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CHAPTER XXII

GROTON PATRIOTS. -- THE FIRST RIDE OF PAUL REVERE, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. --JAMES SULLIVAN. -- GROTON INN. -- REV. SAMUEL DANA. -- CHARLESTOWN'S DISTRESS. -- STORY OF REV. JOSEPH WHEELER

      Before undertaking to trace the footprints of the patriots of Groton, it, may be well to consider a movement which may throw much light upon the acts of the men of this town.

      THE midnight ride of Paul Revere, made famous by the poet Longfellow, was not the first ride taken by that patriot in the interest of the colonial cause.
      He rode out to Lexington on Sunday the 16th of April with a message from Dr. Warren to the noted guests at the parsonage, they having left Concord on the previous afternoon at the adjournment of the Congress. The message was doubtless to the effect that the movements of General Gage indicated some decided action in the near future. Having delivered his message with promptness, Revere returned in the afternoon, when, before crossing the river from Charlestown, he made the arrangement with Colonel Conant for hanging the signal lanterns,

"One if y land, two if by sea;"

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a plan doubtless matured in his mind during his return trip from Lexington.
      While the Provincial Congress had adjourned on the 15th to meet again the next month, the Committees of Safety and Supplies, which had control of the military matters, etc., had not reached a final adjournment. They held a meeting on Monday following, and, it is inferred, began the session before the arrival of John Hancock from Lexington, who, doubtless actuated by the Sabbath message, secured a vote to send the cannon away to places of safety.
      A vote is recorded, "That the four six-pounders be transported to Groton, and put under the care of Colonel Prescott."
      Another vote, "That the two committees adjourn to Mr. Wetherby's" (The Black Horse) at Menotomy, at ten o'clock, explains the presence of a trio before mentioned, early driven from their lodgings on the night of April 18-19.
      Agreeable to the votes of the committee, the cannon were sent to Groton on Tuesday the 18th, arriving there late in the afternoon, at the very time the British troops in Boston were preparing to take their midnight march in search of them with other supplies.
      Having introduced this preliminary in order to make clear some of the movements of the Groton patriots, we now turn to consider the town's part in the memorable events.

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      Groton and Pepperell were territorially one in the early days, and their military relations were somewhat mixed at the time of the Revolution. The popularity of Colonel Prescott, whose home was at Pepperell, led many outside of his town to desire to be in the ranks under his command. There were four companies from these two towns early in the pursuit of the enemy on the 19th; while it is claimed that several patriots preceded the companies, and were at Concord in time to engage in the fight at the bridge. I give the story of Captain Aaron Corey, as told to me by William W. Wheildon, a noted historian, who had it from Mr. Wright, a grandson of Captain Corey. "My grandfather told me, that 'on the day before the Concord Fight, April 18, while I was ploughing in my field, some distance from the middle of the town, I received notice of a meeting of the minute-men, which, of course, demanded immediate attention. It was in the afternoon towards evening when I received the notification. I at once unhitched my plough, drove my oxen home, took down my gun and belt, told my wife Molly that I was going away and could not tell when I should come back, and that she must take care of the oxen. I then hastened to the middle of the town, and joined my comrades who had assembled there.
      "'The circumstance which had led them to call the meeting was the arrival of some brass cannon

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from Concord. Of course the presence of these immediately gave rise to discussion and speculation as to the reason for their being sent to Groton from Concord. Various suggestions were made, the most prominent of which was a proposition that the company should march at once to Concord; but this when put to vote was determined in the negative, most of the members preferring to wait for further intelligence.
      "'This conclusion was not satisfactory to all of us, and some determined to go at once. There were nine of us who started that evening. We travelled all night, carrying lighted pine torches a part of the way, and we reached Concord at an early hour of the morning [probably through Acton]. We entered one side of the town some hours before the British troops entered upon the other. We all went and got some breakfast at Colonel Barrett's house, which was later visited by the British troops in search of the cannon, ammunition, and stores, most of which had been fortunately removed the day before to places of safety. After getting something to eat, we proceeded toward the centre of the town, and soon joined the men of Concord, and finally were in the ranks of the minute-men at or near the North Bridge, where the fight with the British troops occurred. We kept with the minute-men, and followed the retreating troops to Lexington and beyond.'

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      "After telling me this story," said Mr. Wright, "my grandfather gave to me an old powder-horn which he had used during the war, saying, 'I took this from a British soldier who had been shot on the retreat to Lexington, and whose body was lying by the roadside in Lincoln.[1] Some of the other men took off his boots and some of his clothes.' The powder-horn," said Mr. Wright, "was quite a nice piece of work, and held just one pound of powder. It had a peculiar stopper (probably a spring snapper like some now known); and at the large end, on the under side (when hung over the shoulder), was engraved the English coat-of-arms, and on the upper side what they called the British ensign. The bottom of the horn was made of brass, saucer-shaped, with a hole half an inch in diameter in the centre serving as a tunnel to pour in the powder, with a wooden stopper. After using the powder-horn in many hunting excursions, it was finally lost in the burning of a house."
      Dr. Samuel A. Green, a distinguished son of Groton, has done much to perpetuate the record of some of the patriots who have been identified with his native town. From his record I gather the following facts: Although not a native, James Sullivan added lustre to the honor of Groton. He was born in the district of Maine, on April


[1] The dead soldier was probably one of those buried in Lincoln graveyard. See Lincoln.

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22, 1744, and spent his early years there. He was a member of three Provincial Congresses from Biddeford, during the years 1774 and 1775, and was a member of the General Court from the same town during the two succeeding years. On March 20, 1776, he was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of judicature, which position he held for six years. He went to Groton in 1778, to locate with this family in order to get away from the seacoast. In August of the same year he was chosen by the voters of Groton as a delegate to the convention for framing the Constitution of Massachusetts. In February, 1782, he was chosen, by a joint convention of both branches of the General Court, a delegate in the place of Samuel Adams to the Continental Congress, then in session at Philadelphia. He represented the town of Groton in the House of Representatives for thirteen years, and Medford for twelve years. He was speaker of that body for thirteen years, the longest term of service in that capacity ever held by one person. He was elected the seventh governor of the State in 1807, and died in office on Dec. 10, 1808.
      The town of Groton is notable for its many time-honored residences, but there is none around whose hearthstone so many of the heroes of the Revolution have gathered to smoke the pipe in peace as have assembled around the blazing fire at "Groton Inn."

[Photo - "Groton Inn"]

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      The guest of to-day, when crossing that well-worn threshold, can have no adequate idea of the dignified step of the man in clerical robes who went in and out this door at the times of peculiar trial in the colonies. It was then the parsonage; and here Rev. Samuel Dana resided with his family, honored and beloved by his people, until the political troubles of the Revolution began to crop out. His sympathies were with the crown, while those of his people were equally strong on the other side. The minute-men, knowing their pastor's sentiments, invited the Rev. Samuel Webster, pastor of the church at Temple, N.H., to preach to them at Groton. His sermon, delivered Feb. 21, 1775, was full of patriotic sentiment, and doubtless served to widen the gap between the pastor and people at Groton. Rev. Mr. Dana, firm in his conviction of duty, preached a sermon from his pulpit early in the spring, which together with other Tory acts led to his dismissal from the church and town.
      The vacated parsonage was occupied by Captain Jonathan Keep, and kept by him as a tavern during the latter part of the Revolution. Here the broken soldiers were wont to assemble, and tell how fields were won, while the crackling flames rolled up the chimney, and the oft-repeated three-penny glass of grog served to rekindle the fire of patriotism in the breasts of the heroes of Bunker Hill, Bennington, or Valley Forge.

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      The old parsonage, enlarged from time to time, has been kept as a tavern for the greater part of a century. The old soldiers long ago ceased to congregate beneath that ancient roof; but their noble deeds are still rehearsed at the cheerful fireside, and the old musket occupies a familiar place on the wall.

CHARLESTOWN.

      The geographical situation of Charlestown rendered the circumstances of her patriot citizens peculiarly trying. Separated from Boston by the narrow channel of the Charles River, and that continually traversed by a ferry, made the two towns practically one settlement. Every public movement of the Charlestown people was detected by Governor Gage, who through the aid of the Loyalists knew the entire workings of this near neighborhood. But even this did not deter the patriots from decided action, each step being in harmony with that of their sympathizers in Boston. The Stamp Act infuriated them; the massacre in King Street called out their indignation, and they went in large companies over the ferry to see the blood of the victims that cried out to them from the ground, "Avenge thy brothers' death." The question of the tea seemed to disturb the entire social element of the town. This, as no previous question, disturbed the patriotic women. The sociability of the exhilarating

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cup was nevertheless set aside to some extent. A substitute for green and bohea was quite commonly introduced in the colonies. It was an herb known as Labrador, of which immense quantities grew all over New England. It was advertised as of superior flavor to the imported tea.
      In 1768 the inhabitants of Charlestown unanimously agreed to use no more tea. They gathered up the stock in hand, and burnt it in the public square at midday.
      One of the Daughters of Liberty of this town, while in a store in Boston, made selection of various articles which she desired to purchase, and then asked if they sold tea; being told that they did, the patriot refused to take any of the articles.
      A man who carted to Marblehead some chests of tea that had been imported contrary to rules was immediately visited by the indignation of his townsmen, who were assembled with him at a husking frolic. The nearness of the Charlestown people seemed to make them more determined in many respects than were the patriots in the distant towns.
      In order to encourage the production and manufacture of woollens, the people unanimously agreed not to eat or even suffer any lamb to be dressed in their families till the first of August.
      The proclamation of Governor Gage forbidding town meetings did not deter the patriots of this town, so near to his headquarters, from holding

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their meetings, in which they took most positive action. But the records fail to give evidence of the military preparation that was made elsewhere in the colonies. They had, however, a way of their own, which was adopted on Dec. 2, 1774, when the engine companies of the town, three in number, voted to join in one body as exempts, and prepare themselves for action. They chose their officers, and voted "that every man be provided with a good gun and bayonet, with an iron ramrod." Any one failing to do this within one month was to be punished by paying three shillings.
      The enforcement of the Boston Port Bill was as trying to the people of Charlestown as to their neighbors in Boston. Here rents declined, the stores were closed, travel was suspended, and distress from want and threatened outbreaks settled down upon the people. They were entitled to share with Boston in the donations made by the country towns for their relief, the committee being directed to apply seven per cent of the amount that poured in from near and far to the relief of the people of Charlestown.
      Notwithstanding the distress of the patriots, they would not render assistance to the Loyalists, even though they were offered liberal compensation for services. Mechanics refused to labor in building the barracks for Gage's army. One who for years had mowed his Tory neighbor's hay now

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refused -- "the honest scythe would not cut Tory grass," and another's oxen "would not plough Tory ground."
      Many citizens of the town abandoned their homes, as did Boston people, and sought shelter with friends in the country towns; but there were many who were forced to remain, and suffer from want of the necessities, when ordinarily they were classed among the "well-to-do" people enjoying the luxuries.
      The other colonies were prompt and liberal in sending aid, so much so as to receive the thanks of the Provincial Congress, passed on Nov. 30, 1774. The towns of Connecticut were particularly favorable towards Charlestown, and rendered her people material aid, and tendered letters of sympathy.
      Aid came from various localities in that colony. How much of it was due to the perseverance of Israel Putnam we may not know; but such records appear as the following from New Britain: "A committee was appointed to take in subscriptions of Wheat, Rye, Indian Corn, and other provisions, and to transport the same to the Town of Boston, to be distributed by the Select Men to those who needed help in consequence of the blockade of the harbor."
      The call upon the towns of Massachusetts of Dec. 6, 1774, was sent to the ministers, who made the appeal to their people, and the responses

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were sufficient to satisfy the distressed town that others were not unmindful of them. A letter dated Charlestown, Jan. 14, 1775, reads: --

      "While servile placemen, pensioners, and expectants are employing their venal pens in support of a system of tyranny, the honest yeomanry of this Province are joining our compassionate brethren," etc.

      On one January day of 1775, the inhabitants of Lexington sent sixty-one loads of wood and some money as a present to the poor sufferers by the Boston Port Bill; and says a record extant, "On Thursday last the first and third Parishes of Reading sent twenty-seven loads of wood, some money and grain."
      These recorded donations were only a few of the many that came from the towns not far away in Massachusetts; and, in fact, the towns of southern New Hampshire were prompt in responding to the calls of their distressed brethren, -- the patriots of Boston and Charlestown. These acts were not without some signs of merriment on the part of the giver, and receiver as well.
      While I have looked in vain for a dwelling of pre-Revolutionary days in Charlestown (the flames of June 17 having swept them away), I have been gratified in meeting those who tell the story of that town, as they have had it from those who participated in the trying scenes. Mr. William P. Jones of Boston says, "My grandmother, Mercy

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Tufts Boylston, lived at the Neck. She had not fled from the town as very many did, but remaining with other patriots saw what in days of peace she loved to describe. 'I saw long processions of teams coming in from the country loaded down with donations. The merrymaking of the teamsters, and the grotesque figures displayed on some teams, plainly showed that "it is more blessed to give than to receive." On one of the sleds loaded with wood from Reading was hoisted the Union flag with the following inscription in the centre: --

"To the worthy inhabitants of Boston and Charlestown: --

"Ye noble patriots, constant, firm, and true, Your country's safety much depends on you. In patient suffering, greatly persevere; From cold, from famine, you have naught to fear. With tender eye the country views your woe; With your distress will her assistance grow. Or if (which Heaven avert) some fatal hour Should force you from your homes by tyrant power, To her retire, -- with open, generous heart, All needful aid and comfort she'll impart; Gladly she'll share the wealth by Heaven bestown, With those for her who've sacrificed their own.'"

      Said Mrs. Boylston, "Our people would not allow the teamsters to return to their homes without being entertained at some tavern where the landlord was an avowed patriot. Many dain-

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ties were sent with the teams to families who were connected by ties of blood or friendship, and thus the sad and anxious days of the winter of 1774-5 were passed.
      "A committee of distribution was kept busy in trying to make a just division of the patriotic donations from the country. At a meeting held on April 5, forty-three of the remaining inhabitants were relieved, and an adjournment for two weeks was made. They were to meet on the 19th of April, at five o'clock P.M.; but when the time arrived," said Mrs. Boylston, "there were other things of more importance that demanded their attention, and but few of the people of Charlestown were remaining to call for aid. The town, throughout the day, presented a scene of intense excitement and confusion. Although Revere's trusted friends resided on that side of the Charles, the stealthy march of the enemy was known at a distance hours before the patriots of Charlestown received the alarming news. While all was in confusion in towns a dozen miles away, the schools of Charlestown were holding their regular session. Rumors were received in the forenoon of the events at Lexington, but no certain intelligence reached the town until Dr. Warren galloped down from the scenes of blood that he had witnessed on the road. It was then that the schools were dismissed, and excited citizens gathered in groups in the streets. Many of the

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men went out with their firearms into the field, women and children alone remaining. General Gage sent a message to Hon. James Russell, to the effect that he was aware that armed citizens had gone out to oppose his Majesty's troops, and that if more went he would lay the town in ashes. It was possible to quiet the excitement in a measure, until the report came that the Cambridge Bridge had been taken up, and consequently the return would be made through Charlestown. It was then that the few remaining people made haste to leave. Rumors not so well founded had so often been received, and given rise to needless anxiety, that some of the people discredited this, until they heard the report of muskets in the road above the town, when they made haste towards the Neck. Some got across the Mystic at the ferry, and more ran along the marsh towards Medford. The dread reality was apparent at about sunset. The troops came in haste and confusion into the town. The first of her sons to be sacrificed was a boy, Edward Barber, who was standing in a house, and was there shot. He was my cousin," said Mrs. Boylston, "and would have escaped if our people had obeyed orders. We were told that no harm would befall us if the army was not fired upon. A careless, excited negro discharged his musket, and the return fire killed the inoffensive boy. Later, there was killed James Miller, who was a native of the town, born in

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1709. His wife was Sarah Lane of Bedford. She had fled to her people, the patriots of that town, where she received the sad news of the death of her husband, who had thought that duty required him to stand by the town in her time of distress. After the army passed through the town, the inhabitants who were near turned back to seek their homes. The cry that 'the British are massacring the women and children,' started from the shooting of the Barber boy, created a panic. Some remained in the street speechless with terror. The army, however, offered no violence to the people, but prevailed upon them to go to their homes, where they would be safe, asking in return of them cold water, which they freely received. The officers flocked to the tavern in the Square, and got such refreshments as they could secure. With the night there came quiet, save from the wounded and disabled, many of whom were carried across the river during the night in boats belonging to the warship Somerset, that was hauled into Charles River on the 14th, and now lay between the ferryways. My observations of the returning troops," said Mrs. Boylston, "were made from beneath an archway in our cellar, to which we retreated upon seeing the approaching army."
      The rest of the story of Charlestown during the hostilities in Massachusetts is familiarly known to all. The footprints of her patriots were lost in

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the ashes that alone remained to remind the sorrowing people of their once happy homes. It was enough that her green hill should become the sepulchre of hundreds of human beings, without a slaughter of her own sons.
      In the Essex Calendar for the year 1776, in the month of June, among the events set against the corresponding date of previous years, we read: --

      17th. Bloody bat. of Charlst. where were k. & w. 324 provincials, 1450 regulars; there were, destroyed in Ch. by the latter, 1 meeting-house, 350 dwelling houses and 150 other buildings.

STORY OF REV. JOSEPH WHEELER.

Chaplain in Washington's army at Cambridge.

      "Tell us a story of Bunker Hill," said a group of bright-eyed children, as they gathered around their grandfather, Rev. Joseph Wheeler, in his home in Worcester.
      The story which they received is now repeated by one of the group, H. W. Wheeler of that city. "My ancestor, Rev. Joseph Wheeler, was minister of the church in Harvard, Mass., from the year 1759 to 1768, when impaired health compelled him to give up the pastoral office.
      "But he continued to live in the town until 1781, when he removed to Worcester, where he resided till his death, in 1793. Although not the acting clergyman of the town of Harvard during the try-

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ing years that preceded and covered the Revolution, Mr. Wheeler had the confidence of the patriots of that town, and being regarded as a man of superior judgment, was chosen their representative in many important conventions.
      "He was chairman of the Committee of Correspondence of that town, and also moderator of the town-meeting which assembled on Feb. 18, 1773, for the purpose of considering the 'present situation.'
      "As might be expected, Mr. Wheeler was a member of the first and third Provincial Congresses, and represented Harvard in the General Court.
      "Although not able to endure the exposure of a soldier's life in the camp during the siege of Boston, he desired to aid his countrymen, being a firm patriot; and he early responded to the call from Cambridge, and after General Washington arrived was chaplain to the commander-in-chief."
      The story to the anxious children from the honest lips of Rev. Joseph Wheeler was as follows "When the order was given by General Artemas Ward to Colonel Prescott to go with a body of men to Bunker Hill, to throw up the fortification, I went with others to plan out the works. When the breastwork was completed, we stood under an apple-tree discussing the situation and prospect.
      "It was at the early dawn of the 17th of June; our situation was on a slope of the hill toward

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Boston. While standing there engaged in conversation, we were perceived by the men on one of the British warships lying in the channel opposite, and were made a target for one of their guns.
      "The discharged ball went over our heads, and buried itself in the earth a short distance away. I marked the spot where it fell, not thinking of what was soon to follow.
      "In the passage of the ball through the air, a shoot was cut from a limb of an apple-tree near by, and, dropping, fell near my feet. I picked it up and took it away with me, and later made of it a walking-stick."
      "This," says Mr. Wheeler, "has been handed down in the family as the Bunker Hill Cane, and is now carefully cherished by one of the descendants living in Connecticut."
      "But how about that cannon-ball aimed at you, grandpa," said one of the listeners.
      "Oh," said the minister, "after the battle and the destruction of the town, I went sorrowfully back, found the place, and dug it out of the earth, and here it is. Let me see you lift it."
      They all tried, and many failed, and so have many of his descendants since that day.
      The ball is to-day owned by one of the many who proudly trace their lineage back to the good minister of Harvard, and it is kept as a precious memento in a home in the city of Boston.

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