Westminster Revolutionary War Monument 2

Westminster’s Revolutionary War Monument was dedicated in 1905 to the local Patriots who fought for their country’s independence. The ornate, 14-foot-tall zinc-cast monument stands prominently among the headstones in Woodside Cemetery on Narrows Road.

Joseph Hager, a long-time Westminster selectman, was responsible for its creation. Hager took care of incapacitated Civil War soldiers and was also a member of the committee that erected the town’s Civil War Monument in 1865. Spurred by his involvement in that initiative, in 1905 he decided to erect a monument in Woodside Cemetery to memorialize Westminster’s Revolutionary War veterans.

The names of all 356 Westminster men who served in the Revolution can be found around each of the monument’s four sides, along with a brief inscription that indicates its commemorative purpose:

ERECTED
BY JOSEPH HAGER, 1905
IN MEMORY OF WESTMINSTER MEN WHO WERE
IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

Hager’s grave is sited directly across from the monument.