King Philip Road
From Worcester Activist wiki
“I am determined not to live till I have no country!”
With these words, Metacomet, sachem of Poconokets, son of Massasoit, sachem of Wampanoags, began a holy war of extermination against all New England settlers.
He was better known as King Philip.
King Philips’ war raged for a year and drew a wide trail of red and white blood. It came close enough to achieving Metacomet’s objective so that settlers started nervously at mention of his name.
A master strategist, an able leader, a tireless fighter, the sachem sought to ally all Indians into the great war of extermination.
He sought the camp fires of Penobscots in Maine, lit and sucked the war pipe among the Narragansetts. The fierce young braves of the Podunks from Connecticut rallied about him, the Nipmucks, the Nashuas and his father’s people, the Wampanoags.
Most Massachusetts Indians honed their tomahawks. Only the Praying Indians, who had turned into devout Christians, refrained.
One night in July, 1675, King Philip appeared before the Nipmucks on Worcester’s Pakachoag Hill.
Smoke talk probably puffed to the other two Worcester tribes, on Asnebumskit Hill in Tatnuck, and on Wigwam Hill, along the western shore of Quinsigamond, as an invitation to hear King Philip.
When Philip went west that early morning, he was accompanied by Horrawannonit, or Quiquonassett, sagamore of Pakachoag, also know as Sagamore John.
With their leader went the young braves of Worcester’s largest Indian settlement – in war paint.
One of them, Matoonus, shed the first blood in the war at Mendon.
A year later, Sagamore John surrendered with 180 of his followers; showed “repentance” by shooting Matoonus, who was tied to a tree in Boston Common.
King Philip was shot by a Seaconnet Indian at Mount Hope on August 12, 1676.
They cut off his head and quartered the body. At Plymouth the head was stuck on a pole for more than 20 years.
King Philip road, running from West Boylston street east to Burncoat, is named after one of America’s most famous Indians. It was named in 1914. Part of it had previously been called Fair View terrace.
The core of this article comes from A History of Your City Streets.
