He
Was
At
Bunker Hill
He Was
Wounded
At The
North Bridge
April 19, 1775
Home
of
Jonas Brown
Born Dec. 15, 1752
Died July 13, 1834
Bleeding
He Chased
The
Enemy
Nine Miles
He
Was
Ensign
and
Lieut.
Erected
in
1887
By
His Descendants
My husband told me about this marker quite a while ago, and recently, on a return trip to home from Concord, MA, we decided to stop. It was quite interesting, and even more so because of what is written on the back. (It is either in Carlisle or Concord, MA, and a quick check on FindAGrave showed it wasn't listed). Strange, considering his history, but soon I found a lot of information (see below), and learned that Jonas is buried in Temple, New Hampshire, See FindAGrave entry.
"Ensign
Jonas, eldest son of Thomas (3) and Mary (Flint)
Brown, was born at Concord, Mass.,
Dec. 15, 1752, and died at Temple,
N. H., July 13, 1834. He had a notable revolutionary record that is so
interesting that we give it in his own words. The statement was made Aug. 17,
1832, before the probate court, then sitting at Amherst, Hillsborough
county, N. H. Mr. Brown was seventy-nine years of age at the time, and the
statement was made to enable him to secure a pension, according to the act of Congress,
passed on June 7 of that year.
Mr. Brown stated that he entered the service of the United States: "That is to
say, from the 1st of January, 1775, to the 1st of May. I was enlisted as a minute man (being a native and resident of Concord,
Mass.), under Capt. Buttrick, of the Militia, trained twice a week, and with the rest of the company, kept guard most of
the time over the public stores, roads, and bridges in Concord. Early on the 19th of April, an alarm
was given that the enemy was coming from Boston to Concord, and our company
was paraded about daylight, and kept under arms most of the time, until the
enemy arrived, and destroyed military stores and provisions, and set a guard at
the Bridge, and I was ordered with othes, to rout them, which we did, when
several were killed on both sides, and the enemy retreated, and we pursued to
Menotomy (West Cambridge), had various skirmishing on the road, and I returned
to Concord. Capt. Buttrick went to Cambridge,
and several times sent for his company. I went twice or three times and
returned next day. On the 1st of May, 1775, I entered the service as a
corporal, under Capt. Abisha Brown, in the regiment commanded by Col. Jono.
Nickson, Lt. Col. Thomas Nickson, and Maj. Jno. Buttrick in the Massachusetts Line,
and served eight months at Cambridge, Charlestown, &c.; was in the battle
of Bunker Hill, on the 17th of June, and was dismissed 1st of January, 1776.
Again the militia was called for, and on the 1st of Feb., 1776, I enlisted as a volunteer for two months, under Capt. Asel Wheeler, in the Regiment, commanded
by Col. Jonathan Reed, in the Mass. Line, in the Brigade, destined for Canada, in
which Regt was Lt. Col. Brown and Major Fletcher. I marched from Concord to
Keene, N. H., thence by way of Charlestown, N. H., Otter Creek, and Shrewsbury,
Vt., where he took boats and went down Lake Champlain, to Ticonderoga, and
joined the army under Gen'ls Gates, Arnold and Waterbury, and Gen. Brickett of
Mass. was there. I was at Ticonderoga when Arnold
and Waterbury went down the Lake
with a fleet of gondolas (flat-boats) which were mostly destroyed. I remained
at Ticonderoga until about the middle of Dec. 1776, when I entered my name to
serve during the war, as a Lt. under Capt. Monroe, of Lexington,
Mass., and had leave to return to Concord, until called
for. I did so, and about the middle of March, I was called upon to take my
appointment as Lt. I obeyed the call, and went to the Capt., who told me there
were othes who would like to take my chance. I resigned it and was excused
from any further service, making eight months in which I was under orders as an
Ensign.
It is gratifying to know that the old veteran received an annual pension of
$117.33, rated from March 1831, though he lived only three years to enjoy
it.
Engisn Jonas Brown moved from Concord, Mass., to Temple,
N. H., in 1780, and the latter town was his home for more than half a century.
Aug. 10, 1784, Jonas Brown married Hannah, second daughter of Major Ephraim and
Sarah (Conant) Heald, who was the first female child born in Temple, N. H. Her birth occurred Dec. 2,
1761, not long after that of her cousin, Peter Heald, son of Deacon Peter, who
was the first male child born in Temple.
The Healds were long-time residents of Concord, Mass., being descended from John Heald, who came from Berwick, England,
and settled in Concord
as early as 1635. Ephraim Heald was a noted scout, hunter, and explorer of the
wilderness in Maine, N. H., and Mass.
Children:
1. Jonas, b. July 18, 1785, removed to Oppenheim,
New York, in 1838.
2. Charles, b. Aug. 16, 1787, married Lydia Woods and removed to Batavia, New York.
3. Ephraim, b. July 13, 1790, married Sarah King, of Wilton, N. H., where he died in 1840.
4. Lucas, b. Sept. 17, 1792, moved to Norridgewock,
Maine.
5. John, whose sketch follows.
6. Polly, b. Feb. 17, 1798, married Jeremiah Cutter, of Sebec, Maine.
7. Cyrus, b. Dec. 21, 1800, married Harriet Weston and moved to Bangor, Maine.
8. Thomas Buckley, b. March 16, 1803, married Martha Farnham, and moved to Bangor, Maine."
From: Genealogical and Family History
of the State of Maine
Compiled under the editorial supervision of George Thomas Little, A. M., Litt.
D.
Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York,
1909.
http://dunhamwilcox.net/me/me_bio_brown.htm
Transcribed
by Coralynn Brown
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