Elizabeth Rand – East Cambridge

3D Elizabeth RandThere is not very much information on Widow Rand.  Pretty much what we know is on this card. But let’s think about Mrs. Rand.  We don’t know how old she was but we know she was a widow.  Guessing that she lived alone.  She was awake because a hog had been butchered for her the day before and it was hanging on her front porch.  She was standing guard, so to speak, making sure no one stole it  At 2:30 in the morning she hears something outside that just wasn’t right. Do you think she grabbed the musket over the fireplace?  She rushed outside in her night gown to make sure her property was safe. What she saw must have made her gasp.  The Redcoat Army passing by her house on the road, eight hundred strong.  Not that it was out of the blue or a big surprise.  The whole area had been expecting something like this.  There had been several false alarms. Elizabeth jumped behind a rain barrel to hide and watch. But still.  There they were marching silently in lines of three or four.  I wonder how long it took for them to pass?  Think about a parade with a marching band of eight hundred.  Five minutes?  Fifteen minutes?  And when the final row passed.  Would there be more? At last, when she believed they were gone, she came out of hiding and high-tailed it to her neighbor Samuel Tufts.  Samuel was awake too.  He and his slave were melting lead for bullets. They’d been so busy, they hadn’t heard anything outside.  Breathlessly, she tells him that the Redcoat Army just passed by their houses.    Samuel doesn’t believe her until she takes him outside and, holding a lantern, shows him the tracks left in the road. Convinced, Samuel saddles his horse and joins the many riders that night, alerting the countryside.

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