What’s in a Name?

We know of Paul Revere, because of Longfellow’s poem. Dr. Joseph Warren also sent out William Dawes, a Boston tanner and artillery man, to ride, to warn Lexington and Concord, taking a different, longer, route than Revere to Lexington, on the night of April 18, 1775. The parody poem, What’s in a Name, follows Dawes short biography:

He was generally known as William Dawes Jr. He learned the trade of tanner in his youth and for several years had a tan yard on the corner of what became Sudbury and Friend streets. After his marriage he lived on Ann street, at what became No. 64, but when the events of the early part of the revolution made the neighborhood an uncomfortable one for the family, they removed to Worcester. Mr. Dawes had joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery before his marriage and was a brave and fearless man. That his wife was also courageous is shown by an incident which occurred before
they had removed from Boston. One night a British soldier tried to rob their house. He had raised the window when Mrs. Dawes awoke and she sat up in bed and called to him "Take care, you will wake my husband." He was intensely stirred by the struggle going on and was active in defense of the loved cause until he was disabled by lameness from further service. In the early part of the preparation for war, he rode through the country, organizing companies and giving information of the progress of events, sometimes being dressed as a farmer, with a bag of meal on his horse's back, and often in serious danger. He was with the Continental troops at Cambridge, and it is said he fought at Bunker Hill. When the war was over he was appointed by congress to the office of commissary at Worcester, then his home. The one act which made him famous for all time was participation in warning the inhabitants of Lexington and Concord, when he was the companion of Paul Revere. He was familiar with the country over which they journeyed and was in close touch with the leaders in that part of the country. After the war he and his brother-in-law carried on a grocery store at Worcester for a time, then returned to Boston and carried on the same business on Dock square. He then lived on Distillhouse square, and during this time was suffering more or less from an injury to his knee, which made it hard for him to follow any very active labor.

New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial, A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation · Volume 2, 1913.

What’s in a Name, a parody of Longfellow’s poem of Paul Revere, written by Helen F. More, 1896, published in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine by Josiah Gilbert Holland.

What’s in a Name?

[Before the battle of Lexington, William Dawes and Paul Revere were both dispatched to rouse the country. Dawes started first.]

I am a wandering, bitter shade,

Never of me was a hero made;

Poets have never sung my praise,

Nobody crowned my brow with bays;

And if you ask me the fatal cause,

I answer only, "My name was Dawes"

'Tis all very well for the children to hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere;

But why should my name be quite forgot,

Who rode as boldly and well, God wot?

Why should I ask? The reason is clear --

My name was Dawes and his Revere.

When the lights from the old North Church flashed out,

Paul Revere was waiting about,

But I was already on my way.

The shadows of night fell cold and gray

As I rode, with never a break or a pause;

But what was the use, when my name was Dawes!

History rings with his silvery name;

Closed to me are the portals of fame.

Had he been Dawes and I Revere,

No one had heard of him, I fear.

No one has heard of me because

He was Revere and I was Dawes.