Category: Southborough Veterans

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Robert L. Renaud (1925-1945) – He Lived & Died by the Words of His Graduation Speech

Robert L. Renaud  (1925-1945)

When you have an interest in history, sometimes a phone call can send you down a rabbit hole trying to find any information available about someone’s life. That is what happened when I got a call from Martha Boiardi asking if the Historical Society had a photo of Robert L, Renaud, a young man from Southborough who died in World War II.  A person in Amsterdam is trying to keep alive the memory of Americans who died fighting to free Europe, and had Robert Renaud’s name, a bit of information, but no photo. He had contacted Martha because she had posted the photo of Robert Renaud’s grave on Find-a-Grave. The internet does provide interesting ways of connecting. Martha’s request set off a search for a photo for the memorial in Amsterdam, but it also made me think that perhaps we here in Southborough should learn a little about this young man.

Robert L. Renaud was born in Hudson on June 30th 1925, the only child of Anna Salo, a Finnish immigrant, and her husband, Charles L. Renaud. The Renaud’s lived on Lincoln Street in Hudson.  Robert’s father worked at a shoe factory in Marlborough. His mother worked in Hudson for the Apsley Rubber Company which made gossamer, or rubber, clothing. According to the 1930 Federal Census she made tennis shoes.

The Renaud family moved to Southborough sometime after 1935. Charles, as did so many others in town, worked for Deerfoot Farm. They lived on Newton Street, so it is probable that he worked at the sausage factory. Robert excelled while attending the Southborough schools. At Peters High School he was president of the freshman class, managed the baseball and basketball teams during his sophomore year, was in the senior class play, and wrote for several school publications. Robert was salutatorian of the Peters High School Class of 1943. At graduation in June of 1943, he addressed his 19 fellow graduates, saying “Other years graduates have pondered over what careers they would follow, but this year we have only one choice, for all of us will have the same career – defending our own America against the aggressors who would rob us of the freedom guaranteed by the United States of America.” After summarizing the accomplishments of the “Builders of America” Robert concluded with the words “All of these men and many others, too numerous to mention, have been the builders of America. We wish now to preserve their work by defending America now and by giving to all future Americans the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

These were not empty words to Robert and many of his classmates. Robert enlisted in the Army Air Corps. By the fall of 1943, Robert was in South Carolina at Erskine College as part of one of the special training programs at colleges around the nation that produced “ninety-day wonders,”   officers trained quickly to fill the ranks of the rapidly expanding armed forces. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant upon completion of the training. After additional training in Nashville, Tennessee, he was stationed in England as a Navigator attached to 452nd Bomber Group, Heavy, 728th Bomber Squadron.

The people back in Southborough and at Peters High School followed his military career and that of many others. The high school publication had a section entitled Alumni News, most of which was filled with news from the young men in the service. Among the names which appeared were names still known in town: Bartolini, Noborini, Salmon, Maley, Finn, Staples, Bagley, Woodward, and Renaud. Robert sent home several articles to the high school publication he had headed while a student. The articles reflected his interest in the aircraft that played such an important role in the war. In an article that he authored, entitled “The P-40 Defends Itself,” he assumed the identity of the oft maligned P-40 fighter plane, and pointed out the P-40 was used in all theaters of the war. Another article that Robert shared was authored by Keith Ayling, and told the story of Reginald Mitchell, “The Man Who Saved Britain, the Creator of the Spitfire.” Robert seemed determined to make the people back home aware of the important role that air power was playing as the war unfolded.

2nd Lieutenant Robert Renaud was the navigator on board a B-17, part of the 728th Bomber Squadron, 452nd Bomber Group. On April 7th, 1945, his plane took off from Deopham Green, Norfolk, England on a mission to Kaltenkirchen, Germany, site of a Luftwaffe airbase. Before reaching its target, the plane came under attack by Messerschmitt 109 fighter planes that succeeded in disabling it and ultimately, according to other pilots, caused it to split in two and explode. Only two parachutes were seen. Seven of the ten crewmen, including Robert L. Renaud were listed as killed in action. Robert was two months shy of his twentieth birthday when he died.  On May 8th, 1945, just a month after Robert’s death, Germany surrendered. The 452nd Bomber Group played a key role in bringing about that surrender.

By the time of his death, his parents, Charles and Anna, had moved back to Hudson. It was there that they first received word that their only son was missing in action and later, confirmation that he had been killed. Robert’s grave is in Rural Cemetery here in Southborough, the town where he had spent much of his childhood. His father, Charles, died in 1992. His mother, Anna, died in 1995. They are buried alongside their son at Rural Cemetery.

We remember Robert L. Renaud on this, the 77th anniversary of his death.

Many thanks to Martha Boiardi whose phone call initiated the search for a photo of Robert Renaud and set me off on a path to learn more about him.  Martha also shared the information she had been able to uncover. A huge thanks to Patti Fiore who helped me find and dig through the many Peters High School publications where we found the photo, information, and some of Robert’s writings. She also worked her magic to make the photo as clear as possible.

 

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Remembering a Southborough Patriot on Memorial Day

On Memorial Day it seems appropriate to commemorate the life of one of the three men from Southborough died in the Revolutionary War. The last post was devoted to Jesse Amsden who was among the almost 2000 soldiers who died while at Valley Forge. The other two men who died during the Revolution were both members of the extensive Fay family. Major Josiah Fay and Private Joseph Fay. They were among over a dozen men from the Fay family who served from Southborough.

Major Josiah Fay

Josiah Fay was born in Westborough in 1731, the son of John and Hannah (Child) Fay.  John’s father died the year after his birth, leaving his mother with five young children. Two years later, she married Samuel Lyscom of Southborough whose wife had died the previous year leaving him with 7 children. Hannah and her new husband would have 3 additional children leaving the potential for 15 children in the Fay/Lyscom household. However, a 1738 document in the Worcester County Probate Court shows that for at least part of the time, Hannah’s children by John Fay of Westborough, including Josiah, were placed under the guardianship of his father’s cousin, John Fay of Southborough.  Another document shows that Josiah’s father’s estate was finally settled in 1746 with the disposal of his extensive land holdings of almost 200 acres in Westborough and Shrewsbury. Josiah’s share was valued at 196 pounds.

In 1755, during the French and Indian War, Josiah served first as a Sargent and then as a Lieutenant, in Captain John Taplin’s Militia Company. There were at least seven other men from Southborough who marched out with Captain Taplin’s Company in June 1755. In September, on their way to try to capture Crown Point, the colonial militia and British soldiers, were attacked and routed by a large force of French and Indians. Most retreated safely back to Fort William Henry, but Josiah’s 1st cousin once removed, John Fay Jr., the son of his former guardian, was killed in the attack.

Upon returning to Southborough, Josiah married Mary Bent in 1758. They had nine children including two sets of twins. All of their children reached adulthood except for one of the twins who died in 1773 at age 15. Josiah Fay was very active in town and regional politics. He served several terms as a selectman. Having fought alongside the British, he was nonetheless alarmed as the British government began to tighten regulations and introduce new taxes in the colonies. He was chosen to be a member of Southborough’s Committee of Correspondence, part of the network that was set up to keep towns abreast of the actions of the British government and the reactions of the colonial governments. He also led the Southborough militia which was training regularly in preparation for any actions the British might take. The militia was not only training, but was also stockpiling ammunition in the town powder-house that was located in the burial ground. In 1774, in reaction to the Intolerable Acts that the British had imposed as punishment for the Boston Tea Party, the town passed a non-importation resolution agreeing to boycott British goods. In January 1775, Josiah Fay was elected as Southborough’s representative to the Massachusetts Provincial government.

When one of the many riders sent out by the committees of correspondence network to alert towns that the British were marching toward Concord to confiscate weapons and ammunition stored there reached Southborough early in the morning of April 19, 1775, the Southborough militia companies responded quickly.  As Captain of the Southborough militia, Josiah commanded one of the militia companies that answered the alarm.  He served for five days.  In May 1775, he was commissioned by the Massachusetts Provincial Congress as a Captain in the regiment initially commanded by General Artemas Ward and later by Colonel Jonathan Ward.  Officially designated the 21st Massachusetts Regiment, it was generally known as Ward’s Regiment. Captain Elijah Fay’s company of 32 men took part in the siege of Boston that lasted about eleven months. The siege included time on Dorchester Heights, the Roxbury Guard, and Bunker Hill. Shortly after the British evacuated Boston on March 17, 1776, the Continental Army, including Captain Josiah Fay and Ward’s Regiment, marched south to New York where Josiah Fay’s service was rewarded with a promotion to Major.

Back home in Southborough, a town meeting held on June 10, 1776 voted to support independence if the Continental Congress decided on such a course of action. Josiah Fay and the army in New York City would learn that the Continental Congress had finally declared the independence of the United States on July 4th, 1776. In Southborough, where the idea of independence had wide support, Josiah’s family heard the Reverend Stone read a copy of the Declaration of Independence from the pulpit on a Sunday in mid-July. That copy of the Declaration of Independence is at the Southborough Historical Society Museum. In New York, many people did not share Southborough’s enthusiastic support for independence. The Continental Army found itself faced with opposition from loyalists who did not agree with the idea of separating from England. On August 8, 1776, Major Josiah Fay died after his food was poisoned by a loyalist.

Josiah’s widow Mary was left with their eight surviving children ranging in age from 19-year-old Josiah to 5-year-old Alpheus. From surviving evidence, we can conclude that Mary was a strong, capable woman. She was made administratix of Josiah’s estate. From 1777 until 1793 she was listed as a voter for Southborough Town Meetings. Mary survived her husband by 57 years, dying in 1833. The final value of her estate was $2000 (about $64,000 today.)  When her son Peter, a lawyer, died just six weeks after his mother, the man who was appointed administrator of Mary’s estate was none other than Larkin Newton, the school teacher turned lawyer who would later be suspected of defrauding Revolutionary War veteran widow Lovisa Amsden. (Blog of April 17th)

Mary Fay is buried in the Old Burial Ground. Her tombstone includes that she is the “Widow of Major Josiah Fay who died in the continental army in the City of New York August 8, 1776.”  Josiah Fay was buried in New York City, possibly in the St. Paul’s churchyard.

We owe much to the three Southborough men who died during the American War for Independence: Jesse Amsden, Joseph Fay, and Josiah Fay as we remember them on Memorial Day.

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Patriotism & Scandal in Southborough! A Post for Patriot’s Day

By Sally Watters

When Michael asked me to take a more active role in writing for this website, I knew I had big shoes to fill. With Patriots Day approaching my plan was to try to learn something about the Revolutionary War veterans who are buried in the Old Burial Ground. In a sense, I wanted to try to put a little flesh on their bones so they would be more than just names. It seemed appropriate to start with the three men from Southborough who had died during the Revolutionary War.

I decided to begin with Jesse Amsden. It is difficult to find a great deal of information about someone who has been dead for almost 250 years. As I began to do research, I discovered that not only had the Amsden family lost the family patriarch, but that four of his sons also joined in the fight for American independence. The family paid a high price for its patriotism. Sadly, I also discovered that preying on the elderly, defrauding the government and government red tape are nothing new. What started as a project to try to learn about Jesse Amsden ended up as the story of five Revolutionary War veterans from the Amsden family. And I have not even gotten to the other two Southborough men who died during the war or the dozens of other Southborough veterans of the Revolutionary War who deserve attention.

Jesse Amsden

Jesse Amsden was born in 1729, the youngest of John and Hannah Howe Amsden’s thirteen children. Jesse was the only one of the thirteen children born in Southborough. His eight brothers and four sisters were all born in Marlborough.  The family had not moved, but town lines had when, in 1727, the Stony Brook region of Marlborough was granted permission by the General Court of Massachusetts to form the new Town of Southborough. Jesse’s father John was among the men who had petitioned the state asking that Stony Brook be allowed to separate from Marlborough. John served as a selectman in the newly established town and was a deacon of the church. In 1748, Jesse married Southborough resident Bette Ball with whom he had seven sons and five daughters. When hostilities broke out with England, it did not take Jesse long to become involved.  He served as a Private in Captain Ezekiel Knowlton’s Company of Colonel Nicholas Dike’s Massachusetts Infantry Regiment at Dorchester Heights from December 15th 1776 until March 1st 1777.

In May of 1777, shortly before his 48th birthday, Jesse was recruited by Captain Aaron Haynes of Sudbury to enlist in the Continental Army. He was paid a bounty of $20 for enlisting. Jesse was assigned to Captain Haynes Company in the 13th Massachusetts Regiment/6th Continental Regiment under the command of Colonel Edward Wigglesworth. Jesse joined the regiment in July of 1777. Although several of his children were adults at the time of his departure for the Continental Army, his wife Bette was left with seven children at home who ranged in age from 16 to 2. The $20 bounty had probably been an enticing incentive to help with family expenses. Six months after joining the regiment, Jesse died on January 9th, 1778 at Valley Forge. The cause of death was listed as sickness. Jesse was most likely buried in one of the towns near Valley Forge where the sick soldiers were sent. He is not buried in Southborough. His widow Bette seems to disappear from the record books after his death, but several of his children can be tracked.

Jonas and Ephraim Amsden

Four of Jesse’s sons also joined the military during the Revolutionary War. His oldest son Jonas answered the Lexington Alarm of April 19th, 1775. He was a Drummer for Captain Elijah Bellow’s militia company which served for sixteen days. Ephraim, Jesse and Bette’s next son, also answered the Lexington Alarm as a Private in Captain Josiah Fay’s Company which served for five days. Shortly after that service, Ephraim, then a Corporal in Captain Fay’s Company in the regiment commanded by Colonel Jonathan Ward, served from August 1st through October 7th, 1775 at Dorchester Heights.  Ephraim, who died in 1819, is buried in an unmarked grave in the Old Burial Ground (OBG). His widow Martha died in 1834 and is also buried in an unmarked grave in the OBG. Jonas Amsden and his wife Hannah moved to Mason, NH after the war and are not buried in the Southborough.

John and Silas Amsden

In March 1781, two of Jesse and Bette’s sons, 18-year-old John and 17-year-old Silas, enlisted in the Continental Army. Silas was described as being 5 feet 11 inches tall with a light complexion. Silas was a Private in Captain John Nutting’s Company in Colonel Job Cushing’s 2nd Massachusetts Regiment. He was discharged in September 1783 after being injured when a load of wood that he was transporting for the garrison at West Point ran over his leg. His knee never healed correctly, leaving him disabled.  In April of 1793, Silas Amsden began receiving a pension of $60 a year because of his disability. Silas married Sarah Hemenway of Framingham. In 1797, Silas died in Framingham at the age of 33. The settlement of his estate shows that he was heavily in debt when he died. His creditors were awarded 4 cents on the dollar. Silas is not buried in the OBG. In 1797, the same year that Silas died, his brother John named his newborn son Silas.

John Amsden, described as 5 feet 7 inches tall and of fair complexion, served in Captain Elnathan Haskell’s Company in the regiment commanded by Colonel William Shepard’s. At least part of his service was spent working for the Quartermaster General obtaining supplies. in January 1784 he was discharged by General Henry Knox in New York with the rank of Sargent. Shortly after returning to Southborough, he married Lovisa Bellows. Like his brother Silas, John did not prosper after the war. John and Lovisa had eight children, only three of whom reached adulthood.

In 1819, John applied for a veteran’s service pension stating in his affidavit that he was disabled. He also stated that his three children were sickly and incapable of doing more than light work. An inventory of his possessions at that time showed he owned only three acres of land and had very few personal possessions. He was granted a pension, but after his death in 1827, his widow Lovisa had no means of support. By 1834, both Lovisa and her oldest son, John, had been admitted to the Southborough poorhouse.

The Struggle for a Widow’s Pension

When Congress passed a law in 1836 making the widows of Revolutionary War veterans eligible for pensions, a local man, Larkin Newton, stepped up to help Lovisa apply for a pension. In 1817, early in his career, Larkin Newton had been the school master for the west school district of Southborough. He angered some parents when he severely whipped two students.  As a result of the whippings, a special town meeting was called and Mr. Newton was warned to limit his use of physical punishment. The following school year he had moved to the center school district in Southborough where he faced continued concern about his harsh disciplinary methods. He gave up teaching the next year.

From 1837 until his death in 1840, Larkin Newton served as an overseer of the poorhouse. In that position, he was very aware of the poverty faced by Lovisa Amsden and her son John, volunteering to help Lovisa with her application for a widow’s pension. Larkin Newton began to assemble the necessary documents but ran into a problem when no record of John and Lovisa’s marriage could be found. Under the Pension Act of 1836, the widow had to have been married to the veteran while he was still in the military. Larkin Newton submitted statements from several people, including Lovisa’s 85-year-old sister Lucretia Wood of Sherborn, that they were aware of John and Lovisa’s marriage and thought it had taken place in 1782. The pension was approved and by March 1840 the government had sent a total of $720 (about $22,000 today) which included back payments. The very trusting, nearly blind and illiterate Lovisa had placed her X on several documents when requested to do so by Larkin Newton.

A second Pension Act was passed in 1838 allowing pensions for widows who had married a veteran by 1794.  Lovisa maintained that she and John had been married in 1784 just after John was discharged from the military, thereby making her eligible for a pension under the 1838 act. Larkin Newton, who had died in September 1840, had told her that under the Pension Act of 1836 she was not eligible to receive a pension. It took several years before people realized that Lovisa had been defrauded by Mr. Newton.  Lydia Bellows of Shrewsbury, John’s sister, asked Elijah Clark, a Justice of the Peace who worked to help obtain pensions, to help her brother’s widow Lovisa get a pension.

When Clark corresponded with the War Department, he was shocked to learn that she had already received a pension under the Pension Act of 1836. Lovisa was also surprised. She maintained that she had never received any money from a pension. As documents were assembled and reviewed, people began to suspect that Larkin Newton had forged a number of the documents including one from the Southborough Town Clerk listing the births of Lovisa’s nine children. Her oldest child was listed as Jonathan, born in 1783. The only problem was that Jonathan was a figment of Larkin Newton’s imagination, created in an attempt to show that John and Lovisa had been married before John left the military. In reality, John and Lovisa had only eight children, the oldest of whom was William, born in 1785. Numerous statements from such leading Southborough citizens as Swain Parker, Sullivan Fay and Joel Burnett were sent to the government attesting to the good character of Lovisa, and opining that she would never have tried to defraud the government. Joel Burnett, the town clerk in 1843, sent a statement to the War Department that several old documents dating between 1779 and 1789, had been found in a hitherto misplaced chest.

Among the documents was a paper showing the intentions of marriage for John and Lovisa dated July 1784. That helped establish their marriage, but at the same time created a problem. The government demanded the money that had already been distributed be returned because it had been granted under the Pension Act of 1836 under which she was ineligible. That act required the widow to have been married to the veteran while he was in the military and John and Lovisa’s marriage had taken place after he was discharged.   Lovisa’s champions pointed out that whereas she had not been eligible under the Pension Act of 1836, she was eligible under the Pension Act of 1838 so would have received the money anyway.

The government had stopped payments in 1840 when Larkin Newton died so was no longer sending in the necessary paperwork. Lovisa’s supporters thought that at the very least, Lovisa should receive payments from 1840 forward.  Lovisa Amsden died in 1846 still a resident in the town poorhouse, without ever receiving any of the widow’s pension to which she was entitled. Her only surviving child, John, attempted to collect the money to which his mother had been entitled. The dispute was still under advisement in 1851, but it appears that the matter was never resolved. John and Lovisa’s son John died in the town poorhouse in 1863. John, the Revolutionary War veteran, and his widow Lovisa are buried in unmarked graves in the Old Burial Ground as are several of their children.

The story of Larkin Newton’s teaching is found in Fences of Stone by Nick Noble.

 

 

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Disagreement Brews in the Old Burial Ground

The occupants of the Old Burial Ground have seen their share of conflict and dissent, and it looks like a new round is about to open above them.

Over the last several weeks, the Southborough Historical Commission (which I head) has received a number of complaints about the flags flying in the old burial ground.

A little background: at some point in the 1990’s, a group of veterans decided it would be appropriate to commemorate those who had served the fledgling United States with a special memorial. Later in 2002, a large plaque was added marking the death of the three men who died during combat. And at some point after that (the timeline is very unclear) six revolutionary-era battle flags were placed in a semi-circle at the entrance to the Old Burial Ground.

And that’s pretty much how it stood until recently when a number of residents contacted the Commission objecting to the fact that one of the flags flying was the Gadsden Flag, which over the last decade has recently been co-opted by various White Supremacists groups (You can read more about that HERE, HERE,    HERE, and HERE. The trigger, I am guessing, was the very prominent and disgraceful role that the Gadsden flag played in the recent Capital Hill riots.

 

In response to these complaints the SHC decided to do a little investigating in preparation for a report to the Board of Selectmen, who have ultimate say in this matter.

The flags currently flying are these:

The Culpepper Minuteman flag from Virginia
The  Gadston Flag from SC; with another a similar variant
The Bunker Hill Flag (with the tree)
The Moultrie flag, again from SC
The Bedford Flag

 

Grand Union Flag - WikipediaOf these, only two have anything vaguely to do with the veterans buried there, and the most relevant flag, the Continental Colors flag hoisted by George Washington in Cambridge 1775 , is not flying at all.

The other issue, and to my eyes, equally relevant, is that these six small flags are impaling the unmarked gravesites below. When this monument was conceived in the 1990s, a ground-radar survey hadn’t yet been conducted by the Society, which proved conclusively that this area is full of active burials, whose headstones were shattered or lost during the 1938 hurricane.

>So at this point, it seemed a prudent move to reconsider the whole matter, and the Historical Commission voted 6-0 last week to send the following letter to the Board of Selectmen:

Ladies and Gentlemen,
As we have already alerted you, the Historical Commission has received complaints about the choice of flags flying the Old Burial Ground. Particularly egregious to many are the two variants of the Gadsden flag, which was designed by a slave owning South Carolinian and has become linked to white supremacist groups including the Ku Klux Klan. These associations are not new; many date back to the 1960s. You may also wish to read this recent article in the Miami Herald by Harvard Professor Noah Feldman noting that the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has called for “a careful investigation to see whether recent uses of the flag have been sufficiently “racially tinged” that it could count as harassment.”

Last night, the SHC voted 6-0 to urge the BOS to undertake an immediate review of these flags, with an aim to:
1) moving the current semi-circle of flags out of the actual burial area to preserve the integrity of those buried beneath the poles. The current poles are actually piercing the unmarked graves below.
2) removing flags of the South Carolina and Virginia regiments that carry such negative associations to people of color, and replacing them with flags that actually represent the veterans buried there. 
The Historical Commission has done considerable research as to which flags would be appropriate for the period and to the individual buried veterans involved, and would be happy to share that guidance with you if requested. 
Cordially, 
Michael Weishan, Chair
Southborough Historical Commission 

 

It seems this letter, combined with our earlier outreach directly to the veterans responsible for the care and upkeep of the site, sparked some “white hot rhetoric” (to quote BOS Chair Marty Healey) directed at the Board of Selectmen from people who feel that any changes to the flags are akin to desecration and disrespect. Personally, I don’t agree. If this were South Carolina and these flags were actually part of Southborough history, it would be a different story. But we aren’t in South Carolina and these aren’t our banners (and thankfully not our history), and given that these symbols have taken on a very ominous meaning for some of our residents, there his no historically justifiable reason to provoke residents who feel strongly on this matter. (And personally, I would like to see these flags moved to positions that don’t stab into the buried dead regardless.)

 

So what do you think? Feel free to comment below. (Note, unlike mysouthborough, we don’t allow anonymous postings, so you have to have the public courage of your convictions.)  Also, one of our high-school students has started, on her own initiative, a petition directed at the BOS to have the Gadsden flag removed. If you agree, you can sign it HERE.  At writing, it was half-way to its 100-person target.
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The Flag Returns

After a year-long restoration, the Buck Civil War flag has finally returned to Southborough!

William E. Buck, for whom our flag was made, was born in 1841 in Westborough. He lived with his parents Edwin and Susan Rice Buck, and his younger brother Edgar, on a farm in Southborough. On December 2, 1861 William enlisted in company I, Massachusetts 20th Infantry Regiment, where he was recorded to be 5 feet 6 1/2 inches tall, with gray eyes and brown hair.  No other details or images exist.

What is known is that the 20th Massachusetts was involved in many battles throughout the Civil War and sustained the fifth highest number of casualties of all the regiments in the Union Army. William Buck saw action at the Battle of Fair Oaks and the Battle of Malvern Hill, before being shot in the head on September 17th, 1862 at the Battle of Antietam. He was taken to the Broad Street military hospital in Philadelphia where he succumbed to his wounds on September 28th, 1862, and was briefly interred. The Southborough recruiting agent traveled to Philadelphia to accompany William Buck’s body back to Southborough, where he was reburied with full military honors on November 3rd at the Rural Cemetery.

Dead bodies line the road in front of the Dunker Church during the battle of Antietam

William Buck was twenty-one years old when he died and had not married.  He had no direct descendants.

The newly restored Buck Flag returns to the reading & research area of the Museum

The flag came into the possession of the Southborough Historical Society in 2007 when the town library transferred a number of historical items to the  society. When one of the bags was opened, it was discovered to contain a flag in extremely poor condition. That the handmade flag with its 34 cut-out stars had the name Buck written in ink on the band, led to the conclusion that it was sewn in honor of William Buck in 1862,  probably by members of his own family. Its vertical alignment and size (9’x6′) suggests it was intended to cover Buck’s casket before burial. One can only imagine the agonizing mix of pride and despair that must have accompanied the creation of this flag.

But how did it end up at the library?

Edwin Buck, the father of William Buck, was one of three sons of Charles and Lucy Warren Buck. His niece, Francena (Fanny) Buck, was born in 1850 in Southborough.  She would have been twelve when her older cousin William’s body was returned to Southborough for burial and may have helped make the flag to honor him. Fanny Buck became the Southborough librarian in 1882 or 1883, serving in that position for thirty years. She died in 1928 and is also buried at the Rural Cemetery.  Given the flag’s wear, it is likely that it was hung for a while outside at the Buck homestead, which was taken down in the 1890s for the building of the reservoir. Perhaps when the flag was removed, Fanny took possession of her cousin’s flag and later displayed it at the library. Then after her death, its significance was forgotten. Someone stuffed the flag into an old paper bag and it lay buried at the bottom of a closet for nearly 90 years.

Today, thanks to monies from the Community Preservation Fund, and the skilled efforts of the team at Museum Textile Services, the Buck flag can be seen for the first time in almost a century, a moving memorial to a young man of 21, who gave his life to preserve the Union.

(Thanks to our new VP, Sally Watters, for the genealogical research above.)