It is during periods of darkness and times of crisis that we see common, everyday people step forward to show courage and work to get us out of that crisis. They rise to the challenge. They clearly are heroes. So it is during the current coronavirus crisis; doctors, nurses, medical personnel of every kind are risking their lives to save those inflicted with the virus. But not only that - we see bus drivers, grocery clerks, those who volunteer at food cupboards and who work to get food and supplies to the homebound, janitorial staff at hospitals and care facilities, care workers who go to the home of the elderly or work in nursing homes, migrant farm workers who keep the nations food chain going, UPS drivers, on and on - there are so many who step forward, working under most difficult conditions, to get us out of the crisis.
Back 245 years ago this April 19, another type of hero emerged - again, common citizens who stepped forward, this time standing up to injustice. They were called Minutemen, and they took on the mightiest army in the world at that time, the British. They were about to fight a war for independence that, at the time, must have seemed hopeless.
Back in 1775, Medfield, all of New England and eventually all those up and down the eastern seaboard were talking about the events of April 19 that took place in the small Massachusetts farming communities of Lexington and Concord.
How did we get to this point where we were willing to break from our mother country and leave all that we knew, our heritage and past history? To understand, we would have to go back to the 1760s and view the continued efforts of Great Britain to oppress the colonists with the enforcement of the Navigation Acts, the enactment of the Writs of Assistance, restrictions on our commerce and unjust taxation policies.
The first act that brought forth organized resistance was the Stamp Act in 1765, then the Townshend Act, followed by the Boston Massacre, then the Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party, which resulted in the Intolerable Acts. These were indeed revolutionary times. The country towns entered heartily into the struggle for maintaining the rights of the people against the claims of the royal government, and Medfield was no different in its sympathy with the popular cause. One can see many indications here in Medfield of a spirit that would scarcely have been expected of men who had pursued the quiet ways of a small inland town.
In 1774, Medfield town meeting voted to instruct our representative “not to submit or yield obedience to any act of the British Parliament that infringes upon our natural and charter rights, civil or religious.” In 1774, town meeting passed a vote of compliance with the agreement adopted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. One hundred and fifty-three Medfield men signed their names. The list embraced, without exception, the entire voting population of Medfield — there evidently were no Tories in this town. At a specially called town meeting on December 26, 1774, Medfield voted to form a minute-man militia and to pay them from town funds. Twenty-five Medfield men joined this first minutemen group. Town meeting also voted to aid the citizens of Boston suffering under the Intolerable Acts, which closed the Port of Boston. Medfield voted to send 132 pounds of pork, 402 pounds of cheese and 22 cartloads of wood to the Bostonians.
After the April 19 attack at Lexington and Concord, records show that the company of minutemen marched from Medfield soon after riders came into this town, warning the residents of the British regulars' march to Lexington. Under Captain Sabin Mann, the 25 Medfield Minutemen marched to Lexington. Fifty-seven other townsmen under Captain Ephraim Chenery also started for the scene of action. In all, 82 men marched from Medfield up to Lexington and Concord. Arriving after the battle was over, the Medfield men continued toward Boston and took part in the siege of Boston that resulted after the British retreated back into the safety of that occupied town. The Revolutionary War had begun
Four Medfield boys, Samuel Cole, Jabez Boyden, Nathan Baker and Lemuel Thompson, would go on to die during the war. In summarizing Medfield’s role in the Revolutionary War, William Tilden in his History of Medfield said: “It cannot be denied that the Town of Medfield manifested a spirit of genuine patriotism. When the first burst of enthusiasm was over and the difficulties and discouragements turned into a prolonged struggle — when this came to be understood, the people of Medfield responded to the calls for men and money in a manner which proved their sturdy devotion to the cause of liberty. The cost to them in labor, self-denial and personal suffering, should not be forgotten by their grateful posterity.” From first to last, 154 boys and men from this town are known to have been in service during the war. The states of Massachusetts and Connecticut during the war sent one soldier for every seven of population, which was a larger proportion than that of any other state. It may be seen that the town of Medfield sent one soldier for every five of population.
We today are that "grateful posterity," and on this Patriots’ Day 2020, we remember the events and sacrifice of those common citizens who stepped forward to bring us our independence on what must have been a scary and uncertain April 19, 1775.
