Who does not remember?

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1860.

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;

Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

Yet on December 13, 1774 Paul Revere in rode to Portsmouth Months before his horseback ride into
American history (April 18, 1775) made legendary by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Today we all know that Longfellow did not get his facts straight and that Revere was stopped by British
Officers and released but never made either Lexington or Concord. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Paul
Reverie’s Ride, was published in 1861 in the Atlantic Monthly, transformed Paul Revere from a relatively obscure,
figure in American history into a national folk hero.

His forebears came from Southwestern France and. His grandfather emigrated from St. Foy, in France,
to the island of Guernsey, and his father Apollos Rivoire, at the age of thirteen, was sent by his friends from that
island to Boston, ND was apprenticed to John Coney, a goldsmith. . Inl722, he set up his own shop in today's
Faneuil Hall. He changed his name to Paul Revere. He married Deborah Hitchboum in 1729. They were
parents of at least 9 children, 7 of whom lived and Paul was his oldest son born in 1734. Paul Revere was born
in Boston, in December, 1734 or 5. (January 1, 1735,) and died there in May, 1813, aged 84

Paul was educated at the North Writing School and learned the art of gold and silversmithing from his
father. When Paul was nineteen his father died, leaving Paul as the family's main source of income. Two years
later, in 1756, Revere volunteered to fight the French at Lake George, New York, where he was commissioned
as a second lieutenant in the colonial artillery. After the British evacuated Boston, a regiment of artillery was
raised for the defence of the State. In this regiment he was appointed a Major, and afterwards
a Lieutenant-Colonel, and remained in the service until the peace.

Paul Revere married Sarah Ome on August 4, 1757. and had 8 children. Sarah died in 1772 and he
married Rachel Walker, on October 10, 1773 and they had eight children.

Reveres primary vocation, a trade he learned from his father, was that of goldsmith/silversmith, meaning
he worked in both gold and silver. His silver shop was the cornerstone of his professional life for more than 40
years. As the master of his silver smith shop, Revere was responsible for both the workmanship and the quality of
the metal alloy used. He employed numerous apprentices and journeymen to produce pieces ranging from simple
spoons to magnificent full tea sets. His work, highly praised during his lifetime, is regarded as one of the
outstanding achievements in American decorative arts.

Revere also supplemented his income with other work. During the economic depression before the
Revolution, Revere began his work as a copper plate engraver. He was one of four engravers in the Colonies
and turned his hand to political items. His most famous was the in 1770's , Mr. Revere published an engraved
print, representing the massacre in King-street, on the memorable fifth of March. In 1775, he engraved the
plates, made the press, and printed the bills, of the paper money, ordered by the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts,
then in session at Watertown. He produced illustrations for books and magazines, business cards, political cartoons, bookplates, a songbook and bills of fare for taverns.

He also advertised as a dentist from 1768 to 1775. He not only cleaned teeth, but also wired in false teeth
carved from walrus ivory or animal teeth. Contrary to popular myth, he did not make George Washington's false
teeth. Fabricating a full set of dentures was beyond his ability.

The only powder-mill, then in the colonies, was in the vicinity of Philadelphia. The proprietor refused to
let him take any drawing or specification whatever, or any memorandum of the process of the manufacture, but
consented to show him the mill in full operation. His mechanical skill was now brought into action. With the slight
information thus obtained, he was able, on his return, to construct a mill, which was soon put in operation, and
with complete success.