HE DEEDS OF OUR FATHERS. j^ j^ J0^ A Memorial Day Address delivered in the Town House, Dover, MassachU' setts. May 30, 1904 by FRANK SMITH Printed by the MEMORlJiL D^r COMMITTEE, 1904. SOLDIERS BURIED IN DOVER CEMETERY. An attempt is here made to give a complete list of soldiers buried in Dover Cemetery. While the names of a few of the Revolutionary Soldiers here given cannot be found on existing grave stones, yet it is believed that they are buried here be- cause they died in the town and naturally had no other place of burial. FRENCH and INDIAN WAR. David Cleveland * Lemuel Richards * Thomas Larrabee * Daniel Whiting * REVOLUTIONARY WAR. Eleazer Allen Eleazer Allen Jr. Hezikiah Allen Timothy Allen Jeremiah Bacon Silas Bacon Jabez Baker Ebenezer Battle Ebenezer Battle, Jr. Hezekiah Battle John Battle Jonathan Battle Josiah Battle John Brown Thomas Burridge Samuel Cheney Daniel Chickering John Chickering Joseph Chickering Nathaniel Chickering Samuel Chickerinof Fisher Avers John Burrage George F. Miller John M. Brown Fdwin F. Gay William Watson John Demesritt John Frost William Smith * Also served in the Ralph Day Luke Dean John Draper James Draper Joseph Draper Josiah Draper John Fisher Samuel Fisher David Fuller James Mann John Mason Nathan Metcalf Abijah Richards Ebenezer Richards Richard Richards Ebenezer Smith Henry Tisdale Aaron Whiting Ephraim Wilson Seth Wight WAR of 1812. Samuel Fisher, Jr. Alexander Soule CIVIL WAR. Calvin Ayres Horatio Littlefield William H. Skimmings F. Russell Smith Ithamar Whiting Joseph Copeland James Howard Revolution. The Deeds Of Our Fathers. Mr. President, Members of the Grand Army and Fellow Citizens : I have prepared for this occasion an address out of the common, because I believe that lessons of patriotism, and loVe of Country, can best be taught here by recalling the deeds of valor, the acts of patriotism, and the noble sacrifices of men who once lived where you now live, and walked the streets which you now walk. As the physician has a deeper interest in preserving health than he has in curng diseases, so the soldier, although he may bear the scars of many battles, and though his form may be bent by suffering, exposure and hardship, if he is a true soldier, is more deeply interested in the achievements of peace than of war. So a study of the things which have made for peace through the deeds of our fathers cannot be without interest and value. When the settlers made their homes at Dedham they found themselves, as did all the early pioneers, exposed to new and peculiar dangers. The Indians still inhabited the plains and set their weirs in the Charles and Neponset rivers. Now the Indians were faithful to their friends, but vindictive and treach- erous to their enemies ; so when they found themselves shut out from their own hunting grounds, and their young warriors clamored for the chase, with which they had been made famil- iar by song and story, they grew restless and there were early rumors of war from hostile Indians. Under these conditions the settlers bethought themselves of the trainbands, of which they had been members-in the mother land, and proceeded to organize like companies for home defence. No sooner had a settlement been made in Dedham than a trainband was organ- ized. Land was set apajtfor a training field at the west end of the village, an area which to this day is unencroached upon, and we hope will ever remain as the training field of 1636 ; a spot made. sacred to all the ancestors of early Dover families, because here the settlers met for many years for weekly training, that thay might render the more efficient service in the protection of theii* own homes. The subject of military protection soon became one of vi- tal importance to the colony, and as some of the settlers had been members of the Honorable Artillery Company in London, it naturally occurred to them to establish a like company here •which should be a school for the officers of the trainbands, as ■well as for officers of any other troops which might be organized for their defence. In 1637 the officers of the trainband, the magistrates, and business men in the several towns, formed a military association tor the training of officers with meetings for instruction in discipline and tactics, which greatly added to the safety of the colony. In 1638, this company, which was later known as the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, obtained a charter. John Johnson of Rox- bury, from whom your honored Postmaster, George L. Howe, and others of this tov/n, are descended, was the first clerk of the organization. Many Dedham settlers joined this company, from whom many residents of Dover have been decended as follows: Joshua Fisher, Daniel Fisher, John Plympton, Andrew Dewin, George Fairbanks, Anthony Fisher and Daniel Gookin. In la- ter years George P. Sanger and Ansel K. Tisdale, both natives of Dover, have been members of this Company Judge Sanger had the honor of being the captain of the Company in 1854. Of your summer residents, Capt. John S. Damrell and Charles S. Damrell are members, the latter having the honor of now holding the office of first Lieutenant in this ancient Company. In the spring of 1637 there was an alarm from the Indians. Watches and wards were ordered to be set up, and an invitation was sent to Capt. Cakebread, a renowned soldier of Watertown, to come and be at the head of military affairs in Dedham. This was probably a false alarm, as no further reference is made to it in the records, but it shows how watchful the early settlers had to be. In 1648 the residents of Dedham petititioned the General Court: "That whereas our band of Trained Soldiers, has been yet •deficient for want of officers established, to exercise them, and as we humbly conceive, that we have some among us that may be fit to exercise our Company, we have with one consent made vchoice of Eleazer Lusher for our Captain, and Joshua Fisher to be our Lieutenant." These offices were no sinecure as the trainband met as often as weekly during the entire period of King Philip's War. As time went on the fear of the Indians increased. The town of Dedham in building a school-house in 1649 made provision for the erection of a leanto, on the west side of the building which was used as a watch tower. This addition was carried up two and a half feet higher than the school house, and so bronght out at a corner of the building, as to command a view on all sides, and here the lonely sentinel, guarded during the solemn watches of the night, the humble homes of the earlier settlers against Indian attacks. J'rom this tower the sentinel had a view of the plain, between the Charles and the Neponset rivers, and this favorable situation, together with the watchfulness of the settlers, saved Dedham from Indian attacks, while many other frontier towns were burned. In recalling the dangers to which the first settlers were exposed, I want to refer to a tragedy, which occurred on a spot probably familiar to you all, the Chautauqua grounds at Framingham, and which illustrates the peculiar perils to which our fathers were •exposed in their settlement in the wilderness. A few days previous to the first of February, 1676, Thomas Fames, left his home to go to Boston to obtain a guard and ammunition. Re- turning a few days later, and ascending a little hill near the present railroad bridge, "he saw by the smoke, and the slumber- ing fire, and the perfect silence of death, that a terrible fate had come to his family; the lifeless bodies of six, and the absense of at least four others told the entire story. The house was fired, by hay taken from the barn upon a rack, and the condi- tion of the snow all about, was evidence of the fearful struggle for life, and attempts to escape which had been made." The Pequod Indians caused great trouble to the colonies even in the first years of the settlement. I have found, however, no record of any Dedham planter who took part in this war^ although the town must have been represented, because in 1654,. it was decided to raise two hundred and seventy foot, and forty horsemen in the several colonies, to prosecute the Pequod War. The Massachusetts Colony, on account of its wealth and pop- ulation, was required to furnish two thirds of all the means and men. On the 9th of October, 1654, the Massachusetts troops mustered at Dedham, and the next day marched to Providence, and thence along the westerly shore of Narraganset Bay, to the Niantic country. Advantap;eous arrangements were made with the Pequods and the forces disbanded on the 24th of October, having been engaged in the service only sixteen days. Governor Hutchinson in his "History of the Colony of Mass- achusetts Bay" said: "The war with the Indians commonly called, Philip's War ' endangered the very being of the Colony,. and it was a question with some whether the Indians would not prevail to a total extirpation of the English inhabitants." King Philip was the greatest Indian of whom we have record. " His sagacity, shrewdness and cunning in his dealings with the white man is unequalled in Indian strategy. His skill in uniting the New England tribes, some of whom had been his lifelong enemies, shows a power for organization and control, equal, if not superior, to that of the great statesmen and war- riors of other races. His strong friendship, shielded many of his benefactors in the hour of greatest peril," When the town of Swansea was destroyed in 1675, King Philip sent messengers to inform his friends of the coming doom, and urged them to flee to places of safety. The Indians caused so much fear in 1673 that many resi- dents of Dedham fled to Boston. A little later a garrison was built, which had a keeper for several years. We have a true picture of the times in a description of the garrison built by Benjamin Bullard and George Fairbanks of Dedham (from whom many Dover families are descended) in their settlement, in 1658, in what is now Sherborn* and Millis. There were nine settlers in the vicinity, all of whom located their dwellings, with reference to natural security against the Indians. These settlers built their garrison on the north shore of Boggastow *See Moore's History, Sherborn. Pond in what is now Millis, It was a spacious and regular fortress, 65 or 70 feet long, two stories high, and built of faced stones. It had a double row of port holes on all four sides. The fortress was lighted and entered at the south overlooking the pond. The upper story was appropriated for the women and the children, and had a room partitioned off for the sick. Here no small number of children of the early settlers were born. Here In times of alarm they were accustomed to flee for more than two generations. In this fort they were once besieged by a host of King Philip's warriors, who despairing of all other means, attempted to fire the building by running down a declivity above the garrison a cart of burning flax. Arrested in its descent by a rock, an Indian ran down to start it. He was im* mediately shot and killed, after which the Indians retreated. The walls of this fort were standing as iate as 1785, in which year they were demolished. Dedham was ordered by the General Court i:i 1673 to prepare for war. The trainband had more frequent meetings, a barrel of powder and other ammunition were purchased, the great gun was put on wheels, and thus the town made ready for war. The inhabitants were encouraged to enlist into the troop of horse, commanded by Captain Thomas Prentice of Cambridge, by an offer of an abatement of their taxes. This was considered a great inducement as taxes were very high. A war assessment was levied upon the inhabitants of Dedham which exceeded one shilling for every pound of val- uation, a rate in excess of $20 on a thousand, and this simply for purposes of war. The forces of the Massachusetts Colony were mustered on December 10, 1675, on Dedham Plain. From this point they marched against the Narragansett fort. Assembled on that historic spot, a proclamation was made to the soldiers in the name of the Governor, stating that if they played the man, took the fort and drove the enemy out of the Narragansett coun- try, which was their great stronghold, they should have a gratu- ity of land beside their wages. In after years the soldiers were not forgetful of their claims, nor the Colony unmindful of the obligation, and so, in recognition of this promise, the town of 8 Westminster was set apart in 1733 as Narragansett Number Two. Joseph Smith, who lived here, on the Proctor place, on Farm Street, in 1776, was one of those who settled on this- grant. As Senator Hoar has said: "King Philip's plan for the extermination of the white man was cunningly conceived. It was baffled only by the heroic and advantageous courage and skill of men themselves disciplined by life in the forest, led by men trained in the great military school of which Cromwel^ was master." Every mother in New England must have suffered the agony of daily and nightly terror for herself and her child- ren. We realize this fact when we consider the exposure, suffer- ing and loss of the settlers in the neighboring town of Medfield. There were, it was said, ten thousand warriors organized by King Philip, who could issue out at any point from the forest to attack settlements, extending over Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, a {territory which contained, all told, only 80,000 white people. The first actual outrage in King Philip's war was committed in Dedham, where a white man was found dead, in the woods. Later, John Sausaman. the Indian schoolmaster at Natick, who acted as a spy upon King Philip and betrayed his councils, was murdered. The agency in this murder was directly traced to King Philip, who finding himself detected now began the war by an attack on Swansea. Men from Ded- ham took part in the bloodiest battles of this war. Twenty-one from this town are said to have been among Capt. Prentiss' troops, which made the first attack upon King Philip June 28,. 1675. In 1676 Pomham, who next to King Philip was the most dreaded of Indian warriors, having sought refuge in the woods near Dedham, was slain by a party of Dedham and Medfield men, assisted by friendly Indians. Of those from Dedham who served in King Philip's War, was James Draper, who was an early settler in that part of Dedham which is now Dover; John Bacon who later lived on the Clay Brook road and settled the farm, for many years known as the Jonathan Perry place; John Battelle, who settled. the so-called Farrington farm on Main Street, and Ephraim Wilson, on Wilsondale street. Andrew Dewin, who for a time lived near Mr. Sawin's picnic grounds, was credited for military service in 1676. Many early Dover families were descended? from Jonathan Fairbanks, John Ellis, Nathaniel Richards, John Baker, Thomas Herring, Daniel Fuller, Daniel Wight, and Jeremiah Fisher, all of whom were soldiers in King Philip's War. The Dedham soldiers for the most part served in Capt. Henchman's Company. On June 26, 1675, ^^^^ company started on a march from Boston to Mount Hope. At Dedham they halted for an hour during an eclipse of the moon. In 1676 Capt. Brattle was sent on an expedition toward Mount Hope- He was instructed to march to Dedham, where he was to re- ceive twenty soldiers from the town, with an officer, and others from Dorchester and Roxbury. But no record exists of this company. The town assumed, during this period, the respons- ibility of the payment of wages to the famiiies of soldiers in their absence. This arrangement assured prompt aid, and the families of the soldiers were supported without becoming a pub- lic charge. At the close of King Philip's War in 1676, more- than half of the towns in Massachusetts had been burned, and a tenth of all the fighting men in New England had either fallen in battle or been carried off captives. Thus ended the second and last war between the whites and the native Indians in southern New England, in which our fathers were engaged. Horace Mann uttered the truth that "Whatever you wish to have appear in the life of a nation must first be introduced into its schools." The establishment of the first free school in Dedham in 1644 was the one act, which above all others, has done most to promote the peace of the nation. Every reform begins as a feeling. Our Puritan and Pilgrim ancestors felt for many years in the motherland the need of free schools for the education of their children. This feeling becfinie an idea when they settled in New England. It was left, however, to the Dedham settlers, in town meeting assembled, on January ist, 1644, to establish the first free school, to be supported by gen- eral taxation, v»'hich the world has ever seen. Fortunately we have the names of the forty-two freemen whu voted to establish this school. Neaily all the early Dover settlers were descend- ants of these men. The list includes the Chickerings, the Batteries, the Everetts, the Wights, the Fishers, the Gays, the BuUards, the Wilsons, the Colburns, the Morses, the Hichardes the Fairbaakses and the Metcalfs. I do not know how it is with others, but for myself, I am prouder of this one act of my Puritan ancestors, the establishment of the first free school, than I am of any other deed of my fathers of which I have ever Jearned. I believe the free public school has done more for the peace, prosperity and happiness of this republic than any lOther institution in our land. We are daily learning in this republic of ours, the truth of that saying uttered by Emerson : ^* We must supercede politics by education." I have failed to find the record of any soldier from Dedham ■who took part in King William's war or Queen Anne's war, but in King George's war the Second Parish, now Norwood, was rep- resented by five officers, besides the Rev. Mr. Balch, who was the chaplain of a company at the siege of Louisburg, and it is high- ly probable that the other parishes were represented, although no record can be found. In the final struggle between France and England for possessions in America, in what was called the French and Indian War, which lasted from 175410 1763, the Springfield Parish was well represented. It has been said that at this period one-third of all the able-bodied men of the prov- ince were in some v/ay engaged in the war. In accordance with the plan of Braddock's campaign, Crown Point, among other places, was to be attacked, and Lt. Daniel Whiting and Timothy Guy, from this Parish, took part in Capl. William Bacon's com pany in that engagement. Others were engaged at differen, times at Ticonderoga, Fort Edward, Fort William Henry, Lake George and Canada, as follows: Timothy Ellis, Lemuel Rich- ards, David Cleveland, whose father, George Cleveland, died in the service at Fort William Henry, Oct. 2, 1756, Thomas Larra- bee, Moses Richards and Nathan Whiting. When in 1763 peace had been established between France and England, these soldiers r,eturned to their homes to pursue the vocations of peace, which, however, they were not destined long to enjoy. I'he men whp had learned warfare in the French and Indian wars, weire among the first to take up arms against the mother land in 1775. No danger, no hardship, no suffering was too great for them to endure in defense of the principle of self government. Tp them life was of less value than a principle, the principle writ- ten by Cromwell on the statute books of Parliament : '* All just powers under God are derived from the consent of the peo- ple." While it was conceded that America should contribute to the public debt which had been contracted in the protection of the Colonists from the French and Indians, yet they proposed to pay it by grants from their own legislature, and in their own way. The tax upon the imports of the Colonists, in which they had no voice was repugnant to them, and as they believed, was a violation of Magna Charter, the foundation of English liberty. You know the service of our fathers at the Lexington Alarm,* which has been so often told. You remember how one young man — Elias Haven — left his home in the west part of the town, in the early hours of that eventful day, to give a day's work to a farmer two miles away. He went perchance, with- out bestowing a kiss upon his wife, or the children whom he had brought about his knees. He went out as he had gone a hun- dred times before, expecting to return to his- family when the day's work was done. At nine o'clock while working in the field, there came a messenger, and in response to the alarm, with sixty-tive others from this parish, he obeyed the call of duty. Standing beside his brother-in-law, Aaron Whiting, at a corner of the Meeting-House in Arlington, he was shoe down by a British musket ball, thus giving his life for the founding of a nation whose democratic principles we now enjoy. Think you if he were alive to-day, would he, like so many, "pay private debts with scrupulous honor, and pay political debts by deeds ■of dishonor and disgrace ? " At the Battle of Bunker Hill, we have the names of seven- teen residents of the Parish, who under Capt. Daniel Whiting, took part in that engagement, being the only soldiers from the ancient town of Dednam who actually engaged in the battle. I am glad on this occasion to give for the first time the names of others, who learning of the battle on the morning of June 17th, hastened to Boston to render such service as they might. The list is as follows: t Samuel Farrington, Ezra Gay, Jonathan *See Narative History of Dover for a complete list of those who took part in the Revolution from the Springfield parish. tTaken from the muster roll of Capt. Aaron Guild of Dedham, now in possession ot George H. Plimpton of New York City. Whiting, Ebenezer Battle, Ebenezer Newell, Asa Mason, John Battle, Joseph Fisher, Jabez Baker, John Mason, Aaron Fair- banks, Moses Richards, David Cleveland, John Chickering,. Thaddeus Richards, Jeremiah Bacon, Joseph Fisher, Ebenezer Richards, Thomas Gardner, Nathan Metcalf, James Mann^ Ebenezer Battle, Jr., Jabez Whiting, Josiah Battle, Daniel Chickering, Jr., Elias Stlmson, and Moses Bacon. In the won- derful work of fortifying Dorchester Heights, as you well know, Capt. Ebenezer Battle, with forty-three others from this parish took part. In the years of warfare which followed, the Spring- field Parish soldiers did valiant service in New York State, in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Rhode Island. At home they assisted in guarding Rurgoyne's Army after his surrender at Saratoga. They also rendered valuable service in guarding stores at different times and places in the vicinity of Boston. Through published works," and correspondence which has been made accessible in recent years, we have learned much of the service of Massachusetts soldiers in New York State, in which we have a lively interest, because in this work, Major Col. Daniel Whiting of this parish took no insignificant part. We learn through these records what he meant in his petition to the General Court, when he said : " I was in many perils in the Indian Country." At Cherry Valley in Eastern New York, there is a beautiful monument which has been erected in mem- ory of those who fell there in a fearful massacre Nov. ii, 1778. In the "Border Wars" against the Indians, Tories, and British soldiers. Col. Ichabod Alden of the Massachusetts Sixth Regi- ment had command of the fort at Cherry Valley. General Hand, who was in command at Albany, failed for some reason, to make adequate provision against an attack on this fort and town, although such an attack was strongly feared by the resi- dents. On Nov. 7th, a committee of citizens expressed great fear of an attack and added "to prevent which and to dispel our fears, let a sufficient number of troops be allowed us, and if possible those we now have under Col. Alden, as they are acquainted with our country, and the roads and haunts of our *The Old New York Frontier. »3 enemies, so that by this means we maybe secure from slaughter and devastation." On Nov. 9th Col. Alden sent a scouting party of nine men down the valley. They soon met the ad- vancing invaders and were made prisioners. Two days later at noonday the attack was made and "gave the settlement a com- plete surprise notwithstanding all our endeavorsto the contrary," wrote Daniel Whiting. The officers of the regiment were stop- ping at the house of Robert Wells, and here was performed the most shocking incident connected with this massacre, the kill- ing of Mr. Wells and his family, consisting of nine members and three servants. Every one of the family except a son, who was away at school, was killed. The officers fled from liie Wells house as they saw the enemy approaching, but Col. Alden, wha tarried for a moment was killed on the road by a tomahawk, Daniel Whiting was so fortunate as to reach the fort in safety.- where he took command. Major Whiting wrote "h.id it not been for the great activity and alertness of the troops they had rushed within the line." From an account of the attack I have taken the following;, which gives a graphic picture of Indian warfare. " The enemy pushed vigorously for the fort, but our soldiers behaved with, great spirit and alertness, defending the fort and repulsing them after three hours and a half of smart engagement. The Indians went round the settlement, burned all the buildings* collected all the stock and drove most of it off, killing and capturing all the inhabitants, a few that hid in the woods ex- cepted, who have since got into the fort. .On the 12th, the Indiaus came on again and gave a shout for rushing on, but our cannon played on them and they soon gave way. On the 13th,. after the enemy had withdrawn. Major Whiting sent out part- ties to bring in the dead. Such a shocking sight of savage and brutal barbarity they had never before beheld, to see a husband mourning over his dead wife, with four dead children lying by her side, mangled, scalped and some with heads, some with legs and arms cut off, and others with the flesh torn off their bones by dogs, was a sight which met their eyes. On November isth some provisions arrived, being as it is recorded, the first supply X4 after the first attack, when we had not a pound of brea^ )for th? men in the garrison for four or five days and a trifle only of meat." After the massacre at Cherry Valley the Indians celebrated their victory, an account of which was related by Mrs. Camp- bell, who was a terrified witness of the scene. "After a gran^ council the warriors gathered around a great fire, each with his face and parts of his body painted in black and white to a hideous extent. Songs were sung in praise of their exploits and those of their ancestors. By degrees they worked them- selves up into a tempest of passion, whooping, yelling and uttering every hideous cry, brandishing their knives and war clubs and throwing themselves into the most menacious attitudes in a manner terrifying to the unprotected beholder. Meanwhile the prisioners were paraded, and the scalps born in triumph, and for every scalp was uttered the scalp yell, or death halloo, the most terrific note which an Indian can raise. The feast closed with the killing of a white dog, the burning of entrials, the roasting of the carcass, and the eating of the same," The battle at Newtowne, New York, in 1779 is coming to be recog- nized as one of the decisive battles of the Revolution. In this memorable battle, Major Daniel Whiting commanded a part of the garrison under Brig. Gen. Enoch Poor, which consisted of the Massachusetts 6th Regiment. It was the plan of the Brit- ish to separate New England from the rest of the colonies, to blockade the coast and keep the Tories and the Indians active on the frontier, and so crush out the Continental Army. The Iriquois dominated an extensive territory in New York, and could call ten thousand fighting men into the field. They culti- Tated enormous fields of corn and vegetables, with fruitful orch- ards. These supplies soon found their way to the British Army, In 1779, Gen. Sullivan was appointed by Washington, to break the power of Indian allies of the British, and assigned to him a third of the Continenta lArmy with which to do the work. The Indian towns were to be utterly destroyed, their fields and crops devastated, and the whole region made uninhabitable by them. A fortification was built by the Indians at Newtown, .3iear Elmira, where it was believed Sullivan's Army would pass. IS It was strongly fortified, but under the command of Gen. Sulli- van it was captured and the Indians and Tories routed. In this important work, as already mentioned, Major Daniel Whiting had a prominent part. The American Army left a desolate wilderness behind them, having destroyed forty Indian villages, and 200,000 bushels of corn, many vegetables and fruit-bearing orchards. The Iriquois turned from their blackened villages and sought the vicinity of Niagara, where they lived in huts, and during the long winter which followed, died by hundreds of pestilence. Capt. Reid of the American forces built a fort near Elmira and here on the 29th of Septem- ber, 1779, the different attachments met. Salutes with cannon and musketry were fired, and barbecues were held with much rejoicing. On the 3d of October, the Army was discharged and the soldiers marched home. After all the danger, privation, sacrifice and suffering which he had endured, when returning from the army, Daniel Whiting, was obliged to borrow money at West Point to defray his expenses home, a debt which he was unable to repay for many years owing to the failure of the state to pay him back the money which he had loaned her in her distress. We cannot emphasize too strongly the courage and valor of the fathers, who as scattered colonists successfully fought an empire. In the second war with Great Britain our fathers took no prominent part. The war was unpopular in New England, as the people did not feel that like the Revolution, " It was the lofty cause which demanded the lofty sacrifice '". Ebenezer Wilkinson, George Fisher, Daniel Fuller and Fisher Ayres were engaged in the service. Harvey Ambler, although only a boy, went in 1812 to Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor, and served for nine days, representing Capt. George Fisher, who drew pay for his services during the time. Alexander Soule, who spent a long life here, was in the war of 181 2, having enlisted into the service from the state of Maine. In the iniquitous war with Mexico in 1846 no resident of the town had a part. General Grant declared " it one of the most unjust wars ever wageby a stronger against a weaker people ". i6 The life of our Colonial fathers in this new country, sur- Trounded by hostile Indians, developed in them remarkable skill with firearms. The boy as soon as he was old enough to handle .a musket was given powder and balls, not to waste in idle amusement, but to be used in shooting squirrels. After practice, lie was required to bring home a certain number of squirrels, as a charge for the use of the musket, and sad indeed was it for the boy who failed to bring in the stipulated number. At the age of twelve the boy became a garrison soldier, and if there was a 12 year old boy in the families, in connection with George Fairbank's garrison, which I have described, he had a loop-hole assigned him from which to shoot when the garrison was at- tacked by the Indians. Growing older the boy became a hun- ter of deer, wolves, bears and other wild animals, and had to hold himself in readiness to fight hostile Indians at any moment. As the settlers in this pioneer life learned to handle the gun, and were thus fitted to carry on the Revolution, so in the war with Mexico, most of the great commanders in the civil war had their first experience in military operations, and learned what war meant. You veterans of the Civil War,* who fought that justice and human rights should not perish from the earth forever, you, who were appointed to see that for " every drop of blood drawn by the lash another should be drawn by the sword ", remember that through the providence of God, you were but instruments in the evolution of a nation. You do not stand alone in this noble work, but as members of a mighty company who have fought since the Pilgrims first set foot upon these shores, for the protection of the home, the crown, the republic, and finally for Jiuman liberty. Yours was the greater sacrifice because you lived under a higher civilization, with loftier ideals and greater comforts. "The feeling for the righteousness of the cause," as it has been said, " has made the volunteer the mighty soldier he iias always been since the days of Naseby and Marston Moor". From that April morning in 1861, when Fort Sumter was fired upon, and President Lincoln called for 75,000 troops for three *See Narative History of Dover for complete list of soldiers who ser- ved in the Civil War. '7 months, to Appomattox Court House, where Lee's gallant army surrendered on April 9, 1865, j'ours was a noble sacrifice. In later years some of your sotis have been members of this noble army, for when Congress declared war against Spain, April 21, 1898, Richard C. Spear and William E. Boundford volunteered in a service, which under the Providence of God, was to put a stop to the shocking oppression of Spain in her treatment of the colonies of Cuba and Porto Rico, In the Aronderful evolu- tion of this nation the sons of the soldiers of the north, with the sons of the soldiers of the south, now sleep side by side on the shores of the Luzon. In this connection let me refer to a condition which ex- isted at the breaking out of a civil war to which reference is sel- dom made. At the beginning of the rebellion many men and women were narrow and intolerant, party lines were closely ■draw^n, and individuals were spying round for evidence of sym- pathy with the south. I recall a schoolmate who raised on his father's farm a flag which had been made by his aunt. Be- cause it did not conform in ail respects to the standard of the stars and the stripes, it was hauled down by a party from Natick and carried away as a rebel flag. Near the foot of one street, were several farmers who were democrats. Some neigh- bors, with more zeal than sense, erected a board On this street lA^hich bore the inscription "Copperhead Street," while another road in the vicinity bore the name " Rebel Lane." But as the days went on, men and women grew fast under the nation's trouble and sorrow, and these petty annoyances disappeared. Personal gossip ceased, as men and women anxiously waited to get the latest news from the seat of war. Men learned to bear one another's burdens, when they saw the sacred sorrows of wives and mothers and the pangs of husbands and fathers. Many will recall that sad day in 1862 when the body of John M. Brown, who was your first soldier to die in the service, was brought back and carried into the old meeting-house, when the last sad rites were said over that closed casket. As time went on men anrl women outgrew the narrow lines and had new hopes, ne.v tears, and new purposes. In this brief account of the deed.N c,\ our fathers, it may seem that they saw a great deal i8 of war, but this is not so when compared with the history of the world. It has been shown that from the year 1696 B. C. to the year 1861 A. D., that in a cycle of 3357 years, there were but 227 years of peace and 3130 years of war; in other words, there Were 13 years of war for every year of peace. Although two foreign nations are now engaged in war, we may confidentially believe , that war will soon pass away, not because all will have become lovers of peace, but because mod- ern warfare is so destructive to life and property. In this year of the meeting of the Peace Congress of the World in Boston, we may remember with pleasure that two years after its organi- zation, 181 7, the name of Rev. Dr. Ralph Sanger of Dover appears as a member of the Massachusetts Peace Society, which was the first influential peace society formed in the world, a society of which Thomas Jefferson became an honorary member almost immediately upon its founding. From the hour of its organization to the present time it has been the most efficient means of education in this cause which the world has had. You are honored in having a town minister, who was a pioneer in a cause which has enlisted the noblest spirits of the age. In the period of time covered by this address, our fathers saw a colony transformed into a province, a province made into a state, and a state united with other states to form a great nation. Our fathers were always found on the side of the people, rather than on the side of the King. They joined forces with the patriots, and not with the Tories. They fought for the cause of the union, and not for the cause of disunion and secession, and they upheld the national honor in the war with Spain. They have lived and fought under every flag, or standard which has here been unfurled to the breeze, from the simple red cross of Old England, to the present stars and stripes of the United States, the grandest flag of them all, which it is our privilege to honor, love and defend. Although in the providence of God, war, as we believe, is passing away, yet there are still moral battles to be won. We still need the hot passion, which in the days before the civil war, set the nation afire. " Eloquence " Emerson said " was dirt cheap in the abolution meetings." We still need, as it has been so often 19 said, the passion of the New England town meeting in the years preceding the Revolution, that we may meet and smite the wrongs which threaten the perpetuity of the republic. We need to be as watchful to-day of insidious foes of the home, as our fathers were of Indian attacks. In commemorating the deeds, and in perpetuating the spirit of the colonial and Rev- olutionary days, as well as the spirit of "6i" and "98," we still need like our fathers, to be willing to sacrifice everything for a righteous principle. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 077 512 5