Experience the American dream with today’s Patriots of the Past interview. I’m your host, John Gillespie.
It’s April 19, 1775. I’m with Prudence Wright, whose husband has just left with the Massachusetts minutemen.
JG: “Prudence, why are all these women dressed up like men and carrying muskets?”
PW: “Mr. Gillespie, we cannot let the British take Jewett’s Bridge. Besides, the limeys must learn they not only fight Yankee men, but Yankee women as well. Liberty is sacred to us, also.”
The men and women of Massachusetts stopped the British and showed the world our love of freedom.
A historical marker at the Prudence Wright Overlook in Pepperell, Massachusetts, reads, “Near this spot, a party of patriotic women, under the leadership of Mrs. David Wright of Pepperell, in April, 1775, captured Leonard Whiting, a Tory who was carrying treasonable dispatches to the enemy at Boston. He was taken a prisoner to Groton and the dispatches were sent to the Committee of Safety at Cambridge.”
John and Jan Gillespie are the founders of the Rawhide Boys’ Ranch; they have fostered 351 teenagers and wrote the book Our 351 Sons; they have also assisted numerous churches in developing youth programs and expanding their total church ministries. After running for U.S. Senate, John founded 1776 American Dream, which exists to demonstrate the vision of our founding fathers and help our generation of youth passionately embrace those values.
