Natick Indian Burial Ground
Each town has something special to share and a story that it holds close. Today, I want to share one of Natick’s most sacred and historic sites: The Natick Praying Indian Burial Ground.
Set quietly in the center of town, this grassy enclosure carries a story that predates the town itself. It is one of the last tangible remnants of Natick’s original Praying Indian community, founded in the 1650s under the guidance of Reverend John Eliot, the Puritan missionary who envisioned self-governing Christian Indian towns across Massachusetts. Natick became the first and most prominent of these Praying Indians Communities.
At the center of this burial ground stands a large boulder with the inscription that this plot is all that remains of the one hundred acres that was originally set aside on May 11, 1719 for their tribe.
The two granite stones are engraved with the words: We Will Remember” and the names of Native men who served in the American Revolution. These warriors fought not only for a country still finding its identity but for the promise of liberty is worth defending.
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Algonquien Bible
A testament of faith and history, the Natick Historical Society preserves two artifacts tied to the earliest years of printing in North America and to the cultural crossroads that defined this town. The single leaf from the 1663 first edition of the Algonquien Bible was a page from the earliest Bible printed in America and […]
The Peletiah Morse Tavern
Within less than a mile from my home lies the historic heart of South Natick. From the legacy of the Praying Indians to the colonial homes and 19th-century landmarks that still line the streets, this small village holds a deep well of history waiting to be shared Today, I share one of these colonial treasures, the Peletiah […]
Daniel Takawampit
Daniel Takawampbit, an Algonquian leader, stands as one of the most extraordinary and overlooked figures in New England’s Colonial past. He was the first Natick American ordained as a Puritan minister, the student and successor of John Eliot, and a spiritual guide to the Praying Indian community of Natick during some of the most challenging […]
