CAMP SITE OF SLATER GUARDS

  Veterans Dispute the Exact Location Where Webster boys Were Located at the Lake

  CAMP STORRS

When the Slater Guards were first formed in Webster, where did they camp?  Did they camp at the Narrows , or did they camp at Killdeer?

Is Comrade Elias Wakefield correct when he says it was at the Narrows , or is the statement of Comrade Louis E. Pattison a fact when he says it was at Killdeer?

Discussion has waxed warm between the two Civil War veterans this week, but from the standpoint of an innocent bystander, it would seem that Comrade Wakefield must know something about it.  He was a member of the guards, and he says that it was The Narrows.  Comrade Pattison, while not a member of the Guards, has an excellent memory and he declares that it was at Killdeer that the guards were encamped.  

So vehement is Mr. Wakefield in the matter, that he declares that should a proposed monument or marker be placed at Killdeer to mark the spot where the guards camped, he would personally  row over there and yell said harassment  and pick it up by the roots and bring it over to The Narrows where it belongs.  Recourse to the Webster Times of 1861 gives the information that “ Camp Storrs , Elliot’s Beach” is mentioned, but that doesn’t conclusively prove anything.

The argument and dissention had arisen over a plan whereby the spot where the Slater guards camped at the lake might be marked by some modest monument and has resulted in both veterans being at loggerheads in the matter.  It is a fact that the Guards were formed in Webster and went to the lake to camp before they were ordered into active service.

It is believed that there are many readers of the Times who as boys and girls can recall the place where the soldiers encamped at the time,, and could settle  the argument for all time.  Mr. Wakefield said “I don’t care if half the town came forward and said we were encamped at Killdeer, I know better, because I was a member of the Slater guards and I know where we were located.  I did guard duty there and I know it was The Narrows, Pattison don’t know where it was, and if he says we were at Killdeer he is wrong.”

“I’d just like to see them put up a marker at Killdeer and say that was the spot where the Guard was camped.  With my own hands I’d go over and pull it up and put it  back where it belongs.  I guess I know where we were camped.”  Plans for the marker which are tentative will be held up until this important point is settled.  Mr. Wakefield of Webster and Jeremiah Healy of Dudley are the only survivors of the Slater guards now living.  

August 9, 1923

UNANIMOUS NOW ON CAMP SITE

L. E. Pattison Denies He Ever Said Killdeer Was Place Where Slater Guards Were Located

TO ERECT MARKER

The Slater Guards were encamped at The Narrows previous to entering the service.  Elias W. Wakefield, a member of the company, has insisted all along that this was the place where the Slater Guards camped before they left Webster.  Mrs. Amos Bartlett, widow of the man who first lieutenant and later captain of the company says that it was The Narrows.

And L. E. Pattison, who was alleged to have claimed that the guards were camped at Killdeer, came forward and declared that he never made such a statement.  He said that the guards  camped at The Narrows, that he knew that was the place, and anybody that intimates that he thought differently was crazy.  So that makes it unanimous for The Narrows.

There has been some talk of erecting a marker at the lake to designate the spot where the Slater Guards camped, and this brought the discussion as tom just where they were located.  Some allege that the company was at Killdeer and others notably Mr. Wakefield who was a member of the company declare that it was at the Narrows .

Mr. Pattison said that if somebody intimated it was somewhere else than at the Narrows , it was not L. E. Pattison, because he always knew that The Narrows was the place.  Mrs. Bartlett called the times soon after the paper reached her home and said that there could be little doubt about the location.  She said also that a man named Maley, who at one time worked for The Times bent a young tree into a seat at the Narrows, when he was a member of the company.  This tree with the peculiar shaped branch that formed a seat, was for many years a landmark at the Narrows .

With the question settled once and for all, it only remains for the marker to be erected at the spot, to commemorate the place where the first Webster company first camped previous to being called into active service.