Tag:

Woodstock Conn.

The Praying Indians of the American Revolution

More than a century after the Puritans converted praying Indians and organized them into towns, they fought on the American side during the Revolutionary War.

The Puritans considered the native tribes idolatrous savages who needed enlightenment and redemption. Some Puritans thought the Indians belonged to the 10 lost tribes of Israel.

Seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, (1629–1686, 1689-1691)

The Massachusetts Bay charter declared part of the Puritan mission to convert the native people. In their own words, they came to North America,

To winn and incite the natives of the country to the knowledge and Obedience of the onlie true God and Saviour of Mankinde, and the Christian Fayth.

And the first seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony featured a Native American saying, “Come over and help us.”

Gérard Dicks Pellerin a-1640xl pc065135 10-02-04

Praying Indians

On October 28, 1646, in Nonantum (now Newton), Puritan missionary John Eliot preached his first sermon to the Massachusett tribe. He spoke in their own language. Then he eventually translated the Bible into the Massachusett language and had it printed — the first Bible published in America.

Eliot and other missionaries then continued to convert native people.

The Puritans set the praying Indians apart from their own towns and from disagreeable neighboring tribes. Natives who converted became farmers, established homesteads, built frame houses, lost their tribal identities and intermarried with blacks and whites.

Praying towns in Massachusetts included Gay Head and Christiantown on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. On the mainland, they included Nonantum, Natick, Mashpee, Grafton, Dartmouth and Herring Pond in Plymouth. In Connecticut, Nipmuc praying towns included Maanexit, probably today’s Fabyan. They also included Quinnatisset, six miles south of Maanexit, and Wagaquasset in Woodstock.

That seems like a lot of praying towns. But historian Gary Nash argued after 10 years of effort, only about a thousand natives settled in four praying towns. Fewer than 100 declared their conversion to Puritan congregationalism, wrote Nash.

Why would the indigenous people convert to the Puritan religion? The short answer: they hoped to avoid war and to protect their territory. Typically, the weaker and more demoralized tribes responded to the missionaries. The Mashpee Indians, for example, pretty much stayed out of King Philip’s War and kept their land on Cape Cod.

Glover’s Regiment crossing the Delaware with Gen. Washington

Glover’s Regiment

During the American Revolution, as many as 100 praying Indians enlisted in the Continental Army. They integrated with other units. Some Indian mariners belonged to John Glover’s Marblehead storied regiment, and some belonged to the 1^st Rhode Island regiment.

The 1st Rhode Island earned a reputation as the Black Regiment because it had many African-American soldiers. But it also included Native Americans. They fought well at the Battle of Rhode Island, which Lafayette called “the best fought action of the war.”

But Glover’s Regiment deserves special mention. Historian Patrick O’Donnell explains why in his new book, The Indispensables.

…the American Revolution would have met an early, dramatic demise had it not been for the SEAL-like operations and extraordinary battlefield achievements of this diverse, unsung group of men and their commander…

Glover’s elite unit rescued the Continental Army from destruction after the Battle of Long Island in a Dunkirk-like evacuation. The regiment also saved the patriot cause when it ferried 2,400 men, their horses and artillery across the Delaware River in a blinding snowstorm.

Praying Indians also fought in the battles of Bunker Hill, Battle Road and Saratoga.

Praying Indians Who Served

Historian George Quintal, Jr., compiled their service histories in his book Patriots of Color: ‘A Peculiar Beauty and Merit.’

They included:

James Anthony, born in Natick, served for eight months in 1775 under Col. Jonathan Ward. He then re-enlisted from 1777 to 1780 in the 4th Massachusetts Regiment. He also fought at Saratoga and camped at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777. Anthony got his discharge on March 14, 1780.
Alexander Quapish, born around 1741 in Yarmouth, Mass., enlisted in Dedham in 1775. He belonged to Col. Loammi Baldwin’s main guard. But he got sick in March 1776 and died in Needham. A man named Michael Bacon took care of him in his last days and buried him. Bacon was likely the father of a 10-year-old drummer boy Quapish befriended.
Ceasar Ferrit had West Indian, French, Dutch, and Natick Indian ancestry. He was born around 1720, raised in Boston by an English family and moved to the praying town of Natick in 1751. Ferrit volunteered as a minutemen at Lexington and Concord with his son John. He also helped ambush British soldiers in Lexington. Ferrit served in militias and regiments from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York. He was about 61 when discharged in 1781.

Today, descendants of the praying Indians from Natick have organized as the Praying Indians of Natick and Ponkapoag.

The State Seal

The Massachusetts state seal depicts the arm of Myles Standish brandishing a saber above the head of a Native American standing at peace.

The current state seal features an arm holding a sword poised above a Native American. The motto, translated from Latin, reads, “By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.”

Many view the seal as offensive, and in 2021 Gov. Charlie Baker ordered a commission to recommend changes. Then on May 17, 2022, the commission voted unanimously to change the seal.

This story was updated in 2022.

Images: First seal of Massachusetts Bay Colony By Viiticus – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=112564338

4 comments 850 views

Winthrop Chandler, Disappointed Limner

When Winthrop Chandler died on July 29, 1790, his obituary in the Massachusetts Spy noted that he “could guide the pencil of a limner.” Chandler, like so many artists, faced disappointment in life. He had to earn his living as a house painter. He managed some side hustles, though: as a gilder, carver, illustrator and painter of portraits and landscapes.

Winthrop Chandler, self-portrait

Winthrop Chandler

He was born April 6, 1747, the youngest of 10 children, to William Chandler, a farmer, and Jemima Bradbury Chandler, on the family farm in Connecticut. The farm, on Chandler Hill, straddles the border of Thompson and Woodstock.

His father died when he was a boy, in 1754. He may have left home when he was about 15 to serve as an apprentice to a Boston portrait painter. Though no documentation of his apprenticeships appears to exist, he didn’t live in Woodstock for eight years — the usual term for an apprentice. After eight years, he won a commission, which suggests he did work as an apprentice, according to the National Gallery of Art biography.

When he returned to Woodstock he painted portraits of his relatives and town notables, as well as landscapes of the local gentry.

His work is that “of a highly gifted folk painter,” observed Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, in The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art. Chandler didn’t fight in the Revolutionary War, though many of his family members did — on both sides.

He painted his brother Sam, for example, a captain in the Connecticut militia.

Capt. Samuel Chandler

He also painted a landscape for Gen. Timothy Ruggles, one of New England’s leading Loyalists. Chandler depicted the Ruggles estate outside of Worcester. Massachusetts confiscated Ruggles’ property and banished him. He fled to Nova Scotia, leaving behind his pregnant daughter who went to the gallows for murdering her husband.

Timothy Ruggles’ estate

He painted both sides in the Battle of Bunker Hill.

The Battle of Bunker Hill by Winthrop Chandler

Hard Times

Chandler married Mary Gleason of Dudley, Mass., in 1772. They had five sons and two daughters. Chandler had a hard time providing for his large family, despite a modest inheritance. The couple moved to Worcester, Mass., in 1785, perhaps in search of work. But unlike most itinerant painters of the era, he didn’t travel the countryside looking for commissions. He stayed put in Worcester for five years.

During his time in Worcester his son Charles and his wife died. His other children went to live with relatives.

He scraped together a living painting houses and, once, re-gilding the weathervane on the courthouse. He couldn’t make a go of it, though, and returned to Chandler Hill practically destitute. There he died on July 9, 1790, only 43 years old.

No Bosom of Encouragement

His Spy obituary suggests he was disappointed in life It read, “Died at Woodstock, Conn., Winthrop Chandler of this town, a man whose native genius has been serviceable to the community in which he resided. In profession he was a house painter, but many likenesses on canvas shew he could guide the pencil of a limner.”

“The world was not his enemy, but, as is too common, his genius was not matured on the bosom of encouragement,” it read. “Embarrassment, like strong weeks in a garden of delicate flowers, checked his enthusiasm and disheartened the man.”

This story was updated in 2022.

0 comment 153 views

The Biggest (But Not the Most Fun) July 4th Celebration in the U.S.

A U.S. president had to sneak a drink and a Supreme Court justice tried to get out of going to the annual July 4th celebration in Woodstock, Conn.

Henry Ward Beecher speaking at Woodstock, Conn, President Grant seated. From a Harper’s Weekly engraving courtesy Library of Congress.

During the second half of the 19th century, the small Connecticut town boasted the largest July 4th party in the United States.

It was not the kind of raucous celebration typical of the decades after the Civil War. Its host, Henry C. Bowen, was a teetotaler and a staunch Congregationalist. Pink lemonade was served, fireworks were set off for (not by) spectators and many, many speeches were given.

A Temperate July 4th

Some of the most prominent people of the era delivered speeches, including three presidents: Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison and Rutherford B. Hayes. Other notable speakers included Julia Ward Howe, John Fremont and Henry Ward Beecher.

Roseland Cottage

Henry Chandler Bowen, ‘Mr. Fourth of July,’ was a wealthy businessman who made his money in the dry goods business. He also published a religious newspaper, The Independent. Bowen helped found the Republican Party and for several years served as Abraham Lincoln’s collector of Internal Revenue for the 2^nd district of New York. He had played a role in bringing Lincoln to Cooper Union for his historic speech in 1860.

Bowen had a thing for the color pink. In 1846, he built a 20-room summer home in his hometown of Woodstock and painted it pink. He called it Roseland Cottage after his wife’s favorite flower and decorated it with pink upholstery, pink linens and pink china.

Its extensive grounds included a manmade lake, 21 flower beds with at least 4,500 aunuals. He also built an indoor bowling alley (now the oldest in the U.S.) in the carriage house.

Henry Chandler Bowen by James Swayer (probably)

Starting in 1870, he hosted the huge July 4th celebration. The festivities included a reception for as many as 500 on the cottage grounds and a separate party for the hoi polloi in Roseland Park. (Bowen had paid to drain a swamp and build the park.)

President Grant spoke at the first celebration on the Roseland grounds. Afterward he bowled his first strike in the indoor bowling alley. He also spent the night in Bowen’s house, though Bowen didn’t allow drinking or smoking inside. Grant then smoked cigars on the porch and enjoyed a surreptitious cocktail.

Sermons and Sunday School Talk

The party in Roseland Park sounds like a lot more fun than the reception on the cottage grounds. It featured band concerts, games and huge amounts of strawberry shortcake and lemonade (pink, of course). At night a torchlight parade marched to the park, followed by a huge fireworks display.

The reception at the cottage had its moments. Caterers from New York City made the food, and hundreds of lanterns illuminated the gardens at night. But then there was the oratory.

The New York Times in 1884 listed the lineup: Gov. John D. Long of Massachusetts made the opening speech. The Hon. George H. Boker of Philadelphia then read a poem. Then the speeches including Benson J. Lossing on “Columbus: His Place in History,” the Rev. Henry Stinson on Worcester on “Aggressive Reformation and Agricultural Commissioner George B. Loring on “Parks and Highways.” Those didn’t end it, though. Dr. J.H. Vincent spoke on “The Every-Day College,” former Kansas Gov. J.R. St. John on “Prohibition” and, finally, Joseph Cook of Boston on “Ultimate America.”

One year, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., delivered a poem at Woodstock about his ancestors, many buried nearby. He came reluctantly, and only if the weather was good. “If I come and am wanted to say a few words at the proper time I could hardly refuse,’ he wrote beforehand. “But as to sitting through sermons and Sunday school talk and temperance speeches, if all that is necessary, I shall put off my visit to Woodstock.”

Henry Chandler Bowen died in 1896. He gave the house and grounds to the community. Also known as the Pink House, Roseland Cottage is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Historic New England bought it in 1970; the public may now visit the house.

This story about July 4th in Woodstock, Conn., was updated in 2022.

Images: Roseland Cottage by By Carol M. Highsmith – Library of CongressCatalog: http://lccn.loc.gov/2011631587Image download: https://cdn.loc.gov/master/pnp/highsm/13300/13393a.tifOriginal url: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/highsm.13393, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52228471.

5 comments 176 views