THREE CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS from First Church in Jamaica Plain Also known in mid-19 th century as Third Parish in Roxbury and as part of West Roxbury. compiled by Ellen McGuire, spring 2018 West Roxbury, in 1855, had a population of 4,813; a few church families lived in Roxbury and Brookline. The current building of First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist, was built in 1853 to replace a smaller wooden structure. The 120 pews were owned, like a condo today: they could be bought, sold, and inherited, and they were taxed each year with a fee, which was determined by estimating the cost of maintaining the building and its programs and staff for the coming year. There is still a chart on the back wall, under the organ loft, where brass plaques or cards could be inserted to show ownership. Fourteen pews have been removed, showing that the aisles were narrow, and the building was as full of seats as possible: there were two more pews in each section in the back, and some on each side in the space near the pulpit. There were also a few unowned pews for visitors or overflow. A few people (such as the local schoolmaster) kept several pews for a large household. The first listing of pew owners in the new building was in 1858. Many were merchants, doctors and lawyers, insurance brokers and editors. Quite a few had applied for passports to Europe or had visited the Far East. Other pews housed a famous woodcarver of ship figureheads, the landscape designer credited with laying out Forest Hills Cemetery, and a silversmith. There were also church families who had been in the area since the 1600 s, old Roxbury names like Williams, Curtis, and Weld, living on their farm land, and eventually subdividing for new middle-class homes on the trolley line. Many had been born within a few miles of the church, and many died in their homes nearby. Most of the families were also inter-related; for example, William James was seated in pew #27 with his family; his parents were in pew #26, and his wife Sarah was the daughter of Anson Dexter in pew #90. Most pews were owned by men born around 1800-1820, although some were owned by estates, or by widows or other women who were heads of households in the neighborhood. Consequently, many of the sons were born in the decades around 1830-1840. The fathers were leaders in the community, town officials in charge of raising troops when the president called them up. The sons were exactly the right age to go off to war when it arrived in 1861. A reasonable estimate is that 35 men from First Church families saw combat in the Civil War. At least three of them died in combat.
Soldiers from First Church were concentrated in two regiments, both organized at Camp Meigs in Readville (now in Hyde Park, near the Neponset River, Dedham and Milton). 20 th Mass. Volunteer Infantry was known as the Harvard Regiment, because all the officers, and some of the private soldiers, had attended Harvard. It was organized in 1861 at Camp Meigs. After training, they left on 4 Sep 1861 for Washington, D.C. They fought in all the major battles of the war, except First Bull Run. 18 officers and 391 enlisted men died, the most of any Mass. regiment. 45 th Mass. Volunteer Infantry was known as the Cadet Regiment because it was largely formed from men who were part of the Mass. Corps of Cadets, formed in 1741 to guard the royal governor, and reformed in 1776 to guard the governor and State House. This was a Nine-Month Regiment, in response to President Lincoln s request on 4 August 1862 for additional troops. They were organized in early fall 1862 at Camp Meigs, and embarked on the steamer Mississippi on 5 Nov 1862 to North Carolina, where fighting continued throughout the winter. The 45th returned to Boston and were mustered out in July 1863. Many of the men eventually joined other units as the war continued. Of the 935 officers and enlisted men in the 45 th Mass., the following came from First Church: Lt. Henry May Bond, pew #103 Lt. William Sturgis Bond, pew #103 Col. Stephen Minot Weld Jr., pew #1 Franklin Weld, pew #47 George Walker Weld, pew #54 2 nd Lt. Benjamin Holt Ticknor, pew #36
WILLIAM BLACKSTONE WILLIAMS Capt. William Blackstone Williams, engineer, Co. E, 2 nd Mass. Infantry, was killed 9 Aug 1862, Battle of Cedar Mountain (preceding Second Bull Run), Virginia, a Confederate victory. When he entered the service, said, I am young and unmarried, and am just the one to go. His body was brought back for burial in the church graveyard on Aug. 17. His life is one of those remembered at the dedication of The Monument in front of First Church. Parents: Moses Williams (1790-1882, pew #48), merchant, & Mary Blake. Moses was on the Brookline town military committee in 1861 & 1862, charged with raising troops and money for the Civil War effort. from Faces of the Civil War: An Album of Union Soldiers and Their Stories by Ronald S. Coddington (The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2004): Williams opposed the Republican Party. His minister described him as staunch in the conviction that the success of that party, following the long agitation at the North of the disrupting question of slavery, had precipitated the Rebellion. But after the war began, the Boston bachelor put politics aside, left his father s home in Jamaica Plain, and raised recruits for the Second Infantry. He brought a wealth of experience and privilege to his command. Born into a family of means, he studied drawing and mathematics under private teachers and became an engineer. In 1850, he accompanied a team of engineers to Mexico to survey a rail route across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The venture was abandoned a year later, but Williams continued working in the booming railroad business and prospered from lucrative construction contracts in the Midwest. In 1858, he toured Europe, returning just before the war started. Williams s accomplishments sat with an easy grace upon him and, combined with a gentle and easy manner of speaking, earned him the respect of the enlisted men and his fellow officers. Friends remembered him as generous and upright, cool, reflective, sagacious, resolute in purpose, courageous. His body was sent home, and a memorial service held at the Unitarian Church in Jamaica Plain was attended by a large group of mourners. The pastor said of Williams, My friends, his best eulogy cannot be spoken. It is the silent homage to his worth, of which this immense concourse of friends is the expression; it is the unbounded confidence, respect, and love of his companions in arms it is the eternal debt which the American Nation owes to his memory, and the enrolment of his name in the grand historical obituary of the peerless defenders of her institutions, her liberties, and her life.
WILLIAM HARRIS SIMPKINS Capt. William Harris Simpkins (1840-63), clerk, unmarried. 4 th Mass., Co. B; 44 th Mass., Co. F; 54 th Mass., Co. K. Died and buried at Fort Wagner, Charleston, SC, with Col. Robert Gould Shaw, 18 Jul 1863. This battle is depicted at the end of the movie Glory. Willie Simpkins was described as a sweet-faced curly-haired boy by some who knew him at Dedham High School, where he was a student for three years before the family moved to JP. His life is one of those remembered at the dedication of The Monument in front of First Church. Parents: John Simpkins (1799-1884, pew #80), merchant, & Abigail Harris.
HENRY MAY BOND Henry May Bond (1836-64, publisher), Co. B, 45 th Mass. Infantry; later, Adjutant, 20 th Mass. Infantry. Harvard 1859. Killed at Battle of the Wilderness, 1864. His life is one of those remembered at the dedication of The Monument in front of First Church. Parents: George William Bond (1811-92, pew #103), merchant, and his first wife, Sophia Augusta May (1811-41), whose grandfather John May had dumped tea in Boston Harbor in 1773. from Faces of the Civil War: An Album of Union Soldiers and Their Stories by Ronald S. Coddington (The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2004): On May 14, somewhere along the trail leading to Belle Plain, Mosby s men came upon Bond and shot him to death. He was remembered by one newspaper correspondent as a young man of a loving nature, beloved by all who knew him. Sincere and true, warm-hearted, single-minded. He left a memory without a shadow resting upon its goodness.