Spanish-American War

The Spanish-American War of 1898 touched Billerica lightly, and it left far fewer traces in the town's records than the Civil War before it or the World War after it. Congress declared war on April 25, 1898, dating it from April 21; the fighting in Cuba and Puerto Rico was over by the protocol of August 12, and the Treaty of Paris was signed on December 10, 1898. The war was fought by volunteers raised through the militia regiments, not by town quotas, and Billerica's annual report for the year ending February 28, 1899 records no war meeting, bounty or special appropriation, and its soldiers' relief and state aid accounts show only the usual modest sums.

Twenty years later the selectmen regretted the gap. "Following the Civil and Spanish-American wars," they wrote at the end of 1918, "no complete record was kept of the Billerica men in the service and today the Town has no detailed information with reference to our brave men who served their country in 1861-65 and also those who answered the call to the colors in 1898." That lack is why the town compiled a full record of its men in the World War. The number of Billerica men who served in 1898 is therefore unknown. The nearest volunteer companies were those of Lowell in the Sixth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, which was mustered in in May 1898, served in Puerto Rico and came home to Lowell on October 28, 1898, but no Billerica man has yet been found on its rolls.

A few of the town's veterans of the war are known from later records. Thomas A. Ellis, a Billerica-born plumber who was twenty-one in 1898, served in the war and went on to nearly forty years in town office, on the Board of Health during the influenza epidemic of 1918 and as Building Inspector until his death in 1951. Victor J. Hosmer, the town's collector of taxes from 1903 to 1906, was with Ellis one of the two representatives of the Spanish American War veterans on the Memorial Day Committee of 1939. The war also reached the public library: the new books listed in the town report of 1899 included Joseph Earl Stevens's Yesterdays in the Philippines.

The veterans of 1898 kept a place in the town's observances for half a century. "Spanish War Veterans" marched in the town's Welcome Home parade for the men of the World War on July 4, 1919, behind the soldiers and sailors of 1917 and 1918 and with the Sons of Veterans. In 1938 the warrant proposed a Memorial Day Committee drawn from the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Spanish American War veterans, and from 1939 the town each year gave full charge of the Memorial Day exercises to a committee of eight, the commander and one representative of each of the two Legion posts, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Spanish War veterans. From the 1950s into the late 1960s the assessors' reports list the tax exemptions of "Spanish War Veterans and Widows" with those of the disabled veterans of later wars. No record has been found of any Billerica man in the Philippine-American War that followed, from 1899 to 1902.

People

• Thomas A. Ellis: Billerica-born veteran of the Spanish-American War; represented the Spanish American War veterans on the Memorial Day Committee of 1939.
• Victor J. Hosmer: Spanish American War veteran who represented them on the Memorial Day Committee of 1939 (identified with the tax collector of 1903-1906 by name).

References

1. Billerica town report 1918 (1915-19 vol., p. 767): Selectmen: no complete record kept of Billerica men who served in 1861-65 or "answered the call to the colors in 1898."
2. Billerica town report for the year ending Feb. 28, 1899, p. 76: Soldiers' Relief appropriation of $100, the ordinary Civil War relief; no war appropriation in the year's accounts.
3. Town report 1899, Bennett Public Library accessions (p. 143): Yesterdays in the Philippines, by Joseph Earl Stevens.
4. Town report 1919, pp. 848-849: Welcome Home parade, July 4, 1919, with "Spanish War Veterans" marching after the World War service men.
5. Town report 1938, warrant Article 42 (approx. leaf): Memorial Day Committee to consist of members of the American Legion, V.F.W. and Spanish American War veterans.
6. Town report 1939, p. 26: Memorial Day Committee: Spanish American War, Victor J. Hosmer and Thomas A. Ellis; with the V.F.W. and the two Legion posts.
7. Town report 1952, Assessors (approx. leaf): abatements under Clauses 22 and 23 "include Spanish War Vet" and World War I and II veterans.
8. Lowell Sun, October 28, 1898: "The Sixth regiment is home": Lowell's Companies C and G arrive from Boston and parade through the city.
9. Find a Grave: Thomas Allen Ellis (1877-1951), North Cemetery, Billerica: parents, marriage and Spanish-American War service.
10. Wikipedia, 6th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Spanish-American War): service in Puerto Rico under Col. Edmund Rice, return in October 1898.