By Michael Ryan
WEST KILL - The time and distance between centuries evanesced when the town of Lexington celebrated Patriots Day, last Saturday afternoon.
Greene County historian Jonathan Palmer was the guest speaker, focusing his presentation on Marquis de Lafayette, the French military officer who aligned himself with burgeoning America during the Revolutionary War.
Palmer recounted Lafayette’s heroic leadership, helping guide the colonies to world-changing independence, and told of his triumphant return to the United States with its link to David Foster and Lexington.
Prior to his talk, Palmer was introduced by deputy town historian Christine Dwon, co-organizer of the event with town historian Mary Palazollo.
Providing backdrop on why everyone attending was there, Dwon recalled the seeds being planted for the continuing local tribute to patriots.
“Lexington’s 2013 Bicentennial celebration was organized and led by then Lexington town historian Karen Deeter and a dedicated and hardworking Lexington Bicentennial Steering Committee,” Dwon said.
That committee included the late town historian, Deeter, and local residents Lorraine Banks, Michael Barcone, Liza Dwon, Peggy Rappleyea, Darcy Rossignol and Linda Winchester.
“On April 20, 2013, we had the Grand March of Families representing our town. Since 2013, Lexington has held an annual Patriots Day,” Dwon said.
Over the years, “there have been programs on local history, local authors, a dedication of the Lexington Memorial Brick garden in Karen Deeter’s memory and much more,” Dwon said.
“Karen wrote in our Bicentennial Book, ‘in calling 2013 a year of celebrating historical connections, our intention is to look at how we are all connected to each other and how that connects us from our past to now, outward to the mountaintop, to the county, to the State and way beyond.’”
Having given Palmer a tough act to follow, the county historian shone light on the past as the sun broke through springtime rain clouds.
“There is this moment of connection,” Palmer said, between the town of Lexington and Lafayette’s return to the young nation he helped create.
It is fairly commonly known that Lafayette, at age 19, became swept up in the fervor of the Revolutionary War and the official birth of this nation.
He fought with the Continental Army at the Battle of Brandywine near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, where he was wounded, shot in the leg.
Standing stout-heartedly amid the furor, Lafayette organized an orderly retreat and later served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island.
Lafayette, despite his youth was, “permitted to command Continental Army troops in the decisive Siege of Yorktown in 1781, the Revolutionary War's final major battle,” according to Wikipedia.
Palmer, while noting all of Lafayette’s gallantries, spoke of the General’s American revisiting in the mid-1820’s, when “every little village had a celebration for him, this centerpiece of our collective memory of the Revolution, this great revolutionary figure.”
Lafayette and his entourage, sailing the Hudson River, docked in the valley town of Catskill, a brief stop chronicled by his personal secretary.
“The masses of soldiers and citizens which covered a long pier projecting into the river, by their acclimation, informed General Lafayette that the inhabitants of Catskill also expected a visit from the national guest,” the secretary wrote.
“We remained a few minutes only with this population, during which the General had the satisfaction of conversing with some of his former revolutionary companions,” the secretary wrote.
Among the compatriots, “he recognized one named Foster, who had been particularly attached to his service when he was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine,” the secretary wrote.
Which is where Palmer unabashedly intertwined fact and legend, telling of a Revolutionary War veteran, David Foster, buried beneath a simple gravestone in the village of Lexington Cemetery.
“Here is the moment of connection,” Palmer said. “These two men, soldier and general, were together in this great cataclysm that formed our union.
“Here is Lafayette, the last of the surviving Generals of the Revolution, and this aging soldier, each part of the battle where the whole thing was almost lost, the whole ideal of freedom, amidst that retreat from the British Army.
“We are in the throes of the 250th Anniversary of Revolution,” Palmer said, beginning in 2026 with nationwide tributes extending over multiple years.
“Your community’s name represents the ideal of freedom etched in our consciousness, the Battle of Lexington and Concord,” Palmer said.
“That battle was the start of the Revolution, where the shot heard around the world was fired,” Palmer said, echoing still in the high hills.
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