1/19/2019 Sarah Skinner, Getting Used to DarknessThe Society recently was given an 1834 letter that had been sold as a postage collector’s item, a “cover” that pre-dated the use of stamps. Folded, it was addressed to Abraham Skinner, Esq. of Brookfield, Massachusetts. Inside, the letter was preserved: Acton Feb. 8, 1834, Mr. Skinner, I have neglected, longer than I intended to do, to inform you of your mother’s health. She is pretty comfortable this winter, would be very, were it not for the continued pain in her eyes. She has not had the least perception of light for several months. Her situation is in many respects less uncomfortable since she has become more accustomed to perfect darkness. She grows familiar with the house, and walks with much less confusion, is some part of the time, able to busy herself with knitting, which she considers quite a privilege. She wishes to be affectionately remembered to you. I am much oblidged to you for the papers, which you had the goodness to send me. Respectfully yr Cousin, M. Faulkner One cannnot help being touched by the letter and feeling admiration for Mrs. Skinner who, while dealing with pain and disruption, felt privileged to be able to knit. We set out to learn more about Mrs. Skinner, her son Abraham, and the writer of the letter.
Mrs. Skinner and Her Family Abraham Skinner, Esq. of Brookfield, Mass. was born in Acton on July 25, 1789 to Dr. Abraham and Sarah (Faulkner) Skinner. According to Phalen’s History of the town of Acton (page 98), the father, Dr. Abraham Skinner, was Acton’s third physician. He had come from Woodstock, CT, for reasons we have not yet been able to discover, and started his Acton practice in 1781. He married Sarah Faulkner in March 1788. Sarah (or Sally) Faulkner was the daughter of Francis Faulkner and Rebecca Keyes whose large family lived in the landmark Faulkner House in South Acton. Francis was prominent in Acton. He ran the Faulkner mills, represented the people in the Provincial Congress of 1774 and the Committee of Safety, attained the rank of Lt. Colonel in the Revolutionary War, and served the town in numerous roles, including a 35-year stint as town clerk. According to Shattuck’s history of Concord and surrounding towns (pages 292-293), Francis and Rebecca Faulkner had eleven children. (We were able to confirm ten of the births through Acton vital records; one is harder to pin down.) Sarah was the third child. Dr. Abraham and Sarah Skinner had four children, Abraham (born 1789), Henry (born 1792), Maria (born 1794), and Francis (born 1797). Fletcher’s Acton in History gives two different identities for Dr. Abraham’s wife, an odd mistake given that Fletcher seems to have known Henry’s aged widow. Perhaps the doctor was married earlier elsewhere, but we found no record of it. All Acton records show that the wife and mother of Dr. Abraham’s family was Sarah Faulkner. We did not find any documentary evidence of Sarah’s life while she was raising her children during the 1790s and earliest years of the 1800s. Her husband does show up in local records. He received payments periodically for “doctering” the town’s poor, and in September 1792, the town voted upon temporarily opening a quarantine “house” for inoculating residents against smallpox under the direction of Dr. Skinner, provided that it could be done ”with Safty” for the townspeople. Dr. Abraham Skinner was apparently one of the contributors to the cost of a winning ticket from the Harvard College lottery in 1794. His share of the prize money has been said to have gone into building or improving a house for the Skinners’ growing family at what is now 140 Nagog Hill Road. Land records show that Abraham paid David Barnard on Sept. 5, 1786 for a 60 acre farm and the east half of the existing house on the property, plus a half interest in the barn, garden, yard, wells, and a “cyder mill” behind the house. On Sept 27, 1788, Dr. Skinner paid Reuben Brown for 18 acres of land and the other half of the house, barn and barnyard. Specifically excluded from the sale was a school house standing on the premises. Dr. Abraham Skinner became a charter member of Concord’s Corinthian Masonic Lodge in 1797 along with Sarah’s brother Winthrop Faulkner. [See Surette’s history of the Lodge.] Abraham was appointed to Acton’s school committee in 1799 and 1809 and to the large committee formed in 1805 to deal with the contentious issue of where to locate the new meeting house. He died in 1810. Records of the time did not mention the cause. Dr. Abraham’s estate inventory gives us an idea of the life of the household. The home farm was valued at $2,500, and there were fifteen additional acres of pasture land in Littleton and a pew in the Acton meeting house. The Skinners owned clothing, furniture, (a variety of beds, tables, chairs, and a bookcase), bedding and table linens, a woolen carpet, several looking glasses, a day clock worth about $30, spinning wheels, dishes, utensils, towels, table cloths, tools, chaises, a sleigh, a horse, harnesses, a saddle, cows, sheep, a cart and a plow. There is little evidence of a medical practice, not surprising given the state of medicine at the time. Dr Skinner did own a medical library. In addition, there were numerous debts to Dr. Skinner from townspeople. The estate was originally administered by Sarah’s brother Winthrop, but Henry took over by September 1814. Sarah Skinner was listed as the head of household in the 1810 census with two males between 10 and 25, one female between 16 and 25, and one other “free white person”. In May, 1811, children Henry and Maria (minors above the age of fourteen) petitioned the probate court to allow “Widow Sarah Skinner” to be their guardian. Son Francis made the same petition in April, 1812. Son Abraham had already left his parents’ household by 1810. According to Fletcher’s History (Biographical Sketches, page 1), Sarah’s sons Henry and Francis helped to run the farm for a while. Henry appears in Acton militia lists in the 1810-15 period, and Francis appears in 1815. In Feb. 1816, the town paid Henry Skinner for boarding John Faulkner for 8 weeks. During that year, Francis left to work in Boston. Henry eventually moved to Andover and opened a store there. No Skinner is listed as head of household in the 1820 Acton census, so we have to assume that Sarah was living with relatives by then. The actual sale of the Skinner farm to Charles Tuttle was not completed until 1827. Acton’s history books made no more mention of Sarah (Faulkner) Skinner. Skinner Voices, from Indiana Because Sarah Skinner disappears from Acton’s history books in the 1810s, the letter describing her later life is a wonderful addition to our Society’s archives. However, it turns out that ours was not the only letter from the Skinner family that survived. The University of Notre Dame Special Collections’ Manuscripts of Early National And Antebellum America contains a collection of letters to and from Abraham Skinner of Brookfield. A few of the letters were written by his mother Sarah. Given how seldom women's thoughts and actions were recorded in our histories, finding this collection was a wonderful surprise. Sarah's letters start in about 1806 and continue after she lost her husband. Sarah mentioned some news of family members, but what stands out most from her letters is how much she missed her son and wanted him to write and to visit more often. Her letters are a reminder of how difficult separation was for families of the time and how completely cut-off they must have felt when letters failed to arrive, sometimes for very long periods. We also learned from the Skinner correspondence that Henry was in Brookfield for a while in 1811 but then returned to Acton by early 1812. His letters show that he was trying to find work in a store in either location, clearly ready to move on from the farm. The Skinner collection also includes a March 1817 letter from daughter Maria Skinner, the only record that we have seen of her beyond the mention of her birth and death in Acton's vital records. Maria echoed her mother's yearning to hear from the men of the family, including Francis who had not been in Acton since the summer before. Maria, left at home, was feeling "allmost forsaken." She also mentioned that Sarah had provided lodging for "Mr. Potter" followed by another family, so we now know that Sarah had others in her household during the years after losing her husband. Who wrote the 1834 letter about Sarah Skinner? After researching Sarah's life, our next question was who, exactly, wrote the letter donated to our Society. “M. Faulkner” signed the letter to Sarah’s son Abraham as “yr Cousin.” On the reverse of the letter, in a very different hand, there is a notation: “Mary Faulkners Letter Feby 8, 1834”. Allowing for the possibility that the term “cousin” might have been used somewhat loosely, we could still narrow down the potential writers. We searched Acton’s Vital Records for “M” Faulkner births. Of the six births we found, five were Marys. Omitting details of our research here, we concluded that the most likely candidate was Mary, born Sept. 11, 1801 to Winthrop (Sarah’s brother) and Mary (Wright) Faulkner. This Mary actually would have been Abraham Skinner, Esq.’s first cousin. She lived to 1871 and never married, so she still would have had her Faulkner surname in 1834. We thought that our research would stop there, but our theory received a boost from a rich source that we did not expect to find. Sarah Skinner, a Woman of Note Researching Acton in the early years of the nineteenth century is made more difficult by a lack of available newspapers and very few surviving letters and diaries. However, sometimes one gets lucky. Not only did we come across the Skinner Family Correspondence at Notre Dame, but we found Sarah mentioned in two Boston newspapers after she died in 1846. Her death was briefly noted in Boston’s Emancipator and Republican (March 25, 1846), and the Boston Recorder (March 26, 1846) published a memorial tribute. Signed “W,” it was dated Acton, Mass., March 19th, 1846 and included a request that it be reprinted in other religiously-oriented newspapers in the Northeast. The writer felt compelled to write about Mrs. Sarah Skinner, described as “always polite, well informed, kind, lovely,” interesting, unwavering in her faith, and happy. When younger, she had liked to read, but having suffered greatly during the "complete destruction of her eyes," at the end of her life she was “stone blind.” Her hearing, fortunately, continued to be acute. She still enjoyed conversing, and her interest in life and her friends was undiminished. As we surmised from the 1834 letter, she did not complain about her life but found much to be grateful for. “Her only daughter was long since dead, but she had left grandsons, able loving and true; and she had a pious unmarried niece, who was altogether a daughter unto her, to the last.” The cousin of Abraham Skinner who wrote our letter, Mary Faulkner, was presumably this unmarried niece, daughter of Sarah’s brother Winthrop. We thought, when we started this research, that Sarah (Faulkner) Skinner had been neglected by history. We were delighted to discover that it was possible to learn something about her, a woman clearly remarkable for her fortitude. We also know from her own letters that she was human, sometimes lonely and sometimes anxious about her absent children. Many of Acton’s stories have been lost, but we are grateful to have found this one. As we begin the new year, we take this opportunity to express appreciation for people who donate items to archives and for organizations that work to preserve and share them so that others can learn about the past. In the context of Sarah Skinner’s story, we especially would like to thank the University of Notre Dame’s Rare Books and Special Collections for their assistance with our research. In discussions of notable citizens in a town’s history, women, whose roles in the community were usually less publicized, are often overlooked. Researching Acton women who stood out despite their limited opportunities led us to Clara (Hapgood) Nash, the first woman admitted to the bar in New England. Clara (born Clarissa) Hosmer Hapgood was the fifth child of John Hapgood and Mary Ann Hosmer, both Acton natives who lived for a time in Fitchburg where Clara was born on January 15, 1839. The young family returned to Acton in 1846. Clara and her surviving siblings David, Henry, Ephraim and Luke grew up on John’s farm on Central Street with many cousins living nearby. Clara attended Acton public schools and later studied at college-preparatory Peirce Academy in Middleboro. Clara started teaching in the Acton schools in the spring term of 1862. In the fall of that year, Clara’s brother Henry left with Acton’s Company E, Sixth Regiment to serve the Union cause. The Society is extremely fortunate to have been given letters between Henry and his family, including Clara. From them, we learn something about her life and personality. She was a busy young woman. She wrote to Henry about her school, her class of 49 students (or more), and the pressure of end-of-term oral examinations that were open to the public. In addition to teaching, she supported the temperance cause and became editor of the pro-temperance publication “The Crystal Font.” In her free time, she attended lectures and at least one teachers’ conference and visited with friends and family. The letters show that Clara’s family was close-knit and caring. Clara wrote to Henry about their parting (September 27, 1862): “Do you remember our last meeting at the school house? Well when I went back into school I had a little cry and before I got over it in came Mr. Norten to visit the school and soon after I called the school to order some one rapped and who should appear at the door but Mr. Richardson [the superintendent]. .... So you see I had to muster all the dignity I was capable of notwithstanding my sadness.” Clara also wrote about having to teach her school after a cousin brought her a letter from Henry in September 1862. She was impatient to read his letter, because “we are so anxious constantly.” Later letters mention sending foodstuff and supplies to Henry, with Clara reminiscing about her own pleasure in receiving items from home when she was studying in Middleboro (October 30, 1862). Clara taught in the West Acton school, teaching the higher department in the 1862 spring and fall terms (that evidently included her younger brothers) and the primary department in the winter. She was paid $18 per month (School Report 1862-1863, page 33). As was customary at the time, male scholars were brought in to teach in the winter term when “big boys,” otherwise needed for farm work, joined the classes. Mr. W. E. Eaton took over the higher department at West Acton. Frederick C. Nash, from Tufts College, taught the higher department of the South Acton School for two winter terms (1861-1862 and 1862-1863). The winter-term men were paid $40 monthly. Pay inequality was rampant at the time, but the men were also paid a premium for handling what was considered a harder assignment. Clara and Frederick C. Nash met and obviously found that they had common interests. Her brother Luke commented in a letter (December 21, 1862): “Henry who do you suppose is in the parlor? I will tell you it is Mr. F. C. Nash teacher of So. Acton School. He was here last Sunday night and several other nights has been home with Clara from the Lyceum & Sons of Temperance she went with him to Concord last Wednesday night to hear H. W. Beecher, Lecture before the Lyceum.... dont tell Clara that I told about Mr Nash for if you do perhaps I would get an old fashioned Scotch blessing [a tongue lashing].” Clara’s teaching was reported on favorably in the 1862-1863 report (page 27). Her students did well in their final examinations, despite the fact, (disappointing to Clara), that in the winter term, some of her “best” pupils had the mumps at the time of the examination (Letter from David Hapgood, March 8, 1863). Clara taught the West Acton higher department again in the spring and fall of 1863. The fall term of 1863 must have been extremely difficult for the family; Henry was home from war in a very debilitated state. He wrote to his cousin Delette Hall in September 1863 that it was doubtful that he would recover, despite the best efforts of “Mother and a kind physician.” Clara’s health weakened as well. In the 1863-64 town report, George C. Wright of the local school committee wrote that: “Miss Hapgood commenced her labors with her accustomed zeal, and had it not been for her failing health, owing to too much care and anxiety on account of sickness at home, would have merited that approbation which she has always won.... We hope, after a rest to recruit mind and body, Miss Hapgood will again engage in the work of teaching, for which she is well fitted.” (page 30) Henry, unfortunately, did not survive his illness. One can only imagine how hard it was for the family. Eventually, Clara regained her health. Her father mentioned in an April 1864 letter that she was at school in New Ipswich, NH (apparently Appleton Academy). She was called to teach the upper department of the South Acton school in the winter of 1865-66. The school committee’s comment after that term was that “the school had flourished under her management.” (page 11) According to various biographical sketches (for example Who’s Who in New England, Vol. 1, 1909, page 679), Clara attended the State Normal School at Framingham, graduating from the advanced class, and later taught in high schools in Marlborough and Danvers. So far, Clara seemed like a typical woman of her time. Obviously intelligent, she followed the path available to her, going to a teacher’s college and teaching in local schools. She married Frederick Nash on January 1, 1869 in Acton. They moved to Columbia Falls, Maine where Frederick had grown up and established a law practice. For most women of Clara’s time, marriage would have been the end of her career. However, in Columbia Falls, Clara studied law in the office of her husband. (Law training was typically done with a practicing lawyer.) Starting in January, 1871, newspapers started reporting that Mrs. Clara Nash had become a justice of the peace after completing her law studies in her husband’s office. (At some point over the next few months, someone mistakenly changed her location to Columbia, NH, and that “news” spread across the country.) In 1872, Clara was examined by a committee in Machias, Maine. They unanimously agreed that she was qualified and formally admitted her to the Bar of the Supreme Judicial Court in Maine in October 1872, giving her full standing in the legal profession, a first for New England. Clara’s feat was widely reported in newspapers throughout the country. Clara and Frederick became partners in a law practice, first in Columbia Falls, then in Portland. According to the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier (1 November 1873), Clara made a stir by actually appearing in court in the case of John D. Allen v. Town of Jonesboro, presenting legal arguments with references from previous legal decisions and examining witnesses. Son Frederick was born in Portland, Maine on January 3, 1874. We do not have much specific information about Clara during the early years of his life, but she apparently juggled motherhood and legal work. She was listed as an attorney at law in the 1879 Portland, Maine directory with the firm of F. C. & C. H. Nash at 119 ½ Exchange. Surprisingly, the 1880 census reported that on June 9, Frederick and Clara Nash, both listed as lawyers, were with son Fred in Minneapolis. So far, we do not know why they were in the Midwest on that date. Shortly thereafter, the Nash family returned to Acton, taking up residence in the Hapgood farmhouse (at today’s address 149 Central Street). Frederick established a law practice in Boston and also was available for consultation at home in the evening and at South Acton before taking the train to the city. He also served as Acton’s Superintendent of Schools in the 1880s and was involved in other town matters including the formation of West Acton's Citizens' Library. Clara may have helped Frederick privately with his legal business, but she did not formally practice law in Massachusetts. (Her home state had not yet admitted a woman to the bar at the time the Nash family returned.) Clara used her energies in other ways and quickly found her place back in the community. She served as the first librarian of the Citizens’ Library in West Acton (for about two years starting in 1883, apparently without pay). Clara was also a temperance supporter as her family had been for many years. A copy of a broadside sent to the Historical Society shows that in 1885, she was the Secretary of the Middlesex North-West Temperance Union. She was very active in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, (a group that coalesced over the issue of temperance and became a leading organization in the struggle for women’s and children’s rights). Clara served as the local Union’s president for 24 years and eventually was honored with a life membership in appreciation of her years of service. Clara was also noted as a poet. The poems contained bits of family and local history that we might otherwise have missed. Her style was of her time, but the emotions underlying her poems were universal. Clara put her feelings about parting with her soldier brother Henry into a poem that was later published as “Sister I Must Go.” “Song in Death” was written about the way he dealt with his final sickness. Many of her poems were written for the birthdays, anniversaries and funerals of family members and friends. At the dedication of Acton’s Memorial Library, Clara read a poem about Acton’s history that she had written for the occasion. Some of Clara’s poems were published in the Magazine of Poetry and Literary Review in 1894, and in 1909, a collection of her poetry was published as Verses by Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, MA). In 1917, her poem “Mother” was set to the music of E. S. Hosmer and turned into a four-part song.
Sometime around early 1915, Frederick and Clara moved from the old Hapgood farmhouse in Acton. In 1920, Frederick and Clara were living at 10 Oak Terrace in Newton. On February 18, 1921, Frederick C. Nash passed away. Clara followed him on March 5. They had both recently turned 82 years old and spent over fifty years together. They were buried in Mount Hope Cemetery with Clara’s parents and most of her siblings, not far from the home in which she was raised and where she and Frederick spent years of their adult lives. One of Clara’s poems was entitled “Woman’s Work,” the theme of which was women’s evolving and expanding roles, from women mentioned in the Bible to pioneers whom Clara clearly admired. Clara wrote (in part): She (Caroline Herschel, astronomer) solves the problem of the stars, And woman’s narrow bound unbars. By constant care and skill Through prejudicial woes, By woman’s strong, undaunted will The woman’s college rose. ... A voice breaks like a spell, To woman it rings clear: “Do what you can and do it well! Through out the so-called ‘sphere.’” ... Thus women stand to-day In pulpit, at the bar, In medicine with tender sway, Their influence widening far ... Clara wound up the poem by writing of women’s roles as caregivers from the birth of their children to the end of the lives of their loved-ones. She concluded with a call to women: Heaven’s high behest to heed, With ready sympathy to see Humanity’s sore need. And, seeing, haste to give redress, To right its wrongs, to cheer and bless. We would love to find out more about Clara (Hapgood) Nash and her family. If you know of any sources of information, documents, or photographs, we would be delighted to learn more. We are also looking for a full copy of E. S. Hosmer’s song “Mother” from 1917. Please contact us if you can help. Our previous blog post discussed finding a forgotten location by consulting our copy of the Scarlett map of Acton. (The original was drawn in a notebook owned by the Acton Memorial Library.) Scarlett’s work was so careful and useful, we wanted to know more about him. At first, we were confused about why D. Henry Scarlett, who seemed to have lived in Tewksbury, MA for most of his life, became interested in Acton and knowledgeable about its history. It turns out that his Acton connections were more extensive and long-lasting than we had expected. Daniel Henry Scarlett was born in Bedford, MA on March 23, 1884 where his father was superintendent of the town farm. His parents were Henry C. Scarlett who grew up in West Boylston, MA and Mary S. Mace who grew up in Tewksbury. From Daniel Henry’s notebook, we learned that the family lived in Acton about 1887-1892. Acton town reports confirm that his father and mother were running Acton’s town farm during those years. The family then moved to Tewksbury where father Henry was known as a successful farmer. Though his parents’ marriage had publicized problems, Daniel Henry was listed as living with both parents in the 1900 census. In 1905, his father Henry, divorced, married Hattie (Norton). In the 1910 census, Daniel Henry was living with his father, stepmother, new siblings William and Carrie, and his father’s new mother- and sister-in-law. Daniel Henry worked for the Boston and Maine Railroad as a crossing tender at Tewksbury/Baldwin Station near the Tewksbury State Infirmary. He was a “flagman,” at his signaling post evidently every day of the week, a job he began around 1908 and continued until 1926. His father Henry died in 1929. In the 1930 census, stepmother Hattie, siblings, and “D. Henry” were listed as living together. D. Henry was then a gardener at the State Infirmary. "Very Ingenious Fellow" Tracing D. Henry Scarlett’s life only through vital records and censuses, one would not realize how many interests and talents he had. D. Henry Scarlett was an amateur astronomer. He had no formal training, but he used his earnings from the railroad to buy telescopes. He told a reporter that “I am almost as familiar with the stars as with the streets of Lowell, and I dearly love to study them. I haven’t any observatory, but I hope to have one some day.” Lowell Sun (Nov. 11, 1915 p. 6) During 1911-1912, he observed Mars through a five-inch telescope set up on his father’s land. His observations and drawings were published in Popular Astronomy (1914, vol. 22). His patience and attention to detail were quite obvious. Professor A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard described his work as “wonderful”; Scarlett had shown that an amateur with a relatively low-powered telescope could observe much more than astronomers had believed possible. Scarlett said in the Nov. 1915 Lowell Sun interview that one had to make one’s observations when the atmosphere was right; he had been known to be out all night, even enduring sub-zero temperatures in order to get his observations. D. Henry Scarlett received recognition for his work. He was made an honorary member of the Astronomical Society of France. High school classes came from Lowell to look through his telescope. According to a later interview, when World War 1 came, he thought he would be called up, so he donated his telescope to Harvard. He registered for the draft but evidently was not called. He continued to save his railroad earnings, hoping to build his own observatory. He bought a piece of land in the Wamesit part of Tewksbury across from the post office (evidently at 283 Main Street). A 3-ton, level base was installed on the property and drilled with bolt holes to hold down a telescope. Scarlett built a small home and a protective structure that was placed on two railroad tracks so that it could be moved out of the way when the telescope was in use. In 1928, his dream came to fruition and he obtained a 12-inch reflector telescope. Over the next few years, his observatory was visited by many teachers and students. (Lowell Sun, Dec. 19, 1931, p. 14) Astronomy was only one of Scarlett’s interests. He was an avid collector, taking a particular interest in geology, botany, and history. A 1931 article (Lowell Sun, Dec. 19, p. 14) said that the stone wall and brick walk that Scarlett had built outside his observatory were made of items of either scientific or historical interest. One of the stones was taken from the cellar wall of Acton’s first house. To our surprise, the paper mentioned that the centerpiece of his garden “which attracts the attention of passers-by is a clever piece of workmanship, begun by Mr. Scarlett when he was 16 years of age and completed recently. It is an exact replica in miniature of the Acton memorial." Under that, he placed soil from the graves of Capt. Isaac Davis the other Acton men killed on April 19, 1775 (presumably taken from Acton’s Common). It turns out that the display was actually an evolution of Scarlett’s work as a teenager that merited mention in the Boston Daily Globe (Aug. 4, 1901, page 25). As a seventeen-year-old, D. Henry Scarlet had created a 75x100 foot miniature village representing Acton on his parent’s farm at 1018 Livingston Street in Tewksbury. It contained a 14-foot model of the Acton monument, a replica of the Congregational church, a railway, trains, cemeteries, the town farm, and a number of houses, buildings, and streets. He kept a guest log to record his many visitors. His father was interviewed for the article; at the time, he sounded a bit dubious about the extent of his son’s absorption in the project and suggested that his talents might be better developed away from the farm. D. Henry Scarlett later worked for the railroad. His flag man’s shanty was described by a newspaper reporter as revealing “neatness personified,” made more habitable by cupboards and chairs that Scarlett had made. (Lowell Sun, Nov. 11, 1915, p6). He probably had time between trains to attend to his hobbies, or perhaps he indulged his creativity after work. His woodworking also included custom-designed items made of pieces of historically significant wood. One of his ornamental cups was described as “made from wood taken from the home of Capt. Davis in which [Scarlett] set small pieces of wood, all splendidly matched, from the homes of every one of the soldiers in Capt. Davis’ company.” (Lowell Sun Dec 19, 1931, p. 14). He had been working with "historic" wood for many years by that point, apparently having been inspired by similar work done by members of the Bunker Hill Historical Association, especially Reuben Law Reed. (The Society has one of Reed's creations.) In March, 1906, Henry Scarlett donated to the town of Acton an ornamental gavel, sounding block, powder horn, and case that he had created out of 188 pieces of wood, brick, stone, and other materials from historic properties. He included in the case a notebook describing the contents of his gift and then made at least one backup copy in which he described the significance of all of the pieces and added historical tidbits that he had learned from talking to Acton residents during visits to the town. (Jenks Library is fortunate to have a scan and a transcription.) The notebook also contained his Acton maps with notes about his sources, drawings of the sword of Captain Isaac Davis, and a record of his speech at the presentation of his gift at Town Meeting: “Perhaps you think it strange that a young man should take so much interest in this town... I lived in this town from the time I was three years old until I was eight; five years of the pleasantest days of my childhood. I commenced to attend church in that old meeting-house around the corner and began my education in that School-house a few steps down the street.... As I grew up, I decided that someday I would make Acton some kind of a present, as many others have already done.... as an object lesson to all who wish to look upon its contents, and examine the records concerning the same.” The five years of Henry’s early Acton residence included the dedication of the Acton Memorial Library when Acton’s citizens and former residents were contributing funds and items of historical significance to its collection. The 1890s were years in which pride in the town’s history was at a very high level; the enthusiasm must have had a large influence on the young boy. Only in his early twenties in 1906, Henry Scarlett had obviously spent a lot of time talking to Acton residents (whom he mentioned by name). His notes about the tiny relics used in his gift are filled with detailed memories that would otherwise have been lost. Back to Acton, and then West Around 1936, Henry Scarlett sold off his Tewksbury property and moved his home and observatory to land that once belonged to Captain Isaac Davis (across the street from the site where Davis’s house once stood). Evidently, Scarlett replicated the arrangement he had created in Tewksbury for sheltering his telescope. Jenks Library has pictures taken by Belle Choate of how his yard looked decades later; the base created for the telescope and remnants of the tracks used for moving its protective structure were still there. Construction was evidently done by November 11, 1936 when the Concord Enterprise reported that village boys had been guests at the Acton Astronomical Observatory of D. Henry Scarlett on Isaac Davis Way. The boys viewed rare items in the home and then looked at the moon through the telescope. In 1937, Daniel Henry Scarlett married Mrs. Helen (Arnot) Harris, a native of Ontario, daughter of David Arnot and Isabelle McElwaine. Scarlett was 52 and listed as retired. After having stayed in place for so many years, in retirement, D. Henry was free to travel. The couple took a “motor trip” through Canada in 1938, returned via Niagara Falls for short time, and then headed to Mexico, sailing out of New Orleans, and then to Southern California where Helen’s brother lived. On their trip to Mexico, they were accompanied by 21-year-old Alfred N. McDougall from West Acton. For all of D. Henry Scarlett’s affection for Acton, he did not stay long. In 1942, he sold his property and moved out west. By early 1944, the couple was living on Oracle Road in Tucson, Arizona. Both died in Tucson, Helen on May 20, 1946 and D. Henry on June 17, 1958. They were buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Tucson. Our lesson from researching Henry Scarlett is that even in this era when we can access so much online, archives and libraries hold treasures that are easy to miss. In this case, Henry Scarlett’s work was preserved at Acton’s Memorial Library and shared with our predecessors at the Society. We are lucky that Acton history was among Daniel Henry Scarlett’s many interests and that he took the time to record stories from older townspeople. As we discover so often, history unrecorded is history lost. Having just written in our previous blog post about how easily history can be forgotten, we discovered that the same can be said about other people’s historical research. At Jenks Library, we have several well-used maps including copies of Horace Tuttle’s 1890 map of old Acton houses and sites. But when our co-president mentioned unfamiliar Henry Scarlett maps, we had to pull our copies out of the drawer where they had been filed. It’s time for the Scarlett maps, quite literally, to see the light of day. In researching John Oliver, (c. 1750s-1840, Revolutionary War soldier), we used written records to determine who his neighbors were, but we were disappointed that we did not have an exact location for his farm. It does not appear on the Tuttle map. However, it turns out that this omission was corrected around 1906. Based on Acton residents’ memories, D. Henry Scarlett created his own map of Acton, meticulously adding features to Tuttle’s work. Where the Tuttle map had a blank space in North Acton between John Handley’s land and the railroad, Scarlett placed John Oliver’s farm. He also drew a “cart road” leading from what is now Great Road through John Handley’s property up to Oliver’s, as well as the Reed and Temple properties. Scarlett’s location for Oliver’s farm jibes with the written materials that we have. Given John Oliver’s location away from any roads, it makes sense that access would be needed. Town records show that in September, 1800 “the Selectmen proposed and laid out a bridle way to accomidate John Oliver by Said Olivers and John Handleys erecting gates on bars where it is necessary.” The approved right-of-way, a rod and a half wide, started east of John Handley’s house “near the old way where Said Olivers used formerly to pass” then went northwest through Handley’s property and common land to “John Olivers land near the Southeast corner of Said Olivers House.” Though the exact route of the “cart road” in Scarlett’s map may not be perfect, it seems close. The map shows a gate, an open field, and a route ending just southeast of Oliver’s house. An 1821 deed held by the Society also jibes with the location of Oliver’s property on the Scarlett map. The deed states that the wood lot being sold was bounded “southwesterly by John Oliver’s to a heap of stones in the swamp.” Scarlett’s map shows John Oliver’s location on a brook with wetland nearby; parts of his property undoubtedly were wet, at least seasonally. We are grateful to Henry Scarlett for answering our question about John Oliver’s farm. But seeing Scarlett's careful work made us curious about him. Research into his life story provided us with several surprises that will require a future blog post. Family researchers sometimes find pre-1850 US federal censuses to be frustratingly sparse, but they can yield useful discoveries. Perusing the 1840 census, we discovered that it listed Acton’s pensioners from the Revolutionary War. Among them we found John Oliver, age 92. Curious about him, as his name was not as familiar as the minute men of April 19, 1775, we traced him through existing federal censuses, military documents, and Acton town records. In the 1790 census, John Oliver’s household was listed in the “free white” column, with one male aged 16 or over, one male under 16, and five females. In 1800 and 1810, John Oliver’s household of five was listed in the column for other persons (i.e., not considered white, not slaves, and not “Indians not taxed”). The ages and gender of household members were not specified. In 1820, the household consisted of a free white male and female, both age 45 or older, with one person engaged in agriculture. In 1830, John Oliver’s household members were all listed as “free colored persons”; three males (one each in the age categories 10-23, 24-35, and 36-54), and seven females (two under 10, two between 10-23, three between 24-35, and one each between 36-54 and 55-99). (Oddly, this does not seem to include a male as old as John Oliver himself; there is not enough information to sort out whether it was a simple error or something else.) Finally, in 1840, John Oliver was listed as a 92-year-old military pensioner in a household of five “free white persons,” one male in his nineties, one female in her forties, and three children under the age of ten, two boys and a girl. Though official records were inconsistent in classifying John Oliver’s race, they were remarkably consistent with respect to his Revolutionary War service. It is very well-documented, partly because he lived long enough to be eligible for a military pension and partly because he served in several companies for which written evidence exists. His 1832 pension application contains the record of John Oliver’s testimony in open court about his Revolutionary War service as well as corroborating statements from those who knew him. John Oliver started his Revolutionary War service at the North Bridge in Concord as a member of Acton's militia. (The Old Colony Memorial, May 15, 1824, p. 1, quoting the Concord Gazette, stated that he was a survivor of the Concord Battle.) John Oliver said nothing in his pension statement about serving on April 19, 1775. That was not an unusual omission in pension applications where emphasis was often put on later Continental Army service, according to George Quintal, Jr., author of Patriots of Color at Battle Road and Bunker Hill. John Oliver did state that at the end of April 1775 he enlisted at Acton, was stationed in Cambridge at “the colleges,” participated in Battle of Bunker Hill, and was moved to Winter Hill, serving for a total of eight months. (Locations are shown at the top left of a 1775 map.) His officers were Colonel John “Nickerson” (Framingham, actually Nixon), Lt. Colonel Thomas “Nickerson” (Framingham), Captain William Smith (Lincoln), 1st Lt. John Hale of Acton (actually Heald, probably the court clerk’s error), and 2nd Lt. John Hartwell (Lincoln). This shows up in Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (MSSRW), a massive undertaking by the Secretary of the Commonwealth in the 1890s and early 1900s that pulled together extant written records to try to document military service. It corroborates John Oliver’s service in Captain William Smith’s Company, Col. John Nixon’s 5th regiment, with an enlistment date of April 24, 1775 (v. 11 p. 639). As he stated, he stayed after the original enlistment term of 3 months and 15 days had expired, as he showed up on a September 30, 1775 company roll. In John Oliver’s pension application, Solomon Smith of Acton, age 78, confirmed both John Oliver's membership in Capt. William Smith’s company and his eight months’ service. Smith mentioned officers Col. John “Nickson” of Framingham and 1st Lt. John Heald of Acton. Lt. Heald actually commanded the company at Bunker Hill, as Captain Smith was ill. John Oliver stated that he enlisted in February 1776 for two months and was stationed in Cambridge at “the colleges,” serving in the company of Captain Asa Wheeler (of Sudbury) in Col. “Roberson’s” Regiment. In the pension application, James Wright of Carlisle, age 78, confirmed Oliver’s Feb. 1776 service in that company. MSSRW (p.639) similarly shows that he served in Capt. Asahel Wheeler’s Company, Col. John Robinson’s regiment that marched Feb. 4 (year not given), service 1 month, 28 days. That service was precipitated by the need in early 1776 to strengthen the American position around the city. The culmination of that effort was the evacuation of the British from Boston on March 17, 1776. John Oliver next enlisted in Acton in September 1776, serving for two months and participating in the Battle of White Plains in Col. Eleazer Brooks’ Regiment, Capt. Simon Hunt’s company. Solomon Smith confirmed that 1776 service in his deposition, and MSSRW (p. 648) showed that John “Olliver” of Acton was with Captain Hunt at White Plains. It is clear that John Oliver was at the battle, but, not all sources agree on what Brooks’ regiment did at the battle. According to some, they were in the heavy fighting at Chatterton Hill in the White Plains battle on October 28, 1776. They had apparently been sent across the Bronx River to occupy the hill but did not have time to create more than the most quickly-formed defenses before the fighting began. Accounts vary, but it seems that the primary defensive structure for John Oliver’s unit was a stone wall and that the Americans did not have artillery support to match their opponents'. The fighting against both British and Hessian forces was brief but intense, and the Americans retreated. (Thomas Darby was also in Captain Hunt's company and was killed in the battle.) Town histories mentioned that the company fought bravely. John Oliver stated that around April 1778, he enlisted at Acton for three months, but “owing to circumstances he hired one [_ben?] Leighton to go as a substitute for him for the term of one month.” After the month, John Oliver went to Cambridge where Leighton was stationed and served until the expiration of the three-month term. His officers were Col. Jonathan Reed (Littleton), Capt. Harrington (Lexington) and 1st Lt. Elisha Jones (Lincoln). This was the only service for which John Oliver seems to have lacked corroboration in 1832. The pension application reported “the only evidence that he can obtain would be from one Ephraim Billings whose mind is very much broken he is unable to give his deposition upon that account.” (Ephraim Billings was the sergeant of that company.) MSSRW (v. 11, p.647) has an entry that John Olivers of Acton was on a list of men detached from Col. Brooks’ Regiment to relieve guards at Cambridge (“year not given probably 1778”) and was reported as belonging to a company commanded by Lt. Heald, Jr. of Acton. According to a muster roll dated May 9, 1778, Col. Jonathan Reed of Littleton was in command of a detachment in Cambridge. Capt. Daniel Harrington and 2nd Lt. Elisha Jones served under him there, so John Oliver may well have been transferred to their command in the spring of 1778. Finally, in 1780, John Oliver enlisted at Acton for six months’ service in and around West Point. He said that he served in Col. Brooks’ Regiment under Capt. White and Ensign Levi Parker (Westford). MSSRW (v. 11, p. 639) places him in Captain William Scott’s company, marching out July 22, 1780 and serving six months. Perhaps he was transferred; the Continental Army seems to have undergone various reorganizations over time. Several extant lists show John Oliver as a six-month volunteer in 1780. One list describes him as 23 years old, 5 feet, 6 inches tall, complexion dark, engaged for the town of Acton. He was present at Camp Totoway, Oct. 25, 1780. In the pension application, Charles Handly of Acton, age seventy, testified that Oliver enlisted into the continental service for six months in 1780 and first marched to West Point, from there to New Jersey, and then to West Point and then was discharged in Patterson’s Brigade. In May, 1782, the selectmen of Acton billed the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for wages paid to John “Olivers” for this service. (The town had neglected to include his wages on a previously-submitted pay roll.) In his pension record, John Oliver stated that he lived in Acton when he first enlisted and had lived in Acton since the war. Based on later records, he apparently had a young family during the war years, though their birth records are lacking. Acton’s records do show that in 1788, town meeting voted to abate his tax rates along with Peter Fletcher’s (no reason noted) and that in 1789, he was paid for working at Laws Bridge. In a less-than-appealing practice of earlier days, in 1790, the town of Acton “warned out” residents who had “lately” moved into town, a practice that was meant to assign responsibility for the poor to the towns from which they came. A fairly long list of people was warned out in 1790. Among those was John Oliver, “who is residing in Acton Labourer who has lately come into this town for the purpose of abiding therein not having obtained the Towns Consent" and therefore that he should "Depart the Limits thereof with his wife and their children.” Given his service in the Revolution, this seems to be an act of eye-opening ingratitude, but it was standard practice of the day. He was not the only veteran on the list or the only one who had been in town since before the Revolution. Duly warned about a lack of safety net, John Oliver continued to live in the Acton, apparently near the family of John Handley (who lived not far from Nagog Pond on the road to Littleton). In 1800, the selectmen laid out a “bridle way to accomidate John Oliver by said Olivers and John Handleys” that was accepted as a town “way” in May 1801. He was paid for “lowering a bridge with Stone near Mr. Jonathan Davis” in 1802. He showed up in town expenditures for 1813 - 1815 being compensated for supplying wood and taking care of people (apparently relatives) who were on the town’s needy list due to sickness or injury. Finally, in the 1830s, he was able to receive a pension for military service. He seems to have achieved old age in good health and outlived most of the Revolutionary War generation. John Oliver was reported to have been one of the survivors of the Concord battle who attended two celebratory dinners in 1835, the town of Acton's Centennial on July 21, 1835 and Concord's 200th anniversary celebration on September 12, 1835. (See the Columbian Centinel, August 12, 1835, page 1, the Norfolk Advertiser, August 15, 1835, page 1, and Fletcher's Acton in History, page 264, part of Hurd's History of Middlesex County.) John Oliver died in November, 1840. His probate record included a petition to the court that Francis Tuttle be made administrator of the estate. It was signed by “all the sons & daughters of Mr. John Oliver Late of Acton” and included three heirs: Abijah, Joel and Fatina [Fatima]. (Presumably there could have been other children who died earlier; Abigail Triator, daughter of John Oliver, died in Acton Oct. 13, 1819, for example. Without birth records or detailed census data, it is very difficult to put together the whole family.) John Oliver left behind a home farm with a house, barn and about 14 acres of land (appraised at $300), a cow, hay, lumber, corn, potatoes, pork, beef, beans, tools, some furniture, household goods, old books, a few pieces of furniture, and a note with interest. He also had debts to Ephraim and Joel Oliver (grandson and son, respectively) and Edward Tuttle. Abijah and Joel signed a petition to sell the real estate to pay off the debts because a partial sale of the land would “greatly injure” the farm. Both sons stayed in Acton, however, and can be found in later years’ federal and state censuses and local records. We would like to find out more about John Oliver’s life, both in Acton and before he arrived. The 1790 warning out notice does not mention where he originally came from, but his pension application says that he was born in Concord in 1759. We have not been able to corroborate that in Concord’s records. (A search only yielded a John Oliver born to Peter and Margaret in 1747. That date better matches his age of 83 given in his 1832 pension record, the age of 92 in the 1840 census, his marriage in 1768, and a supposed 1772 birth year for son Abijah. However, it obviously conflicts with the 1759 birth year given in the pension application and his age of 23 in the 1780 descriptive soldier list.) John Oliver’s wife Abigail died in 1813. Evidently, she was Abigail Richardson who married to John Oliver on September 21, 1768 at the “Stone Chapel” in Boston. Abigail was the daughter of Ezra Richardson and Love (Parke). Her identity was confirmed in her mother’s probate record. Her mother’s will left all of her goods to a young grand-niece (apparently Love’s namesake). Included in the probate file is a March 13, 1793 agreement between the executor of the estate and “John Oliver of Acton... husband to Abigail Oliver”, splitting the goods between the named heir and “the said Abigail Oliver Daughter of said Love Richardson.” (Middlesex County Probate #19042) John and Abigail’s children’s births were not recorded in Acton at the time. (Only Abijah appears in Acton births, but in a later volume and without parents’ names. That information seems to have been added to Acton's vital records in the 1800s when Abijah's children's births were recorded as a group.) John Oliver’s death is mentioned in the town’s vital records without details, though his probate file is an excellent source of information about his family and possessions as of 1840. The house on his farm presumably did not survive; his homestead was not marked on an 1890 map of Acton’s old houses and sites created by Horace Tuttle (although John’s sons’ homes were marked). John Oliver’s grave evidently was marked with a Sons of the Revolution marker in 1895. Unfortunately, its location is no longer remembered; no gravestone exists. It is likely that he was buried in Forest Cemetery as was his son Joel and his daughter-in-law Esther, but that is conjecture. History can easily be forgotten unless someone makes an effort to preserve it. From the mid-nineteenth century on, Acton’s local historians and native sons and daughters wanted to emphasize Acton’s importance in the Revolutionary struggle by remembering its “first at the bridge” role. One can’t blame them when reading Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 History of the Town of Concord (and Acton) in which he made the dismissive statements about the town of Acton that its history before the Revolution “contains no features worthy of particular notice” and afterwards “is of little general interest.” In reaction to such attitudes, more historical attention has been given to people who fought on April 19, 1775, and less notice has been given to others’ later war service. Acton provided many soldiers to the Revolutionary cause. Some of their identities, unfortunately, will never be known with certainty. Some, however, can be discovered. John Oliver’s service was extensive and his life in Acton long. He should be remembered. 11/11/2017 Jonathan Hosmer in BenningtonBefore we leave the subject of Jonathan Hosmers and their roles during the Revolutionary War, we have one more issue to clear up. The youngest Jonathan was remembered on his sister’s gravestone in Woodlawn Cemetery with the statement that he “died at Bennington in ye Servis of his Country In the 18th year of his age.” The easy assumption from the wording of the gravestone is that he was killed at the Battle of Bennington. That, however, could not have been what happened.
Jonathan Hosmer served in Captain George Minott’s company, Colonel Samuel Bullard’s regiment. (Our previous blog post discussed finding sources of information and the difficulty of distinguishing his service from his father’s.) Jonathan enlisted in Massachusetts on August 16, 1777, the day that the Battle of Bennington occurred. Jonathan’s service lasted until October 1, and his pay included 9 days’ travel home, so he clearly was not killed in the battle. One website lists Jonathan Hosmer as having been at Saratoga (apparently based on the fact that Bullard’s regiment went there after Vermont). Was that possible? To answer that question, we tried to learn more about Captain Minott’s 1777 company. It had been formed in response to an order from the Massachusetts legislature on August 9, 1777 that the towns needed to provide a sixth of their “Able-Bodied Men in the Training Band and Alarm List, now at home” to reinforce the Continental Army. The order stipulated that if men refused to serve, they would be forced to. In the following week, a number of men volunteered for a three-month tour of duty (either because they wanted to or they expected to be drafted). The towns filled the rest of their quota with draftees. Existing records give us no way to distinguish volunteers from draftees. Seventeen-year-old Jonathan Hosmer’s name was on the Acton draft list drawn up by Simon Hunt and among those who joined the company of Captain George Minot/Minott of Concord. Also in the company were Jonathan’s uncle Jonas Hosmer, two years his senior, and others from Acton, Concord, and surrounding towns. Captain Minott’s Company was part of Col. Samuel Bullard’s Regiment, also known as the Fifth Middlesex County Militia. A useful article by Edward A. Hoyt and Ronald F. Kingsley in Vermont History (2007, Volume 75, No. 2) described the activities of the Massachusetts three-month militia put under the command of General Benjamin Lincoln, (approximately 2,000 men in September, 1777, joined by about 500 soldiers from Vermont and New Hampshire). According to the article, the men gathered in Bennington, Vermont. Some were left on guard duty there while the rest of General Lincoln’s men were moved to Pawlet, Vermont around September 8. In mid-September, the men were divided up, and three groups of 500 were sent on expeditions to “divide and distract” General Burgoyne’s army by attacking the detachments left to guard the British supply line up to Canada. Because speed and surprise were necessary, the groups sent out were not complete regiments; experienced soldiers were mixed with the “inexperienced and less disciplined men.” Records do not seem to list exactly who went and who stayed behind, so we cannot tell whether Jonathan Hosmer went out with one of the expeditions or served on guard duty in Bennington or Pawlet. Most of the men moved on to join General Gates at Stillwater/Saratoga, some around September 22 and others after the expeditions returned to Pawlet at the end of September. Given the timing of his discharge and assuming he did indeed die in Bennington, Jonathan Hosmer probably would not have been among them, though it is possible that he was discharged elsewhere and was on his return trip when he died there. Jonathan Hosmer was discharged before others in the company; it is likely that he was released early due to illness but died before he could get home. Perhaps Jonas Hosmer, discharged a few days after Jonathan, carried home the news. One can imagine the impact on the family. (It is not surprising that Jonathan’s father, who would have known too well about the effect of war service on those left behind, was chosen later in the war to serve on a committee to provide for soldiers’ families.) There do not seem to be any extant records about Jonathan’s death and burial. Fortunately, his relatives made sure that he was remembered. In 1783, when the family lost Jonathan’s married sister Submit, her gravestone was inscribed with a memorial to Jonathan’s service and his death away from his home. There is no question that Jonathan Hosmer, builder of our 1760 Hosmer House, came from a family committed to the colonists’ side in the Revolutionary War. Jonathan’s brother Abner and his son Jonathan died while serving the cause. We thought it would be a simple matter to discover whether "builder" Jonathan also served. What we discovered instead was that over the past 240 years, writers’ assumptions have created a tangle of confused identities of three generations of Jonathan Hosmers. Trying to sort them out was daunting. The ProblemsAt least two major problems occur when trying to prove or disprove Revolutionary War service. Many records have been lost, assuming they ever existed. For example, three Acton companies went to Concord on April 19, 1775, but we do not have exact roster lists for any of them. Members of Captain Isaac Davis’ company have been identified based on his successor John Hayward’s “Lexington Alarm” muster roll, generally thought to be fairly complete, though still not perfect. Captain Joseph Robbins’ East Acton company was almost a complete mystery until the 1990s. His descendants found and donated to the Acton Historical Society papers that listed those who signed up to train with Captain Robbins in 1774 and a memo written at some point that listed those who served with him in the army in 1775-1776. (They, too, are probably not complete and do not specify those who were at the Bridge in Concord, but they certainly added enormously to what had been previously known.) Simon Hunt’s company of April 19, 1775 is still almost completely unidentified. Clearly, some Acton men’s service on that day (and later in the war) will never be known. In addition, and particularly relevant for this situation, the existing lists often consist only of names without identifying details. The common practice of naming sons for fathers (or grandfathers or uncles) makes it hard for modern researchers to distinguish among them. (See our blog post on John Swift, as one example.) The lists sometimes included “Junr” or “2nd”after a name, but the designation was inconsistent, even for the same man, and might change after the older generation died. To find out if builder Jonathan Hosmer served in the war, we first had to isolate what is known and documented. Starting with what we know: The Jonathans Three Jonathan Hosmers (that we know of) lived in Acton at the beginning of the American Revolution:
Indications of Jonathan Hosmer's Military ServiceA memorial notation on Submit (Hosmer) Barker’s gravestone in Woodlawn Cemetery says: “This in memory of Jonathan Hosmer Junr, Son of Mr Jonathan Hosmor & Mrs. Submit his wife, who died at Bennington in ye Servis of his Country In the 18th year of his age.” Submit Barker, who died in February, 1783, was Jonathan (3)’s sister. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the American Revolution, a compilation done by the Secretary of the Commonwealth in the 1890s (volume 8, page 289) states that “Hosmer, Jonathan (also given Jonathan, Jr.)” was among men listed by Captain Simon Hunt on August 14, 1777 who were drafted “from train band and alarm list” (men available to go) to reinforce the Continental Army. On its own, the parenthetical statement “also given Jonathan Jr.” is somewhat confusing. Based on similar entries and the fact that Mass. Soldiers and Sailors only included one entry for a Jonathan Hosmer in Simon Hunt’s listing of draftees, we assume this parenthetical note was to distinguish Jonathans, rather than to suggest that two Jonathans were on the draft list. The Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors entry adds that Jonathan Hosmer enlisted as a Private in Capt. George Minott’s Company, Col. Samuel Bullard’s regiment, on August 16, 1777 and was discharged Oct. 1, 1777, noting compensation for nine days’ journey home. (From the gravestone, we know that he did not make it back to Acton.) Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors also shows a separate entry for Jonathan Hosmer, called up with Captain Simon Hunt’s Acton company, March 4, 1776, to help to fortify Dorchester Heights. His rank was Sergeant. No other Revolutionary War service for a Jonathan Hosmer was found by the compilers of Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the American Revolution. (Note that their records were incomplete. Early service in the war is particularly difficult to document; even Abner Hosmer who died at the North Bridge on April 19, 1775 is not listed.) Compiled lists that we have of men who went from Acton to fight at Concord or Bunker Hill do not include a Jonathan Hosmer. If one of the Acton Jonathans served in 1775, we have no proof of it. Assumptions and Confusion The possibility that Deacon Jonathan Hosmer (1) served militarily in the Revolutionary War was discussed in an earlier blog post, concluding that it was unlikely and that there was no supporting evidence. Jonathan Hosmer (3)’s war service is clear from the Woodlawn Cemetery memorial. Acton records show that he was born September 24, 1760, and the gravestone says that he died in service in his 18th year. This matches the military record for Jonathan Hosmer’s serving in Captain Minott’s company August 16-October 1, 1777. As discussed above, Mass. Soldiers and Sailors makes it appear that only one Jonathan Hosmer served in that company. (Another blog post discusses this 1777 service.) Tradition in the family and town seems to have been that both Jonathan (2) and (3) served at some point in the Revolution. In 1895, the Massachusetts Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution marked the Acton graves of individuals that they believed had served in the Revolutionary War. An April 18, 1895 Concord Enterprise listing and a 1901 inventory stated that both Jonathan Hosmer and Jonathan Hosmer Jr.’s graves had been marked. Charles Bradley Stone, born in Acton to a Hosmer mother, applied to the Sons of the American Revolution as a great-grandson of Stephen Hosmer, Revolutionary War soldier. (National SAR member #5046, application available on Ancestry.com) In addition to describing Stephen’s service, the application states that Stephen’s brother Abner Hosmer fell at Concord and that “Jonathan Hosmer his brother was also in the service and his son Jonathan Jr was killed at Bennington. Recapitulation My great-great grandfather Deacon Jonathan Hosmer had three sons in the service viz Sthephen [?], Jonathan & Abner and one grandson Jonathan Jr who was killed.” Unfortunately, no sources of proof of non-ancestors’ service were presented. (Note that the list omits the service of younger brother Jonas Hosmer who moved to Walpole, NH after the war.) Rev. James T. Woodbury, installed as first minister of the Evangelical Church of Acton in 1832, compiled a list of Acton Revolutionary War soldiers. Presumably it was based upon collective memories and the few written records that he had access to; he acknowledged at the time that it was very incomplete. Rev. James Fletcher’s Acton in History (page 263) reproduced the list, including “Jonathan Hosmer, Esq., Simon’s father, died in the army”. Jonathan (2) was Simon’s father and actually lived until 1822; this entry combined him and his son. Was the error simply a “typo” in Fletcher’s book? Did Rev. Woodbury credit service to the wrong Jonathan Hosmer, or should he have included both the father Jonathan (2) and the son Jonathan (3)? Over a century later, Harold Phalen revised the list in his own history of Acton, changing the entry to “Hosmer, Jonathan (died in Army)” (page 385). This cleared up the conflation of the two Jonathans, but it eliminated Jonathan (2) from the service list. (Adding more confusion, Phalen’s index entry for Jonathan Hosmer’s Revolutionary War service includes the title “Ensign & Capt.” that belonged to a later Jonathan Hosmer.) Town histories are not the only source of identity confusion. At least two hereditary society applications mentioned the 1777 service of their ancestor “Jonathan Hosmer Jr.,” private in Capt. George Minott’s company, Col. Samuel Bullard’s regiment, but gave the birth and death dates of Jonathan (2). (Ada Isabel (Jones) Marshall, Daughters of the American Revolution member #46274, Lineage Book Vol. 47, page 126; Merton Augustine Jewett Hosmer, National Sons of the American Revolution member #73474 application, both available through Ancestry.com). Augustine Hosmer’s entry in the 1893 Massachusetts SAR roster (page 93) cited the same service and dates for ancestor “Jonathan Hosmer.” Finding the father's service If we are correct that the 1777 service cited in the Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors entry belonged only to Jonathan (3), it seems that Jonathan (2) was credited with his son's service in a number of sources. The question remains, can we definitively show military service of Jonathan (2) separate from that of his son?
It is very possible that some of Jonathan Hosmer (2)’s Revolutionary service is unrecorded, but the only actual close-to-the-time evidence that we have found is the listing of those in Captain Simon Hunt’s Acton company, March 4, 1776, called to help fortify Dorchester Heights. Sergeant Jonathan Hosmer went with the company along with Jonathan (2)’s younger brother Stephen who served as Corporal. Jonathan (3) would have been fifteen years old at that point. It is possible that he could have gone with the Acton militia that day, but it is very unlikely that he would have been chosen sergeant, outranking his uncle who was twenty-one years older. Of the information that we have, we believe that this record shows military service that belongs to Jonathan (2). Unfortunately, the fact that both Jonathan (2) and Jonathan (3) were at times known as “Junior” seems to have led to confusion among those who tried to compile lists of soldiers in later years. We have tried, very cautiously, to disentangle the various references to Jonathan Hosmer’s war service. Much as we want answers to our questions, we can only work with the information that we have. As research on Jonathan Hosmer has progressed, we have been reminded how critical it is to state sources and to distinguish assumptions from proof so that people after us can draw their own conclusions. We would be grateful to hear from anyone who has more information about the Hosmers’ experiences in the Revolutionary era, whether military or not. The Hosmer family of Acton contributed and sacrificed a great deal during the Revolutionary War years, and we at the Society, caretakers of a Hosmer family home, want to make sure that they are remembered. Pictures are often truly worth a thousand words, but sometimes it would help to have words accompanying them. A Find-A-Grave memorial for Acton’s Deacon Jonathan Hosmer (1712-1775) has clear photographs of his gravestone with a Sons of the American Revolution marker directly in front of it. The marker implies that Deacon Jonathan Hosmer was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. But was he?
Deacon Jonathan Hosmer was born March 29, 1712 and died June 25, 1775. He served the town of Acton from its founding in 1735, becoming a selectman in 1743 and town clerk in 1744, serving in both capacities through 1755, and again 1758-1761. He also served as Deacon in the town's church. Records cited by Charles Husbands' History of the Acton Minutemen and Militia Companies (page 109) show that Deacon Jonathan served in the "Acton Alarm Company" in 1757. He would have been sixty-three when the Revolution started in April, 1775. He probably would have been exempt from militia duty by that point, but it could be possible that he served at some point in the two months before his death. The problem is that there is no evidence that he did. Noting that full records do not exist of all who served militarily in the spring of 1775, we can say that no Acton Jonathan Hosmer is mentioned in existing lists of soldiers who marched to Concord or of those who served at Bunker Hill. The compilation of service in Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (volume 8, page 289) noted no known service by a Jonathan Hosmer before 1776. All applications for membership in the Sons or Daughters of the American Revolution that we have seen have cited the military service of Deacon Jonathan’s sons, not his own service. None of the later lists of Revolutionary War veterans in Acton town histories included “Deacon” Jonathan Hosmer or implied that he was the Jonathan Hosmer they referred to. Fletcher’s Acton in History, page 270, relates a story about Deacon Jonathan on April 19, 1775. His granddaughter Sarah, whose Uncle Abner had marched to Concord from the family farm that morning, remembered that her grandfather “went out to see if he could hear any news on that day, and when he returned he groaned when he passed their window to go into the front door. What sorrow was then experienced!” Clearly, Deacon Jonathan was not at the Battle of Concord but instead had to suffer the agony of waiting and learning of the loss of his son Abner. He also would have learned that another from his household had been wounded that day, Luther Blanchard who had been living on his farm while learning the mason’s trade. We can assume that the last two months of Deacon Hosmer’s life must have been filled with grief and concern for his family and townsfolk, but we have found no proof or even implication that he was in the army at the time. So why is there an SAR marker on Deacon Jonathan Hosmer’s grave? Unfortunately, it is impossible to know where the marker was originally placed. We know that markers were placed for Jonathan Hosmer and Jonathan Jr. in April, 1895. (See a discussion and listing of Acton's SAR markers.) We also know that in the mid-1990s when the Revolutionary War-era stones were photographed for the town of Acton, the SAR marker was not directly in front of Deacon Jonathan’s stone. A recent visit to Woodlawn Cemetery revealed that since the Find-A-Grave photos were taken, the SAR marker had been moved to the left side of the stone and then fallen down. Unfortunately, markers are not a perfect indication of war service; even if they were originally placed in the correct location, winter upheavals, maintenance, and even well-meaning “corrections” can move them. The same visit to Woodlawn Cemetery showed that there is currently no SAR marker for the Acton Jonathan Hosmer whose Revolutionary War service is actually mentioned on his gravestone. It is highly likely that the marker originally meant for his gravestone was mistakenly placed on his grandfather’s grave at some point. Research into the military service of Acton's other Jonathan Hosmers will be discussed in a future blog post. 9/17/2017 Reexamining Our Own HistoryHere at the Acton Historical Society, part of our work is to preserve the 1760 Jonathan Hosmer House and to share it with the public. Wrapping up our celebration of 40 years of stewardship of the house, we launched an “Out of the Ashes” exhibit to highlight the work of the amazingly far-sighted and intrepid citizens who rescued the house after arson and vandalism in the 1970s. Some sections of the house were in terrible condition. The pictures displayed at the exhibit are humbling to those of us tasked with caring for the house as it is today. As work on the exhibit progressed, we realized that not only did we need to show the work of our predecessors, but also to remind people of the many reasons that the house is a treasure worth preserving. The house has stood through a great amount of history. Its story in some ways is representative of Acton’s own progression from an outlying, colonial farm town with one church to a collection of villages shaped by the railroads to a busy suburban community. Some highlights of what we have learned about the house’s history so far: The original house was built in 1760 by Jonathan Hosmer. He moved in with his new wife Submit Hunt and raised seven children there. A mason as well as a farmer, Jonathan installed plaster on the end(s) of the house and painted and scored it to look like brick. It is not a surface that one would expect to last for centuries, but some of it was preserved by an addition and was discovered when the house was restored. Some pieces of the original painted plaster will be on display at the exhibit. The Hosmer family was deeply involved in town affairs and in the colonists' cause during the Revolutionary War, a subject that is currently being researched and will require a separate blog post. Here we will simply mention that it was a costly involvement for the family; Jonathan's brother Abner was killed at Concord in April, 1775, and Jonathan and Submit's eldest son Jonathan died in service in Bennington in October, 1777. The house became a two-family when youngest son Simon married and Jonathan added a second dwelling to the original house, complete with a large second kitchen. Jonathan’s skills as a mason would have been useful in adding three more fireplaces to the original five and adding another large chimney. Simon and his wife Sarah Whitney raised eight children in the house and lost two more. It would have been the site of much activity. After almost 80 years, the farm was sold. The new owner Rufus Holden split the property. Hosmer children and grandchildren apparently owned at least two of the pieces. (The Society has one of the deeds transferring land to Jonathan Hosmer’s son-in-law.) The house itself was sold again to Francis Tuttle, a merchant who moved in with his wife Harriet Wetherbee and their youngest four daughters. In April 1861 after the fall of Fort Sumter, the house was again the home of worried parents as their eldest son went off to war. Captain Daniel Tuttle led the Davis Guards to join Massachusetts’ 6th Regiment that was the first to arrive in Washington fully equipped to serve after Lincoln put out the call for troops. The Society is fortunate to own several items relating to Captain Tuttle and the Davis Guards, including the drum carried to battle by Gilman S. Hosmer, grandson of Simon. Francis Tuttle’s children and their spouses were deeply involved in the commercial development of South Acton as the village grew after the arrival of the railroad. The founders of the firm “Tuttles, Jones, and Wetherbee,” merchants of the Exchange Hall, were all related, and other family members were brought into the business as well. The house sold again in 1868, this time to Edward O’Neil, a native of County Cork who worked on the Fitchburg Railroad. He and his wife Mary Sheridan raised four children in the house. We are currently trying to learn more about this period in the house’s history. We do know that in 1870, the house was being used as a two-family dwelling, with the O’Neils and four children on one side and Edward’s (probable) sister Catherine (O’Neil) Waldron’s family on the other. The O’Neils’ lives were not easy; all three of the sons died of TB. The house passed to daughter Mary Mehegan in 1908. Between 1908 and 1918, the house sold for $1 four times. We are trying to discover why and to understand the relationships among the owners. In 1918, the house was sold to George S. Todd who worked in the composing room of the Boston Globe. For almost 100 years, the house’s attic has stored a box of paper matrices for an evening edition of the Globe from the first week of August, 1918, the week that George Todd bought the house. We don’t know if they were a keepsake or if perhaps he used them as packing material. Some of the pages will be on display in an upcoming exhibit. George’s sister Ethel lived in the house with him and eventually owned the property. The siblings took care of animals, many of whom George brought home from the city to save them from a sad fate. George Todd had a garage built in 1922. It became the site of an early automobile service business apparently run by a relative of the O’Neils. Work on the Hosmer House property uncovered old car parts; a few license plates and a decorative leaded glass insert will also be on display at the exhibit. There is much more to learn about the house and its people, both the Hosmers and the later inhabitants. The O’Neils and Todds lived on the property for about 100 years; we would like to learn more about them in order to have a complete and balanced history of the house. We would be particularly interested in finding pictures of them and of the property while they were living there. An auction was held at their property after Ethel Todd’s death in 1969, we would be interested in finding out what items were still in the house at that time. Aside from the Todds’ addition of electricity and plumbing and a few minor alterations that were reversed during the restoration, one of the unique features of the house is that it was left almost completely intact. The house has essentially maintained its shape since 1797. We are fortunate to be stewards of the property and to share its story. Please visit the house and view the wonderful items from Acton’s history that it contains. We’re always learning something new; we hope that you will, too. If you can add to our knowledge of the property and its occupants, we would be delighted to hear from you. |
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