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A visit.--Our people were thrown into a state of considerable emotion last Monday evening and Tuesday, by the encampment of a body of Indians from Canada, about twenty five in number who took up their lodging in the woods near the house of Samuel Picket Esq. about three miles from the village. They remained there until about four o’clock on Tuesday, when they passed through the village and went to Deerfield where they encamped, and still remain. They appear to be comfortably off for Indians, having several horses and wagons, and a goodly supply of blankets and buffalo robes. They are of the St. Francis tribe, in Canada, and are descendants of Eunice Williams, daughter of Rev. John Williams, who, it well be recollected, was, with his family, carried captive when Deerfield was destroyed in 1704. One of the party, a woman of 86 years, the mother of the rest, is grand daughter to Eunice. She scorns the effeminate comforts of civilized life as much as her grandmother did when she visited her afflicted Father, and resists every importunity to lodge in doors. They are very hospitably treated by the Deerfield people. We understand they will return to their homes, from which they have been absent nearly a year, by the way of Albany.

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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An encampment of Abenakis from St. Francis in areas around Greenfield and Deerfield caused local people some uneasiness when they were first discovered. The Indians were descendants of Eunice Williams, seven-year-old daughter of the Reverend John Williams, who was captured during the Deerfield Raid in 1704 and carried to Canada. Eunice married a Mohawk and spent her life in an Indian village in Canada. The twenty-five Abenaki were described in the article as "comfortably well off" with a good supply of blankets and robes.

 

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"A Visit "in the Gazette and Mercury Newspaper

publisher   Phelps and Ingersoll [editors]
date   Aug 29, 1837
location   Greenfield, Massachusetts
height   3.5"
width   2.75"
process/materials   printed paper, ink
item type   Periodicals/Newspaper
accession #   #L01.008


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