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apology is needed for recording them in which were interred the remains of

in this connection at some length. That the location of the burial place of James Otis, one of the great leaders in the Revolution, should have been forgotten for over half a century, seems almost incredible; but many circumstances tended to veil it from

public knowledge. For many years queries have appeared in the daily press and historical publications asking for information on the subject. Conjectures were made that he was buried at West Barnstable, where he was born, while many have believed that he was buried at Andover, where he was killed by lightning; and this latter supposition was strengthened by the fact of his request shortly before his death to be buried on a knoll directly in the rear of Mr. Osgood's house at Andover. Local historians had looked in vain for any clew that would lead to solution of the mystery. But by collating probate records, family history gathered from various sources, and the traditions of one family connected with the Cunningham family, of the generation contemporary with James Otis, the tomb

the Hon. James Otis, the distinguished patriot of the Revolution, was finally discovered. Thomas Bridgman, who wrote a book of epitaphs of the Granary Burying Ground, does. not mention the name of Otis. The bronze tablets on the iron gates do not record the fact that James Otis is buried within the grounds. But our records are conclusive that James Otis was buried in that burying ground after his remains were brought from Andover to his dwelling in Boston, and the funeral cortêge that marched from the house to the ground was one of the largest ever beheld in Boston. In the records of St. John's Masonic Lodge of Boston is recorded the fact that James Otis was made a Mason in the year 1752, and was a member of that lodge. This lodge escorted his remains to the tomb. The newspapers published at the time of Mr. Otis's death and funeral furnish but meagre accounts. The Boston Gazette or Country Journal under date of Boston, May 26, 1783, says:

"We hear from Andover that last Friday Evening the House of Mr. Isaac Osgood

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MEMORIAL TO SAMUEL ADAMS, GRANARY BURYING GROUND, BOSTON.

was set on fire and much shattered by Lightning, by which the Hon. James Otis, Esq., of this Town, leaning upon his Cane at the front Door, was instantly killed. Several Persons were in the House at the Time, some of whom were violently affected by the shock, but, immediately recovering, ran to Mr. Otis' Support; but he had expired without a groan. The Friends and Acquaintances of the Deceased are informed his Funeral is to be To-Morrow

from his House near the County Court House. Freemasons are to precede the Corps."

The Massachusetts Spy, under date of May 29, 1783, contains almost exactly the same account as above, with the following addition:

"His remains were honourably interred last Tuesday afternoon, preceded by the honourable fraternity of free and accepted masons, and followed by a long train of respectable friends."

Mr. Otis's room in the Osgood

house at Andover was on the left side of the front door; and at his death he was standing in the doorway of the room to the right. The lightning struck the chimney and followed a

rafter of the roof, which rested on one of the timbers to which the doorpost was attached. The casing of the door Mr. was split and the nails torn out. Otis's family were notified as soon as possible of the sudden death of Mr. Otis, and Samuel Allyne Otis, the youngest brother of Mr. Otis, proceeded at once to Andover and brought his remains to Boston.

Colonel Joseph May, a prominent citizen of Boston, for many years a member of the King's Chapel congregation, who died in Boston in 1841, and to whose memory a marble tablet was placed on the wall of King's Chapel, was well versed in the history of Boston. He came to breakfast after his usual morning walk, and said to the family: "I have seen something wonderfully interesting this morning. As I passed the old Granary Burying Ground, I saw that the tomb was open in which I knew were the remains of James Otis, and with the help of the sexton I opened the lid of Otis's coffin,-and behold! the coffin was full of the fibrous roots of the

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HOME OF GENERAL JOSEPH WARREN.
Formerly standing on Hanover Street, Boston.

elm, especially thick and matted about
the skull; and, going out, I looked up
at the noble elm,-and there, in trans-
figured glory, was all that was mate-
rial of James Otis." The elm re-
ferred to was undoubtedly one of the
gigantic Paddock elms, which for-
merly stood on the Tremont Street
sidewalk in front of the burying
ground. It is known that the roots of
these trees were cut away from under
the row of tombs on the front of the
burying ground, having penetrated the
flooring of the tombs. This work was
done in order to lay the large granite
wall, in front of
the tombs, on
which the iron
fence was placed.
It may be stated
that Colonel
Joseph May was
the only person
living in 1835 who
was able to iden-
tify the spot
where the victims
of the massacre on
State Street were
buried in the
Granary Burying
Ground. He stood

on the tomb with his father in the year 1770, being but ten years old, and witnessed the interment. He noted that the tomb was but a few feet from a larch tree. In 1835, when the city government proposed to erect a monument to their memory, Mr. May guided the committee to this tomb, and the remains were identified as the victims of the conflict on State St.

The remains of James Otis were interred in the Nathaniel Cunningham, Sr., tomb, numbered 40 on the Tremont Street front of the Granary Burying Ground, between the Park Street Church front and the gate of the burying ground. This tomb was built by Nathaniel Cunningham, Sr., a wealthy merchant of Boston, in 1726 (Boston records). Nathaniel Cunningham, Sr., his mother, Ruth Cunningham, his son, Nathaniel Cunningham, Jr., the Hon. James Otis, Ruth (Cunningham) Otis, wife of James Otis and daughter of Nathaniel

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Cunningham, Sr., and a number of others of this family are buried in this tomb. The slate slab on the tomb bears the inscription only of George Longley, 1809. The absence of the names of Cunningham and Otis from the tomb slab, together with the early death of Mr. Otis's family, caused the identification of this tomb with the name of Otis to be obscured. The tomb, after the death of Nathaniel Cunningham, Sr., was held by Ruth, Sarah and Nathaniel Cunningham, Jr. Nathaniel Cunningham, Jr., dying soon after his father, left the two daughters, his sisters, Ruth and Sarah, heirs of the tomb. Ruth married James Otis, and, as her husband never owned a tomb, caused his remains to be placed in this tomb, of which she was part owner and which contained the remains of her ancestors.

Besides the heirship to the Cunningham tomb by the James Otis family, traditions have been handed down by well-known families that James Otis's remains were buried in the Cunningham tomb. In the items of expense in settling the estate of James Otis appears a charge made by

his brother, Samuel Allyne Otis: expenses to Andover, £5.8; also the bill for the coffin, £ 12.6.

On July 15, 1898, the anniversary of the storming of Stony Point by Anthony Wayne, a boulder and tablet in memory of Otis, similar to the memorial already dedicated to the memory of Samuel Adams, was unveiled in the presence of a large gathering and presented by the Sons of the Revolution to Mayor Quincy, who accepted the gift in behalf of the city. These two simple monuments shall bear witness to generations yet unborn, that the descendants of the men who stood behind Adams and Otis, perhaps tardily, yet worthily honored their memories. The inscriptions for the Adams and Otis tablets were written by Dr. Samuel A. Green.

September 17, 1898, was a perfect day; and on the morning of that day the members of the society with invited guests took the train for Rutland, Massachusetts, the home of General Rufus Putnam, the founder of Ohio. It was in every sense a "field day," made memorable by the brilliant oration of Senator Hoar on the life and services

of General Putnam, and the unveiling of a large and handsome bronze tablet, placed upon the old Putnam home, a lasting tribute to an honorable and historic career. The oration was given in the old Congregational Church before a large and deeply interested audience. In beginning his oration Senator Hoar said: "This society does well to mark with visible and enduring tablets the spots where great deeds have been performed or great men have been born or dwelt." His apostrophe to Putnam was particularly thrilling: "Bootblack and blacksmith's assistant at Sutton; millwright's apprentice at Brookfield; town constable at Rutland; friend of Washington; deliverer under Washington of Massachusetts from the foreign invader; builder of our stronghold and citadel of West Point; engineer of the great constitutional fortress of American liberty; faithful over a few things, ruler over many things-we come to-day to your dwelling as to a shrine."

In the spring of 1898 the Sons of the Revolution named a committee for the purpose of securing the coöperation of other patriotic societies in the proposed adornment of the classrooms of the new schoolhouse named, in honor of Paul Revere, the "Paul Revere School," situated in the North End of Boston on Prince Street. In response to a circular issued by the committee, the societies to whom it was sent quickly and cordially responded, and a joint committee was formed to carry out the plan in detail. The efforts of this committee resulted in the complete adornment of four rooms and one of the corridors, the engravings and plaster casts selected representing the men and events connected with the war

for independence. These pictures were formally presented to the city of Boston on October 19, the anniversary of the surrender of Cornwallis. The exercises were of a patriotic nature, the participants being the pupils of the Hancock School and the representatives of the various societies. The occasion was a noteworthy one in the modern history of the old North End, for gathered in the hall were the descendants of the men and women of old Boston, who, in the words of the engraved tablet which was placed upon the door of the room adorned by the Sons of the Revolution and which expressed the high purpose of their work, sought "to inspire patriotism and a love for

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