Note: There is A LOT of links in this PDF & I am finding a few I need to correct… please let me know if you run across any. Please include the page # and link/title~
ALSO more exciting NEWS!!
Post Commander of the Riverton American Legion Post 159 (Ted Sweeney) called me yesterday about the 2020 Barkhamsted Lighthouse Gathering’s 3 day event… He is wanting to take our group on a tour of Pahke’s Cave after our July 2nd event at the Lighthouse site 😁 Orrain (Orrin) Wright married Mercy Elwell (Cooke 1st marriage) (of the Lighthouse) and lived and had several children in Pahke’s cave for many years (children were later taken and indentured out) I have yet to make a actual connection to any of the 12 children’s descendants~
Morning journal and courier. March 28, 1893, Image 2 – The Quinnipiack Indians
Norwich bulletin. [volume], June 11, 1910, Page 5, Image 5 – Founding of Indian Town
Connecticut western news., April 11, 1873, Image 2 – Part 1
Connecticut western news., April 11, 1873, Image 2 – Part 2
The Bridgeport evening farmer., May 17, 1916, Page 11, Image 11 – Quartz and Garnets
New Britain herald. August 09, 1922, Image 7 – Scotts Swamp – Oldest in New England
The Indian Races of North and South America… By: Charles De Wolf Brownel pg’s: 222-228
Pequot remnants, 1655……..
The tyranny and exactions of Uncas over the Pequots who had become subject to him, aroused their indignation; while his treachery towards his own people, and alliance with the whites, secured him the hostility of every neigh boring tribe. He was engaged in perpetual quarrels with Ninigret, a celebrated Nehantic sachem; with Sequassen, whose authority at an earlier date extended over the Tunxis tribe, at the westward of the Connecticut; and with the grieved and revengeful Narragansetts.
Whenever these interminable disputes were brought be fore the court of the New England commissioners, the decisions of that body appear to have favored the Mohegan. Assisted by the counsel of a crafty and subtle Indian, named Foxun or Poxen, who served him in the capacity of chief advocate and adviser, and whose wisdom and sagacity were widely noted, he generally managed to explain away his iniquities; at least so far as to satisfy an audience already prejudiced in his favor. When his crimes were not to be concealed, a reprimand and caution were generally the extent of his punishment.
On the other hand, when suspicions arose against the Narragansetts, the most prompt and violent proceedings were re sorted to: the payment of an immense amount of wampum was exacted; the delivery of hostages from among the principal people of the tribe was demanded; and threats of war and extermination were used to humble and humiliate them.
In September, 1655, a few of the scattered Pequots who had not joined the forces of Uncas, were allowed a resting-place by the commissioners, upon a portion of the south eastern sea-coast of Connecticut, and their existence as a separate tribe was formally acknowledged.
This little remnant of the crushed and overthrown nation had been, for some time, under the guidance of two self-constituted sachems, one commonly called Robin Cassinament, a Pequot, and the other Cushawashet, a nephew of Ninigret, known among the English as Hermon Garret.
They had formed small settlements upon the tract now allotted to them, which they were allowed to retain upon payment of tribute, in wampum, to the colonies, and the adoption of a prescribed code of laws. Their governors were to be chosen by the English; and Cushawashet and Cassinament received the first appointment.
It will readily be perceived to what an extent the power and control of the colonists over the affairs of the Indians in their vicinity, had increased, even at this early period. The natives were now glad to settle down under the protection of their masters; to pay yearly tribute as amends for former hostilities; and to hire the lands of which they had been so short a time previous the undisturbed possessors.
It is pitiful to read of the coarse coats, the shovels, the hoes, the knives, and jews-harps, in exchange for which they had parted with their broad lands. Utterly improvident, and incapable of foreseeing, or hopeless of averting the ascendancy of the whites, they yielded to their exactions, and submitted to their dictation.
Sauntering indolently about the settlements, and wasting their energies by excess in the use of the novel means of excitement offered by “strong waters,” they lost much of that native pride, dignity, and self-respect which distinguished them when intercourse with foreigners first commenced. Their numbers, which appear to have been grossly exaggerated, even in their most flourishing days, were rapidly diminishing; their game was becoming scarce and the refinements and comforts of civilization, rude indeed as compared to what now exists, presented to their eyes at the white settlements, only aggravated the consciousness of their own poverty and distress.
The Tunxis and Podunk Indians, who inhabited either side of the Connecticut, in the vicinity of the English settlements; the Quinnipiacs on the sound, where New Haven now stands; the Nehantics, to the eastward of the river; and the feeble Pequot settlement, were subject to, or in effect, under the control of the colonists: Uncas was their “friend and fast ally;” and the Narragansetts, though under suspicion of various treacherous plans, were nominally at peace with the whites, and quelled by the terror of their arms.
This condition of affairs continued, with the exception of the great and final struggle between the colonists and the natives, known as Philip’s war to be detailed in a succeeding article until the death of Uncas, about the year 1682. He left the title to his extensive domains involved in inextricable confusion. In consequence of deeds and grants from himself and his sons Owenoco and Attawanhood, to various individuals among the white settlers, and for various purposes, the effect of which conveyances were probably unknown to the grantors, numerous contradictory claims arose. The same tracts were made over to different persons; one grant would extend over a large portion of another; and, to crown all, Uncas, in the year 1659, had aliened his whole possessions by deed, regularly witnessed, to John Mason, of Norwich. This conveyance was evidently intended by the sachem merely to confer a general power as overseer or trustee upon a man whom he considered as friendly to his interests, and whose knowledge would prove a protection against the overreaching of pro posed purchasers. According to the Indian understanding of the transaction was the claim of Mason and his heirs, who arrogated to themselves no further interest or authority than that above specified. The Connecticut colony, by virtue of a general deed of “surrender of jurisdiction,” obtained from Mason, insisted on an unqualified property in the whole domain.
Owenoco succeeded his father as sachem of the Mohegans, and pursued a similar course to secure his lands, conveying them to the sons of Mason as trustees. His Indian improvidence and intemperance led him to disregard this arrangement, and to give deeds of various tracts included in the trust conveyance, without the knowledge or assent of the overseer. In July, of the year 1704, in order to settle the conflicting claims of the whites and Indians, and to restore to the tribe the portions illegally obtained from them, a royal commission was obtained from England, by some friends of the Mohegans, to examine and settle the disputed questions.
The colony protested against the proceeding, denying the authority of the crown to determine upon the matter, and refused to appear before the commissioners. The conduct of the case being exparte, a decision was given in favor of the Mohegans, restoring them to a vast extent of territory alleged to have been obtained from their sachems when intoxicated, or by other under-hand and illegal courses. From this decree the Connecticut colony appealed, and a new commission was granted, but with no decisive result, and the case remained unsettled for more than half a century from the time of its commencement.
Owenoco lived to an advanced age, becoming, before his death, a helpless mendicant, and subsisting, in company with his squaw, upon the hospitality of the neighboring settlers. His son Caesar was his successor as sachem.
Ben, the youngest son of Uncas, of illegitimate birth, succeeded Caesar, to the exclusion of the rightful heir, young Mamohet, a grandson of Owenoco.
Mason now renewed his claims, and, accompanied by his two sons, carried Mamohet to England, that he might present a new petition to the reigning monarch. A new commission was awarded, but both the applicants died before it was made out. “When the trial finally came on in 1738, distinguished counsel were employed on both sides, in anticipation of an arduous and protracted contest; but by a singular course of collusion and artifice, which it were too tedious to detail, the decision of 1705, on the first commission, was repealed, and the Connecticut claims supported. This was appealed from by the Masons, and good cause appearing, a new trial was decreed.
Five commissioners, men of note from New York and New Jersey, met at Norwich in the summer of 1743, and the great case brought in auditors and parties in interest from far and near. The claims, and the facts offered in support of them, were strangely intricate and complex: counsel appeared in behalf of four sets of parties, viz.: the Connecticut colony; the two claimants of the title of Sachem of the Mohegans, Ben and John, a descendant of the elder branch; and those in possession of the lands in question.
The decree was in favor of the colony, which was sustained on the concluding examination of the case in England. Two of the commissioners dissented. The Mohegans still retained a reservation of about four thou sand acres.
Their number reduced to a few hundred; distracted by the uncertain tenure of their property, and the claims of the rival sachems; mingled with the whites in contentions, the merits of which they were little capable of comprehending; with drunkenness and vice prevalent among them; the tribe was fast dwindling into insignificance. Restrictive laws, forbidding the sale of ardent spirits to the Indians, were then, as now, but of little effect.
Of the celebrated and warlike tribes of the Mohegans and Pequots, only a few miserable families now remain upon their ancient territory. These are mostly of mixed blood, and little of the former character of their race is to be seen in them except its peculiar vices. They are scantily supported by the rents of the lands still reserved and appropriated to their use. A number of the Mohegans removed to the Oneida district, in New York, some years since, but a few still remain near the former head quarters of their tribe, and individuals among them retain the names of sachems and warriors noted in the early ages of the colonies.
Much interest attaches to the efforts which have been made for the instruction and improvement of this remnant of the Mohegan nation; especially as connected with the biography of Samuel Occum, their native preacher; one of the few Indians who have been brought under the influence of civilization, and have acquired a liberal education.
In reviewing the character and history of these, as of most of the native tribes, and reflecting upon their steady and hopeless decline before the European immigrants, we cannot but feel influenced by contradictory sympathies. Their cruelties strike us with horror; their treachery and vices disgust us; but, with all this, we still may trace the tokens of a great and noble spirit. It is painful to reflect that this has more and more declined as their communion with the whites has become the more intimate. They have lost their nationality, and with it their pride and self-respect; the squalid and poverty-stricken figures hanging about the miserable huts they inhabit, convey but a faint idea of the picture that the nation presented when in a purely savage state; when the vices of foreigners had not, as yet, contaminated them, nor their superior power and knowledge disheartened them by the contrast.
I have been collecting research books and links to free downloads – these are all from Google Books which are easy to download and add to your library.
A history of New England: containing historical and descriptive sketches of the counties,cities and principal towns of the six New England states, including, in its list of contributors, more than sixty literary men and women, representing every county in New England (Google eBook): http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=8sRWAAAAMAAJ&num=10&printsec=frontcover&output=reader
The Christian Commonwealth or The Civil Policy Of The Rising Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Written before the Interruption of the Government,by Mr. John Eliot, Teacher of the Churchof Christ at Roxbury in New-England. AndNow Published (after his consent given) by a Serverof the Season – http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=libraryscience
Connecticut western news. [volume], April 11, 1873, Image 2 – Part 1
Connecticut western news. [volume], April 11, 1873, Image 2 – Part 2
Waterbury Democrat. [volume], December 27, 1901, Image 1 – Mary Webster died – Last of the Tribe
Connecticut western news. [volume], February 08, 1900, Image 3 – Sol Webster
Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume], February 05, 1900, Image 4 – Sol Webster
New Britain herald. [volume], April 18, 1925, FINAL EDITION, Page 6, Image 6 – Barkhamsted Lighthouse
Barkhamsted Lighthouse (Light House) Village/Followers: Found A few great tidbits on: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ Will be updating this post with all I find!
ALSO found one on death of Mary Webster. Waterbury Democrat (Waterbury, CT) Dec. 27, 1901 – image 1 THE LAST OF THE TRIBE, Mary Webster, Aged 75, Was Found Dead in Bed.
N2T (Need to transcribe) NOTE: You will see this in my research books – I will be putting out soon… If you EVER want to help…transcribing would be the way to do it for me! I spend SO much time typing…finger’s get sore, quick. That would be the biggest help to me~ 😘
Please feel free to transcribe and email to me at: coni@conidubois.com
Also please update email on me in your contact as: coni@conidubois.com – this will be my research email and one I will be using for my main work email and those that have my personal email/keeping it/so don’t delete.
The miracle of the Internet, combined with the hard work already done by genealogists for their own projects, has enabled me to take a deep dive into my family tree – one that wouldn’t have been possible only scant years before. The things that I’ve learned have been amazing: that I’m descendant of William the Conqueror; that I have Bohemian heritage; that my surname may be as old as 1000 years; and much more. Most of this overlies nicely with the 23&Me results I have in hand, as well as with the various historical documents my family possesses. Most surprisingly however, the main lessons I’ve taken from these last few years of research have had little to do with my particular genetics, my surname, or any claims of famous ancestry. There are three of these lessons:
Lesson One: Your surname has next to nothing to do with your heritage. I know that’s surprising, and possibly sacrilegious among genealogists, but it’s true. Unless your family has spent its entire history having marriages only between people of the same surname, your actual heritage spreads out exponentially with every preceding generation. Take my own case, for example. Surely Gilbert is a Norman surname, but my mother’s surname is likely of Pictish origin. So, fifty-percent Norman you might say? Well, one move up the rung to my four grandparents reveals surnames of Norman (my father’s father, of course), German, Pictish (mom’s dad), and another German. So now the preponderance of my heritage is, if not now German, at least non-Norman. How about great-grandparents? Norman, Bohemian, German, Anglo-Saxon, Pictish, German, German, Scottish (probably Orkney). So, just going back a mere three generations I went from “being” Norman to “being” three-eighths German, one-quarter Scottish-ish, and with a bare smattering of other origins to include now only one-eighth Norman.
I say ‘being’ in quotes there because that is the central question: What does it mean to ‘be’ something? For example, Americans have the habit (annoying to some Europeans who don’t understand the context) of saying something like “I’m Irish” if they have an Irish surname. Of course, this is American shorthand for saying “My family immigrated from…” but even that has less and less meaning the farther one moves away from the first generation of immigrants bearing the surname. My Gilbert ancestors arrived in North America as early as the 1640s but the male line has been married into by something like a dozen other families – each varying between “just off the boat” recently immigrated to being in America since colonial times. Those marrying-in families have had just as many generations of marriage with other families as the Gilbert line has had, and so on. Therefore, in 12 generations of Americans, an individual has 4,096 direct ancestors. Of my 4,000 or so American ancestors, I know 12 were Gilberts. Therefore, to say “I am Norman” is a bit of a stretch. That leads us to the next lesson:
Lesson Two: Your ancestors’ homelands don’t really say much about your or their genetic makeup. Going back to the “I’m Irish” example, a lot of people (sometimes jokingly, other times more seriously) say things like “I found out I’m German, that’s why I’m so organized,” or like sauerkraut, or whatever stereotype fits. Looking at my own Norman heritage, I used to think Gilbert was an English surname – which it is, but what makes up ‘English’? Normans, Angles, Saxons, Romans, various Celtic tribes, Norse, and many other ethnicities. Go back a bit earlier and you have a land inhabited by peoples such as the Dumnonii, Durotriges, Belgae, Atrebates, Dobunni, Catuvellauni, and a score of others. Focusing just on the Anglo-Norman origin of Gilbert, one has to further ask “Well, what is Norman?” These people were from Normandy, but the nobility at least was descended from Vikings – but also experiencing the same in-marrying effect from the year 911 to the time of the Norman conquest of England in 1066. This made Norman heritage Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Anglo-Saxon, Italo-Roman, Gaulic, Celtic, Frankish, Visigoth – and a ton more you’ve likely never heard of like the Suebi and Occitans. The point is that early Europeans were far more highly mobile, intermarrying easily and absorbing migratory cultures over and over again, than one might think.
The impact all this has on genetic makeup is dazzling. I remember my time in the Balkans, a place of highly charged emotions regarding heritage, identity, race, and religion. There, a person of one particular nationality described to me another of the Baltic peoples as being less-than-human, another race, and inferior in all ways due to their ethnicity. Of course, his culture (like everyone’s of any culture I spoke to there) possessed “the original” culture, and therefore superior institutions – and most importantly the right to rule over their inferior neighbors. My response was “You all look white to me.” That’s the point, there is no ‘race gene’, only a collection of phenotypes that have been tossed into a millennia-old blender that sometimes produces vaguely recognizable physical characteristics in certain geographical regions. Simply put, at some point about 800 to 1000 years ago, one of my 30,000 to 100,000 direct ancestors who happened to be speaking French and living around the English Channel said “my surname is Gilbert” – bringing with him a million years of tribal history back to the dawn of our species.
Lesson Three: The good news – your family can be as large as you want. Language, culture, geography, and genetics do not map to each other perfectly, or at all in some cases. Look at my Bohemian ancestry: Bohemia is named after a tribe known as the Boii, but they were pushed out and supplanted by a series of tribes. The last of these tribes were a group a Slavs. Who knows how many of each tribe remained and became absorbed into the new ones? Also, what does ‘Slav’ mean? Well, it turns out that nobody really knows. No doubt there is a Slavic language group, but scholars point out this might even have arisen from ancient Thracian, a people mentioned in ancient Greek texts. Certainly, linguists agree, that going back even farther one finds that the Slavs and indeed all Europeans spoke a single, ancient, lost Indo-European language akin to Sanskrit. So, you may “be Irish”, but you can also celebrate your Indian ancestry.
While all of this may be disconcerting and bewildering to someone trying to find their roots, take heart! The math makes it clear. At the start of the American Colonial Period, about 400 years ago, each of us statistically have about 65,000 direct ancestors living at that time. Going back to the time most Europeans started taking surnames, say 1000 years ago, each of us should have about 1.2 TRILLION unique, individual, direct ancestors at that time! Of course, that is impossible as the total population of the Earth at that time was only about 275 million. This clearly shows us that every single one of us is closely, very closely, related. One can very nearly just pick a culture from history they want to celebrate as theirs and it is likely he or she has at least SOME connection. In fact, mitochondrial DNA studies show that every single person alive today shares a single many-great grandmother between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago. Maybe we should start considering trading in “I’m Irish” for “I’m human”.
It truly is breaking my heart to make this decision…but feel it is the best thing to do…. After talking to town official’s, donors and those planning on attending – they have all stated it would be best to postpone our upcoming 2020 Barkhamsted Lighthouse gathering.
Due to several factors: virus, economy and many people not going to be able to attend due to loss of jobs and or money not available… We feel this is the best decision to make.
I truly am sorry about this… Want to post it now so that those that made reservations can cancel and get money back before time is up for refunds.
I will be updating event calendar with new dates once I get it all planned.
Once again I apologise for any inconveniences this might bring.
This site is dedicated to the ancestors of the Johnson, Booker and Petruff families of Rhode Island, Connecticut and Pennsylvania and thier connecting lines of lineage.
