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<title>Stephen Jennings - The Brookfield Years</title>
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<span style="font-family: Arial"> </span><b><span style="font-family: Arial; text-transform: uppercase"><font size="2">Stephen
Jennings : The Brookfield Years<br>
</font>
</span><span style="font-family: Arial"><font size="2">(1693- 1710)</font></span></b></p>
<p style="text-autospace: none" align="center">
<font size="2"><b><span style="font-family: Arial">by Nicholas E. Hollis</span></b></font></p>
<p style="text-autospace: none; margin-left: 5.0pt">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial">Stephen Jennings'
frontier fame, originating from the Great Rescue Mission (1677-78)
probably led to his decision in the early 1690's to relocate his family
from Hatfield Massachusetts to Brookfield, a distance of some twenty miles
east toward the geographic center of the Bay Colony. Jennings may have
been enticed with a land grant provided by citizens determined to resettle
the area following the complete destruction of Brookfield in August 1675
during a three day siege by Indians, Resettlement efforts had begun in
1686, although only one of the original families moved back. In 1688,
there had been a new Indian scare and Jennings may have been sought as a
confidence builder, as well as for his negotiating prowess and backwoods
fighting skills.</span></p>
<p style="text-autospace: none; margin-left: 3.5pt">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial">Town records reveal
Stephen Jennings purchased a frame house in Brookfield in 1693 from
Hezekiah Dickinson with fifty-five acres for the sum of �27.5. 0, which
apparently augmented his holdings to a total of 104 acres. Dickinson may
have been a relative of Jennings' wife, Hannah (Dickinson) Jennings. 1/ In 1695/96, Stephen built a house of birch logs on
Foster's Hill near the site of the original fortified tavern, which had
served as the safe haven during the earlier siege, despite being partially
burned during the attack.</span></p>
<p style="text-autospace: none; margin-left: 2.5pt">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial">Jennings likely held a
"strategic eye" for defensive positions and petitioned the Colony's
General Court in Cambridge for resources to reinforce the structure and
provide wages for the "Jennings Garrison.� This petition has presented in
December 1704, supported by Jennings and two adult sons, Benjamin and
Joseph. The petition was approved for the sum of </span>
<font face="Arial">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt">�</span></font><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial">56.0.5
payable to Lt. Col. Patridge, head of the local militia. 2/ In the
aftermath of the devastating Indian raids on Deerfield
and other towns to the west earlier that year, the Court approved numerous
funding requests for strengthened fortifications.</span></p>
<p style="text-autospace: none; margin-left: 2.5pt">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial">As early as 1705
"Jennings Garrison" was probably in existence near the old Ayres Tavern
stand as a fortified house with the family living right in the garrison
that could serve as a redoubt for neighbors in time of danger. It may also
have been a separate building.
Unfortunately, the entire structure burned down in 1931.</span></p>
<p style="text-autospace: none">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial">On May 25, 1707 Stephen
sold his land to his sons Stephen V. and Joseph and lived near Woolcott's
where he had his original grant of fifty acres. Woolcott's place was on
the Old County road leading from the present Brookfield village. This
would suggest that this property of Stephen Jennings later became the
<a href="EducationalPioneers.htm">Jennings family farm</a> which then stayed in the family for generations down
to William Nevinson Jennings in the late nineteenth century. At around the
same time Stephen sold his other property on Foster's Hill to a relative
of Benjamin Waite, his old hero and companion, whose courage had
galvanized the Great Rescue Mission years earlier. Stephen must have been
disconsolate when news reached him of Waite's chilling end at the hands of
Indians during the Deerfield Massacre of February 29, 1704. Waite had
joined a party from Hatfield and rushed to aid Deerfield where he was
killed and skinned -- the only one so treated (see
<a href="cornerstone_for_courage.htm">Cornerstone for Courage</a>).</span></p>
<p style="text-autospace: none; margin-left: .25pt">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial">In 1710, Jennings and
his son Benjamin had been granted permission to build a mill (along with
others in Brookfield), but their dreams were not to be. On July 20, 1710,
while they were raking hay in a nearby meadow, Stephen Jennings, his son
Benjamin, and four other men were killed during a surprise attack by
Indians. It is not known if the haymakers even had time to reach their
weapons. A monument honoring these early farmer-pioneers and their
sacrifice stands in the south comer of the Old Indian Cemetery </span>
<font face="Arial">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt">on Cottage Street near the center of modem
West Brookfield.</span></font></p>
<p style="text-autospace: none; margin-left: .25pt">
<font face="Arial" size="2">
_________________________________________________________________________</font></p>
<p style="text-autospace: none; margin-bottom: 0">
1/
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; background-color:#FFFFFF"><font face="Arial">History of
Brookfield. (1887) p 146</font></span></p>
<p style="text-autospace: none; margin-bottom: 0">
<font face="Arial">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; background-color:#FFFFFF"><a href="#2/" name="2/ft">
<font color="#000000">2/</font></a> Ibid. p. 167</span></font></p>
<p style="text-autospace: none">
<font face="Arial">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt">Nicholas E. Hollis is president of The
Agribusiness Council, a nonprofit/tax-exempt organization established in
1967. He is a direct descendant of Stephen Jennings and a native of New
England. Much of the Waite-Jennings narrative was provided during
interviews in 1979 with his great aunt, Ruth Hastings Jennings Anderson
(1893-1987), and is also documented in <i>The Young and Old</i> <i>
Puritans of Hatfield by</i> Mary P. Wells Smith, Boston (1900). </span></font></p>
<p style="text-autospace: none">
<font face="Arial">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt">(Permission to reprint or publish this
article must be requested in writing to the author:</span></font></p>
<p style="text-autospace: none">
<font face="Arial" size="2">Nicholas E. Hollis<b><i><br>
</i></b>P.O. Box 5565<br>
Washington DC 20016<br>
Tel: (202) 296-4563<br>
Email: [email protected]</font></p>
<p align="center"><b><a href="../heritage.htm">
<font face="Arial" size="2">Heritage
Preservation</font></a></b><font face="Arial" size="2"> </font>
<p align="center"><b><a href="jennings_heritage_project.htm">Jennings
Heritage Project</a></b><p align="center"><b><a href="../default.htm">
<font face="Arial" size="2">Home</font></a></b><font face="Arial" size="2">
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