Portland...  On the Move |
Issue 70 ~ News from your Town Hall ~ December 1999
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Christmas 
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Hanukkah Donuts  Come One; Come All; & Deck the Halls 
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Ever Healthy, Ever Green 
Guiltless Party Foods
An occasional indulgence with rich food should not be a problem for most of us. Average out the course of a week, a little extra doesn't add up to much at all. The problem is that, during the holiday season, between all the treats brought into work and the parties at night, we are tempted with a lot of extra food. And some people who have worked hard on their eating habits for months are set back quite a bit after a month of holiday treats.
 | Safety First! What to do if there's a If you live in a house or apartment built before 1978, you and your family could be exposed to lead-based paint and its health risks. Such paint is a hazard if chipped, cracked or turning chalky. Painting over it won't eliminate the problem.
Buckle Up!
The safety program, American Buckles Up Children, reports that car accidents are the leading cause of accidental death and injury among children 12 and younger; 1,700 children are killed every year and another 300,000 injured. 60% of those killed were not wearing seat belts. Safety experts say some parents have two misconceptions about seat belts:
1) They believe it's safer for children not to wear seat belts so they'll be thrown from the vehicle in a crash. They don't realize that 75% of those thrown out of cars die.
Rule of thumb - Under old English law, a man could beat his wife with a rod that was no thicker in circumference than his thumb.
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Portland History Carved in Stone By: Doris Sherrow Who Were The Wangunk? The Wangunk were a strong, resourceful people. Last month's column showed their daily interaction with the early Portland community; this month we will look at the events which marked the early decades of their reservation in Portland. In 1650, Connecticut's Governor Haynes issued a proclamation assuring the Wangunk that they would have the riverbend area of the Connecticut for a reservation. The General Assembly concurred in October, 1664: "Ahere was a parcel of land at Wonggum reserved for the posterity of Sowheage." Englishmen began to settle Middletown in 1646. Before very long, they realized that they wanted the valuable riverbank and meadow on the other side of the "Great River." Around 1670, the Middletown Town Votes Book noted an offer to the Wangunk of other undivided lands "of equal value." But the Wangunk knew that there were no other lands of equal value: much of the undivided land consisted of Meshomasick Mountain, capable of growing little but rattlesnakes. They held their ground-quite literally!-and in 1673, the Middletown Proprietors granted to thirteen Wangunk Proprietors the land that Haynes had promised them, a small parcel on Indian Hill Avenue, and a larger parcel going from Gildersleeve back to the present day Quarry Ridge Golf Course. In 1675, war broke out between the colonists in Massachusetts and the Wampanoag Indians under King Philip. The Narragansetts, traditional allies of the Wangunk, sided with Philip, but the Wangunk seem not to have wanted war. "The Wongham have showed willingness to dwell peaceably in our towns..." remarked the General Assembly. They were to "set their wigwams where the authority appoints..[to be under] English watch and ward [and] not to go forth without Lycense from the Authority ..." Furthermore, the Wangunk were to "engage in friendship [and] be enemies of our enemies." To this end, the civilized, God-fearing English offered them "two yards of cloth for every head of our enemies ... four yeards [sic] if alive." The Wangunk must have been in Portland by this time, but several notations in the 1675-76 Colonial Records show that no white men were in this area yet: all along the river from East Windsor down to Glastonbury, a house in each town on the east side was picked to be fortified, so that in the event of attack, settlers could retreat to it. This fortification may have involved a brick or stone lower story, or simply walls around the property. No house in "East Middletown" was so fortified, meaning that no English settlers were living in Portland until at least the 1680s. |
Beginning in 1691, individual Wangunks began to sell parcels of land, usually no more than an acre, to the settlers. The earliest deeds were for meadow land, probably for farming, rather than houselots. In their deeds the Wangunk often explained their claim to the land, sometimes giving their ancestry in order to justify their ownership. Towwehashque Sunck Squa, for example, who sold that first piece of meadowland to John Clark in 1691, stated that she was the daughter of Sowheage, to whom Haynes had vouchsafed the reservation.
There is no indication in these deeds that the English were taking advantage of their native neighbors. Land prices ran about the same, and, except for the Indians' genealogy notes, which the English didn't usually include, there were no differences between the Indian-to-English deeds and the Englishto-English deeds. The degree of their input on their land sales becomes obvious in a 1717 deed for six acres sold to a prosperous Middletown mariner named Giles Hall. The lot was located at what is today the northeast comer of Main and Summer streets. The Wangunk included a right-of-way for the highway that would become Summer Street. In the deed, they described it as running from the brook which gurgles near Summer and Prospect streets, out toward Main Street, that is, from their vantage point inside the reservation, OUT toward the white man's main street! Had the words of this deed been put in their mouths by whites, the description of that road would have run from Main Street into the Wangunk territory. There may have been unrest among the Wangunk. In 1726, several of the Wangunk filed with the town clerk a record of their descent from the Wangunk Proprietors of the 1673 deed. They were descended from Wesumsha and Pewampskin. One of the most common names in the surviving Wangunk documents is "Cuschoy," used by itself, with Sr. and Jr., and with English names such as Moses, Tom, and Benjamin. The Cuschoy were descended from Robin, also called "Doctor Robbin." It seems as if the Cuschoy were overpowering the other descendants of the Proprietors, hence the nervous assertion of their inherited ownership by these several Wangunk. Yet in many ways, the Wangunk participated in the life of the community. In the 1720S and 1730s, they assisted in laying out the eastern parts of Bartlett and William streets, and the section of High Street between them. They supplied the land, and in the case of part of High and William streets, they supplied one of the surveyors, Cuschoy. Several of the deeds from various Wangunk tribe members refer to the buyer's occupation: Samuel Cotton, "Housewright," Francis Whitmore, "Taylor," and Ebenezer Prout, "physitian." This implies that the Wangunk were availing themselves of the services of these men. It is hard to say what sort of problem it was to be a young, developing town with an Indian reservation smack dab in the middle of your territory. Last month's description of the Wangunk was intended to convey what appears to be a definite good-neighbor interaction between the two cultures. By the 1730s, there seem to have been forces which wanted the Wangunk Reservation out of the heart of Portland. (To be continued...) |
I want to thank everyone who helped make the Harlem Rockets basketball game fund-raiser a great success! It takes time and effort to plan this event. When you have a committee of willing volunteers to help out, it makes the job a lot easier. The Portland High School Class of 2000 Project Graduation Committee held this as one of its major fund raisers to help defray the cost of the alcohol & drug free party on graduation night. The Rockets came to play the Portland Faculty AllStars. The PHS gym was filled with excited fans and players.
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 Attention all Seniors!from Beth Morrissette Richard Larke, a teacher of adult basic education since 1995, has been chosen to run for Connecticut delegate to the biannual convention of AARP. Dick is retired from the Portland Middle School, where he taught Mathematics and Science. He presently teaches at the Millennium Education Center on Main Street.
The Arts
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Mary Valencia, a Portland resident, will exhibit her paintings in the Mary Flood Room from December 4 through December 29. The library will sponsor a reception on Saturday, December 4, from 2 to 4 PM.
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Getting Ready For Y2K Chances are there will be no disturbances due to Y2K malfunctions. State and Federal government, along with utility companies, assure us that everything will run smoothly.While we remain optimistic, there are many people who remain concerned about a worst case scenario. The following is a list of suggestions designed for the possibility of 10 days without electric power: Store I gallon of water per person per day, for drinking and food preparation; 1/2gallon per day for each pet. 2 quarts of water are needed for a sponge bath. Shampooing hair would require more. Wash clothes prior to January V. Stock up on non-perishable foods. Don't forget pet food. Stock up on toilet paper, Save plastic bags for the possibility that toilet bowls become inoperable (if wells cannot be run, or town water becomes unavailable). Check any camping facilities you might want to use. Keep financial records up to date; save receipts for December. If you have a home generator, make sure that it is connected properly, located outside of the home, and well supplied with fuel Store gasoline in a safe location outside of the house. Connect with neighbors beforehand for possible sharing of resources (i.e. 2 way battery operated radios). Make sure that battery operated equipment have fresh batteries (smoke alarms, radios, etc.) Have warm sleeping bags available, and if you go to a shelter, bring them along. Use charcoal & propane grills outside of house. Kerosene heaters should be well ventilated. Fireplace vents and chimney flues should be cleaned beforehand. |
Winterize your home to prevent heat loss.
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