Moswetuset Hummock

Moswetuset Hummock

Moswetuset Hummock as seen from Quincy Shore Drive
Location E. Squantum Street, near jct. with Quincy Shore Drive, Quincy, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°17′22″N 71°1′18″W / 42.28944°N 71.02167°W / 42.28944; -71.02167Coordinates: 42°17′22″N 71°1′18″W / 42.28944°N 71.02167°W / 42.28944; -71.02167
Built 1600
NRHP Reference # 70000094
Added to NRHP July 01, 1970

Moswetuset Hummock is a wooded historic place in Quincy, Massachusetts. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.[1]

The site is located at the northern end of Wollaston Beach along Quincy Bay on East Squantum Street near the junction with Quincy Shore Drive. It was the seat of the ruling Massachusett chief Chickatawbut, who was visited in 1621 by Plymouth Colony commander Myles Standish and Tisquantum (Squanto), a Patuxet guide. Moswetuset means "shaped like an arrowhead".

In his 1747 volume A History of New-England historian Daniel Neal described Moswetuset Hummock as the origin of the name of the indigenous Massachusett tribe, and thus the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts:[2][3]

The Sachem or Sagamore who governed the Indians in this part of the country when the English came hither, had his seat on a small hill, or hummock, containing perhaps an acre and a half, about two leagues to the southward of Boston, which hill or hummock lies in the shape of an Indian's arrowhead, which arrow-heads are called in their language MOS, or MONS, with O nasal, and hill in their language is WETUSET hence, this great sachem's seat was called Moswetuset, which signifies a hill in the shape of an arrow's head, and his subjects, the Moswetuset Indians, from whence with a small variation of the word, the Province received the name MASSACHUSETTS.

Hummock is a geological term for a small knoll or mound.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2008-04-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ "East Squantum Street (Moswetuset Hummock)". Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey. Thomas Crane Public Library. 1986. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
  3. ↑ Neal, Daniel (1747). "XIV: The Present State of New England". The history of New-England. 2 (2 ed.). London: Printed for A. Ward. p. 216. OCLC 8616817. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
  4. ↑ Bates, Robert L. and Julia A. Jackson, ed. (1984). “hummock.” Dictionary of Geological Terms, 3rd Ed. New York: Anchor Books. p. 241.


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