Seven Men of Danvers

Yesterday I visited the monument to the Seven Minutemen of Danvers who were killed at the Jason Russell House in Arlington (Menotomy) on April 19, 1775. At the time of the American Revolution Peabody was part of Danvers and was referred to as "South Danvers." The monument is located on the corner of Washington and Sewall Streets, adjacent to the Family United Methodist Church on Washington Street.



Inscribed on the front of the monument are the names of the seven men killed at Arlington (Menotomy). Although the monument reads "Battle of Lexington," these men were killed at the Jason Russell House in Arlington. The seven men are listed from oldest to youngest: Samuel Cook, age 35; Benjamin Deland, age 25; George Southwick, age 25; Jotham Webb, age 22; Henry Jacobs, age 21; Ebenezer Goldthwaite, age 21; Perley Putnam, age 21.



On the back of the monument is a dedication plaque which reads, "Erected by the Citizens of Danvers on the 60th Anniversary 1835" on the sixtieth anniversary of the Battles of Lexington/Concord/Menotomy, April 19, 1835.



Located across the street is the General Gideon Foster House and the Osborn-Salata House, now the homes of the Peabody Historical Society.

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Four of the seven men, namely George Southwick Jr., Benjamin Deland Jr., Ebenezer Goldthwaite, and Samuel Cook Jr., are buried in the nearby Old South Burying Ground on Main Street in Peabody, on the Peabody-Salem line. The stones have been replaced recently, as the original burial stones have been lost.

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Henry Jacobs is buried in the nearby Jacobs Family Cemetery. The burial sites of Jotham Webb and Perley Putnam are unknown at present. All five men whose burial sites are known were privates in the company of militia led by Captain Samuel Eppes, First Lieutenant Benjamin Jacobs and Second Lieutenant Gideon Foster, who later became a General during the Revolutionary War. Jotham Webb and Perley Putnam were privates in the company of minutemen led by Captain Israel Hutchinson, First Lieutenant Enoch Putnam and Second Lieutenant Aaron Cheever.⁵ Captain Israel Hutchinson lived on Water Street in the Danversport section of Danvers; reportedly the two slain men of his company were laid out in his home after the Battle of Menotomy. ⁶ It is likely that Perley Putnam and Jotham Webb are buried in Danvers. More research is needed to determine their burial sites.

In nearby Danvers, adjacent to the Village Training Field on Centre Street in the Salem Village Historic District, is a memorial to Danvers men killed in battle in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Mexican War.



Danvers men who responded to the call of military service in the 1700's and 1800's prepared for war on this historic field. The seven Danvers Minutemen trained and gathered here with other Danvers Minutemen before their fateful march to Arlington on April 19, 1775. The names of the seven Danvers Minutemen killed at the Jason Russell House, along with thirteen additional Danvers men killed during the American Revolution, are memorialized on the Revolutionary War monument.

This journey has personal significance for me, as Perley Putnam, my husband's fifth-great granduncle, is one of the seven Danvers Minutemen immortalized on the monuments in Peabody and Danvers.

For more information about the Jason Russell House and the Battle of Menotomy, please visit my blog post Isaac Royal House and Jason Russell House Tours.

References:
¹Old South Burying Ground (Peabody, Essex County, Massachusetts), George Southwick Jr. marker, photographed by Carol Swaine-Kuzel, 13 October 2014.
²Old South Burying Ground, Benjamin Deland Jr. marker, photographed by Carol Swaine-Kuzel, 13 October 2014.
³Old South Burying Ground, Ebenezer Goldthwaite marker, photographed by Carol Swaine-Kuzel, 13 October 2014.
⁴Old South Burying Ground, Samuel Cook Jr. marker, photographed by Carol Swaine-Kuzel, 13 October 2014.
⁵John Wesley Hanson, History of the Town of Danvers, From Its Early Settlement to the Year 1848 (Danvers, Mass.: Published by the author, 1848), 107-108.
⁶Richard B. Trask, Danvers (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2002), 62.