The city observed Patriots’ Day at a variety of events on a cool Monday morning, spanning five hours and seven locations across both the city and neighboring Danvers.
Sponsored by the Peabody Historical Society & Museum, the City of Peabody, and the Peabody Veterans Council, the ceremonies began at the Village Training Field in Danvers at 8 a.m., before moving to Jacobs Gravesite on Edgehill Road. The site commemorates Henry Jacobs, one of the Danvers men who fell on April 19, 1775, the date of the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the larger Battle of Menotomy.
At the time, Peabody was a part of Danvers, making the histories of the two communities on Patriot’s Day intertwined. While the holiday is probably best known as the date of the Boston Marathon, it was established in the 19th century in an effort to commemorate those aforementioned battles.
After the ceremony at the Jacobs Gravesite, the observance moved to the Old South Burial Ground, where four Danvers men who were killed on April 19 — Ebenezer Goldthwaite, George Southwick, Samuel Cook, and Benjamin Daland — are buried.
There, the Danvers Alarm List Company, dressed in full regalia, fired off rounds to commemorate those who fell during the battles.
The final event held in the city took place at the Lexington Monument, where Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt, Jr. offered remarks, and thanked the Historical Society and Veterans Council for their efforts in organizing the ceremony. The monument bears the names of all those who were killed on April 19, 1775.
Peabody Veterans Council Commander Robert Dunne, a retired Navy lieutenant commander, praised the Historical Society for its work putting the event together, an annual tradition that he said serves as an important way to remember Peabody’s history.
Dunne said he encourages veterans to attend the ceremony each year, and is responsible for laying a wreath on the Lexington Monument after reading the names of those who were killed on April 19 aloud.
“People drive by that monument all the time and don’t even know what it’s for, which is rather sad,” he said. “My whole goal is to try to keep up appreciation of veterans .. from the Revolutionary War to the present.”
