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Maj. Gen. Lafayette returns to Connecticut River Valley
WARE — Western Massachusetts towns from Pittsfield to Ware this weekend will celebrate the bicentennial journey of America's favorite fighting Frenchman — bringing music, costume balls and reenactment fanfare.
Reenactor Mark Schneider of Colonial Williamsburg will portray the Marquis de Lafayette, as he races across the state to lay the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown at a celebration certain to draw thousands Tuesday on the 200th anniversary, to the day, of his historic visit.
'Lafayette is a most modern hero,' Schneider told The Republican. 'In addition to leading us to victory in the Revolution, he lent his voice, his right arm, his pen, and his purse to fight against the institution of slavery, and he was a great friend of the Native Americans.'
Starting Friday, Pittsfield will host a ceremony, 4 to 6 p.m., featuring a concert choir, marching band and local dignitaries. Worthington will then hold a period, costume-optional grand ball, 7 to 11 p.m., in a tent at Town Hall.
On Saturday morning, Northampton will welcome Schneider for ceremonies at the Historic Clapp House including the dedication of stop on the Lafayette Trail from 9:30 to noon.
In the afternoon at 2 p.m., at Belchertown's Lawrence Memorial Hall, Lafayette, with horse and carriage, will reenact his visit with an aging doctor he knew. At the Stone House Museum, 20 Maple St., the Green Valley Homestead Reenactment Group will portray 18th century life from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Lafayette will move onto Ware for ceremonies at 4 p.m., then Worcester, for ceremonies the following day, Sunday, at 10 am.
Between 1824 and 1825, Lafayette was the last living major general of the American Revolution and, at age 67, visited all 24 states in a whirlwind 'Farewell Tour' that spanned 13 months. As a young man, he volunteered in the Continental Army and led troops to the victory that secured the nation's independence at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781. That was long before actor Daveed Diggs turned Lafayette into a rapping cultural icon in the Broadway hit 'Hamilton' in 2015.
For many along the route, historical accuracy is a source of pride. Belchertown's Stone House Museum contains the diary of Dr. Estes Howe, which mentions Lafayette, according to archivist Cliff McCarthy. Plus, a local tavern owner's brother ran the carriage for the general.
'So it would have been logical that Lafayette would have stopped here to change horses and get himself some refreshments,' McCarthy said. Another source, from 1874, states that Lafayette, 'on being told … that there lay sick and feeble old officer,' ordered 'the carriage to stop and went in to shake hands with the invalid veteran.'
'He did not stay long,' McCarthy said. 'He was behind schedule, and they were plowing through Western Mass., trying to get to Boston for the Bunker Hill ceremony.'
Beginning last August, events across the country celebrated the precise order of places Lafayette visited on his original 'Guest of the Nation' tour, Schneider said. Five reenactors are used on the current tour, including Schneider.
The tour is made possible by local chapters of the Daughters of the Revolution and, in large part, by the American Friends of Lafayette, a nonprofit group promoting the life and legacy of Lafayette and the Franco-American Alliance.
Alan Hoffman, president of the friends and the Massachusetts Lafayette Society, said he compares the man to 'Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela in terms of his human rights activities and philosophy.'
The American Friends of Lafayette's Peter Reilly, who organized events in Massachusetts, said that Lafayette was 'the full package' of the 'Enlightenment ideals,' like reason, individualism and progress.
'He was always bugging General Washington about slavery,' Reilly said. 'And also (was) known as a ladies' man.'
'Gentlemen are ready to throw by their business to shake him by the hand, and ladies forget their lovers to dream of him,' one New York newspaper wrote in 1824. 'If a man asks, 'Have you seen him?' you know who he means.'
Wayne Phaneuf, former executive editor of The Republican, wrote a remembrance in 1976: as he walked down the streets of Northampton, 'school children, their aprons filled with flowers, strewed petals in front of him.'
All told, Lafayette traveled 6,000 miles and left behind scores of streets, schools and towns named in his honor. At one point, he was pulled from the Ohio River.
The Republican reported on June 22, 1825, that 'the trunk, supposed to contain the papers of Gen. Lafayette, which sunk with the steamboat Mechanic, has been recovered.'
Research assistance for this article was provided by Joseph Carvalho III.
Read the original article on MassLive.
