Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-08-14

hOuutl VI al Jul tdill hioAOilNos
The peace Of Ryswick put an end to
this struggle, which is known as King
williams war. But the peace was short.
King William died in 1902, and France
disputed the succession to the throne
of his consort, and the war known as
Queen Anne's war broke out, and the tom
ahawk was set at work again along the
New England frontier with added fury.
Deerfield was the frontier Massachusetts,
town .in this vicinity, the small block
house at Mortified having been destroyed
and the few settlers driven away; and
Deerield, often as saultedand often to some
extent suffering before, was now TO sus-
tain that great calamity which has made
February 20, 1904, so fearfully memorable
in Connecticut valley annals. Assaulted
by the enemy under Major Hertel de Rou-
vile, with 200 French and 142 Indians, a.
of its inhabitants were killed; 112 taken
prisoners, 10 of whom were tomahawked
OH their way to Canada, and nearly the
whole village destroyed This was but
one incident of a struggle in which from
1903 TO 1913 the inhabitants of New Eng
lands frontier districts were continually
harassed by alarms of Indian ravages; by
calls for military service, in which exhaust
ing debts were incurred; agriculture TO a
great extent neglected; and in which more
than 20 New England towns, including
Lancaster, Chelmsford, Sudbury, Groton,
Dunstable and Reading in Massachusetts,,
and Kingston, York, Berwick, Kittery,
Dover and Exeter in New Hampshire and
Maine, suffered direct assaults, some of
them with loss of many dwellings and in
habitants.
The peace signed at Utrecht April II,
17l3, and proclaimed at Berlin in October
of that same year, brought at last little
breathing space TO the harassed frontiers.
Agriculture began 10 revive. New settle
ments began TO extend westward in Mas
sachusetts. The Mortified people driven
from their homes began to return; built a
house for public worship; called Mr.. Ben
jamin Dooittle to be their minister, and
had in IT'S about 80 families.
1t was at this point of time that atten-
ton was being especially turned toward
this immediate region as a desirable one
for settlement. BY an arrangement be-
tween Massachusetts, and Connecticut va
rious parcels of land lying northward of
existing settlements in Massachusetts were
given to Connecticut in exchange for lands
of which Connecticut had been deprived
by rectification of the boundary between
the two colonies. One of these portions
of Equivalent lands, as they were called,
consisted Of a section of about A, 600 acres
on the west bank of the Connecticut, with
in the bounds of the now existing towns
of Vernon, Brattleboro, Dummerston and
Putney. The lands were sold at Hartford
in April, 17l6, and this section in which
we are now specially interested fell by d.
vision into the ownership of four men
William Dummer, William Brattle, An
thony Stoddard and John White. The
property was valuable one 1t was well
diversified with hills and meadows, with
forests and brooks, and it lay alongside
some of the best fishing privileges of the
great river. it was in the direct line of
communication between the settlements in
Massachusetts and those in Canada, and
the hunting and pelting regions along
Lakes George and Champlain, and was al
together about the most desirable section
of territory then accessible and unappro-
priated in New England. High expecta-
tions were entertained by Mr.. Drummer and
Mr.. Brattle and those associated with them
of speedy and profitable returns for their
cost and trouble. But these expectations
were fated to considerable disappointment.
Scarcely had the lands passed into the
new proprietors' possession before Indian
hostilities broke out afresh.
This time war, indeed, was not formally
existent between England and France; but
it was the outcropping of the old race and
religious controversy nevertheless. The
Indians, stirred up by Sebastian Rasle,
an able and influential Jesuit missionary,
began in l721 their accustomed depreda-
tions along the frontier, and in 1922 Mas
sachusetts felt compelled to declare war
against them. Once more there was every
prospect of fire and ravage all along the
| lower Connecticut valley so often scourged
before. To diminish the peril of this ca
lamity the Massachusetts, legislature re-
solved on the 9th of December, 1928, ito
build block-house above Mortified in
the most convenient place on the lands
called Equivalent lands and to post in it
40 able men, English and Western Indians,
to be employed in scouting a good distance
up Connecticut River, West River, Otter
| Creek, and sometimes eastwardly above
Great Monadnock for the discovery of the
enemy coming toward any of the frontier
| towns"
The resolve thus made, the undertaking
was at once entered on. Mr.. Drummer had by
this time come to be Acknowledgements OF
Massachusetts and he commissioned Col.
John Stoddard of Northampton to super
intend the building of the block house.
| The immediate business of its construction
was entrusted to Lieut.. Timothy Dwight,
also of Northampton, who in the dead of
winter, Feb. 3, 1924, began the work.
"FOur Carpenters, Twelve Soldiers with
narrow axes and two Teams" was the force
at Lieut.. Dwight's command. The car
penters were paid five and six shillings a
day, and the soldiers had two shillings day
beside their regular per diem as soldiers.
| The building they laid out was of yellow
pine timbers, cross-locked at the corners.
1t was about $50 feet square, and the walls
were from II to IA feet high. About the
interior were built at various intervals
against the outer walls, houses facing in
wardly, their roofs running up to near the
top of the walls. This left a large open
space in the centre, and the intention was
to build the houses so strong that the gar
rison would he ''as safe if the enemy got
inside the parade as if they were without
the fort''.
So vigorously was the work carried for
ward that by April it was so far completed
as probably to be occupied with garrison
of 3S officers and men, to whom by April
q were added IL friendly Indians, These
| friendly Indians were of the Maqua, Scata-
cook and Hudson river tribes, who were
more or less opposed to the Eastern and
| Northern Indians like the Penobscots and
the st. Francis and French Indians. 1t
was hoped to utilize them as scouts and if
need be as warriors against the pronounced
enemies northward and eastward, and TO
some small extent they we're so used, but
! experience proved that their fidelity could