Patriots Day - April 19,
2015
By Wor. Bro. Frederic L.
Milliken
Once again it is time for The Beehive’s annual
Patriot’s Day message. Patriots Day is an obscure holiday celebrated in just
one county – Middlesex – in Massachusetts. In the early years of our nation it
was a National holiday but gradually July 4th supplanted a similar
celebration.
Patriot’s Day commemorates the first battles of
the American Revolution in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts on April 19,
1775 where the shot was fired heard round the world. Having been born and
raised in Lexington, the history of these battles was ingrained in me from an
early age and later in life would mix with my Freemasonry.
Listen my children and you
shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, “If
the British march
By land or sea from the town
to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the
belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as
a signal light,
–One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”
You know the rest. In the
books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,—
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.
So through the night rode
Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,—
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere
William
Munroe
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Midnight Ride
of Paul Revere”
Freemasons were prominent that day. While Paul
Revere is the most notable Freemason involved, my favorite was Brother William
Munroe an orderly Sergeant in the Lexington Minutemen. Brother Munroe was
proprietor of the Munroe Tavern, one of two taverns in Lexington at that time,
the other being the Buckman Tavern at the Lexington Green where the Minute Men
assembled awaiting the arrival of the British. He was stationed on an all
night watch on the Lexington Green through the night of April 18,1775 into the
morning of the April 19th. It was Munroe who received Paul Revere riding into
Lexington with the news that, “The British are coming, the British are coming”
(although historians are apt to point out that he probably said The Regulars
or The Redcoats). Revere stopped at the Reverend Jonas Clark’s house to wake
up and warn Brother John Hancock and patriot Sam Adams.
Meanwhile Munroe got the word out to Captain
John Parker and other Minutemen. They were able to muster some 77 patriots on
the Lexington Green to face about 700 British soldiers. Of those 77 some 20+
were Freemasons even though there was no Masonic Lodge in Lexington at that
time. When Percy came in with British reinforcements later in the day he took
over Munroe Tavern and used it as a command post and hospital.
Munroe
Tavern Lexington, Massachusetts
William Munroe was later to petition the Grand
Lodge of Massachusetts for a charter for Lexington’s first Masonic Lodge. When
he took his request to the Grand East he was there met by Grand Master Paul
Revere. Hiram Lodge became Lexington’s first Masonic Lodge and Munroe its
first Master. The Lodge met for some 40 years at the Munroe Tavern.
In 1992 when I joined the Paul Revere Colonial
Degree Team that exemplified the Third Degree in colonial costume accompanied
by a patriotic message, I searched for a Revolutionary War Freemason to
represent as all the team members did. I chose William Munroe. As Master of
Paul Revere Lodge in 1999 I took the Paul Revere Colonial Degree Team to Simon
W. Robinson Lodge bordering the Lexington Green where once again we
exemplified the Third Degree remembering those who fought dearly for the
freedoms we enjoy today. Afterward three Lodges that had come together for
this special occasion held a Tri Table Lodge.
Paul
Revere
Today Munroe Tavern stands as a historical
building just a stone’s throw from the Scottish Rite National Heritage Museum
where you can visit their exhibit of
“Sowing The Seeds of Liberty: Lexington & The American Revolution.” You
can also see the
‘Lexington Alarm Letter”sent out on April 19,1775.
If you visit Lexington visit these two places
as well as the Lexington Green and the Buckman Tavern. A great day to go is
April 19th, Patriot’s Day.
Buckman
Tavern Lexington, Massachusetts