Letter: Another Midnight Rider

As noted in the lead article on January 5, 2024, Paul Revere, Dr. Samuel Prescott, Nathan Munroe and Benjamin Tidd were Midnight Riders. Who else was a Midnight Rider? Thanks to research done by the Concord250 History & Education Subcommittee, another Concordian who spread the alarm on that memorable day, Timothy Merriam, has been rediscovered.

Seventeen-year-old Timothy Merriam lived at Meriam’s Corner and most likely received the news from the Lexington riders. His pension application states, “That early on the morning of April nineteenth, AD 1775, he was informed of the approach of a British force to Acton, when he forthwith hastened to give the alarm to the inhabitants in the east part of that town & in the adjoining town of Bedford, & before daylight joined the ranks of his Company at Acton. That he was engaged the same morning in the battle at Acton bridge & in the pursuit of the enemy on their return to Boston…”  

This son of Acton spread the word, then returned to his town to help defend it. Furthermore, he fought in his family’s yard since he pursued the “enemy on their return to Boston” through Meriam’s Corner. Consequently, Merriam readily recalled the extraordinary events of April 19, 1775, engraved in his memory for his pension application. 

After the Revolutionary War, Merriam left Acton, became a physician, and was buried in Framingham, Massachusetts. Last year, the Subcommittee discovered that his veteran status was unknown by Church Hill Cemetery. The Concord250 History & Education Subcommittee worked with Cemetery Supervisor Tish Hopkins to arrange for the Town of Framingham to place a flagholder and flag by his gravestone. Thanks to research, we can recognize and remember Dr. Timothy Merriam as a veteran and Midnight Rider. 

Beth van Duzer 

Concord250 History & Education Subcommittee Clerk