University of Massachusetts Amherst - Index Yearbook (Amherst, MA)

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om of (0lb jHaggacJjugettsi A COLLEGE with a campus unexcelled in natural beauty, a student body ■ - unsurpassed in its spirit of good fellowship, and a faculty unequaled in ability! It is not a distant hope or a fanciful illusion. It is a reality — a reward for the untiring efforts of the founders of M. A. C. and their inspiring followers. With the discouragements and tribulations confronting the early founders of the college a hazy remembrance of the dim past, the modern student at Mas- sachusetts can pass daily across campus from class to class without a thought of the history and traditions of the college. The possibility of flunking English, the football game next Saturday, or the anticipation of a fraternity dance Friday night occupies his thoughts. However, when his class gathers in the Social Union room or at the Memorial Building to indulge in a class smoker, strange reminis- cences always seem to bring back once more weird traditions and humorous in- cidents during the early days of 1868. They live for a night, but with the dawn they are again a thing of the past — a mass of seemingly impossible fables. Still they linger upon the memories of every student who passes forth from this college into life. Little time is ever devoted to a thought of the dark, unwritten pages in the history of this section of the Connecticut Valley. Yet, it is a fact that this college has sprung up out of soil soaked with the blood of early pioneers and savage Indians. The story of these distant days of bloodshed in the valley is not well- known to many students although it is one of the most interesting in all history. Not more than a century and a half before the opening of M. A. C. in 1867, this section of the valley was the scene of many bloody battles and brutal mas- sacres. As the early settlers began their westward migration from the Massa- chusetts Colony into the fertile lands of the Connecticut Valley, the Indians in this section of the country assumed an attitude of friendliness toward the white men. However, with the numbers of immigrants ever increasing the Indians were forced farther and farther away from their native haunts. Sviddenly a crimson veil dropped over the once peaceful valley. Flint-lock muskets were brought into use, and every crude log cabin became an uncertain fortified in- closure. The Redskins under the leadership of King Philip and his successors launched a series of bloody raids upon the inhabitants around Amherst. In an account of these direful days one author states, There was not a square foot of ground in the valley that did not know the heavy thud of the hasty footstep of some farmer followed in hot pursuit by a warrior . Even today people will point with interest the exact spot at the mouths of the caves on Mount Sugarloaf where King Philip was accustomed to sit on sunny afternoons, making plans for his next merciless assault upon some unprotected home in the valley below. The stories of these outrageous deeds are too gruesome to bear repetition. Alice M. Walker in her book, Early Days in the Connecticut Valley, quotes, 13

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When the dark hour had passed and peace was again restored, along the river bank of the ' Quonektacut ' lay the remains of burned and devastated homes and graveyards filled with victims of tomahawk and scalping knife. Now and then a refugee from the long lines of miserable captives, who had been led away into the boundless northern woods, came straggling back, to tell harrowing tales of torture and death. The war cloud passed as suddenly as it came. Once more the survivors of this dark period took up their various avocations. More im- migrants came into the valley from many sections of New England. Towns grew. Prosperity and peace reigned. Educational and religious schools were established. Then, in 1867 there rose from the blood-red soil of the valley a new edifice to learning — M. A. C. As you pass across the campus today can you imagine this section of the val- ley as it was before the founding of the college. ' Can you picture a mass of sav- ages sneaking noiselessly across the grounds toward the center of Amherst? Can you appreciate the deeds of the freedom loving Yankee patriots who gave their lives that this valley might be safe for posterity? They made the foun- dation of old Massachusetts possible by the demonstration of a patirotic spirit that has always dominated Massachusetts men. The history and lives of those patriots who lived in crude log cabins up and down the valley, who established this college for the liberal education of their children, who gave the valley its traditions, can exist today only as a dim reminiscence to those that reap the fruits of their labors. Long years ago, with valient hearts, on Massachusetts soil, Her sturdy sons subdued the earth with endless care and toil; They fought the red men on the trail, the wild beast in his lair, Famine and cold and dire desire beset them everywhere. Yet strong in faith and rich in hope, our brave forefathers fought, Drew down a blessing from the skies and gained the goal they sought. 14