LAFAYETTE COMES TO BOLTON
Monday, September 2nd at 6:00 p.m.
at the Wilder Mansion, 101 Wilder Road, Bolton

Two hundred years ago on August 14, 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette arrived in New York to begin his 13-month Farewell Tour of America. As the last surviving general of the American Revolutionary War, Lafayette was invited by Congress and President James Madison in part to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the nation. He received a hero’s welcome in all of the twenty-four states that he visited.
It is well documented in Bolton history that on the eve of September 2, 1824, Lafayette arrived at the home of his friend Sampson Vryling Stoddard Wilder to spend the night.
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From August 2024 to September 2025, the American Friends of Lafayette (AFL) will be commemorating Lafayette’s Farewell Tour with hundreds of events that will trace his footsteps on the exact dates and in the exact order he followed on his tour of America as the “Guest of the Nation” between 1824 and 1825. General Lafayette re-enactor Mark Schneider will be on hand to kick-off his tour of the Commonwealth, which includes events scheduled in communities across the state. The Bolton Historical Society, in partnership with the AFL will be recreating the arrival of Lafayette to the Wilder home at 101 Wilder Road on Monday, September 2nd at 6:00 p.m.
All are invited to welcome Lafayette back to Bolton.

Peter Reilly, the Chairman of the Massachusetts AFL committee organizing Lafayette’s tour across the Commonwealth is on a mission to inform citizens about our freedom by shining a bright light on Lafayette. He announced details of the upcoming celebratory tour across several Massachusetts communities. “I started working on this in 2016 coming off attending numerous Civil War Sesquicentennial events. I was inspired by a small marker that I often walked by noting Lafayette’s stop in the Rochdale neighborhood of Leicester on September 3, 1824. I knew that Lafayette’s visit had been a big deal, but I did not appreciate how big it was. Lafayette enthusiasts often compare it to the reception of a rock star. That is apt but inadequate. In contemporary terms, Lafayette was not a rock star. He was a superhero.” He continued, “This 24-state bicentennial journey includes a visit to Bunker Hill, where Lafayette had laid the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument. Lafayette was so enamored by the symbolism of that ceremony and the monument itself that he is buried in France with soil from Bunker Hill.” Reilly hopes that this event will also serve to excite the young minds of the Commonwealth, with the same spark that ignited a young Marquis de Lafayette when America’s quest for independence began. He also hopes his excitement spreads, and the word gets out so history lovers may plan to attend one of the many events in store. “The world has changed,” said Reilly, “and I’m hoping America opens its arms for Lafayette as it did 200 years ago.”

For more information, visit the American Friends of Lafayette at www.friendsoflafayette.org or learn more about the planned 24-state bicentennial events at www.Lafayette200.org. For a detailed summary of each city and town Lafayette visited in 1824, and speeches given, visit Peter’s blog at www.lafayetteMA1824.org.

Image: Portrait of Marquis de Lafayette, Parlor, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, Charlottesville, VA

This event explores our region’s revolutionary past!

Learn about Freedom’s Way 250 and discover the many ways the Heritage Area and its partners are commemorating and celebrating our nation’s semiquincentennial anniversary.