Civil War Veterans
1898 - Soldiers’ Monument – Portland Street and Agamenticus Road
On this site in the late 1700s stood the Meeting House of the Plains, a Baptist church and town meeting site. It still appeared on a map of 1856 as the Town House. In 1898, the town approved the Soldiers' Monument to be placed on the site, and annual Memorial Day gatherings recalled the sacrifices of the Civil War. For over 100 years the monument has been the scene of tributes to South Berwick veterans of all wars.
Baptist meeting house. A map of 1795 shows that on this site stood the Meeting House of the Plains, a Baptist church that often doubled as a seat of government. One of Maine’s first Baptist congregations had been meeting at Great Hill, about 10 miles away in the eastern part of town, for decades. 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. That meeting house was at this location, and they worshipped here till the First Baptist Church was built on Main Street in 1824. Early ministers at the Meeting House of the Plains included Rev. William Chadbourne and Rev. Ebenezer Boyd. The latter lived in the William Lambert House and sometimes held services there.
South Berwick Town House. In those days, churches often also functioned as town halls, and this Baptist meeting house served this dual 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.
In 1814, South Berwick became a town separate from Berwick for the first time.
A critical issue citizens grappled with in 1819 was whether to support Maine's statehood. There was much agreement in Maine for separating from Massachusetts, but in a vote at the Plains Meeting House on July 6, 1819, the "separation of the District of Maine from Massachusetts Proper" went down to defeat by 70-35 vote. The reason was the Missouri Compromise, that allowed the admission of Missouri as a slave state if Maine were granted statehood. Strong anti-slavery sentiment led South Berwick to oppose the compromise. On December 30, South Berwick voters registered opposition to new states entering the Union "without some prohibition respecting the toleration of slavery in such states," registered the "concern and abhorrence the existence of slavery in this country," and called on Congress to require the abolition of slavery where it existed in any new states. However, the Missouri Compromise was enacted on March 3, 1820.
The old Baptist church of the Plains remained a Town House through the middle of the century, as shown by the map at left. Author Sarah Orne Jewett had childhood memories of playing inside. “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.”
At town meetings before and during the Civil War, merchant Thomas Jewett was a prominent speaker, according to The South Berwick Register, 1904. He was author Sarah Orne Jewett's wealthy great uncle, who lived across the street from the Town House. His son-in-law and daughter, Elisha and Sally Jewett, lived on another nearby corner. The monument area became known in the early 20th century as Jewett Park.
Militia drills. The intersection the Portland Street and Agamenticus Road has long been associated with soldiers. This flat part of town had been dubbed “the Plain,” and in the early 1800s, and perhaps long before, the militia came here to drill in nearby fields, presumably on the level ground that is now Norton Street near the Cummings Shoe Factory.
Second Regiment first Brigade and first Division of Maine Militia -- South Berwick, September 24, 1829:
“Pursuant to a Brigade order of September 21st, A.D. 1829, Capt. Samuel F. Staples will parade the company under his command on the plain near The Revd. Mr. Boyd's Meeting house in South Berwick, on Wednesday the fourteenth day of October next, at Seven o'clock in the forenoon, armed and equipped as the law directs for military duty, review and inspection: and there await the orders of the Adjutant of Said Regiment. Capt. Staples will make written application as by law directed to the Select Men of the town wherein his Company belongs for the rations to which they are entitled. The Regiment will be ready for the reviewing officer at nine o'clock in the forenoon.
-- By order of the Colonel, Isaac P. Yeaton, Adjutant (From Old Eliot, Book Three, Vol. VIII, p. 195)
The monument. 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, gratefully wanted to erect a memorial to the fallen soldiers of the Civil War.
About the time the monument was constructed, Berwick Academy – then South Berwick’s high school – built the Fogg Memorial building, and Sarah Orne Jewett 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 many South Berwick soldiers and sailors 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 |
(Summary by Wendy Pirsig from the archives at the Counting House Museum and records of the South Berwick Town Clerk. Updated December 2020.)