The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-01-04

unmarked at the time or so insuficiently marked
that through the passage of years all trace of it
was lost.
Last year Dr. Charles Penrose Keith of the
church vestry learned that Elizabeth Conde a
daughter of Hopkinson was buried in the old
graveyard. He obtained permission from the Hop
kinson descendants to dig in this plot in the hope
Of solving the mystery of the signers burial
place When this was done, part of a skeleton
was found and the bones were sent to DIR. Oscar
V. Batson, professor of anatomy at the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania, who made careful study
of all the available evidence about Hopkinson,
including the known authentic portraits Of him.
Taking into consideration the probable height,
weight and age of the man whose bones were
dug up In the Hopkinson plot in the Christ
Church graveyard as well as the profile Of the
skull, and checking these with what was known
of Hopkinson's stature and appearance at the
time of his death, the anatomist able to
establish satisfactorily the fact that the grave Of
the signer had at last been found.
The announcement of this discovery is espe-
cially appropriate at this time for January
marks the anniversary of event in the history
of the Revolution which brought Hopkinson al
most as much fame the fact that he was
signer Of the Declaration Of Independence. 1t
was a comic opera battle which gave him the
inspiration for a poem that was set to music
and became one Of the most popular soldier
songs OF the struggle Tor nDerty. Inat was the
famous Battle of the Kegs"
During the Revolution, as before and for long
afterwards, England was the Mistress OF the
Seas" Except for the victories of John Paul
Jones, the fiedgling American navy was pitifully
inadequate to cope with the sea power Of Great
Britain But to offset this was American ingenu-
ity which first manifested itself In 1776 when a
Connecticut Yankee named David Bushnell, in
vented turtleshaped, one-man submarine which
he proposed to for attaching bombs and time
fuses to the bottoms Of the British warships
which had sailed into New York harbor to aid
In driving Washington and his Continentals out
of that city. The task of operating this queer
craft was entrusted to another Connecticut YAM
kee, Ezra Lee, and although he failed in his
major objective, he did succeed in setting off
bomb from beneath the water which threw up
great geyser of water and scared the enemy out
of the harbor.
Later in the year the British feet sailed south
to aid in the capture of Philadelphia and
chored In the Delaware river below that city. Al
though Bushnelrs submarine had not been sue
cessful, his ingenuity not exhausted. Tradi-
ton credits him with conceving the idea of load
ing number Of kegs with powder and putting
them In the river to float downstream and explode
against the enemy ships when they touched them.
Most Of them blew up when they struck the ice
cakes in the Delaware, but one did destroy a
the British into something Of a panic. They
opened a terrific fire on every floating object in
the river, with ship after ship pouring broad
sides into the water and the soldiers gathered
along the shores keeping up an incessant fire.
When Hopkinson heard Of this incident he
was amused that he wrote satiric poem
called 1.-The Battle of the Kegs" Sung to varia-
ton of the tune of Yankee Doodle" 1t became
one Of the most popular songs of Washington's
tolls d,,rsp, kbo ;rIa - ~
More than that, 1t has come down through the
years outstanding example of the mock
heroic poems characteristic Of that period and it
has been preserved in virtually every anthology
Of patriotic verse and native songs.
So even though Francis Hopkinson had never
done anything else but write 1.-THE Battle Of the
Kegs" his fame would be secure But there
were other things in his record to make him
noteworthy. He was born in Philadelphia in 1887
the son of an Englishman who served as Judge
Of the admiralty and member of the provincial
council. Hopkinson was the first scholar entered
at the University of Pennsylvania (then the Col
lege of Philadelphia) and was graduated with its
first class. He studied law and was admitted to
the bar in 1761. After serving as secretary to a
conference between the provincial authorities and
the chiefs of several Indian nations, and as IL
brarian and secretary of the Philadelphia library,
he went to England in 1766 and became an init
mate friend of Lord North, Benjamin West, John
Penn and other notables.
Upon his return to this country he resumed
his law practice, kept store for awhile and be-
came member of two societies which united In
1859 to become the famous American Philosophi-
cal society. In 1772 he was appointed inspector
of the customs at New Castle but was removed