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CHAPTER XVI

DANVERS CONTINUED. -- MOSES PORTERS HOMESTEAD. -- STORY OF HIS PATRIOTISM. -- PATRIOTIC' WOMEN WORK FOR THE SOLDIERS. -- HOME OF DEACON PUTNAM, WHO LED A COMPANY ON APRIL 19, 1775. -- DANVERS MINISTERS IN THE FIGHT. -- THE PUTNAM HOME AND FAMILY. -- GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM. -- HIS BAPTISM. -- STORY BY "OLD PUT'S" GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER

      UNDER the escort of Rev. Alfred P. Putnam, a noted son of Danvers, we leave the centre of the town by the great road to Topsfield, and soon come to the birthplace of General Moses Porter. It stands a little back from the modern highway, and faces confidently to the south. In these rooms we may well linger, and ponder the story of the Revolution. Patriots of both sexes have been cradled here, and have left an indelible impression upon the minds of all who thoughtfully pass through these great square rooms. It was originally the home of the Rea family, one of whom, Dr. Caleb Rea, was a surgeon in a regiment in the expedition against Ticonderoga. His sister Sarah married Benjamin Porter; and they were the parents of Moses Porter, born in 1756,

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who became a distinguished general in both wars with England. Although but nineteen years of age at the opening of the Revolution, this man made an enduring record. At the battle of Bunker Hill, in the artillery company of Captain Trevett, when but nine men stood by the captain, Moses Porter was one of them, and displayed superior skill in the management of one of the field pieces. He served in Captain Thomas Foster's company during the siege of Boston, was made lieutenant in 1780, and received promotions until he was head of that arm of the service. Wounds he received, but they never deterred him from remaining in service until his death in 1822. General Porter was wedded to his country; no other bride ever received his affections; for her he was willing to sacrifice his life, and on her bosom he fell asleep.

"How sleep the brave who sink to rest By all their country's wishes blest!"

      Over his grave, in a secluded spot, stands a modest slab on which is read, --

BRIG. GEN. MOSES PORTER,
OF THE ARMY OF THE U. S. A.
An ardent and inflexible patriot, a brave and honorable soldier,an unas-
suming and virtuous citizen, a generous and faithful friend. He
served his country with distinguished ability and reputa-
tion, from the commencement of the Revolu-
tionary war till he expired, full of
years and honors, on the
14th of April, A.D., 1822 AE. 66.

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      From the old garret of the Porter house have been gathered many of the general's military papers and private correspondence, and from these it is hoped there will yet be prepared an adequate volume to the memory of a great man. Among these letters is found evidence of the patriotic part taken by his sister Sarah in her knitting and sewing for his comfort, and for that of his soldiers. Sarah Porter was but one of hundreds of her sex who acted well a noble part in the great struggle for the independence which we now enjoy.
      Those who claim for Moses Porter a more imposing monument may find it in the great bowlder at the rear of his paternal mansion. Standing upon it, I could see in fancy his tiny bare feet climbing over its rugged sides, and the little group gathered there by the tired mother, who, coming out for rest, had taken the opportunity to impress helpful lessons upon the youthful minds intrusted to her care.
      This bowlder, towering above all others, seems to typify the man, who, in his firmness of purpose and inflexibility of character, stood out alone and above others, and when confronted by duty acted as though saying, --

"Come one, come all, this rock shall fly From its firm base as soon as I."

      Leaving the Porter House, in which my guide has a family interest, we pass on to the Putman

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house, on the paternal homestead of Rev. Alfred Porter Putnam, the guide for the hour. It is reached by a drive from the highway through well-cultivated grounds. The house is typical of its period, made picturesque by a large tree in front and a small one at a corner. "From here," said my guide, "went my great-grandfather, Deacon Edmund Putman, at the head of his company of seventeen neighbors on the 19th of April, 1775."
      But before tracing out the footprints of these minute-men, let us consider for a moment the origin of the house. It is supposed to have been built by Daniel Rea, the head of that family in this country; and after its possession by three generations of the name it was purchased by Edmund Putman, who carried on the trades of tailor and farmer. As a testimonial of his honest dealing and good standing with his neighbors, we find that in 1762 he was chosen deacon of the First Church, in which position he served twenty-three years." My grandsire was chosen captain of the Alarm List of the third company in this town on the 6th of March, 1775. Rev. Benjamin Balch was chairman of the meeting. The vote for grandfather was unanimous, and also that for lieutenant and sergeant, the former being for Rev. Mr. Balch, and the latter for Tarrant Putnam."
      In this house, now occupied by the sixth generation from Edmund Putnam, though of a different name (Fowler), we catch glimpses of the fading

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scenes of the days of trial. Here met in council the minister, the deacon, and faithful churchmen, and from here they went out to act the part of Christian patriots.
      Other ministers of Danvers used their influence in the patriot cause. Mr. Holt of the Middle Precinct (Peabody) was known to say, "I had rather live on potatoes than submit." He supplied himself with a musket, and drilled with Captain Epes's company. Mr. Wadsworth of the village parish was very ardent, and was seen at the North River Bridge, Salem, with his musket in hand; and to his words of persuasion more than all else is doubtless due the escape from the first slaughter.
      In the March following, Captain Putnam was unanimously chosen as selectman, and also as an assessor. This was at a time when these officers in any town called for the exercise of the best of mature judgment. He was also a member of the committee in 1778 to consider the report of a form of government.
      But Deacon Edmund was only one of many Putnams of Danvers who responded to the Lexington alarm. The returns show that thirty-four of the name marched from Danvers, and had some part in that day's struggle. As we have already seen, Perley Putnam was killed, and his brother Nathan was wounded.

      NOTE. -- A newspaper of those times furnishes evidence of the efforts made to recover fire-arms lost by the Provincials on April l9,

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thus proving the scarcity of munitions of war. From the New England Chronicle or the Essex Gazette of May 29, 1775, is gathered the following: "Lost in the battle of Menotomy by Nathan Putnam, of Capt. Hutchinson's Company, who was there badly wounded, a French Firelock, marked D. No. 6, with a marking iron, on the Breech. Said Putnam carried it to a Cross Road, near a mill. Whoever has said Gun in Poffeffion [possession] is defired [desire] to return it to Col. Manffield [Mansfield] of Lynn, or to the Selectmen of Danvers, and he shall be rewarded for his trouble."

      While this town was the place of the first Putnam settlement, the name was by no means confined to Danvers when Provincial government was overthrown. Eighty-six names, all of Danvers line, are recorded at the State House as turning out on April 19; and within two centuries from the time the first John drove his bounds in Danvers, about thirty-five hundred of his descendants were abroad in the land. Coming in to the Putnam headquarters, we are inclined to halt at a modern house on this old farm, better known as "Oak Knoll," the home of the lamented Quaker bard. But it is to the birthplace of General Israel Putnam that we are making our way. Witch houses, Rebecca Nourse and Giles Corey, must not allure us from our course.
      What school-boy does not open his eyes and prick up his ears at the mere mention of "Old Put"? But my own confession is, that I had almost fallen into the habit of regarding this man as a sort of monster, struggling in a dim mythical haze; but when I turned in at the open gate, and

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stood at the threshold of the birthplace of that hero, I came fully to my senses. Oh, how refreshing it is, in these days of constant changes in ownership of real estate, to find this home still retained by the family! Our knock at the front door met with a response from one by the name of Putnam, as did that of guests a century and a half ago, when the young man Israel walked in and out the same doorway. The genuine old-school lady, by word and smile, extended a cordial welcome; and we were at once assured by the words of Miss Susan Putnam that she was of the seventh generation of the family on that farm. The line is John, Thomas, Joseph, David, Israel, Daniel, and Susan, who furnished the information.
      The front and more modern part, which first meets the eye of the visitor, was built in 1744; while that in the rear, with its own front door, is supposed to date back to 1650. The part most prominent in the cut was the original house, built by Thomas, grandfather of Israel. It was while the northeast blasts were piling up the January snows of 1718 that in the upper room of this humble home the boy Israel was born. Joseph and Elizabeth (Porter) Putnam were the happy parents. This son was nearly a month old before he was taken to the meeting-house for the rite of baptism. The unusual delay may be accounted for by a desire of the mother to accompany the father to the altar of baptism; but more likely was

[Photo- "Birthplace of General Israel Putnam"]

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the result of the very severe weather of that month, which Cotton Mather describes as follows: --
      "Another snow came on which almost buried ye Memory of ye former, with a storm so famous that Heaven laid an Interdict on ye Religious Assemblies throughout ye Country, on this Lord's day, ye like whereunto had never been seen before. The Indians near an hundred years old, affirm that their Fathers never told them of anything that equalled it."

      Turning back to that Sabbath morning of early February, we can see. the family horse led up to the door of the home, the mother take her seat on the pillion, with the babe carefully wrapped in its bearing-cloth in her arms, and the father mount to his seat in front, take up the reins, and start off to the meeting-house. They make their way slowly, for the path is rough indeed, cut out of the great banks of snow which are piled in heaps on either side.
      What a scene is this when the devoted parents, shivering from the ride, enter the cold, barnlike meeting-house, and carry their babe to the altar, their frozen shoes clattering on the rough boards of the broad aisle, telling the measure of each step as they go. While the mother unwraps the babe, the father makes known by gentle whisper the name selected for his last born, and the Rev. Peter Clark cracks the ice in the christening basin, dips his fingers to the water, and laying them upon the innocent brow, says, "Israel, I

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baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen." Surely with the treatment of the babes of those days there was a continuous example of the survival of the fittest. Born of the best of New England stock, and of parents accustomed to hardships, and enduring this early test, the boy Israel grew and developed a marvellous physical activity and power of endurance, which served him well, and enabled him to do at the age of threescore what the ordinary man of forty years would quail beneath.
      Desirous of entering the house by the door of Israel's day, we made our way out and around to the front door of long ago, and crossed the threshold familiar to his restless feet. Up the narrow staircase we went, and into the room where the child first saw the light. A board partition makes two apartments of the original room, but there can be no mistake as to the part in question; for there is the open fireplace, with its smutty back, and the rude fire-dogs, as when the flames crackled on the hearth, and rolled up the chimney to mingle with the wintry blast of 1718. There are the rough-hewn posts at the corners, and thick projecting beams overhead, with no attempt at disguise. There is little else here that is tangible to remind us of him whom we delight to honor as Major-General Israel Putnam; but as we love the hard-handed yeomanry who formed the real backbone of the Revolution, so we love to linger on

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the ground which their feet have trodden, and hear from the lips of one of the seventh generation the stories confirmed which we have often heard before.
      "Robust and full of energy, he was a boy given to sports, and to feats of strength and daring, often the champion of courageous exploits, all of which were somewhat prophetic of his more extraordinary powers and achievements in maturer years."
      Much of Israel's boyhood was spent in Boxford, at the home of his stepfather, where perhaps the school advantages were no better than those of Danvers, and the boy's education was defective. When he had reached the age proper for him to set up for himself, he returned to the old homestead, and settled on a portion of the farm, and built a small house, the cellar of which still remains. He married, July 19, 1739, Hannah, daughter of Joseph and Mehitable (Putnam) Pope, and the young couple established a home for themselves, adding another to the then almost score of Putnam homes. After the birth of a son Israel, the young couple, seized with the spirit of adventure, with many others set out for broader fields; and the remainder of the story of Old Put " will be found in another connection in this series.
      The great willow-tree standing in the yard reminds us of many changes since Israel Putnam left the homestead. It was planted by a slave of

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the family, who is still remembered for her faithfulness, although she has been sleeping for many years with those whom she served.
      The Putnams who remain at the old home are descendants of David, brother of General Israel, and none of his line of the family have ever settled in Danvers; but they are numerous in the world, a large group of them being found in Bedford, Mass. We will now make a digression to hear the story by a great-granddaughter of General Israel Putnam, Mrs. Mary (Waldo) Webber.
      She was born at Pomfret, Conn., August 15, 1807. She is the daughter of John Augustus Gleason and Elizabeth Waldo, and granddaughter of Samuel Waldo and Mary (Molly) daughter of General Israel Putnam.
      A large part of Mrs. Webber's life has been spent in Bedford, -- the town where Israel, a cousin of the general, settled about the time that the Connecticut home was established, the same spirit of adventure having actuated both this one who settled in Bedford and the one who went to Connecticut to leave the Danvers settlement. The Bedford people remember their Israel Putnam with pride; for he was a selectman at the beginning of the town, and one of the first deacons of the church, and a benefactor of the new settlement.
      It was early in the present century that the Gleason branch of the Putnam family made its

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way to Bedford, Lewis Putnam Gleason being the pioneer at this time.
      Mrs. Webber spent some of her girlhood with her grandmother, Elizabeth Waldo. Her longing

[Photo- "Mary (Waldo) Webber, Great Granddaughter Of "Old Put"]

for amusement was gratified, when sitting at the old hearth-stone with her grandmother, by listening to the stories treasured in the family of the wolf-hunter, the Indian fighter, and the hero of Bunker Hill.

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A GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER'S STORY OF GENERAL
ISRAEL PUTNAM
As TOLD ON HER EIGHTY-NINTH BIRTHDAY.

      "Yes, I keep old grandfather's picture hanging in my room. It seems but yesterday that I sat by the side of Grandmother Waldo, for whom I was named, and heard her tell of the trials of Grandfather Putnam. Those of the Indian wars and the wolves charmed me much; and I often found the tears running down my cheeks, as I hid my head beneath her apron, when she told of the hair-breadth escapes from the savages. I suppose he had the fight born in him; for when but a boy he first displayed it in Boston, whither he had gone on a visit. He was doubtless dressed in the coarse cloth spun and woven at the old home in Danvers, and probably looked rather queer in the eyes of those sons of wealthy merchants and office-holders of the Province. They began to pick upon him. He bore it for a while, but at length challenged one of the brilliantly attired youths, twice his size, and vanquished him, to the great amusement of a crowd of people who looked on to see the rustic's performance.
      "My ancestor's Connecticut home was at Pomfret, known as Brooklyn since 1783. He had just started in as a pioneer, and was laboring hard to clear some land bought of Governor Jonathan

[Photo- "Scion of Putnam Tree". This photo appears to be a collage of sorts, of children with surnames of Gleason, Webber, Pierce, and Markham. Smaller images surround a central image of Harold Augustus Gleason. Each image on the photo is numbered with the corresponding number which identifies the child on a list below the photo.]

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Belcher. He had a family to care for, and it was annoying to have his sheep continually carried off by wolves. In one night he had a large flock of sheep and goats killed, besides many lambs and kids wounded. This was done by a she-wolf, which, with her whelps, had for several years infested the locality. The young were commonly destroyed by hunters, but the old one was too cunning for them.
      "At length grandfather and others formed a company to hunt in turns until they should kill the old enemy. It was known that, having lost the toes from one foot by a steel trap, she made one track shorter than the other. This betrayed her route on the snow. She was driven into a den a little distance from grandfather's house. The folks came together with dogs, guns, straw, fire, and sulphur to attack her. The hounds went in, and came out in a bleeding condition. The smoke of burning straw did not start her, and the fumes of brimstone were to no purpose.
      "At length, tired of all this, grandfather proposed to his negro man to go down in and shoot her; but he refused to comply, so grandfather decided to go, and went regardless of the protests of his companions. He knew wild animals did not like a close contact with fire, so he stocked himself with birch bark, and prepared for the attack. He threw off his coat and waistcoat, and having a long rope fastened around his legs, by which he

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might be pulled back, he entered head foremost, with blazing torch in hand.
      He went in, and down, and soon saw the eyes of the beast glaring at him. Startled at the approach of the flaming torch, she gnashed her teeth and growled. He then gave a signal to the men at the end of the rope, who pulled him out so rapidly as to strip off his garments, and some flesh as well. But with his gun loaded with nine buckshots, and torch in hand, he retraced the course. He fired and killed the animal, was pulled out, and after reviving from almost suffocation, he went in a third time, and the creature was taken out.
      "Grandfather had some trying experiences in the French and Indian wars, but he awed the savages so they dared not kill him. They thought he had a charmed life, and called him 'a god or a devil,' they could not tell which. By his services against the French and their Canadian and Indian allies, he acquired a good reputation as a soldier and a hero; and so he had gained many honors from the authorities of Connecticut, and entered the service of the Revolution with his well-earned popularity."

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