Commemorating the 250th Anniversary of Patriots' Day: Honoring the Brave Colonists of South Dedham (Norwood) April 19, 1775

Sounding the Alarm

It was reported that April 19, 1775 was a clear, cool day with a slight west wind; rain overtook the area at night. As most Americans know, early that morning British soldiers and armed colonists exchanged fire in the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord; the first shots fired in the War for Independence. An alarm was sounded for all area militia men to join the cause.

Local farmers did not think of war as an adventure. Many men in Massachusetts had engaged in armed conflict and were familiar with its horrors from personal experience; they did not take up arms gladly but had come to the sad conclusion that war was inevitable, and they had prepared for it with high seriousness and resolve.

Dressed in their usual working clothes – pants coming down and fastening just below the knee, long stockings, cowhide shoes, vests, coats, and waistcoats of various sizes and colors (except red). Most wore large weathered hats with low crowns and broad floppy brims. Each man was expected to supply his own weapon; many of these were designed for shooting fowl, not for combat.

The sprawling town of Dedham did not get the alarm until after 9:00 in the morning, when relay riders from Needham and Dover arrived by a circuitous route. Once the alarm was sounded, each of four Dedham companies traveled by a different route to Dedham center.

Around sixty men, whose ages ranged from 17 to 58, left their homes in South Dedham village and headed to Dedham center where they mustered and prepared to join the conflict. Some encountered and fired upon the British troops near today’s Arlington as the Redcoats retreated back to Boston.

In 1890, Norwood’s first historian Deacon Francis Tinker compiled a list of these men – all born British citizens – who risked their lives in defiance of their King, not knowing what the outcome of their actions would be. Twenty of these courageous colonists 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

William Everett,         lot 169

David Fairbanks,        lot 206

Eliphalet Fisher,         lot 251

Aaron Guild,               lot 200

Aaron Guild, Jr.,         lot 196

Moses Guild,              lot 55

Oliver Guild,               lot 64

Jeremiah Kingsbury,   lot 133

Benjamin Lewis,         lot 192

Nathaniel Lewis,         lot 261

John Morse,                lot 119

Seth Morse,                 lot 176

Eliphalet Rhoads,        lot 114

Nathaniel Sumner, Jr. lot 126

Enoch Talbot,             lot 105

Tinker also wrote 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.”

Take a moment today to remember these men.

[Descriptions and details of April 19 are from: Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hackett Fischer]