History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 167

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 167

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Mr. Clarke cultivated his farm by the help of his sons, and drew from it a considerable portion of the support of his large family. He was a diligent worker, both in the fields and in his study. Rev. William Ware, his grandson, states that during his ministry of. fifty years, he wrote 2200 sermons, and we may be sure that they were not brief ones ; an hour or an hour and a half in length was not unusual. Two of these discourses, with prayers and songs of similar proportions, occupied four or five hours of the Sabbath. Laboring on the farm, catechising the children of the schools, making long journeys to or- dain young men in the ministry who had grown np under his guidance, writing elaborate arguments for the right of the people to self-government, collecting food and fuel for " their distressed brethren in Bos- ; ton," working on the fortifications in the harbor with his parishioners, sending otl'reinforcements to the army from the young men of the town after exhortation

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and prayer in the church, serving as a delegate in the convention which formed the Constitution of the State, and preparing two sermons a week for the edi- fication of his people-such was the busy life of this noble man through his long pastorate. When his life closed, in November, 1805, his ministry and that of his predecessor had covered a hundred and five years of the history of the town and church, a period reaching from the accession of Queen Anne to the English throne to the presidency of Thomas Jeffer- son over the United States.

CHAPTER XLV.

LEXINGTON-(Continued).

MILITARY HISTORY.

THE military spirit in Lexington was strikingly manifest in all the Colonial wars, though the early history is so interwoven with that of Cambridge as to make it difficult to separate one from the other. We find, however, that men from Cambridge Farms were engaged in the Indian Wars at the close of the seventeenth and beginning of the eigh- teenth centuries, and also in those fierce and bloody . conflicts between France and England for supremacy on the American continent. In the capture of Louis- burg, in 1745, that great victory in which Massachu- setts troops bore so honorable a part, the men of Lex- ington were represented. And during the desperate struggle extending from 1755 to 1763, Lexington had its full quota continually in the service. Thirty-two men, in 1757, marched to the relief of Fort William Henry, a number fully equal to one-third of all the able-bodied men of the town. And in 1756 and 1759, the number from Lexington in the field was nearly as large. Among the names most prominent on the rolls are the Munroes, the Merriams, the Blodgetts and the Bridges, all of whom were found on the bat- tle-fields of this terrible war. These war-worn vet- erans were first and foremost in organizing and train- ing the minute-men of the Revolution. The hard discipline of that long struggle gave us officers and men of intrepidity and skill in the conflict with the best troops of Great Britain. The firmness and heroism with which Captain Parker's little company faced the regulars on Lexington Common was due largely to the men in his ranks who had seen service in the campaigns of the French and Indian War. At the close of this war, the whole population probably did not exceed 600, and yet Lexington furnished nearly one hundred men for the service whose names are given upon the rolls, and among these were four- teen Munroes.

LEXINGTON IN THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

-In the events preceding the opening of the conflict the town was prompt and decided in its action. The Stamp Act was passed and sent over in the summer of 1765. Its execution met with strenuous opposition wherever attempted. Those who offered the stamps for sale did so at the peril of their lives. A town- meeting was called, and a strong protest against the measure was drawn up and passed unanimously. It was an invasion of their rights as free-born English - men to tax them without their consent and without representation in Parliament. Two years later the town voted to concur with the non-importation act of Boston, and declared that those who persisted in using British goods should be regarded as public en- emies and treated accordingly. When the cargo of tea, sent over by the East India Company, arrived it was resolved " not to use any tea or snuff, nor keep them, nor suffer them to be used in our families till the duties are taken off." In January, 1773, a Com- mittee of Correspondence was chosen to keep the town informed of what other towns were doing, and of measures proposed for the public safety. In re- sponse to the action of Boston they wrote, "We trust in God that we shall be ready to sacrifice our estates and everything dear in life, yea, and life itself, in support of the Common Cause." Nor was their con- fidence in the patriotism of their fellow-citizens mis- placed. In the hour of trial it proved to be all that they had promised. The first convention to organize resistance to British oppression assembled at Concord August 30, 1774. It was composed of delegates from all the towns of Middlesex County, who solemnly pledged themselves to lay down their lives, if need be, " in support of the laws and liberties of their country." Such was the spirit animating the people when the great struggle was coming on, and which impelled them to offer themselves and all that they possessed on the altar of American independence. In their in- structions to their representative in the General Court (Deacon Stone), the town requires him to use his utmost influence that nothing he done there un- der the council appointed by the Governor or "in ' conformity with the late acts of parliament." At meetings held in November and December, 1774, the town voted "to provide a suitable quantity of flints, to bring up two pieces of cannon from Water- town and mount them, and provide bayonets for the training soldiers and a pair of drums." Thus Lex- ington was preparing for the appeal to arms in sup- port of the people's rights. The resolutions passed in town-meeting were backed by bayonets and cannon and men trained to use them.

In the first Provincial Congress, which met after adjournment at Concord October 11, 1774, it was de- termined that companies of minute-men should be or- ganized and drilled for action. Lexington was one of the first towns to respond to this order. A com- pany, numbering 120, was immediately enrolled, which included all the able-bodied men of the town.

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John Parker, then forty-six years of age, who, it is be- lieved, had seen service in the French and Indian war, was chosen captain. And for five months before the beginning of hostilities he was diligently drilling his men and preparing them to render efficient ser- vice. Not less than twenty-five or thirty were war- worn veterans, who gave steadiness and confidence to the others. Affairs were now rapidly drifting towards a collision with the British Government. The people were thoroughly aroused to the dangers besetting their liberties, and determined to resist further ag- gressions to the bitter end.

Such was the state of affairs at the adjournment of the second Provincial Congress, April 15, 1775. John Hancock, the president, and Samuel Adams, delegates from Boston, returned from the session to Lexington, and remained for a few days at the old parsonage with the family of Rev. Mr. Clarke. It was no longer safe for them to stay in Boston. An order had been sent to General Gage to have them arrested and brought to England for trial, and a second order directing that they should be arrested and hung in Boston, to strike terror to the hearts of Massachusetts rebels. On the afternoon of the 18th came rumors that some move- ment was about being made by General Gage into the country, and it was naturally supposed that the object must be the arrest of Hancock and Adams and the destruction of the public stores at Concord. A number of British officers had been seen riding through the town, as it was surmised, to reconnoitre the country and prepare the way for the expedition. People were everywhere on the alert, eagerly watch- ing and listening for tokens of the intended move- ment. For the protection of the distinguished visit- ors at the parsonage, a guard of eight men, under Sergeant William Munroe, of Captain Parker's com- pany, was placed around the house. This was early in the evening. Many of the minute-men were in the village waiting for news at the taverns and eagerly discussing these reports. In the meantime the lantern had been hung out from the steeple of the Old North Church, and Paul Revere was riding fu- riously towards Lexington with the intelligence that the regulars were surely on the march. He reached the old parsonage soon after midnight, but was de- nied entrance by Sergeant Munroe. Hancock, recog- nizing his voice, threw up the window and bade him come in. The news brought by Revere caused an immediate alarm to be rung from the belfry on the Common calling out Captain Parker's company. Men were sent down the road towards Boston to learn whether the red-coats were really coming, and Hancock and Adams were piloted by Sergeant Munroe to the house of James Reed, in Woburn, about two miles distant; while Revere rode on to- wards Concord to give the alarm there and secure the stores from destruction. The minute-men as- sembled on the ringing of the bell, many coming from their homes from one to three miles away. But, after

forming on the Common, the report came back that it was a false alarm, as nothing could be seen of the British. Accordingly, after waiting for some time, Captain Parker dismissed his men, as the night was cool, but bade them remain within sound of the bell, to respond to a second alarm, should the report of the British march prove true. This was about half- past two in the morning. The men remained in the vicinity of the Common, sheltered in the taverns or in the homes of their friends. Two hours passed quickly away, and at half-past four the sharp notes of the bell were again heard calling them together. There was not a moment to be lost. The regulars were not half a mile away. Sergeant Munroe had just re- turned from his trip to Woburn to conceal Hancock aud Adams, and he quickly formed the company on the Common, the right resting on Bedford Road, and the line extending towards the Concord Road. Here were drawn up abont seventy men, somewhere from six to ten rods in the rear of the meeting-house. They had on their ordinary clothes, worn in the work of the farm, of different colors and patterns, and their arms were the old fowling pieces used for generations in hunting the game of the woods. What was their purpose in forming there in battle array? They knew that a battalion of thoroughly disciplined and equipped soldiers, numbering not less than 600 men, were marching towards them. Could they, for a moment, think of resisting the King's troops, under the command of the King's officers, executing the purpose of the royal governor? How foolhardy such an idea must have seemed to thoughtful men. Prob- ably they felt that the time had come to defend their homes and their rights. They were to make good in brave deeds the resolves of the town-meeting and the counsels of their beloved pastor. It was vain to expect to stop the advance of this well-disciplined force with a mere handful of yeomanry; but they would stand up for the cause in which they believed, and die, if need be, to save their homes from pillage, and protect their wives and children. "Stand your ground; don't fire unless fired upon," were the words of their brave captain. "But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." Calm, firm, resolute was the spirit of the little band drawn up there in the early morning to receive the shock of battle.

The British, hearing the drum and alarm bell when a quarter of a mile from the Common, came rushing on under the lead of Major Pitcairn, riding a little in advance. They formed just behind the meeting- house, ten rods in front of the minute-men. In rough words Pitcairn commanded them to disperse. "Lay down your arms and disperse, ye rebels," which, being unheeded, he drew his pistol and fired, at the same time commanding his men to fire. The first shot harmed no one, and, the minute men still stand- ing their ground, the command was repeated. The second shot brought six brave men to the ground, killed or mortally wounded. Several shots were re-

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turned before the command was given to retreat and others were fired from behind stone walls and from the door of the Buckman tavern. One wounded man, Jonas Parker, was despatched by a British bayonet while attempting to reload his gun, and one was killed after leaving the Common. It was an unpro- voked attack, and it opened a breach which could never be healed.

In his report to General Gage, Pitcairn asserts that he was wantonly fired upon before giving the com- mand to his troops, and that one of his men was wounded. But this was certainly a mistake. Each party was anxious to lay the responsibility of the first firing upon the other ; so great was this desire on the part of some of the minute-men that they even testi- fied there was no firing whatever by Captain Parker's men. In the excitement of the moment it is not sur- prising that very different impressions should have been made upon different minds. But that Pitcairn fired himself and commanded his men to fire before a shot from the minute men, and that the British fire was returned before Parker's men left the Common, we have the positive testimony of many witnesses. The assertion that "no forcible resistance" was of- fered to the British until they reached Concord has no valid foundation. Pitcairn asserts that such re- sistance was made here, and those who made it have sworn to the fact.

After raising a brutal shout of triumph and firing a volley over the fallen patriots, the British marched on for Concord, where they arrived about nine o'clock in the morning. Captain Parker soon gathered his men together and followed in pursuit to the borders of Lincoln. During the British retreat in the after- noon, they joined the minute-men of other towns and. rendered good service in driving the flying foe back to Boston.

In the western part of the town, a mile and a half from the Common, on a steep hill well fitted for the purpose, the British officers attempted to rally their men and make a stand against their pursuers. A sharp fight ensued, in which they were driven in great disorder from the position to Fiske Hill, a higher elevation nearer the village. Here the fight was re- newed,-with the same result, Major Pitcairn being dismounted in the conflict and his horse, with all his accoutrements, captured. His elegant pistols, one of which he fired when the command was given in the morning on the Common, thus fell into the hands of the minute men. Subsequently they were given to General Putnam and worn by him during the war; recently they have been donated to the town by his great-grandniece, and are now preserved among the precious mementos of this day in the public library.

After the brief struggle on Fiske Hill, no further effort was made to stay the retreat until the disor- dered and flying foe had reached the protection of Earl Percy's reinforcements, half a mile below the Common, on the road to Boston. The proud and tri-

umphant battalion that raised the shout of victory on the Common in the morning were driver past that spot in the afternoon in a confused mass, their rauks sadly thinned and their spirits broken by six miles of a retreating fight.

Among the incidents of the day in Lexington was the encounter of young Hayward, of Acton, with a British soldier at a house near Fiske Hill, a mile west of the Common. On the retreat the soldier had entered the house for plunder and been left be- hind by his comrades. Hayward, following in the pursuit, stopped at the well in the yard to drink, just as the soldier came out of the door; raising his gun, the soldier said : "You are a dead man." "So are you," Hayward replied. Both fired at the same in- stant, and both fell, the soldier killed and Hayward mortally wounded.

When the retreating host gained the covert of Percy's succoring army they were utterly exhausted. The day was warm and they had been marching since ten o'clock of the night before, almost without halting, and without food, save what they had stolen from the houses along the road. It was now one o'clock in the afternoon. They had been on the road at least sixteen hours, and marched not less than twenty-five or thirty miles, a portion of the way fighting and running as they went. Their provision- train, sent out from Boston in the morning, had been captured at West Cambridge. It is evident that, with the minute-men pouring in upon the line of their retreat from a dozen different towns and assail- ing them at every point, their capture or total de- strnction was inevitable. A few hours more would surely have completed the work and seen the end of this proud battalion sent to strike terror into the hearts of the Middlesex patriots. Percy's reinforce- ments saved the expedition from overwhelming dis- aster. Planting his two field pieces on heights com- manding the village and covering the line of retreat, while he threw out columns to enclose the exhausted men of Colonel Smith's command, he was able to avert the great disaster. At the old Munroe tavern he established himself for two or three hours, while the wounded were cared for and the men rested and helped themselves to such food and plunder as they could find in the neighboring houses. Much wanton destruction of property took place in that vicinity. Several buildings were burned and snch valuables stolen as could be easily carried away. Cattle were killed, and one inoffensive old man who had mixed their drinks at the tavern bar was shot while attempt- ing to escape from the house. Some of their wounded were left in houses along the way to be cared for by the people whom they had so cruelly wronged.

After a rest of two hours the British march was re- sumed, the minute-men still pursuing the retreating foe and taking advantage of every favorable point to annoy and distress them. A running fight continued all the way to Charlestown where the beaten army

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

found protection and safety under the guns of the British ships. Thus ended this memorable day, the opening scene of the war. Capt. Parker's company lost ten killed and nine wounded, more than one-fifth of their number, and the loss to the town in the de- struction of property was estimated at £1761.

At the gathering of troops in Cambridge to shut the British army up in Boston, Capt. Parker was on duty with his minute-men, and also on the 17th and 18th of June, during and after the battle of Bunker Hill, when an attack was momentarily expected on that place. Capt. John Parker was an ardent patriot and a brave soldier. Had he lived, no doubt he would have taken a prominent part in leading our armies. But he was in feeble health at the time of the Lex- ington battle, and the excitement and responsibility of that day hastened his decline. In September fol- lowing he passed away, in the prime of his years, sin- cerely mourned by his fellow-soldiers and townsmen. His grave was made in the old cemetery of the vil- lage near the spot where his fallen heroes were laid, but not until more than a century had passed away was a memorial erected to mark the spot. In 1884 the town caused an appropriate and substantial monu- ment to be placed there "in grateful remembrance" of one whose name is associated with the proudest day of Lexington's history.

Nor did the interest of the town in the success of our arms end with the first events of the war. It continued unabated until the victory was won and in- dependence secured. Contributions of men and sup- plies to our armies were large and constant. The rolls, though very imperfect, show that up to 1779 Lexington men had taken part in seventeen cam- paigns. These include the siege of Boston, the expe- dition against Canada, the campaign at Ticonderoga., of Bennington, of Burgoyne's capture, of White Plains, of the Jerseys and of Rhode Island. In 1780 there enlisted thirty men from Lexington to serve for three years, or during the war. When we remember that the whole population at this time did not exceed seven hundred, it is obvious that a very large pro- portion of all those capable of bearing arms must have been in the field. Several hundred cords of wood, cut on the ministerial land, were delivered at the camp on Winter Hill while Washington was besieging Boston. Meat and clothing were sent to our distressed men while serving on distant campaigns, and boun- ties were liberally paid by the town to keep the ranks full. When the currency had so depreciated as to be nearly worthless, these bounties were paid in cat- tle ; five three-years old for three years' service ; five two-years old for two years, and five one year old for one year. In nearly all the famous battles of the war the men of Lexington were engaged. At Monmouth two, George and Edmund Munroe, were killed. There was no shirking of their burdens by the town, and to their credit be it recorded that not less than ten ne- groes, some of whom were slaves, enlisted in the ser-

vice, and some of them served through the whole war.

The anniversary of the Lexington battle has been observed with fitting services annually. In the year following it, Rev. Jonas Clarke preached a sermon which was published and, in an appendix, he has left a graphic account of the scene on Lexington Common which is undoubtedly accurate and reliable in every particular. Through the period of 115 years the anniversary has been commemorated by the ring- ing of bells and firing of cannon; by services of prayer and song, and patriotic addresses. Two years after the great event, in 1777, the town chose a com- mittee to take steps towards the erection of a monu- ment to those who were slain, but nothing was accom- plished until twelve years later, when, on petition of the town to the Legislature, an appropriation for the purpose was made, and the state and town united in erecting a simple memorial on the Common near the spot where the heroes fell. The monument was com- pleted on the 4th of July, 1799, and was one of the first raised to commemorate the events of the Revolu- tion.

On the sixteenth anniversary of the battle, in 1835, the occasion was observed by removing the remains of those who were killed from the old cemetery to a stone vault huilt in the rear of the monument. Their bones were reverently gathered up and placed in a mahogany sarcophagus, which was borne to the church by the survivors of the battle, where, after prayers and songs, an eloquent oration was pro- nounced by Edward Everett, then in the zenith of his power. The remains were then borne to their final resting-place under the monument, by the com- rades who had seen them fall, and volleys from the military companies fired over the tomb. Lexington has always delighted to honor the memory of the first martyrs to liberty who perished on her soil. And since the organization of the Historical Society, in 1886, the event has been observed annually hy a union religions service on the Sunday evening pre- ceding the 19th of April, and on the day itself by gathering the children of the schools in the town hall, where patriotic songs are sung and recitations given. The town has cheerfully and generously ap- propriated money to carry out these observances.

At the close of the War of the Revolution, the population of Lexington was estimated at about 800. In the first census taken by the Government, 1790, it was found to be 940, and in that of 1800, it had only increased to 1006. On the incorporation of Lincoln, in 1754, a slice of her territory had been cut off to form the new town, containing about a hundred in- habitants. The growth was somewhat retarded by this spoliation, but it has always been slow. During the War of Independence, she lost heavily of her able-bodied men, and, after it was over, the fever of Western immigration soon began to rage, carrying away many of her most vigorous and enterprising

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sons. The census of this year, 1890, shows a popu- lation of three thousand, two hundred, which is not a large increase from that of 1800; but, if moderate, it has been of a substantial and perma- nent character. The assessors' valuation of property in 1800 amounted to $250,000 ; that of this year will probably exceed $3,500,000, showing a high average of wealth to each individual-l'ew towns or cities of Middlesex County probably have a higher average -and showing an increase of wealth per capita from $125 to $1000, or 800 per cent., while the increase of population has been but 300 per cent. in these ninety years.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 167

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034