Bristol County, Massachusetts - Chapter 6, 1883

New Bedford

Geographical - Topographical - First Record Reference to Old Dartmouth - Early Settlement - Indian Deed - Wasamequen and Wamsutta to William Bradford and others - Incorporation of the Town - The First Representative - Other Early Representatives - The Russells - King Philip's War.

New7 Bedford lies in the southern part of the county, and is bounded as follows: On the north by Freetown ; on the east by Acushnet River, which separates it from Acushnet and Fairhaven ; on the south by Buzzard's Bay ; and on the west by Dartmouth. The surface of the town is generally level and the soil fertile.

The first reference found in the Plymouth Colony records in relation to the territory of Dartmouth is under date of Dec. 1, 1640, twenty years after the arrival of the "Mayflower." By an order of the General Court of March, 1639, it was agreed that the purchasers or " old-comers" should make choice of two or three plantations for themselves and their heirs by the December court. When the time came it was

1 For the greater portion of this and the following chapter the editor is largely indebted to the unpublished manuscript of the late James B. Congdon.

found that the choice had been made, and the returns of the three tracts selected were made and recorded. All the selections were upon the coast.

The following description of the tract called "The Second Place," taken in connection with the language of the conveyance afterwards made by the Indian chiefs Wasamequin and Wamsutta, indicates with sufficient accuracy that it was intended to describe the territory that twenty-four years afterwards constituted the town of Dartmouth. The language and orthography of the records are given.

"The second place of a place called Acconquesse als Acokers, wch lyeth in the bottom of the bay, adjoining to the west side of Poqnt Perrill, and two miles to the western side of the said river, to another place, called Acqussent River, wch entreth at the western end of Nickatag, and two miles to the eastward thereof, and to extend eight miles into the country."

Early Settlement of Dartmouth. - Dartmouth was oue of the last towns of the Plymouth Colony incorporated. The first record which we have of it is dated two hundred and twenty-nine years ago, thirty-four years after the landing on Plymouth Rock. On the 29th of November, 1654, a conveyance was made by Wasamequin, an Indian chief, and Wamsutta, his son, of the territory now comprising the towns of Westport, Dartmouth, New Bedford, Fairhaven, and Acushnet to William Bradford, Capt. Standish, Thomas Southworth, John Winslow, John Cook, and their associates, the purchasers, as " oldcomers." The tract conveyed is thus described : " A tract of land known by the name of Accushend, alias Aquset, entering in at the western end of Nakata, and to the now Cookset, alias Ackees, and places adjacent, the bounds of which tract fully extend through miles to the eastward of the most easterly part of the river or bay Accushenak aforesaid, and so along the seaside to the river called Cookset, lying on the west side of Point Perril, and to the most westermost side of any branch of the aforesaid river, and extending eight miles into the woods, with all marshes, meadows, rivers, waters, woods, and appurtenances thereto belonging."

For this large tract Wasamequen and Wamsutta received thirty yards of cloth, eight moose-skins, fifteen axes, fifteen hoes, fifteen pairs of breeches, eight blankets, two kettles, one cloak, two pounds of wampum, eight pairs of stockings, eight pairs of shoes, one tin pot, and ten shillings in other commodities, which phrase being interpreted probably meant rum and tobacco. The grantors, father and son, agree within one year to remove all the Indians from the tract. This condition certainly was not complied with, and it may be inferred from the fact that the Indians were not removed from this favorite portion of their territory that the two chiefs who for this beggarly inventory of breeches, blankets, and other com- modi ties undertook to barter away the huntinggrounds of the tribe had as little authority to make the transfer as they had power to enforce the cruel stipulation that provided for the banishment of the rightful owners of the soil.1 Previous to this date there were no doubt some settlers upon this territory.

As early as 1650, Ralph Russell came to Dartmouth, and in company with Anthony Slocum, his companion into the wilderness, established an iron-works at Russell's Mills. They were from the neighboring settlement of Taunton.

To the Russells is due the honor of having been the founders of this community, and from that early day, over one hundred and thirty years ago, there has been no time in the annals of the old mother-town of Dartmouth or of the vigorous branches of the parent tree when the name of Russell was not borne by many here whose enterprise and perseverance proved them worthy descendants of him who pitched his tent in the wilderness, and, surrounded by the wondering and it may be hostile sons of the soil, caused the stillness of the forest for the first time to be broken by the clangor of water-driven machinery.

In 1664, Dartmouth was incorporated, and John Russell, the first representative sent by the inhabitants to the General Court at Plymouth, took his seat among the rulers of the people the next year.

John Cook seems to have been the only person named among the grantees of the territory who became an inhabitant of the town. His house was situated at the opposite extremity of the settlement, near what is now called the Head of the River. The second year he took Russell's place as representative at the headquarters of the Old Colony, and from that

" Know all men by these presents, that I, Wesamequen, and Warnsutta, my son, have sold unto Mr. William Bradford, Captain Standish, Thomas Southworth, John Winslow, John Cooke, and their associates, the purchasers or old-comers, all the tract or tracts of land lying three miles eastward from a river called Cushenagg, to a certain harbour called Acoaksett, to a Hat rock on the westward side of the said harbour. And whereas the Bald harbour divideth itself into several branches, the westernmost arme to be the bound, and all the tract or tracts of laud from the said Westernmost arme to the said river of Cushenagg, three miles eastward of the same, with all the profits and benefits within the said tract, with all the rivers, creeks, meadows, necks, and islands that lye in or before the same, and from the sea upward to go so high that the English may not be annoyed by the hunting of the Indians in any sort of their cattle. And I, Wesamequen, and Wamsutta, do promise to remove all the Indians within a year from the date hereof that do live in thesaid tract. And we, the said Wesamequen anil Wamsutta, have fully bargained and sold unto the aforesaid Mr. William Bradford, Captain Standish, Thomas Southworth, John Wiuslow, John Cooke, and the rest of their as«ociat<*s, the purchasers or old-comers, to have and to hold for them and their heirs and assigns forever. And in consideration hereof, we the above-mentioned are to pay to the said Wesamequen and Wamsutta us folio we th: thirty yard* of doth, eight moose-skins, fifteen axes, fifteen hoes, fifteen pair of breeches, eight blankets, two kettles, one cloak, £2 in wnmpan, eight pair stockings, eight pair of shoes, one iron pot, and ten shillings in another commoditie. And in witness hereof we have interchangeably set to our bauds the day and year above written. " In presence of "John Winslow, time to the year 1674, when Indian hostility leveled every habitation and drove every white inhabitant from the territory, the two Johns, situated at the termini of a line drawn diagonally across the town, continued to discharge the duties of attending to the interests of the good people of Dartmouth in the councils of the colony.

Burdensome, doubtless, to these distant settlers was the task of attending to the affairs of state at Plymouth, and it was found necessary in those good old times to impose upon any person chosen to the office of Governor who should refuse to accept the same a fine of twenty pounds. It may be with propriety supposed that the office of member of the General Court was not sought after with much eagerness.

These hardy pioneers in the wilderness well knew that although legislation was a very good thing in its place and not to be neglected, it was no substitute for the axe and the plow, the forge and the anvil, in the great work of preparing the land to become a comfortable and pleasant habitation.

In the periods which intervened between the incorporation of the town and its destruction by the natives, eleven years, John Russell was five years and John Cook six years the town's delegate to the court.

For about three years there is a blank in the political annals of Dartmouth. A year or two after the close of the war with Metacom the old town again comes upon the stage, and the reappearance of Russell and Cook in their old places in the court-house at Plymouth conveys the double information of the re-settlement of the territory and the continued popularity of the men who had shared between them all the honor of representing the people.

It was in 1679 that Dartmouth had so far recovered from the devastation of the war as to be called upon to send a delegate to Plymouth. Cook was that year sent, and continued to occupy the post until 1682, when Russell was again elected. The next two years Cook sustains the burden, and then for the first time a new name is found upon the records of the Supreme Council as furnishing the Dartmouth quota of the assembled wisdom.

John Russell, who with his father, Ralph Russell, and Anthony Slocum, operated the iron forge at Russell's Mills, and whose death occurred in 1694, did not reside within the limits of the present city. His son Joseph was born in 1650, and during the war lived at the Apponagansett garrison, where his twin sons Joseph and John were born Nov. 22, 1679. He moved from the Apponagansett River to the Acushnet prior to 1711, and resided at what is now the corner of County and South Streets. Joseph Russell, born at the garrison, afterwards resided at what is now the corner of County and Bush Streets, where in my boyhood stood the " little school-house," in whose yard was the well used by this early settler. The title of the lands of the Russells was confirmed by Her Majesty's (Queen Anne's) justices of the Court of Quarter Sessions for the county of Bristol, May 25, 1711. The survey had been made by Benjamin Crane, who, under the " eight hundred acre division," established the original boundaries.

The son of the last-named Joseph Russell, also named Joseph, was born on the 8th of October, 1719, and died on the 16th of October, 1804, aged eightyfive years. We may fairly consider this last-named Joseph Russell as the founder of New Bedford. He owned the tract of land bounded on the south by land of his brother Caleb, the division lines being midway between the present Bedford and Russell Streets, and on the north by land of Manasseh Kempton, whose division line was between the present Elm and William Streets, and bounded easterly by the river. His homestead was on the County road, as it was called, between the present court-house and the residence of Mrs. Charles W. Morgan. He is described as " a man of great industry, prudence, and enterprise, and of strict integrity of character, a large farmer and extensive land-owner." He was also engaged in mercantile business, owning several vessels trading at Southern ports and the West Indies. He was the first to engage in the whale-fishery and to establish a sperm-oil factory in New Bedford.

In 1686, Cook, for the twelfth time, was returned as a delegate to the General Court. He was the last representative sent by Dartmouth to Plymouth under the independent charter of the colony.

For a short period the despotism of Sir Edmund Andros saved the people of the colony the necessity of any representation in the government. With his administration closed the political existence of Plymouth as an independent State. United with Massachusetts, its history is mingled with that of this ancient commonwealth. This was probably the end of Cook's political career, and it-is most likely that the close of his earthly soon followed. In a confirmatory deed of William Bradford, Governor, in 1694, his name is not mentioned upon the list of proprietors.

Anthony Slocum was the companion and business associate of the founder of the town. This individual, whose descendants are numerous upon the territory of the ancient town of Dartmouth, and whose name was early given to a portion of that territory which it still retains, does not appear to have transmitted that name to posterity in connection with the occupancy of public station. Two of his descendants, however, were active in the affairs of the town, - Holder Slocum, Sr. and Jr., father and son. The father is probably entitled to the notoriety of having been elected representative to the General Court a greater number of times than any other individual who ever was clothed with the honors of the office. It is believed that for a period of nearly thirty years he was a member of the General Court of the commonwealth.

It is said that one year the good people of Dartmouth decided to permit Squire Slocum to remain at home. This strange event in the history of the town, although it was no. doubt well known to the person most interested, the rejected squire, was not in due form communicated to the old mare, the faithful animal who for many years had annually borne to the metropolis her honored master, the able and popular representative of Dartmouth. The time for the meeting of the General Court drew near, and the welltrained and experienced companion of the Dartmouth legislator instinctively apprised of the fact, and not as usual feeling the weight of her master's portly person and well-lined saddle-bags upon her back, concluded there was some mistake in the matter, and without further parley or delay started for Boston.

The town of Dartmouth was slow of growth. For the farmer it had few attractions. Much of the soil was poor, and it was long in recovering from the blow which was given to the settlement by the exterminating hostility of the Indians.

Indian History. - In 1676 this locality was devastated by a cruel Indian war, full of barbarity and atrocity, carried on by King Philip, the younger brother of Wamsutta.

" Memorandum. - That we, the Indians living near about the town of Dartmouth, in the jurisdiction of New Plymouth, whose names are here underwritten, do freely own ourselves to he loyal subjects to His Majesty of England, and to his Colony of New Plymouth ; and do hereby solemn ly engage ourselves and ours to be subject to His Majesty's authority there established and to behave faithfully and friendly towards them; and that we will from time to time, if we hear of any malicious design aching against them, discover it to some of them with all speed; and that also that we shall be ready to afford them any assistance against their enemies according to our ability, even as we expect friendship and amity and protection from them. For the performance thereof we have hereunto set our hands in the presence of

The names of the Indians making this engagement are not given. Those annexed appear to have been the witnesses to the instrument. This engagement is important in its connection with two other events in the annals of the town, - the conveyance to Cook and others by Wasemequen and Wamsutta in 1654, and the infamous enslaving expatriation of the Dartmouth Indians in 1676. Here the right of the Indians, notwithstanding the stipulations of the gleed from the two chiefs to a residence upon the soil, is clearly recognized.

subsequently violated by the New Plymouth government, when one hundred and sixty of the sons of the soil were seized and sold into slavery. This act of treachery naturally aroused within the breast of the Indians feelings of most bitter hatred and deep-seated revenge.

The rulers were unprepared to defend the colony against the storm which they had brought upon their heads. In their distress they again called upon Capt. Benj. Church, who had been treated by them with ingratitude, insult, and neglect, because he had dared to raise the voice of remonstrance and condemnation because of their treacherous act. He was, however, at length pacified. Tradition telis us that he whittled himself into the belief that it was his duty to protect the settlement against the threatened destruction. Using a knife for some trifling purpose he cut his finger, and regarding this event as an indication of the will of Providence that he must lay aside all private affairs and give himself up to the service of his country, he threw down his knife, and arming himself, proceeded to Plymouth and took command of the forces of the colony. Having made a treaty with Awashuncks, the queen-sachem of the Yaconts, he succeeded in enlisting a number of her tribe into his company, and having obtained enlarged powers from the government he proceeded to a vigorous prosecution of the war. It was near Horse Neck Beach that Capt. Church entered into the treaty with the Indian queen and her chiefs, and when, in pursuance with a previous arrangement, he came to visit the queen, he found large numbers of her people sporting upon the marble-like surface of the beach, some racing horses, some playing at foot-ball, and others fishing from the rocks.

On one of his expeditions Church pursued his enemies into the Accushena territory. Having crossed the river, probably at the spot now called Acushnet village, he came in contact with a small band of the Saconet Indians, who had refused to become a party to the treaty made by their queen, and who had joined Philip in the contest that was then raging. The party were accompanied by Little Eyes and his family. He made the whole party prisoners, and refusing the advice of his Indian allies to put Little Eyes to death, because that chief had once threatened the life of the English commander, he placed them all on an island in the Acushnet, and left Lightfoot to guard them. The island was probably that which was nearest to the shore. Fish Island, as this temporary place of confinement for Indian prisoners is now called, presents at this time a very different aspect from what it did when Little Eyes and his companions in captivity were landed upon its shore, and looking upon the main, saw their conqueror and his party enter the forest which skirted the banks of the river, as he wended his way to the south on a visit to the fortified station at the head of the Aponegansett. They passed the night near Russell's orchard, which was in the vicinity of that place, and learned in the morning that a large party of Indians had the same night made the orchard their resting-place. Ascertaining the route they had taken, he retraced his steps to follow them. Coming to a cedar swamp, about three miles from their halting-place by the orchard, the forces were divided, and the ruins of John Cook's house at Accushena being agreed upon as the place of rendezvous, the two parties started in pursuit of the enemy. The company under the command of Church, which seems to have been composed entirely of English, soon fell in with and killed and captured sixty-six of the enemy. Church was now informed that his mighty foe Metacom was near, and that a party of Indians, consisting of more than one hundred, had passed across the river and marched down upon Sconticutt Neck. He then paddled over to the island where Lightfoot had been left with Little Eyes and his party, and there heard a confirmation of the fact that a large body of Indians had moved down the Neck. They were soon discovered returning from their excursion, and Church, concealing himself and his little band, escaped that destruction which would probably have been his fate had he been discovered and forced into a contest.

Church now took his prisoners from the island and proceeded to Mattapoisett. There he halted and sent a messenger to the appointed place of rendezvous, the ruins of John Cook's house at Accushena, to ascertain the fate of his band of Indian allies. Here the singular fact was ascertained that this party had killed or captured the same number (sixty-six) that had met with the same fate from the company under Church's immediate command. The Indians joined their commander and his party at Mattapoisett, from whence the whole body with their captives proceeded to Plymouth. Of the subsequent events of Philip's war we have no occasion to speak. Philip, brokenhearted by the captivity of his wife and son, fled before the foe who was bent upon his destruction, and, surrounded in a swamp near his residence, was shot through the heart by an English soldier. This put an end to the conflict. Prisoners continued to be taken, and when they had all been disposed, either by being hung or shipped to Bermuda, the rulers and the fighting men rested from their labors, and the people of the land had peace.

A portion of the town of Rochester, described as extending from the westernmost side of Sippican River and southwestwards to Dartmouth bounds, was assigned for the residence of the Indians who had not been engaged in hostilities against the colony. They were deprived of the right to bear arms, and strictly charged to confine themselves to the prescribed bounds of the territory which the clemency of the conquerors had assigned them for a habitation. After this time we have but little about the Indians. Their numbers rapidly decreased, and after the lapse of a few years only here and there a solitary individual

Sarah Obadiah, an Indian woman with a most un- Indian-like name, was the last of the race who, upon the old territory of Dartmouth, lived after the primitive manner of her fathers. The costume of course was abandoned, but in a wigwam situated near the stone ship upon the rock, a spot in the south part of a village Avell known to most of the inhabitants, lived the last of the Dartmouth Indians. This was a favorite locality of the Indians, and doubtless has been one of their much-loved hunting-grounds.