By David L. Bristow
The American Revolution happened long before Nebraska statehood, but treasured relics made their way west, handed down from one generation to the next.
Dr. John Manning (1738-1824) was a physician in Ipswich, Massachusetts. His home is preserved as a historic site.
British soldiers allowed Manning to enter besieged Boston after he treated a British officer wounded in the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. Manning spent six weeks treating the wounded from both sides. A descendant described this as an early example of the doctrine “that in the presence of those suffering after battle, all partisan feeling should be forgotten.”
Many years later, Manning’s descendant Mary Manning Nelson gave the sword to the Lincoln, Nebraska chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which donated it to the Nebraska State Historical Society. By then the story was that Manning had carried the sword at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Not visible in this photo, the sword is engraved “John Manning M.D.” on the counter guard. NSHS 7134-130-(1)
Other Nebraskans have felt strongly that their ancestors’ Revolutionary War artifacts belong here rather than back East. Among other things, the NSHS also has a saber said to have been carried in the war, a teapot that once belonged to George Washington’s sister, and a powder horn said to have been taken from a British officer in the 1779 battle of Stoney Point. In each case, these long-ago donors wanted to make sure that Nebraskans had a physical connection to events related to the nation’s founding.
