Ebenezer and Elizabeth Weld Stevens, of Roxbury, was born in Boston,
11th August, 1751, and died at his residence, in Rockaway, now Astoria,
N.Y., 22d September, 1823. He joined Paddock's artillery company, which
was composed almost entirely of mechanics, many of whom were active
members of the organization, which, under the name of Sons of Liberty,
did effective service in opposing the machinations of the crown. Under
its first lieutenant, Jabez Hatch, (Captain Paddock being a Tory,) this
company volunteered as a watch on the "Dartmouth." The Boston Port Bill
drove the mechanics out of the town, and Stevens went to Providence,
where he became a partner with John Crane, in the business of
carpentering. Commissioned first lieutenant of Crane's train of Rhode
Island artillery, 8th May, 1775, he accompanied it to Boston, and served
through the siege; made captain in Knox's artillery regiment, 1st
January, 1776; took part in the expedition to Canada; made major 9th
November, 1776; and in the campaign ending in the surrender of
Burgoyne; appointed lieutenant-colonel 3d April, 1778, and soon after
assigned to Colonel Lamb's regiment, with which he took part in
Lafayette's operations in Virginia, and at Yorktown commanded the
artillery alternately with Lamb and Carrington. After the war, he was a
leading merchant of New York; member of the New York assembly in 1800,
an alderman in 1802, and major-general of the State militia during the
war of 1812. He was a founder of the Tammany and the New England
Societies, and a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. General
Stevens's connection with the tea party is related on a previous page.
DR. ELISHA STORY,
Born in Boston, December 3, 1743, died in Marblehead, Mass., August 27,
1805. His father, William Story, was Register of the Court of Admiralty.
His office, on the north-westerly corner of State and Devonshire
Streets, was broken into at the time of the Stamp Act riots, on the
supposition that the stamps had been deposited there for distribution,
and all the books and papers carried into King (now State) Street, and
burned. Elisha Story, fully sympathizing with the patriots of the day,
joined the "Sons of Liberty;" was one of the volunteer guard on the
"Dartmouth," on the night of November 29, and on the evening of December
16, convened, with other disguised Sons of Liberty, in an old
distillery, preparatory to their "little operation" in tea. He was a
pupil of Master Lovell, and studied medicine with Dr. Sprague. He was
surgeon of Colonel Little's Essex regiment, and fought as a volunteer at
Lexington, and at Bunker's Hill, until obliged to remove a wounded
friend to Winter Hill, where he passed the night in caring for the
wounded. He was with Washington at Long Island, White Plains and
Trenton. In 1774, he removed from Boston to Malden, and in 1777, settled
in Marblehead, where he practiced his profession, with success, until
his death. In 1767, he married Ruth, daughter of Major John Ruddock, by
whom he had ten children. By his second wife, Mehitabel, daughter of
Major John Pedrick, he had eleven children, the eldest of whom was
Joseph, afterwards Associate-Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Isaac, the second son, was the father of Judge Isaac, of Somerville,
Mass. Dr. Story was a skilful physician, and a man of great benevolence.
"It is said that he at one time led a party of men to the Boston common,
near where is now the Park Street gate, where there was a sentinel
guarding two brass field-pieces. While Story overawed the sentinel, by
presenting a pistol at his head, and enjoined silence upon him, the
others came from behind and dragged away the guns, one of which was
afterwards placed in the Bunker Hill Monument."
Communicated by Hon. Isaac Story, of Somerville.
COLONEL JAMES SWAN,
Merchant, politician, soldier and author before the age of twenty-two;
born in Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1754, died in Paris, March 18, 1831. He
came to Boston when very young, and in 1772, when a clerk in a
counting-house, published "A Dissuasion to Great Britain and the
Colonies from the Slave-Trade to Africa." At the time of the tea party,
in which he was an actor, his place of business was next to Ellis
Gray's, opposite the east end of Faneuil Hall, and he boarded in Hanover
Street, where he and other young apprentices disguised themselves. Next
morning, at breakfast, the tea in their shoes, and smooches on their
faces, led to some mutual chaffing. He was a volunteer at Bunker's Hill;
was a captain in Crafts's artillery regiment; afterwards secretary to
the Massachusetts Board of War; member of the Legislature in 1778;
Adjutant-General of the State, and at the close of the war was major of
a cavalry corps. He acquired a fortune in France through government
contracts, but afterwards became deeply involved, through the dishonesty
of a partner, and was confined in St. Pelagie, a debtors' prison, in
Paris, for many years, keeping up all the while an indefatigable
litigation in the French courts. At the age of seventy he was, by French
law, released. In 1777, he joined the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew. He
was a man of large enterprise and benevolence, manly in person, and
dignified in manner. He owned a fine estate in Dorchester, latterly the
residence of his daughter, Mrs. Sargent.
[Illustration: Signature, James Swan]
THOMAS URANN,
One of the volunteer guard on the "Dartmouth;" became a member of the
Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew, in 1760, and was master of the Lodge, in
1771-72. He was a ship-joiner, in Batterymarch Street, near Hallowell's
ship-yard. In 1784, he was surveyor of boards; and was sealer of woods,
in 1787-90. By Mary, his wife, whom he married in 1750, he had thirteen
children, nine of whom survived him. His will is dated May 7, 1791.
[Illustration: Signature, Thomas Urann]
CAPTAIN JOSIAH WHEELER
Was a house-wright, who lived in half a double house, on Orange (now
Washington) Street, west side, between Pleasant and Warrenton Streets.
The other half was occupied by Sprague, also of the tea party. On the
afternoon of December 16, 1773, Mrs. Wheeler became aware that there was
something unusual on her husband's mind. It was late when he returned
home that evening, but she sat up for him, and as he pulled off his long
boots, a quantity of tea fell on the floor, revealing the cause of his
absence. Seeing the tea, a female neighbor, who had sat up with Mrs.
Wheeler to keep her company, in her husband's absence, exclaimed, "Save
it; it will make a nice mess." Taking down her broom, this patriotic
woman swept it all into the fire, saying, "Don't touch the cursed
stuff." Wheeler commanded a company of minute-men at the opening of the
Revolution, most of whom were skilled carpenters and joiners, and by
Washington's order, he superintended the erection of the forts, on
Dorchester Heights. He was also employed in building the State House, in
Boston. He died in Boston, in August, 1817; aged seventy-four. His
daughter, Mrs. Carney, was living in 1873, at Sheepscot, Maine, at the
age of eighty-six. George W. Wheeler, a grandson, many years City
Treasurer of Worcester, is now (1884) living in that city. Captain
Wheeler was one of the volunteer guard on board the "Dartmouth."
JEREMIAH WILLIAMS
Was a blacksmith, who resided in the old mansion, yet standing, near Hog
Bridge, in Roxbury, known as the "John Curtis House." He was the brother
of Colonel Joseph, a distinguished citizen, and the father of Major
Edward Payson Williams, an officer of the Revolutionary army, who died
in the service.
THOMAS WILLIAMS,
Also of Roxbury, was one of the minute-men in Captain Moses Whiting's
company, at Lexington. He, with his brother-in-law, Thomas Dana, Jr.,
and other Roxbury men, rendezvoused at the house of his father, John
Williams, preparatory to the tea party, and returning home, Williams and
Dana refused to join in sacking the house of a Tory, regarding it as no
part of their enterprise. In 1812, Williams settled in Cazenovia, N.Y.,
and died in Utica, N.Y., July 31, 1817; aged sixty-three.
NATHANIEL WILLIS,
Journalist, born in Boston, February 7, 1755, died near Chillicothe, O.,
April 1, 1831. After serving an apprenticeship in a printing-office, in
Boston, he became one of the proprietors and publishers of the
"Independent Chronicle," a leading political journal, from 1776 to 1784.
He subsequently issued the first newspaper ever published in Ohio, the
"Scioto Gazette," and was for several years State printer of Ohio. His
son, Nathaniel, also a journalist, was the father of Nathaniel P.
Willis, Richard Storrs Willis, and Sarah Payson Willis, ("Fanny Fern,")
afterwards Mrs. Parton. Member of St. Andrew's Lodge in 1779.
JOSHUA WYETH,
Whose relation is given on a preceding page, was the son of Ebenezer
Wyeth, of Cambridge, and was born there in October, 1758. He served in
the Revolutionary army; afterwards removed to the west, and was residing
in Cincinnati, in 1827.
[Illustration: Signature, Joshua Wyeth]
DR. THOMAS YOUNG,
A physician, was a conspicuous figure in the early Revolutionary
movements in Boston. He was the first president of the North End Caucus,
at which measures of importance to the town were initiated and
discussed, and delivered the first oration commemorative of the Boston
Massacre, March 5, 1771, at the Manufactory House, on Tremont Street. He
was an original member of the Boston committee of correspondence, whose
work was so important in uniting the Colonies, and was a talented and
vigorous contributor to the papers of the day, and to the Royal American
Magazine, on medical, political and religious topics. He was a popular
speaker in the public meetings of the day, and to him is attributed the
first public suggestion of throwing the tea overboard. He was John
Adams's family physician, and an army surgeon, in 1776, and was
afterwards a resident of Philadelphia. Several spirited letters from his
pen may be found in the "Life and Times of General John Lamb." "Tea,"
writes Young in the "Evening Post," "is really a slow poison, and has a
corrosive effect upon those who handle it. I have left it off since it
became a political poison, and have since gained in firmness of
constitution. My substitute is camomile flowers."
* * * * *
It is not long, since an eminent Englishman, visiting Boston, asked the
committee of the city government, who attended him, to point out the
place where the tea was thrown overboard. He was taken to a distant
wharf, known by its form as the T, and popularly associated with that
event from the similarity of sound. Boston has appropriately marked many
of her historical sites; surely the spot rendered forever memorable by
the bold deed of the Sons of Liberty, on December 16, 1773, ought not
longer to remain unmarked. No stranger, at all familiar with American
history, would leave unvisited the scene of an event at once so unique
in its character, and so important in its consequences. The precise
locality is definitely known, and a tablet, suitably inscribed, or an
enduring monument of some kind, should be placed there without further
delay.
[Illustration: LOCATION OF GRIFFIN'S (NOW LIVERPOOL) WHARF, WHERE THE
TEA-SHIPS LAY.]
In this diagram the old boundaries are designated by dotted lines. The
place where the tea-ships lay, at the foot of Griffin's wharf, is
coincident with the lower end of the large coal-sheds of Messrs. Chapin
& Co., the present owners of the wharf. They have extended and widened
the wharf, and have built a three-story brick block at its head. A mural
tablet might be set in the front of the central building, at a small
expense. The wharf should be rechristened "Tea Party Wharf."
A BALLAD OF THE BOSTON TEA PARTY.
BY DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
No! never such a draught was poured
Since Hebe served with nectar
The bright Olympians and their Lord,
Her over-kind protector;
Since Father Noah squeezed the grape
And took to such behaving,
As would have shamed our grandsire ape,
Before the days of shaving;
No! ne'er was mingled such a draught,
In palace, hall, or arbor,
As freemen brewed, and tyrants quaffed,
That night in Boston harbor!
It kept King George so long awake,
His brain at last got addled,
It made the nerves of Britain shake
With seven score millions saddled;
Before that bitter cup was drained
Amid the roar of cannon,
The western war-cloud's crimson stained
The Thames, the Clyde, the Shannon;
Full many a six-foot grenadier
The flattened grass had measured,
And many a mother many a year
Her tearful memories treasured.
Fast spread the tempest's darkening pall,
The mighty realms were troubled,
The storm broke loose, but first of all
The Boston tea-pot bubbled!
An evening party,--only that,
No formal invitation,
No gold-laced coat, no stiff cravat,
No feast in contemplation;
No silk-robed dames, no fiddling band,
No flowers, no songs, no dancing!
A tribe of red men,--axe in hand,--
Behold the guests advancing!
How fast the stragglers join the throng,
From stall and work-shop gathered;
The lively barber skips along
And leaves a chin half-lathered;
The smith has flung his hammer down,
The horse-shoe still is glowing,
The truant tapster at the Crown
Has left a beer-cask flowing;
The coopers' boys have dropped the adze,
And trot behind their master;
Up run the tarry ship-yard lads;--
The crowd is hurrying faster.
Out from the mill-pond's purlieus gush,
The streams of white-faced millers,
And down their slippery alleys rush
The lusty young Fort-Hillers.
The rope-walk lends its 'prentice crew,
The Tories seize the omen;
"Ay, boys! you'll soon have work to do
For England's rebel foemen,
'King Hancock,' Adams, and their gang,
That fire the mob with treason,--
When these we shoot, and those we hang,
The town will come to reason."
On--on to where the tea-ships ride!
And now their ranks are forming,--
A rush and up the Dartmouth's side,
The Mohawk band is swarming!
See the fierce natives! what a glimpse
Of paint and fur and feather,
As all at once the full-grown imps
Light on the deck together!
A scarf the pig-tail's secret keeps,
A blanket hides the breeches,--
And out the cursed cargo leaps,
And overboard it pitches!
O woman, at the evening board,
So gracious, sweet and purring,
So happy while the tea is poured,
So blest while spoons are stirring.
What martyr can compare with thee?
The mother, wife, or daughter,--
That night, instead of best Bohea,
Condemned to milk and water!
Ah, little dreams the quiet dame,
Who plies with rack and spindle,
The patient flax, how great a flame
Yon little spark shall kindle!
The lurid morning shall reveal
A fire no king can smother,
When British flint and Boston steel
Have clashed against each other!
Old charters shrivel in its track,
His worship's bench has crumbled,
It climbs and clasps the Union Jack,--
Its blazoned pomp is humbled.
The flags go down on land and sea,
Like corn before the reapers;
So burned the fire that brewed the tea
That Boston served her keepers!
The waves that wrought a country's wreck
Have rolled o'er Whig and Tory;
The Mohawks on the Dartmouth's deck
Shall live in song and story.
The waters in the rebel bay
Have kept the tea-leaf savor;
Our old North-Enders in their spray
Still taste a Hyson flavor.
And Freedom's tea-cup still o'erflows,
With ever-fresh libations,
To cheat of slumber all her foes,
And cheer the wakening nations!"
COMMEMORATIVE VERSES.
FRAGMENT OF A RALLYING SONG OF THE TEA PARTY AT THE GREEN DRAGON.
Rally Mohawks! bring out your axes,
And tell King George we'll pay no taxes
On his foreign tea;
His threats are vain, and vain to think
To force our girls and wives to drink
His vile Bohea!
Then rally boys, and hasten on
To meet our chiefs at the Green Dragon.
Our Warren's there, and bold Revere,
With hands to do, and words to cheer,
For liberty and laws;
Our country's "braves" and firm defenders
Shall ne'er be left by true North-Enders
Fighting Freedom's cause!
Then rally boys, and hasten on
To meet our chiefs at the Green Dragon.
* * *
* * * * *
A TEA PARTY BALLAD.
Just by beauteous Boston lying
On the gently swelling flood;
Without Jack or streamers flying,
Three ill-fated tea-ships rode.
Just as glorious Sol was setting,
On the wharf, a numerous crew--
Sons of Freedom, fear forgetting,
Suddenly appeared in view.
Armed with chisel, axe and hammer,--
Weapons new for warlike deed;
Towards the herbage-freighted vessels,
They approached with dauntless speed.
O'er their heads aloft in mid sky,
Three bright angel forms were seen;
This was Hampden,--that was Sidney,
With fair Liberty between.
Soon they cried, "Your foes you'll banish,
Soon the glory shall be won;
Nor shall setting Phoebus vanish,
Ere the matchless deed be done!"
Quick as thought the ships were boarded,
Hatches burst and chests displayed;
Axe and hammers help afforded,--
What a glorious crash they made!
Quick into the deep descended,
Cursed weed of China's coast;
Thus at once our fears were ended,--
Freemen's rights shall ne'er be lost!
A FAREWELL TO TEA.
(_From Thomas's "Massachusetts Spy."_)
Farewell, the tea-board with its equipage
Of cups and saucers, cream-bucket and sugar-tongs,
The pretty tea-chest also lately stored
With Hyson, Congo, and best Double Fine.
Full many a joyous moment have I sat by you
Hearing the girls tattle, the old maids talk scandal,
And the spruce coxcomb laugh--at maybe nothing.
No more shall I dish out the once-loved liquor,
Though now detestable;
Because I'm taught--and I believe it true,
Its use will fasten slavish chains upon my country;
And Liberty's the goddess I would choose
To reign triumphant in America.
GEN. JOSEPH WARREN
_And the memorable Suffolk County Resolves of 1774._
The mansion where the famous Suffolk County Resolves were passed,
September 9, 1774, is still standing. It is situated in Milton, Mass., a
few doors from the Boston and Milton line, on the Quincy road. It is a
low, two-story double house, 20 × 40 feet, with the main door in its
centre, and a chimney on each end. In its front there is inserted a
marble tablet, 14 × 28 inches, with the following inscription:
"IN THIS MANSION,
On the 9th day of Sept., 1774, at a meeting of the delegates
of every town and district in the County of Suffolk, the
memorable Suffolk Resolves were adopted.
They were reported by Maj.-Gen. Warren, who fell----in their
defence in the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.
They were approved by the members of the Continental
Congress at Carpenter's Hall, Phil^a., on the 17^th Sept.,
1774.
The Resolves to which the immortal patriot here first gave
utterance, and the heroic deeds of that eventful day on
which he fell, led the way to American Independence.
'Posterity will acknowledge that virtue which preserved them
free and happy.'"
In Warren's oration, March 5, 1772, more than two years before these
Resolves were passed, the spirit of liberty burned within his heart.
Nine months after these Resolves the battle took place, which finally
resulted in the birth of American freedom. _See portrait, page_ XLVII.
[Illustration: Signature, Joseph Lovering
Signature of Joseph Lovering taken from a check dated May 3, 1848, one
month prior to his death.
N.P. Lovering]
JOSEPH LOVERING.[23]
Respecting Mr. Lovering's connection with the Tea Party, Mr. George W.
Allan, of West Canton Street, Boston, now eighty-two years of age,
relates that about the year 1835, he frequently conversed with that
gentlemen, who told him that on the evening of December 16, 1773, when
he was fifteen years of age, he held the light in Crane's carpenter's
shop, while he and others, fifteen in number, disguised themselves
preparatory to throwing the tea into Boston harbor. He also said that
some two hundred persons joined them on their way to the wharf, where
the tea-ships lay. Mr. George H. Allan, the son of George W. Allan,
received a similar statement from Mr. Lovering, a short time before the
latter's death, which occurred June 13, 1848, at the age of eighty-nine
years and nine months.
Mr. Lovering appears to have been the youngest person connected with
this affair, of whom we have any knowledge. His boyish curiosity led him
to accompany the party to the scene of operations at Griffin's wharf,
and on the following morning he was closely questioned and severely
reprimanded by his parents, for being out after nine o'clock at night,
as they were strict in their requirement that he should be in bed at
that hour.
His son, Mr. N.P. Lovering, now seventy-seven years of age, resides in
Boston, and is treasurer of the Connecticut and Passumpsic River
Railroad Company. To this gentleman, and to his grand-daughter, Mrs.
C.D. Bradlee, Boston, we are under obligation for the copy of a
photograph from Mr. Lovering's oil-painting of his father.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Was born in Boston, 1706; died in Philadelphia, in 1790, and was buried
in Christ Churchyard. A small marble slab, level with the ground, marks
the spot. "No monumental display for me," was his request as expressed
in his will.
Some years before his death he wrote his own epitaph. His usefulness to
his country during the Revolutionary period will warrant us in giving it
place in our "Tea Leaves:"
A.O.C.
The body of
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, PRINTER,
Like the cover of an old book,
its contents torn out,
And stript of its lettering and gilding,
Lies here, food for worms.
Yet the work itself shall not be lost,
For it will (as he believed) appear once more
in a new
and a more beautiful edition
corrected and amended
by the Author.
It is believed that Benjamin Franklin was made a Freemason in St. John's
Lodge, of Philadelphia, early in the year 1731. In 1734 he printed and
published the first Masonic book ever issued in America, being the work
known as "Anderson's Constitution of 1723." Copies are now exceedingly
rare, and readily sell for fifty dollars each. One is now in the library
of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, in an excellent state of
preservation.
SERENO D. NICKERSON,
_Recording Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Mass._
[Illustration: Signature, Benjamin Franklin]
"As a philosopher he ranks high. In his speculations he seldom lost
sight of common sense, or yielded up his understanding either to
enthusiasm or authority."--GOODRICH.
LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS.
LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS.
No. 1.
LETTER FROM MR. WILLIAM PALMER.
_To the Directors of the East India Company._[24]
Gentlemen: