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A miniature
portrait of Samuel Webb, painted in 1779 by Charles Willson Pearle
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©STORIES OF WETHERSFIELD, By
Nora Howard
On
April 30, 1789, in a simple suit of brown broadcloth from Hartford, George
Washington stepped tip to the podium at Federal Hall in New York City
to take the oath of office as the first President of the United States.
The jubilant crowd was filled with dignitaries as the reluctant president-elect
stood on the balcony. Close at hand was Samuel B. Webb of Wethersfield,
Washington's friend, former aide, and a Grand Marshal of the inauguration.
As Webb wrote to his future wife, Catharine, "I accompanied the
President from his lodgings to the Senate room, from thence to St. Paul's
Church and back to his House, thro' the surrounding Shouts of Joy, of
the greatest concourse of Citizens, that I ever beheld." How did
this child of Wethersfield ever get to serve on such a stage?
Samuel Blachley Webb was born December 13, 1753,
the son of Joseph and Mehitable Nott Webb, at what is today 211 Main Street (Above!©Webb-Deane
Museum).
From the affection expressed in Samuel's later letters, it appears he was
extremely close to his six brothers
and sisters. His father died when Samuel was 7, and his mother married the
patriot Silas Deane two years later.
Samuel soon served his stepfather as private secretary, embarking on a path
that found him at age 21 a lieutenant with the Wethersfield militia at the
Battle of Bunker Hill. The talented young Webb next became aide and private
secretary (1776-1777) to General George Washington. They were together as
the ragtag American forces boldly crossed the Delaware River on that pivotal
Christmas night in 1776. It was Webb who bore the order to begin the assault,
and when told by General Sullivan that their muskets were wet, he replied, "in
that case you will use your bayonets.”
After
the Battle of Trenton, Washington asked Webb to go to Connecticut to raise
a regiment. Webb replied that he first
wanted to help Washington
get
into winter quarters, saying, "I would sooner give up my regiment than
abandon you now."
From 1777 to 1781, Colonel Webb did command a regiment, and it rendezvoused
at Wethersfield on April 14, 1777 with 25 non-commissioned officers and musicians
from town. The British captured Webb's regiment in December 1777 aboard the
Sloop Schuyler, as it attempted to stop British ships from getting supplies
on Long Island.
Samuel Webb was imprisoned on Long Island, but soon paroled to Wethersfield,
Philadelphia, New York City, and Morristown, New Jersey. Letters indicate
that he enjoyed an active social and cultural life while on parole, and even
squeezed in courting his first wife, Eliza. During this time, he kept up
with his regiment, and worked on improving rules regarding prisoner exchanges.
Webb was part of a prisoner exchange in January 1781,
and rejoined his regiment by an order issued on February 7.
He left the Continental Army in 1783 a brigadier general. Living for a time
in New York City, Webb was active in the Society of Cincinnati, a fraternal
order of Continental Army officers.
Samuel Webb had married Eliza Bancker in 1779, and she died two years later. In 1790, he married Catharine Hogaboom, of New York, and lived with his nine children at Claverack, New York, until his death in 1807.
The favorite son of Wethersfield
was also a favorite of George Washington's. When the time came to meet
with the French
forces in the vicinity of Connecticut
(1781), Washington chose Samuel's home in Wethersfield. Wash-ington signed
many of the letters he wrote to Webb, "Your obedient and affectionate
servant," and he referred to Webb as the "most accomplished gentleman
in the army.”
In his letter to Catharine about Washington's inauguration, Webb wrote that "In
the evening we had a very brilliant display of fireworks." Samuel Webb's
life was, truly, a brilliant display of patriotism by one of Wethersfield's
most remarkable 18th century figures.
Hundreds of letters and other fascinating documents regarding Samuel Webb survive. The book “Stories of Wethersfield” has many of letters for you to research!
©STORIES OF WETHERSFIELD, By
Nora Howard
In 1991, at the Ancient Burying Ground behind the First Church of Christ
in Old Wethersfield, a simple gravestone was rededicated. The occasion
marked
the conclusion of a three-year study of the remarkable figure buried there.
The man honored was Lieutenant Jonathan Church (I763-I804?), one of the
first commissioned officers in the brand new US. Marine Corps of 1798.
The person
responsible for the spectacular rededication ceremony was Captain William
N. Moss, the commanding officer of Marine Detachment 1797, of the USS Constitution
Museum in Boston. This re-enactmemt group accurately portrays the US. Marine
Corps from 1797 until 1803.
For several years, Captain Moss had intently followed the somewhat elusive
trail of Lieutenant Church. When he began his quest, Moss had never even
heard of Wethersfield, Connecticut.
The story of Jonathan Church began with his birth in 1763 to a postmaster
and his wife in Springfield, Massachusetts. At an age when today's Wethersfield
boys are in about 9th grade, Church joined the Continental Navy. It was during
the American Revolution, and he served on the war sloop Republic.
In 1798, Church's fate as a figure in American military history was sealed,
when the US. Marine Corps was created in July. Four weeks later, Church was
among the very first commissioned officers. His commission, signed by President
John Adams, reads:
"Know ye, that reposing special Trust and Confidence in the Patriotism, Valor, Fidelity and Abilities of Jonathan Church I do appoint him a 1st Lieutenant of Marines in the Navy of the United States .... Given under my Hand at Philadelphia,.....in the twenty third year of the Indepen-dence of the United States.”
 |
| A privately-held portrait of Lt. Jonathan Church is the only representation of Marine uniforms of the early 1800s. This reproduction uniform is based upon the portrait. |
Church's job was to recruit others for the new Marine Corps. For almost a year, he traveled throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire recruiting, escorting and overseeing new Marines. His recruits served on the Us.s. Constitution (launched in 1797), as well as on many small ships.
From July 1799 until about mid-I80r, Church was commanding officer of the
Marine Guard aboard the frigate Boston. He saw action in the West Indies, in
a battle fought by the United States and France over free sea trade.
Then, sometime around 1800, a wonderful thing happened. An unidentified artist
painted Lieutenant Church in full U.S. Marine Corps uniform. His coat was of
a dark blue woolen material, with brilliant red facings, collar and cuffs.
On each brass button was an American Eagle surrounded by 13 stars. Around his
neck was a high and stiff leather stock, a feature which led to the term "Marine
leatherneck:' Dripping from his shoulders were golden epaulets. Atop his head
was a spectacular bicorne hat with a fancy black leather cockade.
This is the only existing picture of a US. Marine uniform of the period. So,
thanks to Lieutenant Church's accomplishments, means and pride, historians
know almost exactly what this unique uniform looked like before the design
change of 1803.
Today, the original painting is in private hands out west. But once, it must
have been in Wethersfield, and it may have even been painted here.
Jonathan Church, for a reason lost to us, "retired" to Wethersfield
in 180I. For a very short time, he 'and his wife, Dosha, ran a tavern at the
corner of Broad and Garden streets. And the final resting place of this first
U.S. Marine (he died of tuberculosis in either 1801 or 1804) is the Old Wethersfield
Ancient Burying Ground.
The Jonathan Church gravestone, which was restored by Marine Detachment 1797, was solemnly and joyfully rededicated on April 20, 1991. The ceremony included more than 80 men in period costumes based on the Church portrait, horses of the 2nd Continental Light Dragoons, the USS Constitution Museum Color Guard, and officials of the Wethersfield Historical Society and the Old North Church in Boston.
©STORIES OF WETHERSFIELD, By Nora Howard
No town in America was unaffected by World War II. With the bombing of Pearl
Harbor on December 7, 194I and the nations entry into the war, life in town
changed.
Wethersfield's draft and ration
boards operated from the Welles School, at 200 Main Street. Residents bought
war bonds, worked for the Red Cross,
and
became enemy airplane spotters and air raid wardens. They saved fat, paper,
and metal for recycling. School children picked tomatoes, and Comstock, Ferre & Co.
sent the seeds to England, where they were raised for desperately needed vitamin
C. First Church minister, Reverend Keith Jones wrote encouraging newsletters
to those in, service, and, like everyone else on gasoline rations, walked to
many of his engagements around town.
But for no one did life change more than for the families of the approximately
1,500 Wethersfield men and 45 women who were drafted or enlisted into the
war effort.
Of those who risked their lives, 34 never returned. Robert Allan Keeney of
Wethersfield, age 21, was one of those unlucky 34, and among the 1,196 men
who were lost with the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in 1945, in the last
days of World War II.
Born in 1923, in Wethersfield, Bob Keeney grew up on Wolcott Hill Road, attended
the Charles Wright School, and graduated from the Gunnery School in Washington,
Connecticut. As a child, he operated a vegetable stand with other neighborhood
children on Wells Road. When his pal Welles Adams was not feeling well and
was homebound, 13 year old Bob Keeney wrote him a friendly letter in careful
script to cheer him.
Bob Keeney loved playing baseball,
and his nickname in school was "bean
head:' He has been described as unassuming, always a perfect gentleman with
never a bad word for anyone.
Bob Keeney was an ensign, with only one year of college under his belt. He enlisted in the Navy as a V-12 student in 1943 while a sophomore at Wesleyan University. On December 20, 1944, he received his ensigns commission at Midshipman's School at Cornell University.
This young man, proud in his naval uniform, was last in Wethersfield in April
1945. On July 16, after a farewell dinner in San Francisco with his college
roommate Edwin May Jr. and other Wethersfield friends, he left for the Pacific
Islands of Tinian and Guam aboard the Indianapolis.
The
ship left Guam for Leyte on July 28, 1945. On July 30, at 12 minutes past
midnight, and less than two weeks before the end of World War II, the
ship was hit in the bow by three torpedoes from a Japanese submarine. It
was impossible to send an SOS signal, and the Indianapolis with 1,512 men
on
board, went down in 15 minutes!
In those days, the Navy did not routinely search for overdue ships. American planes unknowingly flew directly over the Indianapolis survivors, oblivious to the disaster below. Not until the ship was 54 hours overdue did the Navy send out search planes. Rescue ships arrived five days after the tragedy, but only in time to save 3I6 sailors.
Ensign Keeney was Wethersfield's
last casualty of World War II. On February 10, 1949, the Wethersfield American
Legion Post No. 23 changed its name from
the Russell K. Bourne Post to the Bourne-Keeney Post to honor him. In 1988,
the Wethersfield Historical Society renamed the former Center and Welles School
building as a memorial to Robert Allan Keeney.
©STORIES OF WETHERSFIELD
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