Natick Indian Plantation &
Needham West Militia Companies

• The Founding of the Natick Minutemen
  
• Crispus Attucks
  
• Capt. Tom Tray - King Philip's War and Deer Island
  
• Capt. Joseph Morse - Battle of Breed's Hill
  
• American Arms - Musket, Bayonet & Blunderbuss
  
• Historic Homes of Natick Patriots
  
• Black Patriots Foundation

The meeting was no casual affair. Important men of the day, such as William Boden, Ephriam Jennings, Joseph Morse, Abel Perry, and others had been ordered to gather at the small meetinghouse to discuss local politics. The agenda of the meeting contained several mundane items. The men voted to extend a road to the border of Framingham, discussed where to pay the province tax, and announced an official budget for the following year.

However, the true purpose of the meeting would be saved to the very last. For, hidden in the agenda were the words: "See what inhabitants will do regarding the minutemen and their pay."

The issue of minutemen was developed from the Continental Congress that was held in the colonies to discuss the problems with the mother country. Towns such as Natick, which had a Committee of Correspondence and Inspection, were charged by the Congress to execute any agreements that the Congress supported. And, once such idea they supported was to convince towns and villages to institute local militias in the event of an engagement with British regulars.

Natick's Committee men were well represented at the special town meeting of March. Two, William Boden and Joseph Morse, were town Selectmen who helped preside over the meeting. One man, Abel Perry, was the clerk of the meeting. Two others, Pelihah Morse and John Coolidge, were influential members of town who made their presence felt upon other town meeting members.

This issue of minutemen proved to be the focal point for the meeting. Whether or not the men deliberated the issue is not known; no mention of thoughts or arguments about the topic was recorded by clerk Abel Perry undoubtedly for fear of retribution by the English government. What can be deduced from the meeting is one simple fact - the people of Natick knew that the difficulties with England were beyond a resolution of words. Natick, like several surrounding communities, voted to form a militia, consisting of eighteen paid volunteers who could (and eventually would) be called on at a moment's notice to participate in warfare against the British regulars.

The names of the men have never been official recorded, likely to protect those men from Parliament. The penalty for such treasonous acts was death. But, this penalty was a burden these men carried with open arms. To die fighting freedom was more tolerable than to live a life of tyranny and oppression.

It was from these events of March 5, 1775, and the men who would later represent our town in many battles of the Revolution, that the enduring legacy of the Natick Minutemen was born. A legacy that burns bright even today.

Natick's First Patriot, Crispus Attucks - by Christopher Forest

Often overlooked when discussing the patriots who gave their lives for the freedom of our nation are the men and women whose blood was spilled prior to the opening shots of the revolution. Whether victims of circumstance, or vocal opponents of English laws, these men and women lost their lives for one single cause - to gain liberty and independence from England.

A name once forgotten in history books years ago, but now a traditional part of American folklore, is the man known as Crispus Attucks. He is often proclaimed to be the first African American to lose his life for the American cause. Little is mentioned about this man in history books except that he was shot by British regulars during the skirmish of March 5, 1770 known as the Boston Massacre.

However, there is much more information recorded about this man, including information that suggests he was the first Natick man to die for the Revolutionary Cause.

Attucks was born into slavery in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1723. Although sources differ on his true heritage, most report that he had an African American father and a Natick Indian mother. He worked as a slave in a grist mill on Cochituate Brook in Framingham. The Framingham Historical Society has proposed naming a bridge at this spot after Attucks.

Attucks parents, and Attucks himself, worked for William Brown of Framingham. He was a wealthy land owner who owned a large parcel of land, part of which stretched along the Natick border. It was along this border, and into a portion of Natick (in the vicinity of Bishop street, D-street, and Madonna Street) that Attucks lived and grew up. In fact, it is very likely that the Attucks slave house was indeed in Natick, for substantial evidence supports that his family actually lived in Natick.

Attucks was a firm believer in the idea of freedom - so much so that he is said to have run away from the Brown family to gain the freedoms only afforded a sailor. He became a sailor and explored the seas around the colonies at great length.

Legend has it that on one day of leave in March 1770, a "stout man", later identified as Attucks, was leading a group of 20 to 30 soldiers or sailors near the Boston Custom House. Suddenly, they heard the incongruous sounds of shouts coming from a mob outside the Customs House.

Attucks, and several other sailors rushed to the scene. There, they found a mob that had been in part roused by Samuel Adams (who was conspicuously absent from the affair itself). They were shouting at nine British regulars, including at least one officer, who had been guarding the Customs House. Unbeknownst to Attucks and most people at the time was that the mob had been roused by the claims of a barber's apprentice who hated the British and had falsely accused one of the regulars of failing to pay for a haircut earlier in the day.

The regulars held their ground against the mob, not giving into the belligerence that lay before them. The mob, many looking for a fight, grew unruly. Some threw snowballs at the regulars while others pelted them with glass. Several sources suggest that some men, led by Attucks, began attacking the British with cubs and sticks. Still, the British failed to respond in the manner the mob was looking for.

A member of the mob stole off to a nearby church. He or she began ringing a bell in the belfry. Such ringing bells were a signal that a fire was raging somewhere in Boston. Hearing the bell, other members of the mob shouted "fire". In the confusion of the situation, the regulars were certain that the words had been issued by the commanding officer, Captain Thomas Preston. Seven regulars fired into the mob, killing five men, among them Natick's own Crispus Attucks.

Attucks and the other men became poster boys for the revolutionary cause. Samuel Adams dubbed the event "The Boston Massacre". Adams, along with Joseph Warren, made sure that newspapers carried the events of the day with a strong anti-regular sentiment - a sentiment they used to propel the cause of Liberty. Paul Revere made engravings that characterized the blood shed of the day as an appalling act by British troops. All around the colonies people heard about the Boston Massacre. Soon, anger and resentment started to spread against England's influence in the colonies.

The nine regulars were eventually tried for murder. Ironically, Samuel Adam's cousin, John, defended the men and got seven of them off. Two soldiers, including Preston, were convicted for failure to contain the other regulars and had an M branded in their thumb for manslaughter.

Although the trial was supposed to resolve the tension that existed in Boston, it never did. Instead, people throughout the 13 colonies remembered the five men who died that day. Those memories burned strong in their minds during the next four years as they held the solemn vow that "these men would not die in vain".

As a result of the tragic events connected with a man from Natick, a whole nation gained an inspiration for freedom that propelled them to war against England.

For more information see the Black Patriots Foundation. Crispus Attucks was one of at least seven African American Revolutionary War Veterans from Natick, Massachusetts.

In 1855 William Cooper Nell and Harriet Beecher Stowe (Stowe's husband was from South Natick) wrote of Black Patriots, "And their white brothers in reading may remember, that generosity, disinterested courage and bravery, are of not particular race and complexion, and that the image of the Heavenly Father may be reflected alike by all. Each record of worth in this oppressed and despised should be pondered, for it is by many such that the cruel and unjust public sentiment, which has so long proscribed them, may be reversed, and full opportunities given them to take rank among the nations of the earth."

Their book, THE COLORED PATRIOTS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, notes of Attucks that, ATTUCKS had formed the patriots in Dock Square, from whence they marched up King street, passing through the street up to the main guard, in order to make the attack. ATTUCKS was killed by Montgomery, one of Capt. Preston's soldiers. He had been foremost in resisting, and was first slain. As proof of a front engagement, he received two balls, one in each breast. John Adams, counsel for the soldiers, admitted that Attucks appeared to have undertaken to be the hero of the night, and to lead the people. He and Caldwell, not being residents of Boston, were both buried from Faneuil Hall. The citizens generally participated in the solemnities.

Additional Photographs Crispus Attucks Bridge Dedication.

Capt. Tom Tray and the Tragedy of Natick's Praying Indians

Based on: The History of Natick, Mass. by Florence Lovell Macewen, notes written in 1938 to 1941, and When Deer Island was Turned into Devil's Island by Jill Lepore. (Bostonia, Boston University, Summer 1998)

Capt. Tom Tray, his unjust hanging, and the exile of the Praying Indians to Deer Island in Boston Harbor during the harsh winter of 1675-76.

Captain Tom Tray was a 17th Century resident of Natick and among the most trusted of John Eliot's Indian converts. He lived along with several other Indian families on Captain Tom's Hill, on the Natick - Framingham line. This was the former site of the Natick Airport beacon and now is occupied by Jordan's Furniture.

Capt. Tray was called Wullasacomponum, and born of Chief Sachem's blood to Nipmuk Indians. His wife was called Neepanum, a.k.a. Mary of Pomposeticut. (Stow) Capt. Tray was commissioned by the Massachusetts Colonial Government as a Captain of Militia. He commanded a company of Indians for many years. He became the ruler of Grafton, Mass. (Hassanamasit) after it became the second Chrisitanized Indians town. There he is said to have acquired a reputation for piety and prudence.

King Philip's War and Exile to Deer Island

Tray and his company of Indians prospered and were, with few exceptions, faithful to the English. Nevertheless the English were suspicious of them. During King Philip's War many Indians were imprisoned and sent to desolate Deer Island. Most of these Indians were innocent of any sedition against the English, and were in fact quite loyal to the King. Along with them went the Indian population of Natick: including all men, women and children. They had been taken from their homes on the pretext of having murdered an English settler.

The Natick Nipmucs were met at a Charles River landing two miles west of Cambridge by Rev. John Eliot and Rev. Daniel Gookin of First Parish Church in Sherborn. Both men frequented the Nipmucs during their harsh imprisonment. Rev. John Eliot was nearly drowned while leaving Deer Island in a collision with another vessel. Upon their release from Deer Island exile, at total of 600 Nipmucs served with distinction in King Philip's War for the Colonials, at the personal insistence of the commander of the new Massachusetts Settler's Army.

Capt. Tray and his son refused to fight the English. The two of them escaped and spent the winter in hiding. Capt. Tray is said to have expressed his interest in returning to live with the English and the remaining Praying Indians.

James Quannapohit, a spy, said he saw Capt. Tray and his family in Marlborough in the spring about the first of June. (Marlborough was also the scene of the capture of Nipmuck Indian Christian minister, Joseph Tuckapewillin, who also had remained loyal to the English.) The Trays were in fact at home on their hill in Natick, a fact which 80 Indian soldiers petitioned to at Tray's trial. Despite this, many witnesses testified that they had seen Tray during attacks on English settlers. He was found guilty and sentenced to be hung.

Execution

John Eliot, who had been kept ignorant of the trial, pleaded to the Governor of Massachusetts to spare Tray's life, but it was to no avail. Eliot was only able to walk with Tray to the execution, where the former captain declared," I never did lift my hand against the English, nor was I at Sudbury. Only I was willing to go away with the enemies that surprised." John Attucks was executed at the same time.

Ultimately, many of the Natick Nipmucks found themselves truly between a rock and a hard place. Their loyalty to the English made them the enemies of King Philip and his allies. At times King Philip's warriors tried to recruit the disaffected Christian Indians, pointing out the punishments being meted out to them by the Colonists. Citizens of the Christian Town of Hassanamesit (today's Grafton) were plainly told," If we do not kill you," (the English will) " force you all to some Island where you will all be in danger to be starved with cold and hunger, and most probably in the end be all sent out of the country for slaves."

The English themselves did not trust the remaining loyal Indians. In a classic Catch-22 situation, English Colonists wanted the Christian Indians at Deer Island sent into slavery in Barbados, reasoning that after their cruel imprisonment on Deer Island, they would necessarily have become disloyal to the Colonists. More than half of those exiled to Deer Island died from hunger and cold.

Despite all of this rancor and hardship a century earlier, a number of Nipmucks still marched with Natick's Company of Minutemen against the British on Patriot's Day 1775.

Capt. Joseph Morse - Battle of Breed's Hill

Joseph Morse was the Captain of a company of Natick Minutemen in the Regiment of Colonel Samuel Bullard. He led the Minutemen of Natick in the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Five days after the battle, Capt. Morse was engaged for service in Col. John Paterson's regiment which became part of the 15th Continental Army.

Capt. Morse is presumed to have served with his company under Col. Paterson's regiment at the Battle of Bunker Hill, where Natick Minutemen were part of the force which bulit and garrisoned Fort No. 3 near Prospect Hill, protecting the rear of the American forces on Bunker Hill.

The following paragraphs are from an article submitted by Christopher Forest entitled We Were There:

On June 17, 1775, a pivotal moment in the history of the United States was taking shape on the site of Breed's Hill (commonly confused as Bunker Hill) in Boston. It was a time of mixed emotions in the colonies George Washington had still yet to assume command of the American army as he had promised and the colonists had yet to fight in a major skirmish. No one knew what to make of the British occupation in Boston.

Breed's Hill was one of the three major hills that earned Boston is early British name (Trimountaine in the 1630s), and it was just to fortification the British wanted to inflict a devastating blow to the rebel cause in Boston. On the dawn on June 17, one thing was evident - Breed's Hill was going to play a pivotal role in defining the patriotic zealousness of the ragtag militias that had come together to form America's first independent army.

Dug stauchly into the slope of the hill, overlooking Boston, the American army formed a near impenetrable line at the start of the battle. Central to this defense was a group of Natick militia members, upwards of 100 or more men from the 190 who served from the town of Natick.

According to eyewitness accounts, the Natick men fought "honorably" in the battle at Breed's hill. Stationed at fort number 3, under the command of Colonel John Lennox Patterson (under research), they succeeded in helping the American forces withstand two devastating British onslaughts, punctuated by the introduction of artillery warfare in America.

Overwhelmed by the massive British army, and slightly disgusted by the havoc that British cannons wrecked on their forces, the American army soon succumbed to the regular's third seige on the hill.

Observations from the actual battle differ. But, many of Natick's finest men lost their lives in this battle. Several more suffered career-ending casualities and still others fled with the American forces who watched in horror as the British regulars beat back their rebellion.

The loss at Breed's Hill marked a turning point in the American Revolution, a point in history not lost on many of the local politicians of Natick. Here, and throughout the colony of Massachusetts, politician and soldier met, coming to the realization that the British army had arisen. No longer would they be baffled by the native techniques of the American army. Something had to be done.

This solitary loss on Boston soil provided ample support that the American cause had to be redefined. And with this knowledge, some of the finest soldiers and spokesmen came together to reinvent the American army and reestablish the goals of the war. From this one battle, which Natick served an intregal part, came the realization that one man, some man, had to unify this army if independence was to be gained. That man was George Washington.

The photograph above is of a flint and a percussion blunderbus from the 18th century. Many more photos are available from the J. M. Davis Museum, in Claremore, Oklahoma.

The Natick Minutemen can be reached at kaltofen@aol.com.