Paths

A map of the Mohegan Sachems Hereditary Country Plotted Aug 1, 1705 by John Chandler Surveyor. (Bowen, 26) This map of Mohegan country was done for the 1704 Dudley Commission that was convened to hear the Mohegan challenge of Major John Mason's transfer, as the trustee of Mohegan Reserved Lands, of those lands to the Connecticut government. Note that north is at the bottom. This is an important primary source document that helps explain Roger Williams 1637 description of the overland connection between Massachusetts Bay and the Connecticut River valley English settlements. This map by Chandler places the southwest corner of Wabaquasett Country at Moshe nup suck, the outlet of mishi nippe (present day Shenipsit Pond - mishi-nipe-set, at or near the great pond). Prior to the English war against the Pequot, Wabaquasett Country was part of Shetucket Country, as attested to by Mohegan, Nipmuck Wabaquasett, and Shetucket. The country reportedly extended forty five miles, which if measured from Moshe nup suck would have run to the Blackstone River. From the outlet, Moshe nup suck, to the Connecticut River valley would have most likely been part of several Connecticut River valley communities such as those at or near Hockenum, Podunk and Scantic. Roger Williams described the route linking Connecticut (ostensibly Hartford and Windsor although it would be valid for Springfield as well) as passing through the Nipnet lands of Hassanemesit and Shetucket countries. The Hassanemisco and Shetucket were identified as Nipmuc - as differentiated from the Massachusett, in other words, the inland communities as opposed to the coastal communities. Taken at face value, the western bound of the Massachusett could have been Natick, as the compound was used as a bound name. If so, this would suggest that Hassanemesit Country extended from Natick to the Blackstone River. If Hassanemesit and Shetucket countries were so defined, it would explain William's description of the route through the greater Nipmuck Country. For a comparison, the northwest bound of Wabaquasett Country was called Natick Hill, which could have been a bound between Nipmuck and Connecticut River valley communities near the Freshwater Brook and Chicopee River, as Moshe nup suck would have been for the more southerly Connecticut River valley communities around the Scantic and Hockanum Rivers as noted. The place name Natick shows up in Rhode Island as well. From early English records concerning the bounds of Native American lands, it would seem that Native American country bounds used pond/lake outlets, hills and rivers to denote the extent of hereditary land tenure. Shetucket authority over the country apparently reverted to local control following the collapse of the Pequot - Shetucket governance. Colonial records show Massachusetts Bay authorities negotiating with local leaders individually throughout this part of Nipnet. The allegiances to the Bay Colony that were collected allowed the piecemeal assimilation of Nipnet lands. Separate communities were involved with the English acquisition of the various Dudley, Stoughton and Thompson tracts in Webster and Thompson. Major James Fitch acquired Wabaquasett country in 1684 from Owaneco but there is no mention of him or the Wabaquasett claiming authority over or ownership of land to the Blackstone. However, the Mohegan apparently attempted to exert their influence into Quaboag country, or tried to check any Narraganset moves there. Once the English intruded in the relationships of the various communities of Pequot, Shetucket, Nipmuck, Mohegan and Narraganset, if these can be considered some of the major alliances circa 1636, the dynamics changed. What we have now is mostly a record of the changes, however there are clues pointing to how these long-standing traditional communities interacted. Roger Williams talked about specific relationships and John Chandler's 1705 map of Moghean country draws a similar picture. Source: Bowen, Clarence Winthrop, The Boundary Disputes of Connecticut, Boston 1882. Web. archive.org/details/boundarydisputes00bowe

A map of the Chandler and Thaxton Survey of 1713 (Bowen, 57) Source: Bowen, Clarence Winthrop, The Boundary Disputes of Connecticut, Boston 1882. Web. archive.org/details/boundarydisputes00bowe

The Still River Cafe otherwise known as the old Hayward Tavern. The photois taken from near where Center Turnpike and Somers Turnpike joined, just west of the Still River. The Somers Turnpike from Woodstock passed to the right of the tavern and Center Turnpike passed to the left from this vantage point. The newer hipped-roof part of the tavern faced the Somers Turnpike. This tavern is on the route of what was known in 1691 as Connecticutt Road. The 1600s road heading towards the Connecticut River valley was little more than a well used bridle path. In early Colonial records this would have been called a Country Road, a.k.a. a King's Highway (a route with the right of passage provided under the Crown's protection). This route branched just west of the tavern, with one fork pointing to the Freshwater Plantation on the Connecticut River and the other pointing to Hockanum, just opposite Hartford. The Hartford route was identified in 1705 as the Woodstock to Hartford Road and by 1718 was referred to as Hartford Old Road. From the Hayward Tavern the Woodstock to Hartford road headed towards Moose Meadow, Roaring Brook and a crossing on the Willimantic River. In Tolland the route branched again with one leg continuing through Tolland to Bolton Notch and on to Hartford and the other leg of the branch pointing to Windsor.

Máyi, a way. From Roger Williams 1643 Algonquian phrase book, A Key into the Language of America. The word for a way or foot path was transcribed by Williams from the Narragansett dialect. James Hammond in his Natick Dictionary published in 1903, ostensibly derived from the Massachusett, transcribed the word for path as m'ay or maï. Here, the view along a path looks northeast towards a fork, Yo chippacháusin, there the way divides. In the section on Travel, Williams transcribed the Narragansett compound word Mishimmayagat, “a great path.” Antiquarians appropriated this, shortening it to mishimayagat (dropping the euphony), and took what was a path type or attribute and created a proper name: Mishimayagat, The Great Path or to some writers, Mishimayagat, The Great Path of New England. In creating a proper name from this Algonquian compound, perhaps the import of a distinction that Williams was trying to record was missed. There are ways or paths, Máyi; there are little ways or paths, Peemáyagat; there are great ways or paths, Mishimmayagat; and there are stone or rocky paths, Machípscat. In other words, Williams was describing what were considered to be typical paths and other types of paths such as wide well-traveled ways contrasted to small narrow ways. There are paths and there are paths. There is no suggestion that Williams was saying there was one single great path or one small path running through southern New England. *** In his Key to the Language of America, Williams provided phrases and words that described activities and interactions. His Key was a phrase book for those Colonial English living near, trading with or traveling among Algonquian speaking communities. In the section on Travel, he provided words and phrases that described how to get from here to there, ask directions and interpret directions. Knowing the difference between the types of paths probably was relevant to navigating them. The contrast of path types, a typical path with a great path for example is also illustrated with definitions found in James Trumbull's Natick Dictionary, such as mishekishki or mishe kishki - "broad, wide" or "great from side to side" and mishonogok may - "(it is) a broad way." Greatness or width wasn't strictly an attribute of paths. Trumbull also provided definitions of the Algonquian landscape in his book The Composition of Indian Geographical Names. The attribute mishi, for great, or it's variants show up in Algonquian compounds such as Mississippi (mishi sipu) or "great stream," Mystic (mishi tuk) "great tidal river" (compare to wenne or quinni tuk; the Quinecticut or Connecticutt River: a "winding tidal river”), Massachusetts (mishi wadchu set) "near the great hills," and Mashapaug (mishi paug) "great pond." A possible loose translation of the Narraganset compound “Mishimmayaga,t” as transcribed by Roger Williams, might be mish 'im 'mayi at: being in or going “on a great way." The ending -gat possibly being a transcription of the Algonquian locative suffix “-et,” “-at,” or “-ut,” indicating being in, at or on as opposed to “-set,” being near. Williams offers two possible variants, “kat” or “gat” for the suffix, perhaps determined by the preceding consonant or vowel (?). By way of comparison, Trumbull offers mayut, “in, to, or by the way.” Perhaps in keeping with William's handbook intent (as interpreted here), it may describe traveling the path; or on the way, choosing the correct path to travel. At the fork, take the great way... *** The photo above shows a section of a colonial era route, this recorded in the town book as a private way. These are sometimes described as a particular way or bridle path. The private path would be distinct from a Town High Way or road that would have been considered town or "common" property. A survey of this private way was recorded in the town book in April 1750. Another survey of the same road was recorded in April 1752 extended the route. Town documents refer to it as a road or highway but the physical state of the as-traveled path was the same, as seen in the photo. The 1750 survey linked three farms and roughly follows, or parts of it follow, the route of another “road” recorded in 1736 that went past house of the town Constable and on to the Meeting House. The 1752 survey linked four farms, essentially joining two separate but contiguous roads together. A fork in the 1736 road provided a more direct route, parallel to this section, connecting the distant farms to the Constable's house and on to the horse shed next to the Meeting House. Why this route was recorded is not known. It would seem that for the most part, this section, although recorded, was bypassed and never really used by the public. For early colonial record keeping, this isn't unusual. Roads were marked and recorded and never used and roads were used and recorded decades after the fact. They all started out as foot-paths, according to the earliest town records. This section of the 1750 private way was officially discontinued or abandoned in 1867 when the town went through the old surveys, removing the unused routes from any town responsibilities. *** One feature of this section of the 1750 private way that calls attention is a well preserved bowl-like profile such as might be created by foot traffic. Judging by how wide the indention is and how deep the center is compared to the abutting grade level, this path was either highly traveled over a long period or there were a lot more people using it or perhaps cattle driven along it in Colonial times than is suggested by available written records. Other recorded roads from the same period that were later discontinued do not show the same state of use. Between 1730 and 1750 traffic would have been mostly horse and rider, possibly traveling to and from the Meeting House, although as noted, there was a more direct route available and apparently used. This remnant of a private way is a section of an old ridge-line path a couple of miles from a traditional Shetucket/Wabaquasett/Mohegan gathering place. It is part of a network of paths assimilated by the first English colonial settlers, later expanded on, as documented in town records. This section of the 1750 private way is perhaps an overlooked and forgotten m'ay, or Mishi m'ay. *** A more concise exploration of 17th Century southern New England Algonquian and the Colonial English understanding of it can be found in Roger Williams' Key and James Hammond Trumbull's Indian Names of Places, Composition of Indian Geographical Names and Trumbull’s Natick Dictionary. Another accessible resource is Zeisberger's Grammar of the Delaware. We have inherited a land alive with Algonquian words still eager to be voiced and understood. Resources: Trumbull, J. Hammond, The Composition of Indian Geographical Names, Illustrated from the Algonkin Languages, Hartford, 1870; Project Gutenberg, EBook # 18279. Trumbull, J. Hammond, Natick Dictionary, A New England Indian Lexicon. Lincoln, 2009. Williams, Roger, A Key into the Language of America, London, 1643. Applewood Books, Bedford, 1997. Zeisberger, David. A Grammar of the Language of the Lenni Lenape or Deleware Indians. Translated from the German Manuscript of the late Rev. David Zeisberger, for the American Philosophical Society, Author(s) Peter Stephen Duponceau. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 3 (1830), pp, 65-251. jstor.org. archive.org Taken with: Bessa R, HP5, Processed by OldSchoolPhotolab.com © 2015, 2018, 2019 mapgraphs, all rights reserved

Mayúo? - Is there a way? (Williams, 68) Yo áinshick méyi - There the way lies. (Williams, 69) Williams, Roger, A Key into the Language of America, London, 1643. Applewood Books, Bedford, 1997. Print. (Bessa R, HP5, Processed by OldSchoolPhotolab.com) © 2013 mapgraphs, all rights reserved

A path, marked and recorded in 1750, through John Merrick's farm. Merrick and his neighbor Joseph Parsons were both from Springfield, Massachusetts. The plot was a May 10, 1716 Land Grant by the Connecticut General Assembly to Samuel Rockwell, Jonathan Elsworth and Mathew Grant apparently sold/transferred to Steven Steel who later sold it to Merrick, Aug. 1726. This path, or "road" intersects with a "road" surveyed in 1735 that runs past the Merrick dwelling. Once the as-traveled way was surveyed, bound to bound for the length with a width defined, the "road" or "high way" was considered to have been "laid out". Bessa R

From the place where the people go to catch salmon, a branch that leads to a ford way across the Willimantic River on a road from Woodstock to Hartford noted in John Chandler's map of 1705. The layout of the roads has been altered in this area with the building of two Turnpikes in the early 1800s to construction of the Wilber Cross Turnpike in the late 1930s and more recently Interstate I84. Traces of some of the earlier ways can be found in the 1934 Aerial Survey of Connecticut and the 1940s USGS topographical map series. The USGS topographical map series from the 1890s contains less reliable information regarding the earlier as-traveled routes. The advent of turnpikes combined with a transition from cottage industry to centralized mills altered road use at the local level in some cases, lessening the importance of some roads. Earlier county maps also omit information but are very useful for contextual information. The branch to the right is a remnant of a way that joins the route to a ford way over the Willimantic River that leads to a route up the Roaring Brook valley to Moose Meadow.

It's a well graded and efficient route, The old way, the road from Pomfret, across the Quinebaug to Thompson Hill and on to Douglas. The westerly part of the route was "laid out" ca 1724 as a "road" from Hartford to New Roxbury (Woodstock). On that part of the route, just east of the Pine Hill (aka the Meeting House Hill) in Ashford, the old path branched, one way going on to Providence, the other leading to New Roxbury. The New Roxbury route branched, one way to Plaine Hill the other, this route to Thompson Hill. Plaine Hill in Woodstock is near the site of Wabaquasett, a Shetucket/Wabawuasett town that John Eliot and Daniel Gookin visited in 1674. Thompson Hill is near the site of Quinnitasset, a 1674 Quinebaug or Nipmuck town.

Lexington to Concord Massachusetts. This is what a four rod wide Turnpike circa 1795 - 1820 might have looked like. With some wheel ruts, and probably fewer trees. Bessa R HP5