Gray Lock

Born near what is now Westfield, Massachusetts, he eventually became the most illustrious and prominent leader to arise among the dwindling Waranoak, once the predominant original inhabitants of the central Connecticut River Valley in today's New England region.

Chief Gray Lock rose to prominence during this period, marshaling and organizing Native resistance based in Otter Creek and, further to the northwest, on the Missisquoi near today's Swanton, both in what is now Vermont.

Gray Lock rapidly distinguished himself as the pre-eminent Abenaki military leader, conducting frequent and successful guerrilla raids in areas of what are now southern Vermont and western Massachusetts.

With additional settler troops being raised and deployed as a result, early in 1724, by Massachusetts Bay Colony decree, a blockhouse known as Fort Dummer was erected by the colonists on the west bank of the Connecticut about ten miles north of Northfield, immediately south of today's Brattleboro, Vermont, to help guard against future attacks.

[2] The last of these settler parties withdrew from the field in March and April 1725, whereupon Gray Lock's contingent left their winter quarters, again throwing the settlements into a state of alarm.