A Visit to Menotomy Village (Arlington, Massachusetts)

By Elaine Marie Cooper

Last May was a rare pleasure for this author: I was the guest speaker at the Jason Russell House (Smith Museum) in Arlington, Massachusetts, to discuss my latest release, Fields of the Fatherless.  This novel, based on a true story, is set in the very home in which I spoke. It is difficult to describe the many emotions that pulsed through my heart as I visited my hometown and relived the story in front of an audience. What a joy!

Not only was I able to revisit my hometown but I spent the day after the event visiting the landmarks of the story. Let me share some of the sites through the photos I took, along with quotes taken from Fields of the Fatherless.

“Always remember—this land you’re standin’ on was settled by my great-grandfather. Russells have sweat over this soil for many a year. A musket can ensure it remains our home. No matter the intentions of any other.”

Several British soldiers ran off through a field toward Spy Pond but were shot at by several of the elderly local men who had been exempted from joining the Minutemen.

“David Lamson.” Betsy said the old man’s name in disbelief as she watched him and the other veterans regroup and stare at the carnage.

Several of the men hauled the carcasses of the dead horses away from the road and others pulled the supply-laden British wagons down into a hollow just off the road.

Workers at the burying ground dug one huge grave for all twelve men. There was little time to prepare hand-sewn shrouds or wooden boxes in which to lay the bodies. There was a war to prepare for.

Betsy determined to bring flowers once a week to the graves of the buried British soldiers who had died in Menotomy. There were at least 40 of them.

Elizabeth Russell died in 1786 at the age of sixty-five. She is buried next to her husband, Jason, in the old burying ground.

More soldiers—both American and British— died in Menotomy Village (now called Arlington) on that day than all the other towns between Concord and Boston.

Thank you for touring the town of Arlington, Massachusetts, known during the American Revolution as Menotomy Village.

Elaine Marie Cooper is the author of the award-winning, Fields of the Fatherless. For more information, you can visit her website here.

Hidden in the History Books: The Battle of Menotomy

April 19, 1775

2:00 AM

It seemed only a few moments before an unfamiliar sound thrust her upright once again. Her heart took on a new beat as the strange and rapid thumping sound grew louder. It stirred her blood with a chill that sent its icy prickle from her feet all the way to her neck.

Soon, the candleholder on her small table danced, reverberating to the increased pounding on the road. She clutched the unlit lamp, lest it fall to the floor, placing it on the soft mound of her bedding to keep it steady.

Betsy fought the grip of nausea in her belly and forced her stiffened legs from under the covers. Stepping gingerly and with an unsteady gait, she crouched down and made her way to the open window. Standing to the side so she could not be seen, she peered carefully around the edge of the window jamb. The scene below sent ripples of terror through her body and mind. It was unlike anything Betsy had ever imagined in the deepest recesses of her fears.

Pounding the muddy road right next to their stone wall, soldiers of the king’s army—splendid and frightening in their royal red uniforms—trudged in unison, four abreast. Their faces were stoic and determined in the moonlight, and their beaver hats made them look as tall as Goliath. The most frightening image, however, was the silvery row of gleaming bayonets. Situated in perfect array on the shoulders of the regulars marching in expert time, the flowing wave of exposed steel weapons rippled like a smooth river in the moonlight. It was both beautiful and terrifying.

                          —Excerpt from Fields of the Fatherless

Before the British troops ever arrived at Lexington and Concord, they first made their way through Menotomy Village, Massachusetts.  Now known as Arlington, it was the town that I grew up in, a place that left an old house standing for over 200 years in remembrance of the terrible battle that occurred there that first day of the American Revolution. It was a battle long overshadowed by the events at Concord Bridge and the Lexington green. Yet more soldiers—both British and American—died in Menotomy Village than any other town that day.

Growing up as a youngster, I never understood the historical significance of my hometown nor the Jason Russell House that stood as a memorial on the corner up the street from my own home. I’d walk by the old dwelling frequently and my big brother tried to scare me with tales of “blood on the floor.”

Long after I grew up and moved away, I learned the sad story of my hometown that happened to stand along the route of the British retreat to Boston; the village that suffered the consequences of an enraged, out-of-control army that took out their revenge on the citizens of Menotomy. It was a story of both terror and bravery. It was a story that begged to be told. I feel so privileged to be able to share that story in “Fields of the Fatherless.”

So on this April 19 known as Patriot’s Day in Massachusetts (celebrated this year on April 21) please remember the nearly-forgotten citizens of Menotomy Village, Massachusetts. And say a prayer of thanks for the freedoms we hold dear in these United States. Let us not forget the sacrifice of so many who laid down their lives for the freedoms we hold dear.