Groton Connecticut

Biographical Sketch of Capt. Henry E. Morgan

CAPT. HENRY E. MORGAN. – This well-known pioneer of 1849 is a native of Groton, Connecticut, and was born October 30, 1825. He moved with his parents to Meriden, in the same state, residing there until April, 1849, when he set forth for California in a bark via Cape Horn, arriving in San Francisco the following September. A short time afterwards he began a sea-faring life, and for fifteen years sailed the ocean. During that time he entered nearly all the noted foreign ports, and later purchased a vessel of his own and followed a coasting trade. In 1858 he … Read more

Black-Indian History

The first black slaves were introduced into the New World (1501-03) ostensibly to labor in the place of the Indians, who showed themselves ill-suited to enforced tasks and moreover were being exterminated in the Spanish colonies. The Indian-black inter-mixture has proceeded on a larger scale in South America, but not a little has also taken place in various parts of the northern continent. Wood (New England’s Prospect, 77, 1634) tells how some Indians of Massachusetts in 1633, coming across a black in the top of a tree were frightened, surmising that; ‘he was Abamacho, or the devil.” Nevertheless, inter-mixture of … Read more

Ancestors of William Mason of Taunton, Massachusetts

Mason Machine Works - Mason Machine Works, Taunton, Massachusetts, 1899 Catalog

It is to the life and paternal lineage of the late William Mason of Taunton that this article is directed, he being a direct descendant from one of the old pioneers and Indian fighters of this section in its early settlement – Major John Mason, of Pequot fame, from whom William Mason’s descent is through Daniel, Peter, Japhet, Japhet Mason (2) and Amos Mason.

Biographical Sketch of Samuel Avery

(III) Samuel, son of James and Joanna (Greenslade) Avery, was born at Groton, August 14, 1664, died there, May 1, 1723. He was a large farm owner and most of his life a magistrate. For some time he was captain of the train band, and when the town was legally organized in 1704, he was its moderator. He became the first townsman, at the first town meeting in 1705, and held the position till his death. He married, October 25, 1686, in Swansea, Massachusetts, Susanna, daughter of William and Ann (Humphrey) Palmes, born about 1665, died October 9, 1747. Children: … Read more

Mohegan Tribe

Mohegan Indians (from maïngan, ‘wolf.’ Trumbull). An Algonquian tribe whose chief seat appears originally to have been on Thames river, Conn., in the north part of New London county. They claimed as their proper country all the territory watered by the Thames and its branches north to within 8 or 10 miles of the Massachusetts line, and by conquest a considerable area extending north and east into Massachusetts and Rhode Island, occupied by the Wabaquasset and Nipmuc. On the west their dominion extended along the coast to East river, near Guilford, Conn. After the destruction of the Pequot in 1637 … Read more

Biographical Sketch of James Avery

(II) James, son of Christopher Avery. the only child of whom there is any record in America, and the founder of the Averys of Groton, was born in England about 1620. He accompanied his father to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and lived with him for several years in Gloucester, and then removed to New London, Connecticut, where the first entries in the town book are the births of his three eldest children, who were born in Gloucester. He took up many land grants and built the Hive of the Averys “at the head of Poquonnock Plain in the present town … Read more

Pequot Tribe

Pequot Indians (contr. of Paquatauog, ‘destroyers.’- Trumbull). An Algonquian tribe of Connecticut. Before their conquest by the English in 1637 they were the most dreaded of the southern New England tribes. They were originally but one people with the Mohegan, and it is possible that the term Pequot was unknown until applied by the eastern coast Indians to this body of Mohegan invaders, who came down from the interior shortly before the arrival of the English. The division into two distinct tribes seems to have been accomplished by the secession of Uncas, who, in consequence of a dispute with Sassacus, … Read more