A fabulous search of Massachusetts 1650-1850's Searching TEEL and ALEXANDER FROM Woburn, MA who came on the Oregon Trail. My ggggrandparents. Many of these people graduated from Harvard in 1725 for example. WOBURN, MA See the homes http://www.yeoldewoburn.com/ All the headstones, etc. http://www.yeoldewoburn.com/Burial1.htm The Civil War in Woburn The outbreak of hostilities began with the Confederate bombardment of Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861, and news of the fort's shelling and surrender was greeted by Woburnites much as it was across the North as a whole. The reaction was one of great enthusiasm for the Union cause, and eagerness to join the fight. A large crowd gathered at Lyceum Hall on April 18, 1861, where "the war feeling was general, and unbounded enthusiasm prevailed." Lyceum Hall, Woburn Captain William T. Grammer proposed raising a regiment of troops, resulting in fifty-eight men signing up right away, and others in the crowd pledging $3,350 toward the cost of the venture. A second meeting was held two days later, and a third the day after that. By the third meeting, over 100 men had signed up, and over $8,000 had been raised. The first men to join the ranks from Woburn left on June 11, 1861, under the command of Sergeant John P. Crane. More men left a week or so later, under the command of Captain Timothy Winn (son of Jonathan Bowers Winn). Most of the June enlistees took the train into Boston and joined the 5th Massachusetts Regiment. There was no formal company from Woburn exclusively, however, until a month or so later, when a group formed the Woburn Union Guard, officially organized on July 27, 1861, under the command of Captain Samuel Thompson and now Lieutenant John P. Crane, who had returned to the Town to raise a company of Woburn men. The company organized and marched to the train depot, where it departed Woburn amidst a big sendoff, with large crowds waving and band playing, on August 7, 1861. This group became Company F, attached to the 22nd Massachusetts Regiment. Meanwhile, troops of the 5th Massachusetts Regiment had already seen action, participating in the first major battle of the war at Bull Run, on July 21, 1861. Woburnite Robert Pemberton was wounded in the fighting, and both he and the North as a whole got their first indication that the war would be neither as glorious, nor as brief in duration as previously thought. A few months later reality sunk in further, as the Town received news that one of its sons would not be returning. Edwin H. Persons, eighteen years old, died October 31, 1861. He had not gotten far in his quest to fight the rebels. He had enlisted and had been sent to Camp Brigham in Readville (which is now part of Boston). He died there of typhoid fever. His death was indicative of the things to come, as just as many Woburnites and Northern troops in general would die of sickness and disease as would die on the fields of battle. In 1862, Union armies under the command of General George B. McClellan launched a major effort to take Richmond, by landing near Hampton Tolls, taking Williamsburg, and moving up a peninsula toward the Confederate capital. McClellan slowly and deliberately inched his armies to within ten miles of so of the city, when Confederate forces, led initially by General Joseph E. Johnston and then by General Robert E. Lee, counterattacked. The result was a desperate series of pitched battles. The engagements took place one after another over the course of a week, and became known as the Seven Days' Battles. The 22nd Massachusetts Regiment and the Woburn Union Guard were in the thick of the fighting, and by the end of the peninsula campaign, five more Woburnites were either dead or mortally wounded. Among them were the commander of the Woburn Union Guard, Captain Samuel I. Thompson, and his seventeen year old son, Francis W. Thompson. The younger Thompson died first, at the battle of Gaines Mill, Virginia. Four days later, his father was seriously wounded at the Battle of Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862, and was taken prisoner. He was held briefly at the infamous Libby Prison in Richmond, but released on July 18, 1862. He died several weeks later in a Union hospital in Baltimore, Maryland HOW TO SEARCH THE PROBATE RECORDS Middlesex County, Massachusetts Probate Index 1648 - 1870 A-K (Pertaining to Woburn, Massachusetts Only) Index to the Probate Records of the County of Middlesex, Massachusetts. Cambridge, MA: 1912. What do I need to do if I find a relative in your index? Write your request and include the index number as found below to: Middlesex Probate Court ATTN: Copy Department P. O. Box 410480 Cambridge, MA 02141 617-768-5905 Cost: $10.00 and .50 each page - Certified Cost: $1.50 each page - Plain I was told by the clerk to write a letter telling them what you want, as they are too busy to do any checking over the telephone - but if you need additional information - call them! The turnaround for getting your information will be a couple of months as the department is usually swamped with requests for probate records; and they also have to keep up with the new records as well! I was also told that if you hire a Title Examiner to do your searching and copying, that the turnaround would be less. I do not know how much it would be to hire such a person - I will leave that up to you! You might also want to look at this site to tell you how to read probate records - How to read Probate Records Also, you can obtain these records at the Massachusetts Archives! Enjoy Laura in Seattle GALLOWAY, FUDGE, KIRBY, TEEL, JOHNSON, FINE, HALES