Digging Up Winchester’s Past: Native Americans along the Mystic

Digging up Winchester’s Past: Native Americans along the Mystic

Peter Wild and Ellen Knight

Thursday, October 4
7:30 p.m.
Jenks Senior Center

Learn about the history of Squaw Sachem and Native Americans in Winchester through documents and artifacts. Historian Ellen Knight will speak on the co-existence of the Native American and colonial English cultures in the Massachusetts Bay/Winchester area as illustrated by the Squaw Sachem and her family.  Peter Wild will discuss the Sherman Russell Native American Local Artifacts Collection. Sherman Russell, and his father, collected these artifacts on their land near the Mystic Lakes in the early 1900’s.  Examples of arrow heads and tools, many found in Winchester, will be on display

Ellen Knight, Ph.D., is a specialist in the history of the arts of the Boston area at the turn of the twentieth century, as well as the history of Winchester, Mass. She authored histories of Winchester Hospital, the Winchester Public Library, Winchester Community Music School, and Wright-Locke Farm and was the co-author of the Children’s History of Winchester, as well as numerous articles on an array of local subjects published in the Daily Times Chronicle.

Peter Wild is a descendent of the Russell family.  He was born and lives in Winchester; he is the owner of Boston Tree Preservation, and a Board member of the Society.

The Winchester Historical Society is proud to join with Winchester Reads in presenting this event  Be sure to read the book, Caleb’s Crossing, and then hear the author Geraldine Brooks discuss her story of the first Native American to graduate from Harvard University.  That event is at McCall Middle School on October 23.

The Squaw Sachem Sells Her Land to Governor John Winthrop, mural in Winchester Public Library