Paul Revere is best known for his "Midnight Ride" on April 18, 1775. It all happened when the British found out where the colonists hid their ammunition. So the British "Red Coats" planned to attack. When the colonists found out that the British were planning to attack, they knew that they would have to fight. In order to tell the other colonies and towns that the British were coming, they sent riders to cry out the word. The most well known rider is Paul Revere. He rode through the night yelling "The British are coming, the British are coming!" through every town.

Paul was also a very good silversmith. He made bells that are still used and rung in some churches today. He was a Patriot who fought against the Redcoats. Paul also was one of the Sons of Liberty. He helped come up with the slogan of the snake saying "Don't tread on me." He had a wife named Sara who died shortly after giving birth to his daughter Isanna. There is a statue of Paul on his horse outside of the Old North Church in Boston, Massachusetts in a place called the "Paul Revere Mall."

The Old North Church is the church where Paul Revere looked for a sign of the British attacking by land or by sea. He told the priest that hung the lanterns in the tower that if he saw the British coming by land, to hang one lantern. If the British were coming in their ships, or by sea, to hang two lanterns. In his exact words and a now famous quote, "One if by land, and two if by sea." Paul waited on a hill across from the church to see the signal.

George Washington, born February 22, 1732, was not only that little boy who cut down the cherry tree. He was America's first president and an important general in the Revolutionary War. Although Washington gets credit for being the first American president, it is not true. The first president was a man named John Hanlon. He was elected president of the 13 states in the Confederation. There were, in fact, many other presidents before Washington, also for the Confederation. They are not remembered today for being our presidents because we were not a free country quite yet. Washington was the first to be president after the states declared that they were a free country. Washington served two terms of office from 1789-1797. He was a member of the Federalist party.

When the Declaration of Independence was signed, John Hancock's signature was the largest. Many people wonder why. Well, he had a very good reason. "I want to sign my name so big that old King George will be able to read it without his spectacles on!"

This was a bold but risky thing to do. The Declaration of Independence basically told King George that the colonists disagreed with the English rule. Anybody who would sign this paper had to be disloyal to the king. To be disloyal to the king would be like not doing anything your parents told you to do or would be like breaking the law. Think that you'll get in big trouble? Guess what? Punishment for the people that went against the king's rules was usually death!

This fate, however, did not fall upon John Hancock and all of the other signers of the Declaration because King George eventually gave up the war. The colonies then became the United States of America, partially thanks to John Hancock and his gigantic signature!

Return to the Yellow Pages

---

 

 

King George

 King Of England

---

King George III grew up as a shy, bashful young prince. Nobody really paid him too much attention. Then one day on March 20, 1751, George's father died. George was only 12, and all of a sudden he was expected, by EVERYONE, to act, speak, look like, and be a king! Luckily his grandfather was the king, and he was still alive. George was given private tutors that taught him all different subjects that would help him when he finally was crowned.

The time finally came when George should use this knowledge. On October 25,1760, when George was about 22, his grandfather died. This left the crown to George! He was a great king, fair and kind to his people. John Hancock, who would later become famous, visited London and wrote: The new king was good natured and well liked.

George was a good king, but when he needed money he thought of taxes. The thing was he was already taxing his own people of England. When one of his officials came up with the idea to tax the Americans, he considered and approved the tax on certain items that the Americans used. The Americans did not like this at all. They did everything else on their own. For that reason the Sons of Liberty and other Minuteman dumped all the tea from British cargo ships in Boston Harbor. This act was called the Boston Tea Party.

When George found out about the disloyal acts of the colonists, he decided to be firm. He was king. He made the rules! So he sent out British soldiers to enforce the taxation and to keep acts like the Tea Party from happening again. He figured that the officers would control any disloyalty to the crown, but this actually made the colonists more angry with him! George's one bad decision started the whole American Revolution.

Return to the Yellow Pages

Benjamin Franklin was the tenth out of the seventeen Franklin children. He was born in Boston in 1706 in a little house on Milk Street. Ben was special from the very beginning. He was more curious than any of his brothers and sisters, and he loved books. When Ben was 17, he moved to Philadelphia so he could be a printer. There, Ben met and married a girl by the name of Deborah Read. Deborah managed her own general store next to Ben's print shop. The happy couple had three children,William, Francis (who died in 1736 from an illness), and baby Sarah, who Ben called Sally. Ben started a yearly printing called Poor Richard's Almanac. Ben made many inventions, but still was not satisfied. He wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1787 as a congressmen and voted for the turkey to be America's national bird. Ben lived a productive eighty-four years. He left us his inventions which we still use today.