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Captain Joseph Brown Memorial Stone

Location: Woodlawn Cemetery, Concord Road, Acton, Revolutionary Section B, Stone 449 (on left when entering cemetery through Wetherbee gate)
Captain Joseph Brown memorial stone
The stone reads:
IN MEMORY OF
CAPT. JOSEPH BROWN
1752-1813
A SOLDIER OF THE REVOLUTION
WAS WOUNDED AT THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL
----
ELIZABETH PUTNAM
HIS WIFE
1753-1833

Joseph Brown served, according to Fletcher's history of Acton, in the Battle of Bunker Hill (where he was wounded) and Saratoga (where he shot back at the British using the ball extracted from him after Bunker Hill).  He rose to the rank of Captain by 1780.  He lived for many years in the house formerly occupied by Isaac Davis.  He was married to (1) Dorothy Barker and (2) Elizabeth/Betsy Putnam and had several children by each wife.  Acton death records show that he died August 9, 1813.  This memorial marker placed at his grave in Woodlawn Cemetery was dedicated on Patriots' Day, April 1903, along with the nearby Francis Barker stone.  The memorial stone was erected by Captain Brown's grandson John M. Brown of Belmont.

For more information about the stone and its dedication, see:

"To Dedicate Two Monuments," Boston Daily Globe, April 20, 1903, page 8.
"Patriots' Day Observed at Acton," Boston Daily Globe, April 21, 1903, page 4.
"Patriots Day Celebrated," Concord Enterprise, April 22, 1903, page 6.

For more information about Joseph Brown of Acton and his Revolutionary Service, see:

Acton Historical Society Blog Post, Captain Joseph Brown, Acton Soldier and Citizen.

Secretary of the Commonwealth.  Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution.  Volume 2, Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1896. Page 655 and 659.

Heitman, Francis.  Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution. Washington, D. C.:The Rare Book Shop Publishing Company, Inc.: 1914. Page 125.

Sons of the American Revolution application of descendant Charles Leonard Brown, born in Acton, MA on June 19, 1867.

Fletcher, James. Acton in History, Compiled for the Middlesex County History, Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis & Co., 1890.  Pages 261, 263, 272, 301


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