The Old Indian House

The first owner of the land on which the Indian House stood was Joshua Fisher, who sold his rights to John Pyncheon in 1665. This lot of land, which contained slightly more than five acres, was designated as number 12 in the laying out of home lots in 1671.

Although an attempt had been made to settle in Deerfield as early as 1669, the general uprising in 1675, known as King Philip’s War, had caused the first inhabitants to disperse. In 1682 a large number of families returned to rebuild their homes and substantial stockade. Never again was Deerfield entirely abandoned. The year of permanent settlement is given as 1682. In 1683 John Hawks bargained with Pyncheon to buy his lot and is said to have lived somewhere on it until 1687, when apparently, not fulfilling his bargain, he forfeited his title and soon after Pyncheon resold it to Ensign John Sheldon.

It is certain that Ensign Sheldon was the builder of the Indian House or more properly that he had it built and was its first occupant. The exact year of construction is not certain, but it can be stated with assurance that it was standing at the time of the massacre in 1704.

Ensign John Sheldon was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1658 and settled in Deerfield in 1687. He was one of those public spirited men who are universally called in town histories and genealogies as “prominent in town affaires.” He was selectman, innkeeper and deacon of the church. In 1679 he married Hannah, daughter of John Stebbins of Northampton, she being at the time of her marriage fifteen years of age. It was this Hannah Stebbins Sheldon who by tradition was shot through the neck while sitting in her bed in the eat room of the house on the fateful night of 1704. John Sheldon, Junior, and his wife, also a Hannah, were present in the house that night, and it is reported, “the enemy was so intent upon cutting through the front door that John and his youg (sp) wife jumped from the east chamber widow unobserved; she was disabled by a sprained ankle, but Hannah urged her husband to fly to Hatfield and give the alarm; he was bare-footed but he protected his feet as he ran over the snow by tearing up a blanket and tying the strips around them. The second Hannah was carried off to Canada and redeemed by her father-in-law the following year.

Ensign Sheldon removed to Hartford about 1707 where he remained until his death. The house passed to his son Ebenezer who lived in it and kept tavern there until about 1743 when he removed to the settlement called Fall Town, now Bernardston, Massachusetts. On June 22, 1744, Ebenezer Sheldon sold the house to Jonathan Hoyt, whose son David Hoyt had married his daughter Mercy the previous year.