ansplanting
himself and family into that of another region. Hardly, in fact, had he
settled in the home he had made than he began preparations for removal
to what was then considered a comparatively wild section of New England.

In the old homestead at Danvers is still preserved the quit-claim deed
signed by Israel Putnam, "of Salem in the County of Essex and Province
of Massachusetts Bay in New England, husbandman," which records the
transfer by him to his brother David of his share in the ancestral house
and acres.

In the local history of the town of Brooklyn, Conn., occurs this
passage: "In the year 1703, Richard Ames purchased 3,000 acres of land
lying in the south part of Pomfret, where the village of Brooklyn now
stands, which he divided into five lots and deeded to his sons. Directly
north of this was situated a tract of land owned by Mr. John Blackwell,
comprising 5,750 acres, which was willed to his son John, and afterward
sold to Governor Belcher of Massachusetts, who divided it into farms and
sold them to different individuals, among whom was General Israel
Putnam. This tract went by the name of 'Mortlake.' A beautiful stream
which rises in the western part of the tract, and received its name from
the former proprietor, Blackwell, empties into the Quinnebaug."

These several transactions in real estate, taken together, will
sufficiently explain to the reader, perhaps, the subsequent movements of
Farmer Putnam. After disposing of property to his brother David, and
receiving therefor the goodly sum of L1,900, Israel Putnam joined with
his brother-in-law, Joseph Pope, in the purchase of more than five
hundred acres of land from Governor Belcher, for which they agreed to
pay at the rate of five pounds per acre. They paid for it partly in
"bills of credit on the Province of Massachusetts," and gave a mortgage
for the remainder. And so fertile was this wild land, and so thrifty was
the young pioneer farmer Israel Putnam, that within little more than two
years he had liquidated the mortgage and received a quit-claim deed from
the Governor, as well as purchased his brother-in-law's portion of the
tract they had bought together.

The two pioneers may have made a special trip to the Connecticut tract
before deciding to purchase; for it was not in the nature of them to
"buy a pig in a poke," as it were. And such a journey of nearly a
hundred miles, mainly through a wilderness, was no child's task in those
days. In