Fourth of July at The Iron Works

Beginning tomorrow at noon, Saugus will celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday with a patriotic party that will focus on the town’s role in the War for Independence

By Laura Eisener

Saugus played a distinctive and significant role in the War for Independence and we who live here would do well to reflect on it and appreciate our town’s importance in history.

The Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site will host an America 250th celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence tomorrow (Saturday, July 4) from noon to 4 p.m. This celebration will focus on the town’s role in events leading up to and during the American Revolution.

Well before any shots were fired in Lexington and Concord, Saugus played a different (though no less noisy!) role, as the development of vital industry was necessary before the colonies could pull away from its dependence on products from Europe. The deafening thuds from the trip-hammer and the grinding of gears in the slitting mill at the Iron Works, in addition to being necessary for the products actually made here, also helped train the many workers who fanned out to other towns in New England and beyond to set up new ironworks and factories.

Some of these workers were indentured servants from Scotland who might well be expected to pass on their displeasure with English rule to their descendants. Without the farming tools, nails and other items being made at Saugus Iron Works and the skills learned through the process, from refining ore to shipping the finished goods, activities from farming to town building, supplying weapons for troops, and other necessities would not have been easily available to residents of the New World.

In 1687, about eight years before the shot heard round the world was fired in Concord, Major Samuel Appleton’s speech on the projecting rock known as “Appleton’s Pulpit” in Saugus denounced the tyrannical behavior of Sir Edmund Andros, the colonial governor at the time.

At the time of the Revolution, what we now call the town of Saugus was part of the town of Lynn. Those who lived in the third parish, or west parish of Lynn, as the area was often called, had established their own church at what we now consider Saugus Center, and therefore were not legally required to go into Lynn Common every Sunday. As feelings against the rule of the king grew, many residents talked in the taverns of what the future might bring and began to anticipate that serious fighting might break out. On what is now known as Ballard Street, one tavern in particular was known as a gathering place for news of rebellion and ways to respond quickly.

In 1773, Jacob Newhall had bought the long-established Anchor Tavern in East Saugus from its unpopular British-born owner and immediately removed the lion and unicorn sign with one more symbolic of a new dawn, an era of enlightened independence and rejection of British domination not only for the town but all the colonies. He renamed the tavern the Rising Sun tavern and the sign depicted the sun rising above the horizon.

At this tavern the popular minister of the third parish church, Parson Joseph Roby, was among the men who enthusiastically embraced the idea of liberty. One of his sons had been among those who heaved boxes of tea overboard during the Boston tea party. When it was learned that the British were marching toward Concord and Lexington on April 18, 1775, over 60 men met at 3 a.m. on April 19 to make their way to meet militiamen from other towns to protect the threatened towns.

Captain David Parker’s Company consisted entirely of men from what is now Saugus. Other Companies in Colonel Timothy Pickering’s Regiment came from other parts of Lynn, but Parker’s Company was the largest and soon joined with other Companies in Arlington heading toward Concord. Most of the men were farmers, but there were also fishermen and men with other occupations, including Parson Roby. Lt. John Poole, Ensign Nathan Hawks, Sgt. Thomas Hawks, Sgt. Nathaniel Hutchinson, Sgt. Benjamin Redden, Corporal Abner Cheever Jr., Corporal Amos Leeds, Corporal Samuel Mansfield and Corporal Jabez Newhall were the officers under Captain Parker. The Company had a fifer, William Hill, and a drummer, Thomas Barrey. Allowing for the variable spellings of names that was common during this period, such as Hawks/Hawkes, Stoker/Stocker, Bordman/Boardman and Rhoads/Rhodes, many of these families are familiar as they or their descendants continued to develop businesses and participate in the Civil War and later conflicts up to the present day.

By the time the Revolution ended in 1783, 99 men from our town had fought. Many came home and continued to serve their town, which in 1815 separated from Lynn and resumed the name of Saugus, which had been used by Native Americans before the change to Lynn in 1634. Abijah Cheever was 15 when the Battles of Lexington and Concord broke out, but he helped make bullets the night before so his brothers would have ammunition when they went off to fight.

After graduating from Harvard College in 1779 and receiving his medical degree in 1782, he joined the navy as a surgeon on the Massachusetts ship Tartar. When the ship was captured by the British, he and his shipmates became prisoners detained in New York Harbor. After his release at the end of the war, he set up a medical practice in Boston for a few decades and raised a family, then returned to what had now become the town of Saugus and turned to politics. He was elected to the first Board of Selectmen and later to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. His younger brother Joseph also went into politics and in 1816 became the first town treasurer and was elected seven times to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. The Cheever home still stands on Vine Street.

Many of the families sent more than one son to battle. Sometimes fathers and sons were both of an age to fight. The marker at the end of the path in the Saugus Center Cemetery (also sometimes called the west parish cemetery or third parish cemetery, or in recent years the Revolutionary War cemetery) “erected by the Senior Citizens Association to Honor our Soldiers of the American Revolution” lists seven members of the Hitchings family, six Newhalls and six Boardmans, as well as other families represented by more than one individual. Six from the Stocker family also served as the war dragged on. Many of these soldiers were eventually laid to rest in this cemetery, their gravesites often including flag holders donated by the Sons of the Revolution (SAR). Family members are also interred here in many cases, although the old stones are sometimes difficult to read.

Just a few days after the Concord fight, Parson Roby joined the “safety committee,” which had a key part in organizing the townsmen to be ready for action. It has often been said that he would appear in church carrying his bible in one hand and his musket in the other. I have never heard it mentioned which arm he used for each! Once the revolution had ended, he continued his ministry for many more years, serving 51 years in all. While he did not live to see Saugus become a separate town, the Daughters of the American Revolution local chapter is named after him, and the brick school in Saugus Center that later became the School Administration building was named the Roby School. He remains one of the more colorful characters from the revolutionary era of Saugus history. A reenactor portraying him will be among those expected at the Iron Works tomorrow afternoon.