Old Mail Route - Will Rogers Memorial Highway

Interesting bit of trivia about an old post road. Will Rogers Memorial Highway is on the Mother Road...ie RT 66!

Oklahoma Land Run

Yup, it happened in the town that we live in. Guthrie, OK was the site of the "tent city" that sprung up over night as thousands came to Guthrie to claim a piece of land. Orin Lee Peter's (who is 90yrs old and decorated WWII veteren, whom be have befriended) father and uncle staked a piece of land during this run.

45th Infantry Division

The 45th Infantry Museum is another great place to visit in Oklahoma City. It has a great array of tanks, armored personnel carriers and various other armored vehicles displayed outside. The indoor part of the museum was more than expected. It had a very impressive collection of various authentic firearms from every war fought by the USA and much much more. It even had a collection of Hitler memorabilia.

The most interesting bit of info about this museum is that we had one of the WWII 45th Infantry veterans over for dinner who helped start it. He's 90 yrs old, drives and is very active in the community. His great grandfather and grandfather claimed a number of stakes during the Land Run of 1889 on the other side of the town we live in. His father even laid the first streets in town (he lives in this town as well). Now that's living history!

Bricktown

Fast forward to our new abode in Oklahoma!

Here's the kind of sign/plaques that I've found in Oklahoma so far. Not quite the same historical value as the ones in New England...but worthy of mention.

This building is where they help the "Sooners" Every hear of those who illegally squatted on land during the Oklahoma land run. The University of Oklahoma's football team is named after them. Not a very honorable name for a football team.

Perryville Dam

For those of you who aren't familiar with Rehoboth, Perryville Dam is just around the corner from where we lived on Homestead Ave. I had never read this sign that I passed every day on my way to work until last year.

The Perry family operated a saw-grist mill for 200 years. Talk about longevity in a family business! Not only that, but Deacon Carpenter was one of the deacons in town. The town museum is called Carpenter Museum. I wonder if it's named after him and his family.
Art 1

Art 2
What a neat sign...only in New England!

I realized that I still had some pictures to post...so after a year and a half of everyone patiently waiting, here are my new posts!

So, there we were like any other day driving back to our home in Rehoboth waiting at the lights in Taunton center, when I looked over to see the inscription on the monument that said, "A Signer of the Declaration of Independence". That's all I needed to see. I jumped out of the car and Melanie took this stunning picture...maybe not so stunning.

His name is Robert Treat Pain from Taunton,MA. So what makes him so special...well he was tutored by Mr Lovell who taught John Adams and John Hancock...not a shabby tutor. The "Lives of the Signers" 1848 reprint says that "Young Paine entered Harvard college at the age of 14 and graduated with usual honors"...usual honors...what boy, age 14, today is graduating from Harvard with "usual" honors. He was a member of the Provincial Congress in Mass. However, most of his life was spent as a judge serving next to John Adams and then as the Attorney General of Mass for many years.

Another amazing founding father!

Portsmouth, RI

This monument is in front of the Portsmouth,RI historical society. It a beautiful building as you can see from the next posts. Can't say I know anything else about this building. What I do know about is that this "Skirmish" as they call the Battle of Rhode Island, was the only Continental army battle in New England other than the battle of Dorchester Heights after Washington assumed command. There were about 20K troops between the Kings army, the American militia under John Hancock and others, the French under D'estange and the Continental army under Sullivan and Green. That's a sizable battle by any standard. However, the battle that raged from the Newport reservoir to Butt's Hill in Portsmouth ended in defeat for the Americans as an intense thunder storm disheartened the Americans, destroyed some of D'estang's ships and ended in a retreat.
I think of these men often as I drive to work over the same roads that John Hancock lead his Boston militia army over. By the way, anyone with a German name who lives in Portsmouth? You could be descended from the Hessians who defended that part of the Island from the Americans and who could have settled there after the war.

Bristol, RI

Happened to be taking a bike ride in Bristol, RI and came upon these plaques and monuments in the center of town. I loved what this one said by Daniel Webster. Basically, freedom isn't free!

Blow this up and read it. It's an epitaph to the Pastor who served in during the mid 18oos. The words are so rich. He must have been a very dear Shepherd of God to have a monument like this erected in his honor!

Rev Daniel Shute D.D. and son Dr. Daniel Shute

What a beautiful colonial church! On the way to take Grandma Connie to the beach we past many beautifully restored colonial homes in which this church stood out. It was the Second Church of Hingham Mass. (now owned by...you guessed it, the Unitarian Church)

Check out the date above the door. What made this church so special was the plaque I discovered just across the sidewalk from the church. Play the video to hear me read it. There was a member of this church, Rev Daniel Shute Sr. who helped frame both the Mass. constitution and the U.S. Constitution. He also served as Chaplin in the French and Indian War. His son Daniel Shute Jr. served as a physician for Gen. Lincoln who served under George Washington. The following links to a copied diary of Rev. Daniel Shute when he served in the Canada Campaign during the French and Indian War:

http://books.google.com/books?id=RvkWAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA132&lpg=PA132&dq=daniel+shute+dd&source=bl&ots=JLbljm3SGf&sig=uL1HJw7ocAphAggZflCRN3A2jVw&hl=en&ei=Jn2dSo_zIZG1lAeqsMDfBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=daniel%20shute%20dd&f=false

Findings in Boston

Better late than never! Yes, these pictures in Boston were taken 5 months ago while taking a trip to the state house. We found a plaque to William Billings who was Americas' first composer and hymn writer who lived during the War for Independence. He wrote one of the most famous colonial marching tunes of all times...Chester: "Let tyrant shake their iron rods...New England's God forever Reigns." I have played that song many time while marching down New England roads on the 4th of July in costume. We even played it as a family at Bunker Hill this summer while attending the Reformation 500 Celebration.

You need to blow up this plaque. This is where John Hancock's house stood. There was another plaque nearby that said that he owned this field where he grazed his cows. Now it's a state house. I would like to have seen John Hancock's cows.

My lovely wife and I outside of the Mass. State House. There are some wonderful paintings in here like one of John Winthrop.

Me family on the marble stairs in the State House.

A statue of my favorite person in history...George Washington riding his horse on Boston Gardens. He might have looked like this when he first rode to Cambridge when he first took command of the continental army. I just learned that their is a life size statue of him in London...go figure! "The bronze statue (in London) is a replica of Jean Antoine Houdon's marble statue in Richmond, Virginia, and was given to the Nation in 1921 by the 'Commonwealth of Virginia'."Their hero too...

Florida

Here was a "monumental" find I wasn't expecting on a trip that Monica and I took to Jacksonville Florida last month. A monument to the first landing of protestants in North America... Wow! It predates Jamestown and Plymouth by about 60 to 70 yrs.

What a plaque! The first protestants on American Soil placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution". Not sure why they put it up, but it's wonderful to see that kind of connection between the very beginnings of the protestant migration to America and the War for Indepedance. The War had it's roots in the Protestant Reformation. For more info on that topic, see the The Light and Glory.

By the way, this first protestant group was led by a man named James Ribault in 1562 who was a French Huguenot. Unfortunately, shortly after they built their fort, the Spanish who had settled a bit south in what's now St. Augustine, marched all night thru a swamp and massacred everyone except women and children and a few men that escaped. However, as we know, that did not stop the Reformation establishing a beachhead on Ameican soil.

Ponce DeLeon

"Gee I don't look any younger standing next to Ponce DeLeon. The only fountain of youth I'll experience will be when Christ transforms this lowly bodies to be like His."

Summary of the Battle of Trenton

The Barracks

Monument to Washington

St. Mary's Rectory

Battle at Trenton

Colonel Knox and His Canons

Battle of Trenton

Hello All! Here are a few pictures at Washington's Crossing:

Here I am marching to Washington's Crossing with my faithful film crew, Melanie, my beloved Daughter, on Dec. 20, only 4 days before the anniversary of the crossing (note the snow on the ground). The conditions were much different on Christmas Eve 1776. We walked a few hundred yards from a heated van on a very calm but cold day. Washington and his army of about 2,400 men, many whom were sick and many without shoes (yes, it's not a myth: the "route was easily traced, as there was a little snow on the ground, which was tinged with blood from the feet of the men who wore broken shoes" - Major Wilkinson, "More than a few were without shoes" - David Hackett Fischer in Washington's Crossing) marched to this point in a blinding nor'easter. If you've lived through a northeast snow storm you know what it's like. The men marched against driving rain, sleet and snow on ice to McConkey's ferry, crossed the Delaware, then marched southeast for 9 miles to Trenton against this raging storm that did not abate the entire night. Some described it as "hurricane" winds. The men were exhausted, freezing and drenched to the bone; and yet, Colonel Cadwalader remarked that "not one man complained".

Why would so many men, including Washington, have such resolve to march in conditions as this? One word...liberty! Colonel Joseph Reed wrote to Washington a few days before the battle pleading by the love of his country, wife and children that they should act without delay. Another reason why these men fought so bravely can be summed up by an interview with Captain Levi Preston who fought in the battle of Lexington and Concord when asked at the age 91, if the tea tax, stamp act or men like Harrington, Sidney and Locke influenced him: "I never saw any stamps...never drank a drop of the stuff...never heard of these men. The only books we had were the Bible, the Catechism, Watts' psalms and hymns and the almanacs...we always had governed ourselves and we always meant to..."

This is a 3 1/2 pound cannon at Washington's Crossing. They were light and agile. Washington often used them as an offensive weapon.

There are certain men, at certain times, in certain places that seem to be ordained by God in pivotal times of history. John Knox was that certain man, who on the evening of Dec. 25, on the banks of the Delaware was responsible for the crossing of all Washington's men. Why was this so providential? John Knox was a very large man who had a very loud voice! His bass voice could be heard across the Delaware over the howling snowstorm. Fischer writes that "Several commanders of the army believed that the crossing would have failed "but for the stentorian lungs of Colonel Knox"". Wow, that's amazing! How would you like to be the man who was responsible for getting Washington's entire army across the Delaware in a battle that would come to be known as the turning point of the Revolution! He was not only responsible for getting all the men across the river, but Colonel Knox was in charge of all the 18 pieces of artillery. Each piece was successfully taken over. The last piece arrived on the opposite side at about 3:00 AM on the 26th. The reason it was so important for Washington to have these cannons is that the muskets and wading were too wet to use and since the cannon firing holes were wrapped well they were used very effectively to win this battle. By the way, Knox captured 6 Hessian brass cannons in this fight. Not a bad prize.

Here's a great piece of art. It says: "NEAR THIS SPOT, WASHINGTON CROSSED THE DELWARE. ON CHRISTMAS NIGHT 1776. THE EVE OF THE BATTLE OF TRENTON.

Constructed 1898 "

(I look very short in this picture. This monument is at least 6'2" tall! Note the river in the background.)

Yes, it's true, Washington would have stood up in the Durham boats that crossed the Delaware like in the painting by Emmanuel Leutze. A few others reasons that the soldiers would have needed to stand is because there weren't any seats except the pilot's seats, there was freezing cold water in the bottom of the boats and the men needed to jump up and down to dislodge the ice that was sticking to the boats. This was even more amazing given that it was the middle of the night, it was dark and it was in the middle of a raging snow storm. Any volunteers?!!! These men were sacrificing their "fortunes, their lives and their sacred honor" for sure! After the battle, John Knox (Boston book seller and a gregarious friend of many in the city) wrote home to his wife and said that "perseverance accomplished what at first seemed impossible". Jesus said, "In this world you will have tribulation, but take heat, I have overcome the world". Also, in the book of 1 John, it says that faith overcomes difficulties. Many of these men were men of great faith. Without it the war would not have been won. They placed their trust in a faithful God who remained faithful to the very end.

Washington wrote this to Martha on June 8, 1775: "I shall rely, therefore confidently on that Providence which has heretofore preserved and been bountiful to me, not doubting but that I shall return to you in the fall"

What it's all about

When I was a boy, we lived across the street from a graveyard. I loved to read the stories on the grave stones…the older the better. When I was older, I used to take my friends to the Old North Bridge and read the Minuteman statue. I used to make believe that I was one of the Minutemen. I even have a picture of me making believe that I was shooting from behind the wooden fence.

Proverb 22:28 says “Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set”. Not only should we not remove or destroy them, we are not to forget them! Rosie Slater and Verna Hall, who authored a three volume set on the Providential History of America said that unless we understand where we’ve been as a nation, how will we understand where we need to go. God’s providential hand in history helps us to connect events in history as a contiguous story superintended by God Himself! How do we know where to go if we don’t know where we’ve been?

In this blog, The Rocks Cry Out, I would like to briefly talk about the men and women who gave their ‘lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor” for us to enjoy the liberties we have today and what motivated them to sacrifice their lives for us.

These men and women thought of their posterity. George Washington didn’t have children of his own, so he sacrificed for his spiritual posterity, us…hence the father of our country! On the day that Washington journeyed to New York to accept his position as the first president of the United States, an arch across the Assunpink River, where he was encamped after the decisive Battle of Trenton and before the Battle of Princeton, was decorated with these words:
“The Hero who defended the mothers,
will also protect the daughters

Three Huzzah’s for our first Commander-In-Chief.

George Washington left us a legacy of liberty and “defended” our freedoms. Let’s listen to the words that are inscribed on stones, plaques and signs and hear what they are saying to us today!

For His honor and glory!

Mark Thomas

P.S. This site is dedicated to my wife Monica who has always encouraged me in my vision for life, my daughter Melanie who has designed this blog site and to Wendy Flynn who enjoys reading placards as much as I do.

Also, thanks to Brian Fournier for the name of this site and Josh Lueken and Nate Eckerson for helping with the design formatting.