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

THE HISTORY OF STRATFORD – WILLIAM WILCOXSON

Stratford Indians

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.