Show Paul Revere's Ride Historians and critics need dispute no longer over the identity of the person who made the plans of the known to the- Yankees on the week before the ride oi Paul E. Corinna Wheeler of West Brooklyn has made known to the Boston Herald the enlightening facts of the knowledge of which she has up to the only living and which puts an end to the controversy over the doubtful events which preceded the battle of Concord and Curiously although the question has been so much there has never been any authentic information as to how the Yankees knew so well the schemes of the British on the night of of Various theories have been concocted from obscure hints of obscurer One of these lays the credit or blame for the divulging of the information upon the wife of General another upon an incautious of Gage's said it might have been a traitor and it might have been a paid spy who but it happens to be the fact that it was My great-grandmother was one of the few persons who knew the facts of the and I am probably the only one now alive who can give the source from which the plans of the British became It is not a matter of but a fact of family history and absolute intelligence of the Committee of Safety was really duo to the sharp wit of a bright Yankee Sam It was a great thing in those times for the boys to hang about the inn doors to pick up a few shillings and sixpences by holding horses while their owners went inside for a Down here on Union street there was a tavern called the Green which was a great resort of the British When they came galloping into the square the Yankee boys would rush to meet in the hope not only of a but of information They were keen in war On the week before the my then a boy of overheard m this way the conversation of two British officers The conversation was They talked of the plan to capture Hancock and Sam went immediately to the landlord of the inn who informed him of the Committee of which held its meetings in an upper room of the on the information the Committee appointed a spy to hide in the rooms where the British held councils The spy learned the The Comm tt held another meeting and planned the ride of ReverT But that was not tho only service which m British march to of Safety did not dare to vene out w how they must send word to to Warren that no C see a running up the Dragon to Revere's So abou dispatched Sam Ballard to carry the message to He performed the task and the of the events of that night Revere himself tells 1775 my Lydia Ballard Le was a girl of She heard the story of Sam's This is the exact form in which she related them years afterwards to my All my ancestors were Northerners in Revolutionary My Samuel owned and lived on Lewis' Whar when Commercial street was a beach Naturally he was very well acquainted with Paul who came to as a young shortly after his first marriage in a cottage on the northerly side of the Joshua was the owner of the Clark or Lord Franklin's as it was called in those and my mother could remember being sent across North Square to invite Paul Revere to tea That was in the- later days when Revere was more prosperous and could afford to live in the End of the The friendship between the family was close that Revere's oldest granddaughter was named for my Sallie j have heard the story of those old days so often from my mother and my who was a famous North End that I feel as though I had personally known the Hancocks and the Marshalls and the and the who were all such familiar friends of my |