Pembroke Chronicles

INTRODUCTION

The geographic location of the town of Pembroke, Massachusetts, so close to the cradles of American history—Plymouth and Boston—just naturally seems to indicate that Pembroke would have a rich and illustrious history of its own. From the earliest times when local Native Americans fished in its ponds and hunted in its forests, the area they called Namassakeesett teemed with life-giving food and raw materials that fostered the growth of its native and, later, its European populations.

The Europeans first arrived here in the 1640s as part of a natural expansion of Plimoth Plantation and its environs. They, too, found the abundance of herring and the bounty of natural materials conducive to meeting the needs of their burgeoning population. There were trees for wood and bog iron to create the implements needed to build their homes, not to mention the water power afforded by the North River, Herring and Pudding Brooks and other tributaries to run their mills.

To look at the town on a map today, one would not suspect it had been a cradle of shipbuilding, but in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the North River was home to at least five shipyards on its Pembroke shores, all producing seaworthy vessels. They included Seabury Point, Job’s Landing, Turner’s Yard, Macy’s Yard and, perhaps the best known of all of them, the Brick Kiln Yard.

But what truly makes Pembroke unique are its citizens. The town has been the home of industrious Native Americans, brave Patriots, people of great faith and ordinary citizens bent on creating for themselves and their families a comfortable and prosperous place in which to dwell. Either by birth or by choice, Pembroke is blessed with a citizenry that has made and continues to make a difference in the town, in the commonwealth and in the nation.

Part I

NATIVE AMERICANS

PEMBROKE’S ROYAL FAMILY

If you are at all familiar with the history of the town of Pembroke, you are aware of the first human inhabitants of our town, the Native Americans. Drawn here partly because of the abundance of herring and other fish in our numerous ponds and waterways, these native people walked, hunted and lived on our lands before the first Europeans made their presence known.

The Massachusetts Native American tribal land extended along the eastern coast of our state and was bounded to the south by the land of the Wampanoags, whose chief, Massasoit, made a treaty with the Pilgrims. The chief of the Massachusetts at that time was Chicataubut, and this tribe numbered about three thousand. A smallpox epidemic around 1631–33 decimated the tribe, killing the chief and reducing the number of his followers to about three hundred. Chicataubut’s son Josiah Wampatuck became the new chief.

While the chief’s home was at Neponset, the tribe seems to have spent much of its time here in what would become Pembroke, and after the death of his father, in about 1647, Wampatuck moved the tribe here permanently. The tribe members settled on a large tract of land around the Pembroke Ponds that is still known to local historians today as the Indian Fields.

Josiah Wampatuck married Westamoo, the widow of Alexander, who was the son of Massasoit. She was known as the Squaw Sachem of Pocasset. Josiah Wampatuck, who made his home on Furnace Pond, was killed by the Mohawk Indians near Fonda, New York, in 1669. Squamok, brother of Josiah and called Daniel by the English, acted as regent during the time that Josiah and Westamoo’s son Charles Josiah Wampatuck was a minor.

Early map of Pembroke showing the approximate location of the Queen Patience home. Map drawn by Everett Reed.

Charles Josiah Wampatuck died before 1693 and was succeeded by Abigail Wampatuck Momontaug, the sister of Charles Josiah. She was married to Jeremiah Momontaug. Jeremiah died about 1713, and Abigail died about 1717.

Queen Patience, next in line to be head of the tribe, was the daughter of Abigail and Jeremiah and was married twice—first to Tobias Combs and second to Joseph Peter. Next came Patience’s daughter Abigail, then Abigail’s son Caleb Brand, then his son Caleb Brand, then James Brand, then son James Brand and Josiah Brand.

The late Russell Gardner of Hanson, a descendant of Pembroke’s early Native Americans, dedicated much of his life to collecting the true facts and figures pertaining to the legends, folklore and lineage of his ancestors. Based on his research, he put together this lineage of the Massachusetts Native American Royal Family. These names are found throughout the records of the colony of Massachusetts and the town of Pembroke.

Descendant chart of Pembroke’s Native American royal family. Based on research by Russell Gardner.

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!

As most people in Pembroke have come to understand, the Native Americans, so abundant in this area in the years leading up to the twentieth century, have left an indelible mark on our town. Indian Rock, for example, was named because it was an obvious landmark and meeting place for members of local native groups to gather for trade.

Early twentieth-century view of the ancestral home of Queen Patience. From the collection of Ed Leadbetter.

But if you ask most people in Pembroke about Queens Brook, they will direct you to a pleasant road off Center Street. Not everyone is aware of the historic significance of the name. The area was named for a woman of royal Native American ancestry known to those of her time as Queen Patience, or Sunny Eye. The small brook that runs through the area is called Queen’s Brook because of its proximity to the home of the last queen of Mattakeesett. Although venerated by all who knew her and heir to thousands of acres of land in the Pembroke-Hanson area, when she died in 1788, she did not actually own as much as a foot of land.

Queen Patience was the great-granddaughter of Chickataubut, the chief sachem (leader) of the Massachusetts Indians at the time when Boston was settled by the English. Although it is said that she married several times, records indicate two marriages. The first marriage was to Tobias Combs and the second to Joseph Thomas. She lived on a point of land that juts out into Furnace Pond. When the traditional Indian wigwam went out of fashion, she conformed to more commonplace ways of living, namely a small cabin, and drew her allotted quota of one hundred herring from the ponds like any other female householder.

Queen Patience float in the 1912 Pembroke bicentennial parade. Pembroke Historical Society.

Over the years, Queen Patience sold off much land belonging to the Indians as many of her ancestors had done before her. The town eventually appointed a guardian for the land to keep the remaining acres from becoming depleted.

The queen became the center of many legends. One legend centers on a great pestilence and famine that beset her tribe. Those members of the tribe who had not died gathered at the home of their queen to tell her that they were leaving this place of death and going to seek a new home. Queen Patience told them that she could not leave this place and that she must die by the graves of my fathers. The rest of the tribe, fearing that she, too, would soon die, left gifts of corn and venison at her door as they fled from the sickness so that she might have food when she was no longer able to hunt or fish.

Queen Patience lived to an advanced age. It is said that she retained her dignity and lofty carriage to the end, refusing aid from the white settlers. Her funeral was attended by the minister of the First Church, as well as many of her neighbors, and she was spoken of highly by all who knew her.

KING PHILIP

A number of years ago, the Pembroke Historical Society was given a most unusual artifact: a human skull. The story that went along with it was even more unusual. It was given to a local man, a descendant of the Native American tribe that once populated our area, with the suggestion that this was the skull of King Philip, namesake of one of the most bloody Indian wars ever fought in southern New England.

King Philip (also known as Metacom or Metacomet) was one of the most interesting of all the New England Indians. He was the great sachem of the Wampanoag Federation from 1662 until he was ambushed and shot on August 12, 1676. He was born about 1640, the younger son of Massasoit, and succeeded to his post of leadership after the death of his older brother, Alexander. This position carried with it great power and influence even though he was only twenty-two years old.

Philip’s troubles with the Europeans began almost immediately, for when the English at Plymouth heard of the large gathering of Indians who had come to pay him honor, they assumed he was uniting the New England tribes to war against the English. Philip was summoned to Plymouth to answer questions regarding his intentions. Accompanied by his uncle Akkompoin, the two Wampanoag leaders signed a new treaty with the English.

Upon their return home, younger men of the tribe came to Philip and told him that they wanted to begin hostilities with the Europeans. Philip, following along with his deceased brother’s ideas, believed that caution was in order regarding the start of war, even though accepting the authority of the English meant vast changes in the Indians’ religion and laws. He tried for some years to keep peace and meet the demands of the European settlers, but the Europeans continued to increase in number and to take over more and more of the Indian lands. The majority of his warriors felt that they should rise in revolt, even if it might mean annihilation if they were unsuccessful. The English began to suspect that Philip was plotting against them secretly and forced the Wampanoags to surrender some of their arms in 1671. Philip was able to gain the cooperation of Canonchet, great sachem of the Narragansett Indians, who had traditionally been hereditary enemies of the Wampanoags. The two young leaders (Canonchet was about the same age as Philip) began planning their course of action.

In 1675, an Indian who was acting as an informer to the colonists was murdered, and three Wampanoags were hanged for the crime. This act triggered the bloody war that eventually involved the Nipmucs as well as the Wampanoags and the Narragansetts. It spread up and down the Connecticut River Valley in Massachusetts, as well as to the Plymouth and Rhode Island colonies. King Philip was hunted down and killed in a swamp in Rhode Island on August 12, 1676. His death ended the war in southern New England. King Philip’s head was impaled on a pole and displayed