From Dave "Old Yankee" Brigham:
Opened in 1976 in the historic district in the center of Sudbury, Mass., Heritage Park presents a quaint, peaceful respite in a lovely wooded location. In addition to a small stone bridge and several benches, the park features numerous stone memorials. Let's take a look at them.
The first one features a quote from John Weighton, a soldier from Sudbury who fought in the Revolutionary War. "May the present generation and those unborn, preserve unimpaired the liberties, sivil (sic) and religious, as long as time endures."
"I have left myself wholly in the hands of God." That's what Capt. Samuel Dakin, selectman, deacon, assessor and soldier from Sudbury, said as he led a Sudbury militia company to Fort Ticonderoga during the fourth French & Indian War. He was killed in battle in 1758.
In the third memorial, we get a sense of how democracy was birthed in the colonies, but also learn that history is open to misinterpretation. "We shall or should be judged by men of our own choosing." Underneath the quote, it says: "With these words Selectman John Ruddock, in the spring of 1655, speaking for the town defied the Committee of Reverend Elders led by Reverend Increase Mather, and announced for all time the separation of church and state."
As impressive as this quote and the circumstances under which it was said may be, there is a major error on this plaque. Putting aside the issue of whether a small-town selectman really "announced for all time" that government shall not infringe upon religious freedom, we need to look at the leadership of this "Committee of Reverend Elders." Increase Mather, who served as president of Harvard College from 1685 to 1701, was 16 years old in 1655. So he obviously wasn't leading a Committee of Reverend Elders before graduating from college. According to the Sudbury Chamber of Commerce web site, it was instead the Rev. Edmund Brown to whom the fiery Ruddock made his demand:
"In 1654, a frustrated Rev. Brown made his final stand, insisting on the divine power of the church over the citizens of Sudbury, and calling in a delegation of ministers from Cambridge, Watertown and Concord in an effort to enforce his rule. Solemnly assembled in Parmenter’s Tavern, the delegation was met by John Rudduck, now Town Selectman, and the issue of church and state separation was dispatched in short order. His words were sure and confident with a wisdom beyond his years.'We shall, or should, be judged by men of our own choosing.'"
I'm a writer and editor, so I can't help but wonder if the committee that put together these wonderful memorials got this piece of information wrong, what else might be incorrect in Heritage Park? And how did they get it so wrong?
Moving on.
The fourth stone honors Rev. Israel Loring, namesake of the nearby Loring Parsonage. Loring was a minister in Sudbury for 67 years.
Next is a memorial to the three victims of the 9/11 terror attacks who were from Sudbury: Geoffrey Cloud, Peter Morgan Goodrich and Cora Hidalgo Holland.
The sixth stone marker commemorates a 1676 battle between the residents of Sudbury and soldiers loyal to infamous Native American leader King Philip. Captains Wadsworth and Brocklebank, according to the plaque, were among the 74 soldiers killed in the fight. "Their defense of the five garrisons broke the back of the Indian Confederacy, and saved the town and the colony," the memorial states. This seems hyperbolic, but I'm no Indian Wars expert. To read something tangentially related to King Philip, check out August 30, 2016, "The Tavern of Death."
Hmm. This memorial puzzles me a bit. Or rather, information I found subsequent to my Sudbury visit confounds me. "Four miles to the southwest on Nobscot Mountain lived the Indian Tantamous, called Jethroe, a Nipmuc sachem." OK, I'm with this so far. "Friend to Sudbury, converted by Reverend Eliot, he sought brotherhood, peace and justice. Hanged in Boston September 26, 1676, to the everlasting sorrow of a saddened Sudbury."
Per Wikipedia, Tantamous transferred land in what is now Concord and Maynard "by defaulting on a mortgaged horse and mare." During King Philip's War, he and his family were sent to Boston's Deer Island (see February 27, 2015, "Digesting Deer Island" for some background on the island). Tantamous escaped, but his son ratted out his location and the older man was captured and executed. Here's the thing that gets me: if Wikipedia is to be believed, Tantamous was 96 years old when he was hung in what is now Boston's North End. Sure, one of his nicknames was Old Jethro, but he was almost a century old?! I've searched online and haven't found anything to dispute the basic facts of this story, even though no source actually takes the time to mention how old Tantamous allegedly was.
The Sudbury Oath. I can't find much about this online. Presents further proof that Sudbury residents truly believed in separation of church and state. "The Oath of Allegiance to the Town substituted for that to the Church...." it begins.
The final stone memorializes The Confidence, a ship that sailed from Southampton, England, in 1638 carrying passengers who were to become the first settlers of Sudbury, including Peter Noyes, who, with Edmund Rice and the Rev. Edmund Brown, "created here a new concept of open democratic government," says the plaque. But wasn't Rev. Brown the guy who wanted town residents to pay fealty to the church, and not the state? Hmm.
Note of personal connection: Edmund Rice's second wife was my grandmother several times removed. Her name was Mercy Hurd, and her first husband was Thomas Brigham, considered the first "Brigham" in Colonial America. I am directly descended from Thomas and Mercy, who were married in 1641 and lived in Cambridge. After Thomas died in 1653, Mercy married Rice in 1655 in Sudbury. After Rice died in 1663, she married William Hunt as his second wife. Hunt died in 1667 in Marlborough. Mercy Hurd Brigham Rice Hunt died in 1693.
Cricket Pond is small and, I'm just guessing here, a popular vacation spot for the Gryllidae family.
This bridge is lovely, but a little small for trolls isn't it?
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