Ceasar Ferrit and his son John Ferrit were Natick Praying Indians who fired on British Regulars from a home near the Lexington Meeting House on April 19th, 1775. (National Park Service rep. 2/2002) They had left Natick with Capt. Morse's Company, but proceeded to Lexington while the rest of the company was directed by senior officers to Arlington and then Cambridge. Some reports say the two men joined the Minuteman and Militia companies from Concord, Acton, Lincoln, Carlisle, and Bedford in the action against the Regulars at the North Bridge in Concord. See Gail Buckley's, "American Patriots, The Story of Blacks in the Military" for more details.
Thomas Ferrit,a Natick Praying Indian, farmhand in Dover, and son of Caesar Ferrit; fought at Menotomy in Capt. Ebeneazer Battle's Dedham Co. (ref. Colburne) Thomas Ferrit and Battle's Company collected muskets and buried dead at Battle Road on April 20, 1775. The National Park Service estimates that more than 100 African and Native Americans fought with Boston area militia and minute companies. (ref. Quintal 2002)
Colonel Hezekiah Broad met with Commander in Chief George Washington in front of Broad's home on Eliot St. in South Natick. General Washington was on his way to take command of the new Continental Army surrounding General Gage's regiments in Boston. Said General Washington upon his visit to Natick, "The roads in every part of this state are amazingly crooked. . . and the directions you get from the inhabitants are equally blind and ignorant." Col. Broad was a delegate to the 1774 Provincial Congress in Concord, MA and the 1787 Constitutional Convention. He married Lydia Bacon Broad in 1770. After Lydia's death he married 23 year old Miriam Sawin Broad when he was 67. Today Hezekiah Broad lies buried between his wives in the South Natick Burial Ground along with many other of the original Natick Minutemen.
Rev. Stephen Badger, last spiritual leader of the Natick Praying Indians, served as pastor of the Natick Church from 1753-1799. His home in Charlestown was burned by British cannonades during the Battle of Breeds Hill on June 17, 1775. His Natick home still stands on Eliot Street. He and his wife Abigail Badger had five children. Rev. Badger was a strong advocate of an Independent Indian Church in Natick. In 1781 Massachusetts Governor John Hancock signed the official order creating the Town of Natick and acknowledging Rev. Badger as the town's minister. Badger's death on August 28, 1803 marks the end of Natick's Indian period. (Samuel Drake, History of Middlesex County, 1880)
Natick and Needham Militia Officers - Natick Indian Plantation Militia Companies: Capt. Joseph Morse and Capt. Thomas Sawin. Natick Minute Company under Capt. James Mann. West Needham Militia Company under Capt. Aaron Smith. Capt. Smith owned two acres of land in Natick at Lake Waban which he purchased from Natick Praying Indians and he was a selectman in Natick and in the West Parish. Needham Minute Company under Wellesley's Capt. Caleb Kingsbury and Lt. John Bacon of Natick (also a Natick Selectman).
And finally, oxen belonging to Tory Captain William Farris of Walnut St. in Natick were taken by Artilleryman Henry Knox to drag captured cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to Dorchester Heights in Boston. These same oxen returned to the area the following January when Knox dragged his cannon along the northern shore of frozen Lake Cochituate on his way to Washington's army in Cambridge.
Fort Ticonderoga Reenactment - Sept. 2002 - Click on photo for more
Saratoga, NY - Oct. 2002
Below - Natick and Needham West Contingent (center below flags)
The Lexington Alarm
At about 4 AM on April 19, 1775 the alarm in Natick was sounded by Capt. Dudley of Sudbury, who had in turn gotten the alarm from Samuel Prescott's brother Abel. A black trumpeter, Abel (Nero) Benson sounded the Alarm in North Natick/Needham Leg. Capt. Dudley continued on to warn Dover Farms. Dover Farms (the Springvale Parish of Dedham in 1775) fielded Ebeneazer Battle's Dedham Company which fought at Menotomy, and was just south of Natick's Indian Parish. Residents north of Claybrook Rd. fought with Natick, and those south on the road fought with Dedham.
An unidentified Natick rider road bareheaded to Wellesley to spread the alarm there. Wellesley and North Natick fielded Aaron Smith's Militia Company and Caleb Kingsbury's Minuteman Company which fought at Menotomy. This rider is rumored to have been Abigail Smith, niece of Lieut. John Bacon (of Caleb Kingsbury's Needham company) and Abigail Bacon, who had arrived at the Thomas Sawin III house in Natick on the night of April 18th, 1775. The two women had come with news of the Regulars' march out of Boston, but without word of their target.
Natick Companies of Capt. Joseph Morse and Capt. James Mann (Minutemen)
Seventy six Natick residents mustered for battle under Capt. Joseph Morse, including seven Natick Praying Indians. These men mustered between 5 and 6 AM on April 19th, 1775 at the meeting house beside Peletiah's Tavern on Eliot Street. Their most likely line of march would have taken them 1 mile East on Eliot St. to Bullard's Tavern in Wellesley (This tavern was just east of Lower Waban Brook, which was the boundary between Natick and Needham's West Parish.), and then 13 miles further through Watertown to Menotomy and North Cambridge.
West Needham Companies of Capt. Aaron Smith Militia) and Capt. Caleb Kingsbury (Minute)
At least 20 Natick men fought in the West Needham militia and minute companies. The Needham west parish company was made up of men from North Natick and Wellesley. Aaron Smith's West Needham militia marched from Bullard's Tavern, which was about 400 yards east of the old Natick Townline at what is now Wellesley College's East Lodge. One Natick man, Thomas Ferrit, fought in Capt. Ebeneazer Battelle's Dedham Co. Later in the war several other Natick men, including Capt. James Mann fought in this same company. Two Natick men, Caeser and John Ferrit, fought as militia in Lexington. (ref. National Park Service report, Feb. 2002)
In total 186 Natick men served in its militia or in the Continental Army, including no fewer than 15 African Americans and all its able-bodied male Natick Praying Indians. For a more detailed account see Natick in the Lexington Alarm.
Monthly Company Muster
The company meets on the first Tuesday of the month, 7:30 PM, normally at a member's home. Please call 508 653 6312 for directions. The company will assist new members in acquiring uniforms. Events and meetings are open to all members of the public. Period firearms are recommended but completely optional. Safety training and firing practice is strongly urged. You can find out how to become a Natick Minuteman.
Natick Company Events - 2004
July 4, 2004 - Natick Independance Day parade
Remaining events - TBA
More Natick Colonial Era History
Crispus Attucks - The first man to lose his life in the name of the American cause was Crispus Attucks, an African American escaped slave whose mother was a Natick Praying Indian. He was shot by British Regulars at the Boston Massacre in 1770. Crispus Attucks was 47 when he died. He was the first to fall in the massacre, and was one of the crowd's leaders. More info.
Capt. Thomas Tray - Native Praying Indian Capt. Tom Tray was a local Captain of Militia. Capt. Tray was unjustly hanged on false charges of attacking white settlers, shortly after the rest of Natick's Praying Indians had been exiled to Deer Island. Many of Natick's Christian Indians, along with others from the Bay Colony's many Christian Indian Towns, perished during the harsh winter of 1675 - 1676 on barren Deer Island. Rev. John Eliot of Natick and Rev. Daniel Gookin of neighboring Sherborn's First Parish protested these harsh measures. When released from their exile, hundreds of Nipmucs nevertheless served with distinction in the Massachusetts Bay Colony's small army.
The Resolve of Natick - On June 20, 1776 Natick's Town meeting declared its commitment to independence from England and the rule of George III, resolving to denounce, "the glaring impropriety, incapacity, and fatal tendency, of any State whatever, at the distance of three thousand miles, to legislate for these Colonies, which at the same time are so numerous, so knowing, and capable of legislating, or to have a negative upon those laws which they . . . want and establish for themselves. . . . We, the inhabitants of Natick, in town meeting assembled, do hereby declare, . . . we will, with our lives and fortunes, join with the other inhabitants of this Colony, in supporting them . . . and the grand objects of peace, liberty, and safety, will be more likely speedily to be restored and established in our once happy land."
The Resolve of Natick, like similar resolves from Pittsfield, Northampton, South Carolina, Maryland, and others; is one of the many significant documents which provided the popular source of political authority underpinning the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. It is considered remarkable for its determination to reject even benign government from overseas. (Massachusetts Archives, Lib. 156: fols. 101, 103, 113; and American Scripture by Pauline Maier, 1997 pp. 232-233) Years later, Natick voted to reject the Constitution of the United States of America because the practice of slavery was continued.
Links
Right: Natick Indian Plantation & Needham West Militia Co.'s camp at the United States Army Soldier Systems, Chemical and Biological Command - June 28, 2002
Natick & Needham Links
General Colonial History Links
Books for Reenactors
Pox Americana by Elizabeth Fenn
So You Want to be a Reenactor? by Brenton and Karen Kremmer
Red Dawn at Lexington by Louis Birnbaum
The Day the American Revolution Began by William Hallahan
African Americans and Native Americans in the Revolutionary War by the DAR Library, Jean Davids, and Eric G. Grundset
American Scripture - Making the Declaration of Independence by Pauline Maier
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The Natick Indian Plantation and Needham West Miltia Companies appreciate the help and encouragement of our sponsors; The Natick Historical Society and Museum for providing parade and firing grounds, The Morse Insitute Library, Natick's VFW Post, and the Town of Natick and its veterans organizations. We can be reached at kaltofen@aol.com. Members: Living History Association and Brigade of the American Revolution (provisional). The Natick Company of Minutemen, Inc. is a historical reenactment organization that is open to all and dedicated to the memory of its citizens who fought and died in the War for Independence. Political and paramilitary activity is not welcome or tolerated.
