A plaque set in a boulder reads:
""IN MEMORY OF
DEVID KENNISON
THE LAST SURVIVOR OF THE
"BOSTON TEA PARTY"
WHO DIED IN CHICAGO, FEBRUARY 24, 1852.
AGED 115 YEARS, 3MOS., 17 DA., AND IS BURIED
NEAR THIS SPOT. THIS STONE IS ERECTED
BY THE SONS OF THE REVOLUTION,
THE SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION,
AND THE DAUGHTERS OF
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION"
The Boston Tea Party of 1773 eventually escalated into the American Revolution.
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs u:s
" The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773. The demonstrators, some disguised as Native Americans, in defiance of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company. They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor. The British government responded harshly and the episode escalated into the American Revolution. The Tea Party became an iconic event of American history, and other political protests such as the Tea Party movement after 2010 explicitly refer to it.
The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act because they believed that it violated their rights as Englishmen to "No taxation without representation", that is, be taxed only by their own elected representatives and not by a British parliament in which they were not represented. Protesters had successfully prevented the unloading of taxed tea in three other colonies, but in Boston, embattled Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow the tea to be returned to Britain.
The Boston Tea Party was a significant event in the growth of the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, or Intolerable Acts, which, among other provisions, ended local self-government in Massachusetts and closed Boston's commerce. "
Note this website (
visit link) which asserts that Kennison was 85 when he died.
Another historical marker at the site reads:
"HIDDEN TRUTHS
The 1852 funeral for David Kennison was the most
elaborate Chicago had ever seen. The City paid all
expenses, and donated 2 cemetery plots , intending to
erect a monument on his grave. That never happened.
The legend of his exploits grew to unfeasible
proportions. His Boston Tea party fame , military
achievements, and his claim to have lived to the age
of 115 are disputed today. This boulder, installed
50 years after Kennison's death, is likely two blocks
north of the actual burial site in what was then the
Chicago City Cemetery.
This two-part project by Pamela Bannos continues on the
internet : (
visit link)