Tuesday, January 22, 2013

EARLY SURVEY OF BOSTON BEFORE THE MOUNDS WERE REMOVED


After.... mounds removed

and in between....1775 survey

Thanks for the Comment  Pwax....
Yes, the verdict is still "way-out"  . Especially since these mounds were flattened long ago.
In my eyes these " hills" are totally consistent with other surveys done in the north east such as EG Squier's 'Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York'

and the removal of the "hills".... gotta see what they found...
Cutting down Beacon Hill in 1811; a view from the north toward the Massachusetts State House[
3 quotes From "Memorial History of Boston"
" It is rare indeed that a bone of their skeletons is found, except among the middens accumulated around the old camping grounds of the aborigines"

"In Divers places there is much ground cleared by the Indians"

"Winthrop's company found Boston sparsely wooded; water however, was abundant and good. In addition to the springs near Blackstone's House, mention is made in the first records of a "great spring" in spring lane, as well as other springs on the neck and elsewhere"

From Boston:A Topographical History by  Walter Muir Whitehill
"This cove was, as we have seen a marsh partially separated from the Charles River by a long narrow island of solid ground. There was seemingly an indian track, transitable at low tide, across the marshy stretches that separated this island from the peninsula, along the line of the present causeway street."

From James Henry Stark 1882 Antique Views of ye old Towne of Boston
" This want of water was their principal cause of removal to Shawmut, now Boston; for not with standing the resolution of the principal men to build their town at Charlestown, the discouragement attendand on sickness and death caused many to be restless, and to think of other locations; in the meantime Mr William Blackstone who lived at Shawmut( which signifies, in Indian Language, "Living Water," on account of the springs found there, and called by the newcomers Tramount or Trimount, from its appearance from Charlestown of three large hills), learned of their distress, and going over to their relief, advised them to remove to the peninsula. His advice was kindly received and followed soon after. Thus Bosotn became settled by the English Puritans.

2 comments:

  1. I wish one could conclude from this that they were native american mounds. Couldn't they be hills instead?

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  2. Yes, verdict is still out... It interesting to realize that the Shawmut peninsula (based on Native American word for "Living Waters") was treeless and had amazing springs upon arrival of the Europeans pointing to a humanized landscape.

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