The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-05-25
Some Heroes who lie in NeWbury
Cemetery. r.
Written for the OPINION. !

The observance of Memorial Day has
many values beside that of concentrating
the dead heroes of the civil war. The
searching out of the graves of Revolution
airy soldiers and marking them with flags
has revived interest in the earlier struggles
which gave us our nation. No other cause
has contributed so much toward the i'm
prOvement of neglected burial grounds, as
their annual visitation on Memorial Day.
1t is the purpose of this paper to say
something about few heroes of the RevO-
lutionary war, and the Old French war
which preceded it, among the many who
sleep in the Ok Bow burying ground near
Newbury village.
l have been asked as to the number of
Revolutionary soldiers who are buried there.
No one living can tell. About thirty graves
of such are marked with memorial stones in
various degrees of preservation. Some
twenty more can be pointed out by few
old people, or are known to be somewhere
within the older portion of the Enclosure.
Others were buried there so long ago that
their names as well as their graves are for
gotten. 1t would be safe to say that the
number probably exceeds seventy-tive.
Of these, General Jacob Bayley, Col. ia
cob Kent, Richard Chamberlain and his
son, Abial, and Simeon Stevens, served in
the Old French war. There are probably
Others.
The career of Gen. Bayley is we'll known
anu llJJle 0eeu De Sdlu OF MIN mere. DdyIby
and Kent were officers in Golf regiment
in Amherst's expedition for the conquest of
Canada. Col, Kent was present at the sur
render of BurgOyne. The sword which he
carried in both the Old French war and in
the war for independence, is still owned by
his descendant, Col. Henry o. Kent of Lam
caster. The Kent family is extinct in New
bury, but their kindred elsewhere, look
carefully after the graves of their ancestors
in this place. The pride which the descend
ants of Gen. Bayley take in their ancestor
should assume the practical form of pre-
serving his grave from neglect,
A few feet from Col. Thomas Johnson's
monument, a crumbling stone marks the
grave of Richard Chamberlain, one of the
first settlers of Newbury. He came of
race of pioneers, backwOOdsmen, fitted by
nature to cope with wild beasts and savage
men. Such are invaluable in new colony;
fearless, resolute, ready to drop the axe and
take up the musket.
Some of them became so skilled in all the
wiles of Indian warfare, as to be ter
Tor to the Indians themselves. The grand
father of Richard was a soldier in King
Philips war. His father, Nathaniel Cham
bcrlain, seems to have been content only TO
live on the frontier, pushing forward into
the wilderness again as the country became
settled. He was in several wars, appears
to have been at the front when there was
any fighting going on with the Indians. He
was once or twice captured by them, and
when he must have been nearly seventy,
served with his son, Richard, and his grand
son, Abial. three generations of them, in the
Old French war Yet, in spite Of all his hard
service, he lived to be 81 years of age.
Richard, the pioneer of Newbury, was
one of thirty men, under command OF Capt
Phinehas Stevens. who defended the fort at
Charlestown. n. H., then called Number
Four" in April, 1747, for three days and
nights against large force OF French and
Indians under Delaplalne. This was one
of the most desperate sieges on record.