7. This Was Hinsdale (Israel Bissell)

One of America’s greatest unsung patriots never left Hinsdale. Israel Bissell has resided in the Maple Street Cemetery for 200 years now. He was overshadowed by Paul Revere (of “Listen, my children, and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere…” fame).

Revere’s horse carried him 24.4 miles. That same night, off sped Bissell, who kept riding for an additional 321 miles yelling “To Arms!  To Arms!” And “The (American Revolutionary) war has begun!” He rode out of Massachusetts, through Connecticut, through New York, New Jersey, then into Philadelphia shouting all the way.

Israel Bissell 345 miles.

Paul Revere 24 + miles.

He then joined his fellow revolutionaries as a militia officer. Bissell was a farmer in Berkshire County, moving into Hinsdale. As the esteemed poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote of Bissell’s fellow rider Revere: “hardly a man is now alive who remembers that famous day and year.”

His grave stone, clearly marked, says “In memory of Mr. Israel Bissell who died October the 24th, 1823. Aged seventy one years.” Visit his grave in the Maple Street Cemetery, Section 51, bearing left upon entry at the fork in the road.