USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > Andover, Massachusetts : Proceedings at the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town, May 20, 1896 > Part 6
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Hutchinson relates that at this same attack also they captured Col. Bradstreet and his family, and that, after taking them from the house for a distance, the Indians finally released them from fear of being pursued by a superior force.
The frequency of these attacks, and the general fear of further outbreaks, led to great activity among the citizens; some of them were busied on picket duty ; others were at the blockhouses, while still others were engaged in building additional defences at Deer Jump and Peters' Landing ; four block houses were built near the Merrimac in 1704, and another was set up in Shawshin fields. This activity on the part of the citizens resulted in a decrease of Indian
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attacks, and nothing of a serious nature occured after 1698. The Indians withdrew gradually towards the lands of their French allies, and the colonists as time wore away carried active war into the countries of the Indians.
It was in one of these expeditions into the Indian country that Jonathan Frye, a citizen of Andover and a student in theology, who had not yet reached his majority, covered his name with praise. Bound by an engagement of marriage to a girl whom his parents did not approve, he had, in order to overcome his grief and chagrin, joined Capt. Benj. Stevens's company to go to Lake Winnipe- saukee to find the hiding places of the Indians. The company to which he belonged took part in Lovewell's fight on the shore of Saco Pond on the 24th of September, 1725. The Indians attacked the camp while the English were at their dovotions, and Frye, who, as chaplain, was conducting the service, at once began to fight, and, according to the record, he and another scalped the first Indian that was slain ; and he kept up the contest until the middle of the after- noon, when he fell severely wounded ; unable any longer now to fight, he encouraged his comrades by his loud intercession to the God of armies for their preservation and success. As day declined, all his hopes were realized, and his prayers answered ; the savages gave up the fight and withdrew. The soldiers than began to march back to their camp; for some miles Frye, aided by two comrades, was able, though in dreadful pain, to make his way ; but finally with a sublime resignation, he begged his friends to save themselves and to leave him to his fate, and, lying down upon the ground, he told them he should never rise again. Soon after the friends withdrew reluctantly from him, charged with tender messages to his father expressing his hope in the future life and his fearlessness in the near presence of death. "Whereupon," as the reverened chronicler relates,1 "they left him ; and this Hopeful Gentleman, Mr. Frie, who had the Journal of the March in his pocket, has not been heard of since." But the sweet and touching pathos of his fate would not allow his name to fall into oblivion; and the story of his suffering and death is embalmed in many a conceit of our colonial muse, while there seems no doubt that the melancholy tale is depicted in the Roger Malvin's Burial of Haw- thorne.
1 Rev. Thomas Symmes.
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The cessation of Indian hostilities about the town enabled the citizens to devote themselves to their peaceful agriculture and manu- factures ; the population grew apace, and a large measure of prosperity was enjoyed. But the mother country was watchful of everything relating to the colonies, and, accordingly, when Pitt began to resist the claim of France to all that country which is now included in Canada and the region west of the Alleghanies, he naturally called upon the colonies for aid. And so it was that men of Andover fought in the reduction of Cape Breton. Sixteen of them met their death at the capture of Louisburg in 1745, or in consequence of exposure there, and the faithful record of their names in the town's list of deaths in the king's service is perhaps honor enough. It was in this war that Joseph Fry and James Fry, citizens of Andover, entered upon their successful careers. Later, the troops were ordered to reduce Nova Scotia. Here too their efforts were successful, and her inhabi- tants were driven out of their sweet and cheerful Acadia, some, like Evangeline, to escape to distant countries, while still others, taken prisoners, were quartered about the towns of New England. Twenty- two or more of these fell to Andover, and their support was a matter that the town regulated at its town-meetings, voting for the French such supplies as a not over generous charity dictated.1
While some of the men of Andover were reducing Nova Scotia in 1755, others were engaged about Lake George, and in this expedi- tion five of them met their deaths, and in all the contests that took place between 1755 and 1760, with the exception of the battles of Fort Duquesne and Quebec, they were present and contributed to the final success of the English side. Joseph Frye took his part in the reduc- tion of Nova Scotia, and later we find him dissenting from the capitu- lation of Fort William Henry ; and it was when returning as a prisoner of war, after the capitulation, that he was dragged into the woods by his Indian guard, and stripped of his clothes ; and just as the Indian was on the point of murdering him, Frye put forth a superhuman strength, and, killing the savage, escaped. Almost without clothes, he wandered for three days or more, and, with nothing but berries to
1 The first mention of these supplies is in the selectmen's records November 14, 1758, where we find Major Osgood is allowed six shillings for two loads of wood "for ye french," and two days later Moody Bridges gets one shilling for 1/4 bushel of beans. Further sup- plies are granted in 1759 and 1760, and, finally, in the fall of 1760, many of the Acadians are removed to Springfield.
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eat, finally found his way back to Fort Edward. At Crown Point he also did a hero's work. His record throughout the war is most credit- able ; nowhere is he lacking in bravery ; nowhere can there be found anything else than the highest loyalty to the crown, and the most tender solicitude for his men.
In her conduct toward the Colonies, England had been true to her traditional policy ; in their helpless infancy she had let them resolutely alone; but as they increased in numbers and wealth, their value as a tributary became obvious to her ; hence she took away their charter in 1686, and later when she needed additional soldiers, she impressed the colonists into her service, and finally when she needed more revenue, she ruthlessly taxed them. It was this attempt that raised the mighty protest that resulted in our Revolution, and no- where more vigorously than in Andover was this proposition combated, nowhere was there a clearer view of the rights and duties of the colonists. As we approach this period in the town's records, the page suddenly leaps from the commonplace and the dull ; the handwriting is better, and the spelling and grammar improve ; there is an appear- ance of clear ideas and definite convictions. Up to this time there had indeed been contests, but they were for the protection of the home, or for the safeguard and aggrandizement of England. Today a principle is involved that is the legitimate product of one hundred and twenty-five years of colonial thought and experience, and out of the trials and perplexities of the French and Indian wars, there has sprung up a race of warriors fired by that fine new spirit of patriotism, that was to stimulate and cheer them through manifold trials until they reached a complete independence.
The history of Andover in the Revolution might well be written out of the records of her town meetings. In October, 1763, there were passed unanimously instructions to Samuel Phillips, then the representative in the general court, that he is not to give his assent to any act by which internal taxes are imposed in any other way than by the general court. Here is a complete denial of the claim of England to tax her colonies against their will, and the American case could not be better stated. But the taxes were imposed, and in May, 1768, a committee of seven citizens that had been appointed to devise some measure of relief, report that the citizens should endeavor by precept and example to suppress extravagance, idleness and vice,
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and promote industry, economy and good morals, and " by all prudent means endeavor to discountenance the Importation and use of Foreign Superfluities and to promote and Incourage Manufactures in the Town." The opposition to England did not always run in the peace- ful channels of legislative enactments ; but of all conduct involving a breach of the peace, the citizens of Andover express their "utter detestation and abhorrence, and they call upon the selectmen, the militia and the magistrates to use their utmost Endeavors agreeable to Law to Suppress the same1;" Mr. Phillips is instructed2 also to " use his best endeavors in conjunction with other members of the General Court to suppress all riotous unlawful assemblies and to pre- vent all acts of violence upon the persons and substance of his ma- jesty's subjects in this province."
The passage of the act imposing a tax on tea, iron, glass and salt, aroused a violent protest, and at once the citizens meet and agree that they will not import any of the articles taxed, and that they will not make any use of foreign tea or coffee, or suffer it to be used in their families.3 The days now are full of opposition to the home government. In February, 1774, the Philadelphia Resolves are adopted as the full sentiment of the town ; meanwhile, the old flint locks that have been slumbering since 1761 are put into condition for immediate use ; military companies are forming, and everywhere in the horizon the clouds are lowering, which must soon break in fury over the heads of the English authorities. Ten town meetings are held in the year 1774; June 29th it is voted to take an inventory of the ammunition belonging to the town, and if found insufficient, steps „are to be taken to increase it as the law directs.4 Moody Bridges, the representative to the general court, is instructed to join with his fellow members, if they deem it expedient or necessary, " in resolving themselves into a Provincial Congress" ; and as subjects who still wish well for their master, the vote adds as the reason, " in order to consult and determine on such Measures, as they judge will tend to promote the true Interest of his Majesty and the Peace, Welfare and Prosperity of this Province."
But strong as the desire may be to have the king and his ministers put themselves into a right position toward the colonies,
1 September 11, 1765.
8 May 21, 1770.
* October 21, 1763.
4 September 15, 1774.
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the tide of events is ever rushing in the inevitable direction. November 14, 1774, it is voted as expedient that the military com- panies meet half a day each week for training and instruction ; December 26, 1774, the town accepts every article and clause of the resolve of the Continental Congress requesting the non-importation, non-exportation, and non-consumption of British goods, and the citizens in town-meeting assembled vote that if any person of twenty- one years of age and upwards shall neglect to sign the non-importation agreement, he shall be cut off from all commercial intercourse so long as he shall continue thus inimical to the public good, and his name shall be published in the "Essex Gazette " as an enemy to his coun- try ; provisions also are adopted for the enrollment and compensation of the militia ; January 2, 1775, a committee of sixteen is appointed to act as a Committee of Safety, who, by their life and conversation are to use all their influence to suppress mobs and riots, and to en- deavor to bring about that reformation in life and manners " so much to be wished for and earnestly supplicated by all good men ;" February 13, 1775, it is voted that the constables pay over all the provincial tax they may have collected to the provincial treasurer, and a committee is appointed to give all needful aid to the constables in their work ; and, as evidence of a stronger determination, all enlisted soldiers are to be provided with bayonets, and a committee is appointed to collect all bayonets that may be in the town ; March 20, 1775, a committee is chosen to see that the non-importation agreement is carried out to the letter ; to secure the greatest possible improvement in the breed of sheep and to increase the herds; to inculcate the utmost frugality in all kinds of expenditure; to see that no other mourning for the dead be used than a black crape or ribbon on the arm or hat for men and a black ribbon or necklace for women ; that no trader shall increase the price of his wares ; that all traders shall take an inventory of their goods, and after October 10 shall not expose for sale any of the pro- scribed British goods upon penalty of the publication of their nanies that they "meet with the merits of enemies to their country ;" and the committee shall inspect the conduct of every person in the town, and, upon finding any violating the articles of association, shall publish their names in the "Gazette," "to the end that all such foes to the rights of British America may be publicly known."
Meanwhile, to give effect to these votes, arms, powder, uniforms
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and all the accoutrements of war were being gathered from every quarter ; four hundred men were in training, and it was out of these that the first companies were formed in February, 1775. Capt Benjamin Farnum commanded fifty-four men of the North Parish, and Capt. Benjamin Ames fifty men of the South Parish, and both com- panies were attached to the regiment of Col. James Frye, and as minute men were eagerly watching for any summons that might come from Boston. Besides these two companies there were two hundred and twenty-three officers and men in the militia, not attached to any regiment, who also awaited a signal for action. The days in April- that wonderful April of 1775, when the whole country seemed to have been touched by the breath of June .- pass too slowly by ; from day to day the citizen soldiery goes to its task in the field armed as if going to war, ready to start at a minute's notice; the 19th April comes ; no matter by whom or what the news is brought, whether by fleet messengers galloping through the settlement, or by bell ringing out in violent alarm, but the British are marching to seize the stores at Concord. Instantly the minute man leaves his work, and falls into line of march towards Concord and Lexington. Three hundred and twenty-nine men of Andover go forth that day in the new cause of armed resistance to oppression. They arrive at Lexington too late to be of service, and accordingly they follow the retreating regulars back as far as Cambridge.
Meanwhile the centre of interest is moving from Concord and Cambridge towards Charlestown and Bunker Hill; and finally June 17th dawns, and there at the top of the hill are the breastworks that the ardor of the patriots has thrown up with consummate diligence during the night, while the watch on board the English men-of-war are stupidly announcing with the advancing hours the " All's well," as if in unconscious prophecy of the great events that were dawning with that auspicious morn. Three companies of Andover men are at the battle; and everywhere encouraging his soldiers and showing the utmost coolness in the presence of danger is Colonel James Frye ; engaged in other duties when the fight began, with all speed he hastens to the scene of action ; on his way he rebukes some companies halting by the wayside, and still rushing on he declares : "This day thirty years I was at the taking of Louisburg. This is a fortunate day for America, we shall certainly beat the enemy."
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His prophecy for that fight was futile, but it was proven true in the final result. The women and children at home in Andover, and the old men and the infirm, hear the heavy firing at Bunker Hill, and with anxious hearts await results ; what son or husband or brother might not go down in the awful but yet glorious struggle ? Anxiety and alarm at first prevail; then a woman's pity and charity leap to the front, and bandages and lint, and household nostrums are prepared, with all despatch to be sent for the benefit of the wounded. By good fortune the fight was on Saturday, and on the following day many a citizen of the town repaired to the camp to give relief to the suffering. There was Rev. Dr. French, the preacher to the South Parish, capable alike to minister physical and spiritual relief ; the Rev. David Osgood, a man of sensitive nature who shrank from the horrors of war, but yet was consumed with patriotic zeal; Major Samuel Osgood who had charge of the commissary ; Bimsley Stevens, the adjutant general ; Samuel Phillips, senior, and Samuel Phillips, junior ; Samuel Johnson, a colonel and the early recruiting officer of the region ; Major Thomas Poor, who first entered the volunteer militia as a captain, and Colonel Enoch Poor, who was destined ere the war closed to be advanced to the rank of general, and to become the friend and companion of Washington and Lafayette. All these claimed Andover as their home and birthright, and today we recite their names in the roll of her honored and patriotic children.
Shift the scenes of the war as they may, the same steady zeal fires the patriots both at home and in the field. The minute men are to be paid out of the town treasury.1 Everywhere there is fear of an invasion of British soldiers or an uprising of Tory sentiment. Watchmen are appointed to patrol the streets from nine at night to an hour after sunlight ; travelers abroad at night must tell their business ; if after being commanded to stop they fail to do so, the sentinels may fire; or if, indeed, they stop, but refuse to answer, they must be taken before a magistrate for exam- ination ; and if any person appointed to the watch refuse or neglect to serve, he is to be deemed " as unfriendly to the good order and unity of the town."2 As time goes on there is no abatement of ardor, and finally the first note of separation from the mother country appears on
1 Third Monday, May, 1775.
2 May 15 and 29, 177 5.
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the town records. It is the meeting of June 12, 1776, and this is the sole record :
" The question being put, whether should the Honble Congress for the safety of the Colonies declare them Independent of the Kingdom of Great Britian, you will solemnly engage with your Lives and Fortunes to support them in the measure, it passed in the Affirmative unanimously."
The citizens of Andover had no doubt what would fill the measure of their desire, and they wasted no words over it; and the town clerk of this same year (1776) had the good fortune to copy at length into the town records within three weeks after this vote the Declaration of Independence. This was the end of British authority in the colonies, and for the first time the town meeting to be held in March, 1777, is called " In the Name of the Government and People of Massachusetts Bay ;" all warrants preced- ing this had been issued in the name of the existing sovereign of Great Britain.
Time is not at hand to give in detail all the history of Andover in the Revolution. From Lexington, through Valley Forge to York- town, her sons are found ever conspicuous in the field ; her quota of men is always full, and during the whole period of the war she sent into the service over six hundred men. And these men were well sustained in return by the town; the families of non-commissioned officers and privates are to be supplied with necessaries ; 1 every soldier is to be provided with one pair of shirts, two pairs of stock- ings, and one pair of shoes and a blanket ;2 £1,800 are voted to be placed in the hands of the various officers commanding the companies of militia to enable them to fulfil their contracts with the soldiers ; 3 every soldier engaged in the town's service is to receive twenty-five bushels of Indian corn per month, or the amount of the circulating medium that shall be equivalent to the price of the corn when the same shall become due,4 and finally as a bounty to be paid annually in addition to every other encouragement, each soldier is to receive ninety-five Spanish dollars for each year he shall continue in the ser- vice, and the town further votes to make up any depreciation in the pay in continental money given by the general government to the soldiers.5
1 November 18, 1777. 4 June 20, 1780.
' February 16, 1778.
8 July 2, 1779.
5 December 20, 1780.
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As familiar as the story of the battles of the Revolution, is the history of the decline in value of the circulating medium ; the paper currency issued by the Continental Congress had not even belief or confidence in the government to rest upon, and consequently each issue of it only made it less valuable ; the result was a great decline in its purchasing power; £300 are voted for highways in 1778, but in 1781, £20,000 are voted for this purpose; in October, 1780, £42,000 are voted to purchase the town's quota of beef. for the army, but by December 21, 1780, the amount voted for this purpose reached the colossal sum of £78,748 ; while it is voted that £175,000 be raised to pay the wages of the men that had enlisted for three and for six months. These last amounts represent the high water mark of inflation, and December 24, 1781, the selectmen and town treasurer are directed to liquidate all the outstanding indebted- ness of the town on the basis of one dollar in specie for seventy-five dollars in currency. This uncertainty in the value of the circulating medium added immeasurably to the hardships of our ancestors in the Revolution ; but, as every other difficulty in those times, it was met and conquered, for, in 1782, the appropriations are back again to their modest dimensions, and the country was once more on a specie basis ; and there, so far as Andover had any influence, it would certainly remain, for October 17, 1785, Andover votes with only two dissenting votes as follows : -
" Whereas it has been said that a Neighboring Town has lately by a Public Vote expressed a disposition for a paper Currency,
VOTED, - That Joshua Holt Esqr. be and he is hereby instructed in case any motion shall be made in the General Court introducing a Paper Medium rigorously and perseveringly to oppose the same as being a measure in our Opinion to promote Idleness, dissipation and dishonesty, and by destroying the Morals of the People to bring on the ruin of the Commonwealth."
One hundred and eleven years have not lessened the truth here expressed, and I suggest that this vote be amended by inserting after the words " paper medium," the words "or silver," and that, so amended, it be handsomely engraved and framed, and presented to the Senate of the United States to be hung upon its walls, to the end that it may teach that forgetful assemblage what a little inland town regarded as rudimentary in 1785, and what uniform experience has dictated, and what common sense and business integrity demand.
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It is impossible within the limits assigned for this portion of your exercises to do adequate justice to the record of Andover in the Revo- lutionary struggle. It is a noble record of noble deeds. There in its full development is the spirit of patriotism ; the capacity to do and to suffer, that enabled the citizen, whether at home or in the field, to do valorous deeds or undergo sacrifice in behalf of his town and colony ; there is the shrewd intelligence that directed all the movements of the · difficult struggle ; there is also the faith in the rectitude of their cause, that, clothing them as it were in a religious armor, sent them forth in the crusade for freedom and complete independence, determined on victory.
To him who shall address the town on her three hundredth anni- versary, I leave the pleasing duty of presenting the record of Andover in the Civil War. That record has been compiled by a citizen of the town with great care and research, and there it stands a possession for all time, without ornament or illustration, telling its inspiring story of fidelity to duty, of personal bravery and sacrifice. In the press of topics that demand utterance on this occasion, this reference to Mr. Raymond's admirable compilation should suffice, but, founded as this address is upon the theory that in all her achievements Andover has always been true to her puritan origin, I can but pause here to ask how far the puritan element entered into the services she rendered to the nation, when the authority of the government was defied by the South.
The wars of puritanism have always been founded on some exalted principle in morals or politics. This is as true of the Revolution in 1775, as it was of that first great puritan war whose tragic event was the death of Charles I. Contrast with these the wars of France in the early years of the century ; they were fought only to further the ambitious schemes of Bonaparte. The Six Weeks War in 1866 was fought solely for the aggrandizement of Prussia, while the Franco- German War of 1871 had no other ground than the jealously of Na- poleon III of the growing power of Germany. But the Civil War in America was founded on the principle of human freedom, and it was a battle for human rights. Our ancestors of the revolutionary period spread out to the world in the Declaration of Independence their fine generalities on the equality before the law of all men; yet there was scarcely one of the signers of that document that did not
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