HADLEY — Jeremiah Cady’s name may not be in the history books and his legacy may be little known compared with those of the men who later signed the Declaration of Independence, but his contributions to American liberty were honored at a Friday morning ceremony.
“I think we can all agree that Jeremiah Cady was a true patriot and it’s fitting that today we commemorate his remarkable service,” said Alan Weinberg, president of the Hadley Historical Society, during a ceremony at Cady’s final resting place in the Old Hadley Cemetery.
Cady, who lived in Shutesbury in the 1770s and was buried in Hadley when he died in 1848, participated in the Boston Tea Party and served in the Revolutionary War.
His gravesite is now marked with medallions recognizing his involvement, as well as an American flag.
For Evan O’Brien, creative manager of the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, Cady’s actions continue to reverberate almost 253 years after the Dec. 16, 1773 event.
“He was clearly an ardent patriot,” O’Brien said, adding that Cady’s actions helped carry the torch of freedom that led to the Revolutionary War.
The placement of the Boston Tea Party commemorative plaque is also one of the first the organization has done to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the United States, after many similar events took place three years ago to mark the Boston Tea Party’s 250th anniversary.
The museum worked with Sharon Parsons, a member of the Hadley Historical Commission, to organize members of the Betty Allen Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Pomeroy Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, and to have the Select Board proclaim Sept. 25 as Jeremiah Cady Day.
O’Brien said the anecdote about Cady is that, as a mason living in Shutesbury, he was in Boston, attended a meeting at the Old South Meeting House, and was likely invited down to Griffin’s Wharf, where the tea-filled ships were docked.
It’s unknown whether Cady boarded a ship, or which one, but he was among those who took part in destroying 340 chests of tea after demands that the ships return the tea to England were rejected.
O’Brien said it’s remarkable that Cady and others have been identified because no official count exists of those who were there that day. In the immediate aftermath the event was not celebrated and many were sworn to secrecy, lest they be seen as traitors to the king.
Cady’s name has been known, but more details have emerged through a partnership with American Ancestors, which formed the Boston Tea Party Descendant Program.
The grave-marking program began around 2018. The markers use a depiction of the Boston Tea Party from an 1846 lithograph by Nathaniel Currier. O’Brien said the bulk of work has been done, “but of course, historical research never stops.”
Kristin Harris, research coordinator, said Cady’s marker is one of the first the museum placed three years after the Boston Tea Party’s major anniversary.
“Our goal is to find as many participants and their confirmed resting places,” Harris said.
That has taken them as far as Paris, Kilkenny, Ireland, and to 11 states, reaching as far west as Michigan and Ohio. Cady’s marker is the 90th placed in Massachusetts; the only other one in the region is at a Colrain cemetery. About 130 have been placed so far, and some will go in Maine this fall.
A Revolutionary War marker was also placed at the grave by Debbie Windoloski, who has chaired the Patriot Grave Project for the Betty Allen Chapter of the DAR.
Of 180 soldiers from Hadley, Windoloski has identified about 60 buried in town cemeteries.
Weinberg said that of the 180 soldiers, with about 600 residents at the time, some were enslaved and at least one was Native American.
“We were not aware of Jeremiah Cady’s service and burial in Old Hadley Cemetery until the Boston Tea Party folks reached out,” Weinberg said.
Cady’s grave will now be marked each Memorial Day.
Jonathan Lane, executive director of Revolution 250, said the ceremony is important to show how these people changed hearts and minds and were a conduit to their children and grandchildren to promote rights and liberties.
“The importance is the act of remembrance,” Lane said.
While no descendants of Cady were present, Weinberg said the closest current connection — something Cady may have seen during his life — is an embroidered sampler created by Cady’s granddaughter, Dorothy Cady Cooke, in 1827, when she was 11 years old.
He briefly displayed that sampler, part of the Historical Society’s collection, which depicts the alphabet and numbers, a Scripture passage and motifs related to Hadley, such as birds and flowers, as well as her signature.
It was donated two years ago by Carolyn Palmer of Michigan, Cooke’s great-great-granddaughter.
