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

y
lieutenant, who was TO have a salary of a
hundred pounds year. The fort was
built none too soon. On June p the
friendly Indians belonging to the garrison
found a fresh Indian trail of the enemy,
and following it discovered about 40 war
riors, whom, however, because of their SUI
perior force they did rot dare to attack. The
enemy lowered about the region all summer
at intervals, killing two men at Mortified,
and five at Rutland. Mass, in the month of
August. On the eleventh of October the
fort was attacked by an estimated force of
20 Indians who succeeded in killing four or
five of its defenders, but were repulsed with
some loss.
The following year, 1925, three men, Eb
enezer Sheldon, Thomas Cotton and Jere-
miah English the latter friendly Indian,
were killed in June about a mile north Of
the present village Of Greenfield; and in
July party returning from work in Deer
field North Meadows were fired on, and
Timothy Childs and Samuel Allen were
wounded. Anxious to find out the onemy's
whereabouts Lieut.. Dwight, on September
2S, sent out a scouting party of six west
ward TO look for signs. Hating to take re-
freshments they were fired upon by II
Indian warriors, Thomas Bodertha and
John Farrar and Nathaniel Chamberlain
were captured. Only one, Anthony Wiers-
bury, escaped safe to the fort. The death
of Sebastian Rasle, the Jesuit missionary, at
Norridgewock, musket in hand, among his
dusky warriors put an end to this brief but
disastrous war. 1t had cost the frontier
settlements from the Penobscot sound to
Deerfeld river, 200 men and S240, 1000. Rasle
was a man who ought to have achieved bet
ter things. He was a scholar, a man of
great natural endowments, and he left a
dictionary of the Norridgewock Indian Ian
guage which is now preserved in the library
of Harvard college.
Relieved a while of military alarm Fort
Dummer now became for a period the scene
of quiet events. Here was born within the
stockade on May p, 1926, Timothy Dwight,
the father of the future first President
Dwight of Yale college, and great-grand-
father of the present president. An extern
sive trading post was established for traffic
with the Northern Indians, who found it
more for their advantage oftentimes to
! bring their furs and other commodities to
this market than to the French trading
posts. A truck house outside the fort was
built in 1927 for the accommodation of this
traffic, and subsequently a house for the
shelter and convenience of the trading saw
ages. Capt. Joseph Kellogg succeeded
Capt. Dwight as fort commander and truck
master, and for about u years Rev. Eben-
ezer Hinsdale was chaplain. A tariff of
profits was established by the general court
for sales at the truck-house: 80 per cent
advance on rum, sugar and molasses and
% per cent on European goods" These
rates were afterward considerably lessened
l.. F.1 g IL I'll eel g.F
October, 1877, friendly conference of the
Caughnawaugah Indians and commission
ers appointed by Massachusetts met at the
fort to renew a treaty made some years be-
fore. Speeches were made, blankets and
wampum were exchanged, healths were
drunk, King George was toasted, the death
of Gov. Belcher's wife was deplored, and
the assembly broke up in amity and good
| nature.
But the vicissitudes of European politics
did not suffer peace long to last. Strange
that the death of an estimable gentleman
known as Charles VI of Germany on Octo-
Der 20, l140, at 30 years of age, of gall
| stone in his liver, at a remote European vii
lage, should have found consequences of
| fire and sword here in this wilderness. But
so 1t was. European quarrels about sue
| cession to the vacated throne threw France
and England once more into strife, and by
| 1I44 the fight over the claims Of Maria
| Theresa to the Austrian sovereignty, be-
came the fight of Frenchman and English
man along every frontier line of North
America.
In forecast of impending dangers Sart-
wells fort, or more properly block house,
had been built little while before this,
just below here. Up at Charlestown fort
ress of more important character had been
built in what was called Township Number
Four. Over the river, nearly opposite Sart-
| wells block house, Rev. Ebenezer Hinsdale
built fort which was called by his name
A small stockade was also built at the great
meadow in Putney. Fort Drummer itself
was at this time materially strengthened,
and Col. j Josiah Willard placed in command.
A defence of sharpened pickets 20 feet high
| was built round the enclosure, sentinel
boxes we're set up on the corners, several
new swivel guns were added TO the arma-
ment, and two very comfortable strong
houses were set up inside called "province
houses" for the use of the higher officers.
Col. Josiah Willard held command, with
the exception of a short period of five
months, for 10 years, from 1740 to 1850.
| He was succeeded for about four years by
his son, Major Josiah Willard, jr., and he
for somewhat uncertain time by Nathan
| Willard. 1t was during the commandancy
of Col. Willard the elder that the map of
the fertilization, which bears date 1749, and
which is circulated here today, was appar-
emily drafted.
After the war was declared the Massa-
chusetts governor undertook the construc-
ton of line of Notifications extending
from Fort Drummer to Williamstown.
| Fort Massachusetts was in Adams; Fort
Pelham in Rowe Fort Shirley in Heath ;
Rice's and Cogran's fort in Colrain,
and Sheldon's fort in Bernardston. Sol
diers were kept scouting on the line be-
| tween the fortressses, and large dogs were
trained to scent the trails of the Indians
The government of Massachusetts offered
bounty for Indian scalps, and the war
| became to a considerable extent not one
of necessary patriotic defence, but one of
eagerness to get the offered prizes. A
class of men were brought into the service
| who were familiar with wood-craft and
| forest ways; who knew Indian methods
and who valued an Indian just as they
valued a wolf for the money got on his
head.
The first Indian attack in this vicinity
was at the Great Meadows in Putney,
when William Phips was killed and
scalped on the 9Th of July, 1745. On the
| 10th of the same month Josiah Fisher suf-
| fered a like experience at what is now
Keene. On October II, the stockade at
Great Meadows was attacked, but the
enemy were repulsed; Nehemiah Howe,
however who was cutting wood abOut so