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Revisiting Uncle Sam When I wrote a short article about Uncle Sam last month for the Summer Quarterly, I did not have the most important piece of information. Our Easton Historical Society Vice President, Jonathan Jackson Coe, is a descendant of Uncle Sam! Edward Wilson Jr. was Jon’s 4th great-grandfather and the brother of Sam Wilson, the Samuel Wilson (1766-1854) who has been officially recognized as the first “Uncle Sam” and the personification of the United States. In 1961 the United States Congress adopted the following resolution:: "Resolved by the Senate and the House of Representatives that the Congress salutes Uncle Sam Wilson of Troy, New York, as the progenitor of America's National symbol of Uncle Sam."  Sam Wilson The first Wilson in the New World arrived from Scotland fifteen years after the Pilgrims. He settled in Menotomy- current day Arlington, Massachusetts. His descendants were farmers who stayed in Menotomy, and by young Sam’s time the Wilson family was anti-British and very supportive of the revolutionary movement. As a boy Sam felt strongly about American liberty and according to the biography Uncle Sam, by Thomas I. Gerson & Flora M. Hood, at a young age Sam was a drummer for the Minutemen, and later he ran errands for the Sons of Liberty. He was eventually named an official messenger for the Committee of Safety in Boston and the Committee of Correspondence. In 1775 (Sam was 9) when 14 Redcoats approached Menotomy while on the road to Lexington, Sam was part of a group of older men and boys who fired on the soldiers. Sam killed a Redcoat and the fallen man’s commanding officer surrendered. This was prior to the well-known engagements at Lexington and Concord where 8 Minutemen were killed. During the Battle of Bunker Hill, Sam acted as a lookout from the roof of a building at Harvard College. While Sam’s 2 older brothers fought in the war, Sam continued to serve as a messenger. After the war the Wilson family moved to Mason, NH. Sam was 14. Later, President George Washington was to name Sam’s kinsman, James Wilson, one of the first four Associate Justices to the Supreme Court. In Mason, in 1781, Sam joined the Continental Army where one of his jobs was to slaughter, package, and guard meat. (Meat was often tampered with by enemies.) Later he and his brother Ebenezer left to make their fortune in Troy, NY, where by 1790 they were making bricks. Previously most brick had been imported from England and so was now in much demand. Their business prospered. They also started a meat packing business called E. and S. Wilson Company. Troy was a small but booming outpost and a good fit for a young entrepreneur. In 1797 Sam married Betsey Mann from Mason and they would go on to have four children. Sam Wilson had established himself well and it would be during the War of 1812 that events would conspire to create his patriotic legacy.  ……………......................... .....................to be continued.
Anne Wooster Drury [email protected] Don't forget to renew your membership if you have not done so already or join if not currently a member. If you're not sure of your membership status just contact the Easton Historical Society and Museum by email or phone and we will give an update. Beer Beer is a beverage many people enjoy. A hot summer day is a very good time to have a cold beer. Shovel Town Brewery at 50 Oliver Street is a lovely place to experiment with various brews. A particular favorite of mine is called Flyaway, engendering memories (for oldies) of a long ‘disappeared’ pond off Lincoln Street. To keep it all local, some of the hops used in Shovel Town beer are grown at nearby Langwater Farm and the building Shovel Town Brewery occupies was once part of the Ames Shovel Factory. Easton has a history of beer making going back to colonial times. Once hops grew in a field located approximately where the Southeastern Regional School sits on Foundry Street today. An 1871 map shows a “hop kiln” located there.  Hop kiln. Source: Easton Historical Society. Hops are the flower of a vining plant. They add flavor to beer, keep it fresher and help it retain its head of foam. Initially beer was imported from Europe, but early on out of necessity, Americans began brewing their own beer. Wheat, barley and hops were the best ingredients, though other foodstuffs like corn, molasses, spruce or boxberry were sometimes used. “Beer– Beer is a good family drink. A handful of hops, to a pailful of water, and a half-pint of molasses, makes good hop beer. Spruce mixed with hops is pleasanter than hops alone. Boxberry, fever-bush, sweet fern, and horseradish make a good and healthy diet-drink……If your family be large, and the beer will be drank rapidly, it may as well remain in the barrel; but if your family be small, fill what bottles you have with it; it keeps better bottled. A raw potato or two, cut up and thrown in, while the ingredients are boiling, is said to make beer spirited.” (The Frugal Housewife, 1835) Easton resident Captain George Washington Hayward, who lived in the Red House at 227 Foundry Street (across from the Southeastern Regional School), made hop growing the chief industry on his farm about the time of the Civil War. The picture above is of his kiln. So, beer-making has a documented history in Easton. If you wish, after pulling weeds in your garden or going for a run on a hot summer day, get yourself a cold beer and enjoy!  1871 map shows a “hop kiln” location  Hayward House at 227 Foundry Street (exact date unknown) Anne Wooster Drury [email protected] Links for more information: Hayward - Pool Neighborhood (published in 1993 by EHS&M) |