Mendon's Civil War Monument

Austin Wood and the Civil War Monument in Mendon

Austin Wood's gift to the town in 1891 was a reflection of his generosity and love of his

country. It had

concerned him that by 1890, twenty-five years after the Civil War had

ended, no memorial had been

erected to honor the Mendon soldiers who had sacrificed

their lives for their country. Losing twenty of

the town's finest young men in the war of

Rebellion had been devastating, and to Austin, it seemed

appropriate that a permanent

memorial be created to honor them.

The victory of the Union Army over the Confederacy came at the price of a variety of

war related

casualties. Mendon soldiers met their fate on the battlefields of Antietam,

Bull Run, Cedar Mountain,

and the Wilderness. Some men died of typhoid and

dysentery. Others died as prisoners of war in the

dreaded Andersonville Prison. The

war left the town of Mendon stricken with sorrow !!!

Austin worked with the Boston Stone Company from Worcester to design a memorial

made of granite.

It is fourteen feet tall with a cannon ball on top. Its base is four feet

square. The names of the

deceased soldiers are inscribed on the sides. He had it

placed at the entrance to the village at the top

of Maple Street as a perpetual tribute.

In the darkest days of our history, the threat of the United States being dismantled by

the secession of

the South loomed a reality. With our country's existence at stake,

President Abraham Lincoln, at the

somber battlefield at Gettysburg, elegantly orated,

"They gave their lives that our nation may live.........

that from these honored dead, we

take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their last

full measure of

devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that

this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the

people, by the

people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Austin

Wood's granite monument is a

reminder of this.

Richard Grady

September 27, 2013

Mendon Menu

Dedication of the monument - October 5, 1891

The following is from Dr. Metcalf's Annals of Mendon.

Milford Daily News - September 25, 1891

To plan and organize the dedication ceremony, a committee was formed. The members

were H. W.

Brown, A. V. Gaaskill, L. Freeman, J. A. George, and H. W. Darlilng, The town

appropriated $250 for the

event. The 32-piece Worcester Brass Band was hired for $80.