Monadnock Moment No. 155

Multi Era 3 - 5: 1761 to 1867

The Oldest Soldier

Samuel Downing was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts late in the year 1761. When he was nine years of age, Samuel was playing one day with some of his young friends. A stranger came by and asked if any of the boys wanted to go with him to learn how to make spinning wheels. Samuel agreed to go. He said that his parents were away for the day, but that wouldn't matter much. As a result, young Samuel came to Antrim, Hew Hampshire to make spinning wheel spokes at the mill of Thomas Aiken.

Samuel's parents thought that he had fallen into the ocean and drowned. Samuel became very homesick but could not contact his parents and did not know the way home. Thomas Aiken eventually contacted Samuel's parents, but he stayed on in Antrim making spinning wheels. At age fifteen Samuel ran away from the Aiken home to join the Revolutionary army. He met up with his father, whom he had not seen for several years, and the two fought side by side. Samuel served for four years until the end of the war. He returned to Antrim after the fighting ended and married a local girl. He farmed in Antrim for many years and eventually moved to New York state.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Samuel was a hale and hearty 99 years of age. As a soldier of the Revolution, his views on the Civil War were often quoted. He said that if the rebels came north he would "take up his gun and meet them" and that if "Old General" Washington was alive, he would "hang every rebel to the nearest tree."

By 1866 Antrim's Samuel Downing was the last surviving veteran of the American Revolution. When he died at the age of 105 in 1867, an important chapter in American history was brought to a close.