command assent." He
made such a speech against the resolutions as had never before been
heard in Worcester; and when he sat down, the same informant said that
"not a man of the whig party thought a single word could be said,--that
old Putnam, the tory, had wiped them all out." Timothy Bigelow at length
arose, without learning, without practice in public speaking, without
wealth,--the tories of Worcester had, at that day, most of the wealth
and learning,--but there he stood upon the floor of the Old South
Church, met the Goliath of the day, and vanquished him. The governor of
Massachusetts Bay, and the crown and parliament of Great Britain, were
brought to feel the effect of his sling and stone. Suffice it to say,
the resolutions were carried triumphantly. This was the first grand
public effort made by Col. Timothy Bigelow, in his part of the great
drama of the American revolution.

III.

THE MINUTE MEN.

In August, 1774, a company of minute men were enrolled under the command
of Capt. Bigelow, and met each evening after the labors of the day, for
drill and martial exercise. Muskets were procured for their arming from
Boston. Their services were soon required for the defence of the
country. At eleven o'clock, A. M., April 19th, 1775, an express came to
town, shouting, as he passed through the street at full speed, "To arms!
to arms! the war is begun!" The bell rang out the alarm, cannons were
fired, and in a short time the minute men were paraded on the green,
under the command of Capt. Timothy Bigelow. After fervent prayer by Rev.
Mr. Maccarty, they took up the line of march. When they arrived at
Sudbury, intelligence of the retreat of the enemy met them, and a second
company of minute men from Worcester, under command of Capt. Benjamin
Flagg, overtook them, when both moved on to Cambridge.

The writer cannot forbear to mention a few of the names of these
soldiers of freedom. Most of them have descendants now living, and
living on the same farms that their illustrious sires or grandsires
left, when they started with Captains Bigelow and Flagg, to repel the
enemy at Lexington. Eli Chapin was the father of Mrs. Jonathan Flagg and
Mrs. Capt. Campbell; Wm. Trowbridge was the father of Mrs. Lewis Chapin;
Jonathan Stone, grandfather of Emory Stone, Esq., who now owns and
occupies the same estate; Asa Ward, grandfather of Wm. Ward; Simon
Gates, father of David R., who now lives on and owns the same estate;
David R