The brass Boston Tea Party medallion will mark the grave of Ephraim Smith. who died in 1835. Contributed / Evan O’Brien
A seafarer who played a role in the Boston Tea Party and was buried in Gorham 187 years ago will be honored this week.
The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum will place a brass commemorative marker Saturday, Oct. 8, on the grave of Ephraim Smith, who dumped British tea into Boston Harbor a on Dec. 16, 1773, an event that was a run-up to the American Revolutionary War.
The burial site of Ephraim Smith will be decorated Saturday in Gorham. File photo / Suzanne Phillips
Smith’s grave is on private property in Gorham and the location has not been disclosed. The ceremony, which also will be private, will feature an actor in Colonial era costume along with speakers from the museum, Revolution 250 and the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Smith’s grave is one of 10 in nine Maine communities to receive markers this month in advance of the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party next year. The museum so far has placed 104 grave markers throughout New England, it said.
Hearing of museum plans for a ceremony, Gorham historians located Smith’s grave in late August following a stepped-up search after town and cemetery burial records proved misleading.
Smith, born in 1751 in Massachusetts, was a 22-year-old sailor and the husband of Elizabeth Harding when he was among a group of about 150 people who heaved tea overboard from British vessels. He became a ship’s captain and moved to Gorham where he died at 84 on his farm.
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