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Thomas Heydecker is pictured with all the volunteers who worked on the refurbishment of the Grove Street Soldiers Monument.
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — Rescue for the Grove Street Soldiers Monument came in the form of an Eagle Scout project.
Thomas Jerome Heydecker said: “This monument is a very visible part of our community and one of the first things you see as you come off I-395 and head into town. It has significance as well to the community as it shows respect to the soldiers and sailors that were lost by the Union in the Civil War.”
The Grove Street Soldiers Monument was dedicated over 110 years ago in 1912, in honor of those from the town who served in the Civil War. The cannon balls were in need of repair and repainting and the monument itself needed a deep cleaning of the granite and bronze plaque. The town donated the materials needed to complete this project.
The project was completed recently for the Town of Putnam and its Recreation Department.
As his project Heydecker, a senior at Putnam High School, decided to repair and refresh the Grove Street monument.
Putnam Parks and Recreation Director Willie Bousquet, who helped Heydecker plan the project, said, “The Town of Putnam is very happy with the updates that were completed at the monument. We are always happy to work with Troop 25 in Putnam to support them and they are always happy to support the town.”
Since moving to Putnam in 2018 Thomas has been an active member of Boy Scout Troop 25 performing more than 30 hours of community service with his troop.
He is looking to fulfill a legacy of becoming an Eagle Scout. His grandfather Robert Mackerer achieved his Eagle Rank in 1957 and has been an integral part of helping him drive towards this great achievement.
Heydecker started his scouting career in 2011 as a Tiger Cub Scout in Walpole Mass., and has been active ever since.
In 2010 the late Don Steinbrick was distributing flags for veterans at the Grove Street Cemetery in Putnam when he came across a half-buried flag marker with the inscription “WRC 1888.” After researching, the restoration and rededication of the Grove Street Soldiers’ Monument on its 100th birthday, May 2012, was born.
In 1912 the Woman’s Relief Corps Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic, had raised the funds to erect the monument on May 30, 1912. It rained that day. It honors those locals who served in the Civil War, more than 50 years after the war ended.
Steinbrick, who grew up in the neighborhood of Grove Street, gathered some old childhood friends and launched preliminary plans to refurbish the bronze figure and granite pedestal. The project turned into a local Civil War history lesson for the group and led to some unexpected discoveries.
In 2012 Steinbrick and his committee rededicated the monument, just before to the annual Putnam Memorial Day parade. Putnam parades step off in the vicinity of the monument.
The brief ceremony closely followed the original dedication program with a re-presentation of the restored monument to the City of Putnam, reflections of the occasion by John T. McDonald, whose grandfather delivered a similar response as mayor in 1912, and appropriate music from the Civil War period.
The committee replaced the stack of cannon balls that had once been part of the memorial but disappeared in the 1940s. And while bowling balls will serve as replacement ammunition, the structure was being designed to hopefully eliminate the fate of the originals, which some old timers remember as being rolled down the neighboring streets.
It is also believed that the cannon balls were part of the scrap metal collection efforts of 1942 to aid the war effort. In the process of preparing to lay a slab for the new cannonball structure, the original slab was discovered about 10 inches below the surface. The bronze figure and granite pedestal were cleaned and flag-holding markers graced each of the four corners.
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