Patriots Day

Happy Patriots Day

April 19, 2012 by Fred Milliken 1 Comment

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 4^th 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

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.

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.

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 19^th, Patriot’s Day.

Patriot’s Day

April 19, 2011 by Fred Milliken Leave a Comment

Today is the time for my annual Patriot’s Day message, an obscure holiday celebrated only in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. But it is where I grew up – right smack dab in the middle of Revolutionary War history. Later I was to learn how important a role Freemasonry played in our fight for freedom from the British.

If you are a regular reader perhaps you have heard this story before. My apologies for the reiteration. At the same time I can’t help think that are always so many new readers of Freemason Information that it is worth repeating. Here is an address I gave in colonial costume as I toured Massachusetts and other states to acquaint them with the lore of Masonic Revolutionary War history.

I was raised in Plymouth Lodge, Plymouth Massachusetts where the Pilgrims landed. About two years later I affiliated with Paul Revere Lodge in Brockton, Massachusetts where I reside. Soon after I joined the Paul Revere Colonial Degree Team. We perform the 3rd Degree in the Colonial dress you see me wearing tonight. We march into Lodge to the beat of our drummer and two flags, one our Colonial Degree Team flag with the bust of Paul Revere and the other the Betsy Ross American Flag. We perform the degree using the ritual of today and afterwards our Historian gives a patriotic message pointing out the contributions that colonial Masons made so that we might have the liberties we enjoy today. He also talks about the sacredness of the American flag and what it stands for. Then he introduces each member of the degree team and we each introduce the Masonic Revolutionary War hero whom we represent. You see each one of us takes the name of a Mason who fought to secure us freedom from the British. And we each spend about 30 seconds explaining our colonial forbear. When I joined the Colonial Degree Team all the names that had been researched by the Director were taken, names like George Washington, Ben Franklin, Paul Revere, Henry Knox and John Hancock. I asked if I could research my own Colonial Mason who I would represent.

Having been granted permission my thoughts quickly went to my childhood. I was born and brought up in the town of Lexington, MA where the first battle of the Revolutionary War was fought on April 19, 1775; the battle of Lexington and Concord and “the shot heard round the world”. When I was 5 years old my father died leaving my Mother to bring up my two sisters and me by herself. She took three jobs to support us, secretary to the First Parish Church bordering the Lexington Green, two nights a week as secretary to the town’s Planning Board and on weekends as tour guide at the Buckman Tavern which also borders the Green.

Let me give you a picture of the Lexington Green shaped like a triangle with the point in the East. And in the East at that point is the Minuteman statue of Capt. John Parker the commander of the Lexington Minutemen. In the Northeast corner is the Buckman Tavern where the Minutemen gathered early in the morning of April 19, 1775. In the Northwest corner is the Masonic Temple where I served as Master Councilor of Battle Green Chapter Order of DeMolay. In the West is the First Parish Church where I went to church and my mother was Secretary. And in the South The Hancock Congregational Church. I can remember as a small boy of about 8 sitting on the front steps of the Buckman Tavern and listening to my mother through the screen door talk to the tourists about the ride of Paul Revere and the Battle of Lexington.

So when I went searching for a Revolutionary War Mason to represent what better place to start then in Lexington. I wrote the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, the Grand Lodge library, and asked them if any of the Patriots in the Battle of Lexington were Masons. They sent me back a list of 26 names, that’s 26 out of a total of 70 who were Masons. I chose William Munroe, Sgt. Of the Lexington Minutemen. It was William Munroe who was stationed on an all night watch on the Lexington Green the night of April 18, 1775. It was William Munroe who received Paul Revere shortly after midnight with his message “The British Are Coming!!!” It was William Munroe who raced down the street to wake up Hancock and Adams who were staying at the Reverend Clarke’s house. He told them they best get out of town post haste. It was William Munroe who sent word to the rest of the Minutemen to gather and form up on the Lexington Green. William Munroe was

proprietor of Munroe Tavern, the other tavern in town. This building also still stands today 100 yards down the street from the Scottish Rite Museum of Our National Heritage. Munroe Tavern was unfortunately taken over by the British and used as a command post on April 19, 1775.

Later in 1797 William Munroe applied to Grand Lodge for a charter to form Lexington’s first Masonic Lodge.

I traveled into Grand Lodge, to the Library and read the Grand Lodge minutes of 1797. And when William Munroe approached the East of Grand Lodge to deliver his request for a charter, the Grand Master who received him was Most Worshipful Paul Revere. William Munroe was the first and founding Master of Hiram Lodge, which met for over 40 years at the Munroe Tavern.

P.S. The Beehive now resides in Texas