On April 19, 1775, a rider from Bolton arrived in Harvard to announce that the British were marching out from Boston. The town’s able-bodied men had been divided into different companies and had been training for just such an event. On that day, at least one man from every household in Harvard, clad in farming clothes and carrying a musket, marched down the Bay Road through Stow to Cambridge to confine the enemy.
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In tribute to those men—and the thousands like them from throughout Massachusetts—the Harvard Historical Society, in conjunction with Freedom’s Way Hidden Treasures Month, is having a living history tour of the graves of six Harvard Revolutionary War soldiers on Saturday, May 31, at the Center Cemetery. Visitors may join a tour starting at 1 p.m. or at 2:30 p.m. The rain date is June 1. Reenactors will portray James Haskell, Submit Lawrence, and Jabez Keep.
The soldiers’ accounts are based on material in Henry Nourse’s “History of Harvard” and a 1913 reprint of “Orders for Harvard” in the society’s archives. The six graves are within easy walking distance from the Center Cemetery entrance by the General Store at 1 Still River Road. Visitors should gather in front of the Congregational Church. Parking is around the Common and in the high school parking lot, where there is a path along the cemetery to the front of the church.
Joseph Wheeler, Harvard’s second minister, who was dismissed from the pulpit in 1767 because of poor health, was chosen as chairman of the Committees of Correspondence and as such, he wrote several impassioned speeches professing Harvard’s stance against the injustices of England and the disregard for the colonists’ rights as British citizens. He appointed a committee to rout out men in Harvard suspected of being Tories, with loyalty to England. On April 19, he was part of the company of Alarm Men that marched to Cambridge. He returned after a day or so and, as far as can be verified, did not enlist for further duty. He lived at 28 Fairbank Street in a house still standing, and ran a general store out of his house.
On the day the alarm came, Josiah Whitney was a lieutenant colonel in the Lancaster regiment, of which most Harvard men were a part, and was active in the subsequent siege of Boston. His regiment was not one of those in the detachment that fortified Bunker Hill, but at least one of his companies was ordered from the encampment in Cambridge to serve as reinforcement of Colonel William Prescott in the June 17 battle. Whitney was later promoted to colonel, holding the highest military rank of any other Harvard man. He was active throughout the war.
The Alarm Men
Joseph Fairbank organized a militia to be known as the Alarm Men, made up of about 100 men who had not been enlisted in the Minuteman company or the two existing militia companies. He was chosen captain, and on April 19, he led about one-third of the men on the 30-mile march to Cambridge. The alarm had been slow to spread throughout the sprawling town and, at Fairbank’s urging, in June of 1775, Town Meeting voted that in the future, the first local alert would be the firing of guns, beginning at the Fairbank home on Stow Road.
James Haskell, who lived at 6 Old Schoolhouse Road in a house built by his father in 1764, was an ensign in the Minuteman company. On June 14, the Second Continental Congress put all militia companies fighting around Boston under federal control. The Minutemen were now the Continental Army. Haskell will talk about how early on, the army struggled to maintain a stable force. Terms of enlistment were lengthened and gradually the army became more organized and better trained. Still, critical shortages of arms and ammunition, clothing, shelter, and camp equipment plagued the soldiers.
Isaac Gates was one of the wealthiest men in town, living in an impressive mansion on the east side of Bare Hill. He was a loyal patriot who devoted a large portion of his property to the cause of freedom. He had fought in the French and Indian War and was made captain of one of the two militia companies that marched to Cambridge on April 19. His story will be told by his wife, Submit Lawrence, who was married to Isaac by Rev. Joseph Wheeler in 1764.
Jabez Keep, who succeeded his father at the forge on Old Mill Road, was a sergeant in the Minuteman company on April 19, and a second lieutenant during the siege of Boston. He will recall the orders under which the soldiers lived. There were regular times twice a day for the men to parade, to be on picket duty, and to go on fatigue, which involved physical labor. They were supposed to receive daily rations, which included whiskey or rum.The latter was considered morale-boosting, but drunkenness was punishable. The soldiers had to attend prayers, refrain from cussing and swearing, and stop any gaming or card playing in the evening when the drummers sounded tattoo and they had to return to quarters and the camp be still of noise.
The event is free, but a $5 donation to the society for its public programming is appreciated. Email curator@harvardhistory. org for more information.
