|
|
|
THE HISTORY OF
STRATFORD
Golden Hill Indians THE HISTORY OF
STRATFORD
Wm. Howard Wilcoxson Establishing
Title to the Land FORREST MORGAN
Lifestyles, Government, Religion and WarIndian Titles and Mohegan Land TroublesSowheag, Uncas, and MiantonomoOwenoco, the Son of Uncas
THE
HOUSATONIC CHARD POWERS SMITH The
Promised Land ALEXANDER JOHNSTON
|
THE HISTORY OF STRATFORD WM. HOWARD WILCOXSON Stratford Indians Long
before the arrival of the first white inhabitants within the bounds of
Stratford township, the beautiful shores of Long Island Sound, with the
inflowing rivers of sweet water, the many inlets and land-locked retreats,
were for many long centuries one of the favorite haunts of the aboriginal Red
Man. to these "children of the wilderness" it must have been an
enchanted country in the abundance it gave to supply his wants and the beauty
of its climate and scenery. Here were rich meadows with the deposits of ages;
grand old forests and majestic hill overlooking some of the most picturesque
scenes in New England. Here, too, were fresh springs, rivers, ponds, and
streamlets of pure sweet water, and sweeping as far as the eye could reach
from east to west rolled the blue waters of Long Island Sound, across which,
against the southern horizon lay SEWANHACKY, the Island of Shells or
"Long Island". Truly this was the Indians "Cupheag", the
name denoting "a harbor" or "a place of shelter,"
"literally a place shut in." for how many years this most beautiful
haven, formed by the broad mouth of the river which widens at its outlet
forming a beautiful bay between the sheltering arms of Milford Beach and
Stratford Point, had been occupied by the Red Men, it is impossible to say.
The evidence of their existence here, though abundant, are rude and vague.
That as early as 1637, white men had visited these shores, is shown by the
testimony of Thomas Stanton, who was for many years the Indian Interpreter at
Hartford, as appears upon Stratford Records. From this testimony it appears
certain the territory was visited by Capt. Mason and his men while pursuing
the routed Pequots to Saco Swamp, in Fairfield, the site of "The Great Swamp
Fight" which ended the Pequot War of 1637. He also informs us that the
Connecticut Colony at this time conquered the Pequots and likewise some of
the Pequonnock Indians, who were their allies, selling some of their women
into servitude in Massachusetts Bay where they remain (1659) "as
captives to this day." The English, he says, "did pursue the
Pequots killed divers at New Haven and at Cupheag" and that they also
found "only one house, or the karkise of one we found at Milford, without
inhabitants." the fight said to be at Cupheag was probably at Pequonnock
River where afterwards a gun was found as by the following records:-
"General Court, April, 1639. Thomas Bull informed the Court that a
musket with two letters, J.W. was taken up at Pequonnock in pursuit of the
Pequots, which was conceived to be John Woods who was killed at the River's
mouth. It was ordered for the present that the musket should be delivered to
John Woods friends until other appear." (Col. Rec. Vol. 1 pg. 29) This
was the only battle which ever occurred in the bounds of Stratford township
so far as any record appears. THE CUPHEAGS
AND PEQUANNOCKS When the English first came to Stratford they
found here several clans or settlements of Indians. On the site destined to
become the future village of Stratford, dwelt the "Cupheags", their
names as already suggested being descriptive of the locality they occupied.
The clan was small and was governed by Okenuck, who soon after their arrival,
if not at that time, resided at Pootatuck-now Shelton- whither most of his
people removed soon after Stratford Village was settled. Okenuck was the son
of Ansantaway, was sachem or chief at Paugasitt, now Derby. Here upon the
shores of the Sound they spent the summer months in fishing and clamming, and
were daily consuming more of the large, rare oysters of this locality, adding
their shells to those immense shining piles, the accumulation of years of
oyster eating-the one at Great Neck and the other near Sandy Hollow, at the
place long known as Shell-Keep-Point; retiring in the winter months to the
sheltered valleys of the inland wilderness, where they secured their daily
food by the hunters sport, and then in the spring of the year, they returned
to their old seaside haunts, just as their white successors now, in the same
season of the year, flee from the hot breath of the inland valleys to the
cool breezes of the New England coast. By a town vote of October 10, 1664, it
is ascertained that the Indians' wigwams, or some of them at least, were
located in the southwest part of Stratford Village, west of Main Street,
along the path from Beardsley's Gate that went to the mill at the
"Eagle's Nest". A tract of land there was called Wigwam Meadow, in
consequence of the wigwams having stood there. It may not have been the only
place where wigwams were located and probably was not, since Wigwam Hill some
three miles north of ther village elevated sufficiently so that it afforded a
beautiful view overlooking the Sound, undoubtedly was so called by reason of
its having been thus used at the time of or soon after the first settlement
of Stratford. To the westward of Stratford Village were the
"Pequannocks" whose territory covered most of the southern portion
of the present City of Bridgeport between Pequannock and Uncaway Rivers. The
name "Pequannock" means "cleared field", "land
opened" or "broken open", land from which the tress and bushes
had been removed, to fit it for cultivation, and was applied by the Indians
to the tract of land on the west side of Uncaway River, (now Ask Creek)
extending from the sound northward to the old King's Highway, and now
constituting the western portion of the city of Bridgeport. The name was
not at first applied to the water, now called Pequannock River, but to the
beautiful plain at the north end of the cove un Black Rock harbor, where lay
the Old Indian planting field of about one hundred acres, and on this field
near the end of the cove was the old Indian fort. From
Thomas Wheeler’s testimony. Already referred to, it is learned that
“Queriheag” was Sachem of the Pequannocks, and had his wigwam on the west
side of Uncaway, although it appears that most of his people were on the east
side of the River, there being three villages or encampments of wigwams, and
one at the foot of Golden Hill on the south side. The last, some years later, is said to have
contained about one hundred wigwams.
One on the west bank of the Uncoway River, one at the Old Fort, and one
at the foot of Golden Hill on the south side, the last some years later, is
said to have contained about one hundred wigwams. The one on the west side of Uncoway River
was at the head of a cove near a fresh water pond, just south of the old
kings highway, south of which the Indians had a planting field which
afterwards, constituted a part of the territory called by the first settlers
of Fairfield the Concord Field. This
place was the old established place of residence for the Sachem of the
Pequannock tribe many generations, and was retained by the Indians as their
planting ground until 1682, when they sold it to Fairfield. The
Pequannocks, it is said were more numerous than any of the tribes, westward
of New London to the Hudson River. On
the east bank of the Housatonic were the Wepawaugs. The
number of aboriginal living in Fairfield County at the time of the
settlements of Stratford and Fairfield cannot be accurately determined. Dr. Trumbull estimated that in Connecticut
there were 20,000. DeForest, who made
his investigation many years afterwards, reduces the number to six or seven
thousand, but his figures were subject to a number of inaccuracies arising
out of his method. During
a truce in the swamp fight at Southport the English offered pardon to all
Indians who had not shed the blood of the colonists. About two hundred of the local Indians came
out and were spared. That these
Indians at Pequannock were of considerable numbers is also evident from the
fact that their Old Fort “at the north end of the cove in Black Rock Harbor”
held a garrison of two hundred. It is
also evident from the many names attached to the deeds for territory at
Fairfield and Stratford that this clan were very numerous. Then again, it is revealed in a paper from
John Strickland of Huntington, Long Island, in 1659, having “formerly lived
at Uncoway now called Fayrfeyld do remember that I was deputed with some
others to treat with Stratford men about the bonds of those two towns ***we
of Uncoway desired some enlargement of ours bounds towards Stratford because
we were burdened with many Indians,” which as we shall see in a later chapter
finally resulted in the establishment of the Golden Hill Reservation. If you
have any questions email me at: |
ALEXANDER JOHNSTON
SOUTHPORT SWAMP Colonial History of Pequot Swamp COLONIAL INDIAN ARCHIVES Hon. Ralph D.
Smith David D. Fields Sarah
Day Woodward Winthrop’s Journal |