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 From 5 to 27 October 1740, the five children (ages 11 months to almost 7) of Ephraim and Elizabeth Hartwell died of "throat distemper." Believed to be diphtheria, the illness usually attacked those under age 10 and was highly contagious. Thus began an epic odyssey of an oft injured and most fascinating Concord/Lincoln family whose members would create history on 19 April 1775 and continue to be haunted by tragic deaths.Ephraim married Elizabeth Heywood (both descendants of early Concord settlers) in November 1732. With the exodus of three older brothers, he remained to care for his father whose estate he would inherit and who provided Ephraim the land on which to build a homestead in 1733. The Hartwells quickly set about raising a family (children are the poor man's wealth, especially for farmers) by having five babies in six years (Ephraim, Samuel, John, Elizabeth, Isaac). The patriarch provided for his family working as a cordwainer (shoemaker) and farmer while also operating a cider mill. While 18th Century life was often hard and demanding with death at an early age not unusual or unexpected, the sudden, swift loss of an entire family of children had to be devastating to the Hartwells. Yet with faith in God, they began a second family having Elizabeth in 1741 and over the next 13 years producing eight more children (Samuel, Abigail, Ephraim, John, Mary, Sarah, Isaac, Jonas). Names of the deceased first family were passed to the new born. With so large a brood, Ephraim expanded his house and to increase income, obtained a license in 1756 to operate an inn/tavern. By 1775, the oldest son Samuel was residing alongside his father in the grandfather's 1690s homestead with wife Mary and three young daughters. As conflict with England seemed imminent, he and brother John joined the Lincoln Minute Company and were elected sergeants serving under neighbor and captain William Smith. Brother Isaac would be a private in the unit. The early morning of 19 April would bring fear, danger and uncertainty to the Hartwells.
The Hartwell brothers would each serve various lengths of time in the army with Samuel being a Regimental Quartermaster at the Battle of White Plains; John being a company captain; Isaac and Jonas serving as sergeants in the latter's unit. By early 1777, all would be settled back on the Bay Road in Lincoln and John would assume operational responsibility for his father's tavern until 1787. Ephraim would return to Princeton and rise to the rank of Captain in the Massachusetts Militia. Although the Hartwells continued to be prominent citizens, prosper and add new generations, tragedy continued to haunt them. Ephraim's oldest child Elizabeth married Jonas Stratton of Concord in 1764. The couple moved to NH where in 1774, he was struck and killed by a falling tree. Youngest daughter Sarah married the Rev. Bigelow of Sudbury (1772) and would die in 1773 during childbirth. The youngest child, Jonas, graduated from Harvard College in 1779 and became a successful merchant. However, while visiting Bilboa, Spain he was imprisoned by order of the Holy Inquisition. Although released at the demand of the American government, he died a few weeks later in March 1784 apparently due to the poison slowly administered during captivity.
NOTE: The National Park Service (1979-81) obtained and restored the Hartwell Tavern and Smith house (Rt. 2A, Lincoln) which are seasonally open to the public with historic interpretation. The Samuel Hartwell house was destroyed in a tragic 1968 fire and only its protected center chimney remains may be seen.
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Near 1:30 am, Dr. Samuel Prescott banged on Samuel's door announcing that British Regulars were on the road to Concord. While her husband and his brothers dashed to muster, tradition records that Mary handed baby Lucy (4 months) to a servant woman and ran through the night to Capt. Smith's house to warn him of the alarm. After watching the Redcoat column march pass her door and fearing for the welfare of the Hartwells, the other colonial men gathering in Concord and her family, she fled to her father's home for protection. Samuel, John and Isaac (possibly Jonas with the Lincoln militia) would stand at North Bridge, participate in the fight and chase the King's troops back to Boston. Brother Ephraim, residing in Princeton, MA would respond to the alarm as a private in that town's militia.