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SAMUEL
ORCUTT
Golden Hill Indians
The Housatonic
The Wepawaug
Cupheags and Pequannock
Weantinock
Goodyear's Island
Indian Slaves
Indian Remnants
Indian Troubles
New Indian Papers
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
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Samuel Orcutt - The History of Stratford
The Wepawaugs
West of the territory of
the Quinnipiacs we enter the country of the Wepawaugs, which tribe was a
large one, and at the time of the coming of the English, were settled at
those localities, --Milford, Stratford, and Derby, --thus occupying
considerable territory on both sides of the Housatonic. It separates New
Haven from Orange, all the way to Fairfield.On
the west of the Housatonic they claimed all the territory now compromised in
the towns of Stratford, Bridgeport, Trumbull, Huntington, and Monroe; and on
the east side, as far north as Beacon Hill brook, east of the Naugatuck,
including the town of Milford, and the western part of Orange, Woodbridge,
and Bethany, and, as we shall see, still further, --overlapping the hunting
grounds of the Tunxis ; and north and west of the Housatonic above Birmingham
Point, they claimed the territory nearly to the Massachusetts line, certainly
into the town of Norfolk, wither their deeds extend.
This large tribe at the
coming of the English was under the dominion of the well-known chief
Ansantaway, whose big wigwam is said to have been on Charles
Island, at Milford,
and the wigwams of whose people scarcely extended beyond The Neck above the
present village of Birmingham,
in Derby.
The first purchase of land
at Milford wa
made of the Indians, Feb. 12, 1639, and comprehended about two miles of what
is now the center of the town. The deed was given to Mr. William Fowler,
Edmund Tapp, Zechariah Whitman, and Alexander Bryan, in trust for the body of
the planters; the consideration being, six coats, ten blankets, one kettle,
besides hoes, knives, hatchets and glasses.?? The instrument was signed by
Ansantaway and others.
Afterwards other purchases
were made until the Wepawaugs had sold themselves oft of house and home, at Milford,
in very deed.The tract lying west of the settlement, on the Housatonic
river, was bought in 1656, for the sum of twenty-six pounds to be paid in
goods.The Indian Neck, lying between the East River
and the Sound, was purchased in 1660. a reservation of twenty acres was made
by the Indians in this last tract, for planting ground, which reservation
they sold, Dec. 12, 1661, for six coats, two blankets, and two pair of
breeches. By this last agreement Ansantaway and wife and is sons Toutonemoe
and Ankeanack, in case of danger were granted liberty to sit down for shelter
in some place near the town where the townsmen (selectmen) should think fit.?
In accordance with this agreement the town sometime afterwards appointed a
tract of land on its northern border, adjoining the Derby
line and made it a reservation for them.
The place more recently
known as Turkey Hill is a little way up the river from the mouth of two mile
brook, in which place there was an Indian burying place, a few graves, and
where is still the sight of the last home of Molly Hatchet, the last of the
tribe there, so far as known.
If at this time there were
other remnants of the Wepawaug Indians remaining east of the Housatonic,
they were probably, absorbed in this settlement at Turkey Hill.
This reservation was set
apart by the town of Milford as the home of the Milford Indians who had
remained in the south part of that won 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 Derby
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 Hatchets children disappeared.
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THE HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT
BENJAMIN TRUMBULL
The Perfect Savages
Government
Language
Religion
Marriage
Wampum
Red Ochre
New Haven Colony
ALEXANDER JOHNSTON
Connecticut Indian History
The Pequot War
SOUTHPORT SWAMP
Great Swamp Fight
Incident at Mill River
Colonial History of Pequot Swamp
GUIDE TO PUTNAM MEMORIAL CAMP
COLONIAL INDIAN ARCHIVES
Stratford Colonial Land Deeds
Fairfield Colonial Land Deeds
Derby
Colonial Land Deeds
THE HISTORY OF GUILFORD
Hon. Ralph D.
Smith
A HISTORY OF THE TOWNS
OF
HADDAM AND EAST HADDAM
David D. Fields
EARLY NEW HAVEN
Sarah Day Woodward
Winthrop?\s Journal
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