Narragansett ScSlp - Information

Narragansett
(ScSlp: dp. 1,235; 1. 188'; b. 30'4"; dr. 11'6"; a. 1 11", 4 32-pdrs.)

The first Narragansett, a 2nd class screw sloop built at the Boston Navy Yard, was launched 15 February 1859, and commissioned 6 November 1859, Comdr. T. A. Hunt in command.

Narragansett operated along the East Coast into the spring of 1860. On 31 March of that year she departed Norfolk, Va. for the Paeifie, arriving at Valpariso, Chile, 4 August. Throughout the Civil War she eruised in the Pacific with the primary mission of protecting Ameriean mail steamers from Confeclerate raiders. On 15 December 1864 she departed the Eastern Pacific for the East Coast, arriving New York City 18 March 1865. There she remained in ordinary for several years. Back in full service in 1869, she was ordered south, to cruise off the Cuban and Floridian coasts. With the outbreak of yellow fever in the ship in the late spring, Narragansett was ordered to Portsmouth, N.H., where she decommissioned 2 July 1869.

Inactive for over two years, she again set sail for the Pacific 26 March 1871, arriving at San Francisco 17 September. In December she sailed for the Southwest Paeifie and an extended eruise through the Marshalls, Gilberts and Samoan Islands to Australia, arriving at Sydney 2 April 1873. On her return from this eruise, the sloop was assigned special duty in connection with the survey and examination of the steamer routes along the coasts of California and Mexico. Detached from that duty in 1875, she entered the Mare Island shipyard where she decommissioned and was laid up until 3 November 1883, when she was sold to Wm. E. Mighell of San Francisco.

1900 - 1916

Thus, at the end of the Nineteenth Century Narragansett's economic and political environment conditions were rosy. But, then things began to change.

In 1900, at the start of the Twentieth Century, two developments transpired that had a radical effect on the dynamics of Narragansett. The first was the introduction of the automobile. The internal combustion engine (gasoline-powered) had been invented in Germany in 1885, and the first auto (a Duryea) was sold in the U.S. in 1898. By 1910 500,000 cars were sold in America.

In Narragansett, visited each season by very wealthy people with much free time, the new machines were an instant hit. Francis S. Kinney, the owner of the Kinney mansion and bungalow as well as Sweet Caporal cigarettes, America's leading brand, shipped three automobiles back to New York from Narragansett at the end of the 1899 season. In 1900, Walter A. Nye, the proprietor of the elegant Imperial Hotel, advertised two autos for rent at the hotel's garage.

At first, the automobiles were an exciting diversion in Narragansett (although there were frequent accidents with horses, horse-drawn vehicles, and other autos). But, for the town's tourist trade they acted as a ticking time bomb. No longer would summer visitors be virtual captives in town. Automobiles gave them mobility - the ability to move from resort to resort (or simply tour) - without depending on trains or ships. Of course, this new freedom accelerated as the autos and roads improved.

(An early victim of the automobile craze was the Sea View Railroad. The trolley line was quickly overtaken by the new competition and failed in 1920.)

The second disaster of that year occurred on September 12, 1900 - called "the darkest day in the history of the Pier" - when the prestigious Narragansett Pier Casino burned to the ground (except for the granite foundation and walls of its magnificent porte-cochere archway, The Towers). The fire had started in the nearby massive Rockingham Hotel, and eventually consumed most of the village's center. The Casino, of course, had been the centerpiece of the town's social activity, and its loss had an immediate negative effect on the town's appeal as a tourist destination.

Nevertheless, Narragansett reacted quickly to the conflagration of the old Casino. In 1905, a new Narragansett Pier Casino was erected on the previous site of the Rockingham Hotel. Like its predecessor, the new Casino was designed by McKim, Mead & White, and received much praise for its excellence. But, more bad news soon followed with "The Great Panic of 1907." This financial meltdown and the ensuing recession eventually settled by President Teddy Roosevelt with the assistance of J.P. Morgan had a serious impact on many of Narragansett's monied summer visitors.

Some familiar and important old structures failed the test of time shortly thereafter. The 1897 steamboat landing pier on the beach lasted only a decade, and was demolished in 1908 following persistent damage by heavy surf.

In 1909, "Canonchet" (namesake of the heroic Narragansett Tribal chief sachem during the King Philip's War), the more than 60-room landmark mansion, built in 1867 by Civil War Governor and Senator (as well as Narragansett's first town council president) William Sprague, burned to the ground. As the site of many historic and romantic encounters, the loss of this enormous building was deeply felt.

In 1910, some progress returned as a permanent breachway from the ocean to Point Judith Pond was excavated between the coastal hamlets of Galilee and Jerusalem (previous outlets had been unstable and subject to closure as a result of storms). The channel correction was an important part of the lengthy federal project to improve navigation and security for the important travel and commerce passing through these stormy waters. When the great Point Judith Harbor of Refuge project - initiated in 1890 - was completed in 1914, it not only provided safe harbor for the important maritime industry, but it also became the foundation for the thriving commercial and recreational fishery that exists today.

Another positive event that took place in 1910 was the restoration of The Towers, the entrance way to the original Narragansett Pier Casino. Somewhat fire-resistant because of its granite foundation and walls, the porte-cochere had partially survived the conflagration of 1900. Re-roofed with its wooden interior replaced, the magnificent structure was able, phoenix like, to rise from its ashes and resume operations only ten years later.

4.7.1: Puritan Mission and the Indians

The charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company proclaimed that the purpose of those who traveled to the Americas was &ldquoto win and incite the natives of this country, to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of mankind.&rdquo This mission was not unique to Massachusetts or even to those who sailed from England, as Columbus mentions in his journal that, as soon as he encountered the Taino people of the Caribbean islands, he saw that &ldquothey were very friendly&hellipand perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force.&rdquo Similarly, Hernan Cortes, sent to conquer the Aztec Empire of Mexico, mentioned in his letter to Charles V, king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, that the Aztecs acknowledged that the Spanish explorers &ldquohaving more recently arrived must know better than themselves what they ought to believe and that if I [Cortes] would instruct them in these matters, and make them understand the true faith, they would follow my directions, as being for the best.&rdquo Those living in Massachusetts Bay were continually reminded of their duty because the seal of the colony of Massachusetts Bay contained the image of a native crying, &ldquoCome over and help us!&rdquo

Years passed, however, before the Puritans actually began the work of conversion. One of the greatest obstacles was language. Puritans believed that conversion could come only when the converts could read and discuss the Bible. Through much of the 1630s, the Puritans dealt with the natives only through sign language, which worked well when bartering but was not sufficient for purposes of conversion. In order to have a true conversion experience, the natives needed a written language and a Bible written in that language. The conversion efforts did not begin seriously until after the Pequot War.

Several human remains from the stone-age Ertebølle culture in Denmark show evidence of scalping. [3]

A man found in a grave in the Alvastra pile-dwelling in Sweden had been scalped approximately 5000 years ago. [4]

In England in 1036, Earl Godwin, father of Harold Godwinson, was reportedly responsible for scalping his enemies, among whom was Alfred Aetheling. According to the ancient Abingdon manuscript, 'some of them were blinded, some maimed, some scalped. No more horrible deed was done in this country since the Danes came and made peace here'. [5]

Georg Frederici noted that “Herodotus provided the only clear and satisfactory portrayal of a scalping people in the old world” in his description of the Scythians, a nomadic people then located to the north and west of the Black Sea. [6] Herodotus related that Scythian warriors would behead the enemies they defeated in battle and present the heads to their king to claim their share of the plunder. Then, the warrior would skin the head “by making a circular cut round the ears and shaking out the skull he then scrapes the flesh off the skin with the rib of an ox, and when it is clean works it with his fingers until it is supple, and fit to be used as a sort of handkerchief. He hangs these handkerchiefs on the bridle of his horse, and is very proud of them. The best man is the man who has the greatest number.” [7]

Ammianus Marcellinus noted the taking of scalps by the Alani, a people of Asiatic Scythia, in terms quite similar to those used by Herodotus. [8]

The Abbé Emmanuel H. D. Domenech referenced the decalvare of the ancient Germans and the capillos et cutem detrahere of the code of the Visigoths as examples of scalping in early medieval Europe, [9] though some more recent interpretations of these terms relate them to shaving off the hair of the head as a legal punishment rather than scalping. [10]

In 1845, mercenary John Duncan observed what he estimated to be 700 scalps taken in warfare and displayed as trophies by a contingent of female soldiers—Dahomey Amazons—employed by the King of Dahomey (present-day Republic of Benin). Duncan noted that these would have been taken and kept over a long period of time and would not have come from a single battle. Although Duncan travelled widely in Dahomey, and described customs such as the taking of heads and the retention of skulls as trophies, nowhere else does he mention scalping. [11] [12]

Occasional instances of scalping of dead Axis troops by Allied military personnel are known from World War 2. While many of these instances took place in the Pacific Theater, along with more extreme forms of trophy-hunting (see American mutilation of Japanese war dead), occasional instances are reported in the European Theater as well. One particularly widely reported, although disputed, case involves that of German general Friedrich Kussin, the commandant of the town of Arnhem who was ambushed and killed by British paratroopers in early stages of Operation Market Garden. [13]

There is physical evidence that scalping was practiced during the Longshan and Erlitou periods in China's central plain. [14]

A skull from an Iron Age cemetery in South Siberia shows evidence of scalping. It lends physical evidence to the practice of scalp taking by the Scythians living there. [15]

Techniques Edit

Specific scalping techniques varied somewhat from place to place, depending on the cultural patterns of the scalper regarding the desired shape, size, and intended use of the severed scalp, and on how the victims wore their hair, but the general process of scalping was quite uniform. The scalper firmly grasped the hair of a subdued adversary, made several quick semicircular cuts with a sharp instrument on either side of the area to be taken, and then vigorously yanked at the nearly-severed scalp. The scalp separated from the skull along the plane of the areolar connective tissue, the fourth (and least substantial) of the five layers of the human scalp. Scalping was not in itself fatal, though it was most commonly inflicted on the gravely wounded or the dead. The earliest instruments used in scalping were stone knives crafted of flint, chert, or obsidian, or other materials like reeds or oyster shells that could be worked to carry an edge equal to the task. Collectively, such tools were also used for a variety of everyday tasks like skinning and processing game, but were replaced by metal knives acquired in trade through European contact. The implement, often referred to as a “scalping knife” in popular American and European literature, was not known as such by Native Americans, a knife being for them just a simple and effective multi-purpose utility tool for which scalping was but one of many uses. [16] [17]

Intertribal warfare Edit

Author and historian Mark van de Logt wrote, "Although military historians tend to reserve the concept of 'total war ' ", in which civilians are targeted, "for conflicts between modern industrial nations," the term "closely approaches the state of affairs between the Pawnees, the Sioux, and the Cheyennes. Noncombatants were legitimate targets. Indeed, the taking of a scalp of a woman or child was considered honorable because it signified that the scalp taker had dared to enter the very heart of the enemy's territory." [18]

Many tribes of Native Americans practiced scalping, in some instances up until the end of the 19th century. Of the approximately 500 bodies at the Crow Creek massacre site, 90 percent of the skulls show evidence of scalping. The event took place circa 1325 AD. [19]

Colonial wars Edit

The Connecticut and Massachusetts colonies offered bounties for the heads of killed hostile Indians, and later for just their scalps, during the Pequot War in the 1630s [20] Connecticut specifically reimbursed Mohegans for slaying the Pequot in 1637. [21] Four years later, the Dutch in New Amsterdam offered bounties for the heads of Raritans. [21] In 1643, the Iroquois attacked a group of Huron pelters and French carpenters near Montreal, killing and scalping three of the French. [22]

Bounties for Indian captives or their scalps appeared in the legislation of the American colonies during the Susquehannock War (1675–77). [23] New England offered bounties to white settlers and Narragansett people in 1675 during King Philip's War. [21] By 1692, New France also paid their native allies for scalps of their enemies. [21] In 1697, on the northern frontier of Massachusetts colony, settler Hannah Duston killed ten of her Abenaki captors during her nighttime escape, presented their ten scalps to the Massachusetts General Assembly, and was rewarded with bounties for two men, two women, and six children, even though Massachusetts had rescinded the law authorizing scalp bounties six months earlier. [20] There were six colonial wars with New England and the Iroquois Confederacy fighting New France and the Wabanaki Confederacy over a 75-year period, starting with King William's War in 1688. All sides scalped victims, including noncombatants, during this frontier warfare. [24] Bounty policies originally intended only for Native American scalps were extended to enemy colonists. [21]

Massachusetts created a scalp bounty during King William's War in July 1689. [25] During Queen Anne's War, by 1703, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was offering $60 for each native scalp. [26] During Father Rale's War (1722–1725), on August 8, 1722, Massachusetts put a bounty on native families. [27] Ranger John Lovewell is known to have conducted scalp-hunting expeditions, the most famous being the Battle of Pequawket in New Hampshire. [ citation needed ]

In the 1710s and '20s, New France engaged in frontier warfare with the Natchez people and the Meskwaki people, during which both sides would employ the practice. [ citation needed ] In response to repeated massacres of British families by the French and their native allies during King George's War, Massachusetts governor William Shirley issued a bounty in 1746 to be paid to British-allied Indians for the scalps of French-allied Indian men, women, and children. [28] New York passed a Scalp Act in 1747. [29]

During Father Le Loutre's War and the Seven Years' War in Nova Scotia and Acadia, French colonists offered payments to Indians for British scalps. [30] In 1749, British Governor Edward Cornwallis created an extirpation proclamation, which included a bounty for male scalps or prisoners. Also during the Seven Years' War, Governor of Nova Scotia Charles Lawrence offered a reward for male Mi'kmaq scalps in 1756. [31] (In 2000, some Mi'kmaq argued that this proclamation was still legal in Nova Scotia. Government officials argued that it was no longer legal because the bounty was superseded by later treaties - see the Halifax Treaties). [32]

During the French and Indian War, as of June 12, 1755, Massachusetts governor William Shirley was offering a bounty of £40 for a male Indian scalp, and £20 for scalps of females or of children under 12 years old. [26] [33] In 1756, Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Robert Morris, in his Declaration of War against the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) people, offered "130 Pieces of Eight, for the Scalp of Every Male Indian Enemy, above the Age of Twelve Years," and "50 Pieces of Eight for the Scalp of Every Indian Woman, produced as evidence of their being killed." [26] [34]

American Revolution Edit

In the American Revolutionary War, Henry Hamilton, the British Lieutenant Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs at Fort Detroit, was known by American Patriots as the "hair-buyer general" because they believed he encouraged and paid his Native American allies to scalp American settlers. When Hamilton was captured in the war by the colonists, he was treated as a war criminal instead of a prisoner of war because of this. However, American historians have conceded that there was no positive proof that he had ever offered rewards for scalps. [35] It is now assumed that during the American Revolution, no British officer paid for scalps. [36] During the Sullivan Expedition, the September 13, 1779 journal entry of Lieutenant William Barton tells of patriots participating in scalping. [37]

Mexico Edit

In 1835, the government of the Mexican state of Sonora put a bounty on the Apache which, [38] over time, evolved into a payment by the government of 100 pesos for each scalp of a male 14 or more years old. [39] In 1837, the Mexican state of Chihuahua also offered a bounty on Apache scalps, 100 pesos per warrior, 50 pesos per woman, and 25 pesos per child. [38] Harris Worcester wrote: "The new policy attracted a diverse group of men, including Anglos, runaway slaves led by Seminole John Horse, and Indians — Kirker used Delawares and Shawnees others, such as Terrazas, used Tarahumaras and Seminole Chief Coacoochee led a band of his own people who had fled from Indian Territory." [40]

American Civil War Edit

Some scalping incidents even occurred during the American Civil War. For example, Confederate guerrillas led by "Bloody Bill" Anderson were well known for decorating their saddles with the scalps of Union soldiers they had killed. [41] Archie Clement had the reputation of being Anderson's “chief scalper”.

Continued Indian Wars Edit

In 1851, the U.S. Army displayed Indian scalps in Stanislaus County, California. In Tehama County, California, U.S. military and local volunteers razed villages and scalped hundreds of men, women, and children. [42] [ when? ]

Scalping also occurred during the Sand Creek Massacre on November 29, 1864, during the American Indian Wars, when a 700-man force of U.S. Army volunteers destroyed the village of Cheyenne and Arapaho in southeastern Colorado Territory, killing and mutilating [43] [44] an estimated 70–163 Native Americans. [45] [46] [47] An 1867 New York Times article reported that "settlers in a small town in Colorado Territory had recently subscribed $5,000 to a fund ‘for the purpose of buying Indian scalps (with $25 each to be paid for scalps with the ears on)’ and that the market for Indian scalps ‘is not affected by age or sex’." The article noted this behavior was "sanctioned" by the U.S. federal government, and was modeled on patterns the U.S. had begun a century earlier in the "American East". [48] : 206

From one writer's point of view, it was a "uniquely American" innovation that the use of scalp bounties in the wars against indigenous societies "became an indiscriminate killing process that deliberately targeted Indian non-combatants (including women, children, and infants), as well as warriors." [48] : 204 Some American states such as Arizona paid bounty for enemy Native American scalps. [49]

Scalped corpse of buffalo hunter Ralph Morrison found after an 1868 encounter with Cheyennes, near Fort Dodge, Kansas

About Roberta Estes

5 Responses to Surviving a Scalping

it’s hard to imagine any normal human scalping a baby

I’m kind of late with this reply but it seems to me that the reason you don’t hear many stories of scalping survivors among Native Americans is simply because, having no written language, they recorded very little history compared to European settlers. I don’t think the omission is any kind of racial or cultural slur.

I’ve heard of the story of an 11 year old blonde girl who survived being scalped in St. Mary’s , Georgia … It was believed that it was by request of the Spanish who the Creek were allied with against the English Colony… At that time Spain controlled Florida and was at war with England… It was used as a form of terrorism…This was the early 1800’s!

The final and most conclusive evidence of scalping in pre-Columbian America comes from archaeology. Since Indian skulls of the requisite age can be found to show distinct and unambiguous marks made by the scalping knife, the Indians must have known of scalping before the arrival of the white man. A wealth of evidence, particularly from prehistoric sites along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and in the Southeast, indicates just such a conclusion.In the light of such evidence, it is clear that Indians, not white men, introduced scalping to the New World. At the same time, it cannot be denied that the colonists encouraged the spread of scalping to many tribes unfamiliar with the practice by posting scalp bounties. Nor can it be forgotten that Americans of every stripe—from frontiersmen to ministers—were tainted by participating in the bloody market for human hair. Yet in the end, the American stereotype of scalping must stand as historical fact, whether we are comfortable with it or not.

Ipswich, the Brookfield Massacre and King Philip’s War

In May 1660, a group of colonists moved from Ipswich to the Indian town Quaboag in Western Massachusetts, which they renamed Brookfield. Indian attacks known as “King Philip’s War” resulted in the destruction of Brookfield and the deaths of a dozen settlers on August 2, 1675. English soldiers accompanied by Mohegan allies were eventually able to break the siege at Brookfield, with casualties on both sides. Hatfield, Deerfield and Northfield were attacked in September, and Springfield was burned on October 5th.

The leader of the Indian attacks was Metacomet (aka Metacom) leader of the Pokanoket tribe, known by the English as King Philip, who led a bloody uprising of Wampanoag, Nipmuck, Pocumtuck and Narragansett tribes that lasted over a year and destroying twelve frontier towns, the bloodiest war, per capita, in North American history.

In January of 1675, John Sassamon, a Christian Native-American, told Plymouth’s governor, Josiah Winslow, that King Philip was planning an attack against the colonists. Later that month Sassamon was found dead and three Wampanoags were arrested, tried and executed them at Plymouth plantation on June 8. On June 20, Pokanoket warriors looted and set fire to homes in Swansea, then attacked residents returning from church. Officials from Plymouth and Boston responded on June 28 with a military expedition that destroyed the Wampanoag town at Mount Hope (modern Bristol, Rhode Island). The destruction of their village enraged the Narragansett and brought them into into the conflict. Philip escaped but the women and children of the village were sold into slavery by the English.

Ipswich settlers of Brookfield

William Prichard arrived in the colony in 1630 and settled in Ipswich in 1649. In the summer of 1660. By 1675 he was a selectman of Brookfield and serving as Sergeant in the military. On August 2, 1675, Sergeant Prichard, Corporal Coy, and Sergeant Ayres, were slain in an ambush at Braintree. William Pritchard’s son was outside the garrison at Brookfield when the attack began and was slain by the Indians. They cut off his head, tossed it about like a ball in sight of the settlers, and then set on a pole against his dead father’s house.

John Ayres Sr. was a prominent Ipswich resident who promoted the settlement in Quaboag. He also was killed in the ambush by the Indians in New Braintree the same day as the Brookfield massacre. His wife Susannah Ayres survived the attack at Brookfield and moved back to Ipswich with her six sons and one daughter.

Daniel Hovey and his wife Abigail joined the new town in 1668 accompanied by their five younger children, Thomas aged 20, James 18, Joseph 15, Abigail 13, and Nathaniel 11. Their older children, Daniel Jr. and John remained in Ipswich. Daniel Hovey moved again to Hadley and returned to Ipswich after the massacre.

Metacomet’s forces attacked the settlement at Brookfield and tried to set it on fire.

In the early moments of that siege, Daniel’s son James was overtaken and killed by the Indians somewhere near his house. His wife Priscilla and their children took refuge in a tavern surrounded by hundreds of hostile Nipmucs, who tried unsuccessfully to burn it. After three days Major Simon Willard arrived with 46 troops, and they chased off the attackers. James Hovey was buried with the eleven other victims, and the traumatized survivors returned to Ipswich or dispersed to other better-protected communities along the Massachusetts frontier.

After the attack on Brookfield, Priscilla took her three children to join James’ brother Daniel Hovey in Hadley. She left her eldest son also named Daniel in Hadley to be raised and educated by James’ other brother Thomas. The widow returned to Ipswich with her daughter Priscilla and the infant, James Jr. She filed an inventory of the estate in March 16, 1676 and received a small stipend as a war widow from the General Court of Ipswich. James’ death was officially listed as a military casualty.

John Warner and his father William Warner were among the first settlers in the Ipswich Colony, arriving in 1635. The father died in Ipswich in 1648. John Warner married Priscilla, daughter of Mark Symonds of Ipswich where they continued to live for about twenty years. In 1670, he sold to John Woodam his property in Ipswich, consisting of his dwelling house, barn, orchard, and 7 acres of upland “which formerly was part of my father Warner’s meadow in Ipswich.” and he and Priscilla moved to Brookfield. He was one of three men there who arranged the transfer of land with the Indians, built the first house in the new town and is referred to as the “Father of Brookfield”. John and Priscilla survived the attack and retreated with their younger children to Hadley, MA to join their oldest son Mark Warner. Priscilla died in 1688 and John died in 1692.

King Philip’s War

The following excerpts are from Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony by Thomas Franklin Waters (with additional information added):

Since the year 1653, there had been no fear of Indian assaults. The settlers went to work in the fields, or assembled for public worship, and journeys were made over the lonely roads through the forests without suspicion of danger. But, at last, there were signs of an approaching rupture in the peaceful relations between the English and the Indians.

A chief of commanding influence, Metacun, the son of Massasoit, known commonly by his English name, Philip, dwelt at Mount Hope, near the present town of Bristol, Rhode Island. He had sold his tribal lands so extensively, that his people began to feel the pressure of civilization. The settlers had dealt unfairly in many instances in their traffic with the natives. They had deprived them of their arms, on pretence of treachery, and had occupied their lands without purchase.

Brooding over his wrongs, Philip organized a plot for the extermination of his dangerous neighbors. It was discovered by a Christian Indian, who reported it to the authorities of Plymouth Colony. Philip condemned the informer to death, and he was slain in January, 1674. Three Indians were brought to trial for the crime and sentenced to death. Two of them were executed in June, 1675, and Philip began at once to plan for his revenge.

On the 24th of June, 1675, the first blow was struck. The town of Swansea in the Plymouth colony was attacked and eight or nine of the English were slain. A foot company under Captain Daniel Henchman and Captain Thomas Prentice with a troop of horse were dispatched from Boston toward Mount Hope on the 26th. The state of affairs was critical and with true Puritan reverence, the 29th of June was set apart as a day of humiliation and prayer. The troops met the enemy near Swansea and some lives were lost on both sides.

It soon became evident that a general Indian uprising was imminent. On the 14th of July, Mendon, about 36 miles from Boston and within the bounds of the Massachusetts Colony, was assailed and four or five of the settlers were killed.

In May 1660, a group of colonists moved from Ipswich to the Indian town Quaboag in Western Massachusetts, which they renamed Brookfield. Indian attacks resulted in the destruction of Brookfield and the deaths of a dozen settlers on August 2, 1675. The full horrors of an Indian war were revealed in the bloody affair at Brookfield. Captain Edward Hutchinson, accompanied by his troopers, and some of the men of Brookfield went to the place agreed on with the Indians for a conference, near the town of Brookfield, and not meeting them there, pushed on to find them. In a narrow defile, shut in by a rocky hill on one side and a swamp on the other, they were suddenly fired on, and in the short, sharp fight that followed eight were slain.

Retreating to the town, they made their stand in the garrison house. The Indians assailed them hotly with loud yells. One young man, the son of William Pritchard, who had been slain in the morning, was killed while venturing away from the garrison. They cut off his head, tossed it about in plain sight of the beleaguered settlers, and then set it on a pole against the door of his father’s house. The Indians endeavored repeatedly to burn the garrison house, and, after several unsuccessful attempts, were just completing a long cart filled with combustibles, and provided with poles, with which they could push it against the house. A providential shower wet the kindling wood so thoroughly that it would not burn readily.

The news of this affair must have caused many a panic in Ipswich. The plantation six miles square, near Quabaug Ponds, had been granted by the General Court in 1660 to some persons of Ipswich, if twenty families and an approved minister be there in three years. In 1667, on the 15th of May, the Court voted that the time be extended for a year from the next midsummer, as only six or seven families had settled there. John Warner and William Pritchard removed from Ipswich to the new settlement in the year it was granted, and Captain John Ayres was a resident there in 1672. Sergeant Prichard, Corporal Coy, and Sergeant Ayres, were slain in an ambush at Braintree. The tale of the tragic death of Ayres and the Pritchards, and the sufferings of their families in the garrison house made the war vivid, real and terrible.

The Essex regiment was commanded by Major Denison. The Ipswich company had for its officers, Denison as Captain, Samuel Appleton as Lieutenant and Thomas Burnham as Ensign. The first Essex troop, recruited in Salem and vicinity, and the second Essex troop, which was composed of Ipswich and Newbury men, were also attached to this regiment. Upon the breaking out of the war, Denison had been appointed commander-in-chief of the Massachusetts troops. In the latter part of July a levy of troops had been made in Essex County and immediately after the disaster at Brookfield, Captain Lathrop of Salem was sent with a company from Salem and the neighboring towns, including some from Ipswich. Captain Beers also marched from Watertown with his command. The troops gathered at Brookfield and Hadley, but no body of Indians was discovered. Many towns were threatened and the soldiers were kept on the move.

With the beginning of September, the war was pressed most vigorously along the Connecticut River. On the first of that month, Deerfield was burned and one man killed. Two or three days later, the Indians attacked Squakeag, now Northfield, where they killed nine or ten of the people. The next day Captain Beers, with thirty-six men, marched to relieve the garrison at Squakeag, not hearing of the disaster of the day before, and was ambushed by a large number of Indians. He made a brave defence, but after a valiant fight, he and about twenty of his men were slain.

Rev. William Hubbard, in his History of the Indian Wars, remarks, in this connection:

“Here the barbarous villains showed their insolent Rage and Cruelty, more than ever before, cutting off the Heads of some of the Slain, and fixing them upon Poles near the Highway and not only so, but one was found with a Chain hooked into his under Jaw, and so hung up on the Bow of a Tree (’tis feared he was hung up alive) by which Means they thought to daunt and discourage any that might come to their Relief, and also to terrify those that should be Spectators with the Beholding so sad an object insomuch that Major Treat with his Company, going up two days after, to fetch of the Residue of the Garrison, were solemnly affected with that doleful Sight, which made them make the more Haste to bring down the Garrison, not waiting for any Opportunity to take Revenge upon the Enemy, having but a hundred with him, too few for such a purpose. Captain Appleton going up after him, met him coming down, and would willingly have persuaded them to have turned back, to see if they could have made any Spoil upon the Enemy but the greatest Part advised to the Contrary, so that they were all forced to return with what they could carry away leaving the Rest for a Booty to the Enemy, who shall ere long pay a sad Reckoning for their Robberies and Cruelties, in the Time appointed.”

Samuel Appleton

Captain Samuel Appleton had taken the field with his company about the first of September, and he and his Ipswich soldiers had a gruesome beginning of their warfare, marching over the road lined with the dismembered bodies of their fellow soldiers, and the smoking ruins of the farms. The troops were distributed at garrisons at Northampton, Hatfield, Deerfield and Hadley. Captain Appleton was stationed at Deerfield and arrived there about the tenth of September. On the 17th of August, Gen. Denison sent orders from Boston to Major Richard Waldron to proceed to Pennicook (Concord), “supposed to be the rendezvous of ye enemy where you may expect to meet Capt. Mosely, who is ordered thither.” He instructed him to take a surgeon with him, and informed him that the main body of the soldiers was at Hadley.

The Battle of Bloody Brook was fought on September 18, 1675 between English colonial militia from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and a band of Indians led by the Nipmuc sachem Muttawmp. The Indians ambushed colonists escorting a train of wagons carrying the harvest from Deerfield to Hadley during King Philip’s War. They killed at least 40 militia men and 17 teamsters out of a company that included 79 militia. Image from “Pioneers in the settlement of America” by William A. Crafts

Bloody Brook

On Sunday the 12th of September, the soldiers and settlers at Deerfield gathered for worship in the stockade. Returning, the north garrison was ambushed with the loss of one man captured. Appleton rallied his men and attacked them and drove them off, but the north fort had been plundered and set on fire, and much of the settlers’ stock stolen. As he had not force enough to guard the forts and engage in offensive operations, the Indians still hung round insultingly and burned two more houses. A storm prevented action that night, but the next night a party of volunteers, with a few from Hadley, and some of Lathrop’s men came up to the relief of the town.

On the 14th, the united forces under Appleton marched to Pine Hill. Spies had doubtless reported the arrival of reinforcements, and the Indians had all fled. It was decided that Deerfield should be abandoned, and as there was a large amount of corn already threshed, it was loaded on carts and Captain Lathrop was detailed to guard the teams on their way to Hadley. No Indians were known to be in the neighborhood. The Ipswich Historian, Rev. Hubbard wrote, “Upon September 18, “that most fatal Day, the Saddest that ever befell New England, as the Company were marching along with the Carts never apprehending Danger so near, were suddenly set upon, and almost all cut off (not above seven or eight escaping).”

The number of the slain, including Captain Lathrop, as reported by Rev. John Russell of Hadley in a letter written shortly afterward, was seventy-one. Only a few escaped. Among the dead, were several Ipswich men, Thomas Hobbs, Caleb Kimball, John Littlehale, Thomas Manning, Thomas Mentor, and Jacob Wainwright. They were all buried in a single grave near the place where they fell. Rev. Mr. Hubbard narrates:

“As Captain Mosely came upon the Indians in the Morning, he found them stripping the Slain, amongst whom was one Robert Dutch of Ipswich, having been sorely wounded by a Bullet that grazed to his Skull, and then mauled by the Indian Hatchets, was left for dead by the savages, and stript by them of all but his skin yet when Captain Mosely came near, he almost miraculously, as one raised from the Dead, came towards the English, to their no small Amazement, by whom being received and clothed, he was carried off to the next Garrison, and is living and in perfect Health at this Day.”

Battle at Hadley

Captain Appleton and his Ipswich company were stationed at Hadley, and his value as a military leader was becoming more and more evident to the Council of the Col ony. Instructions were sent to Captain Wayte: “It is ordered that there be a commission issued forth to Capt. Samuel Appleton to command a foot Company of 100 men In the service of ye country. On the 5th of October, Captain Mosely wrote from Hadley, “Major Pinchon is gone with Capt. Appleton with a company of above 190 soldiers. They hurried to Springfield but found the town in flames, and the Indians already fled. Major Pynchon’s grist mills, Rev. Mr. Glover’s Parsonage with his valuable library, and nearly all the buildings were destroyed.” Rev. John Russell wrote a letter which described the disaster, and lamented that Hadley would be the next to drink the bitter cup.

Captain Samuel Appleton was Commander in chief at the headquarters at Hadley. The position to which he was called was full of difficulty. The Indians had ravaged the country so sorely and had inflicted such terrible losses upon the forces sent against them, that a general feeling of discouragement prevailed. On the 19th of October, an attack was made upon Hatfield, but Appleton had foreseen the danger and provided for it. Mr. Hubbard gives a vivid narrative of the fight:

“According to the good Providence of Almighty God, Major Treat was newly returned to Northampton, Captain Mosely and Captain Poole were then garrisoning the said Hatfield, and Captain Appleton quartering at Hadley, when on the sudden seven or eight hundred of the Enemy came upon the Town in all Quarters, having first killed or taken two or three Scouts belonging to the Town, and seven more belonging to Captain Mosely his company. But they were so well entertained on all hands where they attempted to break in upon the Town, that they found it too hot for them, by the Resolution of the English instantly beaten off, without doing much harm. Captain Appleton’s Sergeant was mortally wounded just by his side, another bullet passing through his own hair, by that whisper telling him that Death was very near but did no other harm.”

Major Appleton led a two-hour attack against Metacom’s fighters in Springfield which resulted in the first setback by the Indians. This was the first decisive defeat inflicted upon the Indians. Col. Appleton began the distribution of the Massachusetts troops among the exposed towns. Twenty-nine soldiers under Captain Aaron Cooke were stationed at Westfield. Twenty-nine were sent to Springfield under command of Major Pynchon, Lieut. Clarke and twenty-six men. 197 were left at Northampton, thirty at Hadley commanded by Captain Jonathan Poole, and thirty-six at Hatfield.

Return to Ipswich

Having made this provision for the defense of the frontier towns, Major Appleton marched home, probably about November 24th. A feeling of comfortable security filled the town, when the Major and his soldiers returned. A few weeks before, the Indians had appeared at Salisbury, and General Denison marched thither with his troops. The outposts at Topsfield and Andover were greatly alarmed at seeing Indians.

“It is hardly imaginable,” Denison wrote from Ipswich on the 28th of October, “the panic and fear that is upon our upland plantations, and scattered places, respecting their habitations.” The General Court on October 13th had ordered a guard of two men, appointed by General Denison or the chief commander of the town of Ipswich, to keep watch at Deputy Governor Symonds’s Argilla farm, as it was “so remote from neighbours, and he so much necessitated to be on the country’s service.”

No doubt the distracted people slept more soundly, and gathered hope and strength. But the interval of calm was short. Scarcely had Appleton and his men returned from their campaign, when they were summoned into the field for a united assault upon the Narragansett Indians in their stronghold.

The Great Swamp Fight

Major Appleton marched away on the eighth of December as the whole Massachusetts force mustered on Dedham Plain on the ninth. There were five companies, commanded by Captains Mosely, Gardner, Davenport, Oliver and Johnson, beside the company of which Major Appleton was Captain. Major Appleton led his force on that winter’s day, December 9th, a long march of twenty-seven miles to “Woodcoks” now Attleboro, and another day brought them to Seekonk. On December 14th, as his scouts had brought in some Indians, he led his troops, foot and horse, on a detour into the Indian country, and burned a hundred and fifty wigwams, killed seven of the enemy and brought in eight prisoners. As the army advanced, several of the soldiers, straggling from their companies, were slain by roving bands of Indians.

By the 18th of December, the Connecticut and Plymouth soldiers had joined the Massachusetts regiment, and as provisions were scarce and the cold was sharp, an advance was made at once. A heavy snowstorm came on. There was no shelter for officers or common soldiers, and after a long and trying march, they lay down in the snow, “finding no other defense all that Night, save the open air, nor other covering than a cold and moist fleece of snow.” At daylight the march was resumed.

Rev. Mr. Hubbard, recording the substance of many conversations with the Major and his men, informs us that “They marched from the break of the next day, December 19th till one of the Clock in the Afternoon, without either Fire to warm them, or Respite to take any Food save what they could chew on their March.” They wallowed through snow, two or three feet deep, with many frostbitten in their hands and feet, fourteen or fifteen miles to the edge of a swamp, where their Indian guides affirmed the Narragansetts had their stronghold. Captain Mosely and Captain Davenport led the vanguard, Captain Gardner and Captain Johnson followed, Major Appleton and Captain Oliver brought up the rear of the Massachusetts force. The Plymouth soldiers with General Winslow marched in the center, and the Connecticut men under Major Treat formed the rear guard of the little army.

Depiction of the colonial assault on the Narragansetts’ fort in the Great Swamp Fight in December 1675

Notwithstanding the hardships of their march, the soldiers rushed impetuously into the swamp, without waiting the word of command, and pursued the Indians, who had shown themselves to the fort, which had been built on an island, and strongly defended with an impassable palisade of logs, stuck upright, and a dense hedge. The Indians held their ground with great determination, but after several hours of sharp fighting, their wigwams were set on fire, and they were put to rout with great slaughter. It was a dearly bought victory. Three of the six Massachusetts Captains, Davenport, Gardner and Johnson, and three Connecticut captains lay dead, and many officers and men were wounded.

The short winter day was spent before the battle was done, and as the Indian fort was deemed an unsafe camp, the desperate alternative remained of marching back to the nearest settlement, full fifteen or sixteen miles, after night had fallen. Bearing their dead, and helping the wounded, the survivors struggled back. The horrors of that night march pass imagination. Many of the wounded perished by the way, and the strongest were completely spent before a safe shelter was reached. Four of Major Appleton’s soldiers were killed, Samuel Taylor of Ipswich, Isaac Ellery of Gloucester, Daniel Rolfe of Newbury and Samuel Tyler of Rowley. Eighteen were wounded, including John Denison, George Timson, and Thomas Dow of Ipswich.

It is believed that up to 150 Indian inhabitants, many of them women, children, and the elderly, were killed or burned alive, while others fled across the swamp and died from exposure. Seventy of the Colonial forces died, and many more wounded. A second body of recruits was sent to Major Appleton a little later. Provisions were scant, and men and horses were sorely pinched with hunger. Many of the horses were killed and eaten and the campaign was long remembered as the Hungry March.

The soldiers arrived home early in February, and Major Appleton seems to have retired from active service. Within a week after their return, the weary soldiers, scarcely restored from the exhausting ordeal of the Hungry March, were again in the field. Alarming reports had come of the disaster at Lancaster, where Nipmucs from Nashaway staged an attack, led by the sachem Monoco. Redfield was soon burned, and on February 25th, Weymouth was partly destroyed. In March, Groton was surprised and burnt, and the inhabitants fled in terror, abandoning the settlement. Wrentham was abandoned in similar fashion. The Indians moved rapidly from point to point small parties appeared suddenly in the most unexpected localities, killing a man or two, and then disappearing, “skulking up and down in swamps and holes, to assault any that occasionally looked never so little into the woods.”

The towns in the Connecticut Valley were panic struck. A new army was immediately ordered, and fresh levies of foot and horse soldiers were ordered by the General Court on the 21st of February. Cornet John Whipple of Ipswich, who had already served with honor in the earlier campaigns, was made Captain of the new troop of horse, and Major General Denison was ordered to Marlborough to dispose the soldiers gathered there under the several captains, and take charge of the campaign. Captain Brocklebank of Rowley was placed in command of the Marlborough garrison.

Attack on Sudbury

Alarming reports were soon brought to Ipswich of the approach of marauding bands. General Denison was at home, and his letter of the 19th of March to Secretary Rawson reveals a time of alarm and nervous apprehension of an attack, in which his presence must have been a source of great comfort to the community. But the hours wore on, no alarm was given, and gradually confidence returned to the distressed town. The fortification was around the meeting-house, and one of the garrison houses was near the River. Every able-bodied man was trained and disciplined. Every family was anxious. Meanwhile the men at the front were eager for release. Spring was at hand and the planting of their fields required their presence.

On April 21st, the neighboring town of Sudbury was surprised. Captain Wadsworth was sent from Boston with fifty soldiers to relieve the Marlborough garrison. They made a hurried march of twenty-five miles, reaching Marlborough at night. Finding that the enemy was at Sudbury ten miles away, without allowing themselves time for rest, they hastened thither, with Captain Brocklebank and some of the garrison, accompanying them. Near Sudbury, they met a small body of Indians, who withdrew at their approach and lured them into the woods. There a great body assailed them. The weary soldiers made a brave defense, but they were hopelessly outnumbered. Captain Wadsworth fell, and Captain Brocklebank, whom Mr. Hubbard characterizes as “a choice spirited Man, much lamented by the Town of Rowley, to which he belonged.” More than thirty soldiers, it is believed, were slain, as they were making their retreat from the hilltop, where they had made a brave stand for four hours. This was the last great tragedy of the War. Later operations against the Indians were uniformly successful.

Death of King Philip

On August 12, 1676, Philip’s secret headquarters in Mount Hope near Bristol Rhode Island was discovered. Captain Church had been informed of Philip’s secret hideout by one of his warriors whose brother was killed by Philip for offering to negotiate with the English. Philip was slain along and his wife and children taken captive and sold into slavery in the West Indies. Five of his warriors died by his side while the others escaped through the woods. In Plymouth, King Philip’s body was drawn and quartered and his head was publicly displayed on a stake.

The Eastern War

Many of the Indians, who had been scattered by the successful tactics on the Connecticut, made their way to the Indian tribes in the neighborhood of Casco Bay, and incited them to rise against the white men. Hostilities began there in September, 1676, and attacks were soon made on Oyster River and Durham, N. H., and Exeter. An old man was shot down on the road to Hampton. York suffered on the 26th of September, and the whole country about the Piscataqua was in alarm. Men, women and little children were killed and scalped, houses and barns burned, and cattle driven away.

Mr. Hubbard gives a distressing account of the outrages committed by the Indians in the neighborhood of the Kennebec river. The whole country was a scene of desolation, houses burned, crops destroyed, and many lives lost. Early in October, the alarming tidings came that the settlement at Cape Neddick had been burned. Major Appleton was dispatched to the Eastward under orders, dated October 19th, to take charge of all the forces. He seems to have declined this responsibility, as the order was rescinded.

Mugg’s visit to Ipswich

A vigorous march was made to Ossipee, where it was reported there was a great gathering of Indians. The confrontations spread into a series of battles in Maine known as the Eastern War. On October 12, 1676 about 100 Indian warriors made an assault on an English settlement at Black Point near Portland, Maine and took a number of captives. A couple of weeks later an Arosagunticook chief named Mugg Hegon visited General Dennison in Piscataqua (Portsmouth) and declared that the Indians were desirous of peace. Mugg was taken, perhaps forcibly, to Boston for negotiations with a promise of safe passage, and on Nov. 6 he concluded a treaty with the English for the Eastern Indians.

While Mugg was away however, a force was sent to attack the Indians at their winter quarters. The fortification was burned but the Indians managed to escape. Among the captives in the first attack was the son of Harvard-educated Rev. Thomas Cobbett of Ipswich.

The pastor was not universally popular. A former parishioner claimed he “had as leave to hear a dog bark as to hear Mr. Cobbett preach” and Luke Perkins who lived near the wharf was whipped for saying the minister was “more fit to be in a hog sty than in a pulpit”. You can imagine the townspeople’s surprise when the ship carrying Mugg arrived at the Ipswich wharf, allowing Mugg to visit Rev. Cobbet at his home on East Street to negotiate a ransom for his son. The deal was struck, and when Mugg returned to Maine the young Cobbett was soon released in exchange for a coat as ransom to the Sagamore who was holding him. Mugg proposed to the English that he be allowed to go into the wilderness to bring back the captives, promising to return with them within four days. The vessels awaited his reappearance in vain.

An expedition was dispatched to the East under Major Walderne early in February, but it accomplished little and arrived back in Boston on the 11th of March. When Mugg heard about the attack during his absence, and knowing that his own people felt he had betrayed them, he rejoined the war and resumed hostilities in April. Again came the call for soldiers and again the dauntless men of Ipswich had their place in the little army that was hurried to the front. The enemy was close at hand in Wells, York, and Portsmouth, but the decisive event of the campaign happened at Black Point, where Captain Lovett’s company was led into an ambush and he and about forty of his command were slain. Mugg was killed at the reestablished garrison at Black Point on May 16, 1677, the place his forces had captured the preceding year, after conducting a second attack against the English. (read William Hubbard’s different version of this story)

General Denison

The contribution of Ipswich to the army was notable. General Denison was the commander-in-chief of all the forces of the Colony. Major Appleton brought the first campaign to a victorious close, and by his decisive repulse of the Indians at Hatfield and elsewhere saved not only the Connecticut towns from destruction, but delivered the Colony from their invasions. His services in the Narragansett winter campaign were of great value.

The danger came no nearer to Ipswich. Peace settled gradually upon the community wearied and worn with so many alarms. The strain upon the life of the Colony had been intense. The financial burden of equipping troops, maintaining them in the field, and meeting losses occasioned by the burning of houses and of whole towns was most oppressive. The drain upon the young life was exhausting. Scarcely a family could have escaped the anxiety due to the presence of some member in the field, or the grief over his death.

Ipswich soldiers in King Philip’s War

The following list of names has been compiled, which may be presumed to be substantially correct. Nathaniel Adams, Simon Adams, Alexander Alhor, Thomas Andrews, Richard Bidford, Job Bishop, Samuel Bishop, Christopher Bolles, Thomas Bray, Richard Briar, Josiah Briggs, John Browne, James Burbee, Andrew Burley, James Burnam, Thomas Burns, Samuel Chapman, John Chub, Josiah Clark, Isaac Cumins, Philemon Deane, John Denison, Thomas Dennis, Thomas Dow, Robert Dutch, John Edwards, Nathaniel Emerson, Peter Emons, Jonathan Fantum, Thomas Faussee, Ephraim Fellows, Isaac Fellows, Joseph Fellows, Abram Fitz, James Foord, Thomas French, Samuel Giddings, John Gilbert, Amos Gourdine, Simon Grow, Thomas Hobbs, William Hodgskin, Israeli Hunewell, Samuel Hunt, Jr., Samuel Itigols, Joseph Jacobs, Richard Jacobs, Thomas Jaques, Jeremiah Jewett, Joseph Jewett, Thomas Killom, Caleb Kimball, Abraham Knowlton, John Knowlton, John Lambert, Nathaniel Lampson, Richard Lewis, John Leyton, John Line, John Littlehale, Nathaniel Lord, Jolin Lovel, Jonathan Lummus, Peter Lurvey, Thomas Manning, Joseph Marshall, Thomas Meritor, Edward Neland, Benjamin Newman, Thomas Newman, Zaccheus Newmarsh, Richard Pasmore, Samuel Peirce, John Pengry, Aaron Pengry, John Pengry, Moses Pengry, Isaac Perkins, John Perkins, Samuel Perkins, Andrew Peters, Thomas Philips, Samuel Pipin, Samuel Pooler, Edmond Potter, John Potter, Richard Prior, Joseph Proctor, William Quarles, Daniel Ringe, Nathaniel Rogers, Israh Ross, Ariel Saddler, Joseph Safford, Thomas Scott, Samuel Smith, Thomas Smith, Thomas Sparks, Samuel Stevens, George Stimson, Seth Story, William Story, Samuel Taylor, John Thomas, Jonathan Wade, Thomas Wade, Uzall Warden. Francis Wainwright, Jacob Wainwright, Thomas Wayte, Benjamin Webster, John Whipple, Nathaniel Wood, Francis Young, and Lewis Zachariah.

Treatment of the Indians

In the treatment of the Indians, there was an excess of virulent hate that is painful, though not surprising. Allowance must be made for the natural hatred roused by the craft and cruelties of the Indians, and their ingratitude for kind treatment, yet a fair-minded man like Major Ciookin found much to blame in the unrighteous dealings of the English with “the inferior race.” Two hundred were captured by craft at Dover, though no crime was proved against them, and sold into slavery. King Philip’s son, a lad of tender years was sent to Barbadoes as a slave. Twenty shillings bounty was offered for every Indian scalp and forty shillings for every prisoner in the Eastern campaign. Captain Mosely captured an Indian woman early in the war, and in the postscript of his letter to the Governor, he wrote: “This aforesaid Indian was ordered to be torn in pieces by Dogs and she was so dealt withal.”

The Praying Indians

In 1646, the General Court of Massachusetts passed an “Act for the Propagation of the Gospel amongst the Indians.” Christian Indian towns were established in Eastern and Central Massachusetts, including Littleton, Chelmsford, Grafton, Marlborough, Hopkinton, Canton, Mendon and Natick, serving as a barrier between the Colonists and local tribes. At the beginning of King Philip’s War, Praying Indians offered their service as scouts to the English in Massachusetts but were generally confined to their villages. An Order for their removal was passed in October 1675, and 500 Christian Indians were confined to Deer island in Boston Harbor. When they were released in 1676, only 167 had survived. After the war, in 1677 the General Court of Massachusetts disbanded 10 of the original 14 towns and placed the rest under English supervision.

Daniel Gookin was a missionary to the Nipmuck Indians who he claimed were wrongly persecuted by Colonial forces. In his letter, Historical Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians in New England in the Years 1675-1677 he accuses the New England colonists as overcome by a “spirit of enmity and hatred” for not realising that they were subjugating those who had “proved so faithful to the English interest.”

The war had terrible consequences for both sides. Thousands of Algonquians were killed and hundreds were sold into slavery, resulting in the end of the Algonquian world.

References and further reading:

by Thomas Franklin Waters by William M. Hubbard Ellis and Morris by J. H. Temple by George M. Bodge by John Stevens Cabot by Henry Trumbull, Mrs. Johnson (Susannah Willard), Zadock Steele

The Legend of Heartbreak Hill - "In Ipswich town, not far from the sea, rises a hill which the people call Heartbreak Hill, and its history is an old, old legend known to all."

The Great Dying 1616-1619, “By God’s visitation, a wonderful plague” - An estimated 18,000,000 Native Americans lived in North America before the 17th Century. The arrival of 102 Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620 and the settlements by the Puritans a decade later were accompanied by the demise of the native population of North America.

Who Were the Agawam Indians, Really? - It’s hard for people to change their stories—so embedded in deep time and official canon, even when there is a better explanation or a closer truth. I hope it will be possible to change public knowledge about the Native Americans who lived here and get closer to the truth.

The Amazing Story of Hannah Duston, March 14, 1697 - Hannah Duston was born in Ipswich in 1657 while her mother was visiting her relatives the Shatswells. A bronze statue in Haverhill honors her daring escape, killing and scalping a dozen Abanaki captors.

The Bull Brook Paleo-Indian Discovery - in the early 1950's, a group of young amateur archeologists men discovered one of the largest Paleo-Indian sites in North America along the banks of Bull Brook and the Egypt River in Ipswich, with over 6,000 artifacts uncovered.

Emma Jane Mitchell Safford - Emma Jane Mitchell Safford was a descendant of Massasoit, Sachem of the Wampanoag. Her daughter, also Emma, tried to help her relatives regain land taken from them on the reservation.

Ipswich, the Brookfield Massacre and King Philip’s War - In 1660, a group of Ipswich families settled in Quaboag which they renamed Brookfield. Indian attacks in 1675 resulted in its destruction.

Living Descendants of the Native Americans of Agawam - Descendants of the Pawtucket are living in Abenaki, Pequaket, Penobscot, and Micmac communities today in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Nova Scotia.

The Tragedy of the Wilderness: The Colonists and Indian Land, Part 4 - Native Americans and settlers managed to impoverish themselves through overexploitation of the wider environment. At the same time, they both also selectively protected species, custom-designed habitats for them, and practiced common-sense conservation of trees, soil, fish stocks, and water

“Brought to Civility” — The Colonists and Indian Land, Part 2 - The idea of private property was alien to Native Americans, but the practice of private ownership apparently was not a feature of colonial life either.

Discovery of native American shell heap on Treadwell’s Island, 1882 - In1882, a shell heap on the shore of Treadwell's Island was observed to contain nearly two quarts of human bones, broken into short pieces.

Native American Influence on English Fashions - In contact situations in the early 17th century, Europeans were quick to grasp the essential humanity of Native Americans and admired their appearance and physical fitness. Soon, upper-class English wore American feathers and furs, Native Americans prized English woven fabrics and garments, especially tailored shirts.

PTSD in the Massachusetts Bay Colony - The Great Migration brought nearly 14,000 Puritan settlers, unprepared for the hardships and trauma that awaited them. Building a new society in the wilderness induced transgenerational post-traumatic stress and mass conversion disorder, culminating in the Salem Witch Trials.

The Bones of Masconomet - On March 6, 1659 a young man named Robert Cross dug up the remains of the Agawam chief Masconomet, and carried his skull on a pole through Ipswich streets, an act for which Cross was imprisoned, sent to the stocks, then returned to prison until a fine was paid.

Ancient Prejudice against “the Indians” Persists in Essex County Today - Beneath broad acceptance of Indian rights and benign admiration for aspects of Native culture lies inherited hostility toward Native people. Unrecognized, it has gone unchallenged, but locally I have found it evident in these six ways.

Disorder in the Corn Fields: The Colonists and Indian Land, Part 3 - Today, vestiges of the Commons survive here as city parks or conservation lands, such as the South Green in Ipswich, and public gardens, such as Boston Common.

“That we may avoid the least scrupulo of intrusion” – The Colonists and Indian Land, Part I - More than the concepts of sovereignty and private property, the commodification of nature in the service of mercantile capitalism was the crux of the problem.

Manitou in Context - The creator power was regarded as the equal of other powers in the skyworld and the underworld, but it is Kitanitowit’s Gitchi Manitou that ascended to prominence under the influence of Christianity. Of all the great spirits, it most resembled the Christian God and was transformed accordingly during the Contact Period.

The Pequot War

While the Connecticut settlers were busy in clearing fields for tillage, building rude but substantial houses of logs and stones, and opening roads, trouble with the Indians commenced.

A band of roving Narragansetts had killed a trader named Oldham, at Block Island. Oldham belonged to Watertown, Mass., and that colony took steps to punish the murderers. Some of them were killed and others fled to the Pequot country, as their own friends, the Narragansetts, would have nothing to do with them. Governor Vane and his council decided to send a party of soldiers to Block Island, with orders to put to death all the men, but to spare the women and children.

In command of one hundred men, Captain Endicott sailed for the island in August, 1636. When the English attempted to land, the Indians did all they could to drive them back. They did not succeed in this, and finally took to flight after fourteen of their number were killed. Having set fire to the cornfields and wigwams, the expedition sailed to Pequot River. [1] Pequot River. Thames River. Meeting a party of Pequots, Endicott talked with them but, finding them defiant and hostile, he told them to prepare to fight. In a skirmish that followed, two Indians were killed. Having burned a few wigwams, Endicott sailed for Boston. This action only enraged the Pequots. “You raise these wasps around us, and then flee away,” said the Connecticut men to their friends in Massachusetts.

Within a few days, parties of Pequot warriors began to harass and murder the settlers. The arrow from some ambush struck down the farmer toiling in his fields, and helpless women and innocent children were killed with fiendish cruelty. While a party of men were working outside the Saybrook fort, they were surprised by the Pequots, and four of their number killed. Lieutenant Gardiner was slightly wounded at the same time. The Indians, encouraged by their success, gathered in large numbers, and challenged those within the fort to fight, mocking them by imitating the dying groans and prayers of the poor prisoners whom they had tortured. A few charges of grape-shot scattered them.

The work of pillage and death still continued, until the settlers scarcely dared to stir outside their homes. The Pequots tried to get their old enemies, the Narragansetts, to unite with them in a league against the English. This plan was broken up by the influence of Roger Williams [2] Roger Williams. The founder of Rhode Island. His influence over the Narragansetts was remarkable, and his efforts in behalf of peace were unremitting. and the strength of the old enmity. The Mohegans were on bad terms with the Pequots, and formed an alliance with the English. The Niantics, although friendly to the Pequots, were unwilling to fight.

The colonists saw that it was a matter of life and death, and determined to make a desperate effort to break the power of the Pequots. A General Court was held in Hartford, May 1, 1637 and this resolution was unanimously adopted. “It is ordered that there shall be an offensive war against the Pequots, and there shall be ninety men levied out of the three plantations of Hartford. Wethersfield, and Windsor.” This number represented nearly one-third of the freemen of this little republic.

Within ten days from the opening of the court, this company of men sailed from Hartford under the command of Captain John Mason. [3] John Mason had won reputation as a brave soldier in the Low Countries. He was a member of the company that removed from Dorchester to Windsor. Oliver Cromwell offered him the position of … Continue reading With them was a band of seventy friendly Mohegan Indians [4] The Mohegans appear to have been tributary to the Pequots, but at this time they were on bad terms with each other. They dwelt on the west side of the Thames River. , and Uncas [5] Uncas was a Pequot by birth and his wife was a daughter of Sassacus, a Pequot sachem. At one time he was a petty chief under Sassacus, the great prince of the nation. They had quarreled and at the … Continue reading their chief. When they reached the fort at Saybrook, Captain John Underhill, a brave and capable soldier, with the consent of Lieutenant Gardiner, commanding the fort, offered his services to Mason with nineteen men.

For some days the wind was contrary, and the little fleet was detained at the mouth of the river. Pequot spies, swift of foot, were watching its movements from the opposite shore, and apprised Sassacus of his danger. Mason’s orders were to sail directly to Pequot (New London) Harbor, and attack the enemy in their stronghold. Now that the wily Indians were informed of this purpose, he saw that it would be dangerous and perhaps futile to undertake it. He suggested that it would be best to sail as far as Narragansett Bay, and, if possible, secure the aid of Miantonomo, the chief sachem of the Narragansetts, in surprising and destroying their mutual enemy.

A council of war was held and, while they all recognized the force of their leader’s arguments, they hesitated to assume the responsibility of changing the plan of the campaign. They were under orders, and it was their habit to obey without thought of personal consequences. It was finally suggested that they seek divine guidance and the matter was referred to their chaplain, Mr. Stone, the beloved and revered assistant pastor of the church in Hartford. Having spent the night in prayer, Mr. Stone the next morning said to Captain Mason, that “he was fully satisfied to sail for Narragansett.”

This was accepted as a final decision, and on Friday morning they set sail. They arrived in Narragansett Bay Saturday evening, but the wind blew so strongly off shore that they were unable to land before Tuesday afternoon. Mason at once informed Miantonomo of his plans, which met the cordial approval of the sachem. He thought, however, that the little band of English soldiers were insufficient for such an undertaking.

During the night an Indian runner brought a letter from Captain Patrick, who had been sent from Massachusetts with a few men to assist in the war against the Pequots. He wrote that he had reached Providence, and urged Mason to wait until he could join him. The Connecticut company had already met with vexatious delays, and they were impatient to return home and they decided to push on to the Pequot country at once.

On Wednesday morning, May 24, the little army began their march, and before night reached the borders of the Pequot territory. Here was the seat of a Narragansett sachem but he refused to meet with the English captain, and would not allow his men to encamp within the palisades of his fortress. In the morning another band of warriors, sent by Miantonomo, having appeared, the Narragansetts within the fort plucked up courage, and with much boasting desired to join the expedition. When Captain Mason began the march again on Thursday, he had about five hundred Indians with him. Most of them proved a cowardly lot, and those who had bragged the loudest were the first to desert. Uncas, with his band of Mohegans, showed the most courage and Wequash, a petty chief who had revolted from Sassacus, proved a trustworthy guide.

Suffering from the lack of food and the oppressive heat, they finally reached the neighborhood of the Pequot fort about an hour after sunset. Here they encamped between two high rocks, still known as Porter’s Rocks. It was a beautiful moonlight night and the sentinels could hear the distant cries of the enemy, who were having a carousal of savage joy over the flight, as they supposed, of Mason and his men, as they had seen the vessels sailing past their territory.

An hour or two before daybreak the men were awakened from sleep and, after a fervent prayer by the chaplain, they started for the fort, following a path pointed out by the Indians. The distance proved greater than they expected and they began to fear lest they were on the wrong trail, when they came to a cornfield at the foot of “a great hill.” Their terror-stricken allies had fallen back and it was only in response to a messenger that Uncas and Wequash came up, and informed them that the fort was on the top of the hill.

Sending the Indians word not to fly, but to keep at as safe a distance as they pleased, and see whether Englishmen would fight or not, they marched on, and soon came in sight of the Pequot’s stronghold.

The men were divided, for the purpose of storming the two entrances at the same time. Captain Mason was within a step of the north-east entrance, when the bark of a dog gave the first alarm to the sleeping enemy. The cry of an Indian. “Owanux! Owanux!” (“The English! the English!”) startled the Pequots from the heavy slumber that had followed the debauch of the previous night. Completely surprised, and paralyzed with fear, most of them huddled in their wigwams, even after the English had entered the palisades. A few tried to escape and after some hand-to-hand fighting, Captain Mason gave the order to burn the fort, and, seizing a firebrand, lighted the conflagration himself. The rest of the sad story is best told quickly. The flames spread rapidly, and in an hour six or seven hundred poor creatures perished within the belt of fire. Only a handful escaped to tell the proud chief, in the fort not far away, of the terrible calamity that had overtaken the tribe. Only two of the English were killed, and twenty wounded.

From the outlook of the hill they saw their vessels in the distance entering Pequot Harbor, and they at once took up their march in that direction. By this time the Indians from the neighboring [6] The Neighboring Fort. Besides the fort at Mystic, the principal and royal residence of Sassacus was situated on Fort Hill in Groton, about four miles north-east of New London. fort swarmed along the forest path, and in every possible way harassed the soldiers. Before the harbor was reached, however, the Pequots returned to their fort, and upbraided the proud Sassacus as the author of all their misfortunes. From that hour his power, and that of his tribe, was broken. Only the intercession of some of his chief counselors saved his life. Panic-stricken, they burned their wigwams, destroyed their fort, and then fled. Sassacus, with seventy or eighty of his faithful warriors, sought refuge in the wilderness bordering the Hudson River.

When the little army of Englishmen returned to tell the story of their victory, the colonists breathed more freely. [7] Captain Mason and the Narragansett Indians, after leaving Pequot Harbor, continued their march by land to the Connecticut River, where they arrived on Saturday, “being nobly entertained by … Continue reading But they were still in fear lest the spirit of revenge kindled in the hearts of the survivors of the hated tribe might break out in fierce and treacherous attacks, and arrangements were made to continue the war. Without passing judgment as to the right or wrong of this action, it is evident that the colonists felt that their lives were in constant jeopardy while a Pequot remained in the vicinity of their settlements. Captain Mason was put in command of forty men, and in June united his force with that of Captain Stoughton, who had been sent to Pequot Harbor (New London) from Massachusetts. While the vessels sailed along the Sound, the troops hunted for the enemy along the shore. [8] Uncas with his Indians and some of the soldiers, at a point about eighteen miles west of Saybrook, discovered the Pequot sachem, Mononotto, with a few of his followers. They attempted to escape by … Continue reading

It was on this march that the beauty of the location and surroundings of Quinnipiac (New Haven) was first discovered by English eyes. As they approached the place, they saw the smoke of what they supposed was a Pequot encampment but they found that the fire had been kindled by a party of friendly Indians. The vessels having entered the harbor, they went on board, and waited for several days, until the return of a Pequot spy, who reported that Sassacus and his party were concealed in a swamp a few miles to the westward. This hiding-place proved to be in a bog-thicket a short distance from the present village of Fairfield.

It was not an easy matter to dislodge the Pequots from this natural fortress. The soldiers found it very difficult to penetrate the tangled underbrush without sinking in the treacherous mire and in the attempt to advance, many of them were wounded by the sharp arrows, that flew in showers about them. The Fairfield Indians, who were in the swamp, sent one of their number to beg for quarter, which was granted and they came out with their women and children.

The plan was then adopted of surrounding the band of desperate Pequots, who still clung to their hiding-place. During the night, which proved dark and heavy with mist, they attempted to break through this line but the watchful soldiers were prepared for a hand-to-hand fight, which ended in the death and capture of a large proportion of the Pequot warriors. The one hundred and eighty prisoners, with a large amount of booty consisting of wampum, bows, arrows, and other implements, were divided between Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Sassacus probably was not present at this fight. Fleeing in the direction of the Hudson, he sought refuge among his old enemies, the Mohawks but the old feeling of hate continued, and, having beheaded him, they sent his scalp as a trophy to Connecticut.

On the 21st of September, Uncas and Miantonomo, with the surviving Pequots numbering about two hundred, met the magistrates of Connecticut at Hartford. A treaty was arranged between the colony and the Mohegans and Narragansetts, by the terms of which the tribes entered into a compact of peace, and agreed, that, in any case of wrong, justice should be meted out by the English. With considerable ceremony the remnant of the Pequots was divided among the chiefs who had given their aid in the war against the tribe now humbled and powerless.

Minoxidil, applied topically, is widely used for the treatment of hair loss. It is effective in helping promote hair growth in people with androgenic alopecia regardless of sex. [3] Minoxidil must be used indefinitely for continued support of existing hair follicles and the maintenance of any experienced hair regrowth. [1]

Its effect in people with alopecia areata is unclear. [4]

Topically applied minoxidil is generally well tolerated, but common side effects include itching of the eye, itching, redness or irritation at the treated area, and unwanted hair growth elsewhere on the body. Exacerbation of hair loss/alopecia has been reported. [5] Other side effects may include rash, itching, difficulty breathing, swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue, chest pain, dizziness, fainting, tachycardia, headache, sudden and unexplained weight gain, or swelling of the hands and feet. [5] Temporary hair loss is a common side effect of minoxidil treatment. [6] Manufacturers note that minoxidil-induced hair loss is a common side effect and describe the process as "shedding".

Alcohol and propylene glycol present in some topical preparations may dry the scalp, resulting in dandruff and contact dermatitis. [7]

Side effects of oral minoxidil may include swelling of the face and extremities, rapid heartbeat, or lightheadedness. Cardiac lesions, such as focal necrosis of the papillary muscle and subendocardial areas of the left ventricle, have been observered in laboratory animals treated with minoxidil. [8] Cases of allergic reactions to minoxidil or the non-active ingredient propylene glycol, which is found in some topical minoxidil formulations, have been reported. Pseudoacromegaly is an extremely rare side effect reported with large doses of oral minoxidil. [9]

In 2013 or 2014 a seven-year-old girl was admitted to a children's hospital in Toulouse in France after accidentally ingesting a teaspoon of Alopexy (a brand name for minoxidil in France). The child vomited constantly after ingestion and showed hypotension and tachycardia for 40 hours. [10] The authors of the report on the incident stressed that the product should be kept out of reach of children, and urged manufacturers to consider more secure child-resistant packaging. [11]

Minoxidil may cause hirsutism, although it is exceedingly rare and reversible by discontinuation of the drug. [12]

Minoxidil is suspected to be highly toxic to cats, even in small doses, as there are reported cases of cats dying shortly after coming in contact with minimal amounts of the substance. [13] [14]

The mechanism by which minoxidil promotes hair growth is not fully understood. Minoxidil is an adenosine 5'-triphosphate-sensitive potassium channel opener, [15] causing hyperpolarization of cell membranes. Theoretically, by widening blood vessels and opening potassium channels, it allows more oxygen, blood, and nutrients to the follicles. Moreover, minoxidil contains a nitric oxide moiety and may act as a nitric oxide agonist. This may cause follicles in the telogen phase to shed, which are then replaced by thicker hairs in a new anagen phase. Minoxidil is a prodrug that is converted by sulfation via the sulfotransferase enzyme SULT1A1 to its active form, minoxidil sulfate. The effect of minoxidil is mediated by adenosine, which triggers intracellular signal transduction via both adenosine A1 and A2 receptors [ disambiguation needed ] , and that the expression of SUR2B in dermal papilla cells might play a role in the production of adenosine. [16] Minoxidil acts as an activator of the Kir6/SUR2 channel upon selective binding to SUR2. [17] Minoxidil induces cell growth factors such as VEGF, HGF, IGF-1 and potentiates HGF and IGF-1 actions by the activation of uncoupled sulfonylurea receptor on the plasma membrane of dermal papilla cells. [18]

A number of in vitro effects of minoxidil have been described in monocultures of various skin and hair follicle cell types including stimulation of cell proliferation, inhibition of collagen synthesis, and stimulation of vascular endothelial growth factor, prostaglandin synthesis and leukotriene B4 expression. [19]

Minoxidil stimulates prostaglandin E₂ production by activating COX-1 [20] and prostaglandin endoperoxide synthase-1 but inhibites prostacyclin production. Additionally, expression of the prostaglandin E₂ receptor, the most upregulated target gene in the β-catenin pathway of DP cells, was enhanced by minoxidil, which may enable hair follicles to grow continuously and maintain the anagen phase. [21]

Due to anti-fibrotic activity of minoxidil inhibition of enzyme lysyl hydroxylase present in fibroblast may result in synthesis of a hydroxylysine-deficient collagen. Minoxidil can also potentially stimulate elastogenesis in aortic smooth muscle cells, and in skin fibroblasts in a dose-dependent manner. In hypertensive rats, minoxidil increases elastin level in the mesenteric, abdominal, and renal arteries by a decrease in "elastase" enzyme activity in these tissues. In rats, potassium channel openers decrease calcium influx which inhibits elastin gene transcription through extracellular signal-regulated kinase ½ (ERK 1/2)-activator protein 1 signaling pathway. ERK 1/2 increases, through elastin gene transcription, adequately cross-linked elastic fiber content synthetized by smooth muscle cells, and decreases the number of cells in the aorta. [22]

Minoxidil possesses alpha 2-adrenoceptor agonist activity, [23] stimulates the peripheral sympathetic nervous system (SNS) by way of carotid and aortic baroreceptor reflexes. Minoxidil administration also brings an increase in plasma renin activity, largely due to the aforementioned activation of the SNS. This activation of the renin-angiotensin axis further prompts increased biosynthesis of aldosterone whereas plasma and urinary aldosterone levels are increased early in the course of treatment with minoxidil, over time these values tend to normalize presumably because of accelerated metabolic clearance of aldosterone in association with hepatic vasodilation. [24]

Minoxidil might increase blood-tumor barrier permeability in a time-dependent manner by down-regulating tight junction protein expression and this effect could be related to ROS/RhoA/PI3K/PKB signal pathway. [25] Minoxidil significantly increases ROS concentration when compared to untreated cells.

In vitro Minoxidil treatment resulted in a 0.22 fold change for 5α-R2 (p < 0.0001). This antiandrogenic effect of minoxidil, shown by significant downregulation of 5α-R2 gene expression in HaCaT cells, may be one of its mechanisms of action in alopecia. [26]

Minoxidil is less effective when the area of hair loss is large. In addition, its effectiveness has largely been demonstrated in younger men who have experienced hair loss for less than 5 years. Minoxidil use is indicated for central (vertex) hair loss only. [27] Two clinical studies are being conducted in the US for a medical device that may allow patients to determine if they are likely to benefit from minoxidil therapy. [28]

Initial application Edit

Minoxidil was developed in the late 1950s by the Upjohn Company (later became part of Pfizer) to treat ulcers. In trials using dogs, the compound did not cure ulcers, but proved to be a powerful vasodilator. Upjohn synthesized over 200 variations of the compound, including the one it developed in 1963 and named minoxidil. [29] These studies resulted in FDA approving minoxidil (with the trade name 'Loniten') in the form of oral tablets to treat high blood pressure in 1979. [30]

Hair growth Edit

When Upjohn received permission from the FDA to test the new drug as medicine for hypertension they approached Charles A. Chidsey MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. [29] He conducted two studies, [31] [32] the second study showing unexpected hair growth. Puzzled by this side-effect, Chidsey consulted Guinter Kahn (who while a dermatology resident at the University of Miami had been the first to observe and report hair development on patients using the minoxidil patch) and discussed the possibility of using minoxidil for treating hair loss.

Kahn along with his colleague Paul J. Grant MD had obtained a certain amount of the drug and conducted their own research, since they were first to make the side effect observation. Neither Upjohn or Chidsey at the time were aware of the side effect of hair growth. [33] The two doctors had been experimenting with a 1% solution of minoxidil mixed with several alcohol-based liquids. [34] Both parties filed patents to use the drug for hair loss prevention, which resulted in a decade-long trial between Kahn and Upjohn, which ended with Kahn's name included in a consolidated patent (U.S. #4,596,812 Charles A Chidsey, III and Guinter Kahn) in 1986 and royalties from the company to both Kahn and Grant. [33]

Meanwhile, the effect of minoxidil on hair loss prevention was so clear that in the 1980s physicians were prescribing Loniten off-label to their balding patients. [30]

In August 1988, the FDA finally approved the drug for treating baldness in men [30] [34] under the trade name "Rogaine" (FDA rejected Upjohn's first choice, Regain, as misleading [35] ). The agency concluded that although "the product will not work for everyone", 39% of the men studied had "moderate to dense hair growth on the crown of the head". [35]

In 1991, Upjohn made the product available for women. [34]

On February 12, 1996, the FDA approved both the over-the-counter sale of the drug and the production of generic formulations of minoxidil. [30] Upjohn replied to that by lowering prices to half the price of the prescription drug [34] and by releasing a prescription 5% formula of Rogaine in 1997. [30]

In 1998, a 5% formulation of minoxidil was approved for nonprescription sale by the FDA. [36]

In 2017, JAMA published a study of pharmacy prices in four states for 41 over-the-counter minoxidil products which were "gender-specified." The authors found that the mean price for minoxidil solutions was the same for women and men even though the women's formulations were 2% and the men's were 5%, while the mean price for minoxidil foams, which were all 5%, was 40% higher for women. The authors noted this was the first time gender-based pricing had been shown for a medication. [37]

As of June 2017 [update] , Minoxidil was marketed under many trade names worldwide: Alomax, Alopek, Alopexy, Alorexyl, Alostil, Aloxid, Aloxidil, Anagen, Apo-Gain, Axelan, Belohair, Boots Hair Loss Treatment, Botafex, Capillus, Carexidil, Coverit, Da Fei Xin, Dilaine, Dinaxcinco, Dinaxil, Ebersedin, Eminox, Folcare, Guayaten, Hair Grow, Hair-Treat, Hairgain, Hairgaine, Hairgrow, Hairway, Headway, Inoxi, Ivix, Keranique, Lacovin, Locemix, Loniten, Lonnoten, Lonolox, Lonoten, Loxon, M E Medic, Maev-Medic, Mandi, Manoxidil, Mantai, Men's Rogaine, Minodil, Minodril, Minostyl, Minovital, Minox, Minoxi, Minoxidil, Minoxidilum, Minoximen, Minoxiten, Minscalp, Mintop, Modil, Morr, Moxidil, Neo-Pruristam, Neocapil, Neoxidil, Nherea, Noxidil, Oxofenil, Pilfud, Pilogro, Pilomin, Piloxidil, Recrea, Regain, Regaine, Regaxidil, Regro, Regroe, Regrou, Regrowth, Relive, Renobell Locion, Reten, Rexidil, Rogaine, Rogan, Si Bi Shen, Splendora, Superminox, Trefostil, Tricolocion, Tricoplus, Tricovivax, Tricoxane, Trugain, Tugain, Unipexil, Vaxdil, Vius, Womens Regaine, Xenogrow, Xue Rui, Ylox, and Zeldilon. [38] It was also marketed as combination drug with amifampridine under the brand names Gainehair and Hair 4 U, and as a combination with tretinoin and clobetasol under the brand name Sistema GB. [38]

Topical Minoxidil for hair growth have been reported by a small percentage of users to cause serious side effects, some of which were not reverted upon stopping the application. [39] Male users applying 5% topical application, once or twice a day, aged between 17 and 50, users reported a Post Minoxidil Syndrome of any or a combination of:

So what drives a positive return on a solar investment? In many ways, solar power is a financial product – one that is capable of generating annual returns ranging anywhere from 10 percent to more than 30 percent. Another way to think about a solar investment is by looking at how long it will take for a solar panel system to pay for itself. Based on solar panel systems installed through EnergySage.com, the country's largest marketplace for consumers to receive and compare solar quotes from multiple pre-screened companies, solar typically pays for itself in just 5 to 8 years, before providing free electricity for the remainder of the system's 25+ year lifespan.

There are a few key factors that influence the financial benefits of solar, including:

Electricity rates: Electricity costs more in some parts of the country than in others. The higher your electricity rate, and the more you pay for electricity each month, the more you can save with solar.

Financial incentives: At the moment, there are significant incentives for Narragansett-South Kingstown residents to go solar, including the federal solar tax credit. Higher incentives mean lower upfront costs and a shorter payback period for solar.

Price: While prices for solar vary across the country, the best way to ensure you're paying a fair price for the right system is to compare multiple solar quotes. Lower costs mean a shorter payback period.

Property value increase: Zillow recently estimated that homes with solar panels sell for 4.1% more. Solar panel system ownership tends to increase your property resale value.

Solar payback period = solar panel ROI

Taking all of the above factors into consideration, Narragansett-South Kingstown residents can get an idea for what a solar payback period might be, which is the best way to put a number on your solar panel ROI.

Using a service such as EnergySage, which helps homeowners compare products and quotes across multiple local (and pre-vetted) installers is generally a great way to get started. And since solar companies are competing for business when consumers compare quotes, EnergySage consumers get (on average) 20% lower prices than outside of the marketplace.

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