|
Town of Monroe, ME |
|
Soldiers Monument
The Soldiers Monument of Monroe by Charles Francis Situated in a picturesque little
cemetery in the town of Monroe is one of the most unique war memorials in the entire country. It is the Soldiers Monument
of Monroe, which was erected through the efforts of seven Monroe Civil War veterans to honor not just veterans of Monroe but
of the entire Penobscot Valley. The Soldiers Monument of Monroe is not only central to the history
of the Town of Monroe but also to the history of the entire Penobscot Valley. While the monument only commemorates a few Revolutionary
War veterans from the area, it lists residents of the Penobscot Valley who fought in the War of 1812 and in the Civil War
along with their company and regiment. The monument is eighteen feet tall and five feet square at the base.
The cap and die base rests upon a rough asher, a squared block of building stone.
Upon the four sides of the cap are the words “Appomattox,” “Port Hudson,” “Gettysburg,”
and the “Wilderness,” the principal engagements in which Penobscot Valley soldiers participated. The panels of
the die contain 244 names in raised letters and one name that was scratched on at a later date. Two of the names are from
the Revolution, forty-four from the War of 1812 and the remainder from the Civil War. On the base is the following: “The
perpetual memory of the defenders of the Union, 1861-1865. Erected by the Monroe Soldiers Monument Association May 30, 1887.”
On another side: “Yet loved ones have fallen and
still where they sleep
A sorrowing nation shall silently weep, And spring’s brightest flowers with gratitude strew
O’er those who once cherished the red, white and blue.” on the third side: “Erected on land
presented to the soldiers by Freeman Atwood of Monroe.” On the four sides of the plinth, the next section of
the monument, are the emblems of the Grand Army of the Republic, an anchor,
a cavalryman, an eagle and a coat of arms. Atop the plinthe stands a full size statue of a soldier at parade
rest facing east. Over 150 men from Monroe served in the Civil War. Of this number, five were killed
in action, five died of wounds and twenty-five succumbed to diseases like typhoid and chronic diarrhea. In 1886, seven Monroe
men formed the Monroe Soldiers Monument Association to erect the Soldiers Monument of Monroe. They were Henry S. Webber, President;
Horace C. Webber, Vice resident; Martin L. Robertson, Secretary; Edwin Lufkin, Treasurer; Isaac F. Cook, Jefferson Nealley,
and Thomas R. Clements, Trustees. The monument, which was cast of refined zinc by the White Bronze
Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, was the first of its type in Maine- there are four of like size left in the state today,
though there were over ten at one time- and just the second in New England. It is colored to semble polished granite. Interestingly,
there are several other smaller zinc memorials in the immediate area of the Soldiers Monument of Monroe, serving as grave
markers of individual veterans. It was not until the post-Civil War era, that the process for manufacturing
zinc was refined to the point that long-lasting zinc products could be produced. Zinc, while very brittle at room temperature,
becomes malleable when heated. It also acquires an extremely attractive bluish-white luster. For this reason, zinc monuments,
statues and memorials were the vogue in the latter part of the nineteenth century. It was even possible to purchase zinc grave
markers from a Sears & Roebuck catalogue. Some of the individual zinc grave markers near the Soldiers Monument of Monroe
were purchased by mail order. The monument sits in what is today called the Monroe Village Cemetery.
The original cemetery was known as the Monroe Soldiers Memorial Cemetery. The
land for the cemetery was donated to the Monroe veterans group associated with Ezra M. Billings Grand Army Post #74 of Monroe by Freeman Atwood of Monroe. (Atwood later donated an abutting parcel to the town for
the Monroe Village Cemetery.) Grand Army Post #74 was one of the most active
and largest posts in Maine and was composed of members from all over the Penobscot Valley. The Soldiers
Monument of Monroe traveled, in three sections, by train to Brooks, which borders Monroe, accompanied by a Mr. Barnum, an
agent of the White Bronze Company. Two teams horses hauled the three sections of the monument to the Soldiers Memorial Cemetery,
where a foundation had been built and a derrick waited. Prior to the arrival of the monument, the Monroe
Soldiers Monument Association invested a good deal of time and effort preparing the site for the monument as well as the cemetery
and the association itself. In April 1886, the association adopted a set of bylaws. Article 2 of the bylaws reads as follows:
“The object of this Association shall to erect upon the land deeded by Freeman Atwood to this Association, situated
in said Monroe: a monument to perpetuate the memory of all soldiers and sailors interested, who participated in the war of
1861 and 1865 by having their names cut upon said monument.” Article 10 read: “Any Soldier or Sailor of the late
Rebellion of 1861 and 1865 may become a member of this Association by signing their names to these By Laws. Thirty-three men
immediately signed. In May of 1886, the association planted rock maple trees along the roads leading into
the cemetery and around its boundaries. In June, Thomas Clements staked out thirty-three plots. (More would be added at later
dates.) Clements’ bill for the job was $1.90. The lots were to be sold for ten dollars apiece and the money was to go
towards the purchase of the monument. The next order of business was to prepare the site for the monument.
Nine men agreed to haul twenty-six slabs of granite to the site to serve as part of the base. Six men volunteered to break
the ground at the site. The ground breaking began on November 2, 1886 and must have proven more difficult than expected as
the next day seven more men continued the work. On November 4, they began work on the actual foundation. They finished the
next day and assembling on top of the foundation, at the word of Jefferson Nealley, gave three hearty cheers. Each man who
worked at the monument site was paid seventy-five cents a day. If he brought a horse he received a dollar a day. In April
of 1887, the asher was cemented to the foundation, which had been built the previous fall, and a derrick was put in place
to lower the parts of the monument onto the granite lab. The monument was hauled
to Monroe from Brooks and erected on May 20 and dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30, 1887. The monument was unveiled by Freeman
Atwood. The dedication speaker was Colonel W.H. Folger of Belfast, Maine. A dinner was served at the Grand Army Post hall that evening. The Monroe Soldiers Monument Association continued to
meet on a yearly basis down to the 1940’s when the membership began to decline. In 1892, they put a third road into
the cemetery. In 1904, the association staked out a lot to be used as the” Strangers Lot.” In 1911, Freeman Atwood
donated land for a receiving tomb for the cemetery. He was later given a cemetery plot close to the monument. Until the 1980’s, descendants and friends of the first association members kept the association going and cared
for the cemetery and the monument. However, due to attrition, care of the cemetery and the monument became too much for the
last few remaining association members, who then asked the Town of Monroe to take it over. On March 3, 1986 the town voted
to accept the cemetery. In January of 1998, Maine was hit with a devastating ice storm that caused
millions of dollars of damage. The ice that formed on the already deteriorating Soldiers Monument of Monroe further exacerbated
its condition. The Board of Selectmen then began investigating options to remedy the monument’s condition. The Board
hired Ronald Harvey of Tuckerbrook Conservation to do an assessment of the monument. Harvey determined that the cost of conserving
the monument would be just over $15,000. On November 18, 1998, the Board of Selectmen voted to appoint Audrey
Forero, Leon Moody, Charles Clark,
Forest Hart and Rhoda McAlpine to the Monroe Soldiers Monument Committee with Selectman Charles Francis acting as liaison between the Committee and the Board.
The Committee was charged with
applying for a matching funds grant with the federal Save Outdoor Sculpture program. From the onset, response to conserving the
statue was enthusiastic. When the first article and picture of the monument were published in a local weekly- even before
the assessment was completed- two veterans organizations immediately came forward with offers of aid. Members of the monument
committee have spoken to various civic organizations as has the conservator, Ronald Harvey. Organizations, such as the Belfast
chapter of the Improved Order of Redmen and the Frank Hazeltine Post, who both pledged $1,000, and the NCO Club of the National
Guard, which pledged $400, came forward to support the drive to conserve the monument. A pledge drive for individual contributors
was organized as well as other fund raising projects. Monroe Elementary School students raised over $1,000 and a public supper organized by Monroe residents netted over
$500. Television crews visited the monument and there were radio public service announcements. By mid-March, well over $8,000
in pledges had been raised and the grant application had been mailed to Washington. Thanks
to the efforts of hundreds of concerned area citizens, the Soldiers Monument of Monroe was preserved for future generations
of Penobscot Valley citizens.
|
||
|
|
