Fort Stamford: The city's Revolutionary stronghold

From The Stamford Times: Fort Stamford: The city's Revolutionary stronghold

Editor's Note: The following is the next installment of The Stamford Times' history article series, "The Stamford Times Machine," which covers the city's most seminal moments in history.
STAMFORD -- Although Stamford was not invaded like it's neighboring towns during the American Revolution, a raid from the British army was something that was feared by many Stamford residents at that time, said Stamford Historical Society historian Ron Marcus.

Stamford, being very close in proximity to New York, was also close to the many British Loyalists or "Tories" living there, according to Marcus.

"Tory harassment and looting was very common in Stamford," he said. "Tories would often come to Stamford and destruct much of their property. Or they would conduct raids against anyone who was for independence. Stamford was not the safest place to live for many of the residents."

In the fall of 1781, a state fort was built in Stamford to protect the Stamford-Greenwich area from Tory raids, according to Marcus. Fort Stamford was finished in December of 1781. It was approximately 135 feet by 165 feet inside, and the redoubts had an inside measurement of 30 feet by 30 feet.

The fort was built under the direction of General David Waterbury and was located alongside the Post Road at the time, which was the most common route for traveling, said Marcus. The fort also had a perfect view of Long Island Sound, he said. Today, the land which Fort Stamford once stood is located at 900 Westover Road, which is now a park of the same name and includes an education center and a garden.

"General Waterbury strategically placed this fort where the soldiers could see the Post Road, and see Long Island Sound," Marcus said. "Of course, now everything is different, but back then this was the perfect location for a fort."

Roughly 300 men were manned at the fort, and conditions were less than favorable for a soldier, he said.

"The men who manned this fort were there in the dead of winter," Marcus said. "They didn't have much to eat and much to keep warm. We know this because of some of the accounts that were written down from various 'Joe privates,' which, in my opinion, are a very important part of our history."

One account was written by a soldier named Johnathan Rathbum from Colchester. Rathbum was ordered to Fort Stamford in April of 1782, and was "subjected to the usual hardships of military life," according to the "Narrative of Jonathan Rathbum," by Jonathan Rathbum, Rufus Avery and Stephen Hempstead.

According to Rathbum, "on one occasion, a rifle ball passed through (his) hat and cut away the hair on (his) head, but a kind Providece protected me."

In Rathbum's narrative, he wrote about one instance where he had to spend the night in the woods to avoid the British, who were planning an attack on the fort. "One evening, the orderly sergeants passed around among the men, and with a whisper, commanded us to equip ourselves without noise; and then were marched out of the fort to a woods two miles distant, and ordered to lie down on the frozen ground, where we passed a bitter cold night with only one single blanket and our overcoats to protect us."

In November of 1782, the preliminary articles of the Treaty of Peace were signed, and on Sept. 3, 1783, the formal treaty was signed, ending the American Revolution. With the revolution at an end, the fort was considered surplus property and was shortly sold, according to Marcus.

Since 1783, the Fort Stamford land was owned by private residents, the last of which was Augusta Goodbody, who died in May of 1970. After her death, there was a lot of public concern over the fate of the Fort Stamford land, Marcus said. In 1972, the Stamford Board of Representatives approved the purchase of the 113-acre Goodbody property, he said.

"I think it was very important to preserve this land," Marcus said. "It is an important part of Stamford's history and would be a shame to let it go to waste."

Sons of American Revolution to mark graves at Thyatira

From the Salisbury Post: Sons of American Revolution to mark graves at Thyatira
SALISBURY — The Sons of the American Revolution will conduct grave markings Saturday in Rowan County and Charlotte.

The group will mark three graves at 10 a.m. in the cemetery at Thyatira Presbyterian Church, 220 White Road in Mount Ulla.

To be marked are the final resting places of Matthew Locke, Col. Francis Locke and Maj. John Locke.

Matthew Locke came to Rowan County in 1752 and served on the Committee of Safety and in the Provincial Congress before the Revolutionary War. During the war, he was a brigadier general of the militia forces for the Salisbury District. After America won its independence, he served in the state legislature and Congress. He had four sons who were soldiers in the Revolutionary War.

Francis Locke, a nephew of Matthew Locke, was appointed colonel of the First Rowan Regiment by the Provincial Congress in April 1776. He is remembered for a battle in June 1780 in which he and 400 men from Rowan and Mecklenburg counties defeated the Tories at Ramseur’s Mill in Lincoln County.

Maj. John Locke was a son of Matthew Locke and a militia soldier.

After the ceremony at Thyatira, the group will travel to Charlotte, where its members will mark the grave of Lt. George Locke of Rowan County. He was killed in September 1780 by the British in a skirmish at Kennedy’s Farm, which was then near Charlotte. He was buried near where he fell.

Book Review: Real Estate and the American Revolution

From Slate: Real Estate and the American Revolution

than Allen was at various times: reckless speculator, captain of the continent's largest paramilitary force, outlaw with a £100 bounty on his head, American Revolutionary commander, prisoner of war, best-selling author, radical Deist philosopher, and founding father of Vermont. Despite this remarkable life, and despite a time when biographies of America's Founding Fathers fall from the presses like rotten apples from a tree, in the last half-century only one full-length biography had been written about Ethan Allen. How could this be?

As Ethan Allen: His Life and Times, a new and frustrating biography by Willard Sterne Randall, shows, Allen is hard to write about. He poses a challenge not so much because he is different from more famous Founders like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or Benjamin Franklin but because he resembles them perhaps a bit too much—in ways most Americans prefer not to think about.

Like Washington, Allen was self-taught. Like Jefferson, he descended from a family of land speculators. Like Franklin, he was of Puritan stock but turned away from the Calvinism of his forebears. Born in the Berkshire Mountains in 1738, Allen grew up amid religious ferment that little affected him. Pugnacious by intellect and temperament, he cussed and fought until his neighbors could stand it no longer; he got "read out" of not one but two New England towns. His early years were also marked by heedless ambition, which landed him in lawsuits with brothers-in-law, fistfights with business associates, and countless failed enterprises. In 1767, on the heels of another professional and personal humiliation, Allen's restless scheming took a new turn: Looking north, he began eying Vermont land.

The early history of Vermont real estate will resonate with 21st-century Americans. It was a tale of greed, legal chaos, and corrupt business practices. In 1749, New Hampshire Gov. Benning Wentworth began granting titles to land between Lake Champlain and the Connecticut River—land that almost certainly belonged to New York. New York officials repudiated these grants, but Wentworth continued, pocketing prodigious fees on nearly 3 million acres of grants and keeping a cool 70,000 acres for himself. In the early 1760s, when the expulsion of French forces from North America made the area attractive to British settlement, New York took a renewed interest. State officials contested the New Hampshire claims all the way to King George III, who, by an edict of 1764, declared the New Hampshire titles void. Vermont was officially part of New York.
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It was after this decision—which predictably caused the value of New Hampshire-granted land titles to fall precipitously—that Allen began to speculate, acquiring vast quantities of land from former investors who realized their titles were almost certainly null. (How much would you pay for the Brooklyn Bridge? What if it cost five cents and there was some chance, however remote, you might one day get the title legalized?) Eventually, Ethan and his family acquired 200,000 acres of land.

New York, meanwhile, was busy issuing titles to the lands, which clashed with the New Hampshire deeds. When the conflicting claims landed in court, New York officials, many of them great landholders, ruled for the New York owners, empowering sheriffs to evict the New Hampshire grantees. In response, Allen formed the Green Mountain Boys, a militia defending New Hampshire grants from seizure and terrorizing settlers who held or even recognized New York land titles, burning their cabins, destroying their crops, and sometimes physically assaulting them.

Randall works hard to make this a story about salt-of-the-earth, democratic New England settlers fighting off New York's aristocratic land barons—so hard, in fact, that you have to admire the effort. Alas, the evidence won't conform. The Green Mountain Boys were driven less by ideology than by a desire to keep their land and, at least in Allen's case, to legalize deeds bought on the cheap to sell for a hefty profit. Both sides were gambling wildly, and as the imperial conflict heated up, the stakes rose.

Back in London, groups of well-connected investors were eying quantities of land so vast as to make the Vermont speculation seem like child's play. The greatest of these ventures was the proposed colony of Vandalia, covering 20 million acres in what now comprises West Virginia and Kentucky. Parties to the enterprise at various times included Benjamin Franklin and two of George Washington's brothers. Unfortunately, Virginia claimed the land in question, as did Connecticut and Pennsylvania—each state having sold the land to settlers and investors—although by 1774 it was all, according to the British government, under the jurisdiction of Québec. Vermont, in short, was a very big story writ small.

Indeed, who wasn't a land speculator in this freewheeling age? George Washington, a former surveyor, had amassed thousands of acres in the Ohio valley and spent 10 years lobbying the governor of Virginia to legalize his titles. Gen. Thomas Gage, who would lead British forces against Washington, held 18,000 acres, and had married into one of the greatest landowning families on the continent. When fighting broke out in 1775, these contested speculations loomed in the background.

Just how these contests over land play into the Revolution is one of the most debated questions in American history. In 1909, historian Carl Becker argued that the American Revolution was not so much about home rule as "who should rule at home." The struggle for independence, in other words, centered less on exalted principles than on the quest for political and economic power by provincial elites. Popular among muckraking classes during the age of Robber Barons, this interpretation was hard to reconcile with a patriotic account of the nation's founding and eventually fell out of favor.

So Randall is stuck between a rock and a hard place, interpretatively speaking. He wants to connect the Vermont insurrection to "a greater cause," to make it the first battle of the American Revolution. And perhaps it was. But if so, does it turn Allen and his Green Mountain Boys into patriots, as Randall would have it? Or does it turn the leaders of the Revolution into bandits, seizing an entire continent for personal gain and dressing the crime up with pretty words?

If Allen had one thing in greater quantities than courage and verve, it was good timing. In the spring of 1775, just as officials were planning to arrest Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, a far greater insurrection broke out in Boston. Had the imperial crisis not come to a head just then, Allen would surely have been captured and executed.

When fighting broke out in Massachusetts, Allen seized the moment, leading a pre-dawn attack on Fort Ticonderoga, a key outpost on the all-important corridor between New York and Montreal. With only 83 men he took the fort without firing a single shot. It was the Revolution's first great victory, providing the Patriot army with a huge store of munitions, including the cannon that would force the British to evacuate Boston.

In one swift move Allen turned himself from outlaw into hero, gaining a prized commission with the Continental army—and with it immunity from prosecution by New York. But his recklessness soon backfired. A few months later, without orders, Allen led an even bolder attack on Montreal with 30 New England soldiers and 80 Canadian habitants hired at 15 pence a day. The attack was quixotic if not downright insane, and when it was clear it would fail he hunkered down outside the city walls to await his inevitable capture.
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Though Allen did not die on a scaffold, drawn and quartered as traitors normally were—Washington's army held thousands of British soldiers captive to ensure he remained in one piece—he suffered atrociously for 952 long days, held in appalling conditions like so many other prisoners. He later wrote a gripping account of his captivity that became, after Tom Paine's Common Sense, the second-greatest best-seller of the Revolutionary Era.

On his release in 1778, Allen returned to Vermont, which had by then declared its independence from New York, though it remained unrecognized by the other states, which were unwilling to alienate New York during the war. Allen led the confiscation of Vermont Loyalist lands and property, the proceeds being used to pay for the war effort and Allen pocketing a commission from each sale. Some of the victims of these seizures were not Loyalists but New Yorkers whom Allen had by then been terrorizing for nearly a decade.

Despite it all, Randall wants to cast Allen as "a leader and moral figure to be trusted." But that rings hollow. With New York still blocking Vermont's independence, Allen began secret negotiations with the British, offering to return the colony to the Empire in exchange for confirmation of the New Hampshire-granted land titles. "I shall do Every thing in my Power to render this state a British province," Allen wrote the British commander in Canada in 1782. Although the Anglo-American peace treaty ended these negotiations, Allen continued his guerrilla warfare against the New York-titled settlers. By then his long-suffering wife had died and Allen had remarried a beautiful younger woman, heiress to 20,000 acres of Vermont lands. Allen spent these latter years penning Deist attacks on Christianity that may have influenced Tom Paine's Age of Reason.

In 1786, with Vermont still in legal limbo and dissention growing among the states, the backcountry again rose up in rebellion. Indebted farmers shut down courts enforcing foreclosure orders, harassing sheriffs and judges. Those who had once protested British taxes turned their ire on seaboard governments. When former Revolutionary officer Daniel Shays led a Massachusetts rebellion of insurgent farmers, he turned to Ethan Allen. Hero of backcountry rebels, Allen was just the person to lead the thousands of discontented settlers up and down the Appalachian frontier. Fearing for "the superstructure we have been seven years raising at the expence [sic] of so much blood and treasure," Washington exclaimed to James Madison on hearing news of the rebellion: "We are fast verging to anarchy and confusion!"

But Allen refused. By rejecting the Shaysites, he proved himself and his state trustworthy to men like Washington and Madison, respectful enough toward the rights of property, and he secured New York's recognition of Vermont. When the U.S. Constitution was ratified a year later, Vermont became the nation's 14th state, at last giving Allen and the other New Hampshire grantees legal title to their lands. The gamble had paid off—as it had for Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and the many others who pledged their lives, honor, and sacred fortunes.

Natick Selectmen will consider resolution on African-American Revolutionary War patriots

Natick/Boston.com: Natick Selectmen will consider resolution on African-American Revolutionary War patriots

Natick selectmen will consider a resolution Monday night that would spur the town to commemorate African-American patriots who served in the Revolutionary War, part of an East Coast movement to pay tribute to the under-appreciated figures.

According to research done by the Daughters of the American Revolution, Natick sent at least 11 registered African-American soldiers to fight the British over two centuries ago.

Between the 5,000 and 10,000 African-Americans estimated to have served in the war, at least 1,174 of these patriots were connected by birth, enlistment or residence to a Massachusetts community, according to Maurice Barboza, founder of The National Mall Liberty Fund DC.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Barboza said. “There could be many more, but these are the names we have.”

Many African-Americans enlisted in the army, navy and militia to gain freedom from their slave masters, Barboza said.

“Some of them were slaves who became soldiers and were recruited to sign up for service to win freedom,” Barboza said. “Many patriots might have served a number of months or for a year or two before winning their freedom, but most African-Americans seeking freedom had to serve the whole war, as part of the deal.”

It is unknown how many African-American patriots were slaves or freed men based on inconclusive listings. African-American Natick residents were not specified enslaved or free in research, Barboza said.

Barboza started The National Mall Liberty Fund DC in 2005 to raise funds and file national legislation to construct a monument dedicated to remembering the African-American patriots in Washington, D.C.

Part of his mission includes spurring individual communities up and down the east coast to draft resolutions acknowledging African-American Revolutionary War fighters by having historical societies conduct research and getting citizens to raise awareness.

For some Natick residents, the cause is near and dear to their heart – and family tree. Beverly Hector-Smith traced her lineage last year to discover she had not one, but nine ancestors who fought for America’s independence from Britain.

“Before March 2010, I didn’t know I had even one,” Hector-Smith said. “That March, I happened to Google my great-great-great-grandmother, and what came up was all the research that David Allen Lambert at the New England Historic Genealogical Society had done a long time ago on African-Americans who lived in Stoughton.”

The research led Hector-Smith to find her fifth-great grandfather, African-born Quock Martrick, who was sold into slavery and enlisted in the war in Middleboro at 24 years old.

This continued on to Hector-Smith’s sixth-great grandfather and his sons, as well as extended family, including stepsons and father-in-laws.

“I believe that they all knew each before or met during the war and their children married, which is why I found so many in such a short time,” she said.

Hector-Smith presented the findings to her younger sister, a Columbus, Ohio resident, who then became the first African-American in Ohio to join the Daughters of the American Revolution.

“She found out this March she was the first African-American in Ohio to become a member of DAR,” Hector-Smith said. “I have yet to apply for membership myself, but I thought that was pretty special.”

In Massachusetts, 12 municipalities have drafted resolutions recognizing the issue.

Woburn, the most recent, promises to encourage “volunteers to discover the names of still-unknown African American Revolutionary War soldiers, sailors and patriots, enlarge the body of knowledge about their lives and forward the information to National Mall Liberty Fund D.C. for inclusion in a database that will celebrate the trail blazers of the City of Woburn together with those of hundreds of proud American communities.”

Barboza said he hopes to raise enough funds to provide each community with a commemorative bronze plaque to display local African-American patriot names in public to increase recognition around the topic.

“It will take some time, because we have to raise funds for that – we’re not asking communities to raise money, but we’re hoping they will provide the constituency and voices to say it’s important to them,” Barboza said. “We also want to make sure the list is complete as possible, so we hope communities contribute additional research.”

Building the monument and stimulating interest in the topic is not Barboza’s only goal.

“It goes deeper than that – our country was created to enshrine certain democratic principles, but unfortunately African-Americans were disappointed,” he said. “Patriots who served in the war were by and large all freed, and went on to establish churches and self-help groups to spawn the civil rights movement. Most Americans don’t know the history, and carry around stereotypes created by media old and not corrected. Our country is based on principle, not pigmentation. This is not just history for African-Americans, but history for every American.”

Natick Board of Selectmen chair Charles Hughes will present the resolution to the rest of the board. Hughes was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.

Taylor County Boy Completes Historical Markers Project

The State Journal: Taylor County Boy Completes Historical Markers Project
GRAFTON -- Eleven-year-old Nathaniel Flohr's love of history lead him on a journey to locate dozens of historical markers and places in Taylor County last year.

"I did a community service project for the Daughter's of the American Revolution last year. I took photographs of all of the historical markers in Taylor County and put them on Grafton website for everybody to see," he said.

With some help from his mother, Jane, the pair researched all of the historical places in the area.

Many of the historical sites no longer have an official sign marking the area, making it easy for people to pass by them and not give a second glance.

Jane said, "There were not very many historical markers so he took it upon himself to take pictures of other historical landmarks and there are more of those then anyone realizes. They are just little ones here and there."

Signs like the Valley Falls sign cost thousands of dollars to replace.

Nathaniel ended up taking more than 60 photographs of historical places in Taylor County.

He submitted his project to the Daughters of the American Revolution Junior American Citizens contest.

"I won first place in the chapter, and then I won first place in the Eastern Regional, and then I won first place in the National," he said.

Nathaniel said it took him about a month to research and take pictures of signs like at the Federal Dam, and the 'Welcome to Grafton' stone sign on Route 50.

He hopes his project will educate its viewers.

"It would be nice if they could learn a little more about our county. Some people don't know about the cemeteries and the markers in Taylor County, he said.

Jane said she couldn't be happier for her son's accomplishment.

"I'm awfully proud, awfully proud. He did a great job," she said.

Flohr's project is currently featured on the city of Grafton's website.

Click on the link below to see it.

Children of the American Revolution looks for Sebastian members

TCPalm (FLorida): Children of the American Revolution looks for Sebastian members
Are your related to an American patriot?

Do your family tree branches extend all the way back to the American revolution?

If there's a colonial link to your family, Sebastian resident Holly Hamilton wants to know about it.

Hamilton is president of the Treasure Coast Society of the Children of the American Revolution or CAR, and the organization is looking for new members.

"We're basically a leadership group," said Hamilton. "We have something for everyone, but we're especially active with kids in the early teens through high school."

The goal of the Children of the American Revolution is to help kids develop their knowledge of American history, and to encourage children to perform acts of community service to spread the message of patriotism that our forefathers sought to protect.

The group is an offshoot of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and was founded in 1895 by Harriett Lothrop of Concord, Mass.

CAR is the nation's oldest, largest, patriotic youth organization, and offers membership to anyone under 21 who is lineally descended from someone who provided military service, civil service or gave material aid or support to the cause of independence.

"We welcome anybody," said Hamilton.

"And if they need help with their genealogy to find out if they're related to someone from the American Revolution, we'll be glad to help them."

Part of the CAR program is commitment to community service. The local chapter schedules service projects such as a recent beach clean-up to encourage members to give back to their community.

"We want to plant a seed about patriotism in our kids," said Hamilton. "By educating our youth about the importance of helping others, they'll be more inclined to set a good example for others."

The Boston Massacre Historical Society

There's a website for the Boston Massacre Historical Society

http://www.bostonmassacre.net/



Myths of the Boston Massacre
Starting from the name itself, this landmark event of the American Revolution proved to be a magnet for popular myths and misconceptions.

It was not called the “The Boston Massacre” until many years after it occurred in 1773. The first popular name popularized by Paul Revere was The Bloody Massacre in King Street. In the early 1800's it was also called the State Street Massacre.

In many history books the dramatic shooting is described as the spark that ignited the Revolutionary War. Perhaps one of the reasons is the loss of human lives. In reality there were several other historic milestones although less dramatic, that moved Boston towards the revolution. Townshend Acts, Stamp Act and Boston Tea Party were some of them.

One of the most interesting myths is that the scuffle on King’s street started from the accusations thrown at one of the British officers that he did not pay the wigmaker’s bill. This makes an interesting story and many of us may speculate that perhaps the most famous protest would not have occurred if the bill had been paid on time. But on the contrary to the popular myth, the British officer Captain John Goldfinch in fact settled his bill the day earlier.