As this gravestone attests, patriots faced danger at home as well as on the battlefield. This stone stands in Longmeadow Cemetery, describing the untimely death of 18 year-old Solomon Burt, "Who was suddenly Kill'd by the Blowing up of a Powder Mill."
Two years before this catastrophe, Longmeadow's minister Stephen Williams wrote about the growing conflict with Great Britain in his diary. On April 20th, 1775, the Reverend Stephen Williams wrote (Vol. 8): "this morning–as Soon as it was light, ye Drum beat & three Gun/fired an Alarm–the Story is that Some of ye troops had marched from Boston to Seize Some military Stores, at Lexington, or Concord–& that Some men had been Killed..." On April 21st, Captain David Burt led 22 Longmeadow minute men to the Lexington alarm. On the 26th, Reverend Williams, upon hearing of various conflicts occurring in New England, prayed "to God to Give wisdom, prudence, discretion and moderation to all his people." In May, he bemoaned the state of affairs: "the nation in a ferment; Some are for violent and coercive measures, with ye colonies, & provinces; some few for lenient, & moderation measures–destruction both to the parent country & the colonies Seems inevitable..."
While Williams seems to have been torn about the rift with Great Britain, the Burt family's sympathies were clearly on the side of the patriots. Solomon Burt worked at a powder mill situated on the Mill River in Springfield. The mill, owned by his father David, supplied powder to the American army.
On May 7, 1777, the powder mill exploded, with predictably disastrous results. Sabotage was suspected, but powder mills were by their very nature extremely volatile, and any spark could have set it off. The Reverend Williams wrote about the event in his diary (Vol. 9): "this day ye powdr Mill blew up & Solomon Burt (Son to Lt. David Burt) was Kill'd- was cari'd over ye Mill River - Severall rod/ & upon ye Hill - his leggs broke - & his Body much Bruis'd- Asahell Bliss - yt was in ye mill with him - was flung into ye River & one of his legs broke de [ditto]- de [ditto]- a very awefull & affecting providence - ..."
David Burt continued the powder mill business even after the explosion, as detailed in the following document from 1781 in the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum in Springfield, MA.
Other local cemeteries record similar dramatic explosions, including Southwick and Glastonbury, CT.
A Pay Roll of Capt. Daniel Pomeroy Company Being A Detachment from Genll Danielson Brigade in The Continental Service for the Month of July 1778 | A Mileage Account For Each man in this Pay Roll Sett opposite Their names from Their Respective homes To Albany |
Mens Names | Rank | Time Entered | Time Service to | Amount For Month | Remarks | Whole Amount Lawfull Money | Number of Miles Marched | The Whole Amount At one Penny Per Mile | |
Daniel Pomeroy | Capt | July 1st | August 1st | 12-0-0 | £12-0-0 | 80 | 0-6-8 | ||
Ezekiel Foster | Leut | Do | Do | 8-0-0 | 8-0-0 | 115 | 0-9-7 | ||
Eliphaz Wright | Sergt | Do | Do | 3-0-0 | 3-0-0 | 80 | 0-6-8 | ||
Martin Severance | Sergt | Do | Do | 3-0-0 | 3-0-0 | 90 | 0-7-6 | ||
Jonathan Pomeroy | Corpl | Do | Do | 2-4-0 | 2-4-0 | 80 | 0-6-8 | ||
William Turner | Corpl | Do | Do | 2-4-0 | 2-4-0 | 66 | 0-5-6 | ||
Samuel Turner | Corpl | Do | Do | 2-4-0 | 2-4-0 | 115 | 0-9-7 | ||
Nathan Strong | Private | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 80 | 0-6-8 | ||
Eleazer Root | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 80 | 0-6-8 | ||
Moses Hendrick | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 80 | 0-6-8 | ||
Moses Danks | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 90 | 0-7-6 | ||
David Wood | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 90 | 0-7-6 | ||
David Frisby | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 90 | 0-7-6 | ||
Enoch Beats | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 66 | 0-5-6 | ||
Jesse Woolcot | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 66 | 0-5-6 | ||
John Fobes | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 66 | 0-5-6 | ||
Simeon Higgins | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 66 | 0-5-6 | ||
Samuel Hamilton | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 66 | 0-5-6 | ||
Ezekiel Thomas | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 66 | 0-5-6 | ||
David Ingram | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 80 | 0-6-8 | ||
Benjn Parker | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 80 | 0-6-8 | ||
Jonas Leonard | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 60 | 0-5-0 | ||
John Howard | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 60 | 0-5-0 | ||
Daniel Morse 3rd | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 60 | 0-5-0 | ||
Joseph Allen | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 63 | 0-5-3 | ||
Gideon Howard | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 63 | 0-5-3 | ||
Jonathan Taylor | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 63 | 0-5-3 | ||
Thomas Ford | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 100 | 0-8-4 | ||
Moses Smith | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 100 | 0-8- 4 | ||
Jonathan Lions | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 100 | 0-8-4 | ||
Francis Gooding | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 100 | 0-8-4 | ||
John Oldin | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 100 | 0-8-4 | ||
John Gant | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 115 | 0-9-7 | ||
Thomas Wallis | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 100 | 0-8-4 | ||
Rubin Casmorhugh?? | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 90 | 0-7-6 | ||
Eli Gold | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 90 | 0-7-6 | ||
Eldad Corbit | Do | Do | Do | 2-0-0 | 2-0-0 | 90 | 0-7-6 | ||
92-12-0 | 12-13-10 |
Being the child of a prominent loyalist during the American Revolution was a challenge. Growing up in Northampton, Anna Stoddard experienced childhood during a time when crown-appointed officials such as her father were “not only deposed, but denounced” by the general populace.
Anna was 12 or 13 years old when she made this sampler dated 1782. Born on March 24, 1769 to Solomon Stoddard (1736-1827) and his first wife Martha Partridge (1739-1772), Anna was born into a family that for just over a century held various religious, political or military appointments governing Hampshire County. In 1774, her father was appointed High Sheriff of Hampshire County, the very year when this authority could no longer match the collective will of the governed.
Solomon Stoddard’s appointment came at a time when the governor and the crown attempted to implement the Massachusetts Governance Act. This act made changes to town and county government that curtailed the rights of citizens. Among its provisions, it allowed the governor to appoint county sheriffs, without the consent of the council, to serve at his will. The citizens of Hampshire County directly challenged this act. In August 1774, grassroots activists gathered to close the court in Springfield and asked Stoddard to sign a document promising to never hold office under this act. In February 1775, citizens surrounded his house on Prospect Street and brought him to trial in Hadley. In 1776, he was jailed overnight in Northampton and later asked to sign an affidavit of “pledging to report all conspiracies or other movements inimical to the cause of liberty.”
Solomon Stoddard apparently maintained his loyalty to the crown. And in 1782 - the same year the sampler was made - a large gambrel-roof house for the Stoddard family was built, fronting the smaller circa 1730 house that had been surrounded by citizen activists.
Anna’s brother, Solomon Stoddard, born in 1771, would describe his childhood during the war in an 1837 recollections as follows:
I was born, as you all know, in 1771, and of course was a boy in troubled times. My mother died when I was twenty months old; so that figuratively speaking, I had no Mother. Here was a deprivation which you never experienced. A mother, if intelligent, judicious & affectionate, is every thing among children. Without some details, you would have a very imperfect idea of the difficulties which the youth of that day, & especially the sons of the Tories, had to encounter. The war of the revolution, altho’ of a national character, was, nevertheless, as respected many of its immediate evils, more like a civil war. After the Declaration of Independence, those holding offices under the old Dynasty, were not only deposed, but denounced. A new race came forward, under the name of whigs, led on generally by violent, and frequently unprincipled men. Contributions for the public service were levied by Town Committees; and if the Tories questioned at all the amount, or called for the law under which they acted, a mob was at hand to silence complaint by violent measures, as the exigency, in their opinion, might require. These outrages were experienced by my Father at different times (in common with others who had been deposed) from these mobs; sometimes to gratify party feelings, and at others to show their zeal in the cause of Liberty. These things were going forward occasionally from 1776 to 1783. For most of the time between these dates, we were without law and without Courts, and every effort was making to prejudice the community against those men who were previously in Office, and who had too much conscience to violate the Oath of Allegiance, by which they were bound. Of these, my Father was one, being High Sheriff under the King. At such a time, and under such circumstance, little attention was paid to education. Even Yale College was broken up for a considerable period-our Town Schools were nothing, and the sons of Tories, owing to the prejudices alluded to, were practically excluded from their benefit, if any benefit was derivable. Of course I had no schooling in early life, except that one summer, when eight or nine years old, I attended a girl’s school kept by Mrs. Henshaw, at the house where she now lives. This school I could hardly attend without being insulted in the street as the son of a Tory. You might suppose that I enjoyed good advantages at home, but it was not so. Without a mother, as I before observed, and my Father, otherwise occupied & frequently in a state of agitation, was not favorably situated to instruct his children…. The first ten or eleven years of my life I spent at home, almost wholly excluded from the company of boys of my age, and groping my way under the circumstances I have stated.
These two notebooks contain the Revolutionary War Record and Accounts of Dr. Estes Howe, 1775-1785. Book I is entitled, “Estes Howe, his book, Peeks Kill, June 7, 1777, Belcherton [sic], May 14” and is 56 pages, 6x7½ in., paper cover, stitched. Book II has no cover, but contains his Revolutionary War Records, 1775-1776, and his notes as Belchertown Town Clerk, 1782 – 1783. It is 68 pages, 6x7¼ in., stitched paper. Also available: a partial list of other content found in the journals.
Please note, this transcription is still under construction. The "Remedies" notes are still being researched. If you have any expertise in 18th century medicine, please contact us!
Capt. Name | Persons Sick | Rank | Disorders | Remedys Applyd. |
Angle | Isaac Whord | Privet | Dysentary | Rhii Ipecac d. albis |
Roundsevel | Lemuel Tabor | Lieut. | “—“ | Rhii. Ial. Niter d. albis |
Jepther Ashley | Privet | Slow Fever | Sal. Niter Dilut Tea | |
August 4 | Timathy Ingrums | —“— | Dysentary | Rhii Cort?? |
Jacob Laisdell | —“— | “—“ | Eonatick?? | |
Abner Cody | Sergt | Dys on decl | Bitters with ?? | |
Wm. Allen | Privet | Dysentary | Rhii?? | |
Bardwell | James McClantick | —“— | “—“ | Rh?? |
Jona. Olds | —“— | “—“ | “ as above— | |
Stuard Key | —“— | Rumitism | Bill Cache of ?? | |
Elijah Knights | —“— | Wounded | Dressing Peculars | |
August 5 | Lemuel Tabor | Lieut. | gone home | ——— |
Roundsevel | Timathy Ingrums | Privet | Dysentary | Rhis Cat do Albis?? |
Daniel Ward | “—“ | Slow Fever | ??Bitters | |
Daniel Giles | “—“ | Dysentary | Ematick?? | |
Walbridge | Asher Nickels | —“— | Slow Fever | Rhii?? |
Robert Parkes | —“— | “—“ | Oint Cont.?? | |
——Parker | —“— | “—“ | “—Rhiis Sal Nitre? | |
Esm. Mungar | —“— | Epelepsey | Pell??? | |
Danforth | Elijah Mason | —“— | Dys on decl | Rhii Car?? |
Daniel Bullock | —“— | Billius Collick | Pell Cache ?? | |
Isaac Goff | —“— | Dys on decl | Rhii?? | |
Aaron Millar | —“— | Dysentary | Ematick d’albis?? | |
Simeon Whelan | —“— | “—“ | “—“ “—“ | |
[?]allen | —— Ingalsen | Capt. | Hypondrical | “—“ “—“ |
——Gutterage | Lieut. | Dysentary | Rhii?? | |
Capt. Name | Persons Sick | Rank | Disorders | Remedys Applyd. |
August 5 | Jacob Lasdell | Privet | Dysentary | Rhii?? |
Bardwell | James McClentick | —“— | “—“ | Rhii Sal Niter?? |
Jona. Olds | —“— | “—“ | “——“ ”——“ | |
Wm. Allen | —“— | “—“ | “——“ ”——“ | |
Elijah Knights | —“— | Wounded | Dress and Dressings | |
King | Job Dean | —“— | Dysentary | Rhii d’albas at Nite?? |
Colton | Benj. Colton | Drummer | Dyerhea | Ematick ——“— |
Richard Fairman | Privet | Cold | Betrl Bolis d’albis | |
Henry | David Picher | —“— | Dysentary | Rhii ?? |
Azariah Holloway | —“— | Pain in abdomen | Pill Cache | |
Angel | Isaac Hoard | —“— | Dysentary | Rhii Sal Morab del albis?? |
Jedediah Jewett | Corp. | “——“ | Ematick?? | |
Peckard | John Potama | Negro | “——“ | Rhii d’albas?? |
Jedediah Gilbart | —“— | Slow Fever | ?? | |
6th | Israel Gaff | Privet | Dyst. on decline | Rhii?? |
Danforth | Aaron Millar | —“— | Inflam. Fever | Rhii Sal Niter d Albis |
Elisha Mason | —“— | Dysentary | Rhii Sal Niter | |
Stephen Ingals | —“— | Dyst. on decline | Tint Cort?? | |
Roundsevel | Timathy Ingram | —“— | Dysentary | Gone to the Horspittal |
Wm. Parker | —“— | “—“ | Ematick?? | |
Peckard | Joseph Wood | Corp. | Dysentary | Gone to the Horspittal |
Josiah Wood | Privet | Foul Stomach | Ematick—— | |
Lemuel [?] | —“— | “—“ | “—“—“— | |
Henry | Elisha Hocam | —“— | Dysentary | Ematick?? at Night |
David Picher | —“— | “——“ | Dectan Cortet Elix??? |
Sometime around 1799, a family register was made to record the births, marriages, and deaths in Samuel Colton's family. This printed and hand-colored register was almost certainly created by Richard Brunton (1750-1832), a notorious engraver, counterfeiter and British deserter. Born in 1750 in Birmingham, England, he apprenticed with an engraver before enlisting in the British Army Grenadiers. He served from 1774-1779 in America during the Revolution, and saw heavy action, including the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Battle of Brandywine, and the British retreat from Philadelphia before deserting in New York in 1779. His career in engraving included counterfeiting currency, which landed him in prison on more than one occasion, including a two-year sentence at hard labor served at Connecticut's New-Gate prison, where he earned money to repay the costs of his prosecution as well as better living conditions by painting portraits of the warden and his family and by creating engravings. In 1807, Brunton was arrested again, this time in Massachusetts, and was given a life sentence. Four years later, the state granted his petition for release due to ill health. In exchange for the early release, he promised to return to his native England, but instead went to live in Groton, Massachusetts, where he died in the poorhouse in 1832.
One of Brunton's legitimate, and perhaps more lucrative creations, were family registers--documents with decorative borders that often included depictions of Faith, Hope, Charity, and Peace, and left room for the recording of the family births, deaths and marriages. These pre-printed family registers are considered some of the earliest American examples. The Colton register includes Samuel and Flavia Colton's marriage, the births (and deaths) of their children, his second marriage to Lucy Colton and their family. These types of family registers were considered proof for official documentation.
Samuel Colton (1727-1784) was a well-known wealthy Longmeadow merchant, earning him the nickname, "Marchant" Colton. His impressive large home, built circa 1754, stood on a rise just south of the Longmeadow town green. When the house was demolished in the early 20th century, parts of the house were salvaged as souvenirs, including the very imposing "Connecticut River God" front doorway, which now resides in a place of honor in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In 1776, a kind of local "tea party" took place at Samuel Colton's shop. Unhappy with Colton's prices for the West India goods he imported (essentials such as rum), townspeople, including his brother-in-law, dressed up as Native Americans and raided his shop. They removed the disputed goods, calculated what they felt to be fair prices and left that sum in exchange. Colton's suit for legal redress failed, and he is said to have remained bitter for the rest of this life about the "theft."
To learn more about Richard Brunton's fascinating life, see Deborah Child's book, Soldier, Engraver, Forger: Richard Brunton's Life on the Fringe in America's New Republic. For more information about Samuel Colton, see Barbara Smith's book, After the Revolution.