History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 13

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 13

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"Our townsmen heard the roar of the artillery and the rattle of the musketry, and they panted to join in the deadly combat. A little west of the meeting- house is a hill, around which the road wound in such manner as to conceal the British. Many of the men of Danvers went into a walled enclosure, and piled bundles of shingles, which were lying there, to strengthen their breastwork; rumor had deceived them as to the force of the enemy; it was certainly their expectation here to have intercepted their re- treat. Others selected trees ou the side of the hill, from which they might assail the enemy. But they had little space for preparation ; they soon saw the British in solid column, descending the hill on their right, and at the same moment discovered a large flank guard advancing on their left. The men in the enclosure made a gallant resistance, but were overpowered by numbers-it was here that several of

these whom we are proud to claim for our townsmen were slain-some sought shelter in a neighboring house, and three or four, after they had surrendered themselves prisoners of war, were butchered with savage barbarity."

"Capt. Foster, with some of his men on the side of the hill, finding themselves nearly surrounded, made an effort to gain the pond-they passed along its margin, and crossed the road directly in front of the British column. On the north side of the road, they took position behind a ditch wall. From this casual redoubt they fired upon the enemy as long as any of them were within reach of their muskets. Some of them fired eleven times, with two bullets at each dis- charge, and it cannot be doubted that these winged messengers of death performed their destined work. The bodies of the slain were scattered along the road-the British were followed till they reached Charlestown neck. Mortifying and severe to them were the defeat and losses of that day. Their killed, wounded and missing amounted to about three hun- dred. According to an account published at the time, in the form of a hand-bill, forty-two Americans were killed and twenty-two wounded,-afterwards ascer- tained to be fifty killed."

Seven of the minute-men of Danvers were among the killed. Their names were Samuel Cook, George Southwick, Henry Jacobs, Ebenezer Goldthwaite, Benjamin Daland, Jotham Webb and Perley Put- nam. Of these the first five belonged to Capt. Fos- ter's company, and the last two to Capt. Hutchinson's. Sixty years afterward a granite monument was erected to the memory of those who fell in this bat- tle, upon the very spot where the minute-men had gathered together at the alarm of invasion. It stands at the corner of Main and Washington Streets in Pea- body, inscribed with the names of those who fell on that day, with the stirring motto " Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." It was originally placed in a little inclosure of green ; but the requirements of travel have narrowed its limits to the simple base of the shaft. A movement was once made in behalf of some who begrudged the space which it occupies in the road, to have it moved aside, out of the travelled way. Long may it be before the spirit of utilitarian- ism shall so prevail over the sentiment which built this simple and appropriate monument and placed it where its location has a deep significance, as to push it aside like a thing whose meaning is outworn and whose time is past.

On the evening after the battle, the men of Dan- vers collected the bodies of their comrades, and lodged that night in Medford. The British had re- treated to Boston. On the next day the returning minute-men brought their melancholy burden home. The citizens went out to meet them, and as they came into town, a carriage escorted by the sexton of the South Parish conveyed the bodies of the slain. Four of the fallen, Samuel Cook, George Southwick, Henry

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Jacobs and Ebenezer Goldthwaite, were taken to the house of Samuel Cook, on Central Street, and buried from the South meeting-house on the Friday after the battle. The others, according to tradition, were taken to the house of Capt. Hutchinson, at New Mills, where the whole neighborhood gathered in grief to view the familiar faces. At the church on Friday the gallery was occupied by armed men. Two companies of minute-men from Salem joined with the comrades of the slain to do them military honor, and after the impressive service at the meeting-house, the soldiers, with reversed arms, muffled drums and measured steps, led the long procession. On the way they were met by a band of soldiers from Newbury- port, Salisbury and Amesbury, marching to join the army which was besieging Boston; these formed in single ranks on each side of the road, and the mourn- ful procession passed between them. Three volleys were fired over their graves, and so the earthly part of the first victims of the Revolutionary War in Dan- vers was consigned to its last repose. Although Dan- vers was situated farther from Lexington than any of her sister towns which were represented at the battle, yet she lost more of her children than any other town except Lexington. Many are the family traditions of heroic deeds on that day, in the fatal inclosure and on the hillside under the apple trees, where the meu of Danvers fought against such desperate odds.

Dennison Wallis and Joseph Bell, of Capt. Foster's Company, were taken prisoners. Bell was carried into Boston, and imprisoned two months in an Eng- lish frigate. Wallis, fearing that the infuriated Brit- ish were about to kill their prisoners, made a desper- ate attempt to escape. He received thirteen bullets, and falling by the side of a wall which he was leap- ing, was left for dead. He recovered and effected his escape. Ile lived for many years after the Revolu- tion, and his name is perpetuated by a bequest for the cause of education in his native parish. Nathan Putnam was wounded in the shoulder.

Capt. Foster's company suffered more heavily thau did Capt. Hutchinson's. When Foster's men threw themselves behind the inelosure from which they fired, Hutchinson, whose experience in the French Wars gave him knowledge, warned them to beware of the flank guard. In their laek of acquaintance with military affairs, they knew nothing of a flank guard, and firing on the main body as it passed, they rushed out to harass its rear, when, of course, they found themselves between two fires, where several fell. Job Wilson, it is recorded by Hanson, on examining his pocket after the engagement, found his coat and a square foot of gingerbread perforated by a bullet.

Capt. Eppes' company met and captured two wagons near Medford, escorted by eleven British soldiers, carrying supplies to the British. Sylvester Osborne, with others, was detached to eseort the prize to a place of safety, and they heard the firing, imme- diately after leaving the main body.

Col. Pickering's regiment did not march to the scene with the same alaerity which characterized the movements of the Danvers minute-men. At the Bell Tavern, they halted to arrange their places, and there was some farther delay in their movements.

The action of Colonel Piekering was afterward fully explained by the circumstances, but, as re- marked by Mr. Hanson, if he had been able to ad- vance with the rapidity shown by the Danvers com- panies, the presence of so large a force might have materially changed the result, and perhaps even re- sulted in the capture of the invaders. There is an account of the engagement, which was republished in the Boston News Letter, referred to by Hanson, which states that the attack of the Danvers companies was one of the occasions of the greatest loss to the Brit- ish; and, with an increased force, they might have succeeded in actually intercepting the column re- turning from Lexington.

It is related that while Colonel Piekering's com- pany was halted at the Bell Tavern, Elias Haskett Derby, who afterward became one of the wealthiest men in Salem, and one of the founders of its mercantile prosperity, went in to see Mrs. Southwick, the wife of Edward Southwick, who lived in a house standing within the memory of the writer, directly opposite the monument on Main Street. The Southwicks were Quakers, and could not consistently afford assistance to soldiers ; but the sympathy of Mrs. Southwick so far prevailed over her non-combative principles that she said to Mr. Derby,-" Friend Derby, thee knows that my principles will not allow me to do anything to encourage war; but as there is a long and tedious march before thee, and thee and those with thee may be in need of refreshment. this batch of bread, just taken from the oven, thee may take if thee please ; for it never can be wrong to feed the linngry." And she put into his knapsack a cheese, also.

Her willingness to render assistance in a good cause, in the most efficient manner which her princi- ples woukd permit, ealls to mind an anecdote of Squiers Shove, a Quaker afterward well known in the South Parish, who when asked, half in sport, to contribute to the purchase of a bell, which it was known was not favored by the Quaker sect, replied,- " No, I won't give thee anything for the bell, but I'll give thee a rope to hang the old thing with ; " which he did.

On the 17th of June Colonel Piekering's regiment, on its way to the field of battle at Bunker's Hill, passed through Danvers, and halted at the Bell Tay - ern for refreshment. The bystanders, impatient of the delay, remonstrated at the loss of time; and Mrs. Anna Endicott, the wife of Samuel Endieott, walked up to the colonel, and with the voice of an Amazon, as Hanson describes it, said, -" Why on earth don't you march? Don't you hear the guns in Charles- town ?"

The next January Nathan Putnam and Dennison

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Wallis applied to the Legislature for remuneration for their losses and the expense of their sickness from wounds received at Lexington, and a moderate ap- propriation was made for the purpose. In February, 1776, the House voted to Captain Eppes the follow- ing sums for the use of individuals who had lost guns, ete., on the 19th of April : Jonathan Tarbell, £2, 118 .; Henry Jacobs, £3, 88 .; heirs of Benjamin Daland, £2,4s .; Samuel Cook, £2, 128; Thomas Gardner, £1, 4s .; Nathaniel Goldthwaite, £2, 0s.

On February 6th and March 6th contributions were taken up for the army besieging Boston, and the South Parish gave £13, 13s. 6d.

On June 18, 1776, it was "Voted that if the Hon'ble Congress for the Safety of the United States Declare them Independent of the Kingdom of Great Brittain, we, the inhabitants of this town, do solemnly Engage with our Lives and Fortunes to support them in the measure." At the same time a bounty of £13, 6s. 8d. was given to each man who would en- list in the service of the colonies. The Declaration of Independence was unanimously adopted and copied at length in the town record.

During the whole war one hundred and ninety- seven men from Danvers served in the Continental army out of a population of about eighteen hundred. Probably about half of this number were from the South Parish.

CHAPTER LXXII.

PEABODY-(Continued).

From the Close of the Revolution to the Separation from Danvers.

AFTER the close of the Revolution the South Par- ish continued on a quiet and uneventful course; con- tributing little for many years to the material of his- tory. Its people nnited their action with that of the other parish in many public matters which came be- fore the town-meeting. They contributed men toward a company for the suppression of "Shay's Rebellion ;" they joined in resolutions commenda- tory of John Adams' administration in 1799; and in 1808 they successfully contested an effort to unite the North Parish to Salem. They sent some in the com- pany which left Danvers in December, 1787, and settled in Washington County, Ohio, as they had pre- viously taken part in the settlement of New Salem in 1734, and in other emigrations.

The war of 1812 with Great Britain was very un- popular in the town, and on the 13th of July the town passed resolutions strongly condemning the war. Several companies were, however, raised to re- sist invasion, and that from the southern and western part of the town was commanded by General Foster, with Johnson Procter and Nathan Felton as lieu- tenants, Daniel King, ensign, John Upton, orderly

sergeant, and as privates many of the well-known and substantial citizens of the town. Hanson gives a partial list of the company, including William Poole, Eben S. Upton, Rufus Wyman, Eben King, Amos King, John Goldthwaite, John Osborn, Oliver Saunders, Joseph Griffin, Stephen Procter, Asa Bushby, Asa Tapley, James Wilson, Elisha Wilson, John Needham, Jonathan Osborn, Amos Osborn, W. W. Little, James Southwick, Joseph Shaw, George Southwick, Sylvester Osborn, Jr., Benjamin Ste- phens, Benjamin Gile, Elisha Gunnison, Eben Os- born, Solomon MeIntire, William Sutton, Samuel Buxton. There were about as many more whose names cannot be ascertained.

There were two alarms when this company, together with one from the northern part of the town, was called out. One was caused by a boat laden with sea-weed passing by Hospital Point, where the Ar- tillery was posted. The boat was mistaken for a British barge, and as it returned no answer on being hailed, it was fired upon. The alarm of invasion spread far into the country. On the other occasion, September 28th, the Artillery was alarmed by some men who were drawing a seine, and fired again, spreading a false alarm, which is said to have tra- velled far into New Hampshire. The companies in both instances marched without delay to the post of supposed danger.

THE LEXINGTON MONUMENT .- The sixtieth an- niversary of the battle of Lexington was chosen for the dedication of a monument to those citizens of Danvers who fell on that memorable day. It is built of hewn sienite, and was formerly surrounded by an iron railing, which inclosed a small square of grass in which the monument stood. But with the in- creased use of the streets it became more difficult to keep this little strip of turf in proper condition ; the fence fell to decay, and as the travel and the intro- duction of the horse railroad to Lynn demanded more room, a simple foundation of hewn stone was substituted for the turf and iron railing, and the monument still occupies its old site, on the very place where the minute men gathered on the morn- ing of the battle, and from which they took up their hurried march to Cambridge. The monument is twenty-two feet high, and seven feet broad at the base. On the easterly side is the following inserip- tion, on a slab of white marble set into the face of the monument :

BATTLE OF LEXINGTON,

April 19, 1775.

Samuel Cook. F.t. 33

Benj. Daland Et. 25

George Southwick I`t. 25

Jotham Webb .Et. 22

Henry Jacobs Et. 22

Eben'r Goldthwait Et. 22

Perley Putnam

Et. 21

Citizens of DANVERS Fell on that day. " Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

On the westerly tablet is inscribed "Erected by lyn, Ephraim Smith, Jonathan Porter, Joseph Tufts, Citizens of Danvers on the 60th Anniversary, 1835." William Flint.

As the nineteenth fell on Sunday, Monday the twentieth was selected for the laying of the corner- stone. At ten o'clock a procession of Revolutionary patriots and citizens of Danvers and vicinity was formed in the square before the Old South Meeting- House under the direction of the marshals of the day. The Danvers Light Infantry, commanded by Capt. William Sutton, and the Danvers Artillery un- der Capt. A. Pratt, with military music, escorted the proces-ion, which proceeded through Main Street to the old burial ground near the Salem line, where sev- eral of the slain were buried. Three volleys of mus- ketry were fired over their graves, and the procession then marched to the site of the monument, then call- ed Eagle corner. The order of services was announ- ced by John W. Proctor, Esq., and Rev. Charles C. Sewall, of the First Unitarian Church, offered prayer. The venerable General Foster, with the surviving officers and soldiers of the Revolution, proceeded to piace the corner-stone, beneath which was deposited a box containing various memorials of the times spe- cially prepared for the occasion, including late copies of some of the newspapers of the vicinity, printed on cloth, and records durably engrossed upon parchment.

General Foster then briefly addressed his fellow- citizens with a few words full of simple eloquence, and the stone was put in its place. The artillery fired a salute of twenty-four guns, and amid the ringing of church-bells and to the stirring strains of " Auld Lang Syne," the procession marched to the Old South Church, the very building in which, sixty years be- fore, the solemn and impressive funeral services of four of the young heroes had been held with the sub- dued clank of arms in the gallery full of soldiers and amid the deep and passionate stirrings of patriotic emotion which realized that the war of freedom had indeed begun. The church, though enlarged from its dimensions at that carlier time, was crowded in every part, and hundreds were unable to gain admittance. The following was the order of services: 1, 100th Psalm, tune Denmark; 2, Hymn, by R. S. Daniels; 3, Prayer, by Rev. Geo. Cowles; 4, Hymn, by Fitch Poole, Jr .; 5, Address, by Hon. D. P. King; 6, Patri- otic Ode, by Jonathan Shove ; 7, Concluding Prayer, by Rev. J. M. Austin. At the close of the services at the church, the original honorable discharge of J. B. Winchester from the Revolutionary Army was presented and read, bearing the signature of George Washington. Mr. Winchester entered the Continen- tal Army at the age of fourteen, and was only just of age when discharged. Nineteen survivors of the Lexington fight and of the Revolutionary Army oc- cupied the pews in front of the pulpit, and added greatly to the interest of the occasion. Of these the following were natives of Danvers: Gideon Foster, Sylvester Osborne, Johnson Proctor, Levi Preston, Asa Taj ley, Roger Nourse, Joseph Shaw, John Joce-

After the services at the church a procession was again formed and escorted by the Danvers Light In- fantry to the Essex Coffee House, where about two hundred, including the Revolutionary veterans, were served with a collation. Patriotic sentiments and toasts followed, in which the veterans and the com- pany present joined. The projector of the monument was John Upton, and its architect Asher Benjamin.

It was noted as a curious coincidence that there ap- pears on the western side of the monument, above the marble slab, a dark marking on the face of the sienite caused by the mingling of some darker stone, which the cutting of the stone has brought to a strik- ing resemblance of the Phrygian cap-the liberty-cap, so-called, for ages the symbol of freedom, and ever worn by the statued representations of the Goddess.

On the 6th of May, 1852, Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, visited the town, and made a brief but elo- quent address at the Lexington Monument, in which with the happy facility for historical allusions which was one of his most remarkable characteristics, he referred pertinently to the heroic deeds of the Revo- lution, and spoke of the honorable part which the men of Danvers bore in the battle of Lexington and their readiness in hurrying to the scene of Leslie's retreat. He was received by a committee chosen by the town, and was welcomed in an address by John W. Proctor, Esq., a son of Capt. Johnson Proctor, of Revolutionary fame, and a descendant of that John Procter who fell an early victim to the witchcraft delusion.

THE GREAT FIRE .- On September 22, 1843, a very destructive fire occurred in the South Parish, and con- sumed a large amount of property in the vicinity of the square, including the Second or South Congrega- tional Church, a new building partially completed, the Essex Coffee-house, and twelve other stores and houses, with a large number of sheds and outbuild- ings. The Unitarian Church and several other buildings caught repeatedly, but by great exertions of the citizens assisted by help from neighboring towns, the progress of the fire was checked after pro- perty valued at seventy-five thousand dollars had been destroyed, of which twenty-five thousand dollars was insured. The blow was a severe one, but the enterprise of the community soon replaced the burned buiklings, and the town gained in appearance from the misfortune.

The war with Mexico was very unpopular through- out the town. Hon. Daniel P. King, of the South Parish, was at that time the Representative of the district in Congress, and he maintained the strongest opposition to the war, in which he was fully sup- ported by his constituents. On December 16, 1847, the town held a meeting, and resolutions drafted by John W. Proctor were passed condemning the war as an unrighteous one, and declaring against the

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acquisition of territory by conquest; and among other resolutions was the following :

" While we acknowledge 'all men to be born free and equal,' we can- not consistently with this principle do anything whatever that shall have a tendency to extend that most disgraceful feature of our institu- tions, Domestic Slavery."

Only five men from the whole town of Danvers were engaged in the Mexican War.

CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION .- On the 16th of June, 1852, the town of Danvers celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of its separate municipal ex- istence. A procession illustrating the manners and customs of the early settlers, and brilliant with allegorical figures and representations of foreign cos- tume, was escorted by military forces and by the firemen of the town ; it was made up largely from the pupils of the publie schools. An address by John W. Proctor and a poem by Andrew Nichols were delivered in the old South Church with music and religious exercises. After the exercises in the church a dinner was given in a canvas pavilion on the Crowninshield estate, at which many interesting addresses were given by the invited guests of the town, many of them distinguished in public life or eminent for historic learning. The full account of this very interesting anniversary celebration belongs inore properly to the history of Danvers; but it was at this dinner that the first gift of George Peabody to his native town was offered, in a letter acknowledg- ing his invitation to the centennial celebration. In this letter he inelosed an envelope with a direction that its seal was not to be broken till the toasts were being proposed at the dinner. After a toast to George Peabody, the letter of acknowledgment was read, and the seal of the inclosed envelope broken. It contained a sentiment by Mr. Peabody, which has become the the motto of the endowments made by him for the benefit of education : "Education-A debt due from present to future generations. The letter continued :

"Io acknowledgment of the payment of that debt by the generation which preceded me in my native town of Danvers, and to aid in its prompt future discharge, I give to the inhabitants of thut town the sun of twenty thousand dollars, for the promotion of knowledge and moral- ity among them.

" I beg to remark, that the subject of making a gift to my native town has for some years occupied my mind, and I avail myself of your pres- ent interesting festival to make the communication, in the hope that it will add to the pleasures of the day.

"I annex to the gift such conditions only as I deem necessary for its preservation and the accomplishment of the purposes before named. The conditions are, that the legal voters of the town, at a meeting to be held at a convenient time after the 16th June, shall accept the gift, and shall elect a committee of not less than twelve persons, to receive and have charge of the same, for the purpose of establishing a Lyceum for the delivery of lectures, upon such subjects as may be designated by & committee of the town, free to all the inhabitants, under such rules as said committee may from time to time enact ; and that a Library shall he obtained, which shall also be free to the inhabitants, under the di- rection of the committee.

" That a suitable building for the use of the Lyceum shall be erected, at a cost, including the land, fixtures, furniture, &c., not exceeding Seven Thousand dollars, and shall be located within one-third of a mile of the Presbyterian Meeting House occupying the spot of that formerly

under the pastoral care of the Rev. Mr. Walker, in the South Parish of Danvers,

" That Ten Thousand dollars of this gift shall be invested by the town's committee in undoubted secmities as a permanent fund, and the interest arising thereupon to be expended in support of the Lyceum.

"In all other respects I leave the disposition of the affairs of the Lyceum to the inhabitants of Danvers, merely suggesting that it might be advisable for them, by their own act, to exclude sectarian theology and political discussions forever from the walls of the institution.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 13

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1672

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672