In
1898, the South Berwick town warrant proposed the town spend “the sum of $500 in aid of the erection of a soldiers' monument in said town.” The voters, like many in America at the time, then gratefully erected a memorial to the fallen soldiers of the Civil War.
On this site in the late 1700s stood the Meeting House of the Plains, a Baptist church that often doubled as a seat of government. For decades, Berwick churches functioned as town halls, and this Baptist meeting house served this purpose as did Congregational/First Parish meeting houses.
Here at the Plains Meeting House, on November 7, 1796, voters assembled to cast their ballots in the first Presidential election since the retirement of George Washington, in which John Adams defeated Thomas Jefferson. The Berwick electors on the local ballot were Richard Foxwell Cutts, Nathaniel Wells and Ichabod Goodwin.
Maine at the time was still part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and so voters also cast ballots for Massachusetts representatives to Congress. Locally they filled seats for such posts as the selectmen, surveyors of lumbers and highways, "hogreeves" to catch loose pigs, and an overseer of the poor.
At town meetings before and during the Civil War, merchant Thomas Jewett, Sarah Orne Jewett's wealthy great uncle who lived across the street, was a prominent speaker, according to "The South Berwick Register, 1904". Jewett's son-in-law and daughter, Elisha and Sally Jewett, lived on the corner. The monument area became known in the early 20th century as Jewett Park.
The town house had begun as a Baptist
Church. A map of 1795 shows a meeting house at the intersection. One of
Maine’s first Baptist congregations had been meeting at Great Hill
for decades, and by the turn of the 18th century another group of Baptists
had "gathered in Berwick, on the Plains now known as South Berwick
village,” according to church histories. They worshipped here till
the present First Baptist Church was built on Main Street in 1824. These
early ministers included Rev. William Chadbourne and Rev. Ebenezer Boyd.
The latter lived in the William Lambert House and
sometimes held services there.
Sarah Orne Jewett had childhood memories of the old Baptist meeting house. “I remember that the unpainted woodwork had taken a beautiful brown tint with age,” she wrote in her essay, “The Old Town of Berwick,” “and that it used to be a vast pleasure in my childhood to steal into the silent place, and to sit alone, or with small, whispering friends, in one of the high, square pews.”
Yet another reason this place seemed appropriate for a soldiers’ memorial could have been because “the Plain” was where the militia used to drill in the early 1800s, and perhaps before, in nearby fields, presumably in the area that is now Norton Street near the Cummings Shoe Factory:
-- By order of the Colonel, Isaac P. Yeaton, Adjutant (From Old Eliot, Book Three, Vol. VIII, p. 195)
The Civil War monument also is over a century old now. About the time the it was erected, Berwick Academy – then South Berwick’s high school – built the Fogg Memorial building, and Sarah Orne Jewett also donated a Civil War window in honor of the soldiers and sailors of the community who fought and died.
The sides of the Soldiers’ Monument list the names of South Berwick’s
soldiers who served during the Civil War. Below, from the 1880 History
of York County, is the South Berwick “Roster of Soldiers”
in the “War of the Rebellion.”
| Bowen
Abbott James Bedell John W. Adams George H. Abbott James Buckley Isaiah Boston George Boucher Augustus Bennett Elijah F. Boston John Brown Thomas Chadbourne Whitney R. Carpenter William H. Carpenter Richard Carpenter Ransom B. Crook George E. Coffin William Clary William H. Chick Joseph F. Chase Andrew Chaney Charles H. Chaney Benjamin F. Cooper John F. Doe Benjamin Doe Benjamin Doe John L. Dillingham Joseph Doe Benjamin F. Davis Reuben Dennett George W. Durgin George W. Emery |
John Earl Franklin Emery John B. Foote Isaac P. Fall Flavel H. Goodwin Robert Goodwin George W. Goodwin John P. Grant John Gray Charles A. Goodwin James W. Goodwin Ivory L. Goodwin Edward Hogan William H. Hooper Albert A. Higley Edwin Hatch Aaron Hubbard Henry G. Harvey Lorenzo S. Hanson Lyman M. Hanscom Nelson Harmon Charles A. Harvey John W. Harvey Granville Hasty James N. Hatch Albert A. Highley Eben N. Higley George S. Joy Greenville W. Jay [Joy?] Charles W. Jenkins |
Joshual C. Jellison
William H. Jellison Reuel Jackson William Kerr William W. Keyes Addis Luke George W. Luke Andrew I. Luke Jedediah Littlefield James H. Littlefield George A. McIntire Frank W. Martin Albert D. Mason Dennis McLaughlin Elihu J. Mills Robert H. Mathes Charles E. Nealley Daniel Nason Elwell Nason Luther Nason Robert Nason Edward P. Nicholson Charles S. Norman William F. Pray Ivory Pray George Pierce Sylvester Pierce John F. Pierce Jonas Reynolds Timothy F. Ricker Alexander Rowell |
Chas. G. A. Stevens
Henry W. Shorey Joseph F. Spencer Joshua Spencer Chas. E. Stevens Wm. Thompson George W. Trickey George W. Tucker John E. Tucker Charles Tucker Daniel H. Tucker Oliver Walker Frederick Wilkinson Albert R. Walker George Wilkiunson John W. Whitehead James E. Wiggin Charles H. Wadleigh Chadbourne Warren Nathaniel F. Warren Albert F. Wentworth Bradford H. Wentworth Samuel T. Wentworth Wentworth Welch Harrison Whitehouse John H. Wiggin George A. Wiggin Edward Wiley Henry Wentworth Lysander B. Young Daniel P. York |
Foreign Enlistments:
|
Sylvester
Abbott, 16th New York Infantry |
George W. Smith,
U. S Navy |
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