Connecticut Historical Collections

There are 2 post offices in this town, tlie Montville and Uncasville post offices. Uncasville post office is in the southern section of the town. The central part of the town is ahout 8 miles from New Lon- don. Chesterfield is a parish in the southeastern section of the town. Tiiere are 3 cotton, 2 woolen factories, and an oil mill, in the limits of llie town. There are five houses for puhlic worshi]) within the limits of the township, 2 for Congregaiionalists, 2 for Baptists, and one in the IMohegan reservation ; a tract of land reserved by the state for the maintenance of this tribe of Indians, a remnant of which still remain in this town, " on the land of their fathers." It appears from the most authentic information which can now be obtained, that, at the time of the first settlement of Connecticut, Uncas, the Mohegan sagamore, had under him between four and five hundred warriors. Allowing the pro[)ortion of the warriors to the whole number of inhabitants to have been as three to ten, the Mohegan tribe must have consisted of nearly 1700 people. The Pequot and Mohegan country lay to the south and east of the Nehantic, (in Lyme,) from Connecticut river to the Rhode Island line on the east, and extended northward to near the northern boundary of the state. This tract was nearly thirty miles square, and included the counties of New London, Windham, and the principal part of the county of Tolland, Historians, (says Dr. Holmes,) have treated the Pequots and IMohegans as two dilFerent tribes; and have described the Pequot country as lying princi[)ally within the three towns of New Lon- don, Groton, and Stonington. All thetiact north and east, as has been described, they have represented as the Mohegan country. Most if not all the towns in this tract hold their lands by virtue of deeds from Uncas, or his successors, the Mohegan sachems. Dr. Trumbull, however, thinks it doubtful whether the Mohegans were a distinct nation from the Pe- quots. "They appear to have been a part of the same nation, named from the place of their situation. Uncas was a Peijuot by birih, and of the royal line, both by his father and mother ; and his wife was a daughter of Tatobam, one of the Pequot sachems. He appears to have been a captain, or petty sachem, under Sassacus, the great prince of the nation. When the English first came into Connecticut, he was in a state of rebellion against him, in consequence of some misunder- standing between them ; and his power and influence among the Indi- ans were inconsiderable. Having revolted from his tribe, he was ex- pelled his country. "In 1G37, wluMi the English conquered llie Peqnols, Uncas readily joined them to save hiinsell', and be av.en;;'ed on his warlike adveisary. Alter tlii.s period, Uncas was the most poweri'til sacliem in the state. Part of the miserable remnant of the Pe- quots i'eil to tlie lot of llie Moheyans, and became subject to thej^'ovcrnment of Uncas. He seems, however, to have swayed the scepter wnh a heavy hand; for the Pequots withdrew themselves from his dominion, and the commissioners found it necessary to fine him, and repeatedly lo admonish him fur his tyranny. He M-as however a brave warrior, and formidable to his enemies ; on the murder of one of his principal Indians, by some of the men of Sequassen, a sachem on Connecticut river, he demanded satis- faction of him. It was refused. Uncas and Sequassen fought. Sequassen was over- come. Uncas killed a number of his men, and burned his wigwams. Sequassen appears to have been a sachem under the inlluenceof Miantonimoh, the chief sachem of the Narragansetts. After the destruction of the Pequots, Miantonimoh attempted 33G JI 0 N T V I L L E. to set up as a kind of universal sachem ovei- all the IinHans in New England. The old grudge anil hatred which had siibbi.-,ted brtweeii hini and the I'equols, he now transferred tu Uncas and the Muliegans. Without any regard to ihe league made be- tween him, the English, and the Muhegans, at IJaitlord, in IboS, when the Pcquots were divided between hiu) ami Uncas, he praetieetl uuiider and war against him. Alter the defeat of Seqiuij-sen, Miantunimuh, with 900 or 1000 men, marched against Uncas. These hostile chiefs met on Sac/icnt's Plain, in the east pan of the town of Norwich; MianloniiiKih was tiefeated, lakeii jinsuner, and some time alter was put to death. Uncas appears to liave pushed his conquesis, in dillerent direetions, beyond Connecticut river. About 1U51, he h;id a quairel with Arihamamet, sacliem of Alus- .saueo, or Massacoe, (Simsbury,) which brought on a war. Uiu:as sent one of his warriors to talce and burn an out wigwam lu'the niu'ht, loll and burn, and leave the marks of the Mohawks. His orders were executed. Arrhamamet, supposing the Mohawks had done the mischief, went in search of ihein to the northwest. Uncas gained time to equip his men, and afterwards subjugated Arrhamamet, Poduak, near Hartford, was ever afterwards li ibiilary to Uncas."* On the conquest of the Pequots, the Mohegans claimed most of the Pequot country as their hereditary right ; they also laid claim to the Wabbequasset territory by virtue of conquest. This last named territory was coiKjucred from the Nipmuck Indi;ins, whose principal seat was about the great ponds in (Jxlonl, in Massachusetts, but their territory e-^Ltended southward into Connecticut, more than twenty miles. This was called the Wabbequa.sset and Whetstone countn/. The original Mohcgan country was surveyed in 1705, and a map of it dra\^ n. The occasion of this survey was a claim, brought forward in 1701, by Owaneeo, the son ol' Uncas, to certain lands in Connecticut. The Masons and i/ihers preferred a petition and complaint to Uueea Anne, in favor of the Mohegan Indians. The Masons claimed the lands ]iurchased by their ancestor, deputy governor John Mason, in virtue of a deed given to him by Uncas in 105!», while he acted as agent of ihe eoluiiv ; and denied the legality of hi.s surrender of them to the colony, in the GeiiL-iMl Assembly, the iie.\l year! 'I'hey insisted that it respected nothing more than the jui jsdiction right, and that the title to the soil was vested in their family as guardians and overseeis of the Indians. This celebrated " Mohet^an case" was kept in agitation for nearly tweiUy years. It was al- ways, on a legal hearing, determined in favor of the eol.,nv. The hnal decision w;is by king George III. in council, just beloie the Uevoluiiunary war. Uncas appeared at tlie first very unfiiendly to the Christian religion. The commissioners of the colonies endeavored to reclaim him. In 1612, they wrote a letter to him "to inciirra!j;e him to aiteiid on iho ministry." Whatever effect this letter may have had on his outwiird deportment it seems not to have reached his heart. In ]Gll, the Rev. Mr. Filch, of Norwich, mentioni'il him a-- iiiaiiifL'stini^ some respect to the (■hilstiaii minislry, but with an ciiiirc iliMiiist ul" his sincerity.' About two years afterwartis, however, a jjiovidenlial event made snch an impression on the mind of this pagan chieftain, as gave this pions minister some hopes of his real conversion to Christianity. " In the summer of 1676, there was a great drought in New England, which was extremely severe at Mohegan, and in the neighboring country. In August the corn dried up; the fruit and leaves fell off as in autumn; and some trees appeared to be dead. The Indians came from Mohe- gan to Norwich, and lamented that they had no rain, and that their powwows could get none in tlieir way of worship ; they desired Mr. Fitch that he wotdd seek Ciod for rain. He ajipointed a fast day for that purpose. The day proved clear, but at sunset, at the close of the service, sotiie clouds arose. The next day was cloudy. Uncas went to the house of Mr. Fitch, with many Intlians, and lamented the great want of rain. If God shall send you rain, said JMr. Fitch, will you not at- tribute it to your powwows ? He answered, no ; for we have done our President Stiles' Itinerary, M u N T V J I, L i: , 337 utiDost but all in vain, if 3011 will declare it before all these Indians, replied the minlstor, you sliall yeo what (lod will do for us ; remarking at the same time, their repeated and urjfaihn^r rece|ition of rain, in an- swer to fastiiii; ant! prayer. Uiieas ilien • made a great speech' to the Indians, confessing that if Goil slie.idd ilien send i:.iin, it could not be ascribed to their powwowing, hut must he acknowledged to be an answer to the Englishman's prayer. i)n that very day the clouds became more extended; and the day following, there was such a copious rain, that their river rose more than two feet in height."* Whether Uncas died in the faith of Christianity, caniiot now be ascertained. It is agreeable however to find him acknowledging the God who is above, and paying homage to the religion of his Son. " The same year (1G7G) Oneco, a son of Uncas, commanded a party of Mohegans, in an expe- dition with Captains Dennison and Avery, against the Narragansetts." Ben or Benjamin Uncas appears to have been the last of The Mohe- gans dignified with the title of king, lie died suddenly, in iNIay, 1769. He was buried about half a mile south of the present IMohegan chapel. His son, Isaiah Uncas, was a pupil in Dr. Wheelock's school, at Leba- non. He is represented as a corpulent person, of dull intellectual parts, as was his father before him. " Isaiah died about one year after his father, and the royal line b.eame extinct. The body of king Ben was dug up, and was carried with that ol' his son, and buried at Norwich. "f vVliliough there seems to have been considerable pains taken to induce the Mohegans to embrace the gospel, yet these eftbrts appear to ha been attended with but little or no success till about the year 1G44 when the zealous Mr. Davenport at that time directed his efforts to- wards their conversion. He is said to have been very successful. To the converts gained at this time, Dr. Trumbull probably refers, when he says, "some few of the iMohegans have professed Christianity, and have been, many years since, admitted to full communion in the north church in New London.