After the close of the French and Indian Wars, having returned from expeditions to Ticonderoga, Fort Edward, Quebec, Montreal, Havana, Detroit, and New Orleans, Col. Israel Putnam lived in the field behind this stone. There, with his second wife, Mrs. Deborah (Avery Gardiner) Putnam, he offered famous hospitality at the General Wolfe Tavern. Near this spot, on April 20, 1775, Putnam received news of the Battle of Lexington, left his plow in the furrow with his son Daniel, and rode one hundred miles in eighteen hours, reaching Cambridge the next day. Soon after, he planned and on June 17, 1775, commanded at the Battle of Bunker Hill, and thereafter received from the Continental Congress by the hand of Washington the first commission of Major General, the only one unanimously voted, which made him second in rank to his chief.

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