Note SKIPPER IRESON'S RIDE — Chapter I
Reading edition
Page 283. Skipper Ireson's Ride. Whittier heard the story of Skipper Ireson in 1828, when he was a student at Haverhill Academy. It was told him by a schoolmate from Marblehead, and he began at once to write the ballad, but it was not published until 1857, when it appeared in the second number of the "Atlantic Monthly."