David Lamson Way

When the alarm rang for militia and minute men to join what would be the first battles of the American Revolution, older men were excused from any expectation to fight. That didn’t stop the revolutionary spirit from taking hold of a group of “old men” who captured British troops at Menotomy (now Arlington) on April 19, 1775. They chose their leader, David Lamson, described as, “a mulatto… of undoubted bravery and determination,” having served in the French and Indian Wars.

According to the National Park Service, Lamson was born circa 1740 and lived for a time in Cambridge and Medford, Massachusetts. By 1769 Lamson was living in Reading and by 1775 he had moved to Menotomy. On April 19th, Lamson and twelve other men ambushed a British convoy, killing several horses and two men, while injuring others. Because Lamson’s cohort were exempt from fighting, they were given the moniker “old men of Menotomy.”

Lamson went on to enlist and reenlist in the Continental Army numerous during the early years of the war and was discharged in November 1777 after serving at the second Battle of Saratoga on October 7th. Records show that Lamson moved from Cambridge to Charlestown in 1787, and was listed in the 1790 town census as a free man and head of his household.

In 2000, Fred Sennott, a former captain of the Menotomy Minute Men (a present day colonial militia reenactment group), successfully led an effort to petition Arlington’s Board of Selectmen to rename Railroad Avenue off of Massachusetts Avenue near Pleasant Street in honor of Lamson. Today the stretch of road is known as David Lamson Way.

A stone monument in front of the First Parish of Arlington, installed in 1878, also commemorates the “old men of Menotomy,” whose revolutionary actions would help set the tone for the war to come.