Last Updated: April 1, 2024

Westborough Resources (Primary and Secondary)

• Allen, Kristina Nilson. On the Beaten Path: Westborough, Massachusetts. Westborough, MA: Westborough Civic Club and Westborough Historical Society, 1984. Online edition.
• DeForest, Heman Packard and Edward Craig Bates. The History of Westborough, Massachusetts. Westborough, MA: Westborough, 1891. Online edition. Note: There is land grant information in the Appendix.
• Forbes, Harriette Merrifield. The Hundredth Town, Glimpses of Life in Westborough, 1717-1817. Boston: Press of Rockwell and Churchill, 1889. Online edition.
• Forbes, Harriette Merrifield. “Two Indian Chiefs.” Proceedings of the Worcester Society of Antiquity Vol. 13, 1877, pp. 422-433.
• Genealogies of Westborough Families (LH.008)
  • “Tainter (Tantor)” – accounts of Benjamin Tainter, who as a young man was held captive by Indians, tortured, and eventually released or exchanged.
• Historical Newspapers Collection (LH.006)
  • “Zemonia, or the Indian of Lake Chauncy,” Westborough Messenger, December 1, 1849, p. 1 –– story using Native American contexts and stereotypes.
• Historical Photographs Collection (LH.011)
  • Parade Float (2015.06.1650) – parade float with a Native American theme.
  • 250th Anniversary Parade: Float (2015.06.1666) – parade float with a Native American theme.
  • 250th Anniversary Parade: Man in Indian Headdress (2015.06.1673) – A man wearing an Indian feather headdress.
  • Bicentennial Parade: Indian Heritage Float (2015.06.1693) – “Indian Heritage” float sponsored by the Camp Fire Girls.
  • Bicentennial Parade: Camp Fire Girls (2015.06.1694) – Camp Fire Girls, some of whom are in Indian dress.
  • Native American Themed Float (2015.06.2050) – A float with a Native American theme in the 250th Anniversary parade.
  • Hoffman, Curtiss R. People of the Fresh Water Lake: A Prehistory of Westborough, Massachusetts. American University Studies, Series XI Anthropology and Sociology, Vol. 47. New York: Peter Lang, 1990.
• Legend of Hoccomocco
  • https://www.westboroughcenter.org/westborough-folktales/the-legend-of-lake-hoccomocca/
  • https://www.westboroughcenter.org/westborough-folktales/the-legend-of-hockomocko-high-school/
  • https://www.westboroughcenter.org/westborough-folktales/legend-of-hobomak/ 
  • Note: According to DeForest in his Westborough history (see above), Horace Maynard was responsible for “weaving” together the tale of Hoccomocco. (pp. 5-6). A similar claim is made in the Forbes, The Hundredth Town. Curtiss Hoffman, in People of the Fresh Water Lake contends that the tale was made up for promotional purposes by the Chamber of Commerce in the late nineteenth century.
• Local History by Subject collection (LH.001) – Folders with relevant content
  • “Cedar Swamp” (Protection Plan)
  • “Jack Straw”
  • “Native Americans – Indians of this Area”
  • “Westborough’s Prehistory”
• Parkman, Ebenezer. The Story of the Rice Boys: Captured by the Indians, August 8, 1704. Westborough, MA: Westborough Historical Society, 1906. Online edition.
• Parkman, Ebenezer. Diary
  • Native Americans
  • Captives and Captivity
  • Dunham, Richard – Indian Captive
• A Westborough Blue Book: Extracts from the Journal of the Rev. Ebenezer Parkman: “Chestnut Tree under Which David Munnanow and His Family, the Last Wamesites in This Vicinity, Had Their Wigwams.” Contains chronotype picture of the tree. 
• Whitney, Peter. “Westborough.” The History of the County of Worcester. Worcester, Massachusetts: Isaiah Thomas, 1793. Includes an account of the Rice Boys raid.
• Wilson, Jayne Carroll and Joseph E. Kuras. A Grafton Chronicle: From Wilderness to the Information Age. [Self published], 2016. 

General Secondary Source Works

• Blackhawk, Ned. The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History. (NONFICTION HISTORY INDIGENOUS BLACKHAWK)
• Bragdon, Kathleen J. The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Northeast. (WR 974.004 Bragd)
• Bragdon, Kathleen J. Native People of Southern New England, 1500-1650. (WR 794.01 Bragd)
• Cronon, William. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. (WR 974.02 CRONON)
• Drake, James D. King Philip’s War: Civil War in New England, 1675-1676. (WR 973.24 DRAKE)
• Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. (TIMES 970.004 DUNBA)
• Karr, Ronald Dale. Indian New England 1524-1674: A Compendium of Eyewitness Accounts of Native American Life. (WR 970.44 INDIA)
• Krawec, Patty. Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future. (TIMES 970.004 KRAWEC)
• Mandell, Daniel R. Tribe, Race, History: Native Americans in Southern New England, 1780–1880. (WR 974.03 MANDE)
• Mann, Charles C. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. (TIMES 970.01-MANN)
• O’Brien, Jean M. Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians Out of Existence in New England. (WR 970.0049 O’Brien)
• Richter, Daniel K. Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America. (WR 970.0049 Richt)
• Senior, Siobhan, ed. Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing from New England. (WR 810.8 DAWNL)
• Sleeper-Smith, Susan. Why You Can’t Teach United States History without American Indians. (WR970.0049)
• Strobel, Christoph. Native Americans of New England. (WR 974.004 STROB; 974.004 STROB)
• Vaughan, Alden T. New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians, 1620-1675, 3rd ed. (WR 974.02 VAUGH)

General Primary Source Works

• Apess, William. Eulogy on King Philip: https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/apess-eulogy-speech-text/. (Compare with Webster, “Plymouth Rock Oration” below.)
• Earle, John Milton, Report to the Governor and Council concerning the Indians of the Commonwealth, Under the Acts of April 16, 1859. Boston: William White, Printer to the State, 1861. https://archive.org/details/reporttogoverno00senagoog/mode/2up.
• Eliot, John and Thomas Mathew. Tears of Repentance: Or, A Further Narrative of the Progress of the Gospel Amongst the Indians in New-England (1653): https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eebo;idno=A84357.0001.001
• Gookin, Daniel. Historical Collections of the Indians in New England – https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=sc_pubs.
  • 1912 biography of Daniel Gookin: https://archive.org/details/danielgookin161200gook/page/n19/mode/2up.
• Ives, Goddard and Kathleen J. Brandon, eds., Native Writings in Massachusetts, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988).
• Senier, Siobhan, ed.. Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing from New England. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2014.
• Webster, Daniel. “Plymouth Rock Oration” commemorating the bicentennial of the landing of the Mayflower on 22 December 1620: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/danielwebsterplymouthoration.htm. (Compare with Apess, Eulogy on King Philip above.)