Postcard
This is a black and white postcard titled “Home of Capt. Pelatiah Fletcher, Who Served in the Revolutionary War,” located in Westford, Massachusetts. It was published by J. Herbert Fletcher and printed by the Frank W. Swallow Post Card Co., Inc. in Exeter, NH, around 1920. The house still stands today; for more information, visit here
Fletcher was involved in town affairs before the Revolution, including committee work focused on the raising of a new meeting house frame in 1770, replacing the first meeting house, which had served the town since about 1725.
In July of 1774 he and 206 other Westford men signed the “Solemn League and Covenant”, an early non-importation pledge against Great Britain, and in January of 1775 he was one of seven men who made up the first “Committee of Inspection,” whose task was to see that the resolves of the American and Provincial Congresses be “faithfully observed and complied with.”
In 1776 he was appointed Captain of one of the two Westford companies in the 6th Middlesex County Militia Regiment. Throughout the war he supported the cause by recruiting men to serve in the militia and Continental Army, and provided food and other support to the families of men who were serving in far-off campaigns.
From the postcard collection
W.2015.1.2