Joseph Dorr Jr. and The American Revolution
Mendon’s Joseph Dorr Jr. was an active participant in the American Revolution. His service as a representative in the Massachusetts General Court in the 1760s introduced him to fellow legislator, Samuel Adams, who had a significant influence on his political thinking. The Harvard educated Dorr used his superior writing and oratory skills to inspire Mendon voters to approve and endorse the concepts of the Sons of Liberty and to lay the groundwork for one of the most important documents of colonial times. His devotion to the cause for independence was remarkable.
Dorr’s influence as a leader was most evident at town meetings. On October 14, 1765, voters denounced Britain’s Stamp Act, and again on May 21, 1767, they agreed not to buy, sell, or use any products from Britain that had a tax. He shared letters that he received from Boston, and he kept Mendon people informed about revolutionary happenings.
A town meeting held on March 1, 1773, at the meeting house at the north end of Old Cemetery, was the setting for his most important oration. He and a committee that he chaired prepared nineteen resolutions in response to a letter from Boston’s Committee of Correspondence. The resolutions clearly defined in writing what the revolutionary issues were about. They stated that all men have naturally an equal right to life, liberty, and property, and that a just and lawful government must originate with the free consent of the people. They also stated that quartering an army in a free country in times of peace, without the consent of the people, was a violation of rights of free men. Several more resolutions of a similar tone were approved. The eloquence and clarity of Dorr’s resolutions seemed to strengthen the focus of the revolutionary cause, and drew the attention of colonial leaders.
Three years later, after July 4, 1776, town clerks in every town in the thirteen colonies were required to make a hand-written copy of the Declaration of Independence. As Mendon town clerk, Joseph Dorr Jr. was copying the document in his exquisite penmanship, he most assuredly came across some words and phrases that were familiar to him. He had seen them before.
The aging Thomas Jefferson, in 1826, left instructions before his death, that one of the inscriptions on his tombstone would be that he was the author of the Declaration of Independence. Most certainly he was, but several of the principles on which it was based were eloquently written, narrated, discussed, and approved at Mendon’s March 1, 1773, town meeting. Historian, William Cullen Bryant, stated in his 1881 book, A Popular History of the United States, (vol. 3, p.472) that the first two public documents that influenced the Declaration of Independence were Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” and Mendon’s nineteen resolutions.
Joseph Dorr Jr.’s parent’s rest in peace in Old Cemetery about twenty feet from where the meeting house once stood. The building was sold, dismantled, and rebuilt as a residence at 8 Hastings Street. A barn now occupies the historic site. The spirited rhetoric and eloquent orations have been replaced with silence. Mendon historian, Reverend Carlton Staples, wrote that the resolutions “embodied the sentiments of the Declaration of Independence more than three years before that immortal document came from Jefferson’s hand,” and that the words describe “the fundamental principles of our national existence.” The graves of Reverend and Mrs. Dorr are the only reminders that long ago, on March 1, 1773, their son and his committee put into writing a document of resolutions that helped the colonies to establish their identity. His active participation also included his service as a delegate to the Provincial Congress and as a member of the Committee of Correspondence. He also served as Mendon’s selectman, town clerk, treasurer, and justice of the peace. Joseph Dorr Jr.’s involvement in the American Revolution had a significant impact on our nation, perhaps more than we will ever know!
The Dorr family lived at a site that is now 59 North Avenue. The house was replaced with the present house in the mid 1800s.
Richard Grady
John Trainor
May 2012
Mendon Town Meeting : March 1, 1773
Mendon’s town meeting on March 1, 1773, at the Fourth Meetinghouse, was one of the most important meetings in the town’s history. The outcomes had significant impacts, not only on our town, but on the thirteen colonies under British rule. A group of six scholarly residents eloquently proposed a document and supported it with fiery orations that shook the rafters of the wooden building. The spirited voters gave approval, and the document gained the attention of Boston’s Committee of Correspondence and Sons of Liberty. The document helped to define and focus on the issues of colonial discontent with Great Britain, and it became an influence on the thinking in the early days of the American Revolution.
The purpose of the meeting was to respond to a letter that the town had received at a February 10 meeting, three weeks earlier. It was from Boston’s Committee of Correspondence in regards to the punitive Acts of Parliament that had shut down the Massachusetts state government and closed the port of Boston. Voters at the February meeting created a committee to propose a response and present it on March 1st. The committee included Joseph Dorr Esq., Edward Rawson, James Sumner, John Tyler, Lt. Joseph Johnson, and William Torrey. The presentation was orated by their chairman, Joseph Dorr. It was in the form of nineteen resolves or resolutions. The following are a few examples.1. Resolved, that all men have naturally an equal right to life, liberty, and property. 2. Resolved, that all just and lawful government must necessarily originate in the free consent of the people. 3. Resolved, that the good, safety, and happiness of the people is the great end of civil government and must be considered as the only rational object in all original compacts and political institutions. 10. Resolved, that introducing and quartering standing armies in a free country in times of peace, without the consent of the people, is a violation of their rights as free men. 19….voted that the foregoing Resolves be entered into the Town Book , that our children in years to come, may know the sentiments of their fathers in regard to their invaluable rights and liberties.
Dorr served in the General Court (Mass. Legislature) during the 1760’s, and Rawson served during the 1770’s. With their Boston ties, they were closely acquainted with Sam Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere, Joseph Warren, and other leaders of the revolutionary cause. Mendon had representation at all meetings of the Committee of Correspondence and the Provincial Congress. Clamors for freedom from tyranny from the radicals in Boston echoed off the walls of Mendon’s meetinghouse at the north end of Old Cemetery. Historian William Cullen Bryant wrote that Mendon’s Resolves and Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” were the first writings that influenced Thomas Jefferson’s authorship of the Declaration of Independence. The town meeting on March 1, 1773 was one of the most important in our town’s history. It not only influenced our town, but to some extent, the early beginnings of our nation!
Richard Grady
John Trainor
April 13, 2014
Annals of Mendon – Resolves, 1773
The Declaration of Independence… was to some extent anticipated by the action of various towns and counties. The first of them all, probably, was the town of Mendon, Worcester County, Mass, which in 1773 adopted these resolutions. William Cullen Bryant and Sydney Howard Gay, A Popular History of the United States, volume 3 p. 472.
In a warrant for a town meeting to be held Feb. 10, 1773, the second article is in the following words, viz: “To see what the town will act relative to the Letter of Correspondence from the Town of Boston to this Town.”
At a town meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of the town of Mendon, legally qualified, warned and assembled, at the First Precinct Meeting House, in said Mendon, February ye 10th, 1773, Mr. John Tyler was chosen Moderator.
Then was laid before the meeting the letter or pamphlet of the Committee of Correspondence of the town of Boston, ” Shewing, in Sundry Respects, where sundry of our Invaluable Charter Rights and Privileges were Infringed upon, by sundry late Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, Imposing Duties or Taxations on the Colonists in America and the Province or Colony of the Massachusetts Bay in particular.”
It was tried by a vote if the town would act on the important matter, and voted in the affirmative.
Then voted to choose a committee of seven freeholders of said town ” to Consider a matter of so Great Importance and prepare Resolves proper for said meeting to Act and Resolve on, at the adjournment of this meeting.”
Chose for said committee Joseph Dorr, Esq., James Sumner, John Tyler, Deacon Edward Rawson, Lieut. Joseph Johnson and William Torrey, when the meeting was adjourned until the first day of March at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, at the meeting house.
March 1. At a town meeting by adjournment from Feb. 10, 1773, the chairman of the committee appointed to prepare resolves to be laid before the town for their consideration at this time, relative “to our Rights and Privileges as Men, Christians and Subjects, and the Infringement of them by Sundry Acts of the British Parliament, acquainted the Moderator that he was ready to make Report and read the same as follows, viz:
(The following resolves were written by Joseph Dorr.)
1. Resolved, That all men have naturally an Equal Right to Life, Liberty and Property.
2. Resolved, That all just and lawful Government must necessarily originate in the free Consent of the People.
3. Resolved, That the Good, Safety and Happiness of the People is the great end of Civil Government, and must be considered as the only rational object in all Original Compacts and Political Institutions.
4. Resolved, That a principle of Self Preservation, being deeply planted by the God of Nature in every human breast, is as necessary not only to the well-being of Individuals, but also to the Order of the Universe, as Attraction and Cohesion are to the preservation of material bodies and the order of the Natural World, Therefore
5. Resolved, That a Voluntary Renunciation of any Powers or Privileges, included or necessarily connected with a principle of Self Preservation is necessarily acting counter to the Great Author of Nature, the Supreme Legislator, Therefore,
6. Resolved, That a Right to Liberty and Property (which is one of the Natural Means of Self Preservation) is absolutely unalienable, and can never, lawfully, be given up by ourselves or taken from us by others.
7. Resolved, That the claim of the Parliament of Great Britain to the power of Legislation for the Colonies, in all cases whatever, is extremely alarming and threatens the total deprivation of every thing that is dear and valuable in life, and is, we humbly conceive, abhorrent from the spirit and genius of the British Constitution which is Liberty; destructive of the Immunities and Privileges granted us in our Royal Charter, which assures to the Inhabitants of this Province all the Liberties and Immunities of free and natural born subjects of England ; and in reality is not reconcilable to the most obvious principles of Reason, as it subjects us to a State of Vassalage and denies those essential Natural Rights, which, being the gift of GOD ALMIGHTY, is not in the power of man to alienate.
8. Resolved, That the late Revenue Act, by which the. Commons of Great Britain have assumed and exercised a Power of Giving and Granting to his Majesty the property of the Colonists, without their consent, is a grievous Infringement of the Right of disposing of our own Estates.
9. Resolved, That the unlimited power vested in the Commissioner of the Customs of creating inferior Officers and Collectors and the exorbitant power to these under officers and Ministers to enter, at pleasure, any houses or other places and to break open trunks, chests, &c. upon bare suspicion of goods concealed, is a grievous Violation of the Sacred Right of Domestic Security.
10. Resolved, That introducing and quartering Standing Armies in a free country in times of peace, without the consent of the People, is a violation of their rights as Free Men.
11. Resolved, That the enormous Extension of the Power of the Courts of Vice Admiralty, in a great measure deprives the People in the Colonies of the Inestimable Right to Trials by Juries.
12. Resolved, That the Act passed in the last session of Parliament, entitled “An Act for the better preserving his Majesty’s Dock Yards, Magazines, Ships, Ammunition and Stores,” by virtue of which Act the Inhabitants of the Colonies may, for certain supposed offences committed against said Act, be arrested and carried, from their families, to any part of Great Britain, there to be tried, is an Infringement not only of our Constitutional Privileges as Colonists, but of our Natural essential Rights as Men.
13. Resolved, That the Acts for prohibiting Slitting Mills for manufacturing our own iron and restraining the Manufacture and Transportation of Hats, as they deprive us of the natural advantages of our own climate, the produce of our own country and the honest fruits of our own Labour and Industry are very unreasonable and injurious.
14. Resolved, That the Act restraining the transportation of Wool (the produce of our own Farms) even over a ferry, subjects the Inhabitants of this Province to a great an unreasonable Expense, and a violation of our Charter Privileges, whereby all Havens, Rivers &c. are expressly granted to the Inhabitants of the Province and their Successors, to their own proper use and behoof forever.
15. Resolved, That the fixing a Stipend to the Office of the Governor of this Province, to be paid out of the American Revenue, rendering him independent of the free Grants of the People, has a necessary tendency to destroy that Balance of Power which ought to exist between the several branches of the Legislature.
16. Resolved, That the affixing Stipends to the offices of the judges of the Superiour Court of Judicature and rendering them independent of the People and dependent on the Crown for Support may hereafter (considering the depravity of human nature,) be improved to purposes big with the most fatal consequences to the good People of this Province.
17. Resolved, That the wresting out of our hands Castle William, the principal fortress of this Province, and garrisoning it with his Majesty’s regular Troops is a violation of our Charter Privileges.
18. Resolved, That it is the mind and desire of this Town that the judges of the Superiour Court of Judicature and all other Officers who receive grants from the Province should have an honourable support agreeable to the dignity and importance of their respective stations.
19. Resolved, That the Representative of this Town be and he is hereby instructed to use his utmost endeavours, in a constitutional manner, for the Redress of the aforementioned grievances ; and that he in no wise consent to the giving up of any of our Rights, whether derived to us by nature or by Compact or Agreement.
Finally, When we reflect on the arduous enterprize of our Forefathers in transporting themselves to the wilds of America, the innumerable fatigues and dangers, the vast expense of treasure and blood that attended their beginning and carrying on a Settlement here among the Savages of the Desert and at the same time consider the prodigious accession of wealth and power to the mother Country from their extended settlements, it still sets a keener edge on a sense of our numerous grievances and we cannot help viewing the late rigorous and burdensome Impositions laid on us by the hand of the Parent country, as a departure from those truly noble and magnanimous Principles of Liberty which used heretofore to add a distinguishing Lustre and Glory to the British Crown.
Voted that the foregoing Resolves be entered in the Town Book that our Children, in years to come, may know the sentiments of their Fathers in Regard to our Invaluable Rights and Liberties.
Voted that the Town Clerk be directed and he is accordingly directed to transmit a fair attested copy of the foregoing Resolves and proceedings of the Town to the Committee of Correspondence for the Town of Boston. John George Metcalf, Annals of the Town of Mendon.
Compare to the Declaration of Independence Mendon Menu
Mendon Resolves and Suffolk Resolves — A Timeline
February 10, 1773 — Boston’s Committee of Correspondence sends a letter to Massachusetts towns expressing concern about unjust taxation without representation and other injustices from Parliament.
March 1, 1773 — Mendon Resolves: Mendon responds to letter with nineteen eloquently written resolves which clearly identify, define, and focus on injustices of Parliament’s treatment of colonies. Authors were Joseph Dorr and Edward Rawson.
December 16, 1773 — Boston Tea Party in Boston Harbor retaliates for tax on tea.
March 24, 1774 — Parliament tries to punish colonies with Intolerable Acts.
May 20, 1774 — Parliament tries to control and shut down the Massachusetts colonial government by imposing the Massachusetts Government Act.
July 14, 1774 — Second set of Mendon Resolves: Mendon responds to the Intolerable Acts and Mass. Gov. Act with three new resolves. They resolve not to trade with or purchase or consume any imported products from Great Britain.
September 5, 1774 — October 26,1774 — First Continental Congress is held in Philadelphia.
September 9, 1774 — Suffolk Resolves: Suffolk County, led by Boston’s Joseph Warren, responds to Massachusetts Government Act and Intolerable Acts. They call for the boycott of imported British goods. Paul Revere rides on horseback to Philadelphia to deliver Suffolk Resolves to Continental Congress.
September 17, 1774 — First Continental Congress adopts Suffolk Resolves.
September 28, 1774 — Mendon votes to create a Committee of Correspondence.
October 11, 1774 — Joseph Dorr and Edward Rawson attend First Provincial Congress in Concord, MA. John Hancock is chairman.
Above – The gravestones of Joseph Dorr, Jr.’s parents, at the Old Cemetery near the center of Mendon.
Below – The Dorr stones at the Old Cemetery , and other views of the cemetery.
WHO WAS THE AUTHOR OF
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE?
BY CHARLES G. WASHBURN
ON May 20, 1925, it chanced that I was present, in an official capacity, at the celebration, in the City of Charlotte, North Carolina, of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the “Mecklenburg Resolution” which contained a “Declaration of Independence” made, it was claimed, more than a year before that of the Congress of July 4,1776. Those interested in the Charlotte Convention declared “that the cause of Boston was the cause of all” and an order was issued to each Captain’s Company in the County of Mecklenburg to elect two persons to compose a delegation to meet in Charlotte on May 19, 1775, to devise ways and means to aid and assist their suffering brethren in Boston. By an interesting coincidence on that day, it is said, official news of the Battle of Lexington, which occurred on the 19th day of the preceding month arrived by express. Of the five resolutions adopted by the Convention, I will quote the third which runs as follows: 3. Resolved that we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people, are and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing association, under the control of no power other than that of our God and of the General Government of the Congress; to the maintenance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual co-operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor. Since the declaration was first brought to the attention of the public in 1819, a lively discussion, at times acrimonious, has arisen as to its authenticity. Concerning this I need express no opinion but content myself with introducing some correspondence on the subject between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson from Quincy on 22 June 1819:
May I enclose you one of the greatest curiosities and one of the deepest mysteries that ever occurred to me? It is in the Essex Register of June 5th, 1819. It is entitled the Raleigh Register Declaration of Independence. How is it possible that this paper should have been concealed from me to this day? Had it been communicated to me in the time of it, I know, if you do not know, that it would have been printed in every Whig newspaper upon this continent. You know, that if I had possessed it, I would have made the hall of Congress echo and reecho with it fifteen months before your Declaration of Independence. What a poor, ignorant, malicious, shortsighted, Crapulous Mass is Tom Paine’s “Common Sense,” in comparison with this paper! Had I known it, I would have commented upon it, from the day you entered Congress till the fourth of July 1776. The genuine sense of America at that moment was never so well expressed before, nor since. Richard Caswell, William Hooper, and Joseph Hewes, the then representatives of North Carolina in Congress, you knew as well as I, and you know that the unanimity of the States finally depended on the vote of Joseph Hewes and was finally determined by him. And yet history is to ascribe the American Revolution to Thomas Paine! Sat verbum sapienti.
In his reply to Mr. Adams dated Monticello, July 9,1819, Mr. Jefferson wrote:
But what has attracted my peculiar notice, is the paper from Mecklenburg County last, of June the 22d. And you seem to think it genuine. I believe it spurious. I deem it to be a very unjustifiable quiz, like that of the volcano, so minutely related to us as having broken out in North Carolina, some half a dozen years ago.1928.]
in that part of the country, and perhaps in that very county of Mecklenburg, for I do not remember its precise locality. If this paper be really taken from the Raleigh Register, as quoted, I wonder it should have escaped Ritchie, who culls what is good from every paper, as the bee from every flower; and the National Intelligencer, too, which is edited by a North Carolinian; and that the fire should blaze out all at once in Essex, one thousand miles from where the spark is said to have fallen. But if really taken from the Raleigh Register, who is the narrator, and is the name subscribed real, or is it fictitious as the paper itself? It appeals, too, to an original book, which is burnt, to Mr. Alexander, who is dead, to a joint letter from Caswell, Hughes, and Hooper, all dead, to a copy sent to the dead Caswell, and another sent to Doctor Williamson, now probably dead, whose memory did not recollect, in the history he has written of North Carolina, this gigantic step of its county of Mecklenburg. Horry, too, is silent in his history of Marion, whose scene of action was the country bordering on Mecklenburg. Ramsay, Marshall, Jones, Girardin, Wirt, historians of the adjacent States, are silent. When Mr. Henry’s resolutions, far short of independence, flew like lightning through every paper, and kindled both sides of the Atlantic, this flaming declaration of the same date, of the independence of Mecklenburg County of North Carolina, absolving it from the British allegiance, and abjuring all political connection with that nation, although sent to Congress too, is never heard of. It is not known even a twelve month after, when a similar proposition is first made in that body. Armed with this bold example, would not you have addressed our timid brethren in peals of thunder on their tardy fears? Would not every advocate of independence have rung the glories of Mecklenburg County in North Carolina, in the ears of the doubting Dickinson and others, who hung so heavily on us? Yet the example of independent Mecklenburg County, in North Carolina, was never once quoted. The paper speaks, too, of the continued exertions of their delegation (Caswell, Hooper, Hughes) “in the cause of liberty and independence.” Now you remember as well as I do, that we had not a greater Tory in Congress than Hooper; that Hughes was very wavering, sometimes firm, sometimes feeble, according as the day was clear or cloudy; that Caswell, indeed, was a good Whig, and kept these gentlemen to the notch, while he was present; but that he left us soon, and their line of conduct became then uncertain until Penn came, who fixed Hughes and the vote of the State. I must not be understood as suggesting any doubtfulness in the State of North Carolina. No State was more fixed or forward. Nor do I affirm, positively, that this paper is a fabrication, because the proof of a negative can only be presumptive. But I shall believe it such until positive and solemn proof of its authenticity be produced. And if the name of McKnitt be real, and not a part of the fabrication, it needs a vindication by the production of such proof. For the present, I must be an unbeliever in the apocryphal gospel.
John Adams wrote to William Bentley from Quincy on 15th July 1819: A few weeks ago, I received an Essex Register, containing resolutions of independence by a county in North Carolina, fifteen months before the resolution of independence in Congress. I was struck with so much astonishment on reading this document, that I could not help enclosing it immediately to Mr. Jefferson, who must have seen it, in the time of it, for he has copied the spirit, the sense, and the expressions of it verbatim, into his Declaration of the 4th of July, 1776. Had I seen that declaration at the time of it, it should have been printed in every Whig newspaper on this continent. Its total concealment from me is a mystery, which can be unriddled only by the timidity of the delegates in Congress from North Carolina, by the influence of Quakers and proprietary gentlemen in Pennsylvania, the remaining art and power of toryism throughout the continent at that time. That declaration would have had more effect than Tom Paine’s “Common Sense, ” which appeared so long after it. I pray you to intercede with the printers to transmit me half a dozen copies of that Register, which contains it, and I will immediately transmit the money for them, whatever they may cost. That paper must be more universally made known to the present and future generation.
One day in looking over the World’s Almanac, that invaluable “Source Book” for amateur historians, my eye fell upon the following note: “The earliest known attempt in the American Colonies of a Declaration of Independence was at a town meeting at Mendon, Worcester County, Massachusetts, in 1773.” This, you will observe, antedated the alleged date of the Mecklenburg declaration by more than two years. My curiosity being aroused and my doubts as well, I examined the record of the action taken at Mendon. The second article of the warrant for a town meeting to be held February 10,1773, was as follows:
To see what the town will act relative to the letter, dated Nov. 20, 1772, of correspondence from the Town of Boston to this town (of Mendon) showing in sundry respects where sundry of our invaluable charter rights and privileges were infringed upon by sundry late acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, imposing duties or taxation on the Colonists in America and the Province or Colony of the Massachusetts Bay in particular. It was voted to appoint a committee of seven to consider the matter and report at an adjourned meeting. The Committee reported on March 1, 1773, a resolution consisting of nineteen sections, not in any sense a declaration of independence but a declaration of rights and grievances. Believing that human nature then was very much what it is now and that the disposition of the committee in expressing its views would be to go along the lines of least resistance, I rather assumed that this resolution would be found to be a paraphrase of the declarations contained in the letter of Correspondence from the Town of Boston. I cannot refer to all the sections, but only to the following:
1. Resolved that all men have naturally an equal right to life, liberty and property.
2. That all just and lawful government must necessarily originate in the consent of the people.
3. Resolved that introducing and quartering standing armies in a free country in times of peace without the consent of the people is a violation of their rights as free men. These three are sufficient for my present purpose. The nine sections of the resolution were adopted and also a tenth, which ran as follows:
Resolved that the representative of this town be instructed to use his utmost endeavors in a Constitutional manner, for the redress of the aforementioned grievances and that he in no wise consent to the giving up of our rights whether derived to us by nature or by compact or agreement. In order to substantiate my theory, it was, of course, necessary to examine the letter sent to Mendon by the Committee of Correspondence in Boston. The so-called letter was, in fact, a pamphlet, no doubt familiar to all of you, issued to the Town of Boston, as the result of a Town Meeting held on Wednesday, October 28, 1772, at which a Committee consisting of James Otis, Samuel Adams, Dr. Joseph Warren, Dr. Benjamin Church and others was appointed to report to the Town, as soon as may be, as a Committee of Correspondence to state the rights of the Colonists and of this Province in particular, as men, as Christians and as subjects, to communicate and publish the same to several towns in this Province and to the world as the sense of the Town, with the infringements and violations thereof that have been made or from time to time may be made; also requesting of each Town a free communication of their sentiments on this subject.
The meeting finally assembled in Faneuil Hall on Friday, November 30, 1772, to hear the report of the Committee. John Hancock was the moderator. The Chairman of the Committee, James Otis, made the report which was in three parts. First. A statement of the rights of the Colonies and of this Province in particular. This was considered by Samuel Adams, and the first one he mentioned was, A right to life, liberty and property. A natural right. Then came the Second part— A declaration of violation of these rights, by Dr. Joseph Warren, and then the Third part— A letter of correspondence to the other towns by Benjamin Church.
Every one of the grievances noticed in the Mendon resolution is found in the pamphlet of the Committee of Correspondence. The first point made by Samuel Adams is that man has the right to life, liberty and property. A natural right. The first section of the Mendon resolution is “Resolved that all men have naturally an equal right to life, liberty and property.” Now follow on to the recital of grievances in the Continental Congress of 1774 and in the declaration of independence adopted on July 4, 1776. Note the first declaration: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
These declarations are found in almost exactly these words in the pamphlet of the Committee of Correspondence in the replies made by the towns; also, in the Declaration of Independence and some of them even in the Constitution of the United States. I turned to the records of another and smaller town, feeling certain that I would find there some reference to this subject, and I was not disappointed. The action was not as elaborate or as definite as that taken by the Town of Mendon, but it appears that at a Town meeting held in March, 1773, seven days after the Mendon Committee had reported, which was adjourned to May 17, 1773, a so-called “Committee of Rights” reported. Favoring, in substance, a loyal remonstrance and petition to the King, containing an enumeration of grievances and praying for their removal and that all acts and ministerial proceedings that might be unconstitutional and anti-commercial might cease, and was further of opinion that a proper correspondency of towns and colonies would be both salutory and necessary to the end that in a Constitutional way, with a proper dependence on Him who has the hearts of all men at his disposal, we may obtain the full enjoyment of all our rights and privileges, civil and religious, and of having that love and harmony subsist between Great Britain and her Colonies which may make both to enjoy and seek each others prosperity. And as to our rights and privileges with the infringements on the same, we look upon it that they are truly and well stated by the Committee of the Town of Boston, to whom we return our thanks for the early and persevering method taken in Constitutional ways for the support of the sariie.
There is no suggestion here of any desire for independence, but only that “love and harmony” may subsist between Great Britain and her Colonies. I cannot dwell upon this interesting subject further, but I make the suggestion, not altogether new and perhaps not generally accepted, that Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration, in enumerating the grievances under which our countrymen were then suffering, simply gave utterance to the common expressions, the common aspirations of the people. I am not seeking to depreciate in any way the great gifts of Thomas Jefferson, but merely to point out that the Declaration of Independence was the culmination of the thought of years which finally took form in some generally accepted expressions which Jefferson skillfully embodied in the ” Declaration. ” In the Continental Congress, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, made a motion on June 17, 1776 declaring for Independence. It was seconded by John Adams. A committee was appointed to consider the matter, composed of Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston. Adams gives the following interesting account in his letter to Timothy Pickering of August 6, 1822, of a conversation he had with Jefferson as to who should draught the declaration: Jefferson proposed to me to make the draught. I said, “I will not.” “You should do it.” “Oh, no.” “Why will you not? You ought to do it.” “I will not.” “Why?” “Reasons enough.” “What can be your reasons?” “Reason first. You are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second. I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. “Reason third. You can write ten times better than I can.” “Well,” said Jefferson, “if you are decided, I will do as well as I can.” “Very well; when you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting. “
John Adams goes on to say. As you justly observe, there is not an idea in it but what had been hackneyed in Congress for two years before. The substance of it is contained in the declaration of rights and the violation of those rights, in the Journals of Congress, in 1774. Indeed, the essence of it is contained in a pamphlet, voted and printed in the town of Boston, before the first Congress met, composed by James Otis, as I suppose, in one of his lucid intervals, and pruned and polished by Samuel Adams. . . . The instrument was reported, as I believe, in Jefferson’s handwriting as he first drew it. Congress cut off about a quarter of it, as I expected they would, but they obliterated some of the best of it, and left all that was exceptionable, if anything in it was. I have long wondered that the original draught has not been published. I suppose the reason is, the vehement philippic against negro slavery.
Similarly, the Constitution of the United States was not, as Gladstone once said, “The most wonderful work struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man, but the result of a slow and painful evolution of thought stimulated by grim necessity. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.”
Such is the method of growth in nature, and such must be the method of enduring progress in the affairs of men. You may recall the conversation in Dickens’ fascinating novel, “The Tale of Two Cities,” between Defarge and his wife, of cruel heart and relentless purpose, in which Defarge, inclining to repine over the slow approach of the French Revolution, said to her in a moment of depression:
“It is a long time.” “It is a long time,” repeated his wife, ” and when is it not a long time, it is the rule.” “It does not take a long time to strike a man with lightning, ‘ ‘ Defarge ventured to reply. ” How long,” demanded Madam, composedly,” does it take to make and store the lightning, tell me? ” “It does not take long,” said Madam, “for an earthquake to swallow a town. Tell me how long it takes to prepare the earthquake? But when it is ready, it takes place and grinds to pieces everything before it. “
It took a long time to prepare for American Independence. It was a painful and slow process to make a nation out of a conglomeration of independent states, a process not fully completed until the surrender of Lee to Grant at Appomattox, but once accomplished has made us the greatest among the nations of the world. It has been demonstrated, I think, that the Committee of Safety in Boston was responsible for the action of the New England towns in enumerating their grievances and demanding their redress. What was behind the Committee of Safety? The Town Meeting of Boston. Who was behind the Town Meeting? Samuel Adams. His was the uncompromising and iron will which turned every event to the advantage of the revolting Colonists. The conviction that the independence of the Province must be asserted took root among the people very slowly. Not one of the American Agents in England imagined that the Colonies would think of disputing the Stamp Act at the point of the sword, and even Otis said, “It is our duty to submit.” In the instructions to one of our agents is found the expression: “We shall ever pray that our sovereign and his posterity may reign in British America ’till time shall be no more.’ ” But Sam Adams was relentless. His goal from the first, when he was almost alone, had been complete independence. When it came to ratifying the Federal Constitution of 1787 to succeed the impotent confederation of states, it also proved to be a slow and tortuous process. Less than one-twentieth of the population voted in the election of representatives to the ratifying conventions. The vote of eighteen men, ten in Massachusetts, six in Virginia and two in New York would have defeated it. In the Convention held in Boston in January 1788, to consider its adoption by Massachusetts, the vote in the affirmative was 187 and in the negative 168. Nothing but its adoption, in a hesitating and doubtful spirit, to be sure, saved the country from utter ruin. The Boston Gazette of January 28, 1788, contains the following fable in verse which pretty clearly expresses the state of mind of many of the people at that time:
A Fox closely pursued, tho’t it prudent and meet To a Bramble for refuge, all in haste to retreat; He entered the covert, but entering he found. That briars and thorns did on all sides abound And that tho’ he was safe, yet he never could stir. But his sides they would wound, or tear off his fur, He shrugg’d up his shoulders, but would not complain. To repine at all evils (quoth Reynard) is vain; That no bliss is perfect I very well know, [ But from the same source good and evil both flow; And full sorely my skin, though these briars may rend. Yet they keep off the dogs, and my life will defend. For the sake of the good, then, let evil be borne. For each sweet has its bitter, each bramble its thorn.
Returning to the main topic, may I venture to put to this learned body a rhetorical question? If the person to whom the germinal principle attaches should be considered the father—is not Samuel Adams entitled to the distinction of being called the Father of his Country and would the fame of Washington, a late convert to independence, suffer in the least if he were to be hailed as Savior of his Country? And may not we more accurately, giving due credit to Locke and Hooker, attribute to the Committee of Correspondence in Boston the authorship of certain phrases and principles in the Declaration of Independence and do homage to Jefferson as the accomplished editor, or, as he once put it, “the draughtsman” of that immortal instrument.
Mendon’s Participation in the Revolutionary War
Introduction
Mendon in the 1760’s and 1770’s was a robust center of agriculture and transportation. Her citizens were hard-working, free-thinking farmers who, from dawn to dusk, made their living from the soil. The oldest interstate highway in North America, Middle Post Road, ran just north of the village center, connecting New York, Hartford, and Boston. Another interstate route crisscrossed the town center connecting Worcester and Providence, so the village became a stagecoach stopover, a resting place for weary travelers. Passengers could get a good night’s sleep, a hot meal, and share news and ideas.
The town was characterized in many ways. There were beautiful sights of pastures, orchards, fertile soil, and stone walls. The sounds were those of farm animals and creaking wagon wheels traveling along dusty, bumpy roads. There were delicious smells from farmhouse kitchens and smoke from fireplaces. The taste of a delicious meal at one of the village inns was most certainly appreciated by hungry travelers. The feel of textures of warm sheets and blankets after a bone jarring trip on a frigid, snowy night was a comfort and relief.
Several of the buildings and roads in the village center and surroundings still exist and are reminders of colonial times. The Fourth Meetinghouse was located at the north end of Old Cemetery. It was for religious services and town meetings. Many years later, it was dismantled and rebuilt on 8 Hastings Street. It is currently the home of Randy Geblein. Ammidon Inn at 4 Main Street was operated by Ichabod Ammidon and his son, Philip. Elisabeth and George Keith operated the Keith Inn. It was located, at the time, at 10 Hastings Street. It was later moved and is now the Russell and Anne Dudley home. Colonel Calvin Smith lived at a farmhouse at the corner of Emerson Street and Hastings Street. His farmland and an adjoining military training field occupied the area of Hood Plaza, extending down Millville Street and Emerson Street. A Taft home at 40 Millville Street was built across the street from Taft Pond around 1770. David and Jane Lowell are the current residents of their ancestral home. The pond is now known as Lake Nipmuc. Peter Penniman lived at a farmhouse at 49 Blackstone Street. Janice Muldoon Moors is the current resident. Captain William Torrey lived on North Avenue, then known as County Road. Firebrands Joseph Dorr and Edward Rawson lived further up the street, in the vicinity of 59 through 73 North Avenue. Elm Street and Milford Street did not exist then. Eight Rod Road is at the Hopedale town line, then connected to Middle Post Road. Other training fields were at Founders’ Park and Gaskill Street.
This was the Mendon of the American Revolution, an agricultural town with a village center that was a stagecoach stopover. Travelers brought news here, and one of the stories exchanged in the early 1760s was that Great Britain was in debt, and that she was looking to her thirteen colonies to pay off her bills……on the backs of the people who lived there.
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The issue of who would pay the financial burden of the French and Indian War had devastating consequences on the relationship between the colonists and Great Britain. Members of Parliament thought that the colonists should pay for it through a variety of duties and taxes put on British goods. People in the colonies thought differently. They reasoned that the governmental body imposing these financial demands on them gave them no say in the matter. They were British citizens who had no representation in Parliament. It was this disagreement, dissention, anger, and a sequence of events that shook the foundation of the British empire and rattled the monarchies of Europe.
Though most people of all thirteen colonies were not in agreement with the financial demands from across the ocean, it was Boston, Massachusetts that became the focus of colonial contention. A group of men, who called themselves the Sons of Liberty, actively protested against the taxes being imposed on them. One of them, James Otis, called it, “taxation without representation.” Other members included Sam Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock, Ebenezer Dorr, and Dr. Joseph Warren. These men, and several others, met from time to time at Faneuil Hall to discuss what must be done in how to deal with Parliament and King George. They felt that rulers of Britain had clearly taken away their liberty and that British actions were a form of tyranny. Faneuil Hall became known as, “the cradle of liberty” of the colonies.
It was through the interaction of our town’s representative in the General Court, with Sam Adams, that Mendon became actively involved with the rejection of England’s taxation demands. Joseph Dorr, Jr., a Harvard scholar, attorney, Mendon school master, and son of the minister of the Fourth Meetinghouse, was elected in 1764, just in time to deal with the 1765 Stamp Act. The Sugar Act had been imposed earlier, and it had been met with strong opposition in Boston. Resistance to British authority was discussed and planned at Faneuil Hall. The Stamp Act resulted in riotous behavior. On August 8, a doll in the likeness of Andrew Oliver, the stamp distributor, was hanged in effigy at the Liberty Tree, a large elm tree at the corner of Essex Street and Washington Street. Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson’s house was ransacked a short time later. The Stamp Act was denounced at Faneuil Hall at a fiery meeting on September 22. A similar meeting was held three weeks later in Mendon at the Fourth Meetinghouse. Under Joseph Dorr’s leadership, Mendon voters sent a message to Parliament and to King George that they would not comply with the Stamp Act. This was the beginning of a strong interactive alliance with the Sons of Liberty.
During the next several years, Mendon citizens continued to support the efforts of the Boston radicals in resisting British tyranny. After the Stamp Act was repealed in March 1766, it was replaced on the same day with the Declaratory Act, which declared that the British government had full legislative power over the colonies. In response, Boston merchants and residents met at Faneuil Hall and agreed not to sell or use any article on which Parliament had placed a duty. On September 7, 1767, voters in Mendon elected to do the same. The Townsend Act put a tax on tea, paper, paint, and lead. By 1770, after much colonial pressure, the act was repealed, but a duty would be continued to be placed on tea. British troops arrived to keep order. There was no warm welcome, only worsening feelings and riotous behavior that resulted in the Boston Massacre.
Sam Adams and Dr. Joseph Warren set up a Committee of Correspondence in November 1772 to communicate with other towns and to circumvent the network of the royal government. A letter sent to Mendon was read and discussed at a town meeting on February 10, 1773. It raised questions and concerns about how to deal with the punitive Acts of Parliament that recently shut down the Massachusetts state government, closed the port of Boston, and forbid the holding of town meetings. It was voted to form a committee of six men to prepare a response for the next meeting on March 1st. The group included Joseph Dorr, Edward Rawson, James Sumner, John Tyler, William Torrey, and Joseph Johnson, all ardent supporters of the Sons of Liberty. Dorr gave the presentation in the form of a fiery oration that shook the rafters of the meetinghouse. The spirited speech was in the form of resolves, which helped to define and focus on the issues of discontent. It was eloquently written and stated.
The following resolves are a sampling of the nineteen that were presented. 1. Resolved, that all men have naturally an equal right to life, liberty, and property. 2. Resolved, that all just and lawful government must necessarily originate in the free consent of the people. 3. Resolved, that the good, safety, and happiness of the people is the great end of civil government and must be considered as the only rational object in all original compacts and political institutions. 10. Resolved that introducing and quartering standing armies in a free country in times of peace, without the consent of the people, is a violation of their rights as free men. The conclusion after the nineteenth resolve was very interesting because it indicated that these six scholarly Mendon patriots were well aware that their document was going to create a lot of attention from colonial leaders. It was voted that the foregoing Resolves be entered into the Town Book, that our children in years to come, may know the sentiments of their fathers, in regard to their inalienable rights and liberties. It was voted that the Town Clerk be directed to transmit an attested copy to the Committee of Correspondence in Boston. Historian William Cullen Bryant wrote that Mendon’s Resolves and later Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, “Common Sense,” were the first writings that influenced Thomas Jefferson’s authorship of the Declaration of Independence.
At a town meeting on July 14, 1774, Mendon voters once again expressed their displeasure with their English oppressors. They voted to approve three new resolves. 1. Resolved, that henceforth, we will suspend all commercial trade with the island of Great Britain until said Act of blocking Boston Harbor be repealed and a restoration of our charter rights be obtained. 2. Resolved, that we will not, knowingly, purchase or suffer anyone under us to purchase or consume, in any manner, any goods, wares, or merchandise we shall know or have good reason to suspect to be imported to America from Great Britain aforesaid from and after the last day of August next ensuing. 3. Resolved, that any persons preferring their own private interest to the salvation of their now perishing country, shall still continue to import goods from Great Britain or shall purchase of those who do import, they shall be looked upon and treated by us as persons inimical to their country. (page 321 Annals) (Continue tomorrow)
A meeting on September 28, 1774, was very important with other issues, also. Voters elected a Committee of Correspondence in order to interact with Boston and other towns, and because Governor Gage dissolved the state government, the General Court was replaced by the First Provincial Congress. The Committee was made up of Captain Nathan Tyler, Edward Rawson, James Sumner, Elder Nathaniel Nelson, and Benoni Benson. The representative to the Provincial Congress was Edward Rawson, as he had been the representative to the General Court since 1768. Joseph Dorr was elected to attend as a delegate. In addition, knowing that a military conflict could break out at any time, selectmen were authorized to add to the supply of arms and ammunition at the magazine on Providence Road.
The First Provincial Congress met in Concord on October 11, 1774. John Hancock was the chairman. It authorized each town to prepare its militia and minutemen with suitable equipment in preparation for anticipated war. Each soldier would be equipped with an effective firearm, bayonet, pouch, knapsack, and thirty rounds of ammunition. They were to have military training three times a week.
Mendon established a committee of several men to purchase field pieces, firearms and ammunition. They were Doctor Jennison, Captain Joseph Daniels, and Peter Peniman.
On December 27, it was voted to take up a collection for the people of Boston who were without necessities because Governor Gage had shut down the harbor as a punishment. All towns outside of Boston were encouraged to do this.
On April 15, 1775, the Provincial Congress became aware of a plot by Governor Gage to arrest Adams and Hancock in Lexington and to destroy hidden ammunition supplies in Concord. It was voted to secretly relocate the ammunition to nine remote towns: Mendon, Stoughton, Worcester, Groton, Leicester, Sudbury, Stow, other areas in Concord, and an unnamed town. Three nights later, on the eighteenth of April, seven hundred Redcoats marched to Lexington. It was the night of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, William Dawes, Ebenezer Dorr, and others. The Redcoats were met on the village green by a company of minutemen. After some tense moments, an unauthorized shot was fired that changed history. Several minutemen were the first to sacrifice their lives for the cause of liberty. The Redcoats marched on to the Concord Bridge and met stronger resistance. They found very little hidden ammunition. Their march back to Boston was devastating, as patriots from surrounding towns ambushed them along the way and killed seventy-three of them. The War of Independence had begun!
In response to the shot heard round the world, Mendon soldiers mustered at Founders’ Park, across from Ammidon Inn, marched up North Avenue and took a right on to Middle Post Road to Boston. They joined several other companies from other towns to surround the British encampment. Mendon citizens provided the Continental Army with soldiers, money, food, clothing, firearms, and ammunition.
The Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 was brutal. Though the patriots fought courageously, they were outmanned and outresourced. They forced the British to retreat back down Breed’s Hill, the actual battle location, on the first two attacks. The Redcoats finally took the hill on their third attack. After the battle, the British soldiers’ treatment of Charlestown was barbarous. Dr. Joseph Warren had been killed, and his body was mutilated. All the houses in Charlestown were burned down, leaving hundreds homeless. Mendon helped out by taking in thirty of the war-ravaged people. They stayed at Ammidon Tavern until permanent housing was found.
People of Mendon also helped the revolutionary cause by quartering prisoners. In June 1776, several British and Scottish transport ships were captured off the coast of Massachusetts. Prisoners were divided up and dispersed in groups to a variety of towns. Mendon took in seven high level aristocratic officers of the 71st British Highlanders Regiment. Little did they know that they were in for a rude awakening!
The prisoners signed an agreement with the Provincial Congress and Mendon Selectmen, which at the time, seemed workable. Selectmen were to assist with suitable lodging, food, and clothing for the officers and their servants, but the wealthy prisoners were responsible for paying the costs of all financial requirements to the people who provided for them. They were restricted to limited areas of town. Not obeying the rules meant that they would be transferred to the Worcester Jail, a well-known den of unpleasantness and fear.
To say that the deal did not work out would be an understatement. There were many serious problems! No one with suitable housing would take them in. They wanted to be housed near Middle Post Road, and that request, of course, was rejected. They were constantly being taunted, threatened, and jeered!! They wanted out of Mendon, and they refused to pay for anything because of the alleged abusive treatment!!! Captain Collin McKenzie wrote several letters requesting transfers to other towns, any place but Mendon! There is no record if his request was ever granted.
Perhaps, if the disgruntled Highlander Officers had an opportunity to talk to the thirty war torn homeless refugees who were boarding at Ammidon Inn the previous June, they would have become aware of the slaughter and barbarous treatment by their British colleagues against the people of Charlestown. This is why no welcome mat had been extended by Mendon citizens to the arrogant POW’s.
Though there were many heroes from Mendon during the Revolutionary War, there was one who was born and raised in town who reached the highest level of distinction and honor. Alexander Scammell was born in 1747, on what is now Williams Street near the Hopedale- Milford line, near the current site of Crossroads. It was Mendon’s east precinct then. He fought in most battles from Bunker Hill to Yorktown. He was highly respected and earned the trust and friendship of General George Washington, who appointed him the title of Adjutant General of the Continental Army at Valley Forge. He remained a close friend and advisor to Washington throughout the war. At Yorktown, he was captured and taken prisoner. Very tragically, General Scammell was shot in the back during captivity, and he died on October 6, 1781, as the war was winding down. General Lord Cornwallis surrendered on October nineteenth.
The victory by the American colonies was devastating and humiliating to Great Britain. The highly reputed strongest military power in the world was not able to defeat General Washington’s Continental Army. The Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783 marked the official end of the War of Independence, and it brought freedom to the thirteen colonies to become thirteen united states. Americans could make their own new government and laws. The conflict began with a few Boston radicals at Faneuil Hall who were not willing to pay taxes on British goods without being represented in Parliament. This escalated to a succession of events that led to blood being shed at Lexington Green and Concord Bridge.
The people of Mendon were firmly immersed in the cause for liberty. The interaction of Joseph Dorr and Edward Rawson, two of our legislators in the General Court, met frequently with fellow legislator and Son of Liberty, Samuel Adams. He had a strong influence on their thinking. Dorr and Rawson brought their ideas to Mendon town meetings and passionately orated them. Their interaction with Boston’s Committee of Correspondence in 1773 brought awareness to their scholarly writing skills. Their response to a letter in the form of nineteen eloquently written resolves impressed colonial leaders, as three years later, many of the phrases appear in Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. Mendon joined the Committee of Correspondence and sent Dorr, Rawson, and others to the Provincial Congresses. They expanded and strengthened their militia and provided full support to the Continental Army. The inns provided a place for meals for travelling military units, including Nathan Hale and his troops, in January 1776. They provided housing for the war ravaged homeless from Charlestown, and they quartered prisoners of war. They devoted their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor for the cause of liberty!
Historian Gustavus B. Williams wrote that, “Through all the years of the great contest, all testimony goes to show that no community surpassed Mendon in devotion to liberty, influence in the colony, or in patriotic service.”
Richard Grady and John Trainor
April 12, 2016
Patriots’ Day: Mendon’s Role in the American Revolution
“By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flag to April’s breeze unfurled. Here once the embattled farmers stood, and fired the shot heard round the world.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words remind us that April 19 is Patriots’ Day, a day that calls to mind Paul Revere’s ride, the Old North Church, and the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The towns surrounding Boston in 1775 had been eagerly preparing to avenge the Acts of Parliament that had closed the port of Boston and shut down Massachusetts state government and placed it under British rule. General Thomas Gage became the new governor. One of his rules was that no towns could conduct town meetings without his permission. In the spirit of rebellion, the towns brazenly defied General Gage. They replaced the dissolved legislature with the Provincial Congress and communicated freely through committees of correspondence. Town meetings were held in many towns in outright defiance. One of the towns, thirty miles southwest of Boston, had leaders who were closely acquainted with the leaders of the Sons of Liberty. The cries for freedom from tyranny that came from Boston were echoed at town meetings in this small, patriotic farming town that clamored for independence. It was the town of Mendon.
The people of Mendon were active participants in the events leading up to the American Revolution. As early as 1767, residents voted at a town meeting to boycott any products from Britain, including tea, that were taxed without their consent. On March 1, 1773, voters supported and endorsed nineteen resolutions from a letter from the Sons of Liberty denouncing the injustices of Great Britain for denying them their rights and liberties. They formed a committee of correspondence by town meeting vote in 1774 in order to share ideas with other towns. They elected Joseph Dorr to represent Mendon at a meeting of the Provincial Congress in Concord. The congress authorized towns to increase their stock of weapons, ammunition, and military supplies. Mendon patriotically obliged.
Mendon’s militia, in 1775, was made up of four companies that included one hundred sixty-four men. About a third of them were designated as minutemen, ready to march on a minute’s notice. Each soldier was equipped with a firearm, a bayonet, a pouch, a knapsack, and thirty rounds of ammunition. He received military training three times a week. Training fields were located at Colonel Calvin Smith’s property (Hood Plaza), a field off Gaskill Street, and a training area at Founders’ Park. The soldiers were well-prepared for combat.
On April 15, 1775, the Provincial Congress became aware that General Gage was preparing to send British soldiers to Lexington to arrest ringleaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, and then move on to destroy ammunition supplies allegedly hidden in Concord. It was voted to secretly relocate the ammunition in nine remote towns, one of them being Mendon. It is not known if the supplies ever reached Mendon’s ammunition magazine located on a rocky hill overlooking Providence Road. A few days later, in the early morning of April 19, 1775, seven hundred Red Coats marched to Lexington and encountered a company of minutemen at the village green. After some tense moments, an unauthorized shot was fired that changed history. Several minutemen were the first soldiers to sacrifice their lives for the sake of liberty. The British regulars marched on to Concord, where they met stronger resistance, and found very little ammunition to destroy. Their march back to Boston was devastating, as patriots from the surrounding towns ambushed them along the way, killing seventy-three. The war for independence had begun.
In response to the shot heard around the world, Mendon’s soldiers mustered at Founders’ Park across from Ammidon Tavern and marched on to Boston by way of Middle Post Road. The town supported the Revolutionary War with soldiers, finances, clothing, food, and military supplies. It quartered prisoners of war and took in thirty Charlestown residents left homeless after their city was burned at the Battle of Bunker Hill. It was a Post Road stopover for military units, including Nathan Hale and his troops who had breakfast at Ammidon Tavern in January 1776.
The most famous soldier to be born in Mendon was Alexander Scammell, who was born in 1744 near the site of Crossroads (The Larches) off Williams Street (now Milford). At Valley Forge he was named by George Washington to be the Continental Army’s adjutant general. He was mortally wounded at Yorktown in 1781. Mendon’s contributions had been significant.
Patriots’ Day is celebrated with the Boston Marathon, a Red Sox game at Fenway Park, and perhaps a day off from work. It also should be remembered that it is the anniversary of one of the most important days of our history. A nation was launched that day. Mendon has reason to take great pride in its role in the American Revolution. Historian G.B.Williams said, “Through all the years of the great contest, all testimony goes to show that no community surpassed this in devotion to liberty, influence in the colony, or in patriotic service. Men of Mendon fought at Bunker Hill, Long Island, Valley Forge, Bennington, Saratoga, and Yorktown.” We are grateful and proud.
Richard Grady
John Trainor
Mendon, MA
Revolutionary War Military Storage in Mendon