WEBVTT
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Good morning, everyone.
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Welcome to the Revolution
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two fifty podcast.
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I'm Bob Allison.
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I chair the Rev two fifty advisory group.
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We are a consortium of
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seventy five organizations
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in Massachusetts looking at
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ways to commemorate the
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beginnings of American independence.
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And our guest today is Matt Beers.
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Matt Beers is the executive
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director of the Arlington
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Historical Society,
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also a curator of the
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Wilmington Town Museum,
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a long time public history professional.
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And we're here to talk about
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what's happening in
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The Forgotten Town of Monotony.
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Matt, thanks for joining us.
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Thanks for having me.
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So untold stories, you know,
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we know about Lexington and Concord,
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but what we don't know is
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that most of the fighting
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actually happened in Monotony.
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So.
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Correct.
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So can you tell us a bit
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about what's going on in
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Monotony on April
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nineteenth of seventeen seventy five?
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So monotony at the point of
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the eighteenth century was
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a very small village.
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It used to encompass a much
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broader geographical range.
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It ate into towns like Cambridge, Belmont,
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parts of Somerville.
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It was much broader.
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But population-wise, very small.
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You had periodic houses that
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were all spread apart.
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was mainly farming town
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mainly mainly an
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agricultural town uh and
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that changed during the
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eighteen hundreds but um
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Most of the houses in the
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area were along Concord Road,
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which is now Mass Ave.
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And I happen to be the
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director of the Jason Russell House,
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which we'll talk about in a moment,
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but saw one of the majority
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of the fighting that
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happened on that day.
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Okay.
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Yeah.
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So can you tell us a bit
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about who Jason Russell was
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and why his house is so important?
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Of course.
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So Jason Russell,
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he was in his fifties at
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the time of the battle.
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Rumor has it that he had an
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injury or a disability in his leg.
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However, frankly,
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I've never been able to
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verify that story in itself.
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But Jason Russell was
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sitting on a house built
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around about forty acres or so.
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He had an apple orchard,
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and he was a sheep shepherd, and mostly,
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again, very agricultural.
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I would say roughly around
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approximately middle class,
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not very wealthy.
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But on April nineteenth,
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he quite literally defended
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his own property, calling it his castle.
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And unfortunately,
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he lost his life as the
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British regulars were
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coming into Menominee.
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Now, why did they attack him or his house?
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General Percy was coming as
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the reinforcement column to
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meet Colonel Smith in Lexington.
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They regroup early afternoon
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into Lexington.
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And then Percy's reinforcements,
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they surround Colonel
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Smith's group who saw the
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shot heard around the world
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as well as the first shot
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over in Lexington.
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So these are the guys who
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have been on the march all
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night and then they went
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out and fight in Lexington and Concord.
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Now they're on their way back.
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Exactly.
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They've been awake since ten
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thirty the night previously.
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They've had to endure almost fifteen,
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twenty miles of hiking.
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And then, of course,
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not to mention enemy
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gunfire on either sides of them.
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Yeah.
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But then they eventually get
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into monotony around four
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o'clock in the afternoon.
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Mm hmm.
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And at this point, it gets,
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the battle increasingly
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gets more chaotic as it goes on.
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It wasn't previously very
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regimental as what you may
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have seen in Lexington or in Concord.
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But at this point, you have so many people,
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provincials, militia in Minutemen,
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from all surrounding towns.
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You have people from Danvers,
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people from Framingham, Lynn, Dedham,
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Needham,
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all of these other surrounding towns.
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And at this point,
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it was sort of the
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cataclysm of when all these
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alarm riders finally get to their spots,
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and these towns finally get
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to this point.
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And when they meet this
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group of almost four
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thousand provincials versus
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about fifteen hundred regulars or so,
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give or take, chaos essentially ensues.
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At this point,
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Percy recognizes that some members,
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some provincials are hiding
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into other houses to seek shelter,
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possibly also to fire onto
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the returning British
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column as they retreat back into Boston.
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And what he does is he
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orders his men to go into
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these residences and
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essentially eliminate these provincial,
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we call them snipers,
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but provincials firing on either side.
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And if you go to the Jason Russell house,
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we're right alongside Mass Ave.
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The house has never moved.
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And we know that with ground
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penetrating radar analysis
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we did a few years ago.
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We have no evidence of the house moving.
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So this is the site in which
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that actually happened.
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So the story is...
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about nine militia, excuse me,
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provincials from Danvers
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and a couple from surrounding towns.
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They go and seek shelter
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into the Jason Russell house.
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They hide into the cellar,
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pointing their muskets upward,
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waiting for any British
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regulars to come and enter the door.
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The story, as it goes,
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is two British regulars enter the house,
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and they are shot dead
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completely on the spot.
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From downstairs?
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From downstairs.
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Wow.
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Yep, yep.
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And then eventually they
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potentially go out into the
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second story of the house.
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They go into the first story
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and they are essentially seeking shelter.
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The regulars or the provincials?
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Provincials.
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Okay.
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And so what happens then is
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they may have fired return shots,
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but the British regulars,
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they surround the Jason
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Russell house and fire onto
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the actual house.
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Now, we have about thirteen,
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possibly even more, scars, we call them,
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but essentially bullet holes,
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most of which were from
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British regular muskets
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firing directly onto the house.
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Had there been anyone firing from inside?
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I mean, had there been snipers inside,
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or it was just they knew
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that there were provincials
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hiding inside?
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You know, that story,
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we can't really verify.
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You know, it's likely,
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to put in perspective, you know,
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to humanize these folks.
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If you saw a returning
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column of enemy troops, essentially,
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you might do your duty to
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return fire,
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we don't really have any
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specific evidence
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suggesting that any of the
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bullet holes would have
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been from provincials, you know,
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but... Well,
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if they're firing out of the house,
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they wouldn't be hitting the house,
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right?
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Right.
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And exactly.
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And the windows that we have
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are not original.
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And so if they were to fire,
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they probably would have
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fired from these windows.
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We do have specific
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you know,
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musket ball holes around the
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windows and where the
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points of where the windows are.
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So that makes it more likely,
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but really we- Someone was
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firing at the window to hit
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a sniper who might be in the window.
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Exactly.
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So what's Jason Russell up
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to while all of this is happening?
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Unfortunately, he loses his life.
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The story is that he is
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bayoneted on his front
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doorstep as he seeks
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shelter into his house.
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So he had been outside?
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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So he was outside.
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He was with the other
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militia and Minutemen from
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the surrounding towns.
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And the story is that he
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goes in to his house and
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suffering potentially from
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a disability in his leg.
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He's unable to keep up and
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unfortunately loses his
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life and gets bayoneted on his doorstep.
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So he was not part of the
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militia or was he...
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So from what I understand,
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I don't think he was part
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of a specific unit.
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He stayed with his house.
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And he has a,
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he has a interesting quote
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you can read in David
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Hackett Fisher's polar bears ride.
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But essentially says paraphrasing, but
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It's the Englishman's duty
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to protect his castle.
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And with his age,
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it could seem likely that
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he was part of some sort of
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standing militia,
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but the fact that he stood
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at his property,
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it makes it more likely
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that he probably wasn't
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involved in any such.
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And also, since he has a disability,
00:09:31.552 --> 00:09:33.754
it would be unlikely.
00:09:33.894 --> 00:09:34.313
Exactly.
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So he sees these provincial troops,
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so he's going out to see
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what they're doing,
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or maybe he's been standing
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out there all day watching
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the troops going back and forth.
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Yeah.
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Yeah,
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I mean he may go to a neighbor's
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house as well,
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but he does ask his wife
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Elizabeth to go to neighboring towns,
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I don't know exactly which one,
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to essentially seek shelter
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as the British regulars are
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coming through monotony for
00:10:00.294 --> 00:10:02.696
the first time into Lexington Concord.
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So that was earlier in the morning?
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Earlier in the morning.
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And unfortunately, she does come back.
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And the story is that she
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does see about the thirteen
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dead bodies in her kitchen,
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including that of Jason Russell,
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her husband.
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The story with that is we
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believe some bodies may
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have been relocated from
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where they passed to inside
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this house as a means to
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preserve the body in some
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form or fashion.
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I see.
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We're talking with Matt Beers,
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the executive director of
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the Arlington Historical Society,
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also a curator of the
00:10:41.659 --> 00:10:43.020
Wilmington Town Museum,
00:10:43.701 --> 00:10:44.481
and we're talking about
00:10:44.542 --> 00:10:46.082
untold stories of monotony,
00:10:46.123 --> 00:10:47.283
the place where most of the
00:10:47.323 --> 00:10:49.186
fighting happened on April
00:10:53.327 --> 00:10:55.249
And so the Jason Russell
00:10:55.269 --> 00:10:56.809
House is the home of the
00:10:56.889 --> 00:10:58.291
Arlington Historical Society,
00:10:58.331 --> 00:11:00.231
or is it just a property you manage?
00:11:00.251 --> 00:11:01.312
Can you tell us a bit about it?
00:11:01.793 --> 00:11:02.874
Yeah, so we are,
00:11:03.293 --> 00:11:04.294
the Arlington Historical
00:11:04.335 --> 00:11:07.197
Society is headquartered at
00:11:07.216 --> 00:11:08.898
the Jason Russell House and Museum.
00:11:09.738 --> 00:11:11.019
Right now where my office is,
00:11:11.359 --> 00:11:12.700
we have an exhibit hall
00:11:13.419 --> 00:11:15.240
where we will be putting on
00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:17.381
a two hundred fiftieth
00:11:17.522 --> 00:11:20.043
anniversary exhibition,
00:11:20.744 --> 00:11:22.825
which I'll talk a bit in a second.
00:11:22.904 --> 00:11:25.605
But we do also have some other exhibitions,
00:11:25.645 --> 00:11:27.868
of course, one about the battle itself.
00:11:28.648 --> 00:11:31.208
But also we do tours in the
00:11:31.249 --> 00:11:32.149
Jason Russell House, of course.
00:11:32.169 --> 00:11:36.251
So how does someone come and visit?
00:11:37.570 --> 00:11:37.769
Yeah,
00:11:37.830 --> 00:11:41.272
so we are open now officially every
00:11:41.331 --> 00:11:42.873
Thursday and Friday from one to four.
00:11:44.254 --> 00:11:45.474
And on the weekends,
00:11:45.514 --> 00:11:47.375
we'll be open seasonally
00:11:47.956 --> 00:11:50.277
from June to October,
00:11:50.297 --> 00:11:51.638
the end of October from one
00:11:51.658 --> 00:11:52.979
to four as well.
00:11:52.999 --> 00:11:55.299
We're working on extending our hours,
00:11:55.759 --> 00:11:56.620
hopefully soon.
00:11:56.660 --> 00:11:58.981
But I think starting slow, small,
00:11:59.062 --> 00:12:00.982
and then broadening through
00:12:01.003 --> 00:12:02.803
there is our strategy.
00:12:03.844 --> 00:12:04.965
You mainly volunteers or do
00:12:04.985 --> 00:12:06.326
you have a paid staff?
00:12:07.053 --> 00:12:09.815
So we have three other paid staff members,
00:12:11.895 --> 00:12:13.657
two of which are working in
00:12:13.677 --> 00:12:14.376
the collections.
00:12:15.517 --> 00:12:17.477
They're great,
00:12:17.557 --> 00:12:19.739
but they mostly work in
00:12:20.739 --> 00:12:22.899
archiving and making sure
00:12:22.940 --> 00:12:24.380
we preserve Arlington's
00:12:24.421 --> 00:12:25.461
history and stuff.
00:12:26.361 --> 00:12:28.682
Most of the tour guides that we have,
00:12:28.743 --> 00:12:29.763
they're all volunteers.
00:12:30.143 --> 00:12:31.143
And they're all great.
00:12:31.364 --> 00:12:32.043
Each one of them,
00:12:32.683 --> 00:12:34.065
I learn something new just
00:12:34.085 --> 00:12:35.845
from speaking with them every single day.
00:12:36.946 --> 00:12:39.647
And they all have their own interests.
00:12:40.787 --> 00:12:42.427
And so I highly recommend
00:12:42.548 --> 00:12:43.868
even if you do come for a tour,
00:12:44.648 --> 00:12:45.448
come for a tour on a
00:12:45.509 --> 00:12:46.788
different day and you might
00:12:46.808 --> 00:12:48.789
get a completely different perspective.
00:12:48.809 --> 00:12:49.429
That's great.
00:12:49.529 --> 00:12:51.051
Very good.
00:12:52.370 --> 00:12:53.131
So some of the other,
00:12:53.532 --> 00:12:54.773
I know Arlington has a
00:12:54.812 --> 00:12:56.513
history beyond what happened on April,
00:12:57.134 --> 00:12:58.874
but that's going to be our focus today.
00:12:58.933 --> 00:12:59.754
So I'm wondering what are
00:12:59.774 --> 00:13:01.095
some of the other untold
00:13:01.134 --> 00:13:02.515
stories that you have of
00:13:02.615 --> 00:13:04.017
Arlington on April?
00:13:05.150 --> 00:13:05.510
Of course.
00:13:06.030 --> 00:13:07.991
So one of which is my
00:13:08.052 --> 00:13:10.114
personal favorite is the
00:13:10.153 --> 00:13:11.855
story of Samuel Whittemore.
00:13:13.134 --> 00:13:14.655
And I'll tell you what we
00:13:14.716 --> 00:13:16.256
know and what we don't know
00:13:16.317 --> 00:13:17.638
about this specific story.
00:13:18.418 --> 00:13:20.399
So it is known and widely
00:13:20.438 --> 00:13:21.899
known that Samuel
00:13:21.919 --> 00:13:23.660
Whittemore is reportedly to
00:13:23.681 --> 00:13:25.100
be the oldest combatant
00:13:25.282 --> 00:13:26.761
during the Revolutionary War.
00:13:27.702 --> 00:13:28.602
And ironically,
00:13:28.643 --> 00:13:29.903
it's the first battle of
00:13:30.283 --> 00:13:31.284
the Revolutionary War.
00:13:32.144 --> 00:13:33.105
But Samuel Whittemore,
00:13:33.206 --> 00:13:36.126
there's a question about, A, his age,
00:13:36.547 --> 00:13:39.768
but also where he was specifically born.
00:13:40.428 --> 00:13:42.009
There's reason to believe he
00:13:42.028 --> 00:13:43.649
was either born either in
00:13:43.710 --> 00:13:45.431
Charlestown or he may have
00:13:45.471 --> 00:13:47.552
been born in England and
00:13:47.572 --> 00:13:49.332
then eventually moved over here.
00:13:50.633 --> 00:13:52.714
But we do know that he was,
00:13:54.434 --> 00:13:56.576
he passed away in seventeen ninety three,
00:13:57.436 --> 00:13:57.755
of course,
00:13:57.897 --> 00:14:00.618
years after seventeen seventy five.
00:14:01.744 --> 00:14:04.246
And the story is Samuel Whittemore.
00:14:04.447 --> 00:14:05.587
He's, again,
00:14:05.849 --> 00:14:07.529
roughly around anywhere
00:14:07.570 --> 00:14:09.913
between seventy two to seventy eight,
00:14:10.113 --> 00:14:10.573
eighty two.
00:14:10.953 --> 00:14:13.836
He's he's an older gentleman.
00:14:13.917 --> 00:14:14.697
And the story is
00:14:15.714 --> 00:14:17.716
He grabs his French and
00:14:17.817 --> 00:14:20.219
Indian War powder horn.
00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:22.381
He grabs a cavalry sword.
00:14:22.442 --> 00:14:24.183
He grabs his musket and
00:14:24.224 --> 00:14:26.486
potentially maybe even a couple pistols.
00:14:26.907 --> 00:14:28.389
And he goes out into Town Square,
00:14:29.330 --> 00:14:30.572
excuse me, actually the foot of the rocks,
00:14:30.591 --> 00:14:32.774
which is sort of on the border between us,
00:14:33.034 --> 00:14:34.817
Lexington, around there.
00:14:36.440 --> 00:14:38.522
And he hides behind a stone wall.
00:14:39.022 --> 00:14:40.403
And as the British regulars
00:14:40.583 --> 00:14:42.385
are entering monotony,
00:14:43.245 --> 00:14:44.908
he pops up out of a stone wall,
00:14:44.947 --> 00:14:45.788
behind a stone wall.
00:14:46.208 --> 00:14:46.970
He fires,
00:14:48.510 --> 00:14:50.413
allegedly killing a British regular.
00:14:51.673 --> 00:14:53.275
And then he takes out his two pistols,
00:14:53.696 --> 00:14:56.238
shoots, and kills another provincial,
00:14:56.499 --> 00:14:58.360
excuse me, regular.
00:14:59.240 --> 00:15:00.861
And then eventually, unfortunately,
00:15:00.961 --> 00:15:02.884
suffers a gunshot wound to
00:15:03.144 --> 00:15:05.585
the cheek and then is bayoneted.
00:15:06.666 --> 00:15:09.707
And even that story in
00:15:09.748 --> 00:15:11.288
itself is up in the air
00:15:11.308 --> 00:15:11.970
because we don't know the
00:15:12.009 --> 00:15:13.191
specifics on his wounds.
00:15:14.126 --> 00:15:15.788
He eventually is transported
00:15:15.908 --> 00:15:17.149
after British regulars leave,
00:15:17.208 --> 00:15:17.928
go down the road.
00:15:18.308 --> 00:15:20.791
He's transported over to Medford,
00:15:21.291 --> 00:15:22.692
President Medford of the
00:15:22.731 --> 00:15:26.573
house of Dr. Tufts, who heals him.
00:15:27.833 --> 00:15:29.836
And again, he's relatively old.
00:15:30.035 --> 00:15:30.456
Yeah,
00:15:30.475 --> 00:15:32.017
he's in the seventies and he's
00:15:32.037 --> 00:15:33.758
shooting at these soldiers.
00:15:33.837 --> 00:15:34.378
Exactly.
00:15:34.518 --> 00:15:36.979
And the story is he survived.
00:15:37.320 --> 00:15:38.340
And we do know for a fact
00:15:38.360 --> 00:15:39.400
that he did survive.
00:15:39.880 --> 00:15:40.020
Now,
00:15:40.100 --> 00:15:42.461
the reason why a lot of these stories
00:15:42.481 --> 00:15:43.062
that I'll say
00:15:44.451 --> 00:15:46.351
We don't have a whole lot of, frankly,
00:15:46.371 --> 00:15:47.793
a whole lot of primary sources.
00:15:48.854 --> 00:15:50.696
We have a lot of oral history.
00:15:51.635 --> 00:15:52.476
It's sort of like a game of
00:15:52.537 --> 00:15:53.498
telephone where it's,
00:15:54.398 --> 00:15:56.480
I've heard it from this guy
00:15:56.779 --> 00:15:58.301
who apparently heard it
00:15:58.341 --> 00:15:59.542
from Sam Whittemore.
00:16:00.722 --> 00:16:03.424
And this is from a book
00:16:04.166 --> 00:16:06.827
that's a nonfiction, or excuse me,
00:16:06.847 --> 00:16:08.149
a fictional book,
00:16:08.828 --> 00:16:10.811
which is based off of these stories.
00:16:11.431 --> 00:16:12.610
I see.
00:16:12.671 --> 00:16:12.870
Wow.
00:16:13.030 --> 00:16:14.491
And because of that, I mean,
00:16:14.511 --> 00:16:16.032
we have obituaries and such.
00:16:17.072 --> 00:16:17.812
But even then,
00:16:19.852 --> 00:16:21.273
even though that seems more
00:16:21.352 --> 00:16:23.472
likely that these things
00:16:24.193 --> 00:16:27.913
were more specific, it could be, you know,
00:16:27.953 --> 00:16:32.095
family trying to embellish a little bit.
00:16:32.134 --> 00:16:32.934
I wouldn't say embellish,
00:16:32.955 --> 00:16:34.355
but from the story that
00:16:34.375 --> 00:16:36.275
they've heard passed down.
00:16:37.135 --> 00:16:38.017
they recorded it.
00:16:38.356 --> 00:16:39.418
And that's unfortunately the
00:16:39.437 --> 00:16:42.019
most accurate information that we have.
00:16:42.059 --> 00:16:43.561
Did Samuel Whittemore have a family?
00:16:44.562 --> 00:16:45.261
Um, yes, yes.
00:16:45.322 --> 00:16:46.342
Samuel Whittemore, uh,
00:16:46.503 --> 00:16:49.424
he had a range of family members, um, in,
00:16:49.585 --> 00:16:50.306
in monotony.
00:16:50.625 --> 00:16:50.806
Um,
00:16:51.147 --> 00:16:52.508
I'm almost certain that the Whittemore
00:16:52.528 --> 00:16:53.889
family is still around today.
00:16:54.649 --> 00:16:56.250
Um, but, but yeah,
00:16:56.289 --> 00:16:58.292
very extensive family that, that, um,
00:16:58.392 --> 00:16:59.373
throughout Massachusetts.
00:16:59.432 --> 00:16:59.673
So,
00:16:59.712 --> 00:17:02.595
so he's living in monotony and he's in
00:17:02.615 --> 00:17:03.635
his seventies veteran of
00:17:03.655 --> 00:17:04.596
the seven years war.
00:17:04.676 --> 00:17:04.876
And he,
00:17:06.438 --> 00:17:07.618
So this is how the British
00:17:07.679 --> 00:17:09.019
agreed as they march into
00:17:09.058 --> 00:17:11.099
monotony on their retreat back to Boston.
00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:11.519
They have this
00:17:11.819 --> 00:17:13.540
seventy-year-old man shooting at them.
00:17:13.701 --> 00:17:15.162
Exactly.
00:17:15.182 --> 00:17:16.201
Kind of see why when they
00:17:16.241 --> 00:17:17.682
get to the Jason Russell house,
00:17:17.702 --> 00:17:18.963
they're not in the mood to
00:17:19.384 --> 00:17:20.463
simply march on.
00:17:21.023 --> 00:17:22.805
Exactly.
00:17:22.865 --> 00:17:23.224
Yeah,
00:17:23.365 --> 00:17:26.346
I'm a huge fan of humanizing and
00:17:26.807 --> 00:17:29.387
getting the sociology and the psychology
00:17:29.950 --> 00:17:31.730
of their minds.
00:17:32.911 --> 00:17:34.731
As you mentioned, they're tired.
00:17:35.672 --> 00:17:36.813
They've already walked fifteen,
00:17:36.853 --> 00:17:37.512
twenty miles.
00:17:37.573 --> 00:17:38.554
Now they've got to walk back
00:17:39.013 --> 00:17:41.855
while also suffering on
00:17:42.234 --> 00:17:45.336
either side of them with return fire.
00:17:46.457 --> 00:17:50.718
To put it in perspective, you're cold,
00:17:50.798 --> 00:17:54.400
you're tired, your morale is very low.
00:17:55.220 --> 00:17:56.401
Mistakes are bound to happen
00:17:56.461 --> 00:17:57.060
because of that.
00:17:58.549 --> 00:17:59.549
How many, you know,
00:17:59.589 --> 00:18:00.529
you mentioned that there's
00:18:00.569 --> 00:18:01.651
a kind of a scattering of
00:18:01.691 --> 00:18:04.111
houses most are along this Concord Road.
00:18:04.131 --> 00:18:05.551
About how many would you say, I mean,
00:18:05.571 --> 00:18:09.031
how close are the houses to each other?
00:18:09.071 --> 00:18:09.732
So at least,
00:18:10.252 --> 00:18:12.192
I don't know specific on the
00:18:12.272 --> 00:18:13.133
number of houses.
00:18:13.693 --> 00:18:16.314
The next closest house would have been,
00:18:16.473 --> 00:18:17.114
or structure,
00:18:17.193 --> 00:18:18.315
would have been the Cutter Mill.
00:18:19.115 --> 00:18:23.556
That was on the other side of Mass Ave.
00:18:24.758 --> 00:18:26.479
Probably about half to a
00:18:26.519 --> 00:18:28.580
quarter mile from distance.
00:18:29.362 --> 00:18:30.423
And I might say the same
00:18:30.462 --> 00:18:32.284
thing between that and
00:18:32.344 --> 00:18:34.125
Deacon Joseph Adams House,
00:18:35.666 --> 00:18:36.907
which was before,
00:18:37.848 --> 00:18:39.170
if you're coming back into
00:18:39.269 --> 00:18:40.951
Boston on Mass Ave,
00:18:41.251 --> 00:18:43.493
it was before the Jason Russell House.
00:18:44.280 --> 00:18:45.821
Do any of these houses still
00:18:45.862 --> 00:18:46.982
stand the way the Jason
00:18:47.042 --> 00:18:47.782
Russell house does today?
00:18:49.003 --> 00:18:51.085
So there's speculation.
00:18:51.625 --> 00:18:52.405
Unfortunately,
00:18:52.787 --> 00:18:54.807
during the twenties and the
00:18:54.827 --> 00:18:55.488
nineteen twenties,
00:18:55.949 --> 00:18:57.028
a lot of these houses got
00:18:57.088 --> 00:18:58.549
torn down for development.
00:18:59.330 --> 00:19:00.571
Some have been relocated.
00:19:01.380 --> 00:19:03.040
There's a story of Cooper's
00:19:03.080 --> 00:19:05.821
Tavern where two provincials,
00:19:06.603 --> 00:19:08.202
older provincials, instead of fighting,
00:19:08.282 --> 00:19:11.384
they stayed at the tavern
00:19:12.204 --> 00:19:13.405
and then they unfortunately
00:19:13.445 --> 00:19:15.186
lost their life through a
00:19:15.227 --> 00:19:16.867
skirmish from the British regulars.
00:19:17.208 --> 00:19:18.567
There's stories of that
00:19:18.728 --> 00:19:22.890
structure having moved and originally...
00:19:24.310 --> 00:19:25.531
at least part of the actual
00:19:25.551 --> 00:19:26.392
structure is intact.
00:19:26.412 --> 00:19:28.113
But other than that,
00:19:28.133 --> 00:19:29.354
there's not really a whole
00:19:29.394 --> 00:19:30.894
lot of buildings that are left.
00:19:30.914 --> 00:19:32.715
Interesting.
00:19:33.195 --> 00:19:34.477
We're talking with Matt Beers,
00:19:34.537 --> 00:19:35.877
Executive Director of the
00:19:35.938 --> 00:19:37.438
Arlington Historical Society,
00:19:37.478 --> 00:19:38.999
which is located at the
00:19:39.098 --> 00:19:40.660
Jason Russell House in
00:19:40.900 --> 00:19:42.441
Arlington along Mass Ave,
00:19:42.500 --> 00:19:43.821
formerly the Concord Road.
00:19:44.750 --> 00:19:45.932
And we're talking about some
00:19:45.952 --> 00:19:47.996
of the untold stories of monotony,
00:19:48.016 --> 00:19:49.096
a town that saw most of the
00:19:49.116 --> 00:19:50.259
fighting on April,
00:19:50.278 --> 00:19:51.881
the nineteenth of seventeen seventy five.
00:19:51.921 --> 00:19:52.781
Because, as Matt said,
00:19:52.801 --> 00:19:54.263
this is the time when the
00:19:54.324 --> 00:19:55.885
various militia troops,
00:19:55.925 --> 00:19:56.826
the provincials who have
00:19:56.846 --> 00:19:58.368
been alerted by the alarms
00:19:58.409 --> 00:20:00.672
the night before, then converging,
00:20:00.731 --> 00:20:01.594
knowing the British
00:20:02.034 --> 00:20:03.335
who had gone west are now on
00:20:03.355 --> 00:20:05.035
their way back into Boston.
00:20:05.536 --> 00:20:06.855
And this is the place where
00:20:06.875 --> 00:20:09.116
they meet most of the enemy,
00:20:09.176 --> 00:20:10.458
as they're now calling them.
00:20:10.518 --> 00:20:12.558
They had been just these
00:20:12.618 --> 00:20:14.199
misguided folks in the morning.
00:20:14.239 --> 00:20:16.000
But in General Gage's report back,
00:20:16.019 --> 00:20:17.661
he refers to the enemy and
00:20:17.681 --> 00:20:19.001
how Lord Percy is helping
00:20:19.041 --> 00:20:20.961
to fight their way through
00:20:21.001 --> 00:20:22.262
this hostile territory.
00:20:23.215 --> 00:20:23.316
Now,
00:20:23.336 --> 00:20:25.156
you mentioned the deacon Joseph Adams.
00:20:25.176 --> 00:20:25.936
I wonder if we could talk a
00:20:25.957 --> 00:20:28.979
little bit more about these Adamses.
00:20:29.038 --> 00:20:29.439
Of course.
00:20:29.858 --> 00:20:33.381
So this is, again, an interesting story.
00:20:33.580 --> 00:20:37.281
And this story comes from an account,
00:20:37.382 --> 00:20:38.502
a testimony from
00:20:39.144 --> 00:20:40.345
Hannah Hall Adams,
00:20:40.384 --> 00:20:41.865
which I'll get to in just a second.
00:20:43.006 --> 00:20:46.846
Deacon Joseph Adams, he was, of course,
00:20:47.027 --> 00:20:49.067
part of the First Parish
00:20:49.146 --> 00:20:52.488
Church Meeting House in Menotomy.
00:20:53.528 --> 00:20:54.469
And he was very close with
00:20:54.489 --> 00:20:55.669
the Reverend Samuel Cook.
00:20:56.269 --> 00:21:00.750
And both of them are patriots,
00:21:00.950 --> 00:21:02.490
and they've given patriot
00:21:02.510 --> 00:21:03.471
sermons and such.
00:21:04.817 --> 00:21:06.480
And as the British regulars
00:21:06.680 --> 00:21:08.721
are entering and then
00:21:08.821 --> 00:21:12.385
subsequently retreating, Joseph Adams,
00:21:13.007 --> 00:21:14.648
he believes that they're
00:21:14.689 --> 00:21:16.790
out there to arrest him as
00:21:16.830 --> 00:21:18.332
well as other patriots to
00:21:18.452 --> 00:21:20.193
suppress the revolution.
00:21:20.454 --> 00:21:21.296
Why would he think they're
00:21:21.336 --> 00:21:22.115
going to arrest him?
00:21:23.123 --> 00:21:26.443
So there's word on the street.
00:21:26.743 --> 00:21:27.644
You hear things,
00:21:28.223 --> 00:21:30.384
especially with meetings
00:21:30.404 --> 00:21:31.105
with the committees of
00:21:31.164 --> 00:21:32.246
safeties and other things,
00:21:32.306 --> 00:21:36.967
and a lot of hearsay that you pick up.
00:21:37.047 --> 00:21:39.428
And so with his rhetoric of
00:21:39.488 --> 00:21:43.568
him saying these patriotic things,
00:21:44.932 --> 00:21:45.993
Rhetoric, I guess.
00:21:48.778 --> 00:21:49.898
He's under the impression
00:21:50.058 --> 00:21:51.000
that the British regulars
00:21:51.121 --> 00:21:52.682
are out there to arrest all
00:21:52.702 --> 00:21:53.805
of these people who are
00:21:53.865 --> 00:21:55.988
spreading what I believe
00:21:56.028 --> 00:21:57.509
they've thought nonsense.
00:21:58.551 --> 00:21:58.872
But
00:22:00.373 --> 00:22:01.114
But really,
00:22:01.634 --> 00:22:03.275
so what he does is he
00:22:03.556 --> 00:22:07.398
eventually decides to escape.
00:22:07.459 --> 00:22:09.701
And he tells his wife,
00:22:10.141 --> 00:22:12.103
they're probably not going to harm you.
00:22:12.242 --> 00:22:14.545
I've got six other children, six children.
00:22:15.125 --> 00:22:15.945
The British regulars,
00:22:15.986 --> 00:22:17.507
they would never dare to
00:22:17.567 --> 00:22:18.969
harm any women or children.
00:22:20.054 --> 00:22:21.134
And so what he does is he
00:22:21.193 --> 00:22:23.075
leaves stories that he
00:22:23.115 --> 00:22:26.336
hides behind a giant rock near his house.
00:22:26.915 --> 00:22:28.096
And then he eventually finds
00:22:28.136 --> 00:22:30.237
and she seeks shelter at his friend,
00:22:30.416 --> 00:22:33.137
Reverend Samuel Cook's house.
00:22:33.258 --> 00:22:34.378
And as the British regulars
00:22:34.459 --> 00:22:35.679
are going again,
00:22:35.759 --> 00:22:37.079
retreating in their order
00:22:37.119 --> 00:22:38.299
to go into these houses,
00:22:38.779 --> 00:22:41.740
the stories from Hannah Hall Adams,
00:22:41.820 --> 00:22:42.280
his wife,
00:22:45.215 --> 00:22:45.836
Let me back up.
00:22:46.477 --> 00:22:47.817
So Hannah Hall Adams,
00:22:49.198 --> 00:22:50.857
she recently gave birth
00:22:50.959 --> 00:22:53.839
about ten days prior to April nineteenth.
00:22:55.039 --> 00:22:56.701
Just back up, Matt.
00:22:56.721 --> 00:22:58.221
Here's a guy who leaves his
00:22:58.281 --> 00:23:00.863
wife a ten day old and five
00:23:00.923 --> 00:23:02.644
other children because he
00:23:02.663 --> 00:23:04.744
has to seek refuge somewhere else.
00:23:04.805 --> 00:23:05.045
I mean,
00:23:05.525 --> 00:23:09.406
it doesn't make him sound like a hero.
00:23:09.507 --> 00:23:10.446
I think the British would
00:23:10.467 --> 00:23:12.008
like to have more guys like
00:23:12.347 --> 00:23:14.189
Deacon Adams around because
00:23:15.471 --> 00:23:17.382
He seems like, to me, a coward.
00:23:17.402 --> 00:23:18.105
I don't know what I would do
00:23:18.145 --> 00:23:19.050
in this situation.
00:23:20.119 --> 00:23:20.740
Yeah.
00:23:20.839 --> 00:23:21.861
And again, you know,
00:23:21.881 --> 00:23:23.102
it's all about humanizing.
00:23:23.402 --> 00:23:25.103
People obviously aren't perfect.
00:23:25.123 --> 00:23:26.903
You know,
00:23:26.923 --> 00:23:28.944
we can make the judgment as far as,
00:23:29.285 --> 00:23:29.605
you know,
00:23:29.625 --> 00:23:31.066
it probably wasn't the correct
00:23:31.105 --> 00:23:33.067
thing to do.
00:23:33.167 --> 00:23:34.087
So he didn't think anyone
00:23:34.107 --> 00:23:35.709
was going to arrest the minister?
00:23:36.328 --> 00:23:36.569
Yes.
00:23:36.769 --> 00:23:36.950
Yes.
00:23:36.970 --> 00:23:38.351
He didn't believe any or at
00:23:38.391 --> 00:23:40.271
least he was hiding out with him.
00:23:41.592 --> 00:23:43.272
But why he chose his house
00:23:43.493 --> 00:23:46.535
to hide out there is beyond me, frankly.
00:23:46.555 --> 00:23:46.674
Okay.
00:23:48.981 --> 00:23:49.541
So what happens?
00:23:49.582 --> 00:23:50.843
He's then at the Reverend
00:23:50.883 --> 00:23:52.883
Cook's house and now the
00:23:52.903 --> 00:23:53.903
British are coming back.
00:23:54.364 --> 00:23:54.544
Yeah,
00:23:54.663 --> 00:23:56.744
so the story is that he stays there
00:23:56.865 --> 00:23:58.766
and he hides and he
00:23:58.826 --> 00:24:00.526
essentially escapes the revolution.
00:24:01.646 --> 00:24:03.646
Not really much has happened
00:24:03.666 --> 00:24:04.907
to him afterwards.
00:24:06.189 --> 00:24:09.009
What about Hannah Hall Adams?
00:24:09.029 --> 00:24:10.431
The story with Hannah, again,
00:24:10.471 --> 00:24:11.810
I mentioned that she
00:24:11.871 --> 00:24:13.071
recently gave birth about
00:24:13.152 --> 00:24:15.031
ten days prior to the battle.
00:24:16.192 --> 00:24:19.874
With eighteenth-century medicine,
00:24:20.493 --> 00:24:21.875
that essentially meant you
00:24:21.894 --> 00:24:25.276
were bedridden for weeks.
00:24:25.615 --> 00:24:27.257
Hannah, she's bedridden.
00:24:27.957 --> 00:24:31.077
She can move, but very, very slowly.
00:24:33.135 --> 00:24:36.478
And she holds her newborn, Anna,
00:24:38.179 --> 00:24:40.420
while the British regulars are entering.
00:24:41.240 --> 00:24:42.241
The five other kids,
00:24:42.541 --> 00:24:44.482
they hide underneath her bed.
00:24:46.743 --> 00:24:48.904
And they seek shelter just there.
00:24:49.425 --> 00:24:50.946
According to Hannah Adams...
00:24:51.933 --> 00:24:52.976
Three British regulars,
00:24:53.016 --> 00:24:55.058
they enter her home while
00:24:55.098 --> 00:24:58.144
holding a bayonet fixed at
00:24:58.765 --> 00:24:59.625
Hannah herself.
00:25:00.567 --> 00:25:05.074
There's some exchange of words.
00:25:05.134 --> 00:25:06.537
Other parties are yelling at each other.
00:25:08.606 --> 00:25:10.347
And the story is that one of
00:25:10.387 --> 00:25:12.867
the British officers, he orders his men,
00:25:13.327 --> 00:25:15.469
do not harm the children, kids or women,
00:25:15.669 --> 00:25:16.489
women or children,
00:25:18.130 --> 00:25:20.089
as long as they cooperate.
00:25:21.490 --> 00:25:23.631
And the story is that they
00:25:23.671 --> 00:25:25.612
eventually loot a lot of
00:25:25.632 --> 00:25:26.531
things in the house.
00:25:26.592 --> 00:25:26.852
You know,
00:25:26.872 --> 00:25:29.132
there's silver that has been repatriated,
00:25:29.152 --> 00:25:31.532
that was sold and then
00:25:31.813 --> 00:25:33.294
eventually repatriated back
00:25:33.334 --> 00:25:34.574
to the church.
00:25:35.193 --> 00:25:35.795
Okay,
00:25:35.875 --> 00:25:38.176
so you mean they took silver from her
00:25:38.217 --> 00:25:40.798
house, but then the church got it back?
00:25:40.838 --> 00:25:41.519
Yes, yes.
00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:42.760
So I don't know, frankly,
00:25:42.780 --> 00:25:43.801
I don't know the specifics
00:25:43.862 --> 00:25:44.583
of the provenance,
00:25:45.042 --> 00:25:46.003
but they did figure out
00:25:46.044 --> 00:25:47.566
that this is the silver
00:25:47.625 --> 00:25:51.509
pitcher that was taken on April,
00:25:51.848 --> 00:25:52.869
by British regulars,
00:25:53.550 --> 00:25:55.772
then subsequently sold at
00:25:56.574 --> 00:25:57.954
another market or such.
00:25:59.336 --> 00:26:00.576
stories that someone found
00:26:00.676 --> 00:26:02.638
it and did identify that it
00:26:02.719 --> 00:26:06.181
is indeed the Adams family silver.
00:26:06.942 --> 00:26:08.162
There's other stories where
00:26:08.201 --> 00:26:11.084
they may have taken other silverware,
00:26:11.164 --> 00:26:11.884
things like that,
00:26:12.846 --> 00:26:14.886
but they also looted and
00:26:14.926 --> 00:26:18.430
took out the Adams family clock,
00:26:19.130 --> 00:26:20.810
meaning it's a grandfather clock,
00:26:20.851 --> 00:26:21.771
it's an eight-day clock,
00:26:21.932 --> 00:26:23.334
But they stole the inner
00:26:23.374 --> 00:26:24.816
workings of the clock,
00:26:25.757 --> 00:26:26.739
including the metals,
00:26:26.939 --> 00:26:30.063
possibly to melt it down as
00:26:30.143 --> 00:26:31.345
a means to just sell.
00:26:32.778 --> 00:26:34.420
So they didn't actually pull out the clock,
00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:36.299
but they took the inside out.
00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:36.900
Exactly.
00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:41.201
So we actually have the case
00:26:41.622 --> 00:26:43.603
of the clock on display in
00:26:43.643 --> 00:26:44.883
the Jason Russell house.
00:26:45.563 --> 00:26:47.663
And if you see, it's very ornate.
00:26:47.763 --> 00:26:51.065
It's a perfect example of
00:26:51.125 --> 00:26:53.286
eighteenth-century Asian art.
00:26:53.905 --> 00:26:55.346
And we believe it was imported,
00:26:55.826 --> 00:26:58.448
potentially, over to Boston,
00:26:59.048 --> 00:27:00.188
where the Adams family
00:27:00.208 --> 00:27:01.409
eventually purchased it.
00:27:02.189 --> 00:27:03.710
But it's a remarkable piece,
00:27:04.450 --> 00:27:05.589
and I tell this story when
00:27:06.830 --> 00:27:08.550
the rare chance I give guides,
00:27:08.592 --> 00:27:10.092
but we had a consultant
00:27:10.152 --> 00:27:11.132
over here one time,
00:27:11.192 --> 00:27:13.012
and she said that you
00:27:13.032 --> 00:27:13.952
should really think about
00:27:14.233 --> 00:27:15.294
replacing the inner
00:27:15.334 --> 00:27:16.713
workings of the clock to
00:27:16.753 --> 00:27:17.434
make it run again.
00:27:17.714 --> 00:27:19.556
And I was like, well, I thought about it,
00:27:19.596 --> 00:27:20.236
and it's like...
00:27:21.016 --> 00:27:21.096
Well,
00:27:21.115 --> 00:27:22.136
that kind of defeats the whole
00:27:22.196 --> 00:27:23.196
purpose of it, right?
00:27:23.237 --> 00:27:25.317
That defeats the whole story of it.
00:27:25.337 --> 00:27:26.438
That's right, yeah.
00:27:26.478 --> 00:27:26.999
But anyway,
00:27:28.098 --> 00:27:30.579
the story is while the British
00:27:30.599 --> 00:27:31.881
regulars are entering her home,
00:27:32.280 --> 00:27:33.520
holds her up by gunpoint,
00:27:34.942 --> 00:27:36.382
they eventually start a
00:27:36.422 --> 00:27:38.383
fire in her kitchen.
00:27:38.403 --> 00:27:41.924
And they tear out pieces of
00:27:41.964 --> 00:27:42.964
the family Bible,
00:27:43.204 --> 00:27:44.586
pages of the family Bible,
00:27:45.125 --> 00:27:46.606
to light this fire and
00:27:46.686 --> 00:27:49.567
leave it burning in her house.
00:27:50.838 --> 00:27:53.259
As this happens, Hannah grabs Anna,
00:27:53.319 --> 00:27:56.480
her newborn, and runs out of the house.
00:27:56.960 --> 00:27:58.401
The kids stay hidden.
00:27:59.161 --> 00:28:00.141
Of course, the British regulars,
00:28:00.181 --> 00:28:01.020
they know they're there,
00:28:01.201 --> 00:28:03.260
but they try to stay hidden.
00:28:04.422 --> 00:28:05.582
They come out as the British
00:28:05.622 --> 00:28:06.981
regulars are leaving,
00:28:07.442 --> 00:28:08.962
and they douse the fire
00:28:09.242 --> 00:28:10.583
with homebrew beer.
00:28:11.863 --> 00:28:13.743
And that specifics, again,
00:28:14.084 --> 00:28:15.703
it's one of those stories where it's...
00:28:16.163 --> 00:28:17.766
That probably specifically
00:28:17.806 --> 00:28:18.646
can't be made up,
00:28:18.686 --> 00:28:21.711
but the end of the story is
00:28:21.730 --> 00:28:23.332
that they did douse it and
00:28:23.412 --> 00:28:25.755
Hannah returned back to her house.
00:28:25.775 --> 00:28:27.297
Okay, interesting.
00:28:28.678 --> 00:28:30.059
Did they ever search the
00:28:30.099 --> 00:28:32.241
Reverend Samuel Cook's house?
00:28:32.863 --> 00:28:36.007
Not that I know of, but...
00:28:37.388 --> 00:28:37.528
Now,
00:28:37.890 --> 00:28:39.351
another thing that's happening in this
00:28:39.431 --> 00:28:40.412
expedition, of course,
00:28:40.612 --> 00:28:43.515
is Lord Percy was reinforcements.
00:28:43.674 --> 00:28:44.756
We're talking with Matt Fierce,
00:28:44.776 --> 00:28:45.797
the executive director of
00:28:45.817 --> 00:28:47.318
the Arlington Historical Society,
00:28:47.338 --> 00:28:48.839
about some of the untold
00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:49.980
stories of monotony.
00:28:50.662 --> 00:28:52.903
And there's also a resupply
00:28:52.963 --> 00:28:54.465
wagon that's making its way
00:28:54.546 --> 00:28:55.906
to help out the British.
00:28:55.926 --> 00:28:59.130
And it runs into trouble in monotony,
00:28:59.150 --> 00:28:59.770
I understand.
00:29:00.733 --> 00:29:03.115
yes so there's a story about
00:29:03.296 --> 00:29:04.916
a patriot of color uh his
00:29:04.957 --> 00:29:07.659
name is david lamson um and
00:29:07.900 --> 00:29:11.863
while the um the the the
00:29:11.883 --> 00:29:13.324
british regulars are still
00:29:13.483 --> 00:29:15.265
in lexington there's a
00:29:15.325 --> 00:29:17.446
story about a transport
00:29:17.547 --> 00:29:19.848
wagon who has asked for
00:29:19.969 --> 00:29:21.730
supplies to go from
00:29:21.950 --> 00:29:23.391
cambridge really from
00:29:23.451 --> 00:29:25.212
boston then to cambridge um
00:29:25.353 --> 00:29:26.693
and then through monotony
00:29:27.592 --> 00:29:30.384
to help resupply munitions
00:29:30.765 --> 00:29:31.950
for the British irregulars.
00:29:33.035 --> 00:29:39.178
And so what happens is a patriot of color,
00:29:39.199 --> 00:29:40.358
his name is David Lampson,
00:29:41.259 --> 00:29:42.820
he goes to the local tavern
00:29:42.881 --> 00:29:45.301
as well as the other exempts,
00:29:45.541 --> 00:29:46.201
what we call them.
00:29:46.262 --> 00:29:48.023
We call them the old men of monotony.
00:29:48.403 --> 00:29:48.864
However,
00:29:49.023 --> 00:29:51.925
they were really either too old or
00:29:52.046 --> 00:29:55.107
either had a physical
00:29:55.147 --> 00:29:56.607
disability or some such
00:29:56.847 --> 00:29:58.128
where they are not fit to
00:29:58.209 --> 00:30:00.049
serve in a standing militia
00:30:00.170 --> 00:30:00.990
or minute company.
00:30:02.287 --> 00:30:03.807
And so the story is that
00:30:03.909 --> 00:30:05.170
because of David Lampson,
00:30:05.769 --> 00:30:07.291
him being revered,
00:30:07.372 --> 00:30:09.173
even as a person of color,
00:30:09.713 --> 00:30:12.796
revered as a powerful
00:30:12.836 --> 00:30:16.380
leader and a veteran of the
00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:17.540
French-Indian War,
00:30:19.291 --> 00:30:20.772
He was chosen to lead these
00:30:20.813 --> 00:30:24.256
men to go in and stop this
00:30:24.655 --> 00:30:26.577
wagon from entering and
00:30:26.617 --> 00:30:28.699
resupplying into the British column.
00:30:29.219 --> 00:30:30.119
And now the story is they
00:30:30.160 --> 00:30:33.281
wait until the middle of Monotony Center.
00:30:33.603 --> 00:30:35.864
They hide behind different stone walls.
00:30:36.384 --> 00:30:37.105
David Lamson,
00:30:37.144 --> 00:30:38.727
he shoots up as soon as they
00:30:38.767 --> 00:30:42.209
see them come into their near area,
00:30:42.249 --> 00:30:42.669
vicinity.
00:30:43.490 --> 00:30:44.550
And he orders them to stop.
00:30:45.692 --> 00:30:47.192
And of course, it's an armed wagon,
00:30:47.252 --> 00:30:50.375
so they have armed regulars.
00:30:51.557 --> 00:30:53.557
And they, of course, disagree.
00:30:53.678 --> 00:30:54.618
It's only one person.
00:30:55.339 --> 00:30:56.760
They disagree and they push on.
00:30:57.240 --> 00:31:00.403
And then the other old men of monotony,
00:31:00.503 --> 00:31:03.546
they stand up and they fire onto the...
00:31:04.926 --> 00:31:05.708
Supply wagon.
00:31:06.628 --> 00:31:07.990
And from what I understand,
00:31:08.049 --> 00:31:09.371
it was never able to
00:31:10.112 --> 00:31:14.076
resupply the British regulars.
00:31:15.777 --> 00:31:18.219
So the story and this is, again,
00:31:18.278 --> 00:31:19.359
one of my favorite stories
00:31:19.380 --> 00:31:20.601
is the story is,
00:31:20.641 --> 00:31:23.523
is that they escape the British regulars.
00:31:23.544 --> 00:31:24.085
They escape.
00:31:24.949 --> 00:31:27.789
They go into the local lake
00:31:28.509 --> 00:31:29.431
called Spy Pond.
00:31:30.050 --> 00:31:32.152
They throw their muskets into the Spy Pond,
00:31:32.531 --> 00:31:34.313
which frankly may actually
00:31:34.353 --> 00:31:35.073
still be there.
00:31:36.432 --> 00:31:38.614
But they go into Spy Pond,
00:31:38.653 --> 00:31:40.434
throw this into the pond.
00:31:41.400 --> 00:31:42.881
They see an elderly woman,
00:31:43.580 --> 00:31:44.981
and her name is Mother Batherick.
00:31:46.603 --> 00:31:48.022
And the story, six of them,
00:31:48.703 --> 00:31:51.005
they go in and they run to her,
00:31:51.444 --> 00:31:54.527
and they essentially
00:31:54.586 --> 00:31:56.468
surrender to Mother Batherick.
00:31:57.596 --> 00:31:59.498
And the story is Mother
00:31:59.518 --> 00:32:00.559
Batherick saw them while
00:32:00.579 --> 00:32:01.760
she was picking flowers.
00:32:02.101 --> 00:32:04.784
And I think these people are
00:32:04.824 --> 00:32:07.287
very – they're real people in my opinion.
00:32:07.787 --> 00:32:08.488
Mother Batherick is
00:32:08.528 --> 00:32:09.449
definitely still around.
00:32:10.470 --> 00:32:11.892
I find it odd that Mother
00:32:11.932 --> 00:32:12.731
Batherick would have been
00:32:12.913 --> 00:32:15.315
picking flowers during a
00:32:15.355 --> 00:32:18.238
battle right very locally.
00:32:18.699 --> 00:32:18.838
Yeah.
00:32:20.059 --> 00:32:22.099
But eventually she gets them
00:32:22.221 --> 00:32:25.201
over to a militia.
00:32:25.260 --> 00:32:28.281
His last name is Ephraim Frost, his house.
00:32:29.382 --> 00:32:31.442
And she tells the six
00:32:32.182 --> 00:32:33.542
British regulars that you
00:32:33.563 --> 00:32:35.282
can tell King George that
00:32:35.403 --> 00:32:40.865
you just surrendered to an old woman.
00:32:41.065 --> 00:32:41.184
Wow.
00:32:41.204 --> 00:32:41.265
Wow.
00:32:41.285 --> 00:32:42.484
So you have a lot of things happening,
00:32:42.505 --> 00:32:42.664
you know.
00:32:42.978 --> 00:32:44.358
I mean, a lot of things happened then,
00:32:44.519 --> 00:32:45.759
and so I'm wondering what
00:32:45.799 --> 00:32:46.601
you'll be doing to
00:32:46.641 --> 00:32:47.461
commemorate the
00:32:47.521 --> 00:32:49.344
two-fiftieth anniversary of these events,
00:32:49.364 --> 00:32:51.045
which is coming up.
00:32:51.085 --> 00:32:51.444
Of course.
00:32:51.826 --> 00:32:55.429
So we have a number of things going on.
00:32:56.349 --> 00:32:56.910
Like I mentioned,
00:32:56.930 --> 00:32:57.971
the Jason Russell House
00:32:57.990 --> 00:32:59.673
will be open from tours on
00:32:59.792 --> 00:33:00.593
April nineteenth,
00:33:01.013 --> 00:33:03.236
extended tours from eleven to four.
00:33:04.155 --> 00:33:05.297
And it's completely free,
00:33:05.738 --> 00:33:07.900
thanks to our sponsor, Liberty Bank.
00:33:08.200 --> 00:33:10.401
um but it'll be free for for
00:33:10.461 --> 00:33:11.582
all visitors you can come
00:33:11.642 --> 00:33:13.823
in see the scars of of the
00:33:13.903 --> 00:33:14.903
worst fighting that
00:33:15.064 --> 00:33:16.125
happened at the jason
00:33:16.144 --> 00:33:17.945
russell house um and you
00:33:17.965 --> 00:33:19.886
can also experience our
00:33:20.086 --> 00:33:21.127
exhibition which I'll get
00:33:21.147 --> 00:33:22.808
to in just a second but
00:33:22.828 --> 00:33:24.210
we'll be open for april
00:33:24.250 --> 00:33:25.349
nineteenth the actual day
00:33:25.369 --> 00:33:26.730
of this happening as well
00:33:26.810 --> 00:33:29.492
as the the um the uh patriots day
00:33:30.012 --> 00:33:31.193
the practice Patriots Day on
00:33:31.253 --> 00:33:32.595
April twenty first on
00:33:32.634 --> 00:33:34.135
Monday again both days
00:33:34.276 --> 00:33:37.357
eleven to four but part of
00:33:37.417 --> 00:33:38.798
that we're also unveiling
00:33:39.119 --> 00:33:40.059
our two hundred fiftieth
00:33:40.119 --> 00:33:40.840
exhibition which I
00:33:40.881 --> 00:33:43.021
mentioned earlier and as
00:33:43.061 --> 00:33:44.442
the theme of this this
00:33:44.502 --> 00:33:45.804
whole year it comes out
00:33:46.404 --> 00:33:47.105
through with battle of
00:33:47.144 --> 00:33:49.527
monotony we are it's titled
00:33:49.987 --> 00:33:50.887
the battle of monotony
00:33:51.107 --> 00:33:52.348
voices of the overlooked
00:33:52.489 --> 00:33:54.410
centennial reflections and
00:33:54.810 --> 00:33:58.553
and what it will include essentially is
00:33:59.534 --> 00:33:59.913
Frankly,
00:33:59.933 --> 00:34:01.134
we don't have a whole lot of
00:34:01.674 --> 00:34:03.296
objects pertaining to April,
00:34:04.096 --> 00:34:04.817
believe it or not.
00:34:05.636 --> 00:34:06.678
But what we do have,
00:34:06.817 --> 00:34:08.177
we do have some other
00:34:08.358 --> 00:34:09.778
perspectives that may have
00:34:09.798 --> 00:34:12.280
been overlooked from the battle.
00:34:12.701 --> 00:34:14.121
So like I mentioned before,
00:34:14.282 --> 00:34:15.601
it's essentially we're
00:34:15.621 --> 00:34:16.702
going to take the
00:34:16.742 --> 00:34:18.463
perspectives of previously
00:34:18.483 --> 00:34:19.264
enslaved people,
00:34:19.903 --> 00:34:22.626
women and other of these stories.
00:34:23.668 --> 00:34:25.469
and embellish it to talk
00:34:25.510 --> 00:34:26.989
about a broader narrative
00:34:27.090 --> 00:34:28.731
about how the battle itself
00:34:29.050 --> 00:34:30.652
is an untold story.
00:34:31.711 --> 00:34:32.333
Part of that too,
00:34:32.353 --> 00:34:33.233
we're also going to talk
00:34:33.253 --> 00:34:35.994
about how Arlington, West Cambridge,
00:34:36.173 --> 00:34:37.914
and monotony has celebrated
00:34:38.565 --> 00:34:40.507
commemorated the battle throughout years,
00:34:40.527 --> 00:34:43.690
and some of which are very interesting.
00:34:44.550 --> 00:34:46.550
So it should be a very fun exhibition.
00:34:46.670 --> 00:34:48.512
It'll be open during our
00:34:48.552 --> 00:34:51.253
hours all the way until October,
00:34:51.373 --> 00:34:52.954
end of October of twenty twenty six.
00:34:53.155 --> 00:34:56.036
Very good.
00:34:56.077 --> 00:34:56.818
So I hope this will be
00:34:56.858 --> 00:34:58.938
another interesting commemoration that,
00:34:59.099 --> 00:34:59.619
you know,
00:34:59.639 --> 00:35:00.599
you said some of them have been
00:35:00.639 --> 00:35:01.641
very interesting over the years.
00:35:01.661 --> 00:35:02.400
What are some of the things
00:35:02.420 --> 00:35:04.021
that have been done to commemorate this?
00:35:05.478 --> 00:35:05.657
Well,
00:35:05.777 --> 00:35:07.079
so I will say we're going to be
00:35:07.119 --> 00:35:08.139
practicing again.
00:35:08.280 --> 00:35:11.262
Our reenactment is going to
00:35:11.282 --> 00:35:13.644
be on the twentieth and
00:35:13.824 --> 00:35:16.106
leading up to not so much this year,
00:35:16.126 --> 00:35:18.469
but leading up to April nineteenth.
00:35:18.489 --> 00:35:20.731
You feel free to check it
00:35:20.811 --> 00:35:22.271
out at the old burying
00:35:22.291 --> 00:35:24.173
ground just next to Town Hall.
00:35:25.353 --> 00:35:26.675
the Arlington Historical Society,
00:35:26.695 --> 00:35:27.894
with help of Freedom's Way
00:35:27.934 --> 00:35:28.855
National Heritage Area,
00:35:30.016 --> 00:35:32.376
we put in markers
00:35:32.476 --> 00:35:34.597
commemorating the British
00:35:34.657 --> 00:35:35.876
regulars as well as the
00:35:35.936 --> 00:35:37.157
enslaved people who were
00:35:37.197 --> 00:35:38.617
buried in mass graves
00:35:39.318 --> 00:35:41.579
around the old burying ground.
00:35:42.659 --> 00:35:45.400
And again, that was a few years in coming,
00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:45.619
but
00:35:46.436 --> 00:35:47.358
It was, again,
00:35:47.637 --> 00:35:48.498
it's important to
00:35:48.518 --> 00:35:51.039
commemorate all lives lost
00:35:51.079 --> 00:35:52.460
because at this point, again,
00:35:52.501 --> 00:35:55.764
it was a civil war until a year later.
00:35:58.264 --> 00:36:00.166
But we're also, with this year,
00:36:00.186 --> 00:36:00.646
we're also,
00:36:02.394 --> 00:36:04.355
unveiling a new lecture
00:36:04.375 --> 00:36:06.215
series coming out
00:36:06.275 --> 00:36:08.115
specifically talking about the battle.
00:36:08.195 --> 00:36:09.016
Our next one is going to be
00:36:09.056 --> 00:36:10.217
March twenty fifth with
00:36:10.737 --> 00:36:12.456
retired Brigadier General
00:36:13.117 --> 00:36:14.378
William Rapp to talk about,
00:36:14.757 --> 00:36:15.677
as I mentioned before,
00:36:15.697 --> 00:36:17.157
the sort of the sociology
00:36:17.177 --> 00:36:18.518
and the psychology of what
00:36:18.559 --> 00:36:19.719
it was like to be a British
00:36:19.759 --> 00:36:21.398
regular and a provincial on
00:36:21.458 --> 00:36:22.159
April nineteenth.
00:36:24.320 --> 00:36:24.559
Interesting.
00:36:24.579 --> 00:36:24.920
Very interesting.
00:36:24.940 --> 00:36:25.679
We're talking with Matt Beers,
00:36:25.719 --> 00:36:26.840
executive director of the
00:36:26.920 --> 00:36:28.460
Arlington Historical Society.
00:36:29.139 --> 00:36:30.460
oversees the jason russell
00:36:30.480 --> 00:36:32.442
house and uh talking about
00:36:32.461 --> 00:36:34.244
plans for commemorating the
00:36:34.284 --> 00:36:36.085
the anniversary of the
00:36:36.586 --> 00:36:37.847
untold stories of monotony
00:36:38.128 --> 00:36:39.789
now why do you suppose you
00:36:39.809 --> 00:36:41.791
know lexington and concord
00:36:41.811 --> 00:36:43.092
really have made quite a
00:36:43.132 --> 00:36:44.173
thing of telling their
00:36:44.213 --> 00:36:46.275
story how come arlington
00:36:46.516 --> 00:36:47.878
has been overlooked
00:36:48.731 --> 00:36:49.833
So historically,
00:36:50.612 --> 00:36:52.793
Arlington has always tried
00:36:52.853 --> 00:36:55.675
to get on the same level as
00:36:55.755 --> 00:36:56.856
Lexington and Concord.
00:36:57.436 --> 00:37:02.079
And if you ask me, frankly,
00:37:02.318 --> 00:37:03.039
we shouldn't be...
00:37:05.340 --> 00:37:06.141
the society,
00:37:06.161 --> 00:37:08.023
we shouldn't be the town to say, oh,
00:37:08.182 --> 00:37:09.485
actually, this happened.
00:37:09.784 --> 00:37:11.045
While we'd like to correct
00:37:11.545 --> 00:37:12.867
historical inaccuracies,
00:37:14.289 --> 00:37:15.530
it's important for us to
00:37:17.030 --> 00:37:18.052
first commemorate the
00:37:18.072 --> 00:37:21.094
people who fought and lost their lives.
00:37:23.052 --> 00:37:24.253
But at the same time,
00:37:25.534 --> 00:37:26.936
we're trying to tell our
00:37:26.996 --> 00:37:30.358
stories and tell the stories of, again,
00:37:30.378 --> 00:37:33.442
the often overlooked people in monotony.
00:37:34.742 --> 00:37:36.824
If you ask me why I think this happened,
00:37:36.905 --> 00:37:40.708
it's because of its well-known name,
00:37:41.268 --> 00:37:43.030
the Battle of Lexington and Concord.
00:37:46.487 --> 00:37:48.188
distinction and in my rhetoric,
00:37:48.429 --> 00:37:49.650
I will always say the
00:37:49.690 --> 00:37:51.251
battle of Lexington
00:37:51.291 --> 00:37:53.711
conquered and monotony as a
00:37:53.731 --> 00:37:54.891
means to honor the people
00:37:54.931 --> 00:37:56.934
who died and lost their
00:37:56.954 --> 00:37:58.273
lives in monotony.
00:37:58.775 --> 00:37:59.735
But also to point out the
00:37:59.775 --> 00:38:01.695
fact that we were, again,
00:38:01.775 --> 00:38:02.777
part of the one of the
00:38:02.817 --> 00:38:04.237
biggest portions of the battle.
00:38:05.905 --> 00:38:09.525
Do you have a sense, Matt,
00:38:09.545 --> 00:38:10.467
of how many men died on that day?
00:38:10.507 --> 00:38:11.527
So British regulars,
00:38:11.586 --> 00:38:13.827
we don't really know the entire number.
00:38:15.527 --> 00:38:17.489
Frankly, I'm blanking on it right now.
00:38:17.568 --> 00:38:18.989
But with provincials,
00:38:19.409 --> 00:38:22.329
we do know in total of the entire day,
00:38:22.389 --> 00:38:23.451
to put it in perspective,
00:38:23.570 --> 00:38:24.811
roughly forty nine
00:38:24.851 --> 00:38:26.291
provincials lost their lives.
00:38:26.672 --> 00:38:28.152
And we get this question all the time.
00:38:28.291 --> 00:38:29.913
That's not a lot for a battle.
00:38:30.632 --> 00:38:31.873
Most people think that this
00:38:31.954 --> 00:38:34.054
is a battle very similar to
00:38:34.155 --> 00:38:35.795
Gettysburg or Antietam or
00:38:36.076 --> 00:38:39.538
all these really big battles, but really,
00:38:39.659 --> 00:38:39.958
again,
00:38:40.318 --> 00:38:41.920
it's the first day of the
00:38:42.719 --> 00:38:43.681
Revolutionary War,
00:38:45.202 --> 00:38:46.963
and you really weren't preparing.
00:38:46.983 --> 00:38:47.643
I mean, you were,
00:38:47.663 --> 00:38:50.385
but you couldn't predict
00:38:50.445 --> 00:38:51.304
that this was going to be
00:38:51.344 --> 00:38:52.525
an armed conflict.
00:38:54.487 --> 00:38:57.047
So, to put it in perspective,
00:38:57.588 --> 00:38:59.208
monotony lost about
00:38:59.268 --> 00:39:01.869
twenty-five provincials just in town.
00:39:02.128 --> 00:39:04.048
So that's over half of the people.
00:39:05.250 --> 00:39:06.469
Our numbers indicate,
00:39:06.489 --> 00:39:08.471
and that number actually
00:39:08.530 --> 00:39:09.650
may actually increase,
00:39:10.990 --> 00:39:12.411
but as we do more research,
00:39:12.492 --> 00:39:14.032
we believe that roughly
00:39:14.952 --> 00:39:16.733
about twenty-one provincials
00:39:16.835 --> 00:39:19.556
died on the Jason Russell House property.
00:39:19.856 --> 00:39:21.219
That's on the forty acres
00:39:21.259 --> 00:39:23.181
but also inside the house as well.
00:39:23.201 --> 00:39:23.960
Amazing.
00:39:24.961 --> 00:39:25.163
Yeah,
00:39:25.182 --> 00:39:26.864
and forty-nine is a big number if
00:39:26.884 --> 00:39:28.425
you're one of them or if
00:39:28.445 --> 00:39:29.387
it's someone you know.
00:39:29.407 --> 00:39:32.309
So thank you so much.
00:39:32.329 --> 00:39:33.610
We've been talking with Matt Beers,
00:39:33.670 --> 00:39:34.911
executive director of the
00:39:35.012 --> 00:39:36.614
Arlington Historical Society,
00:39:36.673 --> 00:39:37.635
also curator of the
00:39:37.675 --> 00:39:38.976
Wilmington Town Museum.
00:39:39.708 --> 00:39:40.648
and planning for
00:39:40.688 --> 00:39:42.668
commemorative events in the
00:39:42.708 --> 00:39:43.929
town of Arlington,
00:39:44.009 --> 00:39:45.230
formerly the town of Monotony.
00:39:45.269 --> 00:39:46.269
Thanks for joining us, Matt.
00:39:46.289 --> 00:39:48.010
Thanks for having me.
00:39:48.030 --> 00:39:48.971
It's been great talking to you.
00:39:48.990 --> 00:39:50.670
And I want to thank Jonathan Lane,
00:39:50.710 --> 00:39:52.672
our producer, the man behind the curtain,
00:39:53.251 --> 00:39:55.492
and also our listeners here
00:39:55.612 --> 00:39:57.213
and all around the world.
00:39:58.353 --> 00:39:58.534
You know,
00:39:58.574 --> 00:40:00.534
folks are tuning in in different places.
00:40:00.574 --> 00:40:01.574
And every week we thank
00:40:01.614 --> 00:40:03.155
people who are regular
00:40:03.175 --> 00:40:04.494
listeners or new listeners.
00:40:04.536 --> 00:40:05.275
And if you're in one of
00:40:05.295 --> 00:40:06.456
these places and want to
00:40:06.476 --> 00:40:07.976
send Jonathan Lane an email,
00:40:08.016 --> 00:40:09.237
jlane at revolution two,
00:40:09.804 --> 00:40:11.123
They'll send you some of our
00:40:11.605 --> 00:40:13.385
revolution to fifty swag
00:40:14.206 --> 00:40:15.346
and if you're not one of
00:40:15.365 --> 00:40:16.346
these places and just want
00:40:16.365 --> 00:40:17.427
to connect with Jonathan He
00:40:17.467 --> 00:40:18.447
loves to hear from people.
00:40:18.467 --> 00:40:19.387
So do I in fact?
00:40:20.248 --> 00:40:22.047
So Jay Lane at revolution to
00:40:22.108 --> 00:40:24.668
five or and this week We're
00:40:24.708 --> 00:40:27.170
thanking our listeners in New Egypt,
00:40:27.250 --> 00:40:29.971
New Jersey and Helena, Montana in Germany
00:40:34.202 --> 00:40:35.324
in the state of Ohio,
00:40:35.804 --> 00:40:39.445
Ciudad del Carmen and Toluca in Mexico,
00:40:39.726 --> 00:40:42.286
and here in the United States, Detroit,
00:40:42.907 --> 00:40:44.728
and South Boston in the Bay State.
00:40:44.748 --> 00:40:45.507
Thank you all,
00:40:45.568 --> 00:40:47.349
and thank you to the folks listening in,
00:40:47.748 --> 00:40:49.170
places between and beyond,
00:40:49.190 --> 00:40:50.190
and now we will be piped
00:40:50.331 --> 00:40:51.371
out on the road to Boston.