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Friday, February 8, 2013

Bleeding, He Chased The Enemy Nine Miles, Erected by the Descendants


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