THE HISTORY OF STRATFORD

Golden Hill Indians
The Housatonic
The Wepawaug
Cupheags and Pequannock
Weantinock
Goodyear's Island
Indian Slaves
Indian Remnants
Indian Troubles
New Indian Papers

THE HISTORY OF STRATFORD

Wm. Howard Wilcoxson

Stratford Indians

Trouble with the Indians

Establishing Title to the Land

Indian Deeds and Relics

White Hills Purchase

FORREST MORGAN

Lifestyles, Government, Religion and War

Indian Titles and Mohegan Land Troubles

Sowheag, Uncas, and Miantonomo

Owenoco, the Son of Uncas

THE HOUSATONIC

CHARD POWERS SMITH

The Promised Land
Heathen in the Land
The Lord's Scouts

The Land and The Lord

The Next Seven Tribes

ALEXANDER JOHNSTON

Connecticut Indian History

The Pequot War

Samuel Orcutt - The History of Stratford

Paugaussett Land Sales

On May 26, 1663, an agreement of friendship and loving correspondence agreed upon between us and the town of Stratford was made by which the Indians pledged we will no more plant on the south side of the great River Pugusett (Potatuck) to prevent a ground of future variance between us in order to (avoid) any damage that might be done to corn. The first name on the deed is Okenunge thus denoting his standing over the Indians on that side of the river, but he may have signed it as Sagamore while they had another sachem. It also reveals a benevolent feature in the character of these Indians. Much complaint by the Indians had been made that the white man's hogs, which pastured in the woods, destroyed the Indians' corn, and the matter being brought into Court, an effort was put forth to lead the Indians to make fences around their corn, but this they could not or would not do so; and hence resolved, in order to end the difficulty, not to plant on that "side of the great river, but to remove further up the river, or on the north side of the river, which they did by going to Potatuck, at the mouth of a stream by that name in Newtown, not long afterwards, and to Wesquantuck and Pomperaug. A deed of land lying on the west of land already deed to Stratford was given in 1665 with Okenoge's name first as sachem, and witnessed by Ansantaway and Chipps; which also shows that Ansantaway died between April 22, 1665, and September 15, 1665. Okenunck's wigwam, and hence the headquarters of the nation, was probably at this time on the Neck about a mile north of Birmingham Point. The first sale of land north of Milford made by the Indians was previous to 1646, and was the land on which Mr. Wakeman's men of New Haven were employed in 1642, which was on what is now Birmingham Point. The then Governor of New Haven is authority for the statement that this land was purchased of the Indians, but no deed of that sale has been found. The next purchase was made in 1653, by Mr. Goodyear and others of New Haven. It consisted of a tract of land at Paugasuck which was sold to Mr. Baldwin and nine other men of Milford in the Spring of 1654, and a settlement was made at that time of three or four families: And the name of the place established by the General Court the next spring was Paugaussett. All this land lay east of the Naugatuck, but no deed of the sale of it has been seen. In May, 1657, a deed of land on what is now Birmingham Point was given to Lieut. Thomas Wheeler of Stratford, if he would settle upon it, which he did, and remained there until 1664. This deed was reaffirmed in 1659, and in 1665, when Okenuck had become sole and only Sagamore: He confirmed the Goodyear purchase and this land given to Wheeler, making the western boundary of the plantation the great river (Housatonic) instead of the Naugatuck as at first. From this time forward the Paugasuck Indians sold land piece by piece, northward, to the Derby people, until the town bounds reached Waterbury and Woodbury; There being twenty-five or more deeds recorded, with one hundred or more different Indian names attached; the last deed, except of reservations, being given in 1742. This reservation was set apart by the town of Milford as the home of the Milford Indians who remained in the south part of that town when Ansantaway removed into Derby, at or near the Narrows on the east side of the Housatonic. And since Ansantaway removed thither nearly twenty years before Milford appropriated this one hundred acres, it is doubtful if the Indians ever resided on any part of the one hundred acres. They resided north of it in the town of settlement already commenced upon land owned by Maj. Ebenezer Johnson, who appears never to have disturbed them. Upon this land they continued about one hundred and eighty years until the last of Molly Hatchet's children disappeared.

About forty years after the date of the first Indian deed given at Milford, the town of Milford claims of some of the Derby Indians were purchased by the town of Milford. From the time of the giving of the first deed of Milford (1639) to his death in 1665 Ansantaway's name seems to have been important when attached to deeds in the sale of any lands belonging to the tribe. His Son Okenuck was a sachem at Stratford, and after the sale of the land at that place, to the English, he removed to the settlement already commenced by his people, at Pootatuck, where the village of Shelton is now located, in the town of Huntington. Towtonamow was sachem at Derby and as such signed the deeds given in 1657,1659, 1600, and in 1661, but seems to have died soon after the last date, since in signing a deed in 1664, Okenuck says I "Sachem of Pagassett, yet Ansantaway's name is attached to this last named deed. In the same year Ansantaway is said to be "living at Pagassett, and the deed says, "I, Okeenuck, sachem," but at the bottom his name is written Akenauts. The next year a deed, confirmatory of all preceding ones, was made in which it said, I, Okenuck sole and only sagamore of Pagassett, do sell unto Richard Baldwin and his company; "giving the information that Towtanamow and Ansantaway were both dead. It may be enquired whether Okenuck retained his position of sachem over the Pootatuck or Stratford Indians, while thus he became sole Sagamore at Paugassett. In May, 1657, a deed of land on what is now Birmingham Point was given to Lieut. Thomas Wheeler of Stratford, if he would settle upon it, which he did, and remained there until 1664. This deed was reaffirmed in 1659, and in 1665, when Okenuck had become sole and only Sagamore: He confirmed the Goodyear purchase and this land given to Wheeler, making the western boundary of the plantation the great river (Housatonic) instead of the Naugatuck as at first. From this time forward the Paugasuck Indians sold land piece by piece, northward, to the Derby people, until the town bounds reached Waterbury and Woodbury; There being twenty-five or more deeds recorded, with one hundred or more different Indian names attached; the last deed, except of reservations, being given in 1742. May 1680: As to Akenack, sachem of Milford and Paugasuck who complains that he wants land,... no provision being made for planting land for those Indians, we do grant that they shall have a hundred acres of land laid out to them upon Coram Hill, in some convenient place, by Capt. William Fowler and Mr. John Burr; and this court also do grant the said Indians liberty to hunt, fowl, and fish in Stratford bounds, Milford and Derby, and a clause in the deed to the contrary notwithstanding, they doing them no damage. Also Mr. Hawley is to lay out a hundred acres of land on the other side of the river in Milford bounds, to the said Indians. The chief seat of the Paugasucks was for many years at the Great Neck between the Housatonic and the Naugatuck in the vicinity of what is now Baldwin's corners. Here they had a fort, mentioned several times in the records as the Old Indian Fort which was built most probably some years before the English came to the place. There was a large field at this place frequently called the Indian Field containing about sixty acres, and was once sold for that number of acres. These Indians built a fort on the east bank of the Housatonic, nearly half a mile above the present dam, which was established, tradition says, to keep the English from sailing up the river, and which is referred to several times in the records as the New Indian Fort. The Indians of the Neck collected about this fort along the river bank for some years, and then removed to Wesquantook, where quite many appear to have been living in 1680, and which territory they sold in 1687 and removed westward, many of them probably to Potatuck and some of them to Weantinock, now New Milford.