Mascoma's (Mascommah's) Land Deeds

Mascommah signed three deeds.  There are copies of these deeds in the Hampden County Courthouse in Springfield, Massachusetts.  The originals are in a hermetically sealed vault somewhere, in Boston, I think.  I went down to Springfield to get copies of the deeds.  I was worried about driving and parking in the city but it was really easy.  The courhouse was huge and intimidating.  The old deeds were in the basement.  When I got down there, a really nice man named Tony helped me find what I was looking for.  Lo and behold, there was Mascommah's name and mark right in front of me.  So here are the deeds.

This is my favorite one because you can see Mascommah's name and mark really clearly, four names down from the top.  This is the deed to the Deerfield River parcel of land,

 The above deed is the deed to the land in Sunderland, Massachusetts and points west.  There are some who believe that this piece of property extended west as far as Newfane, Vermont.  Again, Mascommah's mark is the fourth down.


The above deed is my least favorite because you can hardly see Mascoma's name and I don't believe there really is a mark.  Unfortunately, it is the deed that we spent so much time on the river looking for the boundaries of.  It is the southern Vermont and New Hampshire deed and the one that most applies to the Upper Valley.  I guess it figures. Mascommah's name is the seventh down from the top.

After spending most of the summer finding the Indian Mascommah, I guess I have to leave him now and go on to other topics.  If I could go back in time and meet him, I would tell him that there is a river, a lake, a school, and a bank named after him.  I would tell him that the English people, who became Americans, really messed up the Connecticut River that he traveled on and loved, but then they got their act together, and now it is beautiful and clean.  Maybe in the spring, I will go to Schagticoke New York and do some research there and find out more about the village he lived in when he came down the river and signed those deeds.  And if we ever get nice weather, the Old Redneck and I will try to find the southern boundary of that deed one more time.  Rest in Peace, Mascommah.