| Death of a 15th Regiment Veteran
Alfred B. Church, for 10 years chief of police of Woonsocket, R. I., died of paralysis at East Woonsocket, on Sunday afternoon, at the age of 61 years. Mr. Church was a resident of Fitchburg for several years previous to the breaking out of the civil war, and was employed at Edwin Richardson's scythe shop at South Fitchburg. He served as corporal in Company B, 15th Mass. regiment from July 12, 1861, when the regiment was mustered into the United State service, till Jan. 7, 1863, when he was discharged for disability. He was a deputy sheriff at the time of his death having held the office for many years. Mr. Church was finely developed, possessed dauntless courage and must have had an iron constitution to have undergone such sufferings as he endured. After Gen. McClellan's retreat to Harrisons's Landing, subsequent to the Seven Days' Battle before Richmond, Mr. Church responded to a call for volunteers to assist in loading ammunition upon the transports. The severe labor in the hot sun brought on a fever and when on the march down the Peninsula, Mr. Church fell out of the ranks and finally dropped exhausted by the side of a spring where he laid for 15 days with a raging fever before he was discovered and removed to a hospital. He had a tin cup with which he could reach water from the spring to slake his thurst. The disability caused by this sickness secured his discharge from the service the following winter. In 1872 Mr. Church was severely wounded while in the discharge of his duty as chief of police. A liquor dealer flourished a revolver and defied any officer to arrest him. Word was sent to Chief Church and when he appeared upon the scene the man declared he would shoot him if he dared attempt to arrest him. Mr. Church siezed him, but was shot in the body, the ball going toward the left side, but he secured his prisoner. This was a year after James Fiske, Jr., was shot by Stokes and Mr. Church's wound was precisely like Fiske's. Mr. Church's dauntless courage carried him through the severe suffering which necessacerily followed so serous a wound, but his left side has troubled him ever since he was shot, and the injury may have contributed to induce paralysis of the left side, of which he died. Mr. Church leaves a widow who was a daughter of the late Dr. Stephen Jewett; also a sister, Mrs. R. A. Carter, who lived with him at Woonsocket, and one brother, Fred Church of South Royalston. |