EARLY SETTLEMENT – NEW ENGLAND

In 1614, Captain John Smith explored the coast of New England, looked into Boston Harbor, and named the Charles River. The earliest inhabitants of this region were Indians, then known as the Rumney Marsh Indians, subjects of Sagamore John and of Sagamore James, and belonging to the Pawtucket tribe whose lands extended from the Charles to the Piscataqua including Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh and Pullen Point. They were a tribe of a great nation called Aberginians. Their chief was Nanepashemet, or the New Moon, of Lynn, and their numbers were greatly reduced by the two following causes: - In 1615, a powerful tribe easterly of the Penobscot, called the Tarratines, waged war against them which was disastrous to the Pawtucket’s, among whom were the Rumney Marsh Indians. The other cause, the plague of 1616, more fatal than war and less discriminating, ravaged the New England coast.

After this war Nanepashemet removed to the Mystic, near Medford, for safety, where he built a fortified house; but that did not protect him, for he was killed in 1619. His widow, called Squaw Sachem (pronounced Sawkim), gathered the remnant of the tribe to the Mystic where she governed it, leaving local rule to her sons of whom were Wonohaquaham, or as called by the English, Sagamore John of Mystic, and afterward of Winnisimmet; Montowampate, or Sagamore James of Lynn; and Wenepoykin, Winnepurkitt, or Sagamore George of Salem. There was also a daughter, Yawata, or Abigail. ,

The word Sagamore, or more properly, Sagamo, is only another pronunciation of Sachem, a word meaning strength, and applied by the red people, as a title to their chiefs. Sagamore Hill, therefore, is the same as Sachemauog Hill, or the Hill of Kings.

Wonohaquaham was sachem of a tribe of Indians on the west of Saugus, and lived first at the residence of his father in Medford and afterward at Winnisimmet called Rumney Marsh by the first settlers. Montowampate was sachem of the Saugus Indians, and lived on Sagamore Hill (in Lynn) near the eastern end of the beach, and had jurisdiction of Lynn and Marblehead.

A few years later, Samuel Maverick, a young man born in 1602, built himself a house at Winnisimmet, on the hill now occupied by the Marine Hospital. This was the first permanent settlement in Boston Harbor, perhaps in 1624 but not later than 1625, when and where was " fortified " Samuel Maverick's Palisade house, the oldest permanent house within the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Here he had a sharp encounter with the Indians who, receiving a repulse, never attempted it again. In this house he entertained Governor Winthrop and his party of exploration, when they came up from Salem into Boston Bay, June 17,1630. This house was still standing in 1660. As early as 1630, Elias Maverick was at Charlestown but soon after this he was living in Winnisimmet where he remained until his death on Sept. 8, 1684. He was born in 1604, was probably a brother of Samuel Maverick and possibly came over with him in 1624.

Sagamore John was said to be naturally of a gentle and good disposition, who loved the English and revealed to the inhabitants of his neighborhood a great design of the Narragansett Indians against them. Thomas Dudley, after a year's acquaintance with the red men about Boston, wrote to the Countess of Lincoln that, "Upon the river of Mystic is seated Sagamore John, and upon the river of Saugus Sagamore James, brother, both so named by the English.

The elder brother, John, is a handsome young man, ...conversant with us, affecting English apparel and houses, and speakjng well of our God. His brother James is of a far worse disposition yet repaireth often to us. Both these brothers command not above thirty or forty men, for aught I can learn." Governor Winthrop recorded Dec. 5, 1633 that: "John Sagamore died of the small pox, and almost all his people; (above thirty buried by Mr. Maverick of Winnisimmet in one day) .The towns in the bay took away many of the children; but most of them died soon after.

James Sagamore of Saugus died also, and most of his folks. John Sagamore desired to be brought among the English, (so he was;) and promised (if he recovered) to live with the English and serve their God. He left one son, which he disposed to Mr. Wilson, the pastor of Boston, to be brought up by him. He gave to the governor a good quantity of wampompeague, and to divers others of the English he gave gifts, and took order for the payment of his own debts and his men's. He died in a persuasion that he should go to the Englishmen's God. Divers of them, in their sickness, confessed that the Englishmen's God was a good God; and that, if they recovered, they would serve him.

"It wrought much with them, that when their own people forsook them, yet the English came daily and ministered to them; and yet few, only two families, took any infection by it. Among others, Mr. Maverick of Winnisimmet is worthy of a perpetual remembrance. Himself, his wife, and servants, went daily to them, ministered to their necessities, and buried their dead, and took home many of their children. So did other of the neighbors”

These chiefs were succeeded by their brother, Sagamore George, born in 1616, who was subject to the supreme authority of his mother, Squaw Sachem, till her death in 1650, when he became sachem of his tribe. His immediate possessions were in Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh, Saugus and Lynn, and his immediate subjects, the Rumney Marsh Indians. He was commonly called George Rumney Marsh, and was the proprietor of Deer Island in Boston Harbor. His mother, Squaw Sachem, in 1635, had a second husband whose name was Wappacowet.

The fact that Mt. Washington, in Chelsea, was called Sagamore Hill as early as 1641, and that the valley extending northward to Woodlawn Cemetery formerly abounded in Indian relics and other indications of Indian occupation, seems to point to these sites as near the dwelling place of the Sagamore. There are indications of an old Indian fort near a brook between Woodlawn and Sagamore Hill, another on the top of Mt. Revere, and still another on Powder Horn Hill. The cutting down of the hill at Crescent Beach near the end of Beach Street, laid open one of those Indian shell heaps which excite so much interest. Many arrowheads have been found near this heap and in various parts of the town, especially along the shore on the ridge at the foot of Shirley Avenue, where the boulevard now runs. Indian pipes and implements of war have been unearthed when digging in the streets and fields of the town. Indian skeletons were likewise found and, in June of 1881, two of them were unearthed from a gravel bank near the Pavilion. The remains of an old Indian burying ground were discovered on the Sewall estate, Revere Street, where now stands the Italian church; and while removing gravel, Indian bones and even whole skeletons were found with wampum and various articles which had been buried there. Here in the middle of March, 1882, while digging gravel for the town, the shovellers unearthed the skeleton of an Indian about three feet below the surface; and on Monday, March twentieth, another was exhumed. The remains were remarkably well preserved especially the skulls and teeth. Instead of saving them, the boys were allowed to carry off and destroy them. On May 30, 1891, the workmen engaged in excavating for a cellar on a lot at Revere Highlands, found a well-preserved skeleton, supposed to be that of an Indian. Several similar finds were previously made.

In their persons, the Indians were from five to six feet in height, of a reddish and pleasant complexion, with black hair and black eyes. Their whole form was a model of strength and activity. They were unvexed by cares, undebased by rum, and were seldom deformed or sick. They oiled their bodies with the fat of bears and eagles, and tied their hair in a lock on the top of the head, frequently with a snakeskin. The dress of the men was the skin of a wolf or bear, tied round the waist, and in winter another thrown over the shoulders, with moccasins, or shoes made of moose hide. The dress of the women was commonly of beaver skin.

Their weapons were bows, arrows, and tomahawks. Their bows were made of walnut, or some other elastic wood, and strung with sinews of deer or moose. Their arrows were made of elder, and feathered with the quills of eagles. They were headed with a long sharp stone, tied to a short stick, which was thrust into the pith of the elder. Their tomahawks were made of a flat stone, sharpened to an edge, with a groove in the middle. This was inserted in a bent walnut stick, the ends of which were tied together.

The red men had few arts, and only such as were requisite to their subsistence. We are, however, indebted to them for snowshoes, scoop nets, and the art of preserving flesh in snow. They subsisted principally by hunting and fishing. Their only objects of cultivation were corn, beans, pumpkins, and squashes, which are all indigenous plants. Their season for planting was when the leaves of the white oak were as large as the ear of a mouse. From this observation was formed the rule of the first settlers. “When the white oak trees look gosling grey, Plant then, be it April, June, or May.”

Their women performed all the labor of agriculture, and hoed the corn with large clamshells. Their fields were tended with great care, and the corn was harvested in the ground. When boiled in kernels, it was called samp; when parched and pounded for journeys, it was termed nokehike; and when pounded and boiled, it was called hominy. They also boiled corn and beans together, which they called succotash. Berries were plenty, especially strawberries "very large ones, some being two inches about," and these they bruised in a mortar, and, mixing them with corn, made strawberry bread. Whortleberries also were employed in the same manner. Some of their dishes are still well known, and highly relished - their samp, their hominy or hasty pudding, their stewed beans or succotash, their parched corn, their boiled and roast ears, and their whortleberry cake. .

Indian houses, or wigwams, were rude structures, made of poles set round in the form of a cone, and covered with bark and mats. They were moved about by the women, to the hunting, fishing, and planting grounds. In winter, one great house, built with more care, served for the accommodation of many. They had two kinds of boats, called canoes; the one made of a pine log, twenty to sixty feet in length, burnt and scraped out with shells; the other made of birch bark, very light and elegant. They made fishing lines of wild hemp, equal to the finest twine, and used fish bones for hooks. Their method of catching deer was by making two fences of trees, nearly a mile in extent, in the form of an angle, with a snare at the place of meeting, in which they frequently took the deer alive.

The Indians appear to have been very fond of amusement. The tribes, even from a great distance, were accustomed to challenge each other, and to assemble upon the Lynn Beach to decide their contests. Here they sometimes passed many days in the exercises of running, leaping, shooting, and other diversions. Before they began their sports, they drew a line in the sand, across which the parties shook hands in evidence of friendship, and sometimes painted their faces, to prevent revenge. A tall pole was then planted in the beach, on which were hung beaver skins, money, and ornaments, for which they contended; and frequently all they were worth was ventured in the play. One of their principal sports was football. Their ball was not much larger than a handball, which they caused to mount into the air with their naked feet. They had another game called pulm, which was played by shuffling together fifty or sixty short sticks, and contending for them. Another game was played with five fiat pieces of bone, black on one side and white on the other. These were put into a wooden dish, which was struck on the ground, causing the bones to bound aloft, and as they fell white or black the game was decided. During this play, the Indians sat in a circle, making a. great noise, by the constant repetition of the word hub, hub, - come, come, - from which it was called hubhub.

Their money was made of shells gathered on the beaches, and was of two kinds. The one was called wampum peag, or white money, and was made of the twisted part of the conkle, strung together like beads. Six of these passed for a penny, and a fathom of six feet, for about five shillings. The other was called suckauhoc, or black money, and was made of the thick part, or hinge, of the poquahoc clam, bored with a sharp stone. The value of the black money was double that of the white. These shells were also very curiously wrought into pendants, bracelets, and belts of wampum several inches in breadth, with the figures of animals and flowers. Their sachems were profusely adorned with it, and some of the princely females wore caps and aprons worth forty or fifty dollars. It passed for beaver skins, and other commodities, as currently as silver.

The Indians are supposed by some to be the remnants of the long lost ten tribes of Israel; and their existence in tribes, the similarity of some of their customs, and the likeness of many words in their language, seem to favor this opinion. There can be little doubt that they came from the northeastern part of Asia, at some very remote period.

They have ever been distinguished for friendship, justice, magnanimity, and a high sense of honor. They have been represented as insensible and brutish; but with the exception of their revenge, which was dreadful, they were not an insensate race. The old chief, who requested permission of the white people to smoke one more whiff before he was slaughtered, was thought to be an unfeeling wretch; but he expressed more than he could have done by the most eloquent speech. The red people received the emigrants in a friendly manner, and taught them how to plant; and when any of the settlers traveled through the woods, they entertained them with more love than compliments, kept them freely many days, and often went ten and even twenty miles to conduct them on their way. On the arrival of the first ship, they are said to have taken it for a winged island, and the discharge of cannon for thunder. They were astonished at the operation of a windmill; and when they saw a ploughman break up more ground in an hour, than they could open with their shells and sticks in a day, they said he was Hobbamoc, or a demon.

Indians had a crude worship, which, according to their tradition, was once well attended; but before the arrival of the English it had greatly declined. Their principal powah, or priest was Passaconaway, who resided at Pentucket, or Haverhill. They believed that after death they should go to the region whence came the pleasant southwest wind, where dwelt their great and benevolent god, Cautontowit, and where they should enjoy perpetual pleasures, and hunting and fishing without weariness.

They endured the most acute pains without a murmur, never laughed loud, and their words and deeds were seldom strangers. They cultivated a kind of natural music, and modulated their voices by the songs of birds. They had war and death songs, and lullabies to quiet their children. The voices of their females, it is said, was exquisitely harmonious; and when heard through the shadowy woods, might easily have been mistaken for the warbling of some melodious birds, or the notes of a fine toned instrument.

The woods in the adjoining town on the north were filled with wild animals, of which the most numerous were foxes. There were also wolves, bears, moose, deer, beaver, raccoons, and that most insidious and deadly foe of human kind, the catamount. This animal has never been particularly described, but many stories are related of its attacks upon the early settlers. It is one of the numerous varieties of the cat kind, from three to six feet in length, with short legs, and commonly of a cinnamon color. It climbs trees, and leaps with surprising agility on the unwary traveler whom it surprises in the forest.

Wild pigeons are represented to have been so numerous, that they passed in flocks so large as to

"obscure the light," and continued flying " for four or five hours together," to such an extent that a person could see neither "beginning nor ending, length or breadth, of these millions." When they alighted in the woods, they frequently broke down large limbs of the trees with their weight, and the crashing was heard at a great distance. A single family has been known to kill more than one hundred dozen in one night, with poles and other weapons; and they were often taken in such numbers, that they were thrown into piles and kept to feed the swine. The Indians called the pigeon wuscowhan, a word signifying a wanderer. The harbor was frequently covered with wild fowl, so that persons have killed "50 ducks at a shot;” the porpoises pursued their rude gambols along the shore, and the seal slumbered on the rocks. The light birchen canoes of the red men were seen gracefully skimming over the surface of the bright blue ocean, while the half clad females were beheld, bathing their olive limbs in the lucid flood, or sporting on the smooth sands of the beach, and gathering the spotted eggs, the beautiful shells, or the curious bones, which abounded among the pebbles, to string into beads, or weave into wampum, for the adornment of their necks and arms. At one time, an Indian was seen silently endeavoring to transfix the wild duck or the brant as they rose and sank with the alternate waves; and at another, a glance was caught of the timid wild deer, or the sly fox, bounding from rock to rock, among the high cliffs of Nahant, and stealing along the shore to find his evening repast which the tide had left upon the beach. The little sand birds darted along the thin edge of the wave - the white gulls, in hundreds, soared screaming overhead - and the curlews filled the echoes of the rocks with their wild and watery music.

The History of the Town of Revere as compiled by Benjamin Shurtleff - 1937