{"id":12157,"date":"2015-12-29T11:08:54","date_gmt":"2015-12-29T16:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=12157"},"modified":"2017-02-22T14:57:24","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T19:57:24","slug":"bunker-hill-drummer-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/bunker-hill-drummer-boy.html","title":{"rendered":"Bunker Hill Drummer Boy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every Christmas we hear the familiar lyrics of \u201cThe Little Drummer Boy\u201d Christmas classic popularized in the 1950s and still popular today.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Pa rum pum pum pum,<br \/>\nRum pum pum pum,<br \/>\nRum pum pum pum<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Drummer boys have resonated with Americans for centuries.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12158\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12158\" style=\"width: 438px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/illustration-1229-2015-willard-spirit-of-76.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12158\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/illustration-1229-2015-willard-spirit-of-76.png\" alt=\"painting: \u201cYankee Doodle,\u201d aka \u201cThe Spirit of \u201976,\u201d by Archibald Willard\" width=\"438\" height=\"587\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/illustration-1229-2015-willard-spirit-of-76.png 438w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/illustration-1229-2015-willard-spirit-of-76-224x300.png 224w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 438px) 100vw, 438px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12158\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Painting: \u201cYankee Doodle,\u201d aka \u201cThe Spirit of \u201976,\u201d by Archibald Willard. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rufus Kingsley (1763-1846) was one of three drummer boys at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The town of Kingsley, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/explore\/newspapers\/all\/usa\/pennsylvania\">Pennsylvania<\/a>, was named for this Connecticut-born Revolutionary War veteran.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12159\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12159\" style=\"width: 483px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/doc\/newspapers\/image\/v2:109C84FBA4185370@GB3NEWS-13F81B9A0D461240@2395471-13F5DC3F8EDCC388@3-14054FF70A242343\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12159\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/centinel-of-freedom-newspaper-0623-1846-rufus-kingsley-obituary.png\" alt=\"obituary for Rufus Kingsley, Centinel of Freedom newspaper article 23 June 1846\" width=\"483\" height=\"589\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/centinel-of-freedom-newspaper-0623-1846-rufus-kingsley-obituary.png 483w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/centinel-of-freedom-newspaper-0623-1846-rufus-kingsley-obituary-246x300.png 246w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 483px) 100vw, 483px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12159\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Centinel of Freedom (Newark, New Jersey), 23 June 1846, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Kingsley\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/explore\/all-obits\">obituary<\/a> recalled his popularity:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Many of our readers will recollect the enthusiasm with which the old veteran, with his ancient drum, was hailed when presented to the audience.<\/p>\n<p>He gave us a touch of the music which awakened the American combatants on the morning of that memorable battle\u2026The stirring note of his old drum will be heard no more.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Tragically his wife of 60 years, Lucinda Cutler, died three days later.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t let their stories be lost.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/gbnk\/newspapers\/?utm_source=social&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=%20SM_Blog_txtlnk_2014_00&amp;s_referrer=social&amp;s_siteloc=blog&amp;s_trackval=%20SM_Blog_txtlnk_2014_00&amp;kbid=69919&amp;pq=1&amp;prebuy=no&amp;intver=&amp;CCPRODCODE=\">GenealogyBank\u2019s<\/a> over 1 billion records are your best source to find their stories.<\/p>\n<p>Document every drummer boy in your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/\">family tree<\/a> and pass down their stories.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Note:<\/em><\/strong> FamilySearch International (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.familysearch.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FamilySearch.org<\/a>) and GenealogyBank are partnering to make over a billion records from recent and historical obituaries searchable online. The tremendous undertaking will make a billion records from over 100 million U.S. newspaper obituaries readily searchable online. The newspapers are from all 50 states and cover the period 1730 to the present.\u00a0 Find out more at: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/family-search\/\">https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/family-search\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Related Revolutionary War Articles:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/27-colonial-newspapers-to-trace-your-early-american-ancestry.html\">27 Colonial Newspapers to Trace Your Early American Ancestry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/tracing-your-colonial-revolutionary-ancestry-in-newspapers.html\">Tracing Your Colonial &amp; Revolutionary Ancestry in Newspapers<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/top-7-ancestry-websites-for-revolutionary-war-genealogy.html\">Top 7 Websites for Revolutionary War Genealogy<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/revolutionary-war-ancestors-life-stories-are-in-old-newspapers.html\">Revolutionary War Ancestors\u2019 Life Stories Are in Old Newspapers<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An article about Rufus Kingsley, who was one of three drummer boys at the Battle of Bunker Hill, with details of his life from his obituary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12557],"tags":[1902,2916,12,2020],"class_list":["post-12157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-stories","tag-american-revolutionary-war","tag-battle-of-bunker-hill","tag-genealogy","tag-newspaper-archives"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/illustration-1229-2015-featured-graphic-drummers.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}