Some Facts

The Maine Society of the Sons of the American Revolution was organized in Portland in 1891. The preliminary meeting was held February 21; a proposed Constitution and By-Laws were presented for consideration February 28, and were adopted March 14. The election of officers followed March 28.

EARLY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In 1897 the MESSAR published the following list of accomplishments:
  1. It has published the records of the Revolutionary ancestors of its members.
  2. It has published, written by one of its members, a complete history of a Maine Regiment in the Revolution, the 31st Foot, Col. Edmund Phinney.
  3. It has compiled, through one of its members, and will soon publish the history of the 18th Continental Regiment.
  4. It has prepared, through one of its members, and will soon publish a sketch of Falmouth Neck during the Revolution.
  5. It has secured a fine copy in oil of Stuart's portrait of Gen. Henry Knox, and has hung the same in the Library Room of the Maine Historical Society.
  6. It has in part raised funds (and will soon complete the work) for an oil portrait of Gen. William Whipple, the only signer of the Declaration of Independence born upon the soil of Maine.
  7. It has held meetings on patriotic days such as Washington's Birthday and the Fourth of July.
  8. It has aided many persons in securing proofs of Revolutionary ancestry; and has greatly stimulated inquiry in matters of family history.
  9. It has commenced the collection of a library with especial reference to the Revolutionary War.
  10. It has secured a large amount of genealogical and historical records which will increase in value year by year.

MAINE IN WAR

Maine, although a province of Massachusetts until 1820, has a history of its own. Maine men have always stood shoulder to shoulder with the sons of the old mother Commonwealth and they share in the glory of her history. Nobly have they borne the responsibilities of their times. The early settlers, as civilization demanded, bravely contested with the American Indian the right to occupy our rugged soil, and the story of their lives is one of heroism.

In 1690, nearly all were driven from the province, but their sons and grandsons returned and reoccupied the abandoned homesteads. A Maine man, William Vaughan, suggested the siege of Louisburg in 1745. Gen. William Pepperrell, a Maine man, commanded the troops, and a considerable portion of the officers and men were from the province. Gen. Pepperrell was knighted for the wonderful success of that expedition.

Sons of Maine served bravely during the campaigns of the Seven Years' War (French and Indian War), and at the first alarm from Lexington they grasped their muskets and marched at once to Cambridge.

At Machias, the gallant men of that little settlement gave us, on June 12, 1775, "the Lexington of the seas." At the siege of Boston, Maine men did valiant service in the trenches, and Of The Patriot soldiers who heroically checked the advance of the British army at Hubbardston, one fourth were from the province of Maine. Maine men were at Quebec with Benedict Arnold, also at Ticonderoga, Long Island, Stillwater, Saratoga, the surrender of Burgoyne, spent the winter at Valley Forge, were at Monmouth and Quaker Hill and followed the fortunes of the Continental army until the surrender at Yorktown in 1781, remaining in the service until November, 1783.

The daring fishermen of our rugged coast served in the Continental navy and were with Paul Jones. They proudly walked the decks of our privateers in two wars, and dealt blows that were felt by our enemies.

The land is holy where they fought,
And holy where they fell;
For by their blood that land was bought,
The land they loved so well


MAINE MOVES ON

RUGGED RESOURCEFULL AND RELIABLE

After the Revolution, many of the Patriots who had served in both the local Militias and the Continental army, settled in the province of Maine, among them were Generals Knox, Lincoln, Wadsworth, also Henry Dearborn, Paul D. Sargent, David Cobb, Col. Jonathan Buck and many other officers and enlisted men. The towns and cities of Maine all honor many of our Patriot ancestors that lived to go on to great and noble lives of almost unbelievable accomplishments after they had served valiantly in so many ways during the American Revolution.

The descendents of those Patriot ancestors have added great glory to their fathers; our gallant Commodore Preble is a conspicuous figure in the early history of the American navy. In the war of 1812, although that war was unpopular with our people, Maine shirked no responsibility.

It was as a result of that war that Eastport became one of only three cities in our country ever occupied by a foreign power. The British took over the small city and occupied it four years, until at the Treaty of Ghent it was returned to our growing nation.

In the great American Civil War, referred to by the South, as the War Between the States, our record is known by all men. Maine sent into the field, over seventy thousand of her brave sons. It was one of her regiments that returned with the largest number of battles recorded on its colours of any regiment in the service. Another of her regiments had the greatest loss of men of any in a single battle. The colours, which they bore, are in the state house at Augusta, emblems of the devotion of the men of Maine in maintaining the integrity of the Union.

The history of Maine is full of the great deeds, unusual accomplishments, and the unswerving dedication of our citizens manifested at the local, state and federal level.

In a word the men of Maine, along with shouldering the task of developing and leading our great state, have fallen in every early war from King Phillips and to the surrender at Appomattox, and they lay buried on nearly every battlefield. Of every conflict to this date.

As long as the freedom of this and other great nations, is threatened, our young men will respond to the call, for in every heart their beats the burning desire for freedom and liberty.