General Ebenezer Learned
Born April 18, 1728 died April 1, 1801

Married
1. Jerusha Baker
Born abt 1732, died February 22, 1789
Married October 5, 1749

2. Eliphal Putnam of Worcester
Married May 23, 1800

He inherited military tastes and became in those matters by far the most noted man of the town. He was early in the Oxford company under Capt. Edward Davis, and when the French and Indian war came on was very influential in enlisting men, and at 28 years of age took command of a company raised for the service. Of his early life little is known, but there is evidence that he gave very little attention to study. On Nov 27 1750, his father deeded to him 200 acres of land on Prospect Hill, where he soon built the house now standing, H.126:

While preparations for the northern expedition were in progress Co. Chandler went to the authorities at Boston as follows:

Worcester, Apr 22, 1756.
“The bearer, Capt. Ebenezer Learned, is to have command of a company of men in Col. Ruggles Regiment, and as guns and stores will be wanted for his company he will engage to bring them up if you please. “What Learned engages to do will be faithfully done.:{Mass Archives, LXXV.,536}

During the summer of 1756 he enlisted, equipped and drilled his company, with the valuable aid, as tradition informs us, of Rev. John Campbell, who was skilled in military tactics and on the ninth of September we find him at the head of 51 men, at Lake George, whither he had marched from Oxford. Of the details of his services here we have very little. Mr. Jennis on in his papers, now in the archives of the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, says he served from 1756 to 1763, and was at Fort Edward when Fort William Henry was beleaguered and marched without orders to its relief. There is reason, however, to believe that he returned home as early as 1758 as he was elected selectman in that year and each year following to 1764.

In Mass Archives, B.LXXVIII., p 242, appears a petition to the authorities setting forth that when he was in his Majesty’s service in 1757, he “was taken bad with the small pox.” and was put into the hospital at Fort Edward and continued there 28 days at a large expense to himself, asking remuneration, which was voted.

History of Oxford, Massachusetts
General Ebenezer Learned
Continued

From the northern campaigns he returned to his farm where he for five years kept a public house, and as town officer entered considerably into public business. The trouble with the mother country began soon, and in the excitement which followed he took a decided stand with the patriots and officially was active in influencing the doings of the town in that period of doubt and perplexity. In 1773 he appointed agent of the town to sue for and collect the stock of ammunition yet outstanding, which service he did. When hostilities began he entered heartily into the contest, doing efficient service, of which some account may be found under Revolutionary History.

His patriotism has never been questioned. He was unwavering in his devotion to his country, standing almost alone in his family and among the people of his neighborhood in his loyalty, and at the time for the Shays rebellion was almost the only man in his section of the town who adhered to the government. He was a marked man in this controversy, and as related, the Shays men decided on a certain night to pay him a visit. Having heard of their plan he took down a favorite gun which he had carried in his Revolutionary campaigns, and procuring a musket for his son-in-law, Adjutant Pray, put them in order and loaded them with powder and ball, making no secret of what he had done. The visit was indefinitely postponed.

Gen. Learned was prominent in civil affairs, 25 years between 1758 and 1794 selectman, moderator several years, 1772 one of a committee of three to make answers to the petition of the inhabitants of the northeasterly part of the town, who, with parts of Worcester, Leicester and Sutton, asked to be set off as an independent corporation, later Ward; in 1778 he was chosen one of the first board of assessors, the selectmen having previously acted in that capacity, in 1779 delegate to the convention at Cambridge for forming a State government, and in 1783 representative. In Aug., 1776, the Court of Sessions at Worcester appointed him one of a committee to superintend the inoculating hospitals in Worcester, County. He was a justice of the peace and officially present at the terms of court at Worcester for 1776, 1778, 1780 and 1783, and every year from 1787 to 1795.

He was one of the original proprietors of the town of Livermore, Maine which was granted to soldiers in the French war, and aided in dividing the lands to the settlers. A pension was granted to him for disability, “commencing from 1793 and continuing until his death, 1801.”

He received from his father the land on which the village known as “Texas” stands. Selling his farm on the hill he removed soon after his return from the war to a house, now taken away, which stood on a small rise of ground near the river a short distance north of the present Texas Village, and lived there until he had built the mansion known as the “Learned House,” now standing, H.117. In person he is said to have been above the average in size, erect, and in manner sedate and dignified. He was esteemed as a townsman and as a neighbor, was an efficient member of the Church, a constant attendant on public worship and for many years active in ecclesiastical affairs. The late George W. Hartwell, speaking of him said: “My father” (Samuel Hartwell, Esq. a man of ability and intelligence, and intimately acquainted with the General), “uniformly spoke of him with the greatest respect, and as I know held him in the highest esteem.” He also remarked that Samuel Stone, Commissary under Learned, had a like regard for the old soldier. General Learned possessed the prerequisites of a great soldier, and so far as he had opportunity developed those equalities, and although hampered by a lack of early educational advantages, and in later years by ill health which cut short his service, he was able to establish for himself a worthy military reputation. Whatever his faults may have been no hint of them appears in the records. We may point with pride to the achievements of those two autumnal days in 1777 and say that in those terrible conflicts, when as it were the fate of our country was trembling in the balance, he did in his sphere invaluable service, and there earned for himself the gratitude and honorable remembrance of succeeding generations.
Learned families page 580-592: Learned.doc

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