George L. Wright (1856-1945), Boylston's first historian, recorded the following account of an early settler family. The Rocky Pond Grant was made in 1677 and the first settler was Thomas Eames:

"The Eames family consisted of Mr. Eames, his wife and 10 children. Their house stood alone, with the nearest family living a mile away. Having gone to Boston for a guard of soldiers and supply of ammunition when a party of 11 indians, led by Netus, suddenly assaulted the family, burned the house and barn and destroyed the cattle. They killed Eames and five children and carried away five other children with whatever plunder they needed."

The tradition, which has descended in the Eames family, was related to the author (Wright) of this history by Mrs. Clara Eames March, formally the principal of Boylston Consolidation School, and who is a descendant of the Eames family, is that Mrs. Eames often declared that, if attacked by indians, she would not be taken alive. It follows that, upon this occasion, she bravely defended her household, throwing scalding hot soap, which she was boiling, upon the savages and, also, other weapons she could lay her hands upon.

According to the confession from some of the Indians who were apprehended, six of them were residents in the vicinity and had returned for some corn, which they had left in one of their granaries and which they had found had been destroyed.

Enraged at this discovery and driven by hunger, they made an attack on the nearest home of the white settlers. The captive children were taken by the indians to the vicinity of the Wachusett Mountain, then westward and into New York State.

Three of the children escaped from the Indians and returned home after some months. Of the others, one was redeemed and one never returned.

Fred Brown is the curator of the Boylston Historical Society and Museum, which is located at 7 Central St.