Hi, Being from W.Glou. forever there is a FB page:  “Do you know where Tysvers is?”  My friend Audrey Allenshared this article:

Stone Marks Reveal Civil War Training In West Gloucester – Elliott C. Rogers – November 1954

Men were trained for Civil War services on a nearly forgotten muster field in West Gloucester. This is the conclusion reached by a student of local history and terrain after research and observation. Initials and symbols carved in stone mark the place.

There is some evidence that men trained there for the Revolutionary War, too, says Elliott C. Rogers in a “memorandum” that makes a timely reading at Memorial Day time:

Memo in Re the Old Training Ground or Muster Field at West Gloucester.

Undoubtedly dating from Revolution or Colonial times and probably used as a training ground for militia from then to and including the Civil War period.

After some search, there seems to be no actual evidence that this particular field was used during the Revolution, but it was, as shown clearly by the existing permanent record, in use at the time of our Civil War. (See later re Revolutionary Monument.)

This training ground is located on a height of land overlooking Ipswich Bay, off Concord street, nearly to Sumner street, and above with a view of Walker Creek where in 1860, William Haskell, Jr., and Mark Haskell made a request of the town to “have liberty to set down a corn mill on tidewater called Walker Creek.”

This is a tide water creek from Ipswich or Essex Bay according to the latest map prepared under the direction of the Army Map Service copied by the U. S. G. S. for Gloucester, 1945. The Essex boundary crosses the creek not far from the Conomo Point Road, and the Ipswich line, comes into Essex Bay, so called, on the map just outside of Tommy Island, and crossing a part of it. The creek runs through the marsh and land not far at any time, from Sumner street, crosses Walker street and goes almost to the line of Essex avenue, where the brook or overflow from Haskell’s Pond enters it. This point is hereinafter mentioned in connection with the sawmill formerly there. I give this slight description of Walkers Creek because people, except West Gloucesterites, seem to know nothing about it, or have even heard of it. It has, however, played a prominent part in the industrial development of that region, and our town and city.

Continue reading “Do you know where Tysvers is? Pauline Bresnahan shares some local Civil War history” →