The Johnson Massacre Multi-Cache

Some of the first settlers in the town of Oxford were religious exiles from France called the Huguenots. The remains of a bastion fort built by Huguenots resides atop Huguenot Road/ Fort Hill Rd. The Huguenot's prosperous settlement was interrupted by Indian attackers in 1696, and finally abandoned in 1704.

The Massacre of the Johnson family during an Indian raid on August 25, 1696, brought the first Huguenot settlement to an end. You will find that the stone marker at the place of the massacre (first stage of this multi), placed in 1875, bears the initials of John Johnson and his three children, Peter, Andrew and Mary, who were killed. Fortunately, Mrs. Johnson and her cousin escaped.

The Huguenot Memorial Society erected a cross and pedestal monument to the memory of the Huguenot settlers on the site of the original Fort that was constructed in 1686, which can be found behind the 2nd leg of this multi (pictures posted in logs below).

Shocking history …

The French Huguenots were originally kicked out of France for practicing a different type of religion (The French were mainly Roman Catholics). So the Huguenots fled to the new land. They landed in what is now called Boston, Massachusetts. Some of the families started moving west. In 1686, two Huguenots, John Elliot and Daniel Gookin, found a forest area with a river which is now called the French River.

Some of the families settled there. They were not alone. About 12 Nipmuck Indian families lived there as well. The two groups of people lived in peace for 10 years.

In 1696 the French Canadians heard about the Huguenots, and went to the Nipmuck Indians telling them that these Hugenots would be taking their land. The Nipmuck Indians were then outraged.

Toby, a Nipmuck Indian, lived at Woodstock and was a precursor of a long series of atrocities later enacted on the frontier. The house of the Johnson family stood on the southern outskirts of the village near the Woodstock trail. Toby and his band stealthily approached it on the afternoon of Tuesday, the 25th of August, 1696, and entering, seized the three Johnson children, Andrew, Peter and Mary, and ruthlessly crushed their heads against the stones of the fireplace. (Local historians think Toby may have been drunk when he murdered the Johnsons.) With the help of Andrew Johnonnot, her cousin, the mother fled toward Woodstock, where her husband had gone on business. Tradition says that on parts of the way there were two paths, and that in going and coming the husband and wife passed each other without knowing, she going on to Woodstock and he coming to his home. There, John Johnson was met by the assassins and shared the fate of his children.

The rest of the families in the settlement fled, then eventually returned and fled again. In 1713 the English people started to move to this area and that is when it became a town called Oxford.

See 2/28/05 Birdsong-n-Buds & our 8/31/07 & 9/18/07 online logs for more historical notes.

UPDATE! Congratulations to Trail Buzzards and McDyver for their excellent photos of the bastioned fort, the well, and the Huguenot Altar! This is the cool travel bug they created together with the FTF TB tag! Heh heh. Talk about geo-teamwork!