The Literary echo, and Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1851-1854, 1854-06-01
Westerly, June I, 1854.
/" Ni;iIitic."

As we are soon TO have new bank
in our village to be known as the
" Mantle Bank" and as many people
seem to doubt the fitness of the name,
from the fact that they labor under the
erroneous idea that the tribe Of Indians
known by that name was located IN the
town of Lyme, CT, we thought perhaps
it would not be altogether out Of place,
at this time to give few historical facts,
which show that there could hardly be
more appropriate name ; as this seems
to have been their place of residence.
1t is the generally received opinion
that all this section Of country west Of
the Wocapaug brook-a small stream
about ten or twelve miles east of here
was occupied by the Pequots, and the
section Of country east Of that stream by
the Narragansetts, whose chief, at the
time of the settlement Of this State,
was Neutrality-suspicious. Of the noblest
specimens Of man furnished by any his
tory of savage life, and whose magma
nimity would put to the blush many
Christian" rulers. But in the "Early
History of Narragansctt," by Elisha r.
Potter, Jr., we find the following, from
a letter written by Roger Williams, to
Maj. Mason, which seems to contradict
this idea:-
"The bounds of this our lst Charter,
|, (haying occular knowledge Of persons,
places and transactions) did honestly and
conscicntiously, as in the holy presence
of God, draw up from Pawcatuck river,
which | then believed and still do, is
free from all claims and conquests for
although there were some Pequots. on
this side the river, who by reason of
some Sachem's marriages, with some on
this side, lived in kind Of neutrality
with both sides, yet upon the breaking
out Of the war, they relinquished their
land to the possession of their enemies,
the Narragansetts and Nyantics, and
their land never came into the condition
of the lands on the other side, which the
English by conquest, challenged; so
that | must still affirm; as in Gods holy
presence, | tcnderly waved to touch a
foot of land in which knew the Pcquot
wars were maintained, and were properly
Pcquot, being gallant country and
from Pawcatuck river hitherward, being
but a patch Of ground, full of trouble
some inhabitants | did, as | judged
inofensively, draw our poor and incon-
siderable line"
BY this letter the Nantes seom tt
have been like a number Of others, sub
ordinate to the Narragansetts, yet under
Sachem of their own, sometimes calleC
Aganemo or Janemo, and sometime
Ninigrct. In 1854 (March ~ Roge
Williams procured patent for Rhod
Island, Providence Plantations and Mar
ragansott, from the Earl of Warwick
at which time the river which now scpa
rates Connecticut and Rhode IsanC
was called, as now, Pawcatuck. Ii
1861, arrangements were made for tn
settlement of Westerly, then Gale
Squamicut by the Indians. BY Massa
chusetts, who laid claim to the land ea.
of Pawcatuck river, it was called South
ertown.
A war having broken out between tt
Mohegans and the Narragansctts, Meal
tinomy was taken prisoner and cool
murdered by the advice of the Engli'
settlers, and the whole tribe with its d
pendents-under Perricus, Maxann
and Awashequim, deputy of the Ma
tics, and others-wcre finally ma,
tributaries to the whites. In 1646 Il
Indians declared themselves unable
pay the tribute required, which resultc
in war, and, of course, a crippling al
dispersion of this once powerful tribe.
In 1869 the southeastern portion
the State, then known by the name
Micquamacuck, Or Pawcatuck, was
corporated into a township under
name of Westerly. In 1888 the to-
OF Charlestown was set off from West,
ly. In l747 the south part of Charl
town was Incorporated into a separ;
township under the name of Richmol