Abner Hosmer was a Private in Captain Isaac Davis’ company of Acton Massachusetts Minutemen, and marched on the alarm of 19 April 1775. Abner was killed instantly in the first volley at the North Bridge in Concord.
Abner is memorialized through the Isaac Davis Monument on the Acton Town Common. The remains of Isaac Davis, Abner, and James Hayward (an Acton soldier killed in Lexington later that day) were moved and re-interred beneath the monument.
He was born in West Acton, the son of Deacon Jonathan Hosmer and Martha Conant Hosmer.
Memento mori
Abner Hosmer headstone, Acton Town Common, Acton, Massachusetts.
Here lies the
Body of Mr. Abner
Hosmer son of Deacon
Jonathan Hosmer &
Mrs. Martha his wife,
who was Killed in Concord fight
April 19th, 1775 In the
Defense of the just rights
and Liberties of his Country
being in the 21st
year of his age.
To learn more, read these excellent books:
- The Battle of April 19, 1775, in Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Arlington, Cambridge, Somerville and Charlestown, Massachusetts, by Frank Warren Coburn, revised 1912.
- The Minute Men—The First Fight: Myths and Realities of the American Revolution, by John R. Galvin, revised 2006.
Abner Hosmer (1754-19 Apr 1775) is the great-uncle of Stephen Hosmer who married Mary Wetherbee, 4th cousin 5x removed of MKS in the Wetherbee branch.
References:
[1] John R. Galvin, The Minute Men, The First Fight: Myths and Realities of the American Revolution (Potomoc Books, Inc., 1989).
[2] Wikipedia.