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Assabet Valley B EACONACTON, ROXBOROUGH, MAYNARD, STOW /THURSDAY, IUNE 28, 1973Phalen’s History, p. 87-88.)When, and how, Acton received word of the Declaration of Independence is not recorded. Evidently the printed copy came in late July- * —noiding classes in exile in Concord. This was William Bentley, later the famed minister of Salem, antiquarian, linguist, etc., whose diary is one of the valuable souree-books of 18th century New England; and the 1st religious service of his long and successful career was performed in Acton, at the William Cutting home, at 88 Prospect St. As he later wrote in his diary:“...at (the Cuttings) house I officiated for the first time when a Sophomore at College. The minister, Mr. Swift, being sick, 1 travelled from Concord and officiated in the house of Mr. Cutting. I had just reproof from my tutor, but great success.”It was over a month after Swift’s death before an interim preacher, Rev. Edward Sprague, was found to supply the pulpit through May of 1776. The existing church records, admittedly only fragmentary, indicate he did this only on a part time basis, with worship being held only about once a month.On 17 May 1776 a committee was instructed to begin, with the advice of the President of Harvard and the neighboring ministers, to find four candidates, each to preach for 4 successive Sundays.or early August, as town clerk, Francis Faulkner copied it into the town record book, including the instructions at the bottom: 17 July 1776Ordered then the Declaration of Independence be printed and a copy sent to the mimisters of each Parish of every denomination within this state and that they severally be required to read the same to their respective congregation as soon as divine service is ended in the afternoon of the first Lord’s Day after shall have read it and after such publication thereof to deliver the said Declaration to the Clerks of the several towns or districts who are hereby requested to record the same in their respective town or districts books there to remain as a perpetual memorial thereof.With independence declared, the civil war became a revolution. Soldiers were needed to fight it and the Provinces had to assume the legal characteristics of states/ In October Acton unanimously seconded this proposal that Massachusetts should frame a state constitution.For the first 2 or 3 years of the war Acton, like Concord and other towns around, contributed its quota of soldiers for the cause, and what supplies they would spare, freely and withouttavern on the * site of Nagog Hotel, must have suffered from exposure there, for he died about a month after their return.Acton sent 13 men for the New York campaign in Nov. 1776. In1777, we find the record, on a gravestone in Woodlawn Cemetery, that Jonathan Hosmer (nephew of Abner Hosmer who was lettered at Concord fight) “died in the service of his Country in Bennington.”For the taking of Burgoyne at Saratoga in October 1777, Acton ana Concord raised a volunteer company of 63 men. Two of the officers were Acton men, Lt. John Heald and Sergeant Samuel Piper. Others from Acton included:Col. Francis Faulkner, Capt. Simon Hunt, Joseph Brown (who at Saratoga shot back the bullet he had been wounded with at Bunker Hill)Also, Daniel Davis, Ruben Davis, Aaron Jones, Stephen Shepard, Solomon Smith, Edward Wetherbee.Members of the Committee of Correspondence, and others, attended state and local conventions at Concord in 1779 to endeavor to establish price-currents (a base price) on articles necessary for subsistence and to form measures to prevent monopoly and extortion. But the rate of inflation was so rapid that most of the adjourned sessions were spent Throughout 1779 Acton consistently and conscientiously resolves to follow the Concord example, and to put into execution the law against monopoly and forestalling. Eventually it was recognized as fruitless to attempt to regulate something that changed so rapidly.This was certainly the grimmest period of the war. Acton put off supporting the families of soldiers away on duty until legislation required the families to be paid. It became increasingly difficult to send supplies required for the army; (by 1780 the town found itself having to vote, for instance. to cive S350 a niece for
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Assabet Valley Beacon
Acton, Massachusetts, US
Thu, Jun 28, 1973
Page 29
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TN, USA 08 Jan 2020
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