Descendants, City Honor Revolutionary War Veteran Buried in Brookfield

As the country remembers and honors fallen veterans this Memorial Day weekend, one special veteran — a soldier in the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 — was honored Saturday at his gravesite in Brookfield.

Clark Hatch flew from Hawaii to be among those paying respects to his great-great-great-grandfather Nathan Hatch, a private in the Continential Army serving under President George Washington.

"It is unique and special to have a Revolutionary War veteran buried among us this far to the west," local historian Stephen Hauser told those gathered at Oak Hill Cemetery, on the east side of Brookfield Road just north of Brookfield Academy.

Yet many area residents are unaware that history lies in their midst, he said.

When Hauser speaks to local students learning about the Revolutionary War, some wide-eyed children ask if there really is a soldier's gravesite in Brookfield they can visit.

Visit Revolutionary War veteran's grave

"Yes, you can drive a couple of miles and there, you can pay your respects," Hauser said. "This is a treasure to have Nathan Hatch's remains buried with us to remind us every day as we pass on this road of the price of freedom."

Mayor Steve Ponto and Clark Hatch unveiled a new marker designating as "Nathan Hatch Trail" a segment of the city's Greenway Corridor connecting Brookfield's Village area to Oak Hill Cemetery.

Also among those attending were Clark's brother Dennis Hatch, members of the Behling-Kutchera American Legion Post 296 Honor Guard and the Boy Scout Troop 71 from St. John Vianney. John Rosenberg played Taps on the bugle. Pastor Eric Skovgaard, of Elm Grove Evangelical Lutheran Church, led prayers.

Nathan Hatch was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts on Nov. 16, 1757, and served as a private for 16 months with four different regiments of the Continential Army during the Revoluntary War.

He and his wife raised five sons and five daughters. They moved from Massachusetts to Halifax, Vermont "by oxen, by horse (and they) took a cow," Clark Hatch said. "They didn't have any McDonalds in those days. They took some chickens so they'd have their own food."

They settled in southern Vermont, where they farmed and fostered a tradition of military service.

Family history of military service

"Ancestors of Nathan Hatch have been in every war — the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korean War," Clark Hatch said, adding his nephew fought in Iraq. "My brother Dennis was in the Navy and I was in the Army for eight years, so we have a history of serving the country."

So perhaps it was no surprise that at the age of 55 Nathan Hatch once again enlisted — for the War of 1812.

"His superiors decided that at age 55 he and his comrades were too old for active service on the front line, but they were put in charge of recruitment and training the recruits," Hauser said. "And they served as behind-the-line support troops in an honorable capacity."

The regiment with Nathan Hatch and other Revolutionary War veterans was known as the Silver-Grays in the War of 1812.

Nathan Hatch's wife died in 1828, and he moved to southern New York to be near some of his sons who had found farming opportunities there.

Go West, Old Man

Then when he was about 85 years old, Nathan Hatch and two of his sons, Nathan Jr. and Edmund, moved west to the Wisconsin territory. It was 1842, six years before Wisconsin achieved statehood. They settled on farmlands north of Capitol Drive where Stonewood Village now lies.

"He left behind his family, his neighbors, his friends, descendents, cousins, distant cousins, associates and the only part of this country he had ever known and embarked on an adventure which I personally believe took as much fortitude and courage as his enlistment in the Continental Army," Hauser said of the move to Wisconsin.

Nathan Hatch died five years later, just shy of his 90th birthday on Nov. 10, 1847. He was buried on the family farm. In the 1860s, perhaps during the Civil War, his remains were moved to Oak Hill Cemetery, Hauser said.

"(Hatch had) a remarkable life, well lived," Hauser said. "He was a pioneer in every sense of the world, and a man who proves to each of us standing here today you are never too old for a new adventure."

Nathan Jr. Hatch, who also served in the War of 1812, had a son, Hiram, who became the first Superintendent of Schools in Brookfield. Two of Edmund Hatch's sons, Alanson and Hatch H., have Civil War markers at their burial sites at Oak Hill Cemetery.

Descendants thank Brookfield

"We want to thank the people of Brookfield for honoring our ancestor, and we're very, very grateful for this beautiful plaque and for the care of the cemetery here," Clark Hatch said.

He also thanked the late Amory Moore, a neighbor who voluntarily cared for the cemetery grounds and worked to ensure all soldiers buried there had proper markers. Moore's wife Doris attended Saturday's ceremony and offered coffee at her house afterward.

Hauser said if Nathan Hatch was alive, "he would want us all to pause and reflect on every veteran from every war who is buried in this cemetery and also to extend a hand of friendship in the name of freedom and liberty to every veteran who stand among us here today.

"Nathan Hatch took up what for some was an unpopular cause, fought for freedom and liberty, prevailed and he would wish to share that triumph with every other veteran here today, living and deceased."