Welcome to week 51 of Bidwell Lore! This week we share the second half of the story of the dispossession of the Mohican lands in Stockbridge. The Dispossession of the Mohican Land in Stockbridge – Part II Beyond Official Documents One should tread lightly when depending on official documents, such as deeds, for proof of habitation by Native peoples. There...
Tag: Bidwell House Museum
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Bidwell Lore – The Dispossession of the Mohican Land in Stockbridge
Welcome to week 50 of Bidwell Lore! This week we begin the story of the dispossession of the Mohicans land in Stockbridge. Wnahtukook [1]“A small council meeting in July of 1734 in a simple village along the Housatonic River in Massachusetts would affect the course and survival of a nation. The issue under consideration would demand four long...
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Bidwell Lore – Dr. Oliver Partridge and The Indian Burial Ground
Welcome to week 49 of Bidwell Lore! This week we introduce you to Dr. Oliver Partridge, a Bidwell relation through marriage who was also a friend to the Mohicans of Stockbridge. As you may remember from our Bidwell Lore installments last summer, Rev. Adonijah Bidwell and his second wife Jemima had four children. Their third child, Jemima (1765-1842),...
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Bidwell Lore – A Second Meeting House and A Mohican Burial Ground
Welcome to week 48 of Bidwell Lore! This week we finish our story about the three Meeting Houses of Stockbridge and learn about a Mohican Burial ground discovered during the building of the second Meeting House. In part 1 of this article, we discussed the strategies around the building of the first and third Meeting Houses in Stockbridge. ...
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Bidwell Lore – A Second Meeting House, a Mohican Burial Ground, an Arboretum, Part I
Welcome to week 47 of Bidwell Lore! This week we start a new story about the history of the meeting houses in Stockbridge; below is Part I. “Let no one say the past is dead.The past is all about us and within.”Oodgeroo, Aboriginal poet, Australia The first meeting house in Stockbridge, constructed in 1739, was paid for by...
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Bidwell Lore – Timothy Woodbridge Part II
Welcome to week 46 of Bidwell Lore! This week we continue the story of Timothy Woodbridge with a petition he helped write for his Mohican friends. In 1750, the Provincial government ordered that an Indian Proprietorship be created in an effort to protect the Stockbridge Mohicans from further dispossession of their land by English colonists. The proprietors were...
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Bidwell Lore – Timothy Woodbridge
Welcome to week 45 of Bidwell Lore! This week we turn to the story of Timothy Woodbridge, schoolmaster of the Mohican Mission in Stockbridge and friend to the Mohicans in their struggles with the English. Timothy Woodbridge (1709-1774) School Master of the Mohican Mission in Stockbridge “The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interred...
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Bidwell Lore – Magnificent Mohicans Part IV: John Waunnacon Quinney and Mary Peters Doxtator
Welcome to week 44 of Bidwell Lore! This week we share stories of two more Magnificent Mohicans, John Waunnacon Quinney and Mary Peters Doxtator, courtesy once again of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. John Waunnacon Quinney was born in 1797 in New Stockbridge, New York. The son of Joseph Quinney, John was destined to make a difference for his people and...
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Collections Focus – Shaker Swift
We are bringing back our object of the month series and for February, we thought we would begin with our Shaker Swift, currently on display in the 2nd floor Children’s bedroom. Shaker objects are an important part of our collection at the Bidwell House Museum. However, Adonijah Bidwell himself may or may not have been acquainted...
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Bidwell Lore – Serendipity, General George Washington, an 1100-pound Ox, Stockbridge Mohican Sachem Solomon Uhhaunnuhwaunnuhmut, and Seeking a Needle in a Haystack
Welcome to week 43 of Bidwell Lore! This week Rick Wilcox shares an article he has written about the search for the site of a 1783 Ox Roast in Stockbridge believed to have been held on the land of “King” Solomon Uhhaunauwaunmut, one of the subjects of last week’s Bidwell Lore. Town of Stockbridge Facilities Manager Chris Marsden, Stockbridge-Munsee Band...