This is part of a series on Lafayette’s visit to Massachusetts August 23, 1824 to September 3 1824.
Sampson Vryling Stoddard Wilder (1780-1865) had made a fortune as a merchant in France and retired to gentleman farming in Bolton. Wilder knew Lafayette from his days in France and had visited him at La Grange.
Josiah Quincy, Mayor of Boston, wrote to Wilder to make arrangements to assure that Lafayette would be within ten miles of Hartford by the evening of September 3, 1824. Wilder went to Concord to escort Lafayette to his estate in Bolton, which is still there and was recognized by
The Lafayette Trail with one of its ubiquitous markers on October 25, 2020.
Lafayette Trail marker being unveiled in Bolton
The party arrived at the Worcester County line between 8 and 9 pm. An escort of cavalry awaited them along with a large cavalcade of military officers in full dress uniform. The party arrived at Wilder’s home around 10 pm. Pitch pine torches had been placed on the fences on both sides of the road for a mile. Veterans of the War of 1812 were stationed on top of the wall in front of the mansion and veterans of the Revolution were in front of the wall.
There was an arch over the front gate inscribed “The sword of Jehovah, of Washington, and of Lafayette.” Everything was illuminated. The local militia Bolton Guards had renamed themselves Lafayette Guards and spent the night guarding the mansion.
A delegation from the Worcester Committee of Arrangements presented Lafayette with an invitation to breakfast with its chairman then Judge Levi Lincoln Jr. (1782-1868) in Worcester the next day.
The party retired after a great meal which excluded wine, as Wilder was an early temperance advocate, but included sherbet, an unusual treat available thanks to Wilder’s ice house
The party rose early. Lafayette reviewed the Lafayette Guards, who had watched all night, and several companies of cavalry and boarded the carriage. They passed a wood where there was a log house that Wilder had prepared as a possible refuge for Napoleon.
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For information on the bicentennial of Lafayette’s tour check out lafayette200.org.