Old Soldier’s Lot
I drove to the Framingham Cemetery to discover the stone monument marking a section known as the Old Soldier’s Lot. Monuments like this quietly ask us to stop and remember.
At the top of the plaque are the words: “This tablet in honor of John Nixon“. The monument recognized John Nixon, a Framingham native who played an important role in the early years of the American Revolutionary War. Nixon first served as captain of the Framingham Minute Men and marched when the fighting began at the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. He later rose to the rank of colonel and fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill, eventually becoming a brigadier general in the Continental Army and serving in campaigns that included fighting around Saratoga.
Below his name on the tablet are two more members of the Nixon family; his brother Thomas Nixon also served in the Revolutionary forces and became a colonel in his brother’s brigade. Beneath him appeared Thomas Nixon, Jr, who also served in the Revolutionary Army, showing that service to the new nation extended across generations of the same family.
The monument stands within the Old Burying Ground where many of Framingham’s earliest residents are buried. Historians estimate that nearly ninety veterans of the Revolutionary War rest in this cemetery, making it one of the town’s most significant landscapes. Among them is Peter Salem, a formerly enslaved man from Framingham who fought in several major battles of the Revolution, including Bunker Hill. After the war he returned to the town where he spent the rest of his life.
Today this quiet cemetery preserves their memory of these men who left their homes and farms to take part in the struggle for independence.
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