Something About the Haverhill Civil War Monument

With the young noble soldier.

We know Lewis Barnavelt had an ancestor who fought in the American Civil War, but what about Johnny Dixon? We don’t read about a Duston Heights Civil War Monument but then Johnny is from Riverhead, New York, and may not have family history in Massachusetts. Or does he?

At any rate here's another item from a city where John Bellairs lived but did not include in his of his novels (or something like that). This statue sits on Monument Square, at the intersection of Main Street and Kenoza Avenue. The Massachusetts Civil War Monuments Project gives some background of this statue, dedicated July 5, 1869:

Haverhill’s monument is rare in that the marble statue was modeled on an actual veteran from that city. The contractor for the project was sculptor Calvin Weeks. One of his stone-carvers, Patrick McLaughlin, happened to be from Haverhill and so he was awarded the task of carving the statue. He carved it in the likeness of his 26 year-old son, Frank McLaughlin, who had served in the 50th Massachusetts Infantry and the 17th Massachusetts Infantry and survived the war. It is also rare in that in that it features a standing soldier about 15 years before such statues were common. Most memorials in the years immediately following the war took the form of obelisks. The soldier’s dress uniform is also distinctive.

The primary inscription of the monument reads, “In grateful tribute to the memory of those who on land and sea died that the Republic might live, this monument was erected by the city of Haverhill.” Dr. George B. Loring of Salem gave the keynote address during the dedication.