Although he was a Civil War veteran, Phendeus Potter never participated in his community’s Memorial Day ceremonies — but not from any lack of respect for the dead, or their resting places. For him, every day may have been Memorial Day.
Surviving physical and economic adversity through sheer determination, Phendeus and his twin brother Vilruveus represented the independent and self-reliant New Englander who was becoming scarce even in their own day. To a generation virtually addicted to a social safety net, their lives must seem like a fable.
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