The Hinsdale Dayz Organization

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Israel Bissell Ride
April 19-24, 1775


1752 - 1823

Israel Bissell, was a patriot post rider who delivered mail between Boston, Massachusetts and New York. Israel retired to Hinsdale and is buried in our Maple Street Cemetery.
On April 19, 1775, British forces fired on colonists in Lexington and Concord, inciting the American Revolutionary War. Bissell was assigned to alert American colonists of the news and rally them to assist the Massachusetts minutemen. The Lexington Alarm message was carried by Bissell through eastern Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York City, New Jersey, and ultimately to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The order stated that Bissell was to travel through Connecticut, which he did, traveling along the Old Post Road from Watertown, Massachusetts to New Haven, where the dispatch included an order to take the message to Philadelphia. In New York, General Alexander McDougall added an order to obtain a new rider to convey the message to Philadelphia. According to the Sons of the American Revolution and Elizabeth Norton Hunt, Bissell went the entire way to Philadelphia.[1][2] Along the way, Bissell shouted "To arms, to arms, the war has begun", and carried a message from Joseph Palmer asking townspeople to send soldiers to the fight.[2][3][4] Benedict Arnold of New Haven, Israel Putnam of Pomfret, and others mustered soldiers and headed for the battlegrounds in Massachusetts.Israel Bissell Homestead Restoration Israel Bissell, who eventually came to Hinsdale and farmed land in the southwest portion of town, was a post rider on April 19, 1775 when British soldiers fired on the militia at Lexington. He, along with Paul Revere and William Dawes, set out to warn citizens of the events of the day. Israel rode from Watertown to Connecticut and eventually to Philadelphia in an unbelievable five days, carrying a letter warning of the latest developments. Israel Bissell lived out the remainder of his life in Hinsdale and was buried in the Maple Street Cemetery, where the people of Hinsdale continue to keep the memory of Israel and his courageous deed alive. The Bissell Story Revival Abram Wakeman revived the story of Israel Bissell's ride from its niche in the archives of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1926 at the time of the nation's Sesquicentennial when he wrote about Bissell's record-breaking, almost five-day gallop from Watertown, MA to Philadelphia, PA. One of several post riders linking the Committees of Correspondence in eastern Massachusetts villages, Bissell was chosen to carry the alarm about the British march on Lexington and Concord first to Worcester, MA, south across Connecticut, then to New York City and across New Jersey to Philadelphia's City Hall. Wakeman provided a time table of the trek and described the effects of Bissell's alarm on the communities along his trail, alerting colonists, including Israel Putnam and Benedict Arnold, who hurried with re-enforcements to the Concord area. At the villages along his route, as ordered, Bissell had to locate the Committees of Correspondence or other town officials who copied and attested receipt of the message, at times in their haste garbling the hand writing, so that by the time he reached Philadelphia, his name on the document looks like "Trail" instead of "Israel." Another historian, John H. Scheide, in a paper presented at the American Antiquarian Society in Boston on April 17, 1940 reported that there were three copies of the dispatch still in existence, and he traced the confusing change in handwriting by various town officials as Bissell waited to pick up the document for the next leg of his horse-killing gallop. The story has since been told in several media: narrative, verse, radio broadcasts and in a variety of publications: Yankee Magazine in 1956; a feature in the Washington Post newspaper April 20, 1975; in Boston newspapers; in several Eagle newspaper columns; and in an anthology of Revolutionary era documents published in 1975 at the time of the U.S. Dayz. The two separate ballads by Eagle columnists, Gerard Chapman and Clay Perry, wryly compared Bissell's long trek with Paul Revere's short Middlesex ride which was interrupted, incomplete, with Revere 's temporary capture by a British patrol, but made famous by Longfellow's rhythmic poem printed in many school books. Using a copy of the Pennsylvania Society's document and Wakeman's article now in the archives of the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland , OH Marion Ransford (1894-1990) the Hinsdale historian, publicized the Bissell story in the Berkshire area. The two ballads by the Eagle columnists were printed in the Eagle on different Patriot's Days. A song broadcast by local radio stations in Pittsfield and Great Barrington echoed the story more widely. Maria Rockwood, a nationally known composer, composed the song, "Israel Bissell's Ride," both words and music, broadcast on radio stations WBRK and WBEC in Pittsfield and WSBS in Great Barrington on Patriots' Day April 19, 1956 . A transcript of the broadcast reads: "You have just heard a recording of 'Israel Bissell's Ride' by the talented composer, Mrs. Maria Rich Rockwood. The vocalist was Donald J. Williams, well-known Pittsfield baritone, Mr. Williams was accompanied by the composer, Mrs. Rockwood, at the piano." Mrs. Ransford also helped involve the Daughters of American Revolution with the installation of a special marker and ceremony at Bissell's grave in the Hinsdale Maple Street Cemetery, and encouraged Isadore Goodman of the Pittsfield Isgood Realty Agency, with his donation of the 1.29-acre Israel Bissell homestead site on Plunkett Lake Road as a gift to the town of Hinsdale on October 23, 1972. And she helped the authors and artist in the writing of their children's book about Israel Bissell, "The Remarkable Ride of Israel Bissell as related by Molly the Crow," writtten by Mrs. Alice Schnick of Moneterey and Mrs. Marjorie N. Allen of Pittsfield and handsomely illustrated by Joel Schnick, Alice Schnick's husband. With some forty-eight pages, it was published in the US Dayz year, 1976, by J. B. Lippincott Company. Now at the time of another Patriots' Day and the two hundred twenty-ninth anniversary, (2004), of his trip 1775, the Bissell message can be carried again, but in a medium he probably could never have imagined, where messages are spread world-wide instantaneously - and with no saddle sores and no exhausted horses, parallel Bissell's bouncing saddlebag and his shouts of alarm on the farms and village greens of five east coast colonies. (Leonard F. Swift, Hinsdale , MA , April, 2004)

Watch Israel Bissell's reenactment Ride Video.

Israel Bissell
1752 - 1823

On June 12, 2004, The GE ELFUN SOCIETY & local townspeople joined forces to spruce up the Israel Bissell Homestead on Plunkett Reservoir Road. The project included: rebuilding & painting a wishing well, clearing of brush, exposing the stone foundations & stone walls, making a path to the wishing well, installing a flagpole, installing trail benches, planting flowers and mulching around trees. A special Thanks to the following people who have made this possible: Bill Pike, Jarod Morrison, Tara Brown, Janelle Wendorf, Nathan Crooker, John Verkamp, Jeremy Schmitt, Kate Finger, Alison Graver, Emily Perry, Renika Sehgal, Phil Collins, Martha Dowling, Dennis Petell, Adam Petell, Kirsten Petell, Betty Petell, Ray Petell Sr., Ann White, Erin White, Christopher White, Brenda Manarchik, David Manarchik, Don Adams, Ron "Jonesy" Jones, D J Swail Excavating, Dave Swail, Dennis Petell, Adam Petell, Jones Sand & Gravel (stone for the path), Daniels Lawncare, Gary Daniels, Hinsdale DPW & Hinsdale Selectmen, Petell’s Auto Salvage & Bissellville Muster Team, John Goddard Builders, Hinsdale Volunteer Firemens Association & Muster Team, Jodi’s Flowers, and the Hinsdale Dayz Committee, especially Phil Collins & Carole Forward). In 2002, a committee was formed in anticipation of the 2004 two hundred year birth of the Hinsdale Massachusetts Incorporation. The committee met regularly and created events to fill that summer with community oriented ideas that would bring the town together with celebrations. The Committee met again later that year in review of the years celebrations. Spearheaded by Carole Forward, the Bicentennial Committee became excited about the idea to continue with community events and incorporated as a non-profit organization named Hinsdale Dayz, Incorporated. The Hinsdale Dayz Organization was the result of the 2004 Bicentennial Committee. We are now celebrating 20 years of continuous gathering events This year we are celebrating with the idea of keeping Hinsdale the town it was created for after 220 years. (Continued on the History Page.)
As the Hinsdale Dayz Committee, we intend to continue organizing and collaborating with other groups offering community oriented functions for families and friends of Hinsdale. We are all volunteers and we are always looking for volunteers to help us achieve our goals.