The Portland daily press., 1897-09-09
sweetser, was a soldier at Louisburg in

Sweetser, was a soldier at Louisburg in
1745.
WilliamsTukey entered the army at four
teen, in Capt. Thomas Bragdon's Com
pany, in Col. Joseph Primes Regiment
IN 1880, served in Capt. Reeds Co. in
Col. Samuel MoCobb's Regiment, and
was also in another harbor guard under
Lieut.. Mcclellan. He served until peace
was declared in Capt. Peter MerrilPs Co.
When about seventeen, he went on q
cruise in q privateer He lived on Con-
gress street opposite Wilmot, and his
house built in 1886, was moved to Lincoln
street, where it now stands. His wife
was Sarah Williams of Gloucester, Mass,
whom he married in 1859. They had
eleven children. He died March l9, 1855,
aged 80 years, and was buried in the
Eastern cemetery. By trade he was a
mason and worked on the Longfellow
house, Portland Light and Fort Sumner.
d. q. Colesworthy wrote of him Dur
ing the latter portion of his life the ven
cradle man might be seen slowly walking
through the streets, now and then stop
ping to converse with some old friend or
kindly speaking to little child. We
have. often listened to hear him tell OF
Falmouth in ancient times and the STIR
ring events that preceded the burning of
the town in 1875.
Mr.. Turkey was my great grandfather
Stephen Tukey's brother, and when l
was small boy he told me the story of
the burning of Falmouth in 1775. His
fathers house stood on the west corner of
what is now Congress and Quincy streets,
and one of Mowat's cannon balls entered
the house and rolled across the floor. 1t
was saved and I remember seeing it, but
it was lost, with other family relics, in
the great fire of 1866 Four sons of this
family served in the army, Benjamin,
Stephen, Houchin and William. Ben
jamln was killed, in TIT, by the prema-
ture discharge Of q cannon while cele-
brating the capture of Burgoyne's army.
Abraham Young probably served in the
early part of the war, entered Capt. Paul
Ellis Co. in Col. Timothy Bigelow s
Regiment and probably served three
years. He served in Capt. JosephaPride e
Company in Col. Joseph Primes Regi-
ment in 1880, in Lieut.. Joseph Mcclellan s
Co. in 1891, besides service in this COM
pany.
John Ramsey besides his service In
Sergt. Bagley's Company, served in Capt
Abner Lowell's Co. and Lieut.. Joseph
Mcclellan Co. in 1891.
Old Falmouth was patriotic town, and
contributed much towards the Revolution
Its proportion of beef, in 1881, was 1896
pounds and 1t was required to furnish Al
shirts, Al pairs of shoes and stockings
and f13 blankets. They raised that year
thirty men to serve during the war and
voted them twenty dollars, in silver,
bounty, and ten dollars per month pay.
Willis said Hthis town contributed its
full proportion of men and supplies to
support the war and it is believed more
than any town in Maine notwithstand-
ing its serious loss at the commencement
of hostilities.
When peace was declared our affairs
were in condition anything but encour-
aging. The cost of the war had been
over one hundred and thirty five millions
of dollars. We owed, as the United
States, forty two millions of dollars, and
the individual states were in debt over
twenty millions more, making a total
debt of over sixty two millions. We had
an unpaid army of about ten thousand
men who were bordering on mutiny
which took all the tact of Gen. Washing
ton to pacify. We had no established
government, and, in 1889, a monarchy
was suggested, with Washington as king,
which he promptly frowned upon. The
country before the war had two classes,
the very rich and the very poor, and after
the WAR they were all very poor and the
country terribly impoverished. The peo-
pie did not or could not pay the taxes,
and in 1856 we had the Shay rebellion
which was promptly crushed by Gen.
Benjamin Lincoln.
AT the close of the war, Philadelphia
had about forty thousand inhabitants,
Boston about half as many, and New
York was third on the list. Now, those
three cities have more inhabitants than
the whole. country had at the time of the
Revolution.
The statesmen who brought order out
of the chaos, at the end Of the struggle,
should have the gratitude of thu country
for all time. They deserve it, as they
gave us our constitution, the bed rock of
our government, and Washington for our
first president. LOSING says:
while we weave chaplets of laurel for
the heroes who led our patriot armies, let
US not forget to entwine wreath of the
olive and myrtle for the brows Of those
civic heroes who SO early and ardently
thought and labored, and who perilled
SO much for their country's welfare. -
The last military order of the COM
mander in chief, in the war, closes with
these prophetic words: "Happy, Thrice
Happy shall they be pronounced hereafter
who have contributed anything, who
have performed the meanest Office in
erecting this stupendous fabric of free
dom and empire on the broad basis of in
dependency, who have assisted in pro-
tecting the rights of human nature. and
establishing an asylum for the oppressed
of all nations and rolipjODs -