* Is this something one can find at our library?*

There seems to be at least one at the library:

https://catalog.minlib.net/Record/.b10771748

There is also a used one available at Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Trial-fire-Lincoln-Massachusetts-Independence/dp/B0006CLHVI





On Wed, Jan 1, 2025 at 7:28 PM Kim Jalet <jale...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Since our family lives in the home of Eleazer Brooks, I'd love to know
> how I could read a copy of *Trial by Fire.  *Is this something one can
> find at our library?
>
> Thank you, Kim
>
> On Wed, Jan 1, 2025 at 5:12 PM Sara Mattes <samat...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Gary,
>> Thanks for the plug!
>> The Lincoln Historical Society (LHS) should consider a re-issue.
>> Brooks also has a publication with interesting town history-*a View from
>> Lincoln Hill*-still available through the LIncoln Historical Society.
>> Publications <http://lincolnhistoricalsociety.org/Pages/publications.htm>
>> lincolnhistoricalsociety.org
>> <http://lincolnhistoricalsociety.org/Pages/publications.htm>
>> <http://lincolnhistoricalsociety.org/Pages/publications.htm>
>> <http://lincolnhistoricalsociety.org/Pages/publications.htm>
>> Stay tuned for upcoming LHS events/programs as we march toward the
>> celebration of the 250th-April 19.
>> Much to talk/write/debate about.
>>
>> Huzzah!
>>
>> Sara Mattes, President
>> Lincln Historical Society
>>
>>
>> On Jan 1, 2025, at 4:48 PM, Gary Taylor <gatlinc...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Donald,
>> Thanks for this informative post.  It seems worth mentioning a short and
>> informative book by Paul Brooks, "Trial by Fire, Lincoln Massachusetts and
>> the War of Independence" published for the Bicentennial Commission in
>> 1975.  It addresses Lincoln's progression from (perhaps reluctant) concern
>> to deep involvement in resisting British governance.  It highlights the
>> role of Eleazer Brooks, a story inspiring as an example of the role a
>> principled,  but common person, can achieve when committed to
>> self-governance.  It is only 55 pages long, and worth a quick read.
>> Best,
>> Gary Taylor
>> 2 Beaver Pond Road
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* Lincoln <lincoln-boun...@lincolntalk.org> on behalf of Lincoln
>> Historical Society <presid...@lincolnhistoricalsociety.org>
>> *Sent:* Wednesday, January 1, 2025 4:12 PM
>> *To:* LincolnTalk <Lincoln@lincolntalk.org>
>> *Subject:* [LincolnTalk] "Did You Know ...?" A Bit of Lincoln's History
>> from the Historical Society
>>
>>
>> *The Lincoln Historical Society*
>>
>> *“Did You Know … ?”  That in December 1773, Lincoln’s reaction to the
>> Dumping of the Tea into Boston harbor was rather tepid?*
>>
>> The town of Lincoln had no voice in the dumping of the tea into Boston
>> harbor on December 16, 1773, and there is no record that anyone from
>> Lincoln boarded the ships, broke open the tea chests, and scattered the
>> contents to the tides.  In today’s terms, the forty-two tons of tea were
>> worth almost $2 million.
>>
>> Boston’s Committee of Correspondence sought solidarity from other towns,
>> for approval of what had been done and pledges not to purchase or consume
>> any British tea until the tax was repealed.
>>
>> Lincoln took up the matter at a town meeting on December 27, 1773.
>> Eleazer Brooks, a member of the town’s Committee of Correspondence, had
>> drafted a statement, for the town’s approval, to be sent to Boston.  The
>> rhetoric of Brooks’ draft was fiery enough in some passages:
>>
>> “We trust we have courage and resolution sufficient to encounter all the
>> horrors of war in the defense of those rights and privileges, civil and
>> religious, which we esteem more valuable than our lives, and we do hereby
>> assure not only the town of Boston but the world that whenever we shall
>> have a clear call from heaven, we are ready to join with our brethren to
>> face the sword, the bayonet, or the mouth of a cannon rather than to be the
>> slave dupes & fools of any of our own species not distinguished from
>> ourselves except in a disposition to enslave us.”
>>
>> Town meeting judged that Brooks’ vivid prose about swords, bayonets,
>> cannon, slaves, dupes, and fools was a bit over the top.  That was changed
>> to “we are ready to join with our brethren to face the most formidable
>> forces rather than tamely surrender up our rights and privileges …”
>>
>> In other notable ways, the version adopted by town meeting was more
>> restrained than Brooks’ draft.  There was, for instance, the matter of the
>> destroyed tea.  Did Lincoln’s town meeting approve such destruction of
>> private property?  Apparently not, for it deleted specific mention of the
>> dumping of the tea from Brooks’ draft and left in place this statement:
>>
>> “… we cannot therefore but commend the spirited behavior of the town of
>> Boston in endeavoring to prevent the sale of the East India Company’s teas
>> by endeavoring to persuade the consigners to resign their office or any
>> other lawful means.”
>>
>> “Or any other lawful means.”  The destruction of the tea was, of course,
>> anything but “lawful means.”
>> And then there was the matter of the pledge not to buy or consume British
>> tea.  At the town meeting, a document was laid upon a table for signatures
>> by those pledging their support publicly.  Fifty-one men in town signed the
>> pledge (and one woman—a story for another time).  An impressive number, but
>> far short of the eighty-seven men who met the property qualification to
>> vote in town meeting.  So were the others opposed to the pledge?  Or
>> reluctant to have their signatures on a public document?  Or did they
>> simply not bother to attend the town meeting, despite notice that a vote
>> would be taken on the matter?  Whatever the reason, Lincoln’s tempest over
>> tea seemed rather tepid.
>>
>>
>> Donald L. Hafner
>> The Lincoln Historical Society
>> December 2024
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