The Owen Soldiers' Monument
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Mr. Benjamin T. Owen, the donor, was born in North Scituate, January 29, 1848. Several of the men who are named on the Monument were his school-fellows. Eseck Brown, his mother's father served in the Revolutionary War. He was descended from Chad Brown, John Sayles and Roger Williams—first settlers of Rhode Island. In 1862 he moved to Providence and studied at Bridgham School. At the age of 16 he went to the trade of marble cutter and has been engaged in the work of making monuments for over 40 years. The statue is cut by hand from Westerly Granite. The base of Millstone Granite was prepared by Mr. Henry Gardiner, Millstone. Ct. On the North base of the monument under the last name is inscribed, "A. D. 1913, Presented to the Town by B. T. Owen." The verse on the front was adapted from one found by Mr. Owen on the stone of Edwin G. Collins at Centerdale, a soldier killed at Atlanta. The verse reads: "Rest Soldier, in thine honored grave,
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The Monument was dedicated at North Scituate Wednesday afternoon, August 20, 1913. It is the gift of Mr. Benjamin T. Owen of Providence. The Land was contributed by the Congregational Church Society at a meeting called September 17, 1912. It was land bought by the Society from John D. Cranston, December 28, 1855 for $75. The Town Council accepted the land on November 14, 1912 and agreed to grade and cope or fence it and give it suitable and perpetual care for the Monument alone. The men of the Committee that did much to bring Mr. Owen's offer to the notice of the Church and have been efficient in directing the arrangements with the Council, and in setting the Monument were Julius E. Thielsen, Frank F. Brown and Willis W. Fiske. Charles A. Tucker rendered valuable service in preparing the list of names for the monument and in the dedication. He was assisted by James Penfield, Asel Peck, Raymond M. Tucker and Stephen B. Randall. The Scituate Old Home Day was the occasion of the Dedication. Rev. Gilbert B. Cutler presided. Rev. Gideon A. Burgess offered prayer. Hundreds of people were in attendance. The Glenford Cornet Band made sweet music. The Addresses were by Rev. Gideon A. Burgess and Col. Daniel R. Ballou. There were songs by the Children; speaking by Miss Helen Moore, niece of Mr. Benjamin T. Owen. When at the closing of Col. Ballou's Address the bugler blew the blast, Vivien and Evelyn Tucker and Dorothy E. Moore pulled the cord; the flag fell and the beautiful soldier statue with its pedestal bearing the honor roll appeared amid the cheers of the multitude. Dr. Charles K. Clarke accepted the gift and responsibility for the Town Council. The Sculptor, Mr. Edwin G. King of Westerly was introduced. Mr. Owen said "I have been pleased to give this monument to the town. I hope it will teach patriotism. I hope the young will especially notice the verse upon the base." The Rev. Searles B. Young pronounced the Benediction. |
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REV. GIDEON A. BURGESS, D.D., SPOKE AS FOLLOWS: The Presidents of this nation from Lincoln to Roosevelt were tempered in war. War is hell in its rending flesh and spirting [sic ] blood and putrid sores. But there grows on the crimsoned turf flowers, and on bleeding hearts the love of comrades, and many a soldier counts life cheap to give his wounded messmate a drink of water on the field. War is terrible, but it clears the air, cures stagnation, levels the classes, exalts the ideal about the material—wastes wealth prodigally. The drop of blood out weighs [sic] the ton of gold, and the crimson tide of pain sweeps away the fastidious lace and glint of Society's finery. War is like the sobriety of his own dying to a man. Amid the lurid glare of war men see things in true perspective, and all know for the time right proportions and real values. This old church has given a piece of its village green in trust to the town for this monument to the old soldiers and as custodian of the church, I have been asked to voice the thoughts that are in hundreds of hearts here to-day. I would like to recount the experience of the soldiers fifty years ago. In the first startling news that Fort Sumpter [sic] was fired upon, they had their bugle call to service. President Lincoln pled for 100,000 three months' men to put down the strife. Thrice that number sprang to the musket. From Governor to the last leading man in each town-ship they called to arms. There was the tramping to fife and drum, the hurried farewells, the rush to the front. The long, long night of whispered excitement, and the car-rumble and jerk, when at last the soldier boy realized that home had been left and the welling tears were quenched by fitful sleep. There were the weeks of tenting up near the front, and the first feverish waiting on the firing line and the first shot at long range at a man; the answer back and the first comrade stricken at your side and the dead cold faces turned up to the silvery moon on that night in arms on the battle field. I would live with some on the long cruel marches and sleep beside them in the bed of mud; with others, I would taste the burning fever and the agony of the hospital bed. To this one the going forth was speeding to the home on high. To that one it was trudging with measured tread through half a dozen states, over rivers and up mountains, mid shot and shell and screeching bullet, always on with the charmed life and countless hardships. It was the song. "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp the Boys are Marching, Cheer up Comrades they will Come." "In the Prison cell I sit thinking Mother dear of you, and my bright and happy home so far away." And, "Just before the battle mother, I was thinking most of you," or "John Brown's body" and "Marching through Georgia," and occasionally "The Star Spangled Banner," "My Country 'tis of thee" when thousands of men, these in blue and those in gray, with the silver throat of the cornet and the hoarse human throat would roll the patriotic jubilee of praise up to the God of love. The stimulating fraternity of spirit comes from those who attempt great things together. Expressions of idealism and a keen sense of humor and the warmth of ingcomradeship [sic] kept those myriad men alive through that long war of brothers—brothers who loved the common country and the same Father God. And each side fought and prayed and the country was welded and the slave freed, while humanity and christianity and civilization too, took a leap up. This was the compensation for the awful sacrifice. And we come here after 50 years to place this monument to the men slain in conflict. Many a name is not on this shaft, who actually suffered. Some came home to ache for years till the end came, others halted on a sore foot, while some stretched forth a handless arm. The names of these are on the roll of the government though not here. The dear old friend who placed this granite for them knows what they deserved. He has done what he could. It is a beautiful gift. God bless him and all who loved them. This shaft is graced by art as it is resplendent with love, I am reminded of the words of Daniel Webster as he graced with his eloquence the founding of Bunker Hill monument, "If it had been for no other purpose than the creation of a work of art, the granite of which it is composed would have slept in its native bed. It has a purpose and that purpose gives it character. That well known purpose it is which causes us to look up to it with a feeling of awe." It commemorates the dead hallowed by a conflict and victory which becomes bigger seen through the perspective of the retreating centuries. The words of Edward Everett over the Pilgrim Fathers come to me, "These rough touches of fortune brushed off the light, uncertain, selfish spirits; they made it a grave solemn, self-denying expedition, and required of those who engaged in it to be so too." Yes: here let it stand beside the Church, whose teachings brought the conflict. It is a sermon in granite against slavery, and greed. It commemorates those who counted not their lives dear unto death for their country. Here hand in hand let religion stand with patriotism, till the day dawn and this land and all other lands realize the Kingdom of Jesus Christ on Earth—the cross and the sword being intertwined—mystically and mysteriously to spell BROTHERHOOD. |
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COL. DANIEL R. BALLOU PRESENTED THE MONUMENT TO THE
TOWN IN BEHALF OF THE DONOR, AS FOLLOWS:
The great public should not fail to honor the memories of the heroic dead, by erecting enduring monuments and memorials of stone and of bronze, that shall fittingly perpetuate the deeds and achievements of the soldiers of the Union, together with the personalities not only of the great leaders of the civil war but of the common soldier, that the lessons of their lives and their deeds may not be lost to the coming generations. Had the Union armies met with defeat who can reasonably predict that human freedom would not have received so crushing a blow as to have prevented its restoration in government for at least five hundred years? It would have destroyed the hope of the world in government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." The semi-centennial reunions of the 2000 military organizations of the civil war being held to celebrate its semi-centennial events are awakening the American people as never before to both its magnitude and to a knowledge of what it meant to them, to their country, and to civilization. These celebrations promise to bring the Union soldier into his own and to give him his place of honor in the great family of the Nation, to which he is justly entitled though long delayed. During these celebrations a soldier is dying every ten minutes. When these anniversaries are over, in 1915 two hundred thousand soldiers will have fought their last battle with death,—and lost. Ten years from now only a few infirm and worn stragglers will be left. While I shall be speaking to you a veteran who wore the blue or the gray will be dying,—150 every twenty-four hours, 4500 a month, or more than 50,000 a year. To-day their ages range from a little under 70 to 90 years. An ingenious writer has interestingly illustrated the magnitude of the civil war by figures and comparisons of the number of men engaged in it with the numbers engaged in the various great wars and battles of history. He says, "If as in the olden times, in the armies of Saul and David, or in those of Hannibal and of Caesar, the fighting forces of the American Civil War had been assembled on one broad plain to come to a decision in one mighty battle, it would have made one continuous battle line of nearly 1700 miles." The government records give a list of 2261 engagements in which life was lost, which, with minor actions and skirmishes, brings the total to 6800. The writer referred to says, "If you were to journey over these battle grounds it would take you more than twenty-five thousand miles back and forth through nearly all the great states of the South, requiring many months." The war lasted 1500 days, with an average of nearly two battles a day, and a mortality, from all causes, of nearly 400 every twenty-four hours, nearly 17 every hour, or one every three and a half minutes." Recent investigations show that the total enrollments of both the Federal and Confederate armies were 3,500,000, including re-enlistments, or an approximate strength of 3,000,000 soldiers. Thirty armies of the magnitude of that with which Alexander the Great undertook to conquer the whole world could have been gathered from the ranks of the American Civil War. Three armies greater than that under Von Moltke in the Franco-Prussian War could have been mustered from the volunteers in the American Civil War. William The Conqueror waged his conquest of England with armies inferior in strength to Grant's at Shiloh, Pope's at Bull Run, Bragg's at Chickamauga, or Meade's at Gettysburg. At Waterloo, that great battle on whose luckless field Napoleon's star of destiny went down forever, the combined armies were a hundred thousand less than the citizen soldiers sent to battle from the state of New York, during the American Civil War. On the battle field of the American Civil War it is estimated that from 600,000 to 1,000,000 human lives were sacrificed by death in battle, disease, or by being permanently disabled; a loss in the havoc of battle not exceeded by the world's wars, except in the Napoleonic, which lasted nineteen years. The war ended, but not the animosities and hates engendered by the long continued struggle. The Union verteran [sic] for many years flaunted the bloody shirt and the Confederate veteran hurled back defiance, with the politicians egging it on. It remained for the Union veteran notwithstanding, to do a service for his country equalled only by that in the field, in smoothing the way for full reconcilation [sic]. He has now for many years been earnest in tendering to his former foes overtures of peace. The consummation of his efforts seems to have been reached when the grizzled veterans in gray, on the semi-centennial celebration of the Titanic struggle of July, 1863, at Gettysburg, formed on ground over which the gallant Pickett led his dauntless veterans on their famous but vain assault on Cemetery Hill and charged again upon the boys in blue, but not to be riddled, torn and ground to pieces by flying missles [sic] of death, but to be received in open arms by one time mortal foes, but now fellow countrymen and brothers. If God, fifty years ago when the army of Lee fled from the bloody scenes of its defeat at Gettysburg cried out from His throne on high "Vengence [sic] is mine," the angels in heaven must, as they looked down upon this scene of mutual forgiveness and affectionate good will, sung a might chorus of hosannas. Perhaps, who knows, that disembodied spirits of the dead of both blue and gray waved banners and cheered. That great prophet of humanity and man of visions [sic], Abraham Lincoln, in his prayers for Divine assistance says that he "told God that the war was His, and without His help it must fail." These men fought for righteousness, entitling them while living to be bountifully rewarded, and in death to be honored. God never meant that men, in whatever capacity He might call them into His service, should go unrewarded in this life, and He will hold that nation or that people responsible whom He shall name for the discharge of such duty if they shall fail in its doing. The poet Longfellow has touchingly pointed out the true spirit in which that duty should be met, in a little sonnet addressed to a Union soldier occupying an unknown grave at Newport News, Virginia, marked "A Soldier of the Union, mustered out." In thy forgotten grave, with secret shame I feel my pulses beat, my forehead burns When I remember thou hast given for me All that thou hadst; thy life, thy very name; And I can give thee nothing in return." This town is fortunate in having a friend, a former citizen, who, in appreciation of the patriotic services of the young men who enlisted from Scituate in the civil war, has generously caused to be erected at his own expense a splendid memorial statue to the memory of those of the number who were either killed or who died of wounds or disease while serving in the Union armies. Benjamin T. Owen, born in North Scituate and living there at the outbreak of the civil war, but now of Providence, is the donor to his native town of this beautiful statue, sculptured from Rhode Island granite, which represents a light artilleryman of the period of the civil war. A number of young men of North Scituate, his seniors in age, but with many of whom he enjoyed a familiar acquaintance, enlisted soon after the opening of hostilities in 1861. A number of these enlisted in the artillery arm of the service. Their departure to the front, together with the finding by some of them of a soldier's grave, and the return of others bearing wounds received in battle, made a deep impression on his mind, which has continued all these years since the war, ripening into a strong sentiment of respect for the surviving veterans and also of gratitude and reverence for the memory of those who were killed in battle or died of wounds or disease. Those with whom he had a personal acquaintance were plain country boys, most of them employed in the cotton factory or about the village of North Scituate, nearly all descendants of old Rhode Island families. I have not the time to mention all, but their names appear on the pedestal of the statue. The following list is of those who gave their lives to their country and whom he knew personally, namely: Lemuel A. Green [sic] of Battery E, |killed at Warrenton Junction, Virginia; R. Palmer [sic] Taylor, killed before Petersburg, Virginia; Albert N. Colwell of Battery E, killed at Chancellorsville; Thomas Potter of Battery E, died of disease contracted in service; John Colvin of Battery E, died of disease contracted in service; Crawford H. [sic] Sayles of Battery E, died of wounds; James C. Nichols of 2d R. I. Infantry, killed at Salem Heights, Virginia; Charles H. Kimball, died of disease contracted in service at Knoxville, Tennessee; Pitts S. Winsor, 2d R. I. Infantry, killed at Salem Heights, Virginia; Samuel W. Wright, 2d R. I. Infantry, killed at Salem Heights, Virginia. The service of most of these boys in Battery E, R. I. Light Artillery suggested this Statue as a memorial. I fell that it will not be making an individious [sic] distinction if I mention one of the factory boys of North Scituate who enlisted early in the war, but who survived its perils, becoming distinguished later in civil life and reflecting honor upon his native town and state. If I should be called upon to mention Scituate's three greatest men I should say Stephen Hopkins, James B. Angell and Alonzo Williams. His career was brilliant and his character above reproach. Briefly his record stands. Alonzo Williams, of 3d R. I. Heavy Artillery, served as private during the war. Lineal descendant of Roger Williams; mill boy; patriot soldier, bearing at time of his death unhealed wounds received in the service of his country; scholar; accomplished linguist, educator; orator; whose silvery tongue never ceased while he lived to sing beatitudes in exaltation of the services and deeds of his comrades in arms. The donor of this beautiful statue, moved by the impressions received more than half a century ago, regarding the patriotic action of these boyhood acquaintances, has long had in contemplation the purpose of erecting a suitable memorial in commemoration of the patriotic services and deeds of Scituate's soldier dead. His patriotic purpose has found expression in this statue of an artilleryman standing beside a dismounted gun, representing a composite likeness, it may be said, of his former soldier friends. It is a generous gift, of significant educational value. Its mute lips speak a language of devotion, of faithfulness, of obedience, honor and self-sacrifice. I have stood with uncovered head and looked upon the tattered and stained battle flags and guidons now safely sheltered within the walls of our lordly state capitol, a few of them at one time borne by the soldiers of R. I. in the battles of the Revolution, but most of them by R. I. boys in the great battles of the Civil War, and have fancied I could hear the tramp of marching columns, the din and clamor of battle, the hoarse cries of command, and see the colors borne by dauntless hands far in advance and the men gallantly pressing forward amid the withering fire of hurtling shot and singing bullets, steadily lining up to them for a bloody struggle. It was but a momentary illusion, and my eyes rested again only on torn, stained and tattered flags. The poet in his imagination has yet more vividly portrayed the weird vision: They tell each other their tale of fight; And dim specters come, and their thin arms twine Round each standard torn, as they stand in line, As the word is given—they charge, they form, And the dim hall rings with the battle's storm; And once again, through smoke and strife, These colors lead to a nation's life." |
CHARLES K. CLARKE, M.D., REPLIED AS FOLLOWS:As President of the Town Council, it becomes my duty to accept this beautiful and valued monument of Mr. Owen in behalf of the Town of Scituate. About one year ago Mr. Owen came before our Council and made a certain proposition as follows: That he wished to present to the Town of his nativity a substantial gift, in the form of a memorial to the soldiers of the Town of Scituate who served their Country in the late Civil War. The monument to be constructed of white Westerly granite, representing an artillery man of life size in full uniform. The conditions were that the Town should place the same upon a suitable substructure in a satisfactory location to be selected by a committee appointed for that purpose and given perpetual care. These conditions were accepted. A little later the Congregational Society of North Scituate proposed to contribute a certain plat of land owned by them as a site for the Monument on condition that the Town suitably enclose and care for said land for that and no other purpose. The Town agreeing thereto. Thus there was a three party agreement. And now as we assemble we find Mr. Owen in person here to-day having amply fulfilled his part of the proposition. The Congregational Society have also generously bestowed their gift. It now remains for the Town to execute their part of the contract. In behalf of the Town I gladly accept the foregoing with their concomitant conditions, hoping and believing they may be faithfully maintained. Now first a word to Mr. Owen—We are glad to welcome you; that your health permitted you to be present to-day and participate in these exercises. It was a happy thought when you conceived the idea, the result of which we see here substantiated to-day. It was worthy of a native born townsman. This Monument links the past with the present. It is historic. It is commemorative. It is prepetuating [sic]. It is a thing of beauty and "a thing of beauty is a joy forever." In behalf of the Council, the Citizens of your native town and the veteran soldiers here present I extend to you my heartfelt thanks and most profound sympathy. To the Congregational Society I extend the same heartfelt thanks and unbounded appreciation of their generosity without which the consummation of this memorial would be incomplete. As I look around I see many of the veterans assembled. I must speak a few kind words to them. For "kind words are more than coronets and simple faith than Norman blood." They are not all here. Some laid down their lives in bloody conflict. They rest and they rest well. It has always been a great pleasure to meet and converse with them. I have spent many interesting hours listening to their recital of the many bloody battles through which they have passed. Here I am reminded of the memorable words of the great Daniel Webster at the dedication of the Monument at Bunker Hill. "Venerable men you have come down to us from a former generation. Heaven hath bounteously lengthened out your lives to behold this day." That was a memorable occasion. This is no less momentous to you than was that to the veterans of 1776. They fought to establish the principle of human rights and freedom from oppression; you fought to perpetuate that principle which, they established and you succeeded excellently well. While you survived, many were sacrificed in battle; be it accounted unto you no less. You were a living sacrifice. The true spirit of sacrifice was within you when you willingly faced death for the salvation of your country. That you may enjoy the results of the conflict, may you all live long and well. |
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Seven miles west of Fox Point, when Providence had but
1,000 inhabitants, "The Seven Mile Line" was run for twenty miles from
the Mass. border south to Coventry. Crossing this line at right angles
another line running east and west, quartered the wilderness and gave rise
to four towns. In 1731 Smithfield, Gloucester and Scituate were constituted,
and 28 years later Johnston. Scituate was divided after 50 years to form
Foster. This was in 1781 when both towns had over 1500 each.
Near the place where the four towns corner just north west of Moswansicut Lake the first settler, John Mathewson, had come in from Mass. about 1690. Thither he led his bride, Miss Malary, met during a trading trip to Boston; thence ten years later their son drove two yoke of oxen and horse over the rough roads to Providence and sold the load of wood for five shillings. On the eastern slopes of Chopmist settled the sons and daughters of leading Providence families. Perhaps Joseph Wilkinson, son of Capt. Samuel Wilkinson, Esq., was attracted by the pretty granddaughter of one of the first settlers, Miss Martha Pray. An Aunt, Miss Ruth Wilkinson, came out from Providence with William Hopkins, son of Major William Hopkins. These with their sturdy life became the parents of four sons and three daughters; among them Stephen Hopkins, member of Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Eseck Hopkins, the first Admiral of the Continental navy. A Grandson, Rufus, invested £500 in the Hope Iron Furnace and became its Superintendent, casting cannon for both army and navy during the Revolution. Gov. William West, having purchased the Hopkins farm, built thereon the "Big House" and Scituate was the important center of social and military influence. To another important center in the vicinity of Richmond about 1700 came Capt. Thomas Angell with his young wife, Sarah Brown, to take possession of a recent purchase of 1,000 acres and a beginning was made of an important family and a noted tavern. This with the tavern of Stephen Smith at North Scituate Four Corners, and fifteen others licensed before 1760 marked the growth of the population of the territory. When the Revolution broke in 1776, this largest town of the State, having within 1,000 as many people as Providence, raised its eight companies of "Scituate Hunters" for the public defense under the able leadership of Major Joseph Knight, Scituate's brave son. Religion was represented in the first settlers by the Quakers and Six Principle Baptists. The Wilkinsons were Friends, as were James Aldrich, and Gideon Harris on whose land near the "Old Bank" was built their first Church House and placed their burial ground. The Six Principle Baptist Church was organized in 1725 and two years later Samuel Fiske was ordained its pastor; the present building at Battey's Corner was built in 1821. The Congregational Church at North Scituate was built in 1834 and the Free Baptist Church, after existing several years as a branch was organized in 1835. In the Smithville Seminary (1838-1859) and Lapham Institute (1865-1876) have studied 4,000 students. The industrial thrift, that promoted iron manufacture at Hope, early harnessed the currents of the two waterways of the town and put factories of cotton, wool, silk, at Richmond (1812), Rockland (1812, 1814), Clayville (1837), North Scituate and Ashland (1834). The entrance of the Electric Cars in [sic] marked a new era of prosperity and progress. From the factories and farms went the brave boys of '61 to the call of President Lincoln. Thirteen went out in the First Rhode Island Volunteers in April and in June Sixty-six more with the Second Regiment and saw great service. The forty-two [sic] names upon the Owen Monument have a liberal number of these, as the chiseled names of many another come from the long agonizing years in which parents waited and soldiers bled to save the country and to free the slave. The James C. Nichols Post, No. 19, which meets in its Hall at Rockland was chartered May 15, 1886. Its twenty members are as follows: |
| P. C. Searles B. YOUNG,
S. V. C. William HAVENS, J. V. C. George H. ANGELL Adj. Charles WHITMAN, O. M. Charles A. TUCKER Surg. James S. EDWARDS, Chap. Frank CARR, O. D. John TAYLOR, William H. BOYDEN, William BOYDEN, |
James F. HERVEY,
Jered F. WILSON, Samuel GOLDSMITH, Henry NYE, Joseph H. BURCHARD, Charles T. GILSON, James PENFIELD. Olin WARDWELL, Sylvester COLE, Isaac VICKERY. |
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