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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
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THE HISTORY OF INDIAN DEEDS
AND RELICS
A
third deed was given on December 4th, 1661 by Towtanomow, Chief
Sagamore of Pagusit and his mother the wife of Ansantaway, the old chief of
Milford, who also signed he deed.? This deed was to Samuel Sherman, John
Hurd, and Caleb Nichols, townsmen in the name of the inhabitants of the town
of Stratford in the Colony of Connecticut? and embraced a tract of land lying
and being between the nerer Milne River and the father Milne River commonly
called by the English and being the bounds south and northeast upon Stratford
River and with the bare swamp called by the Indians Makoron northwest on
Black brooks mouth. The price paid to Towtanomow, sagamore of the
Paugaussett, and his father Ansantaway was twelve pound worth of trading
cloth and one blankit to him in hand payed before the writing hereof. By this
deed they relinguished their rights, in all the territory from Pecks Mill
north to Farmill river, extending west from the Towtanomow
was the chief at Paugaussett at the time this deed was given, but died the
same winter, for in the following spring April 22, 1662- Okenouge (more
commonly called Okenuck, in Derby deeds) signs a deed in which he states that
he is ye only Sachem of Pagasitt, to my loving friends Ensign Joseph Judson
and Joseph Hawley and John Minor of Stratford. The deed was sighned by
Okenuck alone and was witnessed by Nansantaway and Chipps, and conveys a
parcel of land be it more or less lying on ye west of ye land which the aforesaid
town of Stratford hath purchased of me and it being all yt lyes on ye west of
what is already purchased that belongs to me and Paugaussett Indians. This deed is chiefly of interest because it
was apparently intended to convey all the remaining Although
having now disposed of all of their lands in Stratford township excepting the
reservations of Golden Hill and Coram the Indians continued to reside at
Pootatuck, on the banks of the Housatonic near the confluence of the
Naugatuck with the Housatonic River until 1684. No
sooner had the proceedings before the General Court been concluded, declaring
that Stratford in 1659, already owned the land it claimed, before the Indians
made new demands for payment for their long possessed inheritance, and in an
effort to settle the mater peaceably, the town began to yield in an effort to
purchase on the most favorable terms possible, a full and equitable title to
their lands. Some
of those deeds of purchase are to the town of Stratford, other are to the
Townsmen while still others, were made to individuals, probably in behalf of
the town. The
earliest of such deeds, of which we have any knowledge, is to be found in the
first book of land records, for the Colony at This
deed appears never to have been entered on Stratford Records, although in
1684 Moses Wheeler alleged that the purchase was made at the solicitation of
the principal inhabitants of If you
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ALEXANDER JOHNSTON
SOUTHPORT Colonial History of Pequot Swamp COLONIAL INDIAN ARCHIVES Hon. Ralph D.
Smith David D. Fields Sarah Day Woodward Winthrop’s Journal |