The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1910-08-28
By Mary w. and Harry G. Green
n Los Angeles Times Magazine.

in Los Angeles Times Magazine.
A Boston woman whose name has
been written in Revolutionary history
along with those of Paul Revere and
Doctor Warren and to whom Washing
ton and Lafayette did signal honor, was
Sarah Bradlee Fulton, sometimes called
"The Mother of the Boston Tea
Party.
Mrs Fulton was a militant patriot,
which was to have been expected, COM
ing as she did from the patriotic family
of Bradlees of the patriotic old town
of Dorchester. which in later days was
to be swallowed up in the greater city
of Boston. Her father and grandfather
were prominent citizens of the rugged
and selfreliant kind that New England
was fashioning out of the raw and un-
yielding material that kingly oppression
and religious intolerance had driven to
her stern and rockbound coast. A
slight evidence of their independence
of thought and action is shown by the
fact that they We're Unitarians in faith,
a heresy of the day that a generation
or so later was to provoke widespread
controversy and win to it such men as
the Presidents Adams, father and son !;
Nathaniel Bowditch. the astronomer;
Harrison Gray Otis. William Ellery
Claiming and Daniel Webster
Of the girlhood of Sarah Bradlee not
much is known except that she was a
rather large and well-formed girl, at
tractive in face and manner, with a
ready wit and tongue, and, withal, a
notable housewife. In 1862 she was
married to John Fulton. and ten years
later they removed to Medford.
Her old brother, Nathaniel Bradlee,
was married, and lived in Boston, at
the corner of fremont and Hollis
streets, in a house which is still stand
ing Attached to the house was the
carpenter shop Of Nathaniel Bradlee,
and favorite gathering place of his
friends, of whom he seems to have had
many Boston was at the time one
of the most democratic of cities, and
"Nat Bradlee, public spirited, fearless,
independent, and a natural born leader,
in fun as well as more serious things,
had a following, that was not inconsid-
cradle The two families were very
close. and Mrs. Fulton was a frequent
visitor at the home of her brother,
where she won no small amount of local
fame in the cooking of a Goldfish chow
der that was exceedingly toothsome.
Indeed. it is said, though with what
authority can not be said. that the Bos-
ton tea party grew out of "codfish
supper given by Nathaniel Bradlee to
a party of his friends and which was
cooked by his wife and his sister.
Whether this be a myth or not, it IS
an established fact that Bradlee and
Fulton and several of their friends
were among the Mohawks that gather
ed at Griffin s Wharf. that history
brewing December night. and the two
women had helped to arrange their dis
guises and also had water heated in
order that upon their return they might
wash off the red stains and revert to
''white Christians,'' as it is quantity
put in chronicle of the dav. A spying
Tory neighbor was seen peering into
the kitchen windows shortly after the
men had gone. and the readywitted
Mrs. Fulton. pretending not to see him,
busted herself with preparations for
some imaginary household duty in a
wav.that disarmed all suspicion. It was
something near a year and a half later
that Sarah Fulton, rousing from sleep
in her own home, heard the hurried
dash of horse s hoofs and the mid
night cry of Paul Revere as he crossed
the bridge into Medford town, and we
may be sure that it was not many min
utes until John Fulton was up and
dressed and ready to gather with his
neighbors for the fray which they all
had dreaded. yet were to meet with
the bravery of veterans.
ba 1o-t1a Of Rrrlyar TIin Sara \
Fulton was on hand with a basket full
of lint and bandages and accompanied
by a number of her neighbors whom
she had rallied for the purpose. Al
open space on the common was hastily
turned into field hospital. Surgeons
were few outside the fighting ranks
and the nursing fell almost wholly into
the hands of the women, and Saraf
Fulton was selected to take charge OF
the work. which she never left unit
every wound had been dressed and ev
cry sufferer cared for.
Some time later it came to the ears
of John Fulton that there was a big
load of firewood. in which were conceal
ed various other supplies coming
through Medford for the Yankee sol
diers at Cambridge. and that the British
were waiting 70 confscate it. Wise
New England husbands in the good Ole
days always made confdants of their
wives. John Fulton at once hurried tC
inform his better half
- Now. John Fulton" said Sarah
''you get right on your horse and tro'
ont The road until Won meet that wood
and You buy it. If it IS private prop
ertv the King 5 men won + touch It and
then we send il on to our bows
John Fulton did as his wife told him
rode out and bought the wood, ostensi
bly,, and rode back INTO Medford along
side the OK team that was hauling the
fue}. In Medford they were met by
the redcoats a dozen or twenty of them
under subaltern. who stopped the
teamster and ordered him to take the
wood in another direction. In vair
Inhn E1ltnr ,lrn+ns+nI that lie rrnnE