As most Americans know, early on the morning of April 19, 1775, British soldiers and armed colonists exchanged fire in the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord. An alarm was sounded for all militia men to join the cause.
Sixty men, whose ages ranged from 17 to 68, left their homes and headed to Dedham center where they mustered and prepared to join the conflict. Some were able to fire upon the British troops as they retreated back to Boston. It was the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
In 1890, Norwood’s first historian Deacon Francis Tinker compiled a list of these brave men – all born British citizens – who risked their lives in defiance of their King, not knowing what the outcome of their actions would be.
As we prepare to celebrate Patriots Day, here are the names of more than a dozen of these courageous colonists who are interred in Old Parish Cemetery:
William Coney, lot 228
Benjamin Dean, lot 140
Jonathan Dean, lot 146
Abel Everett, lot 121
Asa Everett, lot 107
Ebenezer Everett, lot 149
William Everett, lot 169
David Fairbanks, lot 206
Eliphalet Fisher, lot 251
Moses Guild, lot 55
Jeremiah Kingsbury, lot 133
Benjamin Lewis, lot 192
Nathaniel Lewis, lot 261
John Morse, lot 119
Seth Morse, lot 176
Eliphalet Rhoads, lot 114
Enoch Talbot, lot 105
Although Francis Tinker did not record Aaron Guild (lot 199) as participating on April 19, he did acknowledge Guild’s subsequent war service, noting that “of Capt. Aaron Guild’s Company…a large number were from this Parish.” Tinker also remarked that there was “little doubt that every able-bodied person of suitable age, was called upon to do duty at some period, during the war of the Revolution.”
Click <or>to scroll through the gravestones.
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