Bunker Hill Memorial Bench

At the eastern corner of Main Street and Park Street, the Bunker Hill Memorial Bench commemorates the Patriots of Pepperell who lost their lives at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. Alternatively called the “Walcott Memorial,” the impressive granite bench was a gift from Edith Prescott Walcott, the great-great-granddaughter of Colonel William Prescott. Prescott, a resident of Pepperell, famously led the American forces at the Battle.

The uppermost inscription on the memorial bench is ornamented with carved powder horns and notes the familial connection:

THE GIFT
IN MDCCCXCIX
OF A DESCENDANT
OF COLONEL WILLIAM PRESCOTT

A plaque beneath the inscription lists the names of the soldiers from Pepperell who died at Bunker Hill. It reads:

THESE PEPPERELL MEN
WERE KILLED AT BUNKER HILL
17 JUNE 1775
JEREMIAH SHATTUCK
NATHANIEL PARKER
WILLIAM WARREN
WAINWRIGHT FISK
EBENEZER LAUGHTON
JOSEPH SPAULDING
BENJAMIN WOOD
EDMUND PIERCE
FOR YOU THEY DIED

The Bunker Hill Memorial Bench was dedicated on November 1, 1899. As recorded in the article “Mrs. Wolcott’s Gift” in the November 11, 1899 edition of the Boston Herald, the ceremony was a grand affair attended by dignitaries who arrived by train from Boston. These included Edith’s husband, Governor Roger Wolcott, Edward Everett Hale, Henry Parkman, Mrs. Henry Whitman (whose husband designed the monument) and representatives of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution, the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Massachusetts Society of Colonial Dames.

Following an elaborate luncheon and procession to the town hall, a formal ceremony occurred on the town green across from the church grounds where the remains of Colonel Prescott and other Revolutionary War heroes are interred. Local school children serenaded the attendees with Matthias Keller’s American Hymn.

Governor Wolcott delivered an address, noting that the monument commemorated not only the men of Pepperell but also those from other towns who, “shared with them the danger and the fame.” “How splendid was their valor,” Wolcott remarked, “how great their cause.”