Patriot’s Day, Saturday, April 19: A Look Back at Bedford’s Pole Capping Ceremony

Compiled by The Bedford Citizen

As Massachusetts celebrates Patriot’s Day with a Dawn Salute at North Bridge on Saturday, April 19, and the Bedford Minuteman make their annual march from Wilson Park to Concord where the Bedford Flag will lead Monday’s parade, The Bedford Citizen looks back at Pole Capping 2014, held on Saturday, April 12.

In memory of the Colonial Sons of Liberty who attached red stocking caps to the “Liberty Tree” in Boston (a plaque is still visible on the building at the corner where Boylston Street becomes Essex Street as it crosses Washington Street near the Chinatown T stop), the Bedford Minutemen Company annually raisees a Liberty Pole at Wilson Park.

The Pole Capping is accompanied by a parade of colonial companies from surrounding towns, along with a troop of British Regulars who interrupt the event each year and haul the pole climber away. This year Roy Kring, a 1st Lieutenant in the Bedford Minuteman Company, was the designated pole climber;  from all accounts he clambered up the pole and affixed the liberty cap in nearly record time.

Before the pole was raised, John Gibbons, the Company’s Chaplain offered an invocation for the 239th anniversary of the American Revolution, and the semicentenary (50th) anniversary of the Bedford Minuteman Company.Click Pole Capping 2014 JG invocation to read his full text.

In her remarks Margot Fleischman, Chair of the Bedford Selectmen, noted that Abigail Adams remained in Quincy while her husband, later the second President of the United States, served in the Continental Congress.

After the events of April 19, 1775, Abigail wrote in a letter to John, “sent just a few weeks after the incendiary incidents at Lexington and Concord that saw the muster of the Bedford Minutemen and the death of Captain Wilson, Abigail wrote of the difficulties brought on as a result of the turmoil.  “I can’t help depend upon this,” she wrote,  “that the present dreadful calamity of that beloved Town is intended to bind the Colonies together in more indissoluble bands, and to animate their exertion, at this great crisis in the affairs of mankind.

“She was writing about Boston in 1775, but really, she could be writing about us, today,” Fleischman said.

“What the Minutemen represent, what the service of our veterans and public safety officers prove, and what the spirit of volunteerism in Bedford demonstrates to me every day,” she concluded, “is that we are not in this life for ourselves. We are here for each other. Be we friends, neighbors or strangers, we are bound by community. That indeed is the “Special Something” we come together on this beautiful day at Wilson Park to celebrate.”

Click Margot Fleischman Pole Capping 2014 t0 read her full text.

Bedford’s State Senator Michael Barrett and State Representative Ken Gordon offered a Proclamation, commending Bedford’s modern Minuteman Company for their service to the Town:

State Representative Ken Gordon (D, Bedford) summed up the day, “Once again, Pole Capping provided a unique opportunity for Bedford to come together as a community and show its pride.  We are an inclusive, supportive town, and the messages delivered from the podium, as well as the support of well-wishers lining the parade, showed the good feeling of Bedford residents.”

Images

Bedford’s gathering of Colonial Militia Companies is popular with photographers. The Bedford Citizen is proud to share links to complete sets of images from two of the best:

Click to view Richard Krusemark’s 2014 images at SmugMug

Click to view Michael Nosal’s 2014 images on Flickr