A Man Three Times Brave
By Stephen K. Hauser
Featured in Elm Grove News-Independent, May 2017
On Memorial Day, May 29, Elmbrook residents will have an opportunity to share an experience more commonly commemorated throughout New England and the Atlantic coastal states, namely to pay their respects at the graveside of a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, the struggle which gave our nation its independence.
Nathan Hatch, a soldier of the Revolution, is buried at Brookfield’s Oak Hill cemetery on Brookfield Road. He has been honored at annual remembrances, held variously on Memorial Day or the Fourth of July, since 1918. How he came to settle in his later years in the fledgling Town of Brookfield in the Wisconsin territory is a story worth telling.
Nathan Hatch certainly was a brave man, as exemplified by three brave actions he undertook that marked important chapters in his remarkable life. Born in Attleboro, Massachusetts in 1757, he was one of five children in the family of farmer Nathan Hatch, Sr. and his wife, Amy Stanley Hatch. The senior Hatch had served in the French & Indian Wars.
In July of 1776, at age 19, young Nathan enlisted in the Continental Army, serving as a private in Captain Isaac Hodges’ company on their march to Boston, shortly after America’s Founding Fathers had signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. He subsequently reenlisted three additional times, serving four terms of service, and was honorably discharged on January 8, 1781. (It was a common custom at the time for volunteers to fulfill a term of service, return to their farms for harvest or planting and then sign on for another hitch.)
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The American Revolutionary War was not as popular among the colonists as we might assume today. No less a patriot than future president John Adams would later note that while 1/3 of Americans supported the war, another 1/3 remained true to King George III,
and yet another 1/3 were apolitical and uncommitted. Serving in the Continental Army was not, therefore, universally lauded by one’s family, friends and neighbors. This, I think, clearly establishes teenaged Nathan’s decision to serve so soon after the signing of the Declaration as his first brave action.
After the War’s conclusion, Nathan Hatch married Jerusha Fisher in 1785 and subsequently moved to Halifax, Vermont in 1799 where they farmed and raised a large family of several sons and daughters. Reportedly, Nathan and Jerusha were successful, and their life together was happy.
When the War of 1812 was declared on June 18, 1812, Nathan Hatch was nearly 55 years old. Nonetheless, he volunteered to fight the British once again. Often overlooked in U.S. history classes today, the War of 1812 was both a necessary and important conflict, often referred to at the time as the Second War for Independence. England had never truly accepted or respected American sovereignty, in spite of signing the Treaty of Paris at the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783. British warships fired upon American merchant vessels seeking to trade with France, our civilian sailors were often forcibly removed from their trading ships and pressed into service in the Royal Navy, and U.S. boundaries were still disputed or ignored by the British.
Because of his age, Nathan Hatch was refused the opportunity to serve in a forward unit, but this rejection did not deter his intentions. He joined the “Silver-Grays”, a unit composed of fellow Revolutionary War veterans. The Silver-Grays became training regiment, instructing young recruits in the ways of war and imparting to them the skills and wisdom that they had learned in battle decades earlier. This may, in fact, be the best work that Nathan ever did. There is no way of knowing how many green volunteers survived the war to return to their families, thanks to the advice, teaching and training imparted to them by Hatch and his fellow veterans. This, I believe, was Nathan Hatch's second brave act. Rather than simply returning home in anger or disappointment after being refused service on the front lines due to his age, he became a
valuable leader in a training unit, mentoring and guiding the recruits who would soon be facing enemy fire, no doubt saving many. Among the trainees were two of Nathan’s own sons.
In 1827, Nathan’s wife Jerusha died, and by 1832 he had moved to Carroll, New York to live with his son, Samuel. It was in that year, at age 75, that he first applied for a veteran’s pension for his service in the Revolutionary War. The pension was granted shortly thereafter.
In 1843, Nathan’s sons Edmund and Nathan III and his grandson Hiram told him of their intention to move to the wilderness of the Wisconsin territory and homestead there. Not one to be left behind, Nathan Hatch insisted upon going along. At age 86, this bold decision was certainly his third brave act. It may even have been the bravest thing he had ever done. He arrived with his sons in the newly organized Town of Brookfield, which had been established the same year. It was only sparsely settled, and, as rustic as life had been in the rural communities of the east, southeastern Wisconsin was still a true wilderness. It was the frontier. Nathan received a land grant for a farm located near the present site of Stonewood Village on the north side of Capitol Drive, west of Calhoun Road. (Of course, the roads and landmarks that are familiar to us today were not there at the time.)
Nathan Hatch died on his Brookfield farm on November 10, 1847, just six days shy of his 90th birthday and six months prior to Wisconsin’s admission to the Union as the 30th state in May of 1848. He was buried on his farm by his family, but his body was subsequently removed to Oak Hill cemetery sometime after 1851.
This Memorial Day, area residents and visitors will gather again at Oak Hill cemetery to pay tribute to all veterans buried there who have served their country and stood firm for our freedom. While there, they will also pause to honor a Solider of the Revolution, a man “three times brave”: Nathan Hatch.