Historical Collections, by John Warner Barber

257

GREENFIELD.

tances was taken from a guide-board, (or a kind of pilaster,) standing near the elegant hotel in the center of the place: 20 miles to Northampton; 3 to Deerfield; 7 to Bernardston; 9 to Coleraine; 40 to Springfield; 54 to Worcester; 20 to Brattleboro', Vt.; 118 to Haverhill; 66 to Hartford, Con.; 255 to Montreal, U.C.; and 88 miles to Boston. Population of the town, 1,840.

In 1837, there was in town 1 woollen mill, 4 sets of machinery; 36,000 lbs. of cotton and 150,000 lbs. of wool were consumed, and 180,000 yards of satinet were manufactured, the value of which was $110,000; males employed, 26; females, 63; capital invested, $80,000. Merino sheep, 1,000; other kinds of sheep, 1,153; merino wool produced, 2,730 lbs.; other kinds of wool, 3,459 lbs.

This town during the Indian and French wars was made the theater for some of the horrors of Indian warfare. The fall fight, so called, took place near the eastern border of this town. (See account of Gill.) The most fatal part of the action to the English took place within the limits of this town. The following case of individual suffering deserves notice: it is extracted from Hoyt's Indian Wars.

Mr. Jonathan Wells, of Hatfield, one of the twenty who remained in the rear when Turner began his march from the falls, soon after mounting his horse received a shot in one of his thighs, which had previously been fractured and badly healed, and another shot wounded his horse. With much difficulty he kept his saddle, and, after several narrow escapes, joined the main body just at the time it separated into several parties, as has been related. Attaching himself to one that was making towards the swamp on the left, and perceiving the enemy in that direction he altered his route, and joined another party flying in a different direction. Unable to keep up with the party, he was soon left alone, and not long after fell in with one Jones, who was also wounded. The woods being thick and the day cloudy, they soon got bewildered, and Wells lost his companion; and after wandering in various directions, accidentally struck Green river, and proceeding up the stream, arrived at a place, since called the country farms, in the northerly part of Greenfield. Passing the river, and attempting to ascend an abrupt hill, bordering the interval west, he fell from his horse exhausted. After lying senseless some time, he revived and found his faithful animal standing by him; making him fast to a tree, he again lay down to rest himself, but finding he should not be able to remount, he turned the horse loose, and making use of his gun as a crutch hobbled up the river, directly opposite to the course he ought to have taken. His progress was slow and painful, and being much annoyed by musquetoes, towards night he struck up a fire, which soon spread in all directions, and with some difficulty he avoided the flames. New fears now arouse; the fire, he conjectured, might guide the Indians to the spot, and he should be sacrificed to their fury. Under these impressions he divested himself of his ammunition, that it might not fall into their hands -bound up his thigh with a handkerchief, and staunched the blood, and composing himself as much as possible, soon fell into a sleep. Probably before this he had conjectured that he was pursuing a wrong course, for in a dream he imagined himself bewildered, and was impressed with the idea that he must turn down the stream to find his home. The rising of the sun the next morning convinced him that his sleeping impressions were correct- that he had travelled from, instead of towards Hatfield, and that he was then further from that place than the falls, where the action took place. He was now some distance up Green river, where the high lands closed down to the stream. Reversing his course, he at length regained the level interval in the upper part of Greenfield, and soon found a foot path which led him to the trail of his retreating comrades; this he pursued to Deerfield river, which, with much difficulty, he forded by the aid of his gun; ascending the bank, he laid himself down to rest, and being overcome with fatigue, he fell asleep; but soon awaking, he discovered an Indian making directly towards him, in a canoe. Unable to flee, and finding his situation desperate, he presented his gun, then wet and filled with sand and gravel, as if in the act of firing; the Indian, leaving his own gun, instantly leaped from his canoe