What did it mean to be a “Minute Man” during the American Revolution? Did it really mean one had to run off to fight at a minute’s notice? What if you just happened to be busy at the time? Did anyone ever say, “Start without me. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Hardly – as this account will show.

Late at night on the 18th of April, 1775, a detachment of British troops under the command of Lt. Col. Smith crossed over from Boston Common to East Cambridge on their march to Lexington and Concord. They didn’t know it at the time, but a fight was brewing.

The alarm of this expedition was at once spread through the country by mounted express. According to a well-established tradition, the news of it was brought to Hollis about noon of the 19th by Deacon. John Boynton, who lived in the southern part of the town, was one of the committee of observation. The distance between the Boston area and Hollis, NH, may seem like a long way, but it is only about 40 miles.

Deacon Boynton came riding through the town at the top of his horse’s speed, calling out to his townsmen, as he passed, “The Regulars are coming and killing our men!” Deacon Boynton (as the tradition tells the story), riding at full speed, and out of breath, announced his message at the door of Capt. Worcester, another member of the same committee, living a little south of the Hollis Common, who had just risen from his dinner, and was preparing to shave, his face fully lathered. Capt. Worcester, with his face still “whitened for the razor,” vacated his house, hurried to his stable, mounted his horse, and in that plight assisted in spreading the alarm. Other mounted messengers were soon dispatched to the several parts of the town to carry the news, and in the afternoon of the same day, ninety-two minutemen were rallied and met on the Hollis Common, with their muskets, each with his powder horn, one pound of powder from the town’s stock, and twenty bullets.

In this same instance, the five Nevins brothers were then living in the northern part of the town. Early in the afternoon of the 19th of April, three of these brothers were at work with their crowbars, digging stone for a farm wall a short distance from their home. They looked up to see a messenger riding towards them at full gallop.

They had partially raised from its place, a large flat stone embedded in a farm roadway. Seeing the messenger and expecting a message of some urgency, one of the brothers put a small boulder under the large stone to keep it in the position to which it had been raised, and all stopped and listened to the message of the horseman.

Upon hearing it and knowing the urgency, the brothers left the stone as it was in the roadway, with the little boulder under it. They all ran to the house, secured their guns and equipment, and hurried to the Hollis Common to join their military company. Altogether, 92 men marched from the Hollis Common that day to Lexington to support the American Revolution. Of the five Nevins brothers who served in the war, three lost their lives.

As a family memento of this incident, this large stone, with the small one supporting it, was permitted to remain for more than seventy years afterward, in the same position in which the brothers had left it on the 19th of April, 1775.

Both the flat stone and “small boulder” that supported it were eventually removed to the town common to mark the spot where the Minute Men gathered and departed on that fateful April day.
A bronze plaque listing the names of the ninety-two men who marched to Lexington was placed on the stone beneath the following words:

NAMES OF 92 MINUTE-MEN WHO MARCHED FROM THIS COMMON FOR LEXINGTON, APRIL 19, 1775.

The Nevins Stone was dedicated on June 17, 1898. An engraving on the stone reads:

THE NEVENS BROTHERS WERE AT WORK ON THIS STONE ON THEIR FARM, APRIL 19, 1775, AND LEFT IT IN THIS POSITION AT THE MINUTE-MEN’S ALARM, TO JOIN THEIR COMRADES ON THIS COMMON.

(Author’s Note: As is not uncommon for historians of 100 years ago or more, Nevins/Nevens has two spellings. In Worcester’s History of the Town of Hollis, published in 1879, Nevins is spelled with an “I”. The inscription on the stone, now seen on the Hollis Town Common, is spelled with an “e” as in Nevens.)

Source: The History of the Town of Hollis, NH by Samuel Worcester, published 1879

Photos courtesy of Freedom’s Way National Heritage website