-probably the same- -occurrence as having taken place in the north-east part of Salisbury, at the locality now called Dutcher's Bridge, and states-perhaps erroneously-that one Col. Whiting was the commanding officer in that affair. But it seems not improbable that the place of conflict was at the fordway, "by the Great Wigwam," in the village of Great Barrington, wherethe Indian trail from Westfield crossed the river. This was the natural and direct route for a body of Indians fleeing toward the Hudson river-and it is well known that a large number of Indians, supposed to have been fugitives from this battle, soon afterwards, passed the Hudson a short distance below Albany ;-and this locality corresponds with the foot note quoted, as this fordway was afterwards in quite the "upper part of Sheffield," as that town was, originally, incorporated. We are strongly inclined to the belief that Talcot's encounter occurred at the spot we have indicated-though it matters little whether it took place here or ten miles below, in the edge of Connecticut-and we have only introduced it here as the first well authenticated historical event of this part of the Housatonic Valley.

In the Patent of Westenhook, as in other New York documents of a little earlier date, the river is called "Westenhook"-the Dutch name-which, (as is also our Housatonic) is an apparent corruption of the commonly accepted Indian name of the river-"Hooestennuc”"the river beyond the mountains." By both Indians and whites, the river was designated by different names in the different sections through which it passed.names which applied appropriately to adjacent territory. Thus it was called by the Dutch Westenhook (sometimes written Westenhock-Westenook-and Westennuc) the name which they gave to the tract of country afterwards the Westenhook Patent; in Massachusetts, by the Indians Hooestennuc, the title by which their settlement in Great Barrington was known; in Connecticut, Wyantenock, the name of a large tract of country in the vicinity of New Milford; and near its. mouth it was known as the "Stratford" river, from the first established town upon its borders.

The earliest particular mention of this river, which

we have met with amongst Massachusetts authorities is found in the journal of Rev. Benjamin Wadsworth, a minister of Boston, afterwards President of Harvard College, who, in 1694, accompanied the Commissioners of Massachusetts and Connecticut to attend a treaty held at Albany between Commissioners of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey and the Five Nations of Indians. (1) The party travelled from Boston to Albany, on horseback, with a guard of sixty dragoons commanded by Capt. Wadsworth of Hartford. They left Boston August 6th, and arrived at Westfield August 9th.

Mr. Wadsworth says "We set out from thence (Westfield) towards Albany the nearest way thro' ye woods;" they travelled about 24 or 25 miles and encamped. "Ye road which we travelled this day, was very woody, rocky, mountainous, swampy; extream bad riding it was. I never yet saw so bad travelling as this was. We took up our quarters, this night, by ye side of a river, about a quarter past 5," (probably the Farmington River in Otis.) August 10th, travelled about 25 miles "and took up our lodgings, about sundown, in ye woods, at a place called Ousetonuck formerly inhabited by Indians.. Thro' this place runs a very curious river, the same (which some say) runs thro' Stradford; and it has on each side some parcels of pleasant, fertile intervale land." "Ye greatest part of our road this day was a hideous, howling wilderness; some part of ye road was not so extream bad." "August 11, we set forward about sunrise, and came, ye foremost of us, to Kinderhook about 3 of ye clock." They continued to Albany, and, returning, took their route towards Hartford, by Kinderhook, Clavarack, Taghkanick, Kent and Woodbury, Ct. Leaving 'Turconnick,' they rode twelve or fourteen miles, " on our left a hideous high mountain." About noon they came to Ten Mile river, called so from its distance from Wyantenuck, runs into Wyantenuck, by ye side of which we rode, I believe, six or seven miles and passed ye same a little after sundown.' "Wyantenuck river is

(1) This Journal is printed in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. 1, 4th series.

ye same yt passeth thro' Ousetonnuck; it is Stratford river also."

It is probable that Mr. Wadsworth and his party, following the Indian trail from Westfield to Kinderhook, crossed the Housatonic at the fordway by the "Great Wigwam" in the village of Great Barrington, and in that view, this abstract from his journal is valuable as furnishing corroborative evidence of the truth of the tradition that an Indian settlement had once existed near that fordway. This settlement had, then, in 1694, been abandoned, and it probably had not, to much extent, been inhabited since the time of King Phillip's war, eighteen years earlier. The river, then, was called by the Dutch of New York, Westenhook; in Massachusetts, Ousetonnuc, or Housatunnuk in various styles of orthography; in the northern part of Connecticut Wyantenock, and below tide water the Stratford river.

The derivation of Housatonic-which, as we have said, is a corruption of the Indian name of the valley -has been frequently discussed and we have but little to add to what is known relative to it. Dr. Timothy Dwight is the authority for "Hoo-es-ten-nuc" and for its signification-"the river beyond the mountains"and this is peculiarly appropriate, as relates to the tribe of Indians which dwelt along the Hudson, (from which the Housatonic Indians were an offshoot) who were accustomed to resort to the Housatonic valley for hunting and fishing; to them both the country and river were, in fact, "beyond the mountains." Still we believe the true meaning of Hoo-es-ten-nuc, to be "over the mountain." Such is the definition given in Morse's geography published nearly eighty years since, and such is the definition given by Isaac Huntting, Esq., of Pine Plains, N. Y., who has given much attention to Indian history and language. Mr. Huntting says "Hoo-est" means over, "ten-nuc" the mountain-and to give the Indian idea, it must be a mountain of trees. The tree part of it, is the pith and beauty of the word; the mountain of trees, or covered with trees."

The Rev. Jeremiah Slingerland of Keshena Wisconsin-himself a Stockbridge Indian of pure blood, and the minister of the Stockbridges residing there—

DERIVATION OF ITS NAME.

13

informed the writer that the name, applied by the Indians to this part of the valley was Ou-thot-ton-nook, the first syllable having the sound of ou in out—definition "over the mountain;" but this was the name of their settlement, not of the river.

In illustration of his meaning he pointed at the full moon, then just rising above East mountain, and said "that is Ou-thot-ton-nook-over the mountain." But, as we have before said, the river, here and further south, derived its name from the country through which it flowed, rather than from any adaptedness of the names to the stream itself. The different names referred naturally to the land rather than to the stream.

CHAPTER III.

THE UPPER AND LOWER HOUSATONIC TOWNSHIPS.

1722-1733 with Proceedings Relative to the Lower Township.

The preliminary proceedings towards the settlements of the Upper and Lower Housatonic Townships, have been often written, and are familiar to every reader of Berkshire history. At a session of the Great and General Court, of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, begun at Boston, on the last Wednesday of May, 1722, the petitions of Joseph Parsons and one hundred and fifteen others, and of Thomas Nash and sixty others, inhabitants of Hampshire County, were presented, asking for grants of two tracts of land on the Housatonic river. The report of the Committee, to which these petitions were referred, was accepted by the General Court, and received the approval of the Governor on the 30th of June, granting to such of the petitioners, or others, as might be admitted by a committee for laying out and settling the lands, two tracts of land each to contain seven miles square, to be laid out on the Housatonic river, the first tract to adjoin southerly on the divisional line between Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut, the second to be laid northerly of and adjoining to the first tract.

John Stoddard and Henry Dwight of Northampton, Luke Hitchcock of Springfield, John Ashley of Westfield, and Samuel Porter of Hadley, were appointed a committee to admit settlers or inhabitants, to grant lots, and manage all the prudential affairs of the settlers. The committee were directed to settle the lands in a compact, regular and defensible manner; to admit one hundred and twenty inhabitants or settlers into