, of brown color. They filled
tlie wood from f'onnccticiit to Sudbury wifh a great
noise, and cat up the young sprouts of the trees
i)ut meddled not with t!ie corn. If the Lord liad
not stopped them they had spoiled all our nirliurds,
for they did some few ."
King Philip's War, tliough sliort, was exceedingly
disastrous both to the Englisii and tlie Indians,
gation of the latter, and a better understanding, in
all respects, between the two races. The great;
fight, near the close of the war, one of the most
bloody on record, was on Green Hill, Sudbury, the
Indians gaining the victory, though at too great a
cost to be of any value to them, as it left them too
much reduced, every way, to prosecute the struggle
with any degree of courage.
Green Hill is about one mile south of Goodman's
Hill, already spoken of, and the precise locality of
the fight is not much southwest of the monument
that marks the exact spot where moulder the bones
of Captains AVadsworth and Brocklebank and their
noble men. Green Hill and Goodman's Hill are
really but one hill, Green Hill being at the south-
ern extremity and Goodman's Hill at the northern,
with a slight depression between the two summits.
The terrible figiit came to pass in this way : The
Indians were concealed in great force, — som^ say
to the number of 1,500 ; but this is a conjecture,
and most likely an extravagant one On the approach
of the English, a few of the Indians came
out from their hiding-place, crossed the course of
Captain Wadsworth, and as soon as they were dis-
covered pretended fright and fled, only, however, as
a matter of strategy. This plot succeeded, when
they instantly made a furious assault on the Eng-
lish. Captain Wadsworth and his men received
the attack in good order, and falling back to an
adjacent hill, maintained their ground for some four
hours, losing only a few of their number, but inflicting
a very severe loss on their assailants. The
Indians, in their emergency, resorted to another
stratagem, and set fire to the woods to the wind-
ward of the English, which spread with great ra-
pidity, as the wind was strong and the grass very
dry. The raging flames caused Captain Wadsworth
and his men to abandon their favorable position,
when the savages poured in upon them from every
side, and so by superior numbers overcame them.
All the English but about twenty were killed, or
fell into the hands of the enemy. A portion of
those who escaped took shelter in the mill near by,
and were rescued by Captain Prentice, witii about
fifty horse, and Cajjtain Cowell, who was on his way
from Brookfield with about thirty men. Both
Captain Prentice and Cowell barely escaped the
fate of Wadsworth and l^nieklebank. Captains
Wadsworth and Brocklebank, by all the historians
of this battle, are s])oken of as men of high stand-
ing as captains, and as greatly esteemed for tiieir
resulting, however, in the almost ixTmanent subju- noble moral and Christian character.