Page images
PDF
EPUB

the Indians were heard to cry, Cocoosh, and ran off but soon after one of the Indians was found dead near the fowling pond. Near the great river are now to be seen the graves of Henry Andross, and James Philips, who, with James Bell and two sons, were killed by a number of Indians, who lay in ambush. This happened in the place called Squabette.

The place already mentioned, by the name of Fowling Pond, is itself a great curiosity. Before Philip's war, it seems to have been a large pond, nearly two miles long, and three quarters of a mile wide. Since then, the water is almost gone, and the large tract it once covered, is grown up to a thick set swamp, of cedar and pine. That this, however, was once a large pond, haunted by fowls, and supplied with fish in great plenty, is more than probable, for here is found, upon dry land, a large quantity of white floor sand; and a great number of that kind of smooth stones, which are never fouud, except on shores, or places long washed with water. There is also on the east side a bank of sand, which is called the Beaver's Dam, against which the water must formerly have washed up; and if so, the pond must once have been of such amplitude as that above mentioned. Add to this, that a large number of Indian spears, tools, pots, &c. are found near the sides of this pond. This indicates that the natives were once thick settled here. But what could be their object? What could induce Philip to build his house here? It was, undoubtedly, fishing and fowling, in this, then large pond. But more than all, there is yet living in this town a man of more than ninety years old, who can well remember, than when he was a boy, he had frequently gone off in a canoe, to fish in this pond; and says, that many a fish had been catched, where the pines and cedars are now more than fifty feet high. If an instance, at once so rare, and well attested, as this, should not be admitted as a curious scrap of the natural history of this country; yet it must be admitted as a strong analogical proof, that many of our swamps were originally ponds of water but more than this, it suggests a new argument in favour of the wisdom and goodness of that Divine Providence, which "changes the face of the earth," to supply the wants of man, as often as he changes from uncivilized nature, to a state of cultivation and refinement.

There is one remarkable circumstance, relative to the soil which environs this pond, and that is, its prolifick virtue in generating ore. Copious beds of iron ore, in this part of the country, are usually found in the neighbourhood of pine swamps; or near to soils, natural to the growth of pine or cedar. In this case, if there is sufficient to filtrate the liquid mine, before it is deposited in beds, there will be found a plenty of bog ore,. Now all these circumstances remarkably coincide, in the vicinity of this pond, and the effect is as remarkable: for in this place, there has been almost an inexhaustible fund of excellent ore, from which the forge has been supplied, and kept going for more than eighty years; besides large quantities carried to other works, and yet here is

ore still; though, like other things in a state of youth, it is weak and incapable of being wrought into iron of the best quality. The signs already mentioned, as indicating ore, will afford to the philosopher an easy cluc, for investigating the process of nature in the production of ore. In this way only, it must be determined, whether the original seeds, or pullutating particles of the ore, be lodged in the soil, or in the pine; and what is the process, the pabulum and period of its growth, through all its various stages, to maturity. The subject, perhaps, is new and unexplored; but by a number of well-conducted experiments, in the hands of genius, it promises a reward, which will add new riches to science, if not to the country. The time may come, when it will be easy, and as common, to raise a bed of bog ore as a bed of carrots.

APPENDIX. OF THE FAMILY OF LEONARD.

THE following genealogical sketch is intended to show that longevity, promotion to publick office, and a kind of hereditary attachment to the iron manufacture, are all circumstances, remarkably characteristick of the name and family of LEONARD.

THE great progenitor, James Leonard, lived to be more than seventy years old. He had three brothers, five sons, and three daughters, all whose ages, upon an average, amounted to more than seventy-four years. His son Uriah had five sons and four daughters: Of his sons four lived to be more than eighty, and all his daughters above seventy-five. Thomas, the oldest son of James, was a distinguished character. He held the office of a justice of the peace, a judge of the court, a physician, a field officer, and was eminent for piety. Sacred to his memory, an eulogy was printed in 1713, by the Rev. Samuel Danforth of Taunton, one of the most learned and eminent ministers of his day. This Thomas had five sons, of whom four lived above seventy years. His son George was a justice of the peace and a military officer. In Norton, in a poem published by a character of eminence, on occasion of his death, in 1716; he is styled " the prudent, pious, worthy, and worshipful Major George Leonard, Esq." He had four sons and three daughters. His oldest son George was a colonel, and a judge both of the probate and common pleas: he lived to be more than eighty; he had one son and two daughters: His son is the Honourable George Leonard, Esq. late member of congress: His oldest daughter is the wife of the Rev. David Barnes, and the mother of David Barnes, Esq. attorney at law. The other daughter was the wife of the late Colonel Chandler of Worcester.

The second son of Major George, was Nathaniel, a pious, worthy minister, who settled in Plymouth. He lived more than seventy years; and he had a son Abiel, who was a minister in Connecticut, and a chaplain in the American army in the revolution war,

The third son of Major George was Ephraim: he was a colonel, a judge of the court, and a man of eminent piety: he lived to be more than eighty. He had one child only, viz. Daniel, who is now chief justice of the islands of Bermuda; he also has but one son, Charles, now a student at Cambridge college.

Two of the daughters of Major George lived to be aged. One was the wife of Colonel Thomas Clap, formerly a minister of Taunton; the other was the wife of a respectable clergyman.

Samuel Leonard, the fourth son of Thomas, was a man of distinguished piety. He held the offices of a deacon, a captain, and justice of the peace. He had four sons and five daughters. Two of his sons were captains, one a justice of the peace, and all of them deacons. Three are yet alive, one above eighty, and two above seventy. His third son Elijah has a son of his own name lately settled in the ministry. His oldest daughter was the parent of Dr. Simeon Howard of Boston. His second daughter was the wife of Rev. John Wales of this town, and the mother of Rev. Dr. Samuel Wales, professor of divinity at Yale College. The other daughters were the wives of respectable characters, and all in publick offices. Elkanah, the fifth son of Thomas, had three sons, two of whom lived to see more than seventy. One was a captain, the other a major, a lawyer, and one of the most distinguished geniuses of his name and day. He left two sons, both captains, and above sixty. One of them, viz. Zebulon, has an only child, that is now the wife of Dr. Samuel Shaw.

John was another son of Thomas. He had four sons and three daughters, who all lived to be above eighty. A daughter of the oldest son, was the wife of the Rev. Eliab Byram, and the parent of the present wife of Josiah Dean, Esq. of this town, who himself is also a lineal descendant, and the present owner of the forge first built by his great

ancestor.

Thus far of the posterity of Thomas the oldest son of the progenitor. James, the second son of James, bore his own name. He had four sons and three daughters: three of his sons lived to be near eighty; and two of the daughters above ninety. One of them was the wife of Doctor Ezra Dean; and the other was the parent of Gershom Crane, esq. who lived to be almost an hundred years old, and was the father of the present Doctor Jonathan Crane, esq. The oldest son of James was Captain James Leonard, who had three sons and five daughters, two of his sons were military officers, and all of them lived nearly to the age of seventy. His oldest daughter was the wife of Thomas Cobb, esq. and the mother of the Hon. David Cobb, esq. speaker of the house, member of congress, &c. The second son of James was Stephen Leonard: he was a justice of the peace, and a judge of the court of common pleas. He had four sons, three of whom lived to be aged one was the Rev. Silas Leonard of New York; the oldest was Major Zephaniah Leonard, esq. and judge of the court. He had five sons of whom four are yet alive, three of them had a publick education at Yale College. The oldest is Capt. Joshua, who now inhabits the an

cient paternal building, and is nearly seventy: he has a son of his own name, who at the age of twenty-two, was an ordained minister in Connecticut. The second son is Colonel Zephaniah Leonard. He has held the offices of an attorney at law, a justice of the peace, and is now sheriff of the county. He has three sons, two of whom are now members of college. The third son is Apollos Leonard, esq. one of the special justices of the county. The youngest son, is Samuel Leonard, lately appointed a justice of the peace. He is a respectable, opulent merchant, and has a number of promising sons, that wait only for the proper age, to receive such an education, as will add still greater honour to the ancient honourable family and name they bear. Such has been the longevity and promotion to publick offices, in two branches of this family only. The circumstance of a family attachment to the iron manufacture is so well known, as to render it a common observation in this part of the country, viz. where you can find iron works, there you will find a LEONARD.

He

Henry, the brother of James, went from this place, to the Jerseys, and was one of the first who set up iron works in that state. was the progenitor of a numerous and respectable posterity in that part of America.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM THE REV. ISAAC BACKUS, ON THE SUBJECT OF IRON ORE.

Sir,

Middleborough, July 25, 1794. r AST quantities of iron, both cast and wrought, have been made

past; but it was chiefly out of bog ore, until that kind was much exhausted in these parts, and then a rich treasure was opened in Middleborough, which had been long hid from the inhabitants. About the year 1747, it was discovered that there was iron mine in the bottom of our great pond at Assowamset; and after some years, it became the main ore that was used in the town, both at furnaces and forges, and much of it has been carried into the neighbouring places for the same purpose. Men go out with boats, and make use of instruments much like those with which oysters are taken, to get up the ore from the bottom of the pond."

But

I am told that, for a number of years, a man would take up and bring to shore, two tons of it in a day; but now it is so much exhausted, that half a ton is reckoned a good day's work for one man. in an adjacent pond is now plenty, where the water is twenty feet deep, and much is taken up from that depth, as well as from shoaler water. It has also been plenty in a pond in the town of Carver, where they have a furnace upon the stream which runs from it. Much of the iron which is made from this ore is better than they could make out of bog ore, and some of it is as good as almost any refined iron. The quantity of this treasure, which hath been taken out of the bottom of clear

ponds, is said to have been sometimes as much as five hundred tons in a year. But I must leave the computation of the quantity and the value of it to others, while I admire the goodness of God, who openeth so many ways for the support and comfort of men, though we are often so ungrateful to Him."

Rev. Dr. BELKNAP, Corresponding Secretary of the Historical Society.

W

LITERARY ADVERTISEMENT.

TE have the pleasure of announcing to the publick, that there is now preparing for the press, A history of the ancient Cony of FLYMOUTH in New England, including, the present counties of Plymouth, Barnstable, and Bristol in Massachusetts, with part of the county of Bristol, in Rhode Island. Containing a geographical description, with a particular account of the political and ecclesiastical state of every town, from its first settlement to the present day. To which will be prefixed, a complete map of the whole.

By PERES FOBES, LL.D.

Minister of the Gospel in Raynham, and Professor of Natural Philosophy in the College of Rhode-Island.

THE writer has undertaken this work at the request of several characters of literary eminence; and though he has already obtained a considerable part of the materials, and is now ready to engage, (should health continue) that no labour or pains shall on his part be omitted, yet he cannot proceed, but in confidence of the patronage and assistance of his fellow citizens. To secure which he hopes they will consider, that the subject of the proposed history is, the first settlement of our own country; that it recites the hardy virtues and painful struggles of our ancestors, in the race of liberty and glory; that whilst it describes that venerable spot of New England which is "the mother of us all," it will attempt to rescue from oblivion some interesting facts, of aboriginal date, which tradition only has hitherto preserved.

It is to be regretted that much useful information on other subjects, besides that of the medicinal plants of this country is now irrecoverably lost, and much more of equal concern to the present and future generations is every day sinking into oblivion. Whilst we are waiting for the productions of elegant péns, are we not in danger of losing some valuable gems in the history of our country? The admonition therefore is, "What thou doest, do quickly.”

« PreviousContinue »