Essex County, Massachusetts - Chapter 33, 1888

Revolutionary History

Not long after the incorporation of Danvers, began the muttering of discontent all through the colonies because of the hardness of heart of the Pharaoh beyond the seas, and his oppression of his people. Long, long years was the storm brewing, and only the few saw with prophetic eye in the j^lay of lightning on the distant cloud the outlines of that fearful word, Revolution. These years sifted out the hearts of men with crucial test, and when from the nearing cloud rolled out the thunder of war, patriotism had heroes for leaders.

odious stamp act passed in 1765, when Franklin wrote, "The sun of liberty is set," and American merchants agreed to non-importation until its repeal. In that year the Colonial Congress met in New York at the invitation of Massachusetts, which formulated the rights of colonists, beginning " No taxation without representation." New taxes and the act for the enforced quartering of troops by citizens in 1767 ; the refusal of Boston to furnish quarters; the order for the arrest and transmission to England of leaders of the opposition ; three years of constant irritation and a massacre in the streets of Boston, March, 1770; the tea-party, December, 1773; the Boston Port Bill ; the first Continental Congress ; John Hancock's Provincial Congress at Cambridge and its measures for committees of safety and minute men, 1774; then Lexington, war, independence, the United States of America.

Danvers kept pace with these events. How well its citizens grasped the situation of the times and how forcibly and well they expressed themselves, it has been left on the records for any to read who will. They came together after the passage of the stamp act; Thomas Porter was their representative in the General Court, and these are the words in which they instructed him :

" S^ we the Freeholders and Other Inhabitants of said Town of Danvers, in Town Meeting assemblad the Twenty-tJrst of October, A. D. 1765, Professing tlie Greatest Loyalty to our Must Gracious Sovereign and our Sincere Regard and Reverence for the Brittish Parliament ai the Most Powerfull and Respectable Body of Men on Earth, yet being Deeply Sensible of the Difficultys and Distresses to which that August Assembly's Late Exertions of their Power in and by the Stamp Act, must Necessarily Expose us, Thinks it Proper, in the Present Critical Conjuncture of affairs, to give you the following Instructions, Viz : That you Promote and Readily Joyn in Such Dutifull Remonstrances and Humble Petitions to the King and Parliament and Other Decent Measures as may have a Tendency to Obtain a Repeal of the Stamp Act or aleviation of the Heavy Burdens thereby Imposed on the Brittish Colonies.

And in as Much as great Tumults Tending to the Subversion of Government have Lately Happened & Several Outrages Committed by some Evil Minded People in the Capital Town of this Province, you are therefore Directed to Bear Testimony against and do all in your Power to Seppress & prevent all Eiortoss Assemblys and unlawfull Acts of Violence upon the Persons or Substances of any of his Majesty's Subjects ; And that you Do not give your Assent to any Act of Assembly that shall Imply the Willingness of your Constituants to Submit to any Internal Tax that are or shall be Imposed on us Otherwise than by the Great and General Court of this Province, according to the Constitution of this Government, and that you be carefull not to give your Assent to any Extravigant Grants out of the Publick Treasurery.

On the 20th of September, 1768, a meeting was held at the North Meeting-house to "see if the town shall send one or more persons to joyn committies of Boston and other towns in a convention to be holden at Fanueil Hall on the 22nd instant," and by unanimous vote Mr. Samuel Holten, Jr., was desired to represent the town in the convention. In December following he was voted two pounds and fifteen shillings for his service. Dr. Holten was charged " to look well to the rights of the people," and so conspicuous was his service among the " Sons of Liberty" that, as will be seen, they were in constant requisition wherever there was work for a mind ready for wise counsel and a heart full of untiring devotion. Let a few words be here written of him, just as his name first appears, though it be partly in anticipation of events which should follow later.

Samuel Holten was born June 9, 1738 ; he died January 2, 1816, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and is recalled as an old man by a few verj' old citizens. He was of the third generation from Joseph Houlton, an original settler of Salem Village, and one of the honored heads, the line being Joseph, Henry, Samuel, Samuel. Samuel, Jr., studied medicine with Dr. Jonathan Prince, whose home was on the southern slope of the Asylum hill. He began practice when quite young in Gloucester, but soon returned here. In his thirtieth year he was chosen representative to the General Court. His services in the convention of 1768 have been alluded to. He was in the Provincial Congress of 1775, an active member of the general Committee of Safety, a member of the Executive Council under the provisional government, and soon his profession and all other interests, save those of his country, were abandoned. He was a delegate in 1778 to the Congress which framed the Articles of Confederation, being forty years old when his sphere of usefulness so broadened, and at some time he presided over the body, thus occupying temporarily " the first seat of honor in his country." He was five years in Congress under the coniederation, and two under the constitution. Ill-health prevented his* longer acceptance of the willing suffrages of his constituents. At home, he was five years in the Senate and twelve years in the Council. Though he seems to have made no special study of law, his reputation for probity and good sense was such that he was appointed as early as 1776 a judge of Common Pleas for Essex County, a po-ition which he held about thirty-two years. From 1796 to 1815 he was judge of probate for Essex County. Duties to the State and the country did not, however, alienate him from the small affairs of his own town. His name will appear most conspicuously in the lists of town officers, - selectman, town-clerk, moderator, treasurer for twenty-four years, even hog-reeve. In the church and parish he was equally useful, being often instrumental as an arbiter in matters of difference and delicacy to bring them to a happy issue. His home was the somewhat ancient and stately house where the street which bears his name makes, after passing through Tapleyville, a sharp bend to the Village church, - now owned by Thomas Palmer. A reminiscence of his early practice as a physician has been preserved, -

The Holten High-School and the Holten Cemetery, wherein he is buried, also bear his name. He was one of the incorporators of the Massachusett-^ Medical Society in 1781, and of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture in 1792. He is described as majestic in form, yet graceful, of pleasing countenance and engaging manners. " He was not a brilliant man, and perhaps not a great man in ability for any one line of action ; but he was great in capacity for general accomplishment, in balance of mind and in the easy and regular and effective working of all his faculties upon whatever service they might be employed. He was faithful, too, in every trust. All things considered, he was the most remarkable man the town has ever produced." He left two daughters, one of whom married Dr. George Osgood, the other, Jethro, son of Colonel Enoch Putnam, and the descendants of Jethro's son, Philemon, are still livina: near the old homestead. Having in mind the traditional dignity and courtly appearance of the doctor, it occasioned a smile to come upon Gideon Putnam's record of a certain very lively meeting over the Water's River Bridge, when, "there being a Considerable Noise, the moderator got up on his seat and Called for order and made a Speech to the people.'' This was the doctor.

The men of Danvers were warned to meet May 28, 1770, " to see what methods said inhabitants will come into, in regard to the Publick Grievances the Province Labours under at this Day, in Particular, In regard to a Duty on Tea, etc., for the sole purpose of Raising a Revenue out of America, and to Act upon said affair what may be thought most proper." Dr. Holten, Arch. Dale, Captain William Shillaber, Dr. Amos Putnam and Gideon Putnam were instructed to consider and report, and what they reported was thus adopted :

" Voted that this Town Highly Approve of the Spirited Conduct of the Merchants of our Metropolis, and the other Maritime Town in this Province in an Agreement of Non importation well calculated to Restore our Invaluable Rights and Liberties. Voted that we will not ourselves (to our knowledge) or by any person for or under us, Directly or Indirectly Purchase of such Person or Persons any Goods whatsoever, and, as far as we can effect it, will withdraw our connection from every Person who shall Import Goods from Great Britain Contrary to the agreement of the Merchants aforesaid.

" Voted that we will not Drink any foreign Tea ourselves, and use our best Endeavours to prevent ou"r Families, and those Connected with them, from the use thereof; from this Date until the Act imposing a Duty on that Article be repealed, or a general Importation shall take place. Cases of sickness Excepted.

" Voted, that the Town Choose a Committee of Twelve men to carry a Copy of these votes to every Householder for him to sign, and in case any Person refuse to sign ; as above said, he shall be Looked upon as an Enemy to the Liberties of the people, and shall have their Name Register'd in the Town Book.

the Publick may know the sentiments of this town. The foregoing report being several times read, voted to accept the report by a unanimous vote.

" Voted, John Nichols, Arch'. Dale, Benj^ Putnam, Dr. Amos Putnam, Capt. Flint, Benj». Russell, Jun'., Samuel Gardner, Jona. Tarbel, Jesper Needham, Wm. Shillaber, Joseph Seccomb & Deacon Benj». Sawyer ; Be a Committee for the purposes mentioned in the foregoing report. Then the Moderator Dissolved the Meeting.

In this connection a story is told of the wife of a distinguished patriot who, not quite able to forego the luxury of enjoying with a few callers a sip of the forbidden beverage, kept within the agreement not to drink a drop within the house, by entertaining them on top of the house. The incident has been charmingly told in the verse of Lucy Larcom. The old house is a conspicuous figure on the Plains, and one can easily imagine, within the low railing which still surrounds the easy slope of the upper portion of the gambrel roof, that little party enjoying their innocent rebellion. A story is told, too, of the suspicion of certain husbands of the south parish that a large coffee-pot "several sizes smaller than a common lighthouse," was surreptitiously used by their wives at quiltings and such gatherings, for tea-drinking, and the practice was effectively broken up by the discovery, one night when the grounds were being concealed as usual behind the back-log, of what remained of one of those little creatures which inhabit gardens, hop well and look ugly.

"Mrs. Mercy Porter is permitted to sell Bohea and other India Teas by Retail for one year to commence from the Day of the Date hereof. " Danvers, Feb'y 20, 1782.

Similar permits were at the same time granted to Major Samuel Epes, John Dodge, Eben'r Sprague, Captain Gideon Foster, Zach. King, David Foster, Nathan Proctor and Captain Samuel Page.

In the middle of January, 1773, the worshippers at the North Meeting-House and at the South Meeting-House, found posted conspicuously a warrant under the hand of Gideon Putnam, town clerk, calling upon the freeholders and other inhabitants to assemble in town-meeting at two o'clock on the afternoon of the following day at the South Meeting-House " to see what method said inhabitants will take in order that our civil Privileges may be Restored and transmitted Inviolate to the latest Posterity." At the meeting so called Joseph Southwick was moderator. A motion was carried to choose a committee to take into consideration our civil privileges and to " Draw up something proper for the town to act." It was voted that Francis Symonds, Benjamin Proctor, Gideon Putnam, Captain William Shillaber, Doc'r Amos Putnam, Tarrant Putnam, Jun., and Wm. Pool be this committee. In two weeks the committee presented this report :

"The Freeholders & other Inhabitants of the Town of Uanvers Legally assembled, by adjournment y° 1st Day of February, 1773, Taking into Consideration the Unhappy Situation of our Civil Privileges, - Proceeded to Pass the Following Resolves - (viz. :)

" I, that we will use our utmost Eudeavoui-s that all Constitutional Laws are Strictly adheared to. and Faithfully Executed, believing that Next to our duty to God, Loyalty to our King (in a Constitutional way) is Eequired in Order to the wellbeingof the Community.

" II, that when Government becomes Tyrannical & Oppresive we hold ourselves bound in Duty to Ourselves, & Posterity, to use every Lawful Method to Check the Same, least it Deprive the Subject of Every I'riv- Icge that is Valuable.

"Ill, that it is the Opinion of this Town, that the Eights of the Collonists in General, & this Province in Particular, have of late been greatly Infringed upon by the Mother Country by unconstitutional Measurs which have been Adopted by the Ministry, tending wholly to Overthrow our Civil Privileges, Particularlj' in Assuming the Power of Legislation for the Colonists, in Raining a Revenue in the Colonies without their Consent, in Creating a Number of officers Unknown in the Charter, and investing such Officers with Powers wholly unconstitutional, and Distructive to the Liberties we have a right to Enjoy as Engleshmen ; in Rendering the Governor Independent of the General Assembly for liis support, and by Instructions from the Court of Great Brittain the first Branch of our Legislature has so far forgot his Duty to the Province, as that he hath Refused his Consent to an Act imposing a Tax for the Necessary support of Government, unless Certain Persons Pointed out by the Ministry were Exempted from Paying their just Proportion of said Taxes, and hath Given up the Chief Fortress of the Province (Oastle William) into the Hands of Troops, over wlioom he Declared he had no Controul ; in Extending the Power of the Courts of Vice Admiralty to such a Degree as Deprives the People of the CoUonies (in Great Measure) of their inestimable Rights of Tryals by juries, & in that we have Reason to fear (from Information) the judges of the Superior Court & &c., are Rendered independent of the People for their Liberties.

"IIII, that an act of Parliament intitled an Act for the better Perser. vation of his Majestif s dockyards & &c. (in consequence of which. Com missioners have been Appointed to inquire after the Persons, Concerned in burning his Majesties Schooner, the Gaspee, att Providence) haS Greatly Alarmed us tho we are very far from Pretending to justyfy the Act, yet we Apprehend Such Methods very Extraordinary, as the Constitution has Made Provision for the Punishment of Such Offenders - by all which it appears to us, that in Consequence of Some Unguarded Conduct of Particular Persons, the Colonies in General, and this Province in Particular are, for our Loyalty, Constantly receiving the Punishment due to Rebellion Only.

"V, that we will use all Lawful Endeavours for Recovering, maintaining & Preserving the invaluable rights & Privileges of this Peoplp and Stand Ready (if need be) to Bisque our Lives & fortunes in Defence of those Liberties which o>ir forefathers Purchased at so Dear a Rate.

"VI, that the Inhabitants of this Town do hereby Instruct their Rep. resentative, that he use his Influence, in the Great & General Court, or Assembly of this Province, & in a Constitutional way Earnestly Con. tend for tho just Rights & Privileges of the People that they may be handed down inviolate to the Late t Posterity, and as this depends in a Great Measure on the Steady, firm and United Endeavours of all the Provinces on the Continent, we further Instruct )iim to use his influence that a Strict Union & Correspondence be Cultivated & Preserved between the Same, and that they Unitedly Petition his Majesty & Parliment for the Redress of all our Publick grievancies ; we furtlier Instruct him, by no Means to (Jonsent to give up any of our Privileges, whether Derived from Nature or Charter which we has as just a Right to Enjoy as anj' of the Inhabitants of Great Brittain ; also that he use his Endeavours that ample and Honerable Sallarie.s be Granted to his Excellency, the Governor, and to the Honerable judges of the Superior Court & &c., adequate to their Respective Dignities.

"Fo^ed, that a Committee of three men be appointed to Correspond with tho Committee of Correspondence of the Town of Boston and Other Towns in this Province as Ocation shall or may Require.

Early in June, 1774, the Eoyal Governor, General Thomas Gage, finding Boston too hot to be comfortable, came out into the country and made his residence in Danvers. The place thus distinguished, not far from the present division line of Danvers and Peabody, called the " Collins House," the residence of Francis Peabody, has been kept in repair and preserved with fine taste in colonial style, and with its approach bordered by lines of ancient over-hanging trees, is one of the finest old mansions to be seen anywhere. It was built by Robert Hooper, a magnate of literal " codfish aristocracy." He was the son of a poor man but rose to great wealth, and for a time nearly monopolized the fishing business of Marblehead. Partly from the grandeur of his mode of life and equipages, but more especially because of his personal honor and integiity he was commonly called " King Hooper." It is a tradition among the fishermen that he, rare exception to men similarly engaged, never cheated them or took advantage of their ignorance. He built this house in Danvers about 1770. While Governor Gage resided here he was attended by a strong detachment of the Sixty- Fourth Royal Infantry, who were encamped on the opposite plain. The ])resence of these soldiers was to the growing hostility of the people, what the color of their uniforms is to the animal typically representing English character. They were under good discipline and generally behaved themselves well. The grandmother of Deacon Fowler, a daughter of Archelaus Putnam, remembers that one day two officers surprised her in Colonel Hutchinson's, her stepfather's, orchard at New Mills. To one who commenced to climb the fence, the other said, " Wait till the girl goes away; do not frighten her." Mrs. Fowler used to relate of Governor Gage that he often conversed with Colonel Hu!chinson, was affable and courteous, and once, while sitting on a log before the door, he said, " We shall soon quell these feelings and govern all this," sweeping out his arm with an expressive ge-'ture. The camp was watchful against surprise, realizing how unwelcome was its presence, and of what a lively spirit of rebellion they were in the midst. "Part of the Sixty-Fourlh Regiment encamped near the G(n^ernor's, we hear, were under arms all last Friday," reads a contemporaneous newspaper item. Some pranks were played on the troops; at the drumcall to arms, a man so well disguised as to make his identity uncertain, but said to have been Aaron Cheever, dashed in on horseback shouting " Hurry to Boston ! the Devil is to pay ! " Early in September the regiment departed. There was a large oak on the plain which had been used for a whipping-post in the camp. The timber of this tree was afterwards used in building the frigate Essex at Salem. The iron-staple to which the British soldiers were strung up for the lash was found imbedded in the Avood, which, by a singular turn, became the stern-post of the frigate.

As one passes the old Collins house it is common to hear of a bullet-hole which has been preserved in the door, and there are various stories as to where the bullet came from, Hon. Daniel P. King stood sponsor to one of which this is the substance: On the gate-posts were large balls, ornamented with lead. A party of patriots going to join the army helped themselves to this precious material. The owner came to the door and remon.strated with such abusive ei)ithets that a man hinted that his presence could be dispensed with by firing pretty near where he stood. " King Hooper" was supposed to be tainted with toryism. At a town-meeting in May, 1775, "a letter was read from Mr. Hooper, voted not satisfactory to the inhabitants." Later he made, in Marblehead, a more public recantation, and was received again in public favor, but he died, in 1790, insolvent. The house passed to the hands of Judge Benajah Collins, whose name it commonly bears. At one time it was in the Tapley family, and again owned and occupied by Rev. P. S. Ten-Broeck, who kept a girls' boarding-school there. It is said there were but two native born Danvers tories, - Rev. William Clark, son of Rev. Peter Clark, who, in 1768, was an Episcopal minister in Quincy, and was afterwards confined in a prison-ship in Boston harbor ; the other, James Putnam, went to ELalifax, became one of the council and a judge of the Supreme Court, and died at St. Johns in 1789.

In the winter of 1774-75 the clouds grew very black, the mutterings more unmistakable. On the 21st of November the town turned its back to England by voting to adhere strictly to all the resolves and recommendations of the Provincial Congress. Early in January each man was supj^lied with " an effective fire-arm, bayonet, pouch, knapsack, thirty rounds of cartridges and ball," and discipline was required three times a week, and oftener as opjjortunity may ofter. Before long something happened.

One of the characters of New Mills was Richard Skidmore, a drummer at the siege of Louisburg, a soldier and privateersman in the Revolution, and, as will be noticed, a member of the alarm list of 1814. At the head of the latter company, an old man, he vigorously beat the same drum which he had used at Louisburg. A barrel of rum once fell to his share of a prize ; as long as it lasted, he said, he heard " How do you do, Mr. Skidmore ? " but as soon as the rum was gone, it was " How are you, old Skid ? " again. Skidmore was a wheelwright, and had made several vehicles of a pattern not commonly seen in village shops, gun-carriages. The guns themselves were concealed somewhere, it is supposed, at the North Fields. Information of their existence reached Boston, and Colonel Leslie's regiment was sent to effect their capture. Of the bloodless repulse at North Bridge, the persistent yet prudent conduct of Colonel Leslie, the valiant resistance of the men who blocked the march, the story belongs to Salem, and will there be found. Danvers men flew to the spot as the alarm spread swiftly over the country. Had one shot been fired, right there would have begun the war. This was the 26th of February, 1775.

Some seven weeks later a similar search party stealthily moved out from Charlestown to seize stores reported concealed at Concord. Paul Revere was out that night. Then followed Lexington, and Liberty entered upon her baptism of blood.

It was between five and six o'clock on the morning of April 19, tiiat the engagement took place on Lexington common. The British moved on and arrived at Concord, some six or seven miles beyond, about nine o'clock. By that time the rapid alarm had reached Danvers, sixteen miles away. It met with instant response. Two companies of minute men and three companies of militia, from one hundred and fifty to two hundred men, hurried to the scene of action. Learning of the retreat from Concord, the objective point was to reach Cambridge soon enough to cut off the British from effecting a return. To do this they went on a run, and in a few hours they were in the midst of action. Few well men could be found in Danvers that day ; at New Mills not one.

The women who were left alone at New Mills gathered at the house of Col. Hutchinson to watch and wait together. To their anxious vigil news ol the fight came on the evening of the nineteenth. Were the men safe? Most of them. Were any hurt?

weeks, your husband, Jotham Webb, was one of the first martyrs to Liberty. Six others, only one more than twenty-five years old, lost their lives, of the men who went out from Danvers, - Henry Jacobs, Samuel Cook, Ebenezer Goldthwaite, George Southwick, Benjamin Daland, Jr. and Perley Putnam. Nathan Putnam and Dennison Wallace were wounded; Jos. Bell, missing.

On the evening of the twentieth, several men on horseback drove up to the house where the women waited, escorting a horse-cart which bore a precious burden. On the kitchen floor of that house which is still standing, the dead were unrolled from the bloody sheets, and the next morning were taken away for burial. Danvers suffered more than any other town after Lexington. The corner-stone of the monument at the corner of Main and Washington Streets, Peabody, was erected in commemoration of the dead, April 20, 1835, the sixtieth anniversary of the fight. Gen. Gideon Foster, who led the way to Lexington, took part in the exercises, and a number of survivors of the fight were present.

Of the five Danvers companies which took part in the flight, two, commanded by Captains Samuel Epi)s and Gideon Foster, were composed mostly of south parish men, and their muster rolls will be found under the history of Peabody. The three other companies were composed of the following men, most of them then living within the present limits of Dan vers :

There was another Danvers man killed at Lexington, the only one credited to Medford, - Henry Putnam. He was the youngest son of Deacon Eleazer Putnam, and sold his father's homestead about 1745 to Phinehas Putnam, great-grandfather of Charles P. Preston, the present occupant of the estate. Of this Henry, it is related that, while on a journey from Medford to Connecticut, he stopped over night at Bolton, fell in love with his host's daughter, proposed in the morning, was immediately married, and, with his bride, drove back her dowry, consisting of two cows and twelve sheep. He was captain of a company at Louisburg, and was exempt by age from duty, when he followed his five sons to Lexington.

" Voted that there be two watches kept in the town of Danvers. Voted that one watch be kept on the road near the new mills and the other watch at the croch of the roads near Mr. Francis Symonds. Voted that each watch consist of 13 men every night. Voted, to choose a Committee of Seven to regulate the watches. Voted, John Nichols, Benjamin Proctor, Benj. Porter, Capt. Shillaber, Nathaniel Brown, Stephen Needham and Deacon Asa Putnam be said Committee. Voted that if any person refuse to watch if warned by the Committee (or any one of them) his name shall be returned to the Committee of Inspection for this town, and if his reasons are not judged sufficient he shall be posted in the newspapers. Voted, to choose a Committee of three persons to procure teams to cart stones to Watertown. Mr. Arch Dale, Capt. John Putnam & Mr. Jonathan Tarble was chosen. Voted, to be concerned with the nabouring towns in establishing a post between the towns of Newbury Port and Cambridge. Doctor Putnam, Mr. Stephen Needham & Capt. Epes be a Committee to settle the affair with the nabouring towns. Voted,

A minute may here be made, that in 1850 Danvers received a courteous invitation to be present at the 75th anniversary of the " Concord Fight," and the delegation sent were John W. Proctor, John Page, Robert S. Daniels, Samuel Preston, Henry Cook, Moses Black, Dr. George Osborne, Daniel Putnam, Jonathan King, Samuel P. Fowler, Eben Sutton, Elias Savage and Fitch Poole. At the centennial anniversary our selectmen added to the occasion the dignity of their presence.

After Lexington the yeomanry suddenly found themselves a besieging army about Boston. The second Centennial Congress met May 10, 1775, recognized the actual existence of war, appointed Washington commander-in-chief and commissioned four major-generals ; but the only commission delivered, and that by the hands of Washington, was to Israel Putnam, a son of Danvers, whose biography is a matter of national history.

The watch, which had been maintained since Lexington, was discontinued July 17, 1775, Congress having provided a guard for sea-port towns. In September following, Colonel Benedict Arnold camped at Danvers on his march to Quebec.

And now that which at first was the dream of only the most daring of the leaders, became moulded into a great popular idea - Independence. On the 7th of June, 1776, Lee, of Virginia, offered in Congress the resolutions of freedom, which were not adopted until the 2d of July. But two days after its introduction, and irrespective of it, for news did not travel by lightning, the citizens of Danvers were warned to meet at the South meeting-house, June 18, to consider a resolve of " the late House of Representatives passed on the 10th Day of May, 1776," to the effect that each town should come together to instruct their representatives in the next General Court whether, in case of a declaration of independence by Congress, "they, the said inhabitants will Solemnly Engage with their Lives and Fortunes to Support them in the Measure."

Voted that if the HonW^ Congress for the Safety of the United Coloneys Declare them Independent of the Kiugdom of great Britain, wo the Inhabitants of this Town do Solemnly Engage with our live aud Fortuens to Support them in the Measure.

Voted that the Town Clark be, and hereby is directed Immediately to Deliver an attested Copy of the Proceedings of this Town Respecting Independentcy, to Maj'. Samuel Epes Representative of said Town, for his Instructions how to Proceed in Case the Important question of Independentcy should come before the Honbio House of Representatives of this Colony.

The Town taking into Consideration the Paragraph in the Warrant Respecting giveing a bounty to their minute men voted to give a Bounty to one quarter part of the militia that shall be Drafted out and stand at a minutes warning Provided they March voted that the Bounty or present Given shall be one pound p' month to Each minute man so long as they Continue in the Province Service, voted to disolve this meeting and the moderator declared this meeting Disolved accordingly.

When, on the nation's birth-day the Declaration was finally adopted by Congress, it was eagerly welcomed in Danvers, adopted without a dissenting vote, and spread for all to read upon the clerk's records. The Articles of Confederation were likewise unanimously approved, February 9, 1778, but the Constitution proposed for Massachusetts that year met an unanimous vote the other way. From the summer of 1777 consideration was from time to time given to enforcing the " acts respecting the prices of goods and all other articles in the Town." A meeting was called July 5, 1779, " to have the proceedings of Boston of the 17th of June last communicated, and to know the minds of the Inhabitants of the Town respecting a convention of Delegates from the several committees of correspondence, etc., in the State proposed to be held at Concord on Wednesday, the 14th instant."

On this it was resolved " that the town will do all in their power to reduce all the Exorbitant prices of the necessaries of Life, and Desire one of the Committee of Correspondence, etc., to attend at the said convention at Concord if they shall think proper."

Dr. Amos Putnam was moderator of the meeting, which, August 2, 1779, heard and considered the action of the convention. Deacon Edmund Putnam, Colonel Hutchinson, Archelaus Dale, John Epes, and Dr. Putnam withdrew, and, after a short adjournment, reported " that the resolves and addresses of the convention are well planned for the Public Good," and on their recommendation this vote was passed :

" (Viz.) : Resolved, That we will Exert ourselves and do all iu our power to carry the Same with all the wholesome Laws heretofore made for the Like Purpose into Execution, and in Testimony of our Sincerity therein we recommend that the Inhabitants of this Town here unto Set their hands by Subscribing their Names from Twenty one years old and upwards and that the Committee of Safty be Directed to offer ye same to the Inhabitants, afforesaidand deal with all that refuse to Sign the Same (if any should be) as Directed in the Eesolves afforesiid, and that the Town Clerk be Directed to Give out Cepies to the Several members of the Committee afforesaid for the Like Purpose. "

Dr. Putnam, Aaron Cheever, Captain Shillaberand Archelaus Rea were added to the Committee of Safety. At a later time it was voted that " the prices Set by the Selectmen and Committe of Saftie to the Several Articles now read with Several resolves accompaning the Same be accepttable to the Town Voted Saml. Epes be a Committe to git a Sefient Number of the above Prices and resolves Printed."

"Voted Mr. Gideon Putnam has violated the resolves of the Convention at Concord by selling cheese at nine shillings per lb., as by evidence fully appeared.

" Voted Mr. Gideon Putnam be posted in one of the Public Newspapers of this State for Breaking one of the resolves of the Convention at Concord, as an enemy to his cuntrey.

the Several Persons in the public prints for not complying with the vote of the Town, as by a List from the Committee of Safety will appear."

Cheese at $1.50 per pound seems rather high, but scarcity and inflated currency account for it. Rum was quoted at from $20 to $25 per gallon ; molasses, £3 19«. ; Bohea tea, £5 6s. per lb. ; iron, £30 per cwt., and other things in proportion. An idea of the purchasing power of continental money may be had in the appropriations made by the town in October, 1880, for " beef for the army." It was voted that the sum of thirty thousand pounds be raised and assessed upon the inhabitants for the purpose of procuring beef, and Enoch Putnam, Jona. Sawyer and Timothy Patch were appointed a committee to carry out the vote. The vote to procure beef was then reconsidered, and, instead, it was voted to send the money direct to the county committee, of which Samuel Osgood, Esq., of Andover, was one. The following January, 1781, it was voted to raise eighteen hundred pounds in silver or an equivalent in paper money " for the use of the town to procure Continental soldiers." The recruiting committee were Ezra Upton, John Dodge and Capt. Samuel Page, who were instructed not to exceed one hundred and eighty silver dollars for each man for three years or the war, " exchange of paper money for silver money at seventy-five for one." At the same meeting these votes were passed :

" Voted that this Town be formed into as Many Classes as there are Soldiers to procure for the Town for three years or During tho War Voted that the Friends be Excused from being Classed with the rest of the Town. Voted to reconsider the vote respecting not Classing the Friends, and that the Friends be subject to be Classed with the other Inhabitants of the Town."

Thus all through the war those who remained at home helped to uphold the government and supply the army. There were brave patriots, then as ever, who never fired a musket, but were none the less devoted and useful.

During the eight terrible years Danvers was represented at the front as well among the leaders as in the ranks. On the roll of honor the names of some of her sons are Avritten very high. Ranking highest were three Generals, Israel Putnam, Moses Porter, Gideon Foster ; next, three Colonels, Jeremiah Page, Israel Hutchinson, Enoch Putnam ; two Majors, Caleb Lowe, Sylvester Osborn ; six Captains, Samuel Eppes, Samuel Flint, Jeremiah Putnam, Samuel Page, Dennison Wallis, Levi Preston, Johnson Proctor.

Some of these men will bementioned in the history of Peabody, and others are noticed in other connections in this sketch. Of two of them. Porter and Hutchinson, something will here be said :

Moses Porter was an apprentice, eighteen years old when the war broke out. He helj^ed to work one of the guns at Bunker Hill, and stuck to his piece when most of the men had fled. His cotmtry never allowed him to quit it afterwards, says Mr. Upham, whose words also are these : " From that day he bore a commission in the army of the United

States. He was retained on every peace establishment always in the artillery, and at the head of that arm for a great length, and until the day of his death. No man who fought at Bunker Hill remained so long a soldier of the United States. After the Revolution, in which he was wounded, he served with Wayne in the Indian campaign, and was at the head of the artillery when the War of 1812 took place. He was in active service on the Niagara frontier, and on the 10th of September, 1813, was breveted for distinguished services. He defended Norfolk, Va., in 1814, with great ability and vigilance, and saved that most vital point of coast defense. At successive periods after the war he was at the head of each of the geographical military divisions of the country." He died at Cambridge in 1822, and was buried on his father's farm, from which his remains have been removed to Walnut Grove Cemetery. A letter preserved from Captain Simeon Brown to General (then Lieutenant) Porter, 1781, says, "I went yesterday to Salem to get a Dictionary, but there are none to be had, therefore I cannot send one this time, but .will try at Boston the first opportunity, and if one can be obtained I will send it on." Though a reflection on Salem as a literary centre, the letter speaks well for the young artillery officer who wanted a dictionary. Moses Porter never married.

The house which Colonel Israel Hutchinson built, the one in which the women gathered during that nineteenth of April and saw laid out on the floor the dead heroes brought back from the fight, is still standing at Danversport, close by the " new mills" which Archelaus Putnam built. Indeed, Hutchinson's second wife was the widow of Arehelaus Putnam. For many years this house remained in the family as the residence of Briggs T. Reed, who married the colonel's granddaughter, Betsey; it is now owned by the Eastern, or Boston and Maine Railroad Company, and before long may give place to a much needed new station. Colonel Hutchinson was a descendant of the fifth generation from Richard Hutchinson, the emigrant, who came from Arnold, England, in 1634, and with his wife Alice and four children, settled near Hathorne's hill. He was born in 1727 and was living on the Plains in 1762, moving soon after to New Mills. His long and honorable military record began when he enlisted as a scout in Captain Herrick's company, in 1757. The next year, in the Lake George and Ticonderoga campaign he was a lieutenant in Captain Andrew Fuller's company ; the next year a captain, he led a company, under General Wolfe, up the Heights of Abraham. A man with this experience was naturally enough chosen as a leader of the minute-men of '75. Soon after Lexington he was commissioned a lieutenantcolonel in Colonel Mansfield's regiment, and soon was promoted to full rank of colonel. He was at the siege of Boston, and his regiment was one of those detailed to fortify Dorchester Heights. He went to New York, commanded Forts Washington and Lee, and was with Washington throughout the memorable retreat through New Jersey. On his return from the war he was conspicuously honored by his fellow-citizens, who sent him repeatedly to the General Court and elected him to other offices, until politics entered more into consideration, and Federalists carried the day against the colonel and his fellow-Democrats. In his old age he kept busily engaged at his business, which had been interrupted by the war. He worked in his saw-mill until he met there the accident which, in his eighty-fifth year, caused his death, March 16, 1811. He is buried in the Plains Cemetery. His son, Israel Hutchinson, Jr., was a deacon of the Baptist Church and long clerk of the society. The colonel's orderly-book, from August 13, 1775, to July 8, 1776, is in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. It contains a " descriptive list of noncommissioned officers and privates enlisted in the county of Essex to serve in the army of the United States," comprising five hundred and twenty-two names, including thirty from Danvers.

Colonel Hutchinson is recalled by Deacon Fowler, who was a boy of eleven when he died, as a smart old man, small in stature, clad in a white frock, working in his saw-mill. He was accustomed to call the boys in from the street to help him roll logs. He had not himself a lazy bone, and he abhorred laziness in others and despised loafers. His son, the deacon, entertained visiting ministers, and when one of these guests strolled in to look over the mill, the old man, taking him for a loafer, threatened to throw him into the pond.

How gladly the townspeople welcomed the close of the war, and withal, how vigilant they were for the preservation of the rights so dearly bought, may be judged from instructions given Colonel Hutchinson, June 9, 1783. After alluding to his conspicuous services during the war and at the General Court, the instructions proceed, - "The contest is over and a complete Revolution is happily acomplished. This town, sir, congratulates you on so glorious a period. . . . As the Independence depends solely (under Divine Providence) in the Union of these United States, you are to consider the confederacy of the States as Sacred and in no point to be violated. . . . You are to use your endeavor that no Absentee or Conspirator against the United States, whether they have taken up arms against these States or not, be admitted to return, and those persons that have returned, you are not to suffer such joersons to remain in this Commonwealth. ... In any matters that turn up, which you think militate against your Constituents, you are to apply for further Instructions."

Danvers was represented in the march of Colonel Wade's Essex County Regiment, to suppress Shay's Rebellion. An orderly-book, now in possession of Dr. A. P. Putnam, gives the names of sixty-eight men of the company of Captain (afterwards Colonel) John Francis, fourteen of whom were from this town,