Our family in the American Revolution.
Both the Wilder family and the Gambles--or more properly the Hagertys, had men who served in the American Revolution.
I've started the Concord notes with Silas Wood, because he, along with his distant cousin Daniel Hosmer Jr., are the men to whom we today have tangible proof of our connection to them: Silas W. Thompson on Cassie's sampler seems almost certainly to be the namesake of his great grandfather, Silas Wood, who was living in the same village of Norridgewock when Hadassah Thompson made her sampler, probably about 1817 or 1818. Daniel Hosmer Jr. appears to have lived near or with the family of his daughter, Grace Hosmer Wilder, in Temple, Maine or adjacent Farmington. Small towns even today, it seems likely to me that he was known to his grandson, James M. Wilder, who later married Haddassah Thompson and lived in North Anson Maine, near Norridgewock. A glass mounted portrait of James Wilder I now have. Their son was Francis L. Wilder.
While the Wilder family connections to the Revolution are at times romantic and certainly interesting to read about, the Gamble/ Hathaway stories are very interesting too, coming from the west of that time. An unexplored part of this story is that of the Hathaways, themselves, who I have not been able to establish a clear connection to for the Revolution. I have been told by people who are knowledgeable of them that they were in the Morristown New Jersey area at this time, which was the headquarters of George Washington for a while. But I don't know anything past this.
Note about the Concord incidents below: Our direct line of ancestors had for the most part left Concord, Massachusetts sometime in the summer of 1774 for Norridgewock, Maine. Oiver Wood and his wife, Lucy Hosmer Wood, had raised ten children, and lost at least two who are buried in the Concord cemetery, in the nearly twenty five years they had been married, prior to moving. I've always thought it peculiar that they would move, as they were both the eldest children of their own families, and I myself would believe that in those days, that would suggest a level of assumed responsibility towards their own aging parents, who were still living at the time of their departure for Maine. The specualation has occurred to me that they may have feared their extended families activities against the Crown as they became more deeply involved, knowing the traditional British fate of traitors, but this we'll probably never know. But if they were gone, their families were not--both of Oliver Wood's parents, Ephraim Wood Sr., then about 73 or 74, and Mary Buss Wood, about 69 were still living, as were his wife Lucy Hosmer's parents, Thomas Hosmer Jr, about 73, and his wife Prudence Hosmer Hosmer, aged 69. All seem to have been living on their ancestral farmlands near the South Bridge over the Concord River, not far away from Concord town There is no record of these older men (Thomas Hosmer or Ephraim Wood Sr.) in the Battle of Concord that I've found, but they may have been, as there is no complete accounting of the participants. Thomas and Prudence Hosmer, and Ephraim and Mary Wood were all direct ancestors of ours through Lew Wilder's family.
Along with their Oliver and Lucy Wood's parents were a large family of brothers, sisters, in-laws, nieces, nephews and cousins. The Hosmers and Woods were closely or distantly related to many of the old families of Concord and the adjacent village of Lincoln and Acton. Many of the incidents about the Hosmers and Woods probably occurred within a short period of time as a British Army search party of about one hundred men looked for supplies and weapons reported to have been hidden on the Wood and Hosmer farms, which seem to have been adjacent or very nearby to each other. Today, there are a Wood Street and a Hosmer Road nearby each other, a short distance from the river, and the homes of Oliver Wood's brothers Ephraim and Amos Wood both survive, as does the Joseph Hosmer home and the Dovecote (the old "Hosmer cottage"). The Wood brothers homes, according to records, were begun on the same day in 1763.
Here is an accounting what is known about our families' during the American Revolution.
Silas Wood, born in Concord, Massachusetts to Oliver Wood and his wife, Lucy Hosmer Wood. He moved to Norridgewock with his family in the summer of 1774, only a few months before the Battle of Concord Bridge. At news of the battle, he and his parents apparently came back to Concord for a time. Silas was the great grandfather of Francis L. Wilder. His mother and father's families, the Woods and Hosmers, and their kin were the original settlers of Concord. As tensions rose in the 1770's with the British, the Hosmers and Woods became heavily involved with the American Liberty cause. Henry David Thoreau noted in his story "Embattled Farmers" that Silas's uncle, Joseph Hosmer, was "...He is the most dangerous rebel in Concord, for he has all the young men at his back, and where he leads the way they will follow.” Silas Wood was a soldier in the Massachusetts Continental Line ("The Continentals"), enlisting several times for several month stints from about 1777 to the end of the Revolution. Prior to this, his conscription was deferred after his employer, a gun maker, asked that Wood be kept in his gun shop in Concord to help deliver a large number of muskets for the American Army. Wood was active in many offices at Norridgewock. Silas Wood was Hadassah Thompson's grandfather. Silas Wood's military and pension records exist.
Abner Hosmer, the younger first cousin of Silas Wood's mother Lucy Hosmer Wood, was one of two American militiamen who were killed at Concord Bridge on April 17, 1775. Abner's paternal grandfather, Stephen Hosmer, was also Lucy's maternal grandfather (her parents were cousins). Abner Hosmer wore into battle that day an eagle pin that had been given to him by his father, with the initials "S.H.", which presumably would be the initials of his grandfather, Stephen Hosmer. The pin was found seventy five years later when Abner's body was exhumed to be reburied in the Concord Monument. It is believed that this eagle pin is the first documented incident of an American soldier wearing an American eagle symbol into battle. He is buried in the Concord Monument.
Jonas Wood, the older brother of Silas Wood, was a doctor, who according to family tradition, was captured in 1777 and was jailed on a prison ship of the English at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he was presumed to have died sometime that year. His burial spot was never known.
Joseph Hosmer, the younger brother of Silas Wood's mother, played an important role at Concord Bridge, as the second in command of the American Militia, and for, as he watched wagons being burned in Concord from a hill, saying the following: ""I have often heard it said that the British have boasted that they could march through our country, laying waste to the hamlets and villages and we would not oppose them. And I begin to think it true" and then, turning
to his commander, asking "Will you let them burn the town down?" At which point, the commander ordered his men into action, and started down the hill where they stood to engage the British. At the end of the Revolution, there is strong evidence that Silas Wood worked and perhaps lived with his uncle. A beautiful chest of drawers, now a treasure of the Concord Museum, has on the back of its drawers, out of sight, the signatures of several men, written in chalk, that are believed to be those who built the chest of drawers under Hosmer's direction. Silas Wood's name is one of them. If Silas did live with his uncle and aunt at this time (his parents had returned to Norridgewock) it's possible he lived in the Hosmer's old cottage, that Silas's father had built, adjacent to Joseph's newer home. The cottage, known as the Hosmer cottage and later the Dovecote, was rented many years later by a Bronson Alcott and his family, including his eight year old daughter, Louisa May Alcott, who went on to write "Little Men".
Prudence Hosmer, Silas Wood's grandmother, was a noted eccentric in Concord, fond of quoting poetry to anyone who would listen. According to Thoreau, Joseph Hosmer, her son, learned his eloquence of speech sitting with her at their hearth, watching the world outside go by. On the day of the Battle of Concord, British troops searched the Hosmer and Wood farms. They did not find the cannon balls that were hidden in Prudence Hosmer's bed, nor the rice or medicine that had been collected for the American soldiers.
Lucy Barnes Hosmer (not Silas's mother Lucy). Lucy Barnes Hosmer was Silas's aunt. On the day of the battle of Concord, Lucy was at her home ( I have the sense that there were several family homes, maybe on the same farm, which was not unusual) when the column of British soldiers under Captain Munday Pole came to her door. Asked where her husband was, she replied to the officer "In the village, fighting the enemies of his country". The British officer ignored the comment, and searched the house, but found nothing.
Dinah Hosmer, the younger sister of Silas's mother Lucy Hosmer Wood. On the day the British searched the Hosmer and Wood farms, Dinah was a young, unmarried woman of about twenty six year old. As the search party (about one hundred men) left to return and join the main column of British troops, they tore up the planks from South Bridge, next to where the Hosmer and Wood farms were situated. No sooner had the troops left, than Dinah and an African American slave who lived nearby, ran down the river and retrieved the planks of the bridge, and put them back into place, or at least enough of them to where American militia and minutemen hurrying in from other villages could pass over the river on their way to fight the British. Dinah never married, living her life in her brother Joseph's and later brother Benjamin Hosmer's homes,
The wife of Amos Wood (Amos was Silas Wood's uncle) , led the British who were searching the Wood farmhouse to believe that there were women hiding behind a locked door. The British commander refused to allow his troops to force the door, fearing it would frighten the women, and left. The room contained supplies for the Americans.
Ephraim Wood, Amos's older brother and the younger brother of Silas's father Oliver, was Concord's secretary of the Committee of Correspondence, groups throughout the colonies who coordinated policy and military strategy against the British prior to the Revolution. On the day of the Battle of Concord, Ephraim was seen running away from the Wood farm carrying a barrel of gunpowder to keep it from the British.
Captain Robert Smith, the father of Silas Wood's future wife, Sybil Smith Wood, (who I believe willed Tim's "sewing table", then a writing desk in 1851 to young Francis L. Wilder). Robert Smith was a captain of one of the two Needham, Massachusetts militia companies (his the Needham East Company) that fought the British as they retreated from Concord towards Boston. His soldiers, about 75 in strength, engaged the British at the village of Menotomy (modern day Arlington, adjacent to Cambridge, MA). Smith's men moved in very close to surprise the British column, but being unfamiliar with flanker troops, were themselves surprised by flankers from their own rear, resulting in the deaths and wounding of several men at Menotomy. Robert Smith was also present at the capture of Dorchester Heights in Boston, where the Americans were able to mount the cannon captured at Fort Ticonderoga and make Boston indefensible. Smith died in 1800, and is buried in Needham, Massachusetts. His daughter Sybil Smith Wood was Hadassah Thompson's grandmother. Sybil's only daughter, Mary, is the Polly (Wood) Thompson of Hadassah's sampler.
Daniel Hosmer, Jr. was the grandfather of James M. Wilder, (who was himself Lew Wilder's grandfather). Daniel Hosmer was born in Concord in a section that broke away and became the village of Lincoln before the Revolution. He married a girl named Hannah Baker, whose father, Jacob Baker, had built a farm out of a section of land his own wife, Grace Billings' family had farmed for over one hundred years. Daniel, his father in law Jacob, and Jacob's three sons were present at the Battle of Concord, Daniel and one of his brothers in law being members of the Lincoln Minutemen, which differed from regular militia. Minutemen were required to be equipped and in the field within a half an hour from being called. Daniel Hosmer's commander was Captain William Smith. Smith's sister, Abigail Smith had married a successful lawyer named John Adams. Abigail Smith Adams was to become our second First Lady. After the Battle of Concord, Daniel Hosmer was to participate in several of the great battles of the Revolution. Only two months later, he and his company were present on the left flank of the American defense of Bunker Hill, and were among the last Americans driven from the field as ammunition ran out. There is evidence that he was present in some capacity at Ticonderoga, perhaps among soldiers building small ships to fight the British navy in the NY lake region. There is evidence that he may have been at the Battle of Ticonderoga. After 1800, Daniel Hosmer Jr. appears to have moved north to Maine, perhaps to live with or near his son Daniel, or daughter, Grace Hosmer Wilder and her family, including young James M. Wilder. He died after1834, and is probaby buried in Farmington, Maine, or adjacent Temple. Daniel Hosmer Jr.'s military and pension records exist.
Jacob Baker, the father in law of Daniel Hosmer Jr. and great grandfather of James M. Wilder, was a farmer in the Lincoln Massachusetts area. He was a veteran of the French and Indian War. He is believed to have gone with his sons and son in law to face the British at Concord Bridge. One of his sons carried the only musket with a bayonet, which had been given to Jacob Baker during the French and Indian War. Jacob Baker established his farm after marrying Grace Billings, whose family had settled in Concord in the 1640's. The Billings Baker farm was about a half mile form Walden Pond. In the 1850's the farm, by then farmed by Baker's grandchildren, was devoted a chapter in Thoreau's "On Walden Pond". Thoreau's association with the farm resulted in its purchase in the 1990's by Glen Frey of the rock band Eagles, to keep in trust as a monument to America's environmental movement, which it remains today.
Nathan Baker, the brother in law of Daniel Hosmer Jr. and great uncle of James M. Wilder, joined his father, his three brothers and brother in law Daniel fighting the British at Concord Bridge. The night before, while returning late on horseback to the Baker Farm from courting his future wife named Elizabeth Taylor, he encountered a fast riding horseman outside of Lincoln, named Dr. Jonathan Prescott, one of three riders sent from Boston to warn Concord about the approach of the British to confiscate arms hidden thoughout the village. One of the other riders was of course Paul Revere. Nathan joined Dr. Prescott in waking up the Lincoln villagers to prepare for the British raid. Dr. Prescott, coincidentally, was a cousin of the Wilders.
Amos Baker, the brother in law of Daniel Hosmer, Jr. and great uncle of James M. Wilder, also joined his brothers, brother in law and father at Concord Bridge. Many years later, he would become a regional celebrity as the last man living who had fought at Concord Bridge, this in about 1850.
Moses Wilder, the grandfather of James M. Wilder. While little is known about his Revolutionary service, he and his fellow militiamen from Lancaster, Massachusetts, marched to join the Concord fight, but arrived too late to see battle. Moses Wilder had served in the French and Indian War in the regiment his father Colonel Oliver Wilder commanded.
Alexander and Edward Crawford, Edward Wiggins, the Enslows and the Prebles. All family ancestors of the Hathaways, these people for the most part are more difficult to trace in the Revolution. They seem to have been part of colonial frontier militias. These men were at this time in the southwestern part of Pennsylvania, northwestern Virginia and western Maryland. It is said that one of the Prebles was associated with Daniel Boone at this time.
There is actually a fair amount of information about these people which is not given here. Edward Wiggins may have been at the Battle of Trenton, where Washington crossed the Delaware to fight the Hessians.
James Haggerty, the great great grandfather of Sarah Jane Hathaway, was a soldier in the 3rd Regiment of the Pennsylvania Continental Line. He may well have served at the Battle of Brandywine and possibly at the Battle of Germantown. He may have been wounded or become ill, as he was assigned to the Invalid Battalion after this time. The Invalid Battalion was comprised of soldiers who had been wounded or were ill, but who were not so sick that they couldn't do anything. James Haggerty served as an artillery artificer, or as a soldier who was responsible for the maintenance of canon. He was present with George Washington at Valley Forge in 1777, and is listed on the rolls kept by the National Park Service there.
For more information about some of these people, use the following links:
Daniel Hosmer, Jr. (Wilder ancestor)
Jacob Baker and his sons (Wilder ancestor)
Silas Wood (Wilder ancestor)
Captain Robert Smith (Wilder ancestor)
James Haggerty (Gamble/Hathaway ancestor)