Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-05-15
Old-Time Clam RoaSts.

Charles Island, which the American
Yacht Club is fitting up for its use,
was once the summer home of old An
santawae, who was the sachem of all
he Shore Indians between the Hudson
and Connecticut Rivers. 1t is n beau
tiful little Island in Milford Bay, and
about three months every summer it
used to be dotted with the, white birch
bark wigwams of Ansantawae. Old
Uncle Peleg Abercrombie, who is 90
years old, and whose ancestors were
among the first settlers in Milford. is
full of "reminiscences of the CLANS and
Indians of early days.
MY great grandfather" he says,
''came here about 1850, and his son,
Elnathan, told me about the Indians
when | wan knee high to grasshop-
per. This kentry round here used to
be great hunt for the Indians in the
summer. In July they'd thicken up,
and just before Ansantawae got here
you'd see a lot of his braves and
squaws working on his summer wig
wan on Charles 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 CLAIMS, you know, and
it's name, Poquahaug, means the land
of the clam.
They used to git off to the island
jest about the same time of the year
the city white people 90 to the shore
now to eat baked CLANS. Jest at the
time the green corn was in the milk,
I've heard my old grand Their say, was
the indians time for opening the Po-
quahaug clam feasts. Then the CLAIMS
were In prime order, being 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 in
their bare feet, and tread or feel out
the skulking hard CLANS. Meantime
the squaws on the island would be fix
ing up the clam pit to roast the CLANS
IN, and which was 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 was a sayin', the squaws
made the pit by laying 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 cinders and
ashes with boughs, and spread on the
CLANS and the green corn, the fresh
fish and the Holsters. Then, kiverino
the whole pile up with 4 sweet smellin'
blanket of rockwell and green keIp,
they used to let the mess simmer till it
was done. An when twas done it
made feast that was fit for Ansanta-
wac or Jay Gould himself. 1t don't
look well, kno, for man at my time
of life, but I'm takin' tew cents agin
one every time that them New Workers
never II have no such 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? Well, l dunno
of nothin' tew beat it.
''An' that amt all the Indians used
to do there. Long in the hottest part
of the summer they used to string up
the CLANS raw on cat-tail reeds and
hang them on the brush all about the
island to cure them in the August sun.
My gran Their 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 -Mt2tord
Conn., Coz. NeW York Star.