The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-05-09
OLD-TIME CLAM BOASTS.
The Savory Feast the Squaws used to
Spread on Poquahaug Island.

Spread on Poquahaug Island.
.Poquahaug or Charles Island, which the
American Yacht Club is fitting up for its use
was once the summer home of old Ansanta-
wac, who was the sachem of all the Shore In
dams between the Hudson and Connecticut
rivers. 1t is beautiful little island in Mil
ford bay and about three months every sum-
mer it used to be dotted with the white birch
bark wigwams of Ansantawae. Old Uncle
Peleg Abercrombie, who is ninety-two years
settlers in Milford is full of "reminiscences of
the CLANS and Indians of early days
"My great grandfather" he says "came
here bout 1850, and his son Elnathan told
me about the Indians when I wa'n'tknee high
to a grasshopper. This kentry round here
used to be great haunt for the Indians IN
the summer. In July they'd thicken up, and
jest before Ansantawae got here you'd see
lot of his braves and squaws working on his
summer wigwam on Charles's Island. That
was the royal island He used to spend
three months about the bay every year, and
eat and sleep on the island. It's great
place for clans, you know, and its name, Po-
quahaug means the land of the clam.
"They used to git off the island jest about
the same time of the year the city white peo-
pie go to the shore now to eat baked CLANS
Jest at the time when the green corn was in
the milk, I've heard my old gran'ther say,
was the Indians time for opening the Poqua-
haug clam feasts. Then the CLAIMS were in
prime order, bein' fat and tender and SALT
Huckleberries, too, were beginning to turn,
an there was no end to the swamp apples to
be had Off on the big flats twixt the island
and the shore the men used to wade with their
bare feet, and tread or feel out the skulking
hard CLANS Meantime the squaws on the
island would be fixing up the clam pit to
roast the clans in, and which is the only
proper thing that ever was got up to cook
CLANS That's where the white men got their
notion of clam bakes.
"Well, as I was sayin', the squaws made
the pit by laying a floor out of circle of big
cobble stones. On these was built smart
fire of dry wood. AFTER they had het the
rocks red hot they used to brush off the Gin
ders and ashes with boughs, and spread on
the clans and the green corn, the fresh fish
and the Holsters. Then, kivering the whole
pile up with a sweet-smellin' blanket of rock
weed and green kelp they used to let the
mess simmer till it was done. An when
twas done it made feast that was fit for old
Ansantawae or Jay Gould himself. 1t don't
look well, l know for a man at my time of
life, but I'm takin' two cents agin one every
time that them New Workers neverll have no
sech good dinner off there as Ansantawae
used to have, and even as I've eat there in
my time. Juicy clans? The best you ever
saw A fragrant mess of it? WE'LL dunno
of nothin' tew beat it.
can that amt all the Indians used to do
there. Long in the hottest part of the sum-
mer they used to string up the clans raw on
cattail reeds and hang them on the brush all
about the island to cure them in the August
sun. My gran'ther said they dried thousands
of pounds of 'em in this way, an in the fall,
when they went back into the country to their
hunting grounds their boats and their squaws
would be loaded down with dried clans for
winter use. The old island, small as it is,
was mine O. wealth to the Indians "-Neao
York Sun.
Could many parent foresee what God in