Joseph Grace

Introduction to the Joseph Grace Letter Series

Before the Revolution called ordinary men to uncommon courage, Joseph Grace was simply a young blacksmith in the villages of Andover and Methuen—shaping iron at the anvil, learning the weight of duty, and carving a place for himself in a world that was already shifting beneath his feet. The records that remain tell us only pieces of his life: his lineage from the Boston Graces, his service during the early alarms of 1775, his steady work at the forge, and his marriage into the Sargeant family of Medford. Yet the quiet strength of his days—the sweat, the humility, the resolve—lives between the lines of those few surviving documents.

The letters that follow are historical fiction, drawn from the real events surrounding Joseph’s life yet imagined to offer a fuller voice to a man history left mostly silent. In these pages he writes to his trusted friend Samuel, describing the long hours at the forge, the shouts carried on the wind from Boston, the rumors of redcoats marching, and the weight of choosing between peace and patriot duty. Though none of Joseph’s letters are preserved, these imagined writings honor the steadfast, working men whose grit and labor helped hold families, farms, and futures together on the eve of Revolution.

As you lift each wax-sealed envelope, may Joseph’s voice meet you—honest, deliberate, and shaped by fire and prayer. Through these letters, he steps out from the scattered pieces of historical record and into vivid life once more, inviting you to stand beside him at the forge, to feel the tremble of a nation being born, and to witness the quiet courage of a man who believed in a world worth building.