USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Dedham > History of Dedham, Massachusetts > Part 39
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The General Court on June 24, 1675, issued a notice to the Militia of Boston and vicinity, that a hundred able bodied soldiers be immediately impressed for the aid and assistance of the Plymouth settlement, against the Indians. In response to this request a company mounted as dragoons marched out of Boston, with a troop of horses, on June 26, 1675. They reached Dedham in the evening and halted during what was evidently an uncalcu- lated eclipse of the moon. Some of the soldiers could not be per- suaded but that the eclipse was ominous. Some professed to be able to discern "an unusual black spot" in the center of the moon which looked like an Indian scalp. Others saw an Indian bow. After a while their fears were allayed and the company marched on.
The evolution of firearms used by Dedham soldiers in the Wars of the country is as follows: The gun was very simple, at first having a tube closed at one end with a hole in the side for touching off the powder. Then came the matchlock which was an improvement on what went before. The flintlock was its succes- sor. A powder was devised that would explode under concussion which was used as a coating for an iron cap, then came the copper cap. Some one invented the cartridge and the old muzzle loaded * The great gun called a "drake" was given to the town in 1653 by the General Court.
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POWDER HOUSE
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gun gave place. Finally the machine gun firing ten times a sec- ond, six hundred times a minute came along. Guns were very necessary in the pioneer period of our history when it was a part of every boy's training to learn to be a good shot. Many went guarded as in the popular Thanksgiving picture of the Puritans. In 1650 a rate of "penny farthing per £" was assessed for the purchase of ammunition. Medfields' claim, in 1651, of a part of the Town's stock of ammunition was denied. The Selectmen in March, 1653, ordered that the Towns' ammunition be laid up in a place to be made safe for it under the roof of the meeting house over the east gallery. Timothy Dwight was requested February 28, 1661 to procure a barrel of powder, in exchange for the old powder owned by the Town. January 1, 1666-7 it was ordered that Roxbury be paid £2-2s, in corn at the current price, for pow- der, the use of the great gun and other charges in the last Gen- eral Training. Sergeant Richard Ellis and Sergeant Daniel Pond were appointed August 28, 1675 "te fixe the great gune and to prepare it with ammunition for the vse of The Towne." De- cember 20, 1675 there was delivered to Ensign Thomas Fuller, two barrels of powder, three hundred pounds of lead, and four pounds of matches, the Town's stock of ammunition at a cost of $14-12s-6d, and an additional charge of 5s, for bringing the stock from Boston. Ensign Fuller brought in his bill, December 22, 1682, for keeping and maintaining the Town's stock of ammuni- tion for the preceding eight years of £4. The Selectmen desired him to abate 10s, which he freely did also £1-10s, more for which the Selectmen in behalf of the Town returned him thanks.
KING PHILIP'S WAR. Dedham was a busy place in King Philip's War. The lower plain, now a part of Readville, was the rendezvous of the Massachusetts soldiers during King Philip's War. Here they mustered on December 9, 1675, at which time General Winslow assumed command and the following morning, in the name of the Governor, assured the forces that if they played the man, took the fort and drove the enemy out of the Narragansett County, they should have a gratuity of land beside their wages. This obligation was later kept in grants of land of which soldiers, or their heirs, were recipitants. It has been said that the King Philip War commenced in Dedham woods in the
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finding of the body of a white man slain by the Indians. On the morning of Thursday, April 3, 1671, Zachariah Smith was killed by Indians on the road leading from Walpole Center to Wrentham. This murder "proved to be the first flicker in an impending con- flagration." How well the soldiers "played the man" in King Philip's War is attested by the Great Swamp Fight on Sunday, December 19, 1675, when the Sabbath stillness was broken for more than three hours by the sound of guns and the screech of the Indians, of whom it is supposed about three thousand, four hundred were killed, a large part of whom were women and chil- dren. A few of the Indians were able to escape but the remainder were killed, burned in their wigwams to which the soldiers set fire. Nothing in our history better illustrates the extreme cruelty of war. John Bacon of Dedham was among those killed.
After the destruction of the Narragansett fort, bands of In- dians continued to roam the woods. Early in July, 1676, Judge Sewell wrote in his diary that "not many miles from Dedham" a party of friendly Indians, led by two whites, set upon the enemy, "slew five and took two alive." Later in the same month Hubbard tells us that friendly Indians reported having seen a band of Indians roaming up and down the woods about Dedham almost starved for want of food. A company under Captain Hunting, accom- panied by friendly Indians, set out for this roaming band of whom many were killed and fifty taken prisoners, together with a goodly store of wampum and powder. Among those killed was Pomham. He was considered by the English the ablest soldier of the Nar- ragansetts in his day. He was killed on July 25, 1676, desperately fighting for his life in the woods of Dedham territory. So King Philip's War came to a close in Dedham in the killing of an Indian Chief as it had commenced in Dedham in the slaying of an Eng- lishman .. The following residents of Dedham were soldiers in King Philip's War :*
John Aldis Thomas Bishop
William Dean
Thomas Aldridge
Ephraim Colburn
Andrew Dewin
William Avery John Colburn
Timothy Dwight
John Bacon Samuel Colburn
John Fairbanks
John Battle
John Coocham
David Falkner
Richard Bennett
John Day
David Falkner, Jr.
* In the Pequot War a company of Massachusetts troops mustered in Dedham on October 9, 1654, and marched to Providence and then along the westerly shore of Narragansett Bay to the Niantic country.
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Nathaniel Farrington
David Hawes
Nathaniel Stearnes
Daniel Fisher
James Herring
Thomas Thurston
Jeremiah Fisher
Thomas Herring
John Ware
David Freeman
William Mekeynis
Nathaniel Ware
Samuel Fuller
Benjamin Mills
Benjamin Wight
Jonathan Gay
Ephraim Pond
David Wight
John Grace
Samuel Rice
Ephraim Wilson
Samuel Guild
Edward Sewell
Peter Woodward
Samuel Sheds
*The following names of Dedham men (not found in the State Archives) are given by Haven in the appendix to his anni- versary address as taking part in King Philip's War.
John Baker Eleazer Guild
Caleb Rey
Samuel Barry
Daniel Haws
John Rice
William Blake
Abraham Hathaway Nathaniel Richards
Daniel Breight
Nathaniel Heaton
Joseph Skelteane
Jonathan Dunning
John Houghton
John Smith
Nathaniel Dunklin
Nathaniel Kingsbury
Jonathan Smith
John Ellis
Jonathan Metcalf
John Streeter
John Elleworth
James Macanab
James Vales
John Fisher
Samuel Nowannett
Josiah White
Joshua Fisher
John Paine
Samuel Whiting
Jonathan Fairbanks
John Parker
Jonathan Whitney
John Fuller
In addition to the above named, the following are spoken of as having been "impressed by virtue of a warrant from ye major."
John Freeman
John Day Robert Ware
Samuel Colburn Henry Elliot Ephraim Pond
FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS. It was apparent for a long time after King Philip's War, that a contest between England and France was bound to come in America. The colonists on the fron- tier of New York and New England, suffered severely from raids of the Indians under French command. The French thinking that Cape Breton was the key to their vast possessions beyond, de- termined to build a fortress that would command both the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic seaboard. The result was that in 1720 Louisburg was built and a walled town created. At the be- ginning of the French and Indian Wars, the settlers in all the outlying towns were fearful of attacks because they could not tell friend from foe, among the Indians. All friendly Indians were therefore ordered to the Natick or Ponkapoag reservations, where, to insure their remaining, a roll call was ordered for every morn- ing. The French had built not only a strong fort at Louisburg, but forts in several other important places in this country, which
* Bodge's Soldiers in King Philip's War.
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they defended with the help of their Indian Allies. Against the fortifications, Lake George, Crown Point and Ticonderoga, the men of New England were especially engaged. As in all other wars Dedham was fully represented in these contests. In 1745 a great expedition was organized under Governor Shirley to capture Louisburg. The expedition was approved by the General Court and put under the command of Colonel William Pepperell. While the forces were made up of soldiers, sailors, farmers, preachers, and zealots, Dedham had a goodly number of farmers in the ser- vice. The Reverend Thomas Balch of the Dedham South Parish (Norwood) was a chaplain in the service of which the famous Parson Moody was the head chaplain. Ninety transports carry- ing the men and their supplies sailed out of Massachusetts Bay on March 24, 1745. The whole force consisted of between four and five thousand men of whom 3,250 were from Massachusetts. The troops suffered almost increditable hardships, sleeping in the open, wading in icy water, dragging heavy guns on rude sledges across miles of oozy marsh and suffering much from sickness. The Seige of Louisburg* continued from the last of April, 1745 until June 17, a prophetic date-at which time the army entered and took possession of this strong and important post, assisted by the British navy. The capture of the town and fort was regarded as so important, that ships were immediately dispatched to Boston and to England with the glad tidings. The day following the re- ceipt of the news was celebrated in Boston in a very grand and splendid manner, being ushered in by the ringing of bells, and at noon by the discharge of the guns at Castle William, the north and south batteries, and the ships in the harbor with their colors all displayed. In the evening there was a large bonfire on the common, where a large tent was set up and the populace enter- tained with plenty of wine. The whole town was beautifully illuminated and a great quantity of fire works set off. Although victory had fallen into the hands of the forces yet they did not escape reverses. On December 10, 1745, Colonel Pepperrell re- corded: It has been a sickly time among us, upwards of four hun- dred men have died since we entered the city. Of Dedham men
* The Dedham Historical Society has a cannon ball which came from the French 64 guardship "Le Calibre" which was set on fire by the explosion of the "Entriprenant" at the close of the seige of 1758.
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Nathaniel Corey and Samuel Thorp died at Cape Breton. Hugh Delap, a skillful gunner and engineer, was killed at the seige by the bursting of a cannon. John Thorp lived to reach Boston where he died. Captain Eleazer Fisher also died in Boston on his return and Ebenezer Sumner died soon after his return home. After all this suffering, Louisburg did not long remain in the possession of the English. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 restored all conquests to the former owners.
Massachusetts again in 1745 called her sons to arms and Cap- tain Eliphalet Fales of Dedham with his company threads his way through the wilderness to the shores of Lake George with First Sergeant Moses Fisher, Sergeant Timothy Ellis, Corporal Benja- min Holden, William Woodcock, John Hawse, John Scott, Eleazer Everett, David Fairbanks, Samuel Richards and* five others. The Massachusetts troops were placed under the command of General William Johnson and were engaged in the bloody battle in which the French were defeated. Captain Fales' enlistment dates April 5, 1745 and his term of service was thirty-nine weeks and three days. First Sergeant Moses Fisher and John Scott were killed. Today on the ruins of the ancient fort stands a monument com- memorating the Battle of Lake George, September 8, 1755, where, under General Johnson, his army of farmers and Mohawk braves defeated the French. It was at Fort Ticonderoga, (now almost fully restored), that the men of Dedham were most largely en- gaged during the French and Indian Wars. This fortification held by the military possessions of three distinct nations, French, Eng- lish and American was the "common theater of their glories and triumphs and their defeats and disasters."
Captain Eliphalet Fales' Company, took part in the expedition against Ticonderoga, which included more than fifteen thousand troops, the largest military force at that time ever assembled in America. The attack on the outworks of the fort was repulsed, with heavy losses, and the expedition wound up in a retreat with a heavy loss of men and supplies. Captain William Bacon of Ded- ham was at the head of a company in 1756, and by his muster-
* Their names are not known. Michael Bright, Samuel and William Wetherbee are recorded by tradition as members of this expedition. Judge Haven states as a tradition that about 1746, six men from the South parish engaged in an expedition against Havana and that not one of them ever returned. The names of two only are known, Walter Hixon and Eleazer Farrington.
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roll, made October 11, 1756, we trace the toilsome and weary march of his company. At the date of his return Ebenezer Pratt had fallen in battle, or been taken prisoner, with Joseph Lyon; six had died, including George Cleveland, William Smith, Benjamin Leidiot, Joseph Ephraim, Hosea Abraham, and twenty-three were sick, and of these Solomon Bullard died at Leicester, Timothy Lewis at Lake George, John Woodcock at Fort Edward; Joseph Lyons at Stillwater, William Lewis, Joseph Whittemore and Thomas Balch, Jr., at Albany; Eleazer Everett at Fort Cumber- land, Simon Potter on his return from Crown Point, and James Weathersbee after his return from Montreal.
Crown Point was originally an English trading station. About 1731 the French erected here a fortification, which in spite of hostile English expeditions, they held until 1759, when the garri- son, together with that of Ticonderoga, evacuated and the French and Indians retreated toward Canada. An important result of the early wars, was to impress on the colonists the need of united ac- tion, and the importance of self-reliance in times of trouble. The War came to a close with the treaty of Paris in 1763, the result of which brought the people of the different colonies into touch with one another. It is impossible to give a complete list of those who took part in the French and Indian Wars as such a list by residence does not exist in the State Archives. The following list is given by Haven in the Appendix to his address on the occasion of the Second centennial anniversary of the incorporation of Dedham:
Fairbanks, Benjamin
Lewis, Benjamin
Bacon, Capt., William*
Farrington, Hezekiah
Lewis, Joseph
Balch, Thomas, Jr.
Farrington, Joseph
Lewis, William
Backet, Samuel
Farrington, Ephraim
Little, Isaac
Bullard, Ezra
Farrington, Samuel
Mann, Robert
Calleyham, William
Farrington, Nathaniel
Morse, Gilead
Carby, John
Farrington, Seth
Morse, Joseph
Cleveland, David
Fisher, Moses
Richards, Ephraim
Dyer, Anthony
Gay, Aaron
Richards, Lemuel
Ellis, Capt., Timothy
Guild, Lieut., Aaron
Sterret, William
Ellis, William
Hawes, John
Thorp, Eliphalet
Everitt, Josiah
Turner, Joseph
Fales, Capt., Eliphalet
Lewis, John
Morse, Levi
Colburn, Samuel
Gay, Hezekiah
Richards, Moses
Ellis, Aaron
Hart, Stephen
Stowell, Isaac
Everitt, Ebenezer
Hart, William
* The Memorial Building at Norwood has a tablet bearing the names of 64 soldiers who served in the Colonial Wars from the South Parish listed by the late Fred Holland Day.
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Whitaker, James Whiting, Lieut., Daniel
Whittemore, Joseph
Whiting, Nathan Wight, Joseph Wight, Joseph, Jr.
Weatherbee, Thomas
Weatherbee, James
TRAINING FIELD-One of the requests made by the Ded- ham settlers in their petition to the General Court on September 5, 1636 asking for a ratification and enlargement of the grant "formerly made of a Plantacion above the Falls," was for "mili- tary exercises to be only in our own Towne except some extraor- dinary occasion require it." By order of the Court regular train- ing days were early required in the various towns in the Colony when the Militia Companies should exercise. The earliest mention of such a company in Dedham is in the records of Town meeting on May 11, 1637, when it was voted. Whereas Thomas Cakebread of Watertowne hath diursely manifested his desier to come and have a Lot wth vs. It is agreed yt vpon good consideracon of his knowledge in Marshiall afayers & in other cases he may become an vsefull man in our Towne. Therefore Abraham Shawe Clark of our trayned band Daniell Morse Sariant, & Philemon Dalton are apoynted to treate wth him concerneing such pposicons as may be thought Fitting concrneing the same his entereynemt.
An interesting article on "The Training Field" by the late Don Gleason Hill, Esq., says: Several years before the settlement of Dedham, in the very infancy of the Colony, the General Court passed an order "that every Captaine shall traine his Compaine on Saterday in everie weeke"; and from time to time thereafter other similar laws were made requiring the settlers to become familiar with military practise and discipline, and but few were excused from this duty; and so frequently were the men called upon to "trayne" that the proprietors of towns set apart grounds therefor. The land set apart in Dedham for that purpose included what is now known as the Great Common at the upper village. Although the exact date when this lot was first used as a training ground cannot be determined from the record, yet as the law no less than the necessities of the situation required them to train, it seems reasonable to infer that it was at the very beginning of the settlement, and that the place first designated continued to be used; for the records show that in 1637 there was a "trayned' band organized with Clerk and other officers." In 1644 a grant was made to the military company of "two acres more as it lyeth
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on the westerly end of the trayning ground:" and in 1648 a con- firmatory grant was made to the company, its officers and suc- cessors, of the free use of all that parcel of land commonly called the training-ground; and this grant provided that the same could not be sold except by the consent of the company and the select- men.
That coming generations may not forget the location of the training-ground, nor the dangers and hardships endured and over- come by the founders of this town even from the very beginning, and as a simple memorial thereof, there has been erected upon the east corner of the field, at the junction of High and Common streets, a plain block of Dedham stone, bearing the simple inscrip- tion-
The Training Field in 1636 ;
POWDER HOUSE. The Powder House unlike the Round Towers of Ireland whose history lies in the distant past, the Ded- ham Powder House was built for a specific purpose and has never been the scene of any historical event. From the earliest settle- ment of the town the inhabitants had both by statute law and for their own protection to provide for the storage of ammunition for their defence against the Indians. By order of the General Court every man was required to be furnished "with good and sufficient arms" and those unable to buy them were supplied by the town, and every town was enjoyned to have a common stock of ammu- nition and a safe and convenient place in which to keep it. The ammunition was at first distributed among the families of the town. The first record of the Town relating to a place for the storage of ammunition is found in December, 1653 when £1, 5s, 8d was given to Eleazer Lusher for work about the ammunition place. In September, 1673 the new meeting house was used for the storing of ammunition as the General Court had ordered the town to prepare for war with the Indians. It was not, however, until after the French and Indian Wars that any action was taken in regard to a building for its storage. March 1, 1762, "It was put to the Town to see if the Town will build a Powder house" but
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further action was referred to the next May meeting. At this meeting it was "voted to have the Powder house builded on a great Rock in Aaron Fullers' land near Charles River." Nothing however was done in the matter until the May meeting, 1765, when it was voted to erect a building "Eight Feet Square on the outside, and Six Feet High under the Plates, the material to be of brick and lime morter." The Powder House was erected under the supervision of Capt. Eliphalet Fales, Mr. Daniel Gay, Mr. Ebenezer Kingsbury, Deacon Nathaniel Kingsbury and Capt. David Fuller. The Powder House was erected in 1766 and first used in the spring of 1767. It was built at a total cost of £12, 6s, 4d. The building was stocked with ammunition including a keg of flints in readiness for the old flint lock guns. In 1859 the building being sadly out of repair, an attempt was made to secure its removal by the town but the opposition to the measure was so strong that by private subscription the building was saved and all necessary work involved in repairing the house satisfac- torily accomplished. Again in 1886 the building was found to be in a state of partial dilapidation and in making repairs the original design was adhered to as closely as possible. Decayed parts were renewed, all wood work exposed to the weather painted and the brick walls painted anew. A bronze tablet has been inserted in the front wall bearing the following inscription :
The Powder House Built by the Town 1766
"This picturesque relice of Colonial times, with more than a century of associations clustered about it" is now, with the rock on which it stands, the property of the Dedham Historical Society which insures its future preservation.
CHAPTER XXV
REVOLUTION AND LATER WARS
In the Revolution, and in the steps which led up to the Revo- lution, Dedham had a proud part. When an effort was made to recall the charter, it was opposed by Captain Daniel Fisher of Dedham, who was then speaker of the House of the General Court. In 1681, Randolph, the agent of King James in the Colony, exhibited statements of misdemeanor against a faction of the General Court, to the Lords in Council. Among those selected to be the victims of royal indignation was Captain Fisher of Ded- ham of whom Randolph wrote to the Earl of Clarendon, that a warrant had been sent to carry him and three others, to England to answer for high crime and misdemeanor. It was at this time, 1686-1689, that Sir Edmund Andros was exercising his tyranny as Governor. He declared the title to lands to have become void by the dissolution of the charter and exacted heavy sums for re- purchase.
On the morning of April 18, 1689, the town of Boston was in arms. The Governor and Council were seized and confined and the old magistrates reinstated. Worthington describes the scene. When Sir Edmund was captured on Fort Hill, he surrendered and went unarmed to Mr. Usher's house, where he remained under guard for some hours. When the news of this event reached Ded- ham, Captain Daniel Fisher, the son of the patriot, a stout, strong man, possessing his father's hatred for the tyrant, and his reso- lute spirit, instantly set out for Boston, and came rushing in with the country folks, who were at such a rage and heat as to make all tremble. Nothing would satisfy the country party but bind- ing the Governor with cords and carrying him to a more safe place. Soon was Captain Fisher seen among the crowd, leading the pale and trembling Sir Edmund by the collar of his coat back to Fort Hill. He thus had the honor of leading the proud repre- sentative of a Stuart prince through the assembled crowd, to place him in safety.
During the ten years preceding the Revolution, town meet- ings were frequently held throughout Massachusetts in which the
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inhabitants entered into the discussion of questions of state with great earnestness. Dedham was no exception in this regard.
THE PILLAR OF LIBERTY. The Pillar of Liberty,* erected by the Sons of Liberty, was a wooden column about ten or twelve feet high which rested on the stone as a pedestal. Later, by vote of the Sons of Liberty, it was surmounted by a bust of William Pitt .** All that is now left of this anti-Revolutionary monument is the stone base on the Church Green. This monumental stone may well have been taken from the estate of Ebenezer Battle, a prominent member of the Sons of Liberty, on whose farm, on Westfield Street, like boulders are still found. The events which led up to the erection of monuments preceded by a few years the Revolutionary War.
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