From the Archives: The Wedding of Daniel Congdon "Chief White Oak That Bends" and Mary "Red Wing" Peek

Belonging(s): “A close relationship among a group and personal or public effects”

“Asco wequassinummis, neetompooag” (Hello my friends)!

Hello! Welcome back to another installment of the From the Archives series where Collections and Archive Manager Anthony Belz shares some of the more interesting materials in the Tomaquag Museum archival collections. In this installment, we will be looking back at the wedding of Daniel Congdon “Chief White Oak That Bends” and Mary Ella “Red Wing” Peek Congdon on November 17, 1936.

Daniel Francis Congdon, Sagamore, “Chief White Oak That Bends” (1888-1959) was born in Plainfield, Connecticut to James Francis Congdon, (Mohegan and Pequot) and an unknown mother, who died when he was just 3 months old. He was raised by his Aunt and grew up in Plainfield and graduating from Norwich Free Academy in Norwich, Connecticut. In 1909, when he was 21 years old, he married and was the father of two children, Uncas and Louise Congdon. in 1928, when he was 40 years old, he was widowed and raised his two children by himself.

Mary Ella “Red Wing” Peek (1896-1987) born in Sprague, Connecticut to Walter Glasgo and Hannah Weeden. Red Wing was of Narragansett, Pequot and Wampanoag descent and grew up in Harrisville, Rhode Island. Like Chief White Oak that Bends, Red Wing was widowed when she was 31 years old, in 1927, and was left to raise her two toddler children, Susan and Walter Peek. They met at a gathering of people at the Narragansett Indian Church in Charlestown, and must have made an immediate connection, due to the fact they were both widowed with two young children at an early age and were both significant culture bearers of their respective tribes.

When they were married on November 17, 1936 at the Narragansett Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island, in the Indian Room, it created much publicity, resulting in multiple newspapers covering the event due to the fact they were being married in the “historical ritual of the Narragansetts,” by Chief Pine Tree.