Monuments at the Old Worcester
Courthouse
Before the old
courthouse is torn down, it made sense to write something of the monuments
found there. There are several monuments, but only three were interesting to
me.
They are respective
monuments to Timothy Biglow, Charles Devens, John Adams, and Henry Knox.
Timothy Biglow was a
blacksmith who lived and had his shop near College Hill in Worcester. He married Anna Andrews and they lived in her
father’s house where the old Court house now stands.
The first school house
in Worcester was also on the land upon which the old Court house now sits. One
of the teachers at this school was John Adams, the second president of Untied
States. While teaching there, Timothy Biglow was one of his pupils.
When the American
Revolution against British rule began, Timothy Biglow was a member of a group
of radicals known as the Sons of Liberty. He would lead a Worcester contingent
of Minute Men to Lexington and Concord to engage the British soldiers at the
start of the armed struggle.
Later in the American
Revolution Biglow was commissioned a colonel. He volunteered to go with Benedict
Arnold in an attempt to wrest control of Canada from British control. The Americans
were defeated and Colonel Biglow was captured. He was later released in a
prisoner exchange and he continued his service in the American Continental
army.
Although defeated in
Canada the American did not give up its claims to Canada until the 1870s. The
major city in Canada, Quebec continued to build its European like walls against
an American attack. The Americans tried to conquer Canada against in the War of
1812.
Biglow was not paid by
the Continental Congress while he served. After the Revolutionary War the
Congress gave Biglow land in Vermont in lieu of pay. Due to debt and illness
Biglow never got to see his land grant. The capital of Vermont, Montpellier is
built on it.
At the Old Court House
there is a statue of Charles Devens. He was born in Charlestown (now a part of
Boston). He had a law degree from Harvard and he practiced law in Worcester
until the American Civil War.
Before the American
Civil War Devens was a Federal Marshal. One of his duties was to return people who had
escaped slavery to their masters. Thomas Sims was a man that Devens arrested and
sent back to slavery.
Although there is
evidence that Devens tried to purchase Thomas Sims’ freedom, the fact that
Devens remained a Marshall until 1853 is troubling for me.
In 1861 Devens led
Massachusetts soldiers in several major battles including Chancellorsville and
Cold Harbor. He was wounded several times. Devens was Military Governor Charleston
SC for a short period during Reconstruction.
General Devens was the
lead investigator in an incident during Reconstruction. Soldiers from a colored
regiment executed a confederate prisoner of war by hanging, Calvin Cozier,
after an altercation.
The White commander of
the Colored Troops took responsibility for the execution. However Devens
refused to accept the White commander’s plea and continued to seek blame from
the soldiers. Eventually the issue was dropped.
Henry Knox was a book
seller in Boston before the American Revolutionary War. There is evidence that
he was radicalized after he witnessed the Boston Massacre in 1770. If not a
member of the Sons of Liberty, he certainly supported its subversive activities.
After the Battles of
Lexington and Concord in 1775 the British army retreated to the relative safety
of Boston. There General George Washington laid siege to the British.
The siege was a
stalemate until Henry Knox arrived with cannons taken from the upstate New
York. Fort Ticonderoga has fallen to the Continental Army.
When I first saw the
monument to Henry Knox, I had a “who cares” feeling. Who cared that Henry Knox and his “Noble
Train” of cannons passed by the Old Worcester Court House? Surprisingly a lot a
people cared.
The monument at the
Old Court is one of several dozens such markers. These markers along the Noble
Trail from upstate New York to Dorchester Heights. A good portion of the Trail is now Route 20 in western Massachusetts. At Dorchester Heights the cannons could fire
into Boston as well into Boston Harbor.
These cannons
threatened both the British army on the Boston Peninsula and the British navy
in the harbor. General Howe evacuated Boston on March 17, 1776. The day is a
legal holiday only in Suffolk County MA which falls exactly on St. Patrick Day.
Every so often history
buffs will travel the entire trail that Knox followed. In many ways it is like
a treasure hunt, trying to locate markers overgrown with weed. The marker in
Worcester is not hard to find at all.
When the Old Court
house is developed or torn down or both. I wonder what will become of the monuments.
Will they be lost like the Honor Roll of Colored Troops?
