September, filled the country with grief and consternation; and, as the
year 1675 drew towards a close, the conviction became general, that the
crisis of the fate of the colonies was near at hand. The Indians were
carrying all before them. Philip was spreading conflagration,
devastation, and slaughter around the borders, and striking sudden and
deadly blows into the heart of the country. It was evident that he was
consolidating the Indian power into irresistible strength. Among papers
on file in the State House is a letter addressed to the governor and
council, dated at Mendon, Oct. 1, 1675, from Lieutenant Phinehas Upham,
of Malden. In command of a company, acting under Captain Gorham of
Barnstable, who had also a company of his own, he had been on a scout
for Indians beyond Mendon, which was a frontier town. Their route had
been over a sweep of territory then an almost un[i.119]broken
wilderness, embracing the present sites of Grafton, Worcester, Oxford,
and Dudley. The result of the exploration is thus given: "Now, seeing
that in all our marches we find no Indians, we verily think that they
are drawn together into great bodies far remote from these parts." From
other scouting parties, it became evident that this opinion was
correct, and that the Indians were collecting stores and assembling
their warriors somewhere, to fall upon the colonies at the first
opening of spring. Further information made it certain, that their
place of gathering was in the Narragansett country, in the
south-westerly part of the colony of Rhode Island. There was no
alternative but, as a last effort, to strike the enemy at that point,
with the utmost available force. A thousand men were raised, 527 by
Massachusetts, 315 by Connecticut, and 158 by Plymouth. Massachusetts
organized a company of cavalry and six companies of foot soldiers,
Connecticut five and Plymouth two companies of foot. All were placed
under the command of Governor Winslow, of Plymouth. The winter had set
in earlier than usual; much snow had fallen, and the weather was
extremely cold. The seven companies of Massachusetts, under the command
of Major Samuel Appleton of Ipswich, started on their march, Dec. 10.
On the evening of the 12th, having effected a junction with the
Plymouth companies, they reached the rendezvous, on the north side of
Wickford Hill, in North Kingston, R.I. On the 13th, Winslow commenced
his move upon the enemy. On the 18th,[i.120] the Connecticut troops
joined him. His army was complete; the enemy was known to be near, and
all haste made to reach him. The snow was deep. The Narragansetts were
intrenched on a somewhat elevated piece of ground of five or six acres
in area, surrounded by a swamp, within the limits of the present town
of South Kingston. The Indian camp was strongly fortified by a double
row of palisades, about a rod apart, and also by a thick hedge. There
was but a single entrance known to our troops, which could only be
reached, one at a time, over a slanting log or felled tree, slippery
from frost and falling snow, about six feet above a ditch. There were
other passages, known only to the Indians, by which they could steal
out, a few at a time, and get a shot at our people in the flank and
rear. Many of our men were cut off in this way. The allied forces had
expected to pass the night, previous to reaching the hostile camp, at a
garrison about fifteen miles distant from that point; but the Indians
had destroyed the buildings, and slaughtered the occupants, seventeen
in number, two days before. Here the troops passed the night,
unsheltered from the bitter weather. The next day, Dec. 19, was Sunday;
but their provisions were exhausted, and the supply they had expected
to find had been destroyed with the garrison-house. There could be no
delay. They recommenced their march, at half-past five o'clock in the
morning, through the deep snow, which continued falling all day, and
reached the borders of what was described, by a[i.121] writer well
acquainted with it, as "a hideous swamp." Fortunately, the early and
long-continued extreme cold weather of that winter had rendered it more
passable than it otherwise would have been. But the ground was rough,
and very difficult to traverse. They were chilled and worn by their
long march, following winding paths through thick woods, across
gullies, and over hills and fields. It was between one and two o'clock
in the afternoon, and the short winter day was wearing away. Winslow
saw the position at a glance, and, by the promptness of his decision,
proved himself a great captain. He ordered an instant assault. The
Massachusetts troops were in the van; the Plymouth, with the
commander-in-chief, in the centre; the Connecticut, in the rear. The
Indians had erected a block-house near the entrance, filled with
sharp-shooters, who also lined the palisades. The men rushed on,
although it was into the jaws of death, under an unerring fire. The
block-house told them where the entrance was. The companies of Moseley
and Davenport led the way. Moseley succeeded in passing through.
Davenport fell beneath three fatal shots, just within the entrance.
Isaac Johnson, captain of the Roxbury company, was killed while on the
log. But death had no terrors to that army. The centre and rear
divisions pressed up to support the front and fill the gaps; and all
equally shared the glory of the hour. Enough survived the terrible
passage to bring the Indians to a hand-to-hand fight within the fort.
After a desperate struggle of nearly three hours, the[i.122] savages
were driven from their stronghold; and, with the setting of that sun,
their power was broken. Philip's fortunes had received a decided
overthrow, and the colonies were saved. In all military history, there
is not a more daring exploit. Never, on any field, has more heroic
prowess been displayed. By the best computations, the Indian loss was
at least one thousand, including the large numbers who perished from
cold, as they scattered in their flight without shelter, food, or place
of refuge. Of the colonial force, over eighty were killed, and one
hundred and fifty wounded. Three of the Massachusetts captains—Johnson,
Gardner, and Davenport—were killed on the spot. Three of the
Connecticut captains—John Gallop, Samuel Marshall, and Robert
Seely—also fell in the fight. Captain William Bradford, of Plymouth,
was wounded by a musket-ball, which he carried in his body to his
grave. Captain John Gorham, also of the Plymouth colony, was shortly
after carried off by a fever, occasioned by the over-exhaustion of the
march and the battle. Lieutenant Phinehas Upham, of Johnson's company,
was mortally wounded. Great value appears to have been attached to the
services of this officer. In the hurried preparation for the campaign,
Captain Johnson had nominated his brother as his lieutenant. The
General Court overruled the appointment. Johnson cheerfully acquiesced,
and, in a paper addressed to the Court, assured them that he "most
readily submitted to their choice of Lieutenant Upham." This single
passage is an imperishable eulo[i.123]gium upon the characters of the
two brave men who gave their lives to the country on that fatal but
glorious day.
Captain Gardner's company was raised in this neighborhood. Joseph
Peirce and Samuel Pikeworth of Salem, and Mark Bachelder of Wenham,
were killed before entering the fort. Abraham Switchell of Marblehead,
Joseph Soames of Cape Ann, and Robert Andrews of Topsfield, were killed
at the fort. Charles Knight, Thomas Flint, and Joseph Houlton, Jr., of
Salem Village; Nicholas Hakins and John Farrington, of Lynn; Robert
Cox, of Marblehead; Eben Baker and Joseph Abbot, of Andover; Edward
Harding, of Cape Ann; and Christopher Read, of Beverly,—were wounded.
An account of the death of Captain Gardner, in detail, has been
preserved. The famous warrior, and final conqueror of King Philip,
Benjamin Church, was in the fight as a volunteer, rendered efficient
service, and was wounded. His "History of King Philip's War" is
reprinted, by John Kimball Wiggin, as one of his series of elegant
editions of rare and valuable early colonial publications entitled
"Library of New England History." In the second number, Part I. of
Church's history is edited by Henry Martyn Dexter. Church's account of
what came within his observation in this fight, with the notes of the
learned editor, is the most valuable source of information we have in
reference to it. He says, that, in the heat of the battle, he came
across Gardner, "amidst the wigwams in the east end of the fort,[i.124]
making towards him; but, on a sudden, while they were looking each
other in the face, Captain Gardner settled down." He instantly went to
him. The blood was running over his cheek. Church lifted up his cap,
calling him by name. "Gardner looked up in his face, but spoke not a
word, being mortally shot through the head." The widow of Captain
Gardner (Ann, sister of Sir George Downing) became the successor of Ann
Dudley, the celebrated poetess of her day, by marrying Governor
Bradstreet, in 1680. She died in 1713.
There is a curious parallelism between the first and the last great
victory over the Indian power in the history of America. An interval of
one hundred and sixty one years separates them. On the 19th of
December, 1836,—the anniversary of the day when Winslow stormed the
Narragansett fort,—Colonel Taylor received his orders to pursue the
Florida Indians. It was a last attempt to subdue them. They had long
baffled and defied the whole power of the United States. Every general
in the army had laid down his laurels in inglorious and utter failure.
He started on the 20th, with an army of about one thousand men. On the
25th, he found himself on the edge of a swamp, impassable by artillery
or horses. On the opposite side were the Indian warriors, ready to deal
destruction, if he should attempt to cross the swamp. He had the same
question to decide which Winslow had; and he decided it in the same
way, with equal promptness. The struggle lasted about the same time;
and[i.125] the loss, in proportion to the numbers engaged, was about
the same. The results were alike permanently decisive. Okee-cho-bee
stands by the side of Narragansett, and the names of Josiah Winslow and
Zachary Taylor are imperishably inscribed together on the tablets of
military glory.
Dr. Palfrey says that Captain Nathaniel Davenport was a son of
"Davenport of the Pequot War." He was born in Salem, and brought up in
the village. His name, with those of his brave father, and his
associate in youth and in death Joseph Gardner, belongs to our local
annals. They were both the idols of their men. Davenport was dressed,
when he fell, in a "full buff suit," and was probably thought by the
Indians to be the commander-in-chief. On receiving his triple wound, he
called his lieutenant, Edward Tyng, to him, gave him his gun in charge,
delivered over to him the command of his company, and died.
There has been some uncertainty on the point whether Nathaniel
Davenport was a son of Richard, the commandant at the castle. The fact
that he was associated with William Stoughton, and Stephen Minot whose
wife was a daughter of Richard Davenport, as an administrator of the
estate of the latter, has been regarded as rendering it probable. Dr.
Palfrey's unhesitating statement to that effect is, of itself, enough
to settle the question. There is, moreover, a document on file which
proves that he is correct. Nathaniel's widow had some difficulty in
settling his estate, and applied to the General Court for its
interposition.[i.126] Quite a mass of papers belong to the case. Among
them is a bill of expenses incurred by her in connection with his
funeral charges, such as, "twenty-one rings to relatives," and to those
"who took care to bring him off slain, eight pounds;" and "for mourning
for my mother Davenport, sisters Minot and Elliot, and myself, sixteen
pounds." This latter item is decisive, as we know that two of Richard
Davenport's daughters married persons of those names. It is a
circumstance of singular interest, as showing by how slight an
accident—for it is a mere accident—important questions of history are
sometimes determinable. This item, so far as I have been able to find,
is the only absolute evidence we have to the point that Richard was the
father of Nathaniel Davenport; and it would not have been in existence,
had not questions arisen in the settlement of the estate of the latter
requiring the action of the General Court. The record of baptisms in
the First Church at Salem, prior to 1636, is lost. The names of Richard
Davenport's children, baptized subsequent to that date, are in the
records of the Salem or Boston churches. As Nathaniel is understood to
have been one of the earliest born, the record of his baptism was
probably in the lost part of the Salem book.
It may be thought surprising, that so little appears to have been known
concerning an officer of his rank and parentage, and whose death has
rendered his name so memorable. To account for it, I must recur to the
history of the Narragansett expedition. No military organization was
ever more rapidly effected, or more[i.127] thoroughly and promptly
executed its work. The commissioners of the three united colonies were
satisfied that the Indian rendezvous at Narragansett, where their
forces and stores were being collected and their resources
concentrated, must be struck at without a moment's delay; that the blow
must be swift and decisive; that it must be struck then, in the depth
of winter; that, if deferred to the spring, all would be lost; that, if
the Indian power was allowed to remain and to gather strength until the
next season, nothing could save the settlements from destruction. Early
in November, they formed their plan, and put the machinery for
summoning all their utmost resources into instant action. On the 30th
of November, the officers appointed for the purpose made return, that
they had impressed the required number in the several counties and
towns, fitted them out with arms, ammunition, clothes, and all
necessary equipments; that the men were on the ground, ready to go
forward. There was no time for recruiting, or raising bounties, or
substitute brokerage; no time for electioneering to get commissions.
The rank and file were ready: they had been brought in by a process
that gave no time for canvassing for offices. A summons had been left
at the house of every drafted man, to report himself the next morning.
If any one failed to appear, some other member of the family, brother
or father, had to take his place. The organizing and officering of this
force must be done instanter. All depended upon suitable officers being
selected. A company was wait[i.128]ing at Boston for a captain, and a
captain must be found. Some one in authority happened to think of
Nathaniel Davenport. His childhood and youth had been passed at Salem
Village and on Castle Island: on reaching maturity, he had removed to
New York, and been there for years in commercial pursuits. A short time
before, he had returned to Boston, and engaged in business there. His
father had been dead since 1665, and not many persons knew him,—only,
perhaps, a few of his early associates, and the old friends of his
father: but they knew, that, from his birth to his manhood, he had
breathed a military atmosphere,—was a soldier, by inheritance, of the
school of Lothrop, Read, and Trask; and it was determined at once to
hunt him up. He was serving at Court; taken out of the jury-box in a
pending trial; and placed at the head of the company. The accurate
historian of Boston, Samuel G. Drake, says, "Captain Davenport's men
were extremely grieved at the death of their leader; he having, by his
courteous carriage, much attached them to himself, although he was a
stranger to most of them when he was appointed their captain. On which
occasion he made 'a very civil speech,' and allowed them to choose
their sergeants themselves." He had no time to settle his accounts,
arrange his affairs, or confer with any one, but led his company at
once to the rendezvous. These circumstances, perhaps, partially explain
why so little seems to have been known of him in Boston, or to local
writers.[i.129]
Besides Captains Gardner and Davenport and the men whose names have
been mentioned as killed or wounded, there were in the Narragansett
fight the following from Salem Village and its farming neighborhood:
John Dodge, William Dodge, William Raymond, Thomas Raymond, John
Raymond, Joseph Herrick, Thomas Putnam, Jr., Thomas Abbey, Robert
Leach, and Peter Prescott. There may have been others: no full roll is
on record. The foregoing are gathered from partial returns
miscellaneously collected in the files at the State House. The Dodges
(sometimes the name is written Dodds, which appears, I think, to have
been its original form), and the Raymonds (sometimes written Rayment),
were, from the first, conspicuous in military affairs. A few words
explanatory of their relation to the village may be here properly
given.
On the 25th of January, 1635, the town of Salem voted to William Trask,
John Woodbury, Roger Conant, Peter Palfrey, and John Balch, a tract of
land, as follows: "Two hundred acres apiece together lying, being at
the head of Bass River, one hundred and twenty-four poles in breadth,
and so running northerly to the river by the great pond side, and so in
breadth, making up the full quantity of a thousand acres." These men
were original settlers, having been in the country for some time before
Endicott's arrival. This circumstance gave to them and others the
distinguishing title of "old planters." The grant of a thousand acres,
comprising the five farms above mentioned, was always known as "the Old
Planters' Farms." The[i.130] first proprietors of them, and their
immediate successors, appear to have arranged and managed them in
concert,—to have had homesteads near together between the head of Bass
River and the neighborhood of the "horse bridge," where the
meeting-house of the Second Congregational Society of Beverly, or of
the "Precinct of Salem and Beverly" now stands. Their woodlands and
pasture lands were further to the north and east. An inspection of the
map will give an idea of the general locality of the "Old Planters'
Farms" in the aggregate—above the head of Bass River, extending
northerly towards "the river," as the Ipswich River was called, and
easterly to the "great pond," that is, Wenham Lake. Conant, Woodbury,
and Balch occupied their lands at once. I have stated how Trask's
portion of the grant went into the hands of Scruggs, and then of John
Raymond. Palfrey is thought never to have occupied his portion. He sold
it to William Dodge, the founder of the family of that name, known by
way of eminence as "Farmer Dodge," whose wife was a daughter of Conant.
A portion of the grant assigned to Conant was sold by one of his
descendants to John Chipman, who, on the 28th of December, 1715, was
ordained as the first minister of the "Second Beverly Society." He was
the grandfather of Ward Chipman, Judge of the Supreme Court, and for
some time President, of the Province of New Brunswick, and whose son of
the same name was chief-justice of that court. He was also grandfather
of the wife of the great merchant, William Gray,[i.131] whose family
has contributed such invaluable service to the literature, legislation,
judicial learning, and general welfare of the country. The Rev. Mr.
Chipman was the ancestor of many other distinguished persons. The house
in which he lived is still standing, near the site of the church in
which he preached. It is occupied by his descendants, bearing his name,
and, although much time-worn, has the marks of having been a structure
of a very superior order for that day. The venerable mansion stands
back from the road, on a smooth and beautiful lawn, bordered by a solid
stone wall of even lines and surfaces. In these respects it well
compares with any country residence upon which taste, skill, and wealth
have, in more recent times, been bestowed.
The dividing line between Beverly and Salem Village, as seen on the
map, finally agreed upon in 1703, ran through the "Old Planters'
Farms," particularly the portions belonging to the Dodges, Raymonds,
and Woodbury. It went through "Captain John Dodge's dwelling-house, six
foot to the eastward of his brick chimney as it now stands." At the
time of the witchcraft delusion, the Raymonds and Dodges mostly
belonged to the Salem Village parish and church. They continued on the
rate-list, and connected with the proceedings entered on the
record-books, until the meeting-house at the "horse bridge" was opened
for worship, in 1715, when they transferred their relations to the
"Precinct of Salem and Beverly."
When Sir William Phipps got up his expedition[i.132] against Quebec, in
1690, William Raymond raised a company from the neighborhood; and so
deep was the impression made upon the public mind by his ability and
courage, and so long did it remain in vivid remembrance, that, in 1735,
the General Court granted a township of land, six miles square, "to
Captain William Raymond, and the officers and soldiers" under his
command, and "to their heirs," for their distinguished services in the
"Canada Expedition." The grant was laid out on the Merrimack, but,
being found within the bounds of New Hampshire, a tract of equivalent
value was substituted for it on the Saco River. Among the men who
served in this expedition was Eleazer, a son of Captain John Putnam,
who afterwards, for many years, was one of the deacons of the Salem
Village Church.
The short, rapid, sharp, and sanguinary campaign against the
Narragansetts seems to have tried to the utmost, not only the courage
and spirit of the men, but the powers of human endurance. The
constitutions of many were permanently impaired. As much fatigue and
suffering were crowded into that short month as the physical forces of
strong men could bear. We find such entries as this in the
town-books:—"Salem, 1683. Samuel Beadle, who lost his health in the
Narragansett Expedition, is allowed to take the place of Mr. Stephens
as an innkeeper." A petition, dated in 1685, is among the papers in the
State House, signed by men from Lynn, the Village, Beverly, Reading,
and Hingham, praying for a grant of land, for[i.133] their services and
sufferings in that expedition. The petition was granted. The following
extract from it tells the story: "We think we have reason to fear our
days may be much shortened by our hard service in the war, from the
pains and aches of our bodies, that we feel in our bones and sinews,
and lameness thereby taking hold of us much, especially in the spring
and fall."
While there is "reason to fear" that the days of many were shortened,
there were some so tough as to survive the strain, and bid defiance to
aches and pains, and almost to time itself. In a list of fourteen who
went from Beverly, six, including Thomas Raymond and Lott, a descendant
of Roger Conant, were alive in 1735!
The grants of land made to these gallant men and their heirs amounted
in all, and ultimately, to seven distinct tracts, called "Narragansett
Townships." They were made in fulfilment of an express public promise
to that effect. It is stated in an official document, that
"proclamation was made to them, when mustered on Dedham Plain" on the
9th of December, just as they took up their march, "that, if they
played the man, took the fort, and drove the enemy out of the
Narragansett country, which was their great seat, they should have a
gratuity in land, besides their wages." The same document, which is in
the form of a message from the House of Representatives to the Council
of the Province of Massachusetts, dated Jan. 10, 1732, goes on to say,
"And as the condition has been performed, certainly the promise, in all
equity and justice,[i.134] ought to be fulfilled. And if we consider
the difficulties these brave men went through in storming the fort in
the depth of winter, and the pinching wants they afterwards underwent
in pursuing the Indians that escaped, through a hideous wilderness,
known throughout New England to this day by the name of the _hungry
march_; and if we further consider, that, until this brave though small
army thus played the man, the whole country was filled with distress
and fear, and we trembled in this capital, Boston itself; and that to
the goodness of God to this army we owe our fathers' and our own safety
and estates,"—therefore they urge the full discharge of the obligations
of public justice and gratitude. They did not urge in vain. The grants
were made on a scale, that finally was liberal and honorable to the
government.
I have dwelt at this great length on the Narragansett campaign and
fight, partly because the details have not been kept as familiar to the
memory of the people as they deserve, but chiefly because they
demonstrate the military genius of the community with whose character
our subject requires us to be fully acquainted. The enthusiasm of the
troops, when Winslow gave the order for the assault, was so great, that
they rushed over the swamp with an eagerness that could not be
restrained, struggling as in a race to see who could first reach the
log that led into the fiery mouth of the fort. A Salem villager, John
Raymond, was the winner. He passed through, survived the ordeal, and
came unharmed out of the terrible fight.[i.135] He was twenty-seven
years of age. He signed his name to a petition to the General Court, in
1685, as having gone in the expedition from Salem Village, and as then
living there. Some years afterwards, he removed to Middleborough,
joined the church in that place in 1722, and died in 1725. The fact
that his last years were spent there has led to the supposition that he
went from Middleborough to the Narragansett fight; but no men were
drafted into that army from Middleborough. It was not a town at the
time, but was organized some years afterwards. It had no inhabitants
then. Philip had destroyed what few houses had been there, and
slaughtered or dispersed their occupants.
Thus far our attention has been directed to that portion of the
population of Salem Village drawn there by the original policy of the
company in London to attract persons of superior social position,
wealth, and education to take up tracts of land, and lead the way into
the interior. It operated to give a high character to the early
agriculture of the country, and facilitate the settling of the lands.
Without taking into view the means they had to make the necessary
outlays in constructing bridges and roads, and introducing costly
implements of husbandry and tasteful improvements, but looking solely
at the social, intellectual, and moral influence they exerted, it must
be acknowledged that the benefit derived from them was incalculable.
They gave a powerful impulse to the farming interest, and introduced a
high tone to the[i.136] spirit of the community. They were early on the
ground, and remained more or less through the period of the first
generation. Their impress was long seen in the manners and character of
the people. There was surely a goodly proportion of such men among the
first settlers of this neighborhood.