By Mark Hanford
A new plaque has been placed in the North Becket Memorial Park across from the library. It lists veterans from Becket who served in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. One hundred and seventy-five men from Becket served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Some did not return home. One of those young men was John McNerney, the eldest of Michael and Nora McNerney’s eleven children.
The McNerneys were a rugged and persevering family, who left Ireland for America at the height of the Potato Famine for a six-week voyage on the sailing vessel The President, arriving on March 7, 1849. In tow were 4-year-old John, his two-year-old sister, and infant Bridget.
Years later, at age 18 on December 23, 1863, son John McNerney enlisted in Company B of the 37th Massachusetts Infantry. The 37th was organized in Pittsfield under the command of Col. Oliver Edward. It consisted mostly of residents from the western part of the State. During their time in service, the 37th lost four officers and 165 enlisted men in battle, and ninety-two to disease. John McNerney died on May 12, 1864, at the Battle of Spotsylvania, Virginia. The 37th also had 593 soldiers at the Battle of Gettysburg.
A poem, likely written by one of John’s sisters or possibly his father, was included in John’s mother Nora’s obituary published in the Pittsfield Sun. It describes a mother’s pain and anguish at the loss of her eldest son. Here is an excerpt from that poem:
One by One they have been gathered here
To the place beyond the dome
To the place where trouble ceases
Which we call eternal home
And there waiting are the loved ones, dear ones
Who have gone before
Sons and Daughters
Radiant beaming at the open portal’s door
And we Fain would see the meeting
With the first-born hero boy
He whose life was to his mother
More than Gold without alloy
Yet she gave it to his Country
Gave it freely though with pain
Now her soul will gladly greet him
For no parting comes again
The foundation of the McNerney Farm still stands nestled in the remains of Michael McNerney’s apple orchard, where one can imagine young John and his siblings playing and climbing on their father’s apple trees all those years ago.
