At the historic High Street Burial Ground, visitors can find many of the men from Danvers who fought during the Revolutionary War. Lieut. Col. Jeremiah Page (1722-1805) is one of those men. Page was a brick maker from Danvers, Massachusetts. Before the American Revolution began, Page showed his anger over the British taxation of tea by participating in the Boston Tea Party. Members of the Sons of Liberty threw an entire cargo of tea into the Boston Harbor in response to the unfair taxation. Page is also known for protesting the tax by not allowing tea in his home.

When Paul Revere and William Dawes made their “midnight ride,” they gathered the local militias to face the British regulars. Page commanded a company of men at the Battle of Lexington. The British outnumbered the local militia and the British were trained soldiers. Many believe the men knew they did not have hope at stopping the British at Lexington on April 19, 1775, they stood at Lexington to show the British they had enough of the mistreatment. The British fired upon the militia, forcing them to scatter. Eight Americans lay dead and ten others were wounded. After the British left Concord, they faced more militia and minutemen on their way back to Boston. In all the British lost 273 men and the Americans lost 93 men in that first day of fighting. Page continued to serve in the American cause, moving up in the ranks from a Captain to a Lieutenant Colonel in the Continental Army.

By: Jessica McKenzie

Credits and Sources:

Gadsby, Elizabeth.Lineage Book. Volume 28. Washington, D.C.: National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 1909. 

Middlekauff, Robert. “1775- The Lexington Alarm.” The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut. Accessed September 22, 2016. http://colonialwarsct.org/1775_lex_alarm.htm

Silver, Ednah C. Sketches of the New Church in America on a Background of Civic and Social Life. Boston, MA: The Massachusetts New Church Union, 1920.

The Town of Danvers. Report of the Committee Appointed to Revise the Soldiers’ Record. Salem, MA: Newcomb & Gauss, 1895.