Ralph Abrams Jones, great-grandson of the builder of the Golden Ball Tavern, was only seventeen and a half when he enlisted in the 35th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. He died less than one month later in the Battle of Antietam — Weston’s first casualty of the Civil War. (Courtesy Golden Ball Tavern Museum)
This bust of Alonzo S. Fiske is owned by the Town of Weston. Fiske, who served as a Weston selectman from 1859 to 1871, took on the tasks of preparing lists of men eligible for military service, recruiting men to meet the town’s quota, organizing fundraising to offer “citizens' bounties,” and handing correspondence relating to payments of bounties and State aid.
This headstone at Weston's Central Cemetery was erected by the family of Edmund L. Cutter, one of Weston's nine-months men, who died in the Battle of New Bern, North Carolina, in April 1863, and Frederick Cutter, his brother, who enlisted from Newton and was killed at Gettysburg in July, 1863. Their bodies were brought back to be buried in Weston.
Featured Program
Weston Historical Society
Annual Meeting and
Lecture
Thursday, October 27
7:00 pm
Weston Public Library
Community Room
Refreshments
All are Welcome!
The Stone Fleet:
The Oddest Incident in the Civil War
by Mary Malloy
In December 1861, the United States Navy sank 16 stone-filled whaleships
in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. An additional 30 vessels were sunk in later attempts
to physically block Confederate ports. The unsuccessful strategy brought an ignominious end to ships
that had long and venerable careers in New Bedford, Boston, Salem, and other New England ports.
An engaging storyteller, Dr. Mary Malloy will describe the “stone fleets” in this illustrated lecture
in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.
Mary Malloy teaches Maritime History at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole and Museum Studies
at the Harvard Extension School. She is the author of four works of maritime history and two novels.
The Civil War: Commemorating the 150th Anniversary
2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, a conflict
fought hundreds of miles away from Weston that nevertheless dominated the life of the town from 1860 to 1865.
To mark this anniversary, the Weston Historical Society is devoting the Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 issues
of its Bulletin to the subject of Weston in the Civil War. Members of the society will receive their fall issue
in the mail by mid-October. Non-members can receive a copy for $5.00 by contacting the
Website editor.
To link to the Fall 2011 issue, click here.
The Civil War was the bloodiest in American history. An estimated 620,000 soldiers died,
a rate six times that of World War II. For every one killed in battle, two died of disease.
A similar rate of death, about two percent, in the United States today would mean six million fatalities.
The Civil War was America's first experience raising huge armies to fight an extended war.
Sixty-seven Weston men fought in the war, and 12 gave their lives for the “holy cause of freedom.”
An additional 59 men were credited to the town’s quotas, for a total of 126 men representing the Town of Weston in the Union army.
In Weston town reports, the story of the war is mainly a story of recruitment to fill quota after government
quota with “volunteers” inspired by patriotism or attracted by ever increasing bounties.
Letters from soldiers in the collection of the Weston Historical Society illuminate the lives
of individual soldiers who left the comfort of home and family to fight in bloody battles throughout the South.
Order Now for the Holidays
The Weston Historical Society is offering a giclee color reproduction of this c. 1905-10 watercolor of the lion's head fountain at the Horace S. Sears estate, Haleiwa, painted by noted turn-of-the-century artist Mary Mason Brooks. The watercolor, a gift to the Society from Ted and Lucy Rand, was part of the March 2011 exhibition Artists Look at Weston. The reproduction will be 10.75” X 14.75,” the same size as the original, printed on watercolor paper. The giclee process produces copies almost indistinguishable from the original. To order, please send a check for $125 payable to Weston Historical Society to P.O. Box 343, Weston, MA 02493. Questions? Call 781-893-3093.
Link to Interactive Website for Kids
Welcome!
My name is Josiah.
Click on the kids logo to meet some families,
see their houses, and explore Weston
as it was long ago!
