A patriotic apology to Israel Bissell

By Michael Patrick O’Brien–

“Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of…Israel Bissell.” Wait a minute; those are not the opening words of the famous epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow! But they are another good example of an old saying: the pen is mightier than the sword.

I learned this lesson again in the spring of 2020 when I interviewed a scholar named Quinn Gunn McKay. Quinn is over 90 years old, lives in Huntsville, Utah, and is related to the former president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, David O. McKay (another Huntsville native).

I am researching the friendships that developed between the Huntsville saints and their longtime neighbors, the Catholic Trappist monks who—until 2017—lived in the nearby monastery. Quinn was in Huntsville when the Abbey started and ended, so I was very excited to talk with him.

Quinn was quite enthusiastic about my project too. To underscore his excitement, at the end of our interview, he asked me, “Have you ever had the Paul Revere lesson?” When I said no, he asked if I knew the name Paul Revere. “Yes,” I said, “One if by land, two if by sea….” Quinn followed-up: “Then you surely know Israel Bissell?” Who?!?

Quinn explained that Bissell rode 300 miles further than Revere, from Massachusetts to Philadelphia, to warn the gathering Second Continental Congress that the British were coming. The Second Continental Congress eventually drafted and adopted the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, now celebrated as our July 4^th holiday.

As an amateur historian, I was chagrined. I had never heard of Bissell. I told Quinn that perhaps my education was lacking. He responded, “No, that’s not the reason. The poet Longfellow wrote down ‘The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere’ but no one wrote it down about Israel Bissell.”

Quinn piqued my curiosity, so I turned to Google. He was right. Israel Bissell (1752-1823) was a colonial post (mail) rider who brought news on horseback to Philadelphia about the British attacks on April 19, 1775 in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. His more famous patriot colleague, Paul Revere, rode the day before to warn the Americans about the impending attacks, but Bissell brought the news to the de facto American capital at the time, Philadelphia.

According to the various accounts I read, Bissell rode for four days and six hours, covering over 300 miles from Watertown, Massachusetts along what was known as the Old Post Road. According to legend, when Bissell reached Worcester, Massachusetts, his first horse collapsed and died from the hard ride.

Bissell continued with another horse, shouting “To arms, to arms, the war has begun.” He carried a message from American General Joseph Palmer, which was copied at each of his stops and redistributed. Bissell arrived in Philadelphia on April 24, 1775, 245 years ago this past spring.

Born in Connecticut, we do not know much about Bissell before his not-so-famous ride to Philadelphia. After the ride, Bissell returned to Connecticut, joined George Washington’s army, and fought alongside his brother, Justis. After the war, Bissell moved to Massachusetts, married a woman named Lucy Hancock, and became a sheep farmer. Bissell died on October 24, 1823 and now rests in the Maple Street Cemetery in Hinsdale, Massachusetts.

Paul Revere is better known than Bissell, of course, because of Longfellow’s poem. I also learned that Bissell was the subject of the less-well-known “Ride, Israel, Ride” by Marie Rockwood from Massachusetts, which I could never find on Google. An American poet and historian Clay Perry also tried to give Bissell his due, with an ode starting, “Listen, my children, to my epistle of the long, long ride of Israel Bissell…” Not bad, but not the same.

Quinn McKay told me about Bissell not to shame me, but to encourage me about the importance of “writing things down,” including the stories about the monks and the saints in Ogden Valley. I appreciate his encouragement, and I will keep working on the new project.

I do feel bad, however, that until Quinn’s gentle lesson, I knew nothing about Israel Bissell’s heroics. I offer Mr. Bissell (and his descendants) a humble and patriotic apology as we celebrate the 244th anniversary of the American Independence Day that he helped make possible.

*Mike O’Brien is a writer and attorney living in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is writing a book about growing up with the monks at the old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah.