# Do you know who Molly Pitcher was? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 16, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923 "2012-04-16T04:29:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/41 "2012-04-16T17:11:49Z")
Yes, I know who she is and I’m from the West Coast. My sister did a report on her and dressed up as her for Famous American’s Day in school. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/42 "2012-04-16T17:30:22Z")
Never heard of her, probably because in the UK we have too much damned history to include _everything_ ---
**Author:** ![Lucretia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@Lucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucretia)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/43 "2012-04-16T17:41:11Z")
I’m from Connecticut, definitely know about her, and did a report on her in elementary school. I even remember that there was some question as to whether she was a real person, even in the children’s books I was using at the time. The possible prostitute thing was definitely left out, though! ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/44 "2012-04-16T17:45:59Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > Childhood of Famous Americans? > > This is where I learned about Molly Pitcher, (Girl Patriot!). I read as many of the Childhood of Famous Americans books as I could get my hands on, although I preferred the ones about girls. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized that this “biography” series was very liberally fictionalized. As a kid, I thought it completely believable that people would have recorded very detailed stories about little kids in the event they became Famous Americans later. That’s the series! Yes, liberally fictionalized. Unfortunately, some of those fictional details (like Harriet Beecher Stowe having nightmares about hell after peeking into the smokehouse, which her father had expressly forbidden her to do) are what were so memorable. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/45 "2012-04-16T17:46:14Z")
I learned about Molly Pitcher at some point in elementary school in NYC in the mid 1970s, at the same time (maybe from the same book or set of lessons) as I learned about Dolly Madison saving Washington’s portrait from the British, Clara Barton founding the Red Cross, and Susan B. Anthony doing her suffragette thing. Probably an intersection between a 1976 bicentennial inspired interest in Colonial America and a “learn about women in history” drive for ratifying the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment). Oh, and those “Suzie B.” dollar coins. However it has definitely been reinforced by stopping over innumerable times at the Molly Pitcher rest stop on the southbound NJ Turnpike, which is the one closest to Monmouth, NJ where the battle she took part in occured. Same thing for Clara Barton. It’s not just the rest stops though. For example I know there’s a Joyce Kilmer rest stop but I don’t remember anything about her offhand, even though I know I’ve read the dedication plaque before. [Edited before posting: Man did I strike out. I looked Joyce Kilmer up and he was a DUDE, best known for his poem about trees (“I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree…”).] ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/46 "2012-04-16T18:38:32Z")
I knew - but it’s easy for me, since I know they run the Molly Pitcher Stakes at Monmouth Park. ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/47 "2012-04-16T18:57:36Z")
Without reading the other responses, I think that Molly Pitcher was a hero of the Revolutionary War. There is a Molly Pitcher Food/Gas stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. Now to check to see if I’m right. ---
**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/48 "2012-04-16T20:07:38Z")
Grew up in Carlisle, PA, so I definitely knew who she was. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/49 "2012-04-17T06:38:26Z")
West Coast. Yes. She is a fictional composite character. The legend is that she was taking water to the men at the battle of Monmouth and when her man was killed at the cannon, then she took up for him and operated the cannon. There were real women who fought in the revolutionary war, and their stories are much more interesting because the true ones are true. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/50 "2012-04-17T07:12:13Z")
No, should I? Did she at least shoot a cannon / rail up the men during a battle after her husband fell? After reading the previous post: well, gee, apparently she _is_ “María Pita meets Agustina de Aragón in the US a few years before either one became famous”. Given that I thought of those two specifically, I may have heard of Ms. Pitcher when I was in Philly. ---
**Author:** ![mikenj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@mikenj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikenj)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/51 "2012-04-17T11:24:30Z")
I know about her. I live in Ocean County NJ, so not far from where the Battle of Monmouth occurred. I think we at least learned the basics about her as early as elementary school. ---
**Author:** ![Frosted\_Glass](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frosted_glass/32/3926_2.png) [@Frosted\_Glass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frosted_Glass)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/52 "2012-04-17T20:50:26Z")
I know about Molly Pitcher. It is one of the main things that you learn about the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey elementary school. Its pretty interesting how regional US History can be but I barely realized it until I moved down here to Texas. There are all sorts of details that Texas middle school children know that I was only vaguely aware of until high school. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/53 "2012-04-18T14:40:52Z")
I’m from the midwest and I’m familiar with her, but only because I have occasional business in Carlisle PA and I’m a cemetery buff. I’d wager most midwesterners have never heard of her. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/54 "2012-04-18T17:31:37Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > When I was in summer camp in the 70s, we did a camp program on the Rev War. Our group had Molly Pitcher. We made a song, to the tune of Sreve Martin’s “King Tut”. > > When she was a young girl > She never thought she’d be > A Revolutionary war hero > A woman of history > > Molly Pitcher > Where’d you get that pitcher? > Molly Pitcher > > Can’t recall the rest… Like + 🙂 And what’s wrong with me that I’m sitting here coming up with more lines? _Molly Pitcher — She’s our favorite sistah! Born in the Massachusetts Moved to Tuscoloosis Molly Pitcher!_ :o ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/55 "2012-04-18T18:42:19Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > Like + 🙂 And what’s wrong with me that I’m sitting here coming up with more lines? > > _Molly Pitcher — > She’s our favorite sistah! > Born in the Massachusetts > Moved to Tuscoloosis > Molly Pitcher!_ > > :o That’s great! I wish I could remember the rest. I loved that song. Where’d you get your pitcher, Molly Pitcher… ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/56 "2012-04-18T21:29:03Z")
Reading the posts here, she sort of vaguely rings a bell. I am from NC and probably would have studied the revolutionary war in elementary school around 1990. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/57 "2012-04-19T00:41:04Z")
I know the story but I didn’t vote, being as I’m smackdab in the southern center of the country. Well, nearabout I reckon. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/58 "2012-04-19T04:18:32Z")
First woman professional baseball player, right? ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/59 "2012-04-19T04:34:34Z")
Without peeking at any other replies, here’s what I think I know… She was the wife of a Revolutionary War soldier on the patriot side. During some battle she fetched water (thus the sobriquet “Pitcher”) for her husband’s artillery crew. At some point she stepped in to replace a fallen crew member & performed the ramming operation in loading the cannon. I seem to recall some dispute as to whether the affair was history or legend. I’m 55 & was educated in Georgia public schools. It seems like I first heard of her in elementary school. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923/60 "2012-04-19T04:39:47Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Source was the story in Childcraft supplement to World Book Encyclopedia. OMG! I had those books when I was a kid! I had forgotten all about them. I was going thru the World Book Encyclopedia looking at the pictures before I could even read. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-who-molly-pitcher-was/618923.md?page=4)