WILLIAMS HOUSE, DEERFIELD, MASS.
THE CONTEST FOR NORTH AMERICA
The Deerfield Massacre
THREE
In the early morning of February 29, 1704, a band of French and Indians stole down upon the little village of Deerfield in Massachusetts. Hertel de Rouville was the leader of this band. Silently they crept in upon the unsuspecting town. Most of the settlers were still sleeping soundly. Suddenly, with a wild whoop, the attack began. Forty-nine men, women, and children were massacred, the village was burned, and then with one hundred and eleven captives the cowardly attackers departed. On the way back to Canada twenty of the captured were cruelly murdered. This raid has ever since been known as the Deerfield Massacre.
Deerfield was called Pocumtuck until 1764. The territory that originally constituted the township was a tract of eight thousand acres, granted in 1654 to the town of Dedham in place of two thousand acres previously taken from that town and granted to the Rev. John Eliot to further his mission among the Natick Indians. The Pocumtuck Indians originally owned this land. Their rights to the Deerfield tract were purchased for about ten cents an acre.
The settlement was begun in 1669, and the township was incorporated in 1673. Deerfield was for a great many years the northwest frontier settlement of New England. At the beginning of King Philip’s War the English fortified the town. On September 1, 1675, it was attacked by Indians. A small garrison under the command of Captain Samuel Appleton was placed in the town after this. A second attack was made on September 12.
Six days later Captain Thomas Lothrop and his company were acting as escort to some teams that were hauling wheat from Deerfield to the English headquarters at Hadley. Suddenly a band of Indians leaped out of ambush and set upon the train. Lothrop and more than sixty of his men were killed. The spot where this fight took place has since been known as “Bloody Brook.” It is in the village of South Deerfield. From this time until the end of the war Deerfield was abandoned.
In the spring of 1677 a few of the old settlers returned; but on September 19 some were killed, and the others were captured by a party of Indians from Canada. Again in 1682 settlement was resumed. Twelve years later, on September 15, a party of French and Indians attacked Deerfield, and almost succeeded in capturing the town. Then in 1704 came the Deerfield Massacre.