A History of Barrington, Rhode Island/Chapter 4

by Thomas Williams Bicknell

CHAPTER IV

THE WAMPANOAGS

The Pilgrims find a deserted Indian Country—Visit of Samoset—Visit of Massassoit—Treaty between Pilgrims and Massassoit—The Pokanokets—Pokanoket—The Wampanoags—Villages—Modes of Life—Rumstick—Massassoit—Other Sagamores—Agriculture—Hunting and Fishing—Homes and Customs.

ON the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, in 1620, most fortunately they found their lot cast within the limits of a deserted Indian country. Of the name of the tribe which inhabited that section, its history, or the cause of its departure, they knew absolutely nothing. Three months after landing, on the 16th of March, 1621, an Indian named Samoset came among the settlers and addressed them in English with "Welcome, English! Welcome, English!" He informed them that the Indian name of the place was Patuxet, and that the tribe which had occupied the lands had been swept off by a plague, so severe that it spared neither man, woman nor child, and there were none who could claim the lands or rightfully molest them. Samoset also informed the whites that the territory to the west was known as Pokanoket, inhabited by a family of tribes, known as the Pokanokets; that these associated tribes were the Wampanoags of the west, the tribe of Massassoit, who was then chief sachem of the Pokanokets; the Pocassetts, the Saconets, the Nemaskets, the Nausites, the Mattachees, the Monamoys, the Saukatuckets, and the Nobsquassetts, to which, to complete the family, should be added the Patuxets of Plymouth, which had been destroyed by the plague. "These people," says Gen. Gookin, "were sorely smitten by the hand of God, but what the disease was that so generally and mortally swept away, not only these but other Indians, their neighbors, I cannot well learn. I have discoursed with some old Indians, that were then youths, who say that the bodies all over were exceeding yellow, (describing it by a yellow garment they showed me), both before they died and afterwards."

On the following day, March 17, 1621, they dismissed Samoset, the sagamore of a tribe "lying hence a day's sail by a great wind and five days by land," giving him presents and requesting him "to return with some of Massassoit's men with beaver skins for traffic." On the 22d of March, Samoset returned, accompanied by Squanto, the sole remaining native of Patuxet, who informed Gov. Carver that the great sachem, Massassoit, and sixty of his warriors were near "from their place called Sowams, about 40 miles off to the westward." Edward Winslow and Miles Standish received Massassoit, with all the honors due to royalty, in the common house at Plymouth, and, after a feast, the governor proposed the following treaty which was agreed to by the chief:

1. "That neither he, nor any of his, should injure or do hurt to any of their people.
2. That if any of his did any hurt to any of theirs, he should send the offender that they might punish him.
3. That if anything were taken away from any of theirs he should cause it to be restored;and that they should do the like to his.
4. That if any did unjustly war against him, they would aid him; and if any did war against them, he should aid them.
5. That he should send to his neighbor confederates, to inform them of this, that they might not wrong them, but might likewise be comprised in the conditions of peace.
6. That when his men came to them upon any occasion, they should leave their bows and arrows behind them.
7. That so doing, their sovereign lord. King James, would esteem him as his friend and ally."

This was the first interview between the Indians, the lords of the soil, and the English at New Plymouth, resulting in the interchange of friendly salutations, and the ratification of a treaty which was faithfully observed for over half a century by both parties. Massassoit acknowledged "himself content to become the subject of our sovereign lord the King aforesaid, his heirs and successors; and give unto them all the lands adjacent, to them and their heirs forever."

This treaty of peace and trade was equally beneficial to the Pokanokets and to the settlers of Plymouth. To the former it offered the opportunity of an exchange of furs and the products of the chase for the implements of husbandry and hunting and other articles of civilized life. This friendship also served as a protection to the Wampanoags against their powerful neighbors, the Narragansetts, who cherished an unfriendly spirit and showed frequent signs of hostility toward the warriors of Pokanoket. It was a shield of strength also to the weak-handed, though stout-hearted Pilgrims, and when Gov. Bradford received from Canonchet the savage challenge of the rattle-snake skin filled with poisoned arrows, he returned it more boldly, filled with powder and shot, since Massassoit and his tribe had sworn to be their faithful protectors. Still further, the fertile peninsulas extending into Mt. Hope and Narragansett Bays were more attractive to the sagacious eyes of Standish, Winslow, Brown, Willett, and Bradford, than the sandy deserts of Cape Cod, and as soon as comfortable homes had been raised at Plymouth Bay, the spirit of western emigration filled the hearts of these earliest pioneers to explore and settle the wilds along the Sowams, the Titicut and Pawtucket Rivers.

The territory of the Pokanokets, of whom Massassoit was the chief sachem, originally extended, as we have stated, from Cape Cod on the east, to the Narragansett Bay on the west, and from the Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic Ocean on the south to the southern boundary of the Massachusetts, the tribe which occupied the territory to the south

VIEW OF TOWN BEACH AND RUMSTICK.

and west of Boston. The Pokanokets, who formerly numbered about three thousand warriors, were divided into several minor tribes or villages, each under the rule of a petty chief or sachem. Their nearest neighbors were the Massachusetts, on the north, under Chickataubut as king, with three thousand warriors; and the Narragansetts on the west of Narragansett Bay, who, under their grand sachem, Canonicus, mustered more than five thousand warriors.

Later, the territory was more limited, and the name Pokanoket was applied to the lands on the west of the Taunton River, over which Massassoit's local jurisdiction extended, namely, the present towns of Raynham, Norton, Attleborough, Cumberland, Pawtucket, East Providence, Seekonk, Dighton, Rehoboth, a part of Taunton, Somerset, Swansea, Warren, Barrington, and Bristol.

In a more limited sense the word Pokanoket embraced the towns of Bristol, Warren, and Barrington, with parts of Swansea, Rehoboth, Seekonk and East Providence. The residence of the chief was also called Pokanoket or Sowams. Governor Winslow in describing his visit to Massassoit, says: "At length we came to Mattapuyst, and went to the cachimo conaco, for so they called the sachem's place, though they call an ordinary house witeo; but Conbatant, the sachem, was not at home, but at Puckanokick, which was some five miles off. The squa-sachem, for so they called the sachem's wife, gave us friendly entertainment. Here we inquired again concerning Massassoit; they thought him dead, but knew no certainty; whereupon I hired one to go with all expedition to Puckanokick, that we might know the certainty thereof, and withal to acquaint Conbatant with our there being."

Within the narrow limits of Pokanoket, dwelt the Wampanoags, under Massassoit. This tribe had been reduced in numbers by the plague that had wiped out the Patuxets, an associate tribe at Plymouth. Winslow, on this first visit to Massassoit in 1621, referring to the Taunton River, says: "Upon it, (the river), are and have been many towns, it being a good length. Thousands of men have lived there which died in a great plague, not long since."

The land of this western section of Pokanoket has a southerly slope towards the bay, somewhat hilly in the eastern part, toward the Taunton River, but nearly level in the central and western parts. Originally it was heavily wooded with oak, walnut, cedar, and pine forests, with the exception of the borders of the several rivers, on the margins of which were unequal widths, as now, of fresh and salt meadows, with various clearings on the uplands adjoining these water courses, which afforded the Indians an opportunity to cultivate the soil in their rude and simple style. Game of all kinds abounded in the woods and fish were plenty in the streams, and waters of the bays. An attractive country, surely, for any people, and especially so to these lords of the soil, who so easily obtained from land and sea all they thought needful for their subsistence and happiness.

As we are dealing with a nomadic people, our ideas of town and village life have little in common with those of the Wampanoags. Where the conditions of life were the most comfortable and supplies of food the easiest, there was the Indian's home. During the season of shad and aleswives at Palmer's and Taunton Rivers, the people sought these resorts. The bays could be always depended on for shell and fin fish, in summer or in winter. In winter, the bear, the deer, the fox, the wolf, the panther, the rabbit, the partridge, the quail, and other game, taken for food or clothing, led them to the forests, to the north and east. We may suppose, however, that the main portion of the time of the tribe, especially of the women and children, was spent in some fixed localities on or near Narragansett Bay. Mr. W. J. Miller in his story of the Wampanoags locates two permanent villages on Bristol territory, one at Mount Hope, and a second at Kickemuit.

As Barrington has so long a salt water boundary on the bay and navigable rivers, it is a matter of certainty that the Indians made it a favorite dwelling place, and that villages of Indians dwelt at Nayatt, Chachapacassett, Chachacust, Sowams, Wannamoisett, and Annawomscutt.

The evidences which exist, to determine the sites of their principal villages and camping places, are numerous. They are marked, not as ours, by their proximity to centres of trade, and by piles of brick and mortar, but by their nearness to the places where fish and fowl congregated, and by heaps of shells taken from the rivers. The burial grounds of the tribes were near their villages. Their implements of husbandry and domestic life, of war and of the chase, of fowling and of fishing, in the form of stone or iron, have been found in large numbers, in various localities, between the Titicut and Patuckquet Rivers, and the farmer's ploughshare often unwittingly disturbs the resting place of the first proprietors of the soil. At Mattapoyset, Touisit, Montop, Kickemuit, Sowams, and Wannamoiset, vast quantities of oyster, clam, and quahaug shells, either in heaps or scattered throughout the soil, not only mark their homes, but indicate the antiquity of these favorite resorts. These are the last material vestiges and memorials of the brave old tribe of the Wampanoags. While time is consuming these, would it not be fitting to restore and preserve the historic and ofttimes euphonious titles of the localities, from which they have been removed, by the extinction of the tribes themselves?^[1]

The Wampanoags have left us several Indian names of localities which we do well to locate carefully and preserve. Which brief reference has already been made to the whole, a fuller description is of importance in this chapter.

Sowams or Sowamset was the territory of Barrington with parts of East Providence, Seekonk, and Swansea. For a full discussion of this locality, the reader is referred to Sowams and Barrington.

Sowams River.—Both branches of Warren River, the Barrington and Palmers.

Sowamset Neck was the same as Sowams.

Between the two branches of the Sowams River, now known as the Palmer's and Barrington Rivers, lies the tract of land called Chachacust by the Indians, and New Meadow Neck by the whites. This latter name it received as early as 1653, for in an agreement between the delegates of Rehoboth and the proprietors of "Sowams and Parts Adjacent," I find the following record, dated the 29th June, 1653: "The Towne of Rehoboth shall make suffiscient Fence to keepe horses and cattle from rangeing into the neck of land called the New Meadow Neck and maintaine the same." This neck has an average width of one, and a length of three miles.

The western neck of land now occupied by a portion of the town of Barrington, lies between the Barrington and Warren Rivers on the East, Narragansett Bay on the South, and Providence River on the West, of irregular shape and containing about nine square miles. The Indian name was Popanomscut, or Peebee's Neck, with the exception of the northwestern part, which was called Wannamoisett. In the Proprietors' Records as early as the 5th of March, 1679, I find reference made to Popanomscut, under the name of "Phebe's Neck," so called from a sachem under Philip, named Peebee.

The southeasterly part of Popanomscut was known by the Indian name of Chachapacassett, or Little Neck. At the upper end of this neck is a noted spring called Scamscammuck Spring. This neck of land was called Rumstick as early as 1697. Why or by whom so named is unknown, Norse scholars regard the word of Norse origin and proof that the Northmen traversed the waters and named the lands on Narragansett Bay. Tradition tries to solve the mystery of so curious and equivocal a title, by saying that a barrel of rum floated high and dry upon the beach, and the treasure was considered of such great value that the event was celebrated by so free a distribution of the contents that the term high and dry could be truthfully applied for several days to all the dwellers thereabouts.

Another story goes, that while the Indians were removing the aforesaid treasure of "strong water," for which they had a most wonderful liking, the hoops broke, the barrel burst, and the spirits of rum sank into the sand, while the Indians' spirits sank within them, and in sad disappointment over their loss, they lifted up the mournful lamentation: "Rum stick here! Rum stick here!" Whatever may have been the views and tastes of the aboriginal inhabitants on the temperance question, and their actions in that locality, we are very sure that a more summary fate would befall such articles should they land within the same waters to-day.

West of, and about one mile from Chachapacasset Neck, is the point and section of land well known as Nayatt, still bearing its Indian title, though spelled Nayot in the old records. This point extends southwest into Narragansett Bay and was the nearest approach of the territory of the Wampanoags to the Narragansetts, who occupied the lands at and adjoining Conimicut Point, in Warwick, opposite Nayatt.

North of Nayatt, and separating it from a tract of land called by the Indians Annawomscutt, is a creek known by the name of Mouscochuck, now used as a canal by the New England Brick Company and on which their manufactory is now situated. Annawomscutt brook or creek flows into the bay west of the station at Drownville, and the section now known as Drownville bore the title of the brook, Annawom nscutt.

In the grand deed to the proprietors, one other creek is referred to under the name of Mosskituash, which, in the language of the Wampanoags, means a place where grass or rushes grow, and of which the natives made their beds or couches. Mosskituash Creek is within the Wannamoisett bounds, and empties into Bullock's Cove near the Viall Burying Ground.

The name Wannamoisett applies to the section about and east of Riverside. It was a favorite resort of the Indians as it included the long neck since called Bullock's Neck, the shores of which furnished quantities of shell fish, and the cove and bay were literally alive with fish. Captain Thomas Willet and John Brown, John Viall, and families dwelt at Wannamoisett and their graves are with us at Little Neck even to this day.

In every tribe of Indians there was a chief or head-man or head-woman to whom the rest paid deference on account of age, stature, strength, or prowess. Among the Wampanoags, the chief sachem at the time of the arrival of the Plymouth settlers was Osamequin or Woosamequin, better known as Massassoit. He died in 1661, according to the judgment of the settlers at nearly eighty years of age, as "he was a man in his best years" in 1621. Morton says of him: "In his person he is a very lusty man, in his best years, an able body, grave of countenance and spare of speech; in his attire little or nothing differing from the rest of his followers, only in a great chain of white bone beads about his neck; and at it, behind his neck, hangs a little bag of tobacco, which he drank and gave us to drink. His face was painted with a sad red like murrey; and oiled both head and face, that he looked greasily. All his followers likewise were, in their faces in part or in whole, painted, some black, some red, some yellow, and some white; some with crosses and other antick works; some had skins on them and some naked; all strong, tall men in appearance. The king had in his bosom, hanging in a string, a great, long knife."

For some time before his death, "good old Massassoit," as he was known to the whites, became quite inactive and his oldest son, Wamsutta or Mooanam, took upon himself the governmental affairs of the tribe. On his father's death he and his brother, Metacom, requested the Governor of Plymouth to give them English names. Governor Prince complied with their request and gave Wamsutta the name Alexander, and Metacom the name Philip, after the great Macedonian conquerors, at which they were much pleased. Alexander, the eldest son, was chief sachem for only two years, when at his death, he was succeeded by his brother, Philip, in 1662. He held the chief sachemship of the tribe until his death in 1676, at Mount Hope. The name of Philip's wife was Wootonekanuske.

Among the sagamores or sub-sachems of the Wampanoags may be named Watuspaquin, often called by the English, the Black Sachem; his son, William; Uncompoin; Umnathum or Munashum, known as Nimrod; Annawan; Conbatant, Peebee, Tavoser, Capt. Wispoke, Woonkaponehunt, Awashonks, Weetamoo, and others. These underchiefs or rulers of divisions of the tribes were the counsellors of the great chief and formed the council to declare war or transact general business for the whole tribe.

The New England tribes including the Wampanoags were an agricultural people, cultivating corn, beans, tobacco, squashes and other products of the soil. They also subsisted on the wild game of the forests and the fish of the fresh and salt waters. The Wampanoags had a rich soil to cultivate along our rivers and Bay and obtained a plentiful supply of fish from the waters and shores of Narragansett Bay. Rogers Williams speaks of the "social and loving way of breaking up the land for planting corn. All the men, women and children of a neighborhood join to help speedily with their hoes, made of shells with wooden handles. After the land is broken up, then the women plant and hoe the corn, beans and vine apples called squash which are sweet and wholesome; being a fruit like a young pumpkin, and serving also for bread when corn is exhausted." Indian corn was the staple food, parched, pounded to meal and mixed with water. Winslow speaks of a meal of corn bread called mozium, and shad roes boiled with acorns, which he enjoyed at Namasket. Parched meal was their reliance on their journey, and of unparched meal they made a pottage called "nassaump," whence the New England "samp." "For winter stores the Indians gather chestnuts, hazel-nuts, walnuts, and acorns, the latter requiring much soaking and boiling. The walnuts they use both for food and for obtaining an oil for their hair. Strawberries and whortleberries were palatable food, freshly gathered, and were dried to make savory corn bread." Strawberries were abundant and the modern strawberry shortcake was anticipated by the Indians in a delicious bread made by bruising strawberries in a mortar and mixing them with meal. Summer squashes and beans were their main dependence next to corn.

The fur-bearing animals of the forests furnished both food and covering for bodies and wigwams. Shell and fin-fish were very abundant. Clams, oysters, quahaugs, scallops could be obtained with little labor and the fish that now frequent our bays and rivers were more plentiful than they have been known to the whites. The luxury of a Rhode Island clam bake was first enjoyed by our Indian predecessors. It was the good fortune of the writer, in excavating the ground for a cellar at Drownville to exhume an oven, used for baking clams, about eighteen inches below the surface of the soil. The coals and shells on the saucershaped oven of round stones were evidences of aboriginal use and customs.

The women cultivated the crops for the most part and were the burden bearers of the fish and game taken by the men. "A husband," says Williams, "will leave a deer to be eaten by the wolves rather than impose the load on his own shoulders. The mothers carry about their infant pappooses, wrapped in a beaver skin and tied to a board two feet long and one foot broad, with its feet hauled up to its back. The mother carries about with her, the pappoose when only three or four days old, even when she goes to the clam beds and paddles in the cold water for clams. It is evident that in their wild state, no large number of them could subsist long together, because game on which they principally lived, was soon exhausted, and hunger compelled them to scatter. This state of existence always forced them to live in small clans or families. Venison and fish were dried and smoked for winter's supplies. In providing the

GEORGE HOWARD SMITH RESIDENCE, DROWNVILLE.

food for the household, the labor was divided quite unequally. It was manly for an Indian to hunt and fish, but the cultivation of the fields and gardens was wholly woman's work, as was the digging of clams and the procuring of all other shell fish. The cooking was also woman's prerogative, so that with the Indian the old couplet was not wholly inapt:

Man's work is from sun to sun;
Woman's work is never done."

The Plymouth settlers described the houses of the Indians as follows: "They are made round, like an arbor, with long, young saplings stuck in the ground and bended over, covered down to the ground with thick and well wrought mats. The door, about a yard high, is made of a suspended mat. An aperture at the top served for a chimney, which is also provided with a covering of a mat to retain the warmth. In the middle of the room are four little crotches set in the ground supporting cross-sticks, on which are hung whatever they have to roast. Around the fire are laid the mats that serve for beds. The frame of poles is double matted; those within being fairer."

These frail houses were easily transported with their simple furnishings from place to place, wherever their business, hunting, fishing, or comfort might lead them. Their houses were removed to sheltered valleys or to dense swamps in the winter, and in the summer were pitched in the vicinity of their cultivated fields or fishing stations. Roger Williams says that on returning at night to lodge at one of them, which he had left in the morning, it was gone, and he was obliged to sleep under the branches of a friendly tree. It can be truthfully said of the Indians that they had no continuing city or abiding place, but like the Indians of the Northwest of our day, outside of reservations, wandered about from place to place as their physical necessities or caprice moved them. As they had no land titles, each family was at liberty to go and come, within tribal limits, with none to let or hinder. It is certain that there were fixed haunts or rendezvous, inland and on the shores of the Bay, called villages, where they spent considerable time, either in summer or in winter. Thus Philip passed the summer in and about Mt. Hope Neck, and it is popularly stated that he lived at Mt. Hope; while in winter his home, if we may so call a movable wigwam, was about the inland lakes or ponds of his possessions. One of these favorite winter resorts of King Philip is said to have been in the pine forests on the banks of Winneconnet Pond, in the town of Norton, Mass, within the Pokanoket Territory. Banks of clam and oyster shells, Indian arrowheads and stone implements of husbandry and housekeeping are the best evidences of the localities where the Wampanoags made their residences.

The friendly alliance entered into between the Pilgrims of Plymouth and Massassoit in 1621, not only established a lifelong friendship between the parties, but also secured to Carver, Winslow, Bradford, Standish, and their associates "all the lands adjacent, to them and their heirs forever." It is true that the letters patent of the New Plymouth Colony included all the lands between the Atlantic Ocean on the east and south, the Cohassett River on the north, and the Narragansett River on the south, (as stated by the patent), "to the utmost bounds and lymetts of a country or place in New England called Pocanacutt allis Puckanakicke allis Sowamsett, westwards. Together with one halfe the said river called the Narragansett." For all that, the first settlers would not intrude on forbidden soil or steal territory, then held by peaceable occupants. Hence their policy of purchasing Indian lands was strictly adhered to, paying therefor to the full satisfaction of the owners.

The Rehoboth purchase was made by John Brown and Edward Winslow of Massassoit in 1641, including a territory about ten miles square, but described as "eight miles square," "to Red Stone Hill, VIII miles into the land and to Annawamscote, VII miles down to the water." This land included the present towns of Rehoboth, Seekonk, East Providence, and Pawtucket.

A second tract was also purchased called Wannamoisett, the bounds of which included the southern part of the present town of East Providence and the north of Barrington, with a part of Seekonk and Swansea. In 1645, the Indians agreed to remove from Wannamoisett for a consideration of fifteen pounds sterling, and Mr. John Brown of Plymouth and Rehoboth accepted the terms of the sale, receiving for his purchase Wannamoisett Neck "with twelve acres lying at Wachemoquit Cove." It is described as "that neck of land called and known by the name of Wannamoycett Neck, from the salt water where the Indians had formerly made a hedge, ranging unto the north end of the Indian field and so round about the said Indian field unto the salt water." In the agreement as to fences, Mr. Brown promised "not to make any sutch ffence so fare into the salt water upon the westerly side of Wanomoycet Neck as shall bare out hoggs from claming, nor from the south point of the said neck; a quarter of a mile on the east part of said neck." This purchase of Mr. Brown included Bullock's Neck and Riverside and extended northward probably to and including Kettle Point in East Providence, with twelve acres at Watchemoket. Mr. Brown was already a large land holder in Plymouth Colony at Plymouth and Rehoboth, and by this purchase became one of the largest in the Colony. He made his residence at Wannamoisett and with his son in law, Thomas Willet, and his son, James, formed the nucleus of a settlement on the main road near what is now the village of Riverside in East Providence. Mr. Brown's house was built on the east side of Moskituash creek and Mr. Willett's near Mr. Brown's on "Oxbow creek." The chimney of the Willett house is standing as a land mark of the location of the first settlement in the Wannamoisett Purchase.

"Sowams and Parts Adjacent" were sold to Thomas Prince, Thomas Willett, Myles Standish, and others by Massassoit in the year 1653, for £35 sterling. This purchase included the present town of Barrington and parts of Bristol, Warren, and Swansea.

1. The Barrington Historical Society has already made a valuable collection of Indian instruments and wares, and to it the people will add their individual relics, as a safe method of preservation, for the benefit of the public.