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 Little known is the fact that among the momentous events that transpired on 19 April 1775 at the dawn of a revolution stood the ancestral relations of five future U.S. presidents. The chief executives would be John Adams, John Quincy Adams, James A. Garfield, George Herbert Walker Bush and George Walker Bush. Their relational predecessors were Capt. William Smith of Lincoln, Private Abraham Garfield of Lincoln, Private John Garfield of Lincoln, Dr. Samuel Prescott and brother Abel Prescott, both of Concord.Recently arrived, politically connected, landed through marriage, William Smith was a surprising selection to serve as captain of Lincoln's volunteer minute company in January 1775. His sister, Abigail, had married (1764) an upstart attorney named John Adams who was representing Massachusetts in the Continental Congress. The couple's first son was named John Quincy. Smith's 19th of April exploits included signaling and mustering his company -- the first to arrive for the support and defense of neighboring Concord -- offering his command to dislodge the Regulars from North Bridge (though ignored with preference given Acton, it marched fourth in the advancing column), participating in the Concord fight and chasing the bloodied Redcoats back to Charlestown. For a time, rumors (incorrect) circulated that he had been killed at the North Bridge, causing Abigail and John to investigate and quell their fears by rushing to Lincoln. For his efforts, Billy had his horse stolen by the British soldiers and was overlooked for a field grade promotion in the new Massachusetts Army.
The town of Lincoln (in its 21st year of existence) actually had two military forces respond to the 1775 alarm: Smith's minute company, and members of the militia under Capt. Samuel Farrar. In the ranks of the former (according to some rolls) was John Garfield (Gearfield), while the latter included his cousin Abraham whose 19th of April adventures and observations, along with seven fellow Lincoln militia men, were documented in a 23rd of April deposition. About four months following the armed clash with the King's soldiers, Abraham would die unexpectedly of unknown causes (camp fever or dysentery?) at age 28. Abraham's brother Solomon moved the family to Worcester, NY but remembered and memorialized his sibling's selfless, heroic acts on behalf of liberty in the naming of a grandson Abram (shortened Abraham) who settled in Ohio. This grand nephew of a Lincoln militia man and cousin of a minute man produced a son, James Abram Garfield, who became the 20th president of the U.S. (March-September 1881; assassinated in office).
While Samuel continued on to Acton and Stow, his brother Abel rode to Framingham and Sudbury. Upon return to Concord as the Regulars were hastily departing, he was shot by a Redcoat and within four months died of the wound and dysentery at age 26. Samuel became a military surgeon and was captured by the British army in 1776 at either Ft. Ticonderoga or aboard a privateer at sea. In 1777 at age 26, he died in a Halifax military prison. A sibling Benjamin served out the war as a Continental Army surgeon. The Prescott brothers' sister, Lucy, married a young Harvard graduate and Concord attorney Jonathan Fay (ancestral roots to England's King Henry II). A granddaughter of the Fays -- Harriett Eleanor Fay -- married the Rev. James Smith Bush and the Bush family memorialized and honored their patriotic physician ancestor of 1775 by naming a son Samuel Prescott whose son Prescott produced a son George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st president of the U.S. (1989-1993; Republican). President Bush in turn had a son George Walker Bush, the 43d and current president (2001-?; Republican).
 
 
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Following occasional military enlistments, privateering as a captain of Marines, family abandonment and several failed mercantile efforts, Billy died destitute a good distance from home in 1787 of alcoholism at the age of 41. His sister's husband, John, went on to become the second president of the new republic (1797-1801; Federalist) and the Adams's son, John Quincy (Billy's nephew and visitor to the Lincoln home), served as the sixth president (1825-1829; National Republican).
On the evening of 18 April 1775, Dr. Samuel Prescott of Concord visited his fiancée in Lexington. Being a physician -- and thus exempt from military service -- he volunteered as an alarm rider along with brother Abel. While departing Lexington, Samuel fell in with two riders, Paul Revere and William Dawes, who were hastening to Concord with news that the Regulars were on the road headed to that town. Joining the pair in their mission, Prescott was the only one to escape a Redcoat patrol ambush, spread the alarm to Lincoln citizens (received quickly by Smith) and arrive in Concord with the horrific announcement.
Thus it is that the fascinating combinations of material and family history from Lincoln and Concord directly involved with the events that began United States independence, liberty and freedom had demonstrative links to five presidents of the republic including the only two sets of father-son chief executives. These connections and their importance in the formation of America and its people should never be overlooked or forgotten for the move ahead to the future must always be within the context and knowledge of the journey past.