Compiled by Paula Kowalewski Sullivan from various online sources including The Sun Chronicle, history books like Jordan Fiore's Wrentham 1673-1973 A History, along with interviews with local Wrentham folks and Jackson Frye.
Jackson “Jack” Frye, currently a junior at King Philip Regional High School and a member of Boy Scout Troop 131, has been raising funds to design and build a Revolutionary War Veterans monument he plans for the Wrentham Town Common as his Eagle Scout project.
The Eagle Scout Service project is an opportunity for Scouts to demonstrate leadership of others while performing a project for the benefit of their community. This is the culmination of the Scout’s leadership training, and it requires a significant effort; completing it is a requirement of a Scout to attain the Eagle Scout rank. According to The Sun Chronicle, Scoutmaster Ed Crisci had told Jack that he had spoken about the lack of such a monument with several town employees. “They made it clear to him that it would likely be a project that they would be interested in having a Scout take on,” Frye said. “As a history buff, this was right up my alley.”
In this particular case, the project will, as required, benefit an organization other than the Scouts: Wrentham’s Town Common will see a new monument to commemorate Wrentham residents who served in the American Revolutionary War. This monument will join the other war veteran memorials on the Common or in town as shown below.
When he pulled together a yard sale in town to raise funds for the monument in October 2022, Jack told The Sun Chronicle, “I am a history buff that was dismayed by the fact that we did not have a monument on the Town Common commemorating the Wrentham residents that fought in the Revolutionary War.”
The Revolutionary War arose from growing tensions between residents of Great Britain’s 13 North American colonies and the colonial government, which represented the British Crown. Skirmishes between British troops and colonial militiamen in Lexington and Concord in April 1775 kicked off the armed conflict, and by the following summer, the rebels were waging a full-scale war for their independence. According to Wrentham, 1673-1973: A History, “News of the fight at Lexington and Concord was spread by fast-riding messengers and on April 19 five companies of minutemen… marched from Wrentham in the provincial servi