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. 8/1/2017 Sidney J. Edwards and Edwards SquareAt first glance, one might wonder why Sidney J. Edwards Square at the intersection of Central Street and Massachusetts Avenue in West Acton is named after someone who was born in England and fought for Canada in World War I. It turns out that he and many others, especially those with British origins, joined up to serve in Canada while the United States was not yet involved in the “Great War”. Sidney Edwards was killed two years before the war became real for most Americans. Sidney John Edwards’ birth, possibly in December 1878, was recorded in Barnstaple, Devon, England between January and March, 1879. By the 1880 U.S. census, he was in Acton. His father Alfred J. (a carpenter, age 25), mother Rhoda (age 22), and Sidney (age 1) were living with Eliza Owen (Alfred’s sister), her husband Thomas, and their three children. Sidney’s sister Millicent Mamie Edwards was born in South Acton on July 17, 1880. After that point in Sidney’s life, we have a bit of a mystery. In the Society’s collection, there is a white card on which someone typed a brief (and quite incomplete) synopsis of Sidney’s life. The card has tack holes as if it were once part of an exhibit. It states that Sidney was born in England, moved to Acton as an infant, and lived in the town until he was fourteen years old. We have tried to confirm that timeline and so far have not found evidence that Sidney was in town that long. (Unfortunately, the card has no notation of its date, author, or source.) The Owen family stayed in Acton, but Sidney’s family moved fairly quickly. Millicent’s death record in 1881 and brother William’s birth record in 1882 listed a residence of Boston. Father Alfred’s 1888 naturalization reported his address as Winchester, MA, and he seems to have stayed there through 1917. (In the city directories that we found, Alfred was a listed Winchester resident in 1889, 1895-1908, and 1915. We also found him in Winchester in a 1909 Masonic record, the 1900 and 1910 censuses, and 1915 newspaper reports.) It’s possible that Sidney stayed with Acton relatives during his childhood, but one would ordinarily assume that he lived in Boston and Winchester with his parents. (Neither of those locations is mentioned in the typed biography.) At the very least, Sidney probably spent time in Acton visiting his many Owen cousins. Sidney’s obituary (from the Winchester Star), reported that he graduated from Winchester High School and the Burdett Business College in Boston. He worked as a clerk for Boston’s A. C. Lawrence Leather Company, living with his family in Winchester for several years. Around 1908, he moved to British Columbia. The gold industry was booming in the town of Hedley, and Sidney worked in the reduction plant of the Hedley Gold Mining Company. In 1913, the local Hedley Gazette reported that he had been initiated into the Loyal Orange Lodge. He also served in a local militia unit, the 102nd Regiment of the Rocky Mountain Rangers. At the outbreak of the First World War, Sidney went to Victoria, British Columbia to enlist in the regular army. His enlistment papers show him to have been 5’ 6.5” tall with brown hair, fair complexion, blue eyes, and robust health. On November 1, 1914, he became a private in the 30th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. According to his military record at Library and Archives Canada, he sailed for Britain on Feb. 23, 1915. (A newspaper report mentioned that his father traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia to see him off.) In the reshuffling of troops that occurred after the Canadians went overseas, the 30th Battalion supplied manpower for the needs of other units. Sidney was transferred to Canada’s 15th Battalion that saw action at Festubert, France in mid-May 1915. He was lost in the shelling during that battle. Sidney was originally reported as missing. The Boston Daily Globe reported on June 4, 1915 that his father had just received a telegram saying that Sidney's whereabouts were unknown. The family hoped that he had been captured rather than killed. However, a letter received by his parents and published in the Winchester Star on June 11th and later in the Hedley Gazette stated that he had been killed on May 20th. Lieutenant H. Price of the platoon from which Sidney was transferred wrote that Sidney’s new assignment had been to help to form a machine gun section and that he was killed in that capacity by the bursting of a shell on the night of May 20th. Canadian army records say that he was last accounted for in the trenches at Festubert. Apparently, his body was never recovered; his service records state that he was declared missing 21 May 1915 and later declared dead with an assumed death date of May 21 for official purposes. For some reason, though Sidney’s parents had been informed of the circumstances of his death by Lieutenant Price by June, 1915, headquarters did not have the same information. There was probably a great deal of confusion; the official war diary for May 20 stated that the 15th battalion had 150 casualties that day. After Sidney’s death, his family moved back to Acton, living there from 1917-1928 (according to Concord Enterprise articles, the 1920 census and a 1927 passenger list). Sidney’s parents were in town when Acton’s 1924 town meeting voted to rename West Acton’s Central Square in his honor and during the dedication at the 1924 Memorial Day exercises. After mother Rhoda’s death, father Alfred moved for a few years to Lake Forest, Illinois, returned to his School Street house in the summers, and finally relocated to Acton between 1935 and 1940 (according to the 1940 census). Sidney J. Edwards was born in England, grew up in the United States, and fought with Canadian troops, a man from multiple places whose final resting place, very sadly, is not known for certain. He is, however, memorialized in a number of locations. He is one of the soldiers with no known grave who are memorialized by the beautiful monument to Canadian War Dead at Vimy Ridge in France. He is mentioned on his parents’ gravestone in Acton’s Woodlawn Cemetery and has a memorial marker in Sidney J. Edwards Square, West Acton. In addition, his name is included on the World War 1 monument in Hedley, British Columbia where he was living and working at the time of his enlistment. Ironically, despite the fact that the article that reported his death in the Winchester Star was entitled “Winchester Boy Killed at Front,” he was not listed at the base of Winchester’s War Memorial as one of Winchester’s war dead and is not on the Roll of Honor by the town hall. Sidney was gone and his family had moved on by the time the lists were created. Soldiers’ and families’ circumstances and residences were sometimes complicated and often changed. The lesson for family researchers is that if a soldier is missing from a veterans’ roll in a town from which he/she came, it is worth double-checking corroborating records. As we have discovered in Acton and elsewhere, lists of veterans do not always tell the whole story, even if carved in stone or displayed in bronze. The Society does not have a picture of Sidney J. Edwards. If anyone has more information about him or would be willing to donate a photo or a scan, we would be grateful to be able add it to our collection. 6/14/2017 The Disappearing World War I CannonA previous blog post discussed the furor that erupted in Acton in 1936 over placing a cannon from World War I on the town common. After much contention, it was installed near the town hall. Unfortunately, the Society does not have a picture of it, and the cannon is no longer there. Until last week, we had not found anyone who knew where it went.
One of our volunteers has been cataloguing a large number of newspaper clippings that came to the Society with records of the local American Legion. It turns out that among the clippings was the story of the fate of the World War I cannon. The American Legion materials include an article and two letters that were printed in an unknown newspaper, one dated December 19, 1942. Thanks to these clippings, we now know that the cannon was taken as part of the nationwide scrap metal drive in 1942. War production was gearing up, and citizens were urged to contribute not only metal but paper, rags, rubber, phonograph records, and even used fat to counteract shortages in military supplies. Along with school, church, and veterans’ groups, an Acton Scrappers Club was formed to collect material. Acton had a “scrap heap” at Kelley’s Corner. However, the World War I cannon went farther away. The article entitled “ACTON DONATES WORLD WAR GUN,” announced on November 12 (no year) that the nearby town of Acton had contributed a 7,420 pound cannon to the salvage drive conducted at Fort Devens. Fort supply officer Colonel Thomas Mahoney sent a “powerful ordnance wrecker” to Acton to pick up the gun which was dismantled and added to the Fort’s “immense scrap stockpile.” The writers of the letters in our collection were veterans and were certainly in favor of aiding the war effort. One of the writers was Herbert Leusher, Commander of the American Legion. He wrote that members of the Legion were busy gathering scrap metal themselves. However, they were upset that they had not been informed about plans to scrap the cannon that was, to them, a memorial. Legion members had been instrumental in bringing it to the town. Leusher said that “gladly would my organization have given its consent for the removal of the cannon but I would have called it a common decency to have been notified.” Someone in the town must have been involved in arranging the removal; it was presumably that person or people with whom the American Legion members were unhappy. The Legion members were not the only group dealing with these issues. In 1942, many metal items of historical, sentimental or aesthetic interest were claimed for the national salvage campaign. Railings, grates, and fences were torn down, including the iron fence around the State House in Boston. In August, Franklin Roosevelt called for the donation of old cannons and bronze statues that resided in parks and suggested that they could be replaced after the war with newer items. In the resulting patriotic fervor, the conflict between the tug of history and the need of the present was felt all over the country. A historic cannon was sometimes used as the impetus for local scrap drives. Though obviously the needs of the troops were paramount, opposition arose from people who wanted to make sure that the supply of “junk” was exhausted before historical artifacts were sacrificed. Such objections were not always appreciated; newspapers carried the story of St. Louis citizens who tried (unsuccessfully) to conduct a midnight mission to force the “donation” of a cannon on the capitol grounds to a salvage drive. Locally, newspapers reported debates about the fate of memorial cannons in other Massachusetts cities and towns, including Billerica, Burlington, Cambridge, and Townsend. Pittsfield in Western Massachusetts had collected cannons earlier in the year and, with ceremony, sent them in a “cannon caravan” over the route by which Henry Knox delivered artillery captured at Ticonderoga to help liberate Boston in 1776. Reading about the widespread scrapping of old cannon and other cherished items in 1942 makes the second letter in the Society’s collection more understandable. Major Charles Coulter’s letter talked about the Civil War cannons on the Town Common, with a colorful description of his views on Acton’s Civil War memorials. (His cynical assessment may have been shaped by the fight over bringing the World War I gun to the town in the first place.) Usefully, he described the cannons; they were rifled Civil War Parrotts, obtained for the town of Acton by Congressman John F. Fitzgerald, shipped to South Acton at government expense, and then brought to Acton Center by Nelson Tenney, who made the mounts and placed them on the Common. In Coulter’s view, they had no historic or sentimental value and no connection to Acton. “The scrap heap is the place for them.” Taken by itself, Major Coulter’s letter seemed surprisingly strong. However, reading about similar debates in cities and towns across the county allowed us to understand the context in which it was written. The Acton Legion’s World War I veterans were upset, not only that their memorial cannon was removed without notice, but that the big Civil War guns on Acton’s Town Common were left behind. Perhaps emotions were particularly high because the fight over obtaining the World War I cannon was still quite fresh in the memory of the Acton’s veterans, but they would naturally wonder why their cannon was considered less worthy of preservation than those from the Civil War. So Acton’s cannon controversy continued. In the end, despite Major Coulter’s views, the Civil War cannons stayed. Clearly someone decided that it wasn’t worth the cost, whether monetary or political, to send the old cannons to the scrap heap. The World War I veterans were memorialized in a bronze plaque across the street; fortunately, despite concerns of some of the veterans, the salvage drive never went so far as to claim it. One of the pleasures of volunteering at Jenks Library is finding unexpected connections. Recently, a volunteer was going through a ledger that wasn’t very old. Inside, she found a ribbon printed with a picture of Acton’s Davis Monument and the dates 1775, APRIL 19th, and 1895. In another setting, it might have been taken for a meaningless piece of junk. But not at Jenks. While doing research earlier that morning, one of our other volunteers had been reading an article about Acton’s big Patriots’ Day celebration on April 19, 1895 and realized that the ribbon stuck in the ledger must have been a souvenir of that day. It was quite a coincidence to have discovered something tangible from the event while the newspaper description was so fresh in memory. In early 1895, a planning committee put together an ambitious program to commemorate Acton’s involvement in the events of April 19, 1775. The plan for the day included dedicating three historical monuments and placing markers at Revolutionary War veterans’ graves. The Sixth Massachusetts (Civil War) Regiment was to hold a reunion. Dignitaries were invited, and crowds were anticipated. Massachusetts Governor Greenhalge was invited to the celebration. He undoubtedly had a particular interest in the proceedings as he had proclaimed Patriots’ Day (April 19th) a public holiday the year before. Speaking at the Sons of the Revolution banquet that evening, he joked that he had swallowed so much dust during his afternoon in Acton that he felt as though he had a claim to a birthplace there. [Boston Post, April 20, 1895, page 4) The April 25th Concord Enterprise put a different spin on the day, stating that there was “no dust, no mud, a warm sun, a refreshing breeze.” The same Enterprise also reported that the Sixth Regiment had spent the morning of the 19th marching. When the governor arrived in the middle of their reunion meeting, the veterans declined to march out to meet him “on the ground that they had done about all the marching they wished or proposed to do.” [page 4] The April 20th Boston Post captured an outsider’s view of Acton at the time, calling it a “dreamy, tiny, one-streeted town, bejeweled in dark hills” and continuing, “Strange were the sights in ... all the Actons, Centre, South, East and West. Thronged trains flooded the little railroad stations, from morning until noon. All turned toward Acton Centre, where the big celebration was held. ALONG DUSTY LANES...” The writer described houses and public buildings festooned with patriotic decorations. The grounds of the Town Hall and the Common were filled with booths and stands set up by traveling (and apparently very noisy) barkers. Transportation was offered (for a fee) to city folks by “young hustlers, who ransacked barns and stables for spacious vehicles to transport the unwonted horde of patrons, bringing out weird things of conveyance, ramshackle some, possibly a few, apologetic all. And all through the day these wonders of contrivances following along after enthusiastic but antiquated nags, came to the Centre and went to the depots creaking under human burdens.” [page 1] John F. Fitzgerald (“Honey Fitz”), a Congressman at the time, arrived late in the day. He had married Mary J. Hannon of South Acton, and in his speech said that he “had deprived Acton of one of her fairest daughters, but she had showed her patriotism by presenting to the country this April 19, 1895, a bouncing ten-pound boy.” [page 5] He claimed himself an adopted son of Acton, as he had spent summers there for the past 20 years. A more lasting tribute to the town is that the parents named their bouncing newborn Thomas Acton Fitzgerald. After the event, the April 25th Concord Enterprise aired various views on Patriots’ Day 1895. Some had evidently hoped for even bigger crowds in Acton and blamed Boston papers for drawing away participants by “booming” about the celebrations in Lexington and Concord, “places which Acton had done much to make historic.” [page 4] A Concord writer clearly disagreed with that assessment, saying that even through the Concord event was well-planned, the event was lackluster, the townspeople were bored, and the crowd that did come was “undesirable.” [page 8] Other writers were much more positive about the day. The Acton Centre correspondent called the event a “great gala” with an orderly crowd. The West Acton correspondent noted that the whole town had pulled together, “each village and hamlet contributing a share to the glorious event.” [page 8] Even the writer disappointed by the size of the crowd finished on a positive note, saying that “Those however who took the trouble to come to Acton must have been impressed with the rural beauty of the place. Hundreds who were here on that day realized for the first time that among the Middlesex hills was a delightful little village removed far enough from the noise of the city and the rush of the steam cars to give one that quiet and rest so often sought in the summer months and no doubt many will find their way hither in consequence of this visit.” [page 4] Hopefully, the potential tourists didn’t mind the dust. 1/23/2017 Sorting Out John SwiftsOne of the tricky aspects of researching early Acton people is the fact that names were often repeated. Children were named for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and deceased siblings. Trying to disentangle identities with the sparse information in early records can be frustrating.
An example is John Swift. Reverend John Swift’s identity is clear. He appears in Acton Town Meeting records, chosen in 1738 to be the first pastor of the town’s new church. (The formation of the church was a requirement for Acton to become an independent town.) Reverend John Swift, (son of Reverend John Swift, the first minister of Framingham), graduated from Harvard in 1733, was living in Framingham when he was called to Acton, and married Abigail Adams of Medway. He served as Acton’s minister for 37 years. According to Fletcher’s 1890 Acton in History, as Isaac Davis’s Company passed Reverend Swift’s home on the way to Concord on April 19, 1775, he “waved his benedictions over them.” It fell upon him to conduct the funeral of Isaac Davis, James Hayward and Abner Hosmer who were killed that day. Unfortunately, Reverend Swift contracted smallpox and died In November, 1775. He was buried in Woodlawn cemetery. There seems to be agreement on those facts of Reverend Swift's life. However, over time, some stories have become muddled because he named his son… John Swift. Son John was born on November 18, 1841. He graduated from Harvard in 1762 and became Acton’s first physician. In 1767, Doctor John Swift married Catharine Davies of Acton. On the morning of April 19, 1775, he saw that Thomas Thorp was heading to join Isaac Davis's Company without a cartridge box and gave him one that 60 years later, Thorp recalled in a deposition "had on the outside a piece of red cloth in the shape of a heart." In the midst of the excitement and tragedy that unfolded, Doctor John was also dealing with family matters; his son Luther was born the following day. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution shows that John Swift of Acton marched as a private with Capt. Simon Hunt’s Company to help fortify Dorchester Heights, March 4, 1776, a service of 6 days. Because the only documented Revolutionary military service of an Acton John Swift took place in 1776 after the death of the Reverend and we have found no indication of other John Swifts in town, this must have been John the physician. Doctor John died in 1781, leaving wife Catherine and two young sons John Hollis and Luther. Up to this point, we were confident that we had identified two John Swifts in Acton, one a Reverend who died in November 1775 of smallpox, and another, his son the doctor who marched on Dorchester Heights in 1776 and died in 1781. Probate records available through AmericanAncestors.org confirm the family relationship and their death years. However, along with the online availability of records that help us to answer questions has come the availability of sources that can raise more issues. A 1913 Concord Enterprise article (“Historical Sermon,” October 22, page 10) stated that Reverend John Swift “labored for the soldiers who were in camp at Cambridge and died from small pox.” This may well have been true, but documenting Reverend Smith’s service in Cambridge has proved difficult. The article seems to imply that his service to soldiers is how he contracted smallpox. Smallpox in the crowded camps and in Boston at the time was a well-known problem, but Fletcher says that smallpox was also in Acton. Where the Enterprise writer got information about service in Cambridge, we don’t know. Because this story did not appear in any other source that we could find about Reverend Swift, we couldn’t help wondering if the person who was in the camps was actually the son Doctor John Swift. We have no way of knowing. We were not the only ones confused. Shattuck’s 1835 history of Concord mentions college graduate “John Swift, only child of the Rev. John Swift, born Nov. 18, 1741, grad. 1762; settled as a physician in Acton where he died of the small-pox, about 1775.” Thomas Harrington’s 1905 history of Harvard Medical School discussed the six members of Harvard’s class of 1762 who entered the medical profession, including John Swift who “was in practice at Acton, where he died of smallpox during the epidemic of 1775.” In the 1859 New England Historical & Genealogical Register, (Vol. 13, page 308), a footnote about the first Reverend John Swift (of Framingham) said: “His only son, John, b. Jan. 14, 1713-14, (H.C. 1733) was ord. at Acton, 1738, m. Abigail Adams of Medway, had son, John, H.C. 1762, who was a physician and d. of small-pox in 1775.” If we had not been puzzled before reading that sentence, we certainly were afterwards. A church history of the Worcester Association and its Antecedents written by Joseph Allen in 1868 acknowledged both John Swifts, saying that Reverend Swift died in 1775 “of the small-pox as did also, the same year, his son John, who was a practicing physician in Acton.” The two John Swifts of Acton are obviously a challenge to differentiate. Both of their professions could have led them to Cambridge to serve the soldiers stationed there, and it would have been logical to assume that it was the doctor who died of smallpox in 1775. Separate gravestones would have helped to separate the two Johns and their death dates, but there is no individual stone for Doctor John Swift, apparently no death record, and no burial record to prove that he was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. Doctor John’s wife remarried and was buried in Stow, MA, and their surviving sons moved away. Records of the Massachusetts Sons of the American Revolution show that they had marked the Acton grave of John Swift by 1901. Presumably, the marker was placed by the burial mound with a single gravestone for “Reverend John Swift and his Family,” but there is no SAR marker there today, and exactly which family members are buried in the plot is unknown. The moral of this particular story is that just because a source is old or a “fact” has been repeated many times, it is not necessarily accurate. Today’s family historians know to double-check modern family trees found online, but it is easy to assume that writers of older histories and genealogies had access to people’s memories, Family Bibles, and other lost sources that gave them better information than we have. That can be true, but in the case of our John Swifts, it was not. In this particular case, we were fortunate to find probate records for both men and for Doctor John’s children; the dates and relationships in those records allowed us to recognize confusion and errors in the other sources we came across. The Society is collaborating on a project documenting all historical markers and memorials in the town of Acton. While researching the 1903 dedication of a memorial to Francis Barker, the drummer who marched to Concord's North Bridge with Isaac Davis’s company, we discovered that a stone was dedicated the same day in memory of Captain Joseph Brown, “one of Acton’s soldiers of the Revolution.” Following up, we found a Boston Daily Globe article (April 20, 1903) that called Captain Joseph “a prominent man in his time both in business circles and in town affairs.” Fletcher’s Acton in History lists Joseph Brown as an Acton man who “fought at Bunker Hill and Saratoga, and received a ball at Bunker Hill, which lodged in his body and was afterwards skillfully extracted and Brown shot it back at Saratoga.” (page 263) Fletcher also stated that Joseph Brown moved onto Captain Isaac Davis’s farm. Relatively little attention today seems to be given to the Acton men who served in the Revolution after the North Bridge Battle. We decided to learn more about Captain Joseph Brown, starting with the information on the memorial stone. Captain Joseph apparently was born in 1752. He was not born in Acton, and Brown was a common name, making research conclusions difficult. Fortunately, a great-great grandson Charles Leonard Brown's Sons of the American Revolution application stated that Joseph's parents were Joseph Brown and Grace Fairbanks. Joseph and Grace Brown lived in Stow, Massachusetts, and many of their children’s births were recorded in the 1733-1750 period. We have not been able to locate a birth or baptism record for Joseph, but his place in the family was confirmed in a probate record. Joseph Sr.’s will left to his son Joseph a colt, a saddle, and thirteen pounds, five shillings and eight pence to be paid out when Joseph reached the age of twenty-one (Middlesex County Probate file #3104). A guardianship paper (file #3105) stated that on 11 April 1769, Joseph’s son Joseph was in his 17th year, corroborating the 1752 birth date on Captain Brown’s stone.
Joseph grew up in a large family in which military service and leadership seem to have been the norm. His brothers Jabez (Ensign) and Joshua both participated in the French and Indian War, and starting April 19, 1775, at least four of the family’s sons served in the American Revolution, three as officers. We did not find Joseph in a list of Stow soldiers who were in the Concord fight on April 19, 1775. (See Crowells’ Stow, Massachusetts, 1683-1933.) However, Joseph did sign up to serve in Captain Samuel Patch of Stow’s company, part of William Prescott’s Regiment that was heavily involved in the action at Battle of Bunker Hill. His brother Joshua was the Lieutenant of the company. According to the Crowells’ history, the men of the company “contested their ground inch by inch with the red coats and when powder and bullets failed, emulating the example of Lieut. Brown, the Stow men gave them stones.” (page 73) Joseph was wounded and, fortunately, recovered. In the company roster of October 1775, Joseph’s rank was given as sergeant. The next recorded service of Joseph Brown was in March 1776 when he marched from Acton to Roxbury with Israel Heald’s Company to help end the siege of Boston. Joseph Brown married Dorothy Barker. Dorothy’s brother was Francis Barker, whose similar and nearby memorial stone was dedicated on the same day as Joseph’s. The marriage is not in Acton’s records or any Massachusetts records that we could find, although a June, 1776 New Hampshire record shows a marriage of Joseph Browne and Dorothy Barker by Reverend Samuel Cotton of Litchfield. (According to Hurd’s History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Rev. Cotton was chaplain of the First New Hampshire Regiment for a time; perhaps there was a family or military connection.) Joseph and Dorothy’s first child Joseph was born in Acton in October, 1776. At some point, they moved onto the farm that had been owned by Isaac Davis when he led his company to Concord. Joseph Brown and his family lived there for many years. Nowadays, the property is associated with Isaac Davis; most people do not realize that another Revolutionary War soldier lived there as well. On January 1, 1777, Joseph Brown became an Ensign in his brother (Captain) Joshua Brown’s company in the Massachusetts 15th Regiment under Colonel Timothy Bigelow. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution says that he served 27 months at that rank. The Company was apparently stationed January-August at Van Schaik’s Island. In the early fall 1777, they participated in the Battle of Saratoga. We have few details of Joseph’s service, but the story of his shooting back the ball with which he was wounded at Bunker Hill obviously survived in Acton lore. That winter, the Regiment was at Valley Forge, although online muster rolls indicate that Joseph Brown was on furlough January-May 1778. The 15th Massachusetts was involved in the Battle at Monmouth Courthouse on June 28, 1778. We were not able to discover whether Joseph Brown was back with his company by that time. Later that summer, the regiment participated in the Battle of Rhode Island. Joseph Brown was made first Lieutenant in April, 1779. His son Francis Barker Brown was born in May, 1779. One can imagine that Joseph’s military service caused hardship for wife Dorothy and his young children. In July, the warrant for Acton’s town meeting included Article 7, “To see if the Town will agree to Do Something Toward the Support of Lieut. Joseph Browns family while he is in the Publick Service.” (The town voted against helping his family.) Joseph Brown was made Captain in 1780 (different sources give somewhat different dates for that event). Muster rolls place Captain Joseph Brown’s company in Camp “Tenack” (presumably Teaneck, New Jersey) in July. He resigned his commission on November 15, 1780. After Captain Brown returned to Acton, more children followed: Nathaniel Greene (1781), Dorothy (1783) and Abigail (Oct. 12, 1784). Sadly, Captain Joseph’s wife Dorothy died October 19, 1784. Presumably, widower Joseph found help with caring for his young children during the 1780s. Town treasurer’s records during this period document payment to him for boarding a woman, almost surely someone poor, and for “Keeping School in his Society.” Unfortunately, we have no more information about either his School or his Society. Joseph Brown married Betsy Putnam of Stow in 1790. Acton records showed births to the couple of a second daughter Abigail (1790, died 1792), Samuel Putnam (1792), Betsey (1794), Luke (1796), Thomas (1798, died 1801), James (1800), Eunice (baptized 1803), and a second Thomas (1805). By the 1790s, town reports show that Captain Brown was very involved in town affairs. In addition to occasionally providing labor for the town, (such as digging a well or “transporting State arms to Boston”), he was chosen in various years to serve as town meeting moderator, highway surveyor, or fish warden. He boarded or provided wood for poor town residents. He was obviously held in high esteem in the community; he was appointed to many committees, often dealing with potentially (or actually) contentious issues such as overseeing and reconciling settlements and abatements for the town treasurer, settling on juror and voter lists, overseeing “cow pox” vaccinations, inspecting, redistricting, or selling off the town’s schools, and finding a site for a new meetinghouse (a political quagmire at the time). He was a member of the very early Social Library in Acton as evidenced by his being fined 4 cents in 1801 for two soiled pages in Pilgrim’s Progress. In 1803, Captain Brown was appointed tax collector and constable. He was paid one cent on the dollars he collected and was expected to serve as constable for free. He served in that capacity (in one year apparently “free from any expence to the Town”) until 1810 when he requested a replacement be found. It is not clear from town records why Captain Brown stepped down, but in the 1810-1811 period, he seems to have asked to be repaid for poll taxes that he had paid “a number of year back” and for some tax collection work that he had done, presumably for free. The town voted no. In April 1812, the town meeting warrant included an article about purchasing Captain Joseph Brown’s pew No. 30 in the meeting house. The article was dismissed. We have no way of knowing the circumstances. He had been relatively well-off, but he may have been land-rich and cash poor at the time. He may have been sick. We do know that he died August 9, 1813 in Acton. He died intestate; his affairs were handled by son Nathaniel Greene, yielding a 54-page probate file. Along with his personal possessions that included clothing, household goods, and furniture, he owned his farm (house, barn, well, fields, an orchard, livestock and farm implements), wood lots and unimproved land, meadow land, his pew #30 in the meetinghouse, and a horse stable on the Common near the meetinghouse. He also left debts totaling $1,091 that necessitated selling pieces of real estate to raise cash. It must have been a difficult period for his family. Captain Joseph’s son Samuel Putnam Brown, serving in the War of 1812, died in July, 1814. Joseph, Jr. died in February, 1815, leaving a widow and young children. Nathaniel seems to have taken care of the farm while wrapping up the estate’s affairs and providing for his own young family. When we starting researching Captain Joseph Brown, we had no idea where he came from, who his family was, or anything about his life other than the few mentions of him in Fletcher’s History. We were not confident that we would find records to flesh out his story. As it turns out, available records showed that Captain Joseph Brown lived quite a life of service. Though he was injured at Bunker Hill and had young children to provide for, he continued to serve in the military, a commitment that produced financial strain for his family. Once home, he served the town of Acton in a surprising variety of ways. Ninety years after his death, his grandson John M. Brown funded the erection of a memorial stone. On April 20, 1903, townspeople gathered for a dedication ceremony at Woodlawn Cemetery. A band played the “Star Spangled Banner” while a representative from the Bunker Hill Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, unveiled the Joseph Brown monument. For anyone interested in Acton sites with Joseph Brown connections, one can start at his memorial stone located in the “Revolutionary War” section of Woodlawn Cemetery to the left of the main gate. Acton Memorial Library's “Not Afraid to Go” exhibit has on display an epaulet that he wore during his military service, remarkably well-preserved. At 39 Hayward Road, one can see the Isaac Davis farm memorial stone that marks the farm where Isaac Davis and later Joseph Brown lived with their families. Farther down Hayward Road, one comes to the Minuteman Ridge Neighborhood. When it was developed in the 1960s, one of the streets was named “Captain Brown’s Lane.” |
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