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Excerpt "Siege of Brookfield"
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1675
King Philip's War
Between August 1 and November 10, 1675, Indians did not leave a single one of Massachusetts's eight towns on the Connecticut River unscathed. Five of the eight towns sustained major attacks and three of them, Brookfield, Northfield, and Deerfield were burned, destroyed, and abandoned. Brookfield suffered the first rout. The siege lasted three days. These attacks severed an important communication link between eastern Massachusetts and the Connecticut River. The settlers of Brookfield took refuge in the Fortified House (Ayers Tavern, map of site) August 2-4 until reinforcements from Marlborough arrived. After the siege ended, the settlers departed with the troops and Brookfield was not resettled by the English for more than a decade.
A state marker on Route 9, at the boundary of Brookfield and West Brookfield tells the grim story of Brookfield's early years in these few short lines:
Brookfield
settled In 1660 By Men From
Ipswich On Indian Lands Called
Quabaug. Attacked By Indians
In 1675. One Garrison House
Defended to the Last. Reoccupied
Twelve Years Later.