Today
is Eleazer Chase’s birthday! He was born 258 years ago on September 3, 1757, the
younger brother of Timothy Chase, my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great
Grandfather.
According
to Massachusetts’ Birth and Christening Records, he entered this world in
Freetown, Massachusetts, a most fitting birthplace for a patriot who fought and
suffered for the freedoms we now enjoy. By the time he volunteered in the
revolutionary conflict, he resided in Windham, Maine.
Some
historians consider the Stamp Act of 1765 as the cause of the colonists’ war
with Britain, but to the good people of Windham, tax was not the issue. Not a
penny was ever paid by the citizens of Windham on tea, nor on a stamp under the Stamp Act. Some historians propose that, in Maine, it was the principle of
taxation that inflamed patriotic hearts.
But, by my way of thinking, these brave souls entered the conflict for us.
This is
evidenced by the town proclamation of 1773 which resolved:
- That we look upon it our duty, as well as interest, both for ourselves and posterity, to stand up in the defense of those privileges and liberties that our goodly forefathers purchased for us at so dear a rate as the expense of their own blood …
- That the rising generation may see what care their forefathers have taken to defend their liberties and privileges, that they may take the like care if they are called to it as we are.
There
was no hesitancy by the town council to sustain this proclamation, and the citizen support was by all
accounts unanimous.
Uncle Eleazer would have been only a lad of sixteen at this time,
but by 1776 his name appears on the county tax rolls, which made him a voting
member of the town. The following January, Eleazer volunteered for a three year
period, serving under Captain Mayberry under the direction of Colonel Benjamin
Tupper in the 10th Massachusetts Regiment, and later in the 11th
Regiment.
 |
| Only 2 pair of shoes |
The
members of this regiment were among the 12,000 Continentals in the winter at Valley Forge with George Washington and
the destitution they suffered wrenches the heart. It is said that, at
one time, there were but two pairs of shoes in Captain Mayberry’s company and
those belonged to Josiah Chute.
The people of Windham heard of their sons’
suffering and voted on April 14, 1778, to provide $150.00 to “defray the charge
of providing shirts, stockings, and shoes for the soldiers in the Continental
Army.”
Today,
on his birthday, think of Eleazer and everything he endured, on our behalf.
