Who Were Roger Sherman and Samuel Johnson? A talk by Damien Cregeau

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at Wilton Library

The Drum Hill Chapter NSDAR, along with Wilton Library Association and Wilton Historical Society invite you to an in-person Patriots’ Day talk in the Brubeck Room

Rodger Sherman

Many people can recite the important contributions of Thomas Jefferson thanks to grammar school classes and Alexander Hamilton thanks to a Broadway musical.  However, most people, even those born and raised in Connecticut, cannot recall why Connecticut’s own Roger Sherman of New Milford and New Haven and William Samuel Johnson of Stratford were both important “Founding Fathers” of our fledgling United States of America.  Learn about these two influential men on Tuesday, April 19 at 7:00 pm at Wilton Library as expert and historian Damien Cregeau leads a lively, illustrated talk to celebrate Patriot’s Day. Drum Hill Chapter NSDAR, along with co-sponsors Wilton Library and Wilton Historical Society invite you to the program “Who Were Roger Sherman and Samuel Johnson?”  Register with Wilton Library, no charge.

Samuel Johnson

Not only were both gentlemen key contributors to the creation and ratification of the U.S. Constitution that continues to influence our daily lives to this very day, but Sherman was the only the “Signer” of the Declaration of Independence to also sign the three other key documents of the founding of the U.S Learn what those three other key documents were, see and hear the wonderful artwork, stories, gravesites and documents of these two patriots who risked everything they owned to better ensure our United States would maintain the rights of all citizens and independence from Great Britain.  Mr. Cregeau uses his background in teaching A.P. Art History when he presents a visually rich PowerPoint slideshow to his audiences ranging from Boston to Washington, D.C. over the past decade-plus.

Mr. Cregeau was the keynote speaker at the gravesite rededication ceremony for William Samuel Johnson attended by hundreds of public several years ago.  He also spoke four times as the keynote speaker at the gravesite of Roger Sherman, also attended by hundreds of public.

Damien Cregeau

Damien Cregeau earned his B.A. in history from Hillsdale College and his M.A. in history from Colorado State.  A native of Fairfield, Damien worked many years for his father’s architectural firm. An independent historian since 2007, he is a nationally- recognized scholar of the American Revolution who has spoken throughout the northeast from Washington, D.C. to Boston and Vermont. He has spoken twice at the Museum of American Finance on Wall Street in Manhattan as well as twice at the grave of Alexander Hamilton at Trinity Church in Manhattan. He has also spoken twice on Hamilton at SUNY Maritime College in the Bronx. Damien has published numerous articles in national magazines, including Financial History and the Journal of the American Revolution. In 2019 he hosted a conference on spies in the American Revolution in Litchfield, where Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge of the Culper Spy Ring is buried. He served from 2018 to 2021 as president of the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He is currently writing his first book, which looks at the lives of seven patriot officers from Connecticut during the American Revolution, including soldier then painter John Trumbull. His talk on the military career of Major General Alexander Hamilton is featured on C-SPAN. He and his wife, Pam, own two houses built in 1765 – Private Samuel Hanmer’s House in Wethersfield and the General Jedediah Huntington House in Norwich.

Registration via the Wilton Library website by clicking here