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| Daniel Takawampbait's Pulpit Desk |
The museum of the Natick Historical Society isn’t the
biggest space. We sometimes don’t have room to display all the unique artifacts
from Natick’s past. Furniture in particular can sometimes be a problem. There
is one piece however, that we always are sure to make room for. Daniel Takawampbait’s
pulpit desk is one of the most special artifacts in our collection and rightly,
gets a place of honor right in the center of the museum. Today the pulpit desk sits at the center of
our museum space in a case focused on the lives of John, Eliot, Daniel Takawampbait
and other members of the early ‘Praying Indian’ community in Natick. The piece
is not only a connection to an important figure from Natick’s history; it’s
also a unique example of early American furniture.
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| Desk Foot, Shaped Like a Deer's Hoof |
The pulpit desk was made by Native Americans in Natick between
the years 1676-1678. Very few example of
furniture made by Native Americans in this period survive. The desk is
distinctive for a few reasons. The upper portion of the pulpit desk is removable
and was designed so that it could be detached and carried as a small speaker’s
podium. The sides of the pulpit desk are patterned with symmetrical lines, an unusual
pattern for furniture made in the 17th century. The feet of the desk
are carved to resemble deer hooves, another distinctive feature on wooden
furniture from this period. Because few pieces of furniture made and designed by
native people exist from the early years of European settlement a desk like
this one is an interesting example of Native American craftsmanship and aesthetic.
Daniel Takawampbait, the previous owner of this desk is a
fascinating figure from Natick’s past. Daniel Takawampbait was a Native American from the Nipmuc tribe who
converted to Christianity and initially moved to a praying Indian village near
Natick. Following the King Philip’s War in 1675, Takawampbait, like many ‘praying
Indians’ was displaced from his community. Many of these displaced Christian Native
Americans moved to Natick, where the Christian Indian community was able to
mostly survive the bloody conflict which had displaced them. Takawampbait
became integrated into the community and became an important leader in Natick.
In 1681 he was ordained as a minister, the first Native American to become a puritan
minister in North America. He took over the pulpit as leader of the
congregation in South Natick after John Eliot passed away in 1690. Daniel Takawampbait
remained minster in Natick for twenty six years, until his death in 1716.
During his tenure as minister Takawampbait preserved a number of elements of
native culture and language despite the growing incursion of English settlers.
He was buried in South Natick and his headstone still stands, though it was
moved in the 1980s to be in front of the Eliot Church of South Natick.
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| Daniel Takawampbait's Headstone |
The desk was later used by Natick ministers Stephen Badger
and Oliver Peabody. Today the desk is owned by the First Congregational Church,
the spiritual successor to Eliot’s original meetinghouse, who have been kind
enough to loan it to us so that it can be displayed and studied here in the
museum.
