Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1901-05-22
A MAINE PATRIOT
BIT OF TEXAS HISTORY IN
WHICH MAINE MAN FIGURED.
TOLD BY HIS SON AT THE GRAVE OF
HERo-AN INCIDENT OF THE
MEXICAN WAR.

fThe following address delivered by Dean
Richardson, rector OF st. Marks church, San
Antonio, Texas. before the city schools. will be
of interest to many readers of THE AMERICAN
not only rs giving an interesting glimpse of
history, but because of the prominent part
taken IN Il by Maine man, a native of Mt. De-
sert Island The author also has many acquaint
ances on Mt. Desert island and In Hancock
county, which fact gives the article additional
INTEREST,"
Although we are met here on the an
niversary OF the fail OF the Alamo, the
Thermopyie of Texas, yet our meeting
here day, ON Milan square, and at the
base OF the beautiful monument which
the ladies OF the Lorenzo de Zavala
chapter OF the Daughters of the Republic
are erecting to the memory of Benjamin
II. Milan, is more especially in his honor
And hat is why these excellent ladies,your
faithful teachers, have requested me to
address you, becsuse OF certain special
and personal interest have In the subject
based upon the fact Of my fathers per-
sonal participation in many Of the scenes
anu iHStdcutn Va thpoc 5tnIluS tihS5, VI
his personal friendship and admiration
for Milan, and of the fact that he was
the last one to speak to Milan, immedi-
ateIy before he fell.
Permit me now to 20 way back OF
those times and give you some rem
inisceHces of my father searly life bearing
on our subject, and leading up, in very
singular way, to the happy elimination
thai sees us, all gathered here, a happy,
peaceful throng, who know little now of
wars alarms. We are very greatly in
deDted to the patriotic zeal OF these noble
ladies, who are not content to let the
thrilling history OF those times go untold
nor untaught, nor those heroes Of our
past fall into oblivion, unwept union
ored and unsung.
My father, stephen Richardson,
member OF Austin's first colony, was
down easter, being native of Mt. Desert
island, Maine. Conditions OF life there
were peculiarly severe and uninviting.
Its clustered granite mountains and its
rock-ribbed, IRON bound shores, the ter
ror to the mariner, held little OF attraction
u lts eOuS anu iS5o W lhC 7lEauESit III
though now Bar Harbor, its chief port.
might almost be considered as one Of the
elegant suburbs of Boston. 1t Is said
that the special "Mt. Desert limited" from
Boston, sometimes called the "Flying
Dude" only touches in two or three high
places between the two points. But then
the artist had not yet explored its grand
no
braved its crags nor whipped its beautiful
lakes and purling brooks for the speckled
beauty, the trout. l am not telling fish
stories to- day, so l only incidentally mem
tion that once caught there twenty-five
speckled trout In less than an hour.
We are now good friends with England.
We honor the grand old nation, and all
she has stood for of Christianity and en-
lightenment and civilization; and we rev.
erence her as our mother and claim as our
heritage her history, her literature, her
greatness; and only lately, with sincere
and loving sympathy, We have Joined with
her in doing reyerent homage to the MEM
ory of her noble queen. But it was not
always so. Aside from the Revolution
when her daughters, the American col
onies, concluded to set up ouse-keeping
for themselves-there arose an unpleasant
ness between us in 1872, the old lady being
little too confident of her own strength
and our weakness. The spirit of rs was
not dead, patriotism lighted again her
fires on the altar OF liberty and her
beacons on the hills.
Meetings were held at my grandfather's
house in Mt. Desert, as elsewhere along
the coast, to organize what were called
"Minute Men,, to guard their ports and
respond to every call at minutes notice.
One OF my uncles was secretary OF the
meeting and my father formally enlisted
in the army.
Full of boyish enthusiasm, he dreamed
the night before he left home that he was
In a battle; and so vivid WAS the dream
that 1t was indelibly impressed on his
memory. He passed through his fall
term of service, however, without being
in any battle; the nearest be came to 1t
was at the battle of Plattsburg, which he
saw across an arm OF the lake which pre-
vented the command to which he be-
longed from getting into the fight.
Passing out OF the service at the close
of the war, he drifted west and south;
taught school in Shawnee Town on the
Ohio in 1916; came down the Ohio ana the
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