The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1888-03-29

4 EEtr.''Es %+ "Na '<'i o. @Aa@ - - w. - .+"
Daylight came at half past four o'clock.
Just then the reg'lars, who had heard the
drum beat, rushed toward us, and their
leader shouted, 'Disperse, you rebels' We
stood still. He repeated the order with an
oath, fred his pistol, and ordered his men
to shoot. Only q few obeyed. Nobody was
hurt, and we supposed their guns were
loaded only with powder. We had been
ordered not to FIRE first, and so we stood
still. The angry leader of the reg'lars then
gave another order for them to fire, when a
volley killed or wounded several of our
company. Seeing the reg'lars trying to SUR
round us, Captain Parker gave the order to
retreat. As we fed some shots were sent
back. Joe and l climbed a fence near Par
son Clarke's house and took to the woods
near by. Climbing over, Joe fell upon a
heap of stones and crushed in his drum
head. His hand was bleeding badly, and he
found that a bullet had carried off a part of
his little finger. Eight Of our men had lost
their lives"
where were Adams and Hancock all this
timer" l inquired.
"Not far off. When the first shots were
heard they were advised to fly to a place of
safety, for their lives were too valuable to
be lost. At first they refused to 60, but
were finally persuaded, and retired to a
thick-wooded hill not far off. Dorothy
Quincy went with her lover. They were
married in the fall. 1t is said Sam Adams
hearing the firing on the Green, exclaimed,
What a glorious morning for America is
this have no doubt he said it, for it
was Just like him."
"You said two of your blood relations per-
ished in that fight" l observed.
eyes" he replied; "they were Jonathan
and Caleb Harrington. Caleb and Joe
Comes, who lived a mile from Lexington,
had gone into the meeting-ho house to get some
powder stored in the loft. They had taken
it to the gallery when the British reached
the building. They few to the door and
started on a run for the company. Caleb
was shot dead at the west end of the meeting
house, but Joe, though wounded, escaped.
Jonathan had stood his ground like the rest
His home was near the Westinghouse. He
was in front of his own dwelling when the
reg lars fired the third time, when lie was
shot in the breast and fell. His wife, Ruth,
stood looking out of the window with their
only child, nine years old, by her side. She
saw her husband fall and ran out to help
him.. He raised up, stretched out his arms
toward her. fell again, and was dead before
she could reach him. Oh, it was too cruel,
too cruel!"
"There were brave men in that little band
of PATRIOTS" l remarked.
"Brave mem" said the old man, his mild
eyes beaming with unusual lustre. ''Braver
men never lived. Not one of them left his
post until Captain Parker, seeing it was use
less to fight against 50 many ~reg'lars, told
them to dispense. There was one man who
wouldn't 20 even then. 1t was Jonas Park
er, of this town. He lived near Parson
Clarke's. He had said he would never run
from an enemy, and he didn't. He had
loaded his musket, put his hat containing
powder, wadding and bullets between his
feet, and so faced the r~eg'lars. At the
second fire he was wounded and fell on his
knees. Then he fred his gun; and though
he was dying, he reached for another charge
in his hat, when a big red coat killed him
with a bayonet on the very spot where Jonas
first stood. Wasn't that pluck?"
Rare pluck" l answered. "The names
of such men should never be forgotten"
They never will be-" replied the vener-
able patriot excitedly. "Their names are
all cut deep in marble on the little monu-
ment down yonder on the Grecn-Robert
Monroe, Jonas Parker, Samuel Hadlcy,
Jonathan Harrington, Jr., Isaac Murray,
Caleb Harrington, John Brown and Asahel
Porter. Should that marble perish, their
names are cut deeper in the memory of
Americans"
"You said it was a warm night when
Revere rode from Cambridge to Lexington"
| remarked.
eyes, it was a very early spring. Young
leaves appeared on the first day of April.
The grass ON the village green was so tall on
the morning of the 10th that it waved in the
light wind that was blowing. At noon that
day the quicksilver in Parson Clarke's Their
mometer rose to eighty-fve degrees on the
north side of his house, and the door-yards
were all bright with dandelions."
"Did you serve in the army afterward!"
I inquired.
"No," he said; "father went to the war,
and I stald at home to help mother take care
Of things, for 1 vas the oldest boy. I played
the fife sometimes after that when the young
men in the neighborhood were training for
the fight"
By permission. I drew a likeness Of Mr..
Harrington sitting in his ~rocking-chair, and
under it he wrote with q trembling hard,
which condition he attributed to the use of
the axe that morning,
JONATHAN HARRINGTON,
Aged 80, the 9Th July, 1848.
His brother Charles, two years younger
than he, came in before I had finished the
sketch. l could not but look with reverence