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English settler's remains buried 250 years after his death
November 12, 2000
Web posted at: 1:34 PM EST (1834 GMT)
NORTH ADAMS, Massachusetts (AP) -- More than 255 years after he was shot defending a fort, the remains of a British soldier were laid to rest a second time in a Veterans Day ceremony.
Soldier Elisha Nims, 26, was at the frontier outpost Fort Massachusetts when it was attacked on June 11, 1745, by American Indians. He was shot while getting water from a spring outside the stockade and is believed to have died the next day from a bullet lodged in his spine.
Nims' original grave and headstone were discovered in 1852. A.L. Perry, a professor at nearby Williams College, unearthed the skeleton and cut out the portion of spine bearing the bullet, and eventually gave the remains to the local historical society. Over the years most of the skeleton and headstone disappeared, but the spine remained.
Earlier this year, library officials discovered the spine and decided to rebury it.
About 30 people attended Saturday's reburial ceremony on a windy hilltop at Hillside Cemetery as the bone was reburied with military honors.
Mary Merriam of Conway, a member of the Nims Family Association, thanked the organizers of the ceremony for "making it possible for Elisha Nims to rest once again, in peace and dignity."
"Every hill town in the valley has had a family of Nimses there," she said.
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