HE PANTHER – Samuel Brushell

    An account of John Brushell and his son Samuel Brushell ("The Panther") who did indeed, according to local tradition, have a turtle tattoo. I presume that this is the John Brushell included in the W. DeLoss Love book, Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England, in his list of families at Brothertown. I suspect, though without specific proof, that this John Brushell served as at least an inspiration for the "John Mohegan" (Chingachgook) in "The Pioneers" – the Mohican who figures in the Leatherstocking Tales. Cooper's conflation of Mohegans and Mohicans undoubtedly stems from John Heckewelder, no doubt added to by the nearby Brothertown (Mohegan) and New Stockbridge (Mohican)

communities during Cooper's childhood and at the time Cooper was farming in Cooperstown (1813-1817). Richfield Springs and Lake Canadarago are half a dozen miles west of Cooperstown.

John and Samuel Brushell

Richfield Springs, NY

[from W.T. Bailey, "Richfield Springs and Vicinity" (New York & Chicago:

A.S. Barnes, 1874), pp. 34-37; also in D. Hamilton Hurd, "History of Otsego County" (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1878), pp. 303-304.

            Among the numbers who came to this country from the valley of the Connecticut was an Indian, far past the meridian of life, named or was called Captain John, and his son known as Sam Brushell, but whose real name was the "Panther," lured to this then far off region by rumors of a beautiful country of lakes, hills, and numerous streams teeming with fish and game of all descriptions. Their wigwam was located on the Tunnicliff lands, near the head of the lake known as "Old Fields," and now owned by Harvey Layton.

            Indian John was an old "scalper" and friend of the British

during the Revolution. His time during his residence here was almost

incessantly occupied in hunting and fishing, and the sharp click of his

rifle could be heard almost daily, echoing through the mountain forests in this immediate vicinity.

            His wigwam was well stored with a great variety of furs, and the game on which he principally subsisted. He was finally drowned in the Canadarago, by the upsetting of his bark canoe, near the island. His body was recovered, however, and buried in the little hill nearly in front of the Lake House, but afterwards removed by students of Dr. J. L. Palmer; which fact becoming suspected by the Indians living in Oneida, a large delegation made their appearance at the lake, and after a solemn smoke, prepared to open the grave of Captain John. At this moment Mr. Chamberlin appeared on the ground and forbade any interference with the grave, as it was located on his land. He well knew that had the Indians become certain that the body had been removed, their threats towards Dr. Palmer would certainly have been

carried out. It was much wondered at, at the time, that the Indians were induced to respect the authority of Mr. Chamberlin, and leave the ground undisturbed.

            Captain John was an old man when he died, and always deported himself in a quiet and orderly manner for one who early days had been associated with the most fiendish acts of savage barbarity. Immediately after his death, his son, "The Panther," returned to the valley of the Connecticut, where he remained but a few years, when he returned to the grave of his father, and built a wigwam on the Chamberlin farm, in the thicket of hemlocks and tall pines noticed as we pass from the springs to the Lake House, on the east side, and near the road where it first enters the wood. He made frequent visits to the Connecticut, and on one of his returns brought with him a small fish, dried and entire, which he exhibited to his friends, holding it on the palm of his hand, and repeating, with a expression of good humor upon his countenance, the familiar homily "as flat as a flounder." The fish was a flounder, a salt-water fish, never seen in this section, and he took this way to illustrate the comparison "as flat as a flounder,' and at the same time to allude to his original home near the sea.

            The spot where the Panther's* cabin stood it still pointed out, and is now in the same condition in which he left it. A large stone used by him as a sort of anvil, on which to beat out the black-ash splints used in making baskets and ornaments, still stands where he placed it. The Panther was a trusty Indian, and his neighbors did not hesitate to let their children accompany him to his cabin, where they would be treated to a dish of capital chowder, and safely returned to their homes, the happy possessors of nice bow and arrows. [* FOOTNOTE: The Panther had an Indian wife and daughter.]

            He took the liberty to cut any timber he wanted, no matter where it stood, or whose land it was on, regarding it as his right, as a native of the forest, to appropriate its products to his own use. He had an idea that his property, no matter where he left it, was safe from intruders, and it is certain no one ever meddled the second time with his personal effects, if he found out. At one time he followed a party of two, who had taken his canoe to the island, and immediately proceeded to manifest his indignation by beating them unmercifully with the paddle, and left them on the island to get off the best way they could. On another occasion Mr. Olcott Chamberlin, son of Freedom Chamberlin, took the Indian's boat to fish by torch-light. The torch is placed in the bow of the boat and elevated four or five feet above the water, and sustained by an iron jack, which is filled with pieces of pitch-pine, and the fisherman stands near and facing the light, which is so strong as to reveal the smallest objects in the water at the bottom to the depth of four or five feet. Mr. Chamberlin had arranged his tackle and was sailing quietly along a short distance from land, when he was ordered by a gruff voice from the bank of the lake, "Come, shore my boat." A command not immediately heeded by the fisherman. A moment after, the pine sticks were scattered in a blazing shower about his head by a bullet from the rifle of the Indian, the report of which echoed far away over the waters of the lake. This argument was sufficient. Mr. Chamberlin immediately returned to the shore with the Indians boat.

            The Panther went on one of his accustomed visits to the

Connecticut about the year 1846, since which time nothing is known of him He was no doubt a Mohegan, one of the family of "Uncas," and in proof of this he showed the figure of a turtle tattooed upon his breast. It is well known that this region witnessed its share of the fierce encounters between the early settlers and hostile bands of savages at the time of the Revolution, as it was in direct line from the Mohawk to the Upper Susquehanna.