affairs: "Magunkaquog is the seventh of the old Praying Towns. It is situated partly within the bounds of Natick and partly upon land granted by the country. It is near midway between Natick and Hassanamesit.CHAPTER XVI
TOWNS
ASHLAND.--MAGUNKAQUOG.--FRAMINGHAM.--BEAVER DAM OR INDIAN'S BRIDGE.--GREAT JOHN AWASSAMAUG.
IN ASHLAND
The path passed near "cold spring on the Franklin place" over the hill Magunke, and crossed Cold Spring Brook, about thirty rods above its mouth, where it flows into Sudbury River. Rev. John Eliot selected this location "on the old Connecticut path" for the establishment of the seventh "village of praying Indians." Families from other places were gathered there in 1659 or 1660.
The town flourished for about fifteen years. Of its condition in 1674 we have the following account, written at the time by Major Gookin, Superintendent of Indian affairs: "Magunkaquog is the seventh of the old Praying Towns. It is situated partly within the bounds of Natick and partly upon land granted by the country. It is near midway between Natick and Hassanamesit.
The number of inhabitants is about 11 families and 55 souls. There are men and women, 8 members of the church at Natick, and about 15 baptized persons. The quantity of land belonging to it is about 3000 acres. The Indians plant upon a great hill which is very fertile. These people worship God, and keep the Sabbath, and observe civil order--as do the other towns. They have a constable and other officers. Their ruler's name is Pomhaman, a sober and active man, and pious. Their teacher is named Job, a person well accepted for piety and ability among them. This town was the last settling of the old Towns. They have plenty of corn, and keep some cattle, horses and swine, for which the place is well accommodated."
At Ashland, the Bay Path, in its generally northeasterly course, has passed the parallel of Latitude 42o 15'.
BEAVER DAM
Long, long ago, this wonderful animal, the beaver, with an instinct seeming to rival human observation and thought, selected a place between two small hills, where the drainage or overflow of large swamps had a way, and with community enterprise built a dam.
Beavers are sociable animals, usually living in colonies, each family having its own burrow or hut.
They are woodchoppers, carpenters and masons. They cut down trees with their teeth, to fall across a stream where wanted, or being cut into suitable lengths, they are floated or dragged into place. Then, interwoven with twigs, and strengthened with stakes, they form a framework for stones, roots and bark, mixed with a large amount of mud. The mixture is plastered and pressed into a solid concrete, with the beavers' tails, which are very strong, and shaped like a trowel. They build huts out in the water, two stories high, the entrance, in all cases, being low enough to be below the possibility of ice, or of being uncovered at low water.
The basement provides a passageway to the cone-shaped building that is above water, and has no opening. It is made with clay in plastic condition, reinforced with withes and meadow grass. The inside is made perfectly smooth by biting and the use of the powerful trowel-like tail.
The Beaver Dam, in course of time, became broadened by accretions from various sources; and the vigilance of many generations of beavers kept it in proper shape and solidity.
For a long time this Beaver Dam was a convenience in the long and narrow path of the Indian.
Then the white men followed; and they broadened the dam and made a great road and a bridge. And now for many 
years the Boston and Albany railroad tracks have been used by the side of the great public highway.
The beaver has departed, and the thousands of hurrying humans who pass that way know not of him.
The following quotation is from Temple's "History of Framingham."
"It is called in our earlier records the 'Beaver Dam,' and sometimes the 'Indian Bridge,' showing that it was in use by the natives when the country was first visited by the whites. It is mentioned as a bound-mark of land-grants as early as 1658; and is perpetuated in the name of the stream on which it stood. It must have been built at a very remote date by those sagacious animals."
About here in our progress eastward, it appears desirable, for the purpose of making a suggestion of identity, to again recall the item in Governor Winthrop's Journal, and quote a brief extract as follows:
"Apr. 4, 1631, Wahginnacut, a sagamore upon the river Quonehtacut, which lies west of Naraganset, came to the governor at Boston, with John Sagamore & Jack Straw (an Indian, who had lived in England and had served Sir Walter Raleigh, and was now turned Indian again) and divers of their sannops and brought a letter to the governor from Mr. Endicott....
An historian says they secured the services of Jack Straw and Sagamore John, as the former Indian spoke English, and the latter lived between the Charles and Mystic Rivers."
Jack Straw has been identified and located in Westboro (see ante). In regard to Sagamore John, there are known facts in the life of John Awassamog, Sr., that "fit on" and the identity will be assumed here that the facts may be presented.
He was a Nipnet, having chieftain's blood in his veins. In 1635 or earlier he married Yawata, daughter of Nanepashemet, chief of the Pawtucket tribe, chief of the Pawtucket tribe, whose possessions extended from Chelsea and Lynn on the coast, thru Middlesex County to the Pawtucket Falls (Lowell) on the Merrimac River.
They resided at Winnisimet (Chelsea) where the oldest son, Muminquash, was born. (He was afterward known as James Rumney Marsh.) Their other sons were John Jr., Samuel, Joshua, Thomas and Amos Awassamog. He was living at Mistic (Medford) when the apostle Eliot began his labor with the Indians, in 1646,--and sometimes attended his meetings.
"In a paper duly executed, appointing his son, his successor, and dated Dec. 1, 1684, he recites: 'John Aswassamog, of Naticke, not now like to continue long before his decease and notable to looke after the Indian title that yet do remain unpaid for by English proprietors, do hereby acknowledge Thomas Awassamog, my natural son, my natural heir, and betrust and bepower him in my stead to sell, bargaine, and alienate any of that land the Indian title of which do yet belong to me, according to the sagamore title.
His marke.
John O Awosomug.'
In a deed dated Jan. 21, 1684-5, in which his sons and other blood-relations joined, conveying the title of his Framingham and other lands to the said heir and successor, John Awassamoag, Samuel Awassamoag, John Mooqua, Peter Ephraim, Eleazer Pegan and Joshua Awassamoag, Indians of Natick, in the county of Middlesex, in New England, for reasons us thereunto moving, have given and granted, and do by these presents grant, aliene, enfeoffe, assigne, make over and confirm unto Thomas Awassamog, Indian of the same town and county aforesaid, all that our whole native title right and interest in that tract of land lying, situate and being betweene the bounds of Natick Charles river, Marborough, and a point of Blackstone's river beyond Mendon,--all which said right, title and interest in the said land (that is not already legally disposed of) we, the said John Awassamoag, Samuel Awassamoag, Joshua Awassamoag, John Mooqua, Peter Ephrain and Eleazer Pegan do hereby avouch and declare to be, at the delivery of these presents, our own proper estate, and lawfully in our power to alienate and dispose of,--it being our natural right, descending to us from the chiefe sachem Wuttawushan, uncle to the said John Awassamoag Sen., who was the chiefe sachem of said land, and nearly related to us all, as may be made to appeare."
John Awassamog was, in point of time, in the same generation with Wascomos, son of Wetoleshan alias Wattalloowekin, and, if alias, Wuttawushan. It is known that Wetoleshen died between the years 1655 and 1659.
It was in 1662 that John Awassamog signed the first deed conveying a tract of land lying within the limits of his inheritance from his uncle Wuttawushan.
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