Military History. 227 



ample protection to the settlement. The two latter completely 

 covered the stream for a long distance, making it impossible for 

 the Indians to deprive the townspeople of its sweet waters. 

 Nearly every house on the lower part of Main Street was within 

 range, and under the protection of the guns of the fort, which 

 also commanded an unobstructed view of the whole territory 

 between Captain Andrews' and the harbor, whose blue waters, 

 framed in their bright setting of green, then as now made a 

 beautiful and peaceful picture, as seen from its ramparts. The 

 present appearance of the fort is outwardly that of a circular, 

 sodded embankment, two or three feet in height, upon which are 

 planted several of the oldest of the gravestones; but from 

 within, the earth walls appear to be considerably higher, and the 

 excavation is rectangular, with sides about forty feet in length. 

 In the centre, from the summit of a mound, there rises a plain 

 granite shaft, inscribed upon the southwesterly and northeasterly 

 sides respectively as follows : — 



To The Erected 



First Settlers by the 



of Town, 



Hingham, 1839. 



The late Hon. Solomon Lincoln, in his " History of Hingham," 

 mentions in a foot-note a tradition related to him as coming from 

 Dr. Gay, to the effect that " this fort was built from the fear of 

 invasion by the sea, by the Dutch, etc." There can be no doubt 

 that the tradition referred to another fortification, also in the 

 cemetery, probably built for defence against the Dutch or the 

 Spanish, the remains of which were discovered a few years since 

 while constructing a road in that part of the burying-ground 

 tow-ards Water Street, by Mr. Todd, the superintendent. The 

 location, as described by him, was on the northerly side of the 

 hill formerly owned by Isaac Hinckley, whose family lot is upon 

 its crown, the situation entirely commanding the harbor and its 

 approaches, and affording a magnificent view, and a valuable out- 

 look for military purposes. The defence was probably in the 

 nature of a stone battery, upon which it was intended to mount 

 a gun or guns, and the remains consisted of several tiers of large 

 stones, placed regularly together and backed by earth. Unfortu- 

 nately they have been removed. 



On Bachelor's Row, and near where Elm Street now intersects the 

 main highway, Daniel and Samuel Stodder, brothers, and each with 

 a numerous family, occupied neighboring houses. Daniel attained 

 a greater age than has any other person in Hingham, finally dying 

 at one hundred and four years. A few rods south, Ensign Joseph 

 Joy, by occupation a carpenter, bore them company ; and on the 

 opposite side of the street, and not far from where the Old Meet- 

 ing-house now is, was the home of blacksmith and lieutenant 

 Jeremiah Beale, with his family of seven children. Close by, for 



