Historic Deerfield - Deerfield History

Deerfield History

At the time of European contact, the area now known as Deerfield was inhabited by the indigenous Pocumtuck nation. It was originally established as a grant of land to the residents of Dedham, Massachusetts, who had given land to the Massachusetts Bay Colony for the purpose of settling Christianized Indians.

For much of the colonial period, Deerfield was one of New England's frontier villages. Briefly abandoned during King Philip's War in the 1670s, it was subjected to French and Indian raids during King William's War in the 1690s. In Queen Anne's War, the village was subjected to a major raid in which 40 percent of the village population was taken prisoner. French and allied Abenaki, Mohawk and other warriors breached the palisade and raided the village. They killed numerous settlers, and took more than 100 captive. Before leaving for Canada, the raiding party burned the village.

Almost all of those who survived the attack and the march to Canada eventually were ransomed and returned to New England. Eunice Williams, captured at eight, was adopted by a Mohawk family and became totally assimilated. She married a Mohawk man and had a family with him, choosing not to return to New England. Finally in 1741 she visited surviving siblings for the first time, and made two more visits later.

Deerfield survived the raid, and the frontier continued to be pushed north and west. Settlers eventually moved into present-day Vermont and established settlements further up the Connecticut River in New Hampshire.