The first interactions between the colonists and the Pawtucket group occurred through trade and religious conversion. During the 1640s, Major Simon Willard traded extensively with the tribes, and in 1647 was accompanied in his expedition by the noted preacher John Eliot. Eliot returned a year later, and quickly founded a church there with a native convert named Samuel as the pastor. A dedicated church building was built in 1653, remaining until 1824, when it was demolished. Colonists began to move closer to the native tribes with the founding of Chelmsford in 1653. Subsequent grants of land extended the town to cover most of the territory Lowell now occupies, with the exception of 500 acres of farmland reserved for the Pawtucket. The colonists began actively buying land from the Pawtucket, trading those 500 acres for the island of Wickassee above the Pawtucket Falls, and the hysteria generated by King Philip's War weakened both the tribe and its relations with the colonists.