Person:William Nevins (1)

Hollis, Hillsborough, NH, "Early in the afternoon of the 19th April, three of these brothers [that is, William's sons, probably William, Benjamin, and Joseph given list of thos who responded on April 19, 1775] were at work with their crowbars digging stone for a farm wall at a short distance form their home. At the coming in sight of the messenger, they had partially raised from its place a large flat stone embedded in a farm roadway. seeing the messenger spurring towards them at full speed, one of the borthers put a small bowlder [sic] under the large stone as it was in the roadway, with the little bowlder under it, they hastened to the house, and all three of them, with their guns and equipments, hurried to the Hollis Common to join their company. One of these brothers, Phineas, was killed at Bunker HIll; another, William, the spring following lost his life in the service in New York ." John enlisted for the Canada expedition, and was never heard of by his people. As a family memorial of this incident, the large stone, supported by the small one, was permitted to remain as the men left it when they answered the call of their country; and now (1897) it has been transferred to the Common or "Old Training Field," and so located as to indicate the line of march of the ninety-two men who left that town for Lexington, April 19, 1775. On this bowlder has been placed a bronze tablet on which the names of the patriots are read, together with the following "The Nevens [sic] Brothers were at work on this stone, on their farm, April 19, 1775, and left it in this position at the Minute Men's alarm, to join their comrades on this Common."18