Above the Green is Watson’s Hill, now covered with houses. This was the “Cantauganteest” of the Indians, one of their favorite resorts where they had their summer camps, and on the level below planted their corn. It is famous as the opening scene of the treaty with Massasoit, made April 1, 1621. Gov. Bradford had a tract of land assigned him here on which to raise corn, and to this day portions of the hill remain in the Bradford name and others of direct descent from him.
WATSON’S HILL.
The Watch Tower
A little to the north of the site of the old fort another tablet marks the place of the brick watch tower erected in 1643. The locality of this tower is indicated by four stone posts set in the ground to mark its corners. The brick foundations are still there, about a foot below the surface, and the old hearthstone on which the Pilgrims built their watch fires still lies where they placed it, on the southerly side of the enclosure. The location of the tower was discovered many years ago in digging a grave, when the sexton came upon the foundation. The town records of Sept. 23, 1643, have the following entry in regard to it: “It is agreed upon the whole that there shall be a watch house forthwith, built of brick, and that Mr. Grimes will sell us the brick at eleven shillings a thousand.”
SITE OF THE WATCH TOWER, 1643.
Back of this is seen the lot of Rev. Adoniram Judson, the famous missionary to Burmah.
This is the first mention of brick in the records of the colony, and it is to be presumed that this marks about the time of the first brickyards. The cause of the tower being built was probably the threatenings of the Indians, which resulted in the Narragansett war.
ALONG THE WHARVES.