Letter From Homer Morrison to Ronie Strout 2013
Subject: John Puffer & Henry Caler: WAR of 1812 POWs
During this War of 1812 Bicentennial period, the prisoner of war experiences of eventual Washington County residents John Puffer and Henry Caler (full name, Jost Henry Caler) might be of interest to your “Out and About” readers:
John Puffer (1793-1877) was born in Canton, Massachusetts and Henry Caler (1777-1867) in Waldoboro, Maine. Both were captured at sea by the British during the War of 1812, John in July, 1813, and Henry in June, 1814. John, a privateersman, was captured while a prize crew member aboard a captured British packet ship. Henry, along with a brother, a cousin and one other, was taken from a Waldoboro fishing sloop which the British then burned.
Both were initially held on Melville Island in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and later in Dartmoor Prison, Devonshire, England. John and Henry were at Melville Island at different times, but their periods of confinement in the notorious Dartmoor overlapped by approximately eight months.
Both settled in Washington County about ten years after the war, John Puffer in Columbia and Henry Caler in Centerville. They arrived in the same year, 1826, and lived and died in the towns where they settled. It is not known if they knew each other while in large, overcrowded Dartmoor, but they must have been acquainted later while living just a few miles apart in sparsely settled Washington County.
At the ends of their long lives, brief notices of their deaths appeared in the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, each with mention of their Dartmoor imprisonment. Tibbetts and Lamson’s Early Pleasant River Families of Washington County, Maine also makes mention of this in John Puffer’s case - but does not for Henry Caler.
From my personal knowledge, John Puffer’s grave in Columbia is well marked with an inscribed stone and is decorated on patriotic holidays, appropriate recognition for an American prisoner of war.
I do not know whether Henry Caler's grave receives the same recognition, or even if its location is now known. Early Pleasant River Families, p. 68, reports an inscribed gravestone. However, a Find A Grave search locates only the grave of his wife, Dorcas Caler d. May 30, 1854, in the Richard A. Caler family cemetery, Centerville - and provides no information on Henry's grave. Perhaps a descendant or some other interested party would have information on the burial location, or want to investigate.
Henry's grandaughter Helen Augusta Caler married Sewall Marston Drisko who was Gregory P Kelley great grandfather.
John Puffer (1793-1877) was born in Canton, Massachusetts and Henry Caler (1777-1867) in Waldoboro, Maine. Both were captured at sea by the British during the War of 1812, John in July, 1813, and Henry in June, 1814. John, a privateersman, was captured while a prize crew member aboard a captured British packet ship. Henry, along with a brother, a cousin and one other, was taken from a Waldoboro fishing sloop which the British then burned.
Both were initially held on Melville Island in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and later in Dartmoor Prison, Devonshire, England. John and Henry were at Melville Island at different times, but their periods of confinement in the notorious Dartmoor overlapped by approximately eight months.
Both settled in Washington County about ten years after the war, John Puffer in Columbia and Henry Caler in Centerville. They arrived in the same year, 1826, and lived and died in the towns where they settled. It is not known if they knew each other while in large, overcrowded Dartmoor, but they must have been acquainted later while living just a few miles apart in sparsely settled Washington County.
At the ends of their long lives, brief notices of their deaths appeared in the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, each with mention of their Dartmoor imprisonment. Tibbetts and Lamson’s Early Pleasant River Families of Washington County, Maine also makes mention of this in John Puffer’s case - but does not for Henry Caler.
From my personal knowledge, John Puffer’s grave in Columbia is well marked with an inscribed stone and is decorated on patriotic holidays, appropriate recognition for an American prisoner of war.
I do not know whether Henry Caler's grave receives the same recognition, or even if its location is now known. Early Pleasant River Families, p. 68, reports an inscribed gravestone. However, a Find A Grave search locates only the grave of his wife, Dorcas Caler d. May 30, 1854, in the Richard A. Caler family cemetery, Centerville - and provides no information on Henry's grave. Perhaps a descendant or some other interested party would have information on the burial location, or want to investigate.
Henry's grandaughter Helen Augusta Caler married Sewall Marston Drisko who was Gregory P Kelley great grandfather.
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