front
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.

Detail 1
Detail 2

label levels:

This iron axe was discovered in 1840. Its design is typical of axes made during the 17th and 18th centuries. Its discovery in the middle of the north meadows in Greenfield, Massachusetts, near what had been the junction of the Hinsdale and Punch brooks, suggested to some historians that it was a part of the plunder taken from the town of Deerfield, Massachusetts, during the February, 1704 raid. The town was attacked in mid-winter by a combined raiding force of French and Native Americans from Canada, who took a number of captives north to Canada. Previous tradition held that the raiding party had camped in the frozen swamp just west of the Nims family's farm. The axe's presence alone is not conclusive, however; it may have been discarded or lost at any point after the arrival of Europeans in New England.

top of page