Private Jonas Obscow*

https://boston1775.blogspot.com/2020/03/jonas-obscow-natick-indian-and.html

https://allthingsliberty.com/2015/02/indian-patriots-from-eastern-massachusetts-six-perspectives/

Private Jonas Obscow (1739-1805) was of Indigenous heritage. He was born in Natick and married Mary Speen in 1764. They had several children together. He enlisted in May of 1775 and served under Captain Joseph Morse Company in Colonel John Patterdson’s regiment. His name appears on an order for a bounty coat or its equivalent dated November 21, 1775. His name is memorialized on a tablet at the Indian Burial Ground on Pond Street in Natick.

Note: More often than not, service, vital, and/or other historical records were created and kept by men of English and European backgrounds. They employed a wide range of descriptive terms, such as "mulatto," negro," and "dark complexion." These terms cannot fully capture any soldier's identity, but they do offer clues. In some cases, the surname of a soldier of color connects him to a Natick family that is well documented. Often, these soldiers are Indigenous men. The biographies in this project make it possible to say more not only about a soldier's identity or background, but also about the life he led in Natick and beyond.