FIRST SETTLERS AND EARLY HOME LIFE 



the industrious squaws and made to yield the meager 

 harvests of corn, beans, or squash, to eke out, during 

 the long, tedious winters, the uncertain supply of game. 

 For many years after the coming of the white man, the 

 Indian lived on the river bank and forest edge, every 

 now and then satisfying his desire for hunting by de- 

 scending on some unsuspecting settler, as he wrought in 

 his fields, and carrying him away captive, or killing him 

 on the spot, if he attempted to escape. Some of those 

 taken captive were fortunate enough to escape, but 

 oftener they never came back. 



At Kent and at New Milford, there were quite large 

 Indian settlements. In fact, the center of the so-called 

 Indian kingdom was in this vicinity. The history of 

 the Indians of Kent, and of the Moravian mission 

 among the Indians of Sharon, is too well known to need 

 repeating here. According to Barbour's history, there 

 were about two hundred warriors in the town of New 

 Milford at the time of its settlement in 1707. Here 

 dwelt a powerful sachem whose palace was standing 

 when the white man came. "On the inner walls of this 

 palace [which were of bark with the smooth side in- 

 wards] were pictured every known species of beast, 

 bird, fish and insect, from the largest down to the small- 

 est." At the falls below New Milford was a favorite 

 fishing place of the Indians, great numbers of lampreys 

 being taken there. As late as 1830, a few remnants of 



