On August 20 at the Rochester Historical Museum, there was a joint meeting of the Rochester Historical Society and the Rochester Historical Commission. The purpose of the meeting was to kick off a project that will culminate in 2026 for the nation’s 250th anniversary. For a rainy evening, the meeting was pretty well attended.
The project is to gain information about the many Rochester men who participated in the Revolutionary War and hopefully, to document their final resting place with a photo. We handed out lists of the Rochester soldiers and sailors from the rolls of the state archives. The lists that can be found in the back of the book “Mattapoisett and Old Rochester” were compiled in a joint effort by James L. Hammond and Mary Hall Leonard. The names are presented with the caveat that there may well be more added with the passage of time.
One way to participate in our project, “The Search to Find and Honor Rochester’s Revolutionary Veterans,” would be to pick a name or names from the list and then to look for a grave to match. Because the same names were used over and over (fathers, sons, nephews, etc.), you want to make sure that the birth/death dates coincide with an age that would fit with being a soldier between 1775 and 1783.
Once you have a name, there are quite a few ways that you can find information. Being less of a “techie” and more of a “bookie” (not the taking bets kind), I started at Plumb Library. The library has a collection of encyclopedia type books where the names of Massachusetts Revolutionary veterans are listed in alphabetical order with their town, rank, company and service. The same name may appear 2 or 3 times in a row as men signed up, served days or months, went home and then signed up again.
For example, Levi Gurney, Rochester, Private, was in Capt. Seth Briggs’ Company which marched “on the Alarm of April 19, 1776.” His service was for 4 days. However, he served again with Capt. Edward Sparrow’s Co., Capt. John Gibbs’ Co. and Capt. Elijah Baker’s Co. This can all be found in the books at the library.
There are also several web sites that provide good information and go into greater detail. We have a list of them at the Historical Society. One that I used without much difficulty was the MA, Rev War Index Cards to Muster Rolls, 1775-1783. This also connected me to Family Tree which gave me information on parents, siblings, wives and children. It asks for a birth date. but when I didn’t have one, I put in a possible year (I picked 1745) and a name that matched my search came up with the correct year.
For anyone interested, we have packets that contain the lists, websites and likely cemeteries. They will be available at our next meeting on September 17 at the Museum, 355 County Road at 7:00 pm. Bruce Bassett will be our speaker and will share how he found his Revolutionary War ancestor in the Rochester Center Cemetery (originally called the 1st Parish Cemetery). Remember that until the middle of the 1800’s, Marion and Mattapoisett were sections of the town of Rochester, so some of our veterans may well be buried in cemeteries that are in either of those towns.
If you would like to get started on a search before September 17, you can contact me at eshbach2@aol.com or call 617-750-2818 or 508-763-4932. If you have already researched and found a Revolutionary War ancestor of your own, I hope you will share your findings with us.
By Connie Eshbach
