Ponkapoag Plantation Site Post Card

The Massachusetts Indians who had settled near the mouth of the Neponset River were known as the Neponset Indians; and Chicataubut, their sachem, was styled the “Sagamore of the Neponsetts.” It was here in a grove now known as Vose's Grove that John Eliot, on the 14th of September, 1646 , first preached the gospel to the Indians in the wigwam of Kitchamakin, the successor of Chicataubut. Eliot continued to take a deep interest in their welfare; and it was owing to his advice that when for a trifling considera­tion they sold their lands at Neponset, they decided to remove to Ponkapoag. The aboriginal name of the territory lying beyond the Blue Hills, known to the inhabitants as the “New Grant,” was Ponkapoag. The territory derived its name from the pond, which formed one of the principal features in the landscape. Ponkapoag is now contained almost entirely by the town of Canton, Massachusetts. Ponkapoag means "shallow pond" or "a spring that bubbles from red soil".