Photo courtesy of the Warren County Historical Society Christian Di Spigna

Joseph Warren is memorialized locally in the park that bears his name as “General.” But, by any measure, the title should be “Doctor.”

And even “Doctor” only scratches the surface of Warren’s historical importance in pre-Revolution Massachusetts.

Area residents will have an opportunity to learn much more about the county’s namesake, though, at a talk Tuesday night with a Warren biographer, Christian Di Spigna. The event is part of the Warren County Historical Society’s annual meeting set for Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Warren County Courthouse.

Di Spigna, author of “Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren,” will speak at 6:30.

Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton The “Gen.” Joseph Warren monument in the park bearing his name.

The event is free and open to the public.

“When Founding Martyr was recently added to our gift shop inventory, the Dr. Joseph Warren Foundation was great to work with and eagerly accepted our invitation to come speak to our community,” Casey Ferry, WCHS event coordinator, explained. “We are very grateful that Mr. Di Spigna has generously agreed to travel all this way to tell us about a piece of local history that has been relatively unearthed until now. We’re also extremely thankful for the Hazeltine Boutique Hotel’s offer of such beautiful and historic accommodations for our speaker.”

Di Spigna is on the board of directors of the Dr. Joseph Warren Foundation, a writer, speaker and volunteer at Colonial Williamsburg,

“If I could sum up the book in one sentence, it would be ‘Before George Washington, there was Dr. Joseph Warren,'” Di Spigna said.

“He was a ‘Founding Grandfather’ and his resistance activities predated those men we consider Founding Fathers. Without him the rebellion in Boston would have faltered and likely ended in failure.”

Reproduction of oil on canvas from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts available via public domain Gen. Joseph Warren’s death was memorialized in this painting “The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill, June 17, 1775” by John Trumbull.

Dr. Warren was killed in the fighting at Bunker Hill in June 1775. That fact overshadows his other accomplishments, many of which have been lost to history as his legacy has faded into relative obscurity.

Di Spigna said the question of why Warren isn’t a household name is “one of the questions I used to get all the time. There are so many reasons for it.”

Warren died a year before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He didn’t come from military or nobility. He destroyed many of his papers given the treasonous nature of his work.

“He exits the stage early on,” Di Spigna said. “He doesn’t die as an American citizen (but) as a treasonous British subject. He dies as a rebel.”

“If you come (Tuesday),” he said. “I think you’ll see and get a better idea why his legacy has fallen into obscurity with few exceptions.”

“Our hope in the next year is that we can connect with all the communities named for Warren, share with them their amazing legacy in Dr. Warren and possibly create combined commemorations or at least get them to publish information of the 250th commemorations that will be happening in the next couple of years,” “J” Hart, Dr. Joseph Warren Foundation operations manager said. “That is one reason we want to get connected with reporters that will help us get the info ‘out there.'”

Di Spigna noted that Warren, Pa. is the “only place outside of Massachusetts that has a statue of Warren.

“This is going to be a good one,” Di Spigna said of Tuesday’s event. “We’re trying to get the legacy back out there.”