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LIBRARY

OF THE

University of California.

Class

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2008 with funding from

Microsoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/concordhistoriclOObartrich

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

CONCORD

HISTORIC, LITERARY AND
PICTURESQUE

SlXfEENTH EDITION— %EWSED

GEORGE B. BARTLETT

With Map and lLU*s^ATiONsr and a Full Index

l\ L

BOSTON
LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY

by
George B. Bartlett.

INTRODUCTION.

Thanks are due to George Parsons Lathrop and Mrs. Rose Haw-
thorne Lathrop for accounts of Mr. Hawthorne's home; to Miss-
Munroe for her Memoir of the Founder of the Library ; to Mrs. W-
S. Eobinson for her Memoir of " Warrington ; " to Mr. A. Munroe
for the history of the Library, and the Water Supply; to Mr.
S. R. Bartlett for the sketch of Daniel Chester French.

Full credit also should be given to Eev. G. Reynolds, and to
F. B. Sanborn, Esq., for quotations from their writings, as well as
to Shattuck's History, the Diary of Rev. Wm. Emerson, and the
Pamphlets of Rev. Dr. Ripley and others. All the verse in the
volume, with the exception of Mr. Sanborn's Ode in the first chap-
ter, was written by the author of this book.

The success which this book has met with abroad and at home
has encouraged its author to write it up to the present time, and to
give plain directions by which the tourist can easily find his way
to the various objects of interest which have been already described
at length.

Concord, Mass.

210600

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Railroad Trip to Concord 9

II. Early History, Churches, and Burying-Grounds . . 26

III. The Battle Ground 45

IV. Houses of Historical Interest 54

V. The Tablets and how to reach Them 67

VI. Houses of Literary Interest 77

VII. The Free Public Library 129

VIII. The Monuments 188

IX. The Studio and the Antiquarian Society 146

X. Various Organizations 151

XI. Lake Walden 166

XII. The River and its Surroundings 173

Index 197

THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

CHAPTER I.

THE RAILROAD TRIP TO CONCORD.

Trains for Concord, Mass., leave the Union Station on
Causeway street many times during each day, and two or three
times on Sunday, by way of the Fitchburg, and Boston and
Maine Railroads. We will go out by the former route, and re-
turn by the latter, noting rapidly some of the points of interest
as we pass them. At Charlestown we pass under the shadow
of Bunker Hill Monument, which is plainly visible at the right.
The Massachusetts State Prison and McLean Asylum for the
insane are also partially in view, and Lechmere Point at East
Cambridge calls to mind the midnight ride of Paul Revere, and

io THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

the landing of the British troops on their ill-fated journey to
our place of destination. Within a short distance on the left
is the famous powder-house which aroused so much interest in
the minds of antiquarians. The extensive brick-yards, the step-
mothers of old Boston, soon give place to the fruitful gardens
of Belmont which supply it with fresh vegetables and berries ;
and from Cambridge Station, Harvard College, the Washington
elm, and Mt. Auburn can be easily reached by a short ride in
the electric cars. At the right was the site of Porter's Tavern,
the scene of so many convivial suppers of the students of old
Harvard. After leaving the fine country seats of Belmont, we
soon come to Waverley Station, from which a short walk toward
the right brings us to the Middlesex Fells and Waverley Oaks,
which are supposed to have been standing when Columbus
visited America. In a few moments the train reaches Wal-
tham, passing close to one of the earliest cotton-mills on the
left of the track, beyond which the extensive works of the
Waltham watch-factory can be seen across Charles River with
its great flotilla of canoes and pleasure boats. Leaving Wal-
tham, Prospect Hill is seen upon the right; and two miles
farther on at the left is Norumbega Tower, built by Professor
Horsford in commemoration of a visit of the Norsemen. This
interesting tower and ancient ditch are within easy walking
distance of Robert's Station ; for further particulars of this
famous spot, see the very remarkable pamphlets of the late
Professor Horsford, whose munificent gifts to Wellesley College,
and frequent contributions to the literature of the past, will
make his name honored alike by scholar and savant.

THE RAILROAD TRIP TO CONCORD. ir

The romantic Stony B^ook Station is the next on the railroad,
which is near some of the oldest estates in Massachusetts, and
a mile farther on is Kendall Green, both bordering on the
ancient town of Weston. A short distance up the track are
the Hastings Organ Works, which give employment to many
workmen, who manufacture a large quantity of musical instru-
ments every year. After passing Lincoln Station, the old
Codman estate stands near the track on the left. This ancient
mansion has been the home of many distinguished families,
and the scene of much old-time hospitality ; its high hall and
beautiful staircase have few equals in America, and it stands
in one of the great agricultural centres of Massachusetts. Two
miles from Lincoln Station on the right is Walden Pond, fully
described in this book, a fine view of which can be had from
the railroad track, and where several trains stop during the
summer season. The town of Concord is a mile distant.

Returning from Concord to Boston by the Boston and
Maine R. R., the station is on Lowell street near the Square,
from the platform of which station a view of the Minute Man
and Old Manse can be seen in spring, fall, and winter when
the leaves are off the trees. If it is desirable to extend the
journey a couple of miles farther into the country, from the
cars several little glimpses of the beautiful Assabet River can
be had before they stop at the end of the route opposite the
Massachusetts Reformatory, which under the charge of Super-
intendent Scott and his deputy, Mr. Hart, is indeed in every
respect a model institution. Over one thousand men and boys
are subjected to all the influences for good which the modern
system can furnish.

12 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

Trades of all sorts are taught by competent instructors,
literary clubs are formed, a newspaper is conducted and printed
with great ability. Religious services are held to suit the
creeds of all, and on Sunday afternoons the very best talent
that can be secured from far and near entertain the first grade
men to the best of their ability. The inmates are taught self-
respect, and many leave there well prepared to abandon the
error of their ways and make good citizens. This institution
occupies a part of the ground of Gen. Banks's camp of ten
thousand militia, which did so much by its drill and preparation
to save Washington in 1861.

On leaving Concord the train crosses Monument street, which
leads to the battle-field, and then skirts the Great Fields, which
Thoreau used to search for an abundant harvest of arrow-heads ;
and on the left may be seen the broad meadows of the river,
which attracted the red and white settlers to the place. Copan
and other points which Thoreau loved to visit and write about
can be seen as the train dashes past on the way to Bedford, and
a fine view of Ball's Hill and the river, which are fully de-
scribed in another place. The minute-men, after their victory
at the bridge, followed a portion of this route on their way to
the fight at Merriam's Corner. Many tourists in barges and on
foot take the great road to Lexington if they wish to follow the
track of the flying British. The citizens of Lexington have
marked the most important places with descriptive tablets,
showing where the enemy tried in vain to make a stand, and
the well at which each one of the combatants fell in single
combat. If they continue on the railroad route, a branch of the

THE RAILROAD TRIP TO CONCORD. 13

Shady Hill Nursery is close to the track upon the left, and the
village of Bedford is perched upon a hill a mile farther on.

At Bedford Station connection is made with Billerica and
Lowell by a train which stops at Bedford Springs, about a mile
distant. Here is an excellent hotel, filled each summer with a
refined and quiet company, many of whom pass every summer
in this quiet and lovely spot ; the proprietor of Bedford Springs
has also near by extensive laboratories for the preparation of
Viburnum, an efficacious panacea for many ills. A few miles
beyond Bedford, lies the beautiful and historic town of Lexing-
ton. Many of the chief points of interest are very near the
railroad station. Turning to the right, the famous Lexington
Common is but a few rods distant, at the upper end of which a
handsome tablet bearing an open book shows the site of the
famous church, and gives the names of its more famous minis-
ters ; close to this is the elm-tree planted by Gen. Grant in
1875, when this famous veteran came to pay his tribute of re-
spect to the heroes of 1775. At the right, another tablet marks
the place where Capt. Parker and his gallant company of
eighty men defied the trained forces of King George with all
England behind them. On the opposite side of the Green is
the monument to the heroes of "that ever glorious day," and a
few rods farther up the road towards Concord is the burial-
ground where patriot soldiers sleep in peace by the side of
many of their gallant townsmen. On the road towards Bedford,
still stands the house of Rev. Mr. Clark, the patriot preacher
who entertained Hancock, Adams, and the beautiful Dorothy Q.
on the night before the battle. Walking up toward Boston, the

THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

Buckman Tavern is passed upon the left, and the Memorial
Building given by Mrs. Carey, with its fine hall, library, and
collection of relics. On the same side of the street are the
Massachusetts House, which did duty at the Philadelphia Cen-
tennial, the Russell House, and the granite cannon showing
the place where Lord Percy held the minute-men in check for a
short time. On the opposite side of the Square and street are
many exceedingly interesting houses, carefully marked with in-
scriptions which do great credit to the enterprise of the Anti-
quarian Society.

At Munroe Station, a mile from the centre, stands the
famous Munroe Tavern, which with the extensive estates near
is still occupied by descendants of the same name.

At Arlington Heights a fine sanitarium crowns the hill of
refuge to many tired invalids who gather fresh strength and
courage therefrom. Two miles farther on, is the town of
Arlington, the home of the poet Trowbridge, with legendary
Spy Pond, and historic associations of the scenes of carnage
wrought by the angry British soldiers as they returned from
their unsuccessful raid. These places are carefully marked, so
the tourist can easily follow the route of the fugitives past
Prospect and Winter Hills to Charlestown.

On arrival at the Fitchburg Station, walk a few rods up Tho-
reau street to Main street, and turn to the right ; the third house
is the one in which Thoreau died, after living in it for some
years. This house was the property of Mrs. Pratt, the Meg of
" Little Women ; " and here Mrs. Alcott died, and Mr. Alcott and
Louisa lived during the most successful part of her career.

CONCORD. *&&**

COS/C M£T

cojvc ricr 4, m

eft

%Keub en Bro v . .

THE RAILROAD TRIP TO CONCORD. 17

The Library is about one-eighth of a mile below, on the same
side of the street. Since the publication of the description, the
number of volumes has increased to about twenty-four thousand ;
and several new objects of art have been added, especially a fine
bust of Miss Alcott by Walton Ricketson, which has the unquali-
fied approbation of her relatives and friends. Nearly opposite,
on the other side of the street, is the graveyard, the oldest stone
in which is that of Thomas Hartshorn, who died in 1697, which
is in plain view from the entrance, as is also a stone with a
quaint inscription which stands near the fence at the right.
Adjoining this is the house, part of which is supposed to have
been used for a block-house in 1675. The Square is plainly to
be seen, with the Soldiers' Monument in the centre, nearly in
front of which is a tablet showing the site of the town-house
which the British attempted to burn in 1775. At the right of
the Monument, is the building from which the provincial stores
were taken and destroyed, adjoining which is the Thoreau House
where the travellers will always find the best of accommodation,
and a cordial welcome from the courteous host, who has made
the house so attractive that many people from distant cities
have made it a permanent home. From this house the sidewalk
on the left of the street leads directly to the Manse and Battle-
field, which are half a mile distant. Nearly opposite the Manse,
is the house which has the bullet-hole near the door in the L.
The bridge which crosses the river between the two monuments
has been built within a few years to take the place of the more
ornamental structure which was destroyed by the ice.

On leaving the Battle-field, keep to the left over the stone

18 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

bridge which commands a view of the farm of Minot Pratt,
which is situated on the left bank of the river at its first bend.
Taking Liberty street, the first turn of the road to the left, the
first house on the right is the one where Major Buttrick lived,
who led the minute-men to the bridge ; and still keeping to the
left, the crest of the hill where the minute-men formed is marked
by an inscription on the wall by the roadside.

Turning to the left, at the foot of the hill is the wooden bridge,
from which the junction of the Sudbury and Assabet, marked by
a tablet on Egg Rock, is seen a short distance up the river.
Keeping on up Lowell street, at the second house on the left is
ihe bronze tablet which marks the site of the house of Rev. Peter
Bulkley, where the purchase of the town from the Indians was
so amicably made, which is but a few rods from the Square and
Soldiers' Monument. On the upper side of the Square stands
the building once used as a Court House, next to which is the
present town-house with the historic elm in front. The street
at the left of the town-house leads to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery,
passing along the side of which you enter at the new gateway
presented by William M. Prichard, Esq., in 1891, and walk a
short distance to the summer-house, in front of which across the
hollow is the hill, the crest of which is marked by Ridge Path,
on which the graves of Hawthorne, Thoreau, the Alcotts, and
Emersons are situated. Returning to the Square, turn to the
left past the Catholic Church, next to which is the Burying Hill,
where a plain path leads to the summit and the oldest grave-
stone in town, that of Joseph Merriam, behind which, at the foot
of the hill, is the stone of John Jack, whose grave is usually

THE RAILROAD TRIP TO CONCORD. 19

covered with lilies. Returning to the path, keep along the top
of the hill to the little powder-house, near which are the graves
of Major Buttrick and his family, and the tombs of the Rev.
Messrs. Bliss and Emerson. At the foot of the hill, on the
side toward the village behind the stone house, is the stone
of Col. Barrett; and most of the other remarkable graves are
situated between this and the entrance gate, or nearly on the
same line. Some of the memorial verses which appear upon
these gravestones are very interesting, both to the antiquarian
and the poet, as they are quoted from the authors of the time,
when not original with the members of the family. One of the
best of these poems is from the pen of Wesley, a brother of
the preacher, who published a volume about the year 1600. The
same verses were found in 1882 on a placard hanging to the
marble monument of the Princess Sophia, daughter of James I.,
who was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1667.

Directly opposite the graveyard are the Wright Tavern and
the Unitarian Church, in front of which stands a new tablet to
commemorate the meeting of the Continental Congress. The
sidewalk on the opposite side of the street leads directly to the
School of Philosophy building, about half a mile in an easterly
direction, the last meeting in which was the memorial to Mr.
Alcott, one of its founders and chief supporters. On pursuing
this journey several old houses are passed, one of which, occu-
pied by Captain Brown in the Revolution, is plainly marked as
the Antiquarian Society's headquarters; and the next is the
former home of John Beaton, one of the oldest in town.

The home of Emerson is the first house on the opposite side

20 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

of the road. The Orchard House, which the Alcotts occupied
for so many years, is in the same enclosure as the School of
Philosophy ; and the Wayside, where Hawthorne lived after his
return from Europe, is the next house on the left. The hill
behind Wayside seems to have been a favorite literary resort ;
for besides Hawthorne's Walk, represented in the picture, many
of the winding wood paths were trod by the Alcott children in
their romantic rambles. They climbed the steep sides of the
hill, personating little Pilgrims laden with heavy packs, which
they gladly cast off as they entered the Celestial City, repre-
sented to their romantic imaginations by a small pond, which
reflected the beautiful scenery at the other side of the Hill
Difficulty. In the deep shadow the Giant Despair lay in wait
for his trembling victims, when the Little Women were in
their early youth.

Some of the famous theatricals mentioned in the "Journal "
and other books were acted in the barn which stands near the
eastern end of the Wayside.

The original Concord grapevine still flourishes in the next gar-
den, under the care of its great originator, E. W. Bull., Esq.
From this parent vine the fruit has been so widely spread that
it may well be called the grape " shot round the world."

Three-quarters of a mile below is Merriam's Corner, which is
properly marked with a tablet ; for it was the scene of the sharp-
est fighting which took place in the town limits, when Gov.
Brooks with his company joined the Concord men who had
crossed over the great fields to attack the British upon their
return to Boston ; for the road which has just been traversed

THE RAILROAD TRIP TO CONCORD. 21

was the very same up which Major Pitcairn led his Hessians
from Lexington Common to the old North Bridge. Near this
corner stands the old Merriam house, which bears about the
same external appearance as it did upon the nineteenth of April,
1775, when its quiet was broken by the sounds of war ; and the
same remark may be made as to many of the houses along the
road between here and the village, which have been already
fully described in the article on houses of historical interest.

On returning to the village, the first road turning to the left
above Mr. Emerson's house leads, behind his famous garden,
past the Poor Farm, to Walden Pond. Ascending the steep hill,
the first road to the right leads directly to the Picnic ground,
and the second, which turns to the right at the telegraph-pole,
takes one to the tall pines back of Thoreau's grove. These
trees are in plain sight from the main road ; and under them is
a well-worn path which turns to the left, directly to the site of
Thoreau's hut, now marked by a pile of stones.

The Pond, which he loved and immortalized, is in front of
this cairn, to which every visitor adds a stone, before walking
down to the edge of the Pond to enjoy the unbroken solitude,
if fortunate enough to escape a picnic. If a student of Thoreau,
on his return to the main road he can keep to the right for
twenty rods along it, to see the orchard which Thoreau planted
with pine-cones in straight lines ; and the ancient cellars of
which he writes may still be distinguished.

Thoreau street extends from Walden to the Fitchburg Station,
the point from which this imaginary journey sets forth. Hub-
bard street crosses Thoreau street ; and very near the junction

22 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

of these streets, upon the former, are the schoolhouses men-
tioned in this book, and also the Ripley School, named for Dr.
Ezra Ripley. Behind this building is the new playground and
training-field for the free use of the boys and the militia.
About four acres in extent, the greater part of this enclosure is
protected by the deed of the givers from the encroachment of
any statues, gravel paths, or anything which could in any way
convert it into a park, or interfere with the original use. Mr.
Emerson was interested in the idea of a public playground, and
from time to time devoted small sums to this purpose, which
formed the nucleus of the necessary endowment.

Among the improvements made since the first edition of
this book was printed is Nashawtuck avenue, which begins at
Main street opposite the end of Thoreau street, crosses the
Nashawtuck Bridge, and ends at the top of the hill from which
they take their name.

So many events have happened upon this hill, according to
its historian, that the " History of a Concord Farm " which
relates them is of absorbing interest. At present the new
reservoir of the Concord water-works and Willard Common
crown its summit, from which a fine view is to be had of the
two rivers, the village and its surrounding hills, and of the fine
estate which is half-way up the southern slope.

The proprietor of Nashawtuck does not propose to make of
it the site of a town boom or land speculation ; on the contrary,
he hopes to preserve and use most of it as a farm, perhaps sell-
ing the Hurd residence, and removing from its vicinity to a
more central position the barn and outbuildings.

THE RAILROAD TRIP TO CONCORD. 23

At the same time he does not feel warranted in excluding the
whole of it, especially the hill portion, from such use for resi-
dent purposes as its location and natural beauty may create a
demand for ; and to best adapt it for such purposes, he wishes
to direct or inspire its laying out and improvement by the
proper location, construction, and planting of ways ; also by
liberal allowances of space, and a general regard for landscape
effects without losing its rural aspects.

Another most important improvement to the town is a school
for boys, — the Concord Home School, founded and conducted
by Mr. James S. Garland, a Harvard man, who has brought to
his work in Concord the spirit of progress and enterprise.

The school is situated on the old Wood estate — seventy-five
acres of beautiful upland on the west side of the Sudbury River,
extending westward between Elm street and the Fitchburg
Railroad.

The main building, erected in 1891, is a model of its kind,
containing every requisite for the comfort and enjoyment of the
students. Near by stands the gymnasium, filled with the best
of apparatus, and the great playground, many acres in extent.
There are tennis-courts also, and on the river bank a spacious
boathouse, the most popular, perhaps, of all the ample means
provided for athletic sports.

The school is in charge of accomplished masters, who are not
only good teachers, but are the constant companions of the
boys, joining with them in all their sports, and inspiring them
with that manly spirit which should enter largely into the
development of character.

24 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

The chief work of the school is to prepare boys for college ;
but the course of study is made flexible, so that a youth may be
fitted for a business or scientific career. The special needs of
the pupil are carefully considered in every case.

There are at present accommodations for twenty-five board-
ing pupils, but the pressure for places is so great that additional
rooms will soon have to be provided.

There is also a marked change in the boating interests of the
Concord River. Since the " Carnival of Boats " was printed, it
has been copied in so many places with more or less success,
that it has been abandoned here, and the heavy boats which
once decorated every landing-place have given place to canoes.
Being so frail they require special houses for their accommoda-
tion, several of which ornament the river at various points.
The finest of them is situated on the right bank of the Concord
River, just below the Red Bridge. Prichard Woods, near the
river, has been furnished with winding walks and rustic seats,
in order to form an attractive and cool retreat, without any loss
of its native wildness and simplicity.

The Concord Canoe Club has a large membership, and
usually gives two great field-days, besides numerous smaller
occasions ; the former draw many participants and spectators,
who, after a long trip to Fairhaven Bay or some other favorite
locality, devote a long summer day to races and amusements of
a similar character.

Among the attractions of the river side, is the studio of
Walton Ricketson, who has made many successful portrait
busts of Thoreau, the Alcotts, and many of the Concord no-

THE RAILROAD TRIP TO CONCORD. 25

tables. Many of his ideal works also ornament his studio, and
many curious objects of art combine with bright draperies and
cushions to render it picturesque, especially when the great fire
is lighted to cast weird shadows on the ancient furniture; he
has many valuable manuscripts of native and foreign authors,
and Thoreau's flute, and the spyglass with which he penetrated
so many of Nature's secrets.

Away down the river is Ball's Hill, one of Thoreau's favorite
haunts. It is a matter of great congratulation that this hill has
been purchased by Mr. William Brewster of Cambridge, who
has taken measures to preserve its native wildness, in order to
furnish a safe asylum for the birds and animals. No one will
be allowed to use firearms, or to injure or destroy any of its
animal or vegetable productions, if attention is paid to the
polite requests of the owner.

The many foreign and native artists who spend their vaca-
tions along these quiet streams have made fine sketches of
many beautiful places, some of which are the work of Mr.
Edward Simmons, who has so successfully carried the fame of
his native village to so many countries.

CHAPTER II.

JEARLY history, CHURCHES AND B (TRYING grounds.

The Town of Concord, probably so named from the peace-
ful manner of its purchase, was settled by a company of about
a dozen families, most of whom came directly from England for
that purpose, having been encouraged in this plan by a traveller
who visited the spot in the year 1633. These pilgrims endured
great hardships in their passage from tide water to this spot,
being compelled to wade through deep swamps and penetrate
with great difficulty through tangled thickets. They suffered
greatly from the loss of their cattle which died in great numbers
from change of diet and climate. The Indian name of the set-
tlement was Musket-a-quid or the Grass-Grown River, and the
broad meadows lying for many miles along the river were great-
ly esteemed by their aboriginal owners as hunting grounds and
corn fields ; but a peaceful purchase was made about the year
1637, the transaction having occurred, according to a legend,
under a great tree called Jethro's Oak, which stood near the
present site of the Middlesex Hotel. The savage proprietors
seemed to have been well disposed and friendly to the new
comers who labored earnestly for their conversion and improve*

The Public Storehouse and Thoreau House.

Thoreau's Birthplace.

(Now removed.)

EARL Y HISTOR Y, CHURCHES AND BUR YING GROUNDS. 27

ment. The apostle Eliot often preached to them, and through
his influence, about the year 1656, a large company of praying
Indians existed, who cultivated the land and had an excellent
code of laws, a copy of which is still extant. During the next
twenty years the good feeling originally existing between the
English and Indians seems to have gradually given place to the
most bitter animosity, and Concord soon became a military post
and a centre of warlike operations, from which parties were
constantly sent out to the relief of neighboring villages, and for
the punishment of the enemy.

During Philip's War several block houses were maintained,
one of which tradition locates on the present site of the house
of Dr. Barrett, one near Merriam's Corner, and one near
the residence of Mr. Lewis Flint.

Several Indians convicted of the crime of murder and arson
were executed in the town, and also one white man for the
murder of an Indian. The general prejudice against the sav-
ages extended also to the praying Indians, a small party of
whom were living here under the protection of Mr. John Hoar,
who had erected a building for them to use as a residence and
workshop ; and one Sunday a company of soldiers from Boston
entered the town and demanded them, and they were saved
with great difficulty by the courage and determination of their
guardian. It is stated that before proceeding to attack these
inoffensive Indians, the soldiers decorously attended public
worship, and waited until after service before stating the object
of their mission.

The Old Church stood near the site of the present Unita

28 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK,

rian house of worship, which was built on the old frame, so that
it contains the same timbers as the one in which the first Pro-
vincial Congress was held, on the fourteenth of October, 1774,
of which John Hancock was chosen president. In this assembly
were made those stirring speeches by himself, Adams, and other
patriots, which did so much to hasten the events of the Revolu-
tion. The church was organized at Cambridge, in 1636, and in
1637 the Rev. Peter Bulkeley and John Jones were chosen as
the teacher and the pastor. In this organization, like most
of those under two heads, some difficulty seems to have arisen,
and a part of the congregation seceded for a time, and some of
the people followed Mr. Jones on his subsequent removal from

FIRST CHURCH.

the town. Mr. Bulkeley came from noble ancestry, was renowned
as a finished scholar and gentleman, and expended his means

EARLY HISTORY, CHURCHES, AND BURYING GROUNDS. 29

and strength for his town and church with a liberality only
equalled by his piety. He died universally lamented, March
9th, 1659, at which time his son the Rev. Edward, was in-
stalled in his place. The Rev. Joseph Esterbrook, Rev. Mr.
Whiting, and Rev. Mr. Bliss, successively, succeeded him.
After them came the eloquent divine and fearless patriot, Rev.
William Emerson, who preached for ten years, when he gave
his life to the service of his country. The Rev. Ezra Ripley
succeeded to the church and home of Mr. Emerson, whose
widow he married. Of both of the two last-named divines,
an account will be found in another place. The Rev. H. B.
Goodwin and the Rev. B. Frost were both colleagues of Dr.
Ripley, the latter being pastor of the church after him, in
which position he was succeeded for over twenty years by
Rev. G. Reynolds, who identified himself with the history of
this town, writing many valuable historical papers and books.

The Trinitarian Congregational Church was organized
in 1826, incorporated 1890. The church building was finished in
1827, and was used for worship before it was quite completed.

Its first minister was the Rev. Daniel Southmayd, and its
present pastor is the Rev. George A. Tewksbury, formerly of
Plymouth, Mass., who has prepared a manual which contains
a full account of the old church, which began with sixteen
people, and has advanced to a membership of about two hun-
dred, which is rapidly increasing. In front of the church build-
ing, which stands at the corner of Hubbard and Walden
streets, is a memorial fountain to the Rev. Henry M. Grout,
a much-beloved pastor who died in 1886.

3o THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

St. Bernard's Roman Catholic Church was established
in 1866, under the pastorate of the Rev. P. J. Canny. The
present pastor is the Rev. rEdward J. Moriarty, the number of
worshippers is twelve hundred. The church is ornamented
with handsome stained glass memorial windows, and with many
fine statues. It occupies a fine site on the public square, facing
Main street.

Trinity Church, Protestant Episcopal, built and conse-
crated 1885 ; organized as a parish 1887. Situated on Elm
street, is built of stone, and has a fine triple window of stained
glass in memory of its first warden, Orlando H. Underhill, Esq.

A fine Union Church has lately been erected at Concord
Junction. It is under the pastoral charge of the Rev. Walter
Campbell.

The Scandinavian Methodist Church on Thoreau street
was dedicated in 1893. The pastor is Rev. J. P. Andersen.

The Old Hill Burying Ground stands directly behind
the Catholic Church. The date of its opening is unknown, and
the location of no older one can be ascertained. The oldest
stone in this ground is probably the monument to Joseph
Merriam, who died the twentieth of April, 1677 ; and the most
celebrated epitaph is that of John Jack, an old slave who died
in town in 1773. This has been widely copied at home and
abroad . as a curious specimen of antithesis, and it is usually
attributed to the pen of Daniel Bliss. The stone, which has
been renewed, stands at the northerly corner of the yard, and a
well-worn track leads to it from the main path. The inscrip-
tion is here copied in full :

EARLY HISTORY, CHURCHES AND BURYING GROUNDS. 33

God wills us free, man wills us slaves,

[will as God wills ; God's will be done.

Here lies the body of

JOHN JACK

A native of Africa, who died

March 1773 aged about sixty years.

Though born in a land of slavery,

He was born free.

Though he lived in a land of liberty,

He lived a slave ;

Till by his honest though stolen laboc*

He acquired the source of slavery,

Which gave him his freedom :

Though not long before

Death the grand tyrant,

Gave him his final emancipation,

And put him on a footing with kings.

Though a slave to vice,

He practised those virtues,

Without which kings are but slaves.

On the first white stone which was placed in this cemetery is
this inscription, curious as showing the date when white marble
superseded the common slate :

This stone is designed

by its durability

to perpetuate the memory,

and by its colour

to signify the moral character,

of
MISS ABIGAIL DUDLEY

34 EARLY HISTORY, CHURCHES AND BURIAL GROUNDS.

Who died Jan 4, 181 2,
aged 73.

In the same yard is this beautiful epitaph :

" VIVENS
DILECTISSIMA."

ORPHA BRYANT.

Born December 24 1797,

Died October 1, 1798.

She was the joy of her father,

and the delight of her mother,

MORTUA LACHRYMABILLIMA.

In this yard is the grave of Major John Buttrick, who led the
fight at the old North Bridge. He lies at the head of a large
family, which includes his son who accompanied him as fifer,
both these facts being properly noted on their gravestones,
which may be seen near the crest of the hill by the side of the
small magazine, in which the powder is kept for the village stores.
Very near are the graves of the lamented pastors of the town,
including that of the Rev. William Emerson as shown in the
picture. It was probably near this spot that Col. Smith
and Maj. Pitcairn, who commanded the British on the day of
the Fight, stood to review the movements of their troops en-
gaged in various parts of the town, and to watch the Ameri-
cans as they assembled from various quarters. On the same
hill a hundred rods farther south, was the Liberty Pole erected
by the patriots, which was cut down by the British on the morn-
ing of the battle. By the side of the tomb of Rev. William

THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK

TOMB OF REV. WIL-
LIAM EMERSON.

Emerson is that of John Beatton,
an eccentric and frugal Scotchman
who accumulated a large fortune
and made a liberal bequest to the
church which still goes by the
name of the Beatton fund and is
annually devoted to pious uses.

The Burial Ground on Main
Street was, according to tradition,
the gift of two maiden ladies. In
1775 the road probably went around
the back side of it, and across the
upper end, for which reason most
of the stones face the west, toward
what was then the principal street. The oldest stone is that
of Thomas Hartshorn, who died Nov. 17, 1697 ; and no other
one appears there until 1713.

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery was purchased by the town, of
the heirs of Reuben Brown, in 1855, and was laid out according
to plans furnished by Morris Copeland, Esq.

The architect has followed, wisely, the natural form of the
ground, and left undisturbed the amphitheatre which has existed
for years in the center, and which had borne the name of Sleepy
Hollow long before it was thought of as a place of burial. On
the nineteenth of April, 1856, a tree-bee was organized, and
over an hundred trees were set out in a single day by the citi-
zens, each one of whom thus brought his own memorial. The
ladies held two festivals in the same year to raise money for

36 EARLY HISTORY, CHURCHES AND BURYING GROUNDS.

seats and decorations. The oration at the dedication was deliv-
ered by Emerson, and an ode by F. B. Sanborn was sung, which
is copied here from " Parnassus."

Shine kindly forth, September sun,

From heavens calm and clear,
That no untimely cloud may run

Before thy golden sphere,
To vex our simple rites to-day

With one prophetic tear.

With steady voices let us raise

The fitting psalm and prayer ;
Remembered grief of other days

Breathes softening in the air:
Who knows not Death — who mourns no loss —

He has with us no share.

To holy sorrow, solemn joy,

We consecrate the place
Where soon shall sleep the maid and boy,

The father and his race,
The mother with her tender babe,

The venerable face.

These waving woods, these valleys low,
Between these tufted knolls,

Year after year shall dearer grow
To many loving souls ;

And flowers be sweeter here than blow
Elsewhere between the poles.

For deathless Love and blessed Grief
Shall guard these wooded aisles,

When either Autumn casts the leaf,
Or blushing Summer smiles,

Or Winter whitens o'er the land,
Or Spring the buds uncoils.

Hawthorne's Grave.

Emerson's Grave.

THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 37

Many of the most marked graves are on The Ridge.
Ascending the hill by Ridge Path, at the west, Nathaniel
Hawthorne's grave is seen, surrounded by a low hedge of arbor
vitse, as if the gifted author sought in death the modest retire-
ment which he loved in life. His eloquent epitaph consists
only of his name on a plain white stone.

The grave of Thoreau is just behind, with a granite
stone ; and by his side lies his brother John, whose genius
might have outshone that of the poet, philosopher, and natural-
ist, had not he died in its first flush.

A little farther on, past the graves of Nathan Brooks and
John M. Cheney, citizens whose worth and virtue have caused
their names to be honored forever by their townsmen, may be
seen the Whiting monument, a copy of the Brewster monu-
ment at Plymouth, and that of Col. George L. Prescott, the
patriot martyr who fell in response to his country's earliest call
for help.

On the opposite side of Ridge Path is the grave of R.
W. Emerson, to which thousands of visitors come every
year. A. great pine stands near the head of the grave, which
is now marked by a monument of beautiful pink quartz, in its
native state, as it came from the quarry. Near by are the
graves of his mother, and the son whose monument is the
poem of "Threnody."

A plain brown slab commemorates in a Latin verse Mrs.
Samuel Ripley, whose classical attainments have been chron-
icled in the Centennial book by the loving hand of another of
the most gifted women that our country ever knew.

In the center of the same lot is the monument to her son,

38 EARLY HISTORY, CHURCHES AND BURYING GROUNDS.

Lieut. Ezra Ripley, a portion of whose epitaph is here copied :

Of the best Pilgrim stock,

descended from officers in the Revolutionary army

and from a long line of the ministers of Concord,

he was worthy of his lineage.

An able and successful lawyer,

he gave himself with persistent zeal

to the cause of the friendless and the oppressed.

Of slender physical strength

and of a nature refined and delicate.

He was led by patriotism and the love of freedom

to leave home and friends for the toilsome labors of war,

and shrank from no fatigue and danger,

until worn out in her service,

He gave his life for his country.

Just opposite is the plain shaft, erected by himself twenty
years before his death, of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, who practised
medicine in this town with devotion and success for a period of
fifty-five years. He was the son of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, of
Charlestown, who was a surgeon's mate, in 1775, at Concord
Fight, so that the practice of father and son extended over a
century. He was an earnest and fearless advocate of the cause
of temperance when it was most unpopular, and was always on
the side of the oppressed. He died in January, 1878, in active
practice at the age of eighty-one.

On the side of the hill, on Glen Path, is the monument
designed by Hammatt Billings, and erected to the memory of
the Hon. Samuel Hoar, who by his descendants, as well as by
the probity and simple grandeur o^ his life, has done more to

o
o

w
>-)

tfi

[

THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK. 41

elevate the standard of living than any other man in the town
or county. His epitaph, which is here copied, will speak far
better than any words of this book. At the upper portion, on
a tablet resembling a window, is this quotation from Pilgrim's
Progress •

" The pilgrim they laid in a chamber

Whose window opened toward the sunrising ;

The name of the chamber was Peace.

There he lay till break of day, and then

He arose and sang."

Lower on the same face of the monument :

SAMUEL HOAR

of Concord.

Born in Lincoln, May, 1778,

Died in Concord, Nov. 2, 1856.

He was long one of the most eminent lawyers

and best beloved citizens of Mass.,

a safe counsellor, a kind neighbor,

a Christian gentleman.

He had a dignity that commanded the respect,

and a sweetness and modesty that won the affection

of all men.

He practised an economy that never wasted,

and a liberality that never spared.

Of proved capacity for the highest offices,

He never avoided obscure duties.

He never sought stations of fame or emolument,

and never shrank

from positions of danger or obloquy.

42 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

His days were made happy by public esteem and

private affection. To the latest moment

of his long life he preserved his

clear intellect unimpaired,

and, fully conscious of its approach, met

death with the perfect assurance of immortal life.

We copy also the inscription on the gravestone of his
daughter : —

MISS ELIZABETH HOAR,
DIED APRIL 7, 1878, AGED 63.

Her sympathy with what is high and fair brought her into intimacy
with many eminent men and women of her time. Nothing
excellent or beautiful escaped her quick apprehen-
sion : and in her unfailing memory precious
things lay in exact order, as in a royal treasury, hospitably ready
to instruct and delight young and old. Her calm courage and
simple religious faith triumphed over sickness and pain :
and when Death transplanted her to her place in
the Garden of the Lord, he found little perishable to prune away.

Most of the epitaphs in this lot were written by the Hon.
E. R. Hoar, who now lies among his family, having died on the
31st day of January, 1895, to the intense grief of his towns-
men, and of the world in general. His funeral was attended
by an immense gathering, in which many of the greatest minds
were represented. The graves of the Alcott family are directly
behind the Hawthorne lot, and near that of the Thoreau family.
Each grave is marked in the same manner, — by a low marble
stone, bearing only the initials in this order : L. M. A., A. M. N.,

EARLY HISTORY, CHURCHES, AND BURYING GROUNDS, 43

E. B., A. M. A., A. B. A., the last two being the father and
mother, as Mrs. Pratt lies near by the side of her loving hus-
band. A bronze tablet has been placed on Mr. Emerson's
bowlder, bearing two lines from his own poem : —
The passive master lent his hand
To the great soul, that o'er him planned.

Slate stones have been placed to mark the graves of his wife,
mother, and son, and aunt Mary, a quotation from " Threnody "
marking the grave of little Waldo : —

The hyacinthine boy, for whom

Morn well might break and April bloom ;

The gracious boy, who did adorn

The world whereunto he was born.

The first burial in Sleepy Hollow was that of Mrs. Maria
Holbrook, in the fall of 1855. The first burial in the New Hill
Burying Ground was that of Mrs. Anna Robbins in 1823,
which fact is noted on the stone. In the year 1869 the town
purchased the land of the Agricultural Society, and thus united
the New Hill Ground with Sleepy Hollow.

In the summer of 1873, Mr. George Tolman, impressed
with the fact that many of the older stones had disappeared,
and that others were fast becoming illegible, undertook the
task of copying all the inscriptions, so that they might be
preserved. Being himself a printer and a practical proof-
reader he has permitted nothing to escape his observation,
but has followed the inscriptions literally, even to the abbre-
viations, punctuation, errors in spelling, and all such minor
points. These copies have been arranged in a manuscript

44 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

volume, and thoroughly indexed. To the student of geneal-
og}r, these inscriptions have a peculiar value, as they often
afford evidence as to facts and dates omitted in the Town
Registers of births and deaths. To add to their value in this
respect, Mr. Tolman has added genealogical notes, carefully
tracing the line of descent and family connection, in many
cases, especially those of members of our own old families,
going back to the earliest ancestor of the name. The inter-
ments in the " New Burying Ground," and in " Sleepy Hol-
low" have also been indexed by the same gentleman with
such completeness that there is probably no grave in any of
our burial places, with the exception of the unmarked ones
in the two old yards, to which his manuscript is not a suf-
ficient guide. He is at all times ready to show his work to
anyone who may desire to consult it for information.

CHAPTER III.

THE BATTLE GROUND.

The Battle Ground was presented to the town by the Rev.
Dr. Ripley, who remarked in Town Meeting a half centnry ago
that the time would come when the spot would be a place of
great interest to many. How well the prediction has been ful-
filled, the daily stream of visitors bears abundant witness. It
is on Monument St., nearly half a mile from the center of the
town, and near the Old Manse, having been a part of the farm
belonging to it since the course of the road was changed which
formerly crossed the old North Bridge.

The legends of the Fight being somewhat contradictory in

46 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

minor parts, it has been thought best to follow in this brief
sketch the account of Lemuel Shattuck, and that of the Rev.
Dr. Ripley, adding in full the extract from the diary of the Rev.
Mr. William Emerson, which was discovered and first published
in 1835, by his grandson, Mr. R. W. Emerson. The following
is a concise statement abridged from Shattuck's History of Con-
cord, published in 1835. It should be borne in mind that it is
not within the scope of this book to allude to events which did
not take place in the town.

The morning had advanced to about seven o'clock, and the British army
were soon seen approaching the town on the Lexington road. The glitter-
ing arms of eight hundred soldiers, " the flower of the British army " were
full in view. At first it was thought best that our men should face the
enemy, as few as they were, and abide the consequences. Of this opinion,
among others, was the Rev. William Emerson, the clergyman of the town,
who had turned out amongst the first in the morning to animate and encour-
age his people by his counsel and patriotic example. " Let us stand our
ground," said he ; " if we die, let us die here ! " Eleazar Brooks of Lincoln
was then on the hill. " Let us go and meet them," said one to him. " No,"
he answered, " it will not do for us to begin the war." They did not then
know what had happened at Lexington. Their number was very small in
comparison with the enemy, and it was concluded best to retire a short dis-
tance, and wait for reinforcements. They consequently marched to the
northern declivity of the burying ground hill, near the present site of the
court house. They did not, however, leave their station till the British light
infantry had arrived within a few rods' distance. About this time Colonel
James Barrett, who was commander of the militia, and who had been almost
incessantly engaged that morning in securing the stores, rode up. Individ-
uals were frequently arriving, bringing different reports. It was difficult to
obtain correct information. Under these circumstances, he ordered the men
there paraded, being about one hundred and fifty, to march over the North

THE BATTLE GROUND. 47

Bridge, and there wait for reinforcements. In the meantime the British
troops entered the town. The six companies of light infantry were ordered
to enter on the hill, and disperse the minute men whom they had seen
paraded there. The grenadiers came up the main road, and halted on the
common. The first object of the British was to gain possession of the
North and South bridges, to prevent any militia from entering over them.
Accordingly, while Col. Smith remained in the center of the town, he de-
tached six Companies of light infantry, under command of Capt. Lawrence
Parsons of his own regiment, to take possession of the North Bridge, and
proceed thence to places where stores were deposited. On their arrival
there, three companies under command of Capt. Laurie of the 43d reg-
iment, were left to protect the bridge ; one of those, commanded by Lieut.
Edward Thornton Gould, paraded at the bridge ; the other, of the 4th and
10th regiments, fell back in the rear towards the hill. Capt. Parsons, with
three companies, proceeded to Col. Barrett's to destroy the stores there
deposited. At the same time Capt. Mundey Pole, of the 10th regiment, was
ordered to take possession of the South Bridge, and destroy such public
property as he could find in that direction. The grenadiers and marines,
under Smith and Pitcairn, remained in the center of the town, where all
means in their power were used to accomplish the destruction of military
stores. In the center of the town the grenadiers broke open about sixty
barrels of flour, nearly one half of which was afterwards saved, knocked off
the trunnions of three iron twenty-four pound cannon, and burnt sixteen
new carriage-wheels, and a few barrels of wooden trenchers and spoons.
The liberty-pole on the hill was cut down, and suffered the same fate.
About five hundred pounds of balls were thrown into the mill-pond and
into wells. While the British were thus engaged, our citizens and part of
our military men, having secured what articles of public property they could,
were assembling under arms. Beside the minute-men and militia of Con-
cord, the military companies from the adjoining towns began to assemble ;
and the number had increased to about two hundred and fifty or three
hundred. John Robinson of Westford, a lieutenant-colonel in a regiment of

4g THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

minute-men under Col. William Prescott, and other men of distinction had
already assembled. The hostile acts and formidable array of the enemy,
and the burning of the articles they had collected in the village, led them to
anticipate a general destruction. Joseph Hosmer, acting as adjutant, formed
the soldiers as they arrived singly or in squads, the minute companies on the
right, and the militia on the left, facing the town. He then, observing an
unusual smoke arising from the center of the town, went to the officers and
citizens in consultation on the high ground near by, and inquired earnestly,
" Will you let them burn the town down ? " They then " resolved to march
into the middle of the town to defend their homes, or die in the attempt ; "
and at the same time they resolved not to fire unless first fired upon. " They
acted upon principle, and in the fear of God." Col. Barrett immediately
gave orders to march by wheeling from the right. Major Buttrick requested
Lieut. Col. Robinson to accompany him, and led them in double file to the
scene of action. When they came to the road leading from Capt. Brown's
to the bridge, a part of the Acton minute company under Capt. Davis passed
by in front, marched towards the bridge a short distance, and halted. Being
in files of two abreast, the Concord minute company under Capt. Brown,
being before at the head, marched up the north side till they came equally
in front. The precise position, however, of each company, cannot now be
fully ascertained.*

The British, observing their motions, immediately formed on the east side
of the river, and soon began to take up the planks of the bridge. Against
this Maj. Buttrick remonstrated, and ordered a quicker step of his soldiers.
The British desisted. At that moment two or three guns were fired in quick
succession into the river, which the provincials considered as alarm guns,
and not aimed at them. They had arrived within ten or fifteen rods of the
bridge when a single gun was fired by a British soldier, the ball from which,
passing under Col. Robinson's arm, slightly wounded the side of Luther
Blanchard, a fifer in the Acton company, and Jonas Brown, one of the Con-
cord minute-men. This gun was instantly followed by a volley, by which
Capt. Isaac Davis and Abner Hosmer, both belonging to Acton, were killed.

OF THE

:nV£HS!TY
OF

THE BATTLE GROUND.

On seeing this, Maj. Buttrick instantly leaped from the ground, and partly
turning to his men, exclaimed : " Fire, fellow-soldiers, for God's sake, fire ; "
discharging his own gun almost in the same instant. His order was in-
stantly obeyed ; and a general discharge from the whole line of the pro-
vincial ranks took place. Firing on both sides continued a few minutes
Three British soldiers were killed, and Lieuts. Sunderland, Kelley, and
Gould, a sergeant and four privates were wounded. The British immedi-
ately retreated about half way to the meeting house, and were met by two
companies of grenadiers, who had been drawn thither by " the noise of
battle." Two of the soldiers killed at the bridge were left on the ground,
where they were afterwards buried by Zachariah Brown, and Thomas Davis,
jun. From this time through the day, little or no military order was pre-
served among the provincials ; every man chose his own time and mode of
attack. It was between ten and eleven o'clock when the firing at the bridge
took place, and a short time after Capt. Parsons and his party returned
unmolested from Col. Barrett's.

By this time the provincials had considerably increased, and were con-
stantly arriving from the neighboring towns. The British had but partially
accomplished the objects of their expedition; but they now began to feel
that they were in danger, and resolved on an immediate retreat. They
retreated in the same order as they entered town, the infantry on the hill and
the grenadiers in the road, but with flanking parties more numerous and
farther from the main body. On arriving at Merriam's Corner they were
attacked by the provincials, who had proceeded across the Great Fields in
conjunction with a company from Reading, under command of Gov. Brooks.
Several of the British were killed, and several wounded. None of the pro-
vincials were injured. From this time the road was literally lined with
provincials, whose accurate aim generally produced the desired effect. Guns
were fired from every house, barn, wall, or covert. After they had waylaid
the enemy and fired upon them from one position, they fell back from the
road, ran forward, and came up again to perform a similar manoeuvre.

THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

The following is an extract from the diary of Rev. William
Emerson :

"1775, 19 April. This morning, between one and two o'clock, we were
alarmed by the ringing of the bell, and upon examination found that the
troops, to the number of eight hundred, had stolen their march from Boston,
in boats and barges, from the bottom of the Common over to a point in
Cambridge, near to Inman's Farm, and were at Lexington meeting-house
half an hour before sunrise, where they had fired upon a body of our men
and, as we afterward heard, had killed several. This intelligence was
brought us first by Dr. Samuel Prescott, who narrowly escaped the guard
that were sent before on horses, purposely to prevent all posts and messen*
gers from giving us timely information. He, by the help of a very fleet
horse, crossing several walls and fences, arrived at Concord at the time
above mentioned, when several posts were immediately despatched, that,
returning, confirmed the account of the regulars' arrival at Lexington, and
that they were on their way to Concord. Upon this, a number of our minute
men belonging to this town, and Acton and Lincoln, with several others
that were in readiness, marched out to meet them, while the alarm com-
pany were preparing to receive them in the town. Capt. Minot, who
commanded them, thought it proper to take possession of the hill above the
meeting-house as the most advantageous situation. No sooner had our
men gained it, than we were met by the companies that were sent out to
meet the troops, who informed us that they were just upon us, and that
we must retreat, as their number was more than treble ours. We then
retreated from the hill near the Liberty Pole, and took a new post back
of the town, upon an eminence, where we formed into two battalions, and
waited the arrival of the enemy. Scarcely had we formed, before we saw
the British troops, at the distance of a quarter of a mile, glittering in
arms, advancing towards us with the greatest celerity. Some were for
making a stand, notwithstanding the superiority of their number; but
others, more prudent, thought best to retreat, till our strength should be
equal to the enemy's, by recruits from neighboring towns that were con-

THE BATTLE GROUND. 53

tinually coming in to our assistance. Accordingly we retreated over the
bridge. The troops came into the town, set fire to several carriages for
the artillery, destroyed sixty barrels of flour, rifled several houses, took pos-
session ot the town-house* destroyed five hundred pounds of balls, set 3
guard of a hundred men at the North Bridge, and sent up a party to the
house of Col. Barrett, where they were in expectation of finding a quantity
of warlike stores. But these were happily secured, just before their arrival,
by transportation into the woods and other by-places. In the mean time,
the guard set by the enemy to secure the posts at the North Bridge were
alarmed by the approach of our people, who had retreated, as mentioned
before, and were now advancing, with special orders not to fire upon the
troops unless fired upon. These orders were so punctually observed, that
we received the fire of the enemy in three several and separate discharges of
their pieces before it was returned by our commanding officer. The firing
then soon became general for several minutes, in which skirmish two were
killed on each side, and several of the enemy wounded. It may here be
observed, by the way, that we were the more cautious to prevent beginning a
rupture with the king's troops, as we were then uncertain what had happened
at Lexington, and knew [not] that they had begun the quarrel there by
firing upon our people, and killing eight men upon the spot. The three
companies of troops soon quitted their post at the bridge, and retreated in
the greatest disorder and confusion to the main body, who were soon upon
the march to meet them. For half an hour, the enemy, by their marches
and counter-marches, discovered great fickleness and inconstancy of mind ;
sometimes advancing sometimes returning to their former posts, till at
length they quitted the town, and retreated by the way they came. In the
mean time a party of our men (one hundred and fifty) took the back way,
through the Great Fields, into the east quarter, and had placed themselves to
advantage, lying in ambush behind walls, fences, and buildings, ready to fire
upon the enemy on their retreat."

HOUSES OF HISTORICAL INTEREST.

mark, that he would stir the rebels' blood before night. This
building, with the exception of the L has probably suffered less
change than any other of the old houses. The church which stood
near it was built in 1712, and the present building contains
some of the same timbers as the old one. The old yellow block

THE WRIGHT TAVERN.

at the other side of the square was used for stores and residen-
ces, and probably dates back to 1750. Nearly opposite Wright's
tavern is the Tolman house, which was inhabited by Dr. Ezekiel
Brown, who was a surgeon in the Revolutionary war ; and at
the other side of the square, at the beginning of Monument St.,
the row of buildings were in part occupied as store-houses, in

56 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK,

which some of the Provincial supplies were kept, to obtain
which was one of the causes of the invasion of the town by
the British troops.

Proceeding down the Boston road the house of Jonas Lee
is about opposite the end of the yellow block. Its owner was a
staunch patriot, although the son of a noted tory who was
brought to discipline b}^ his townsmen for that cause. The
next house on the same side was the home of Dr. Joseph Hunt ;
and the next building but one was the shop of Reuben Brown,
where knapsacks, saddlery and other equipments were made.
Its owner was prominent on the day of the Fight having been dis-
patched on a reconnoitering tour toward Lexington in the morn-
ing. The house next to it was also standing, as well as the one
occupied by George Hey wood, Esq., which is supposed to be at
least two hundred years old. It was just below this house that
the guard was posted, at the same time that one was placed at
the old North and another at the old South bridge. A little
below is the Beal house, and half a mile below it the Alcott
house, both of which date back to about 1740. The house of
Ephraim Bull, Esq., was probably nearly as old, and it is well
known all over the United States through the Concord Grape
which was originated here by its present owner. Half a mile
below is Merriam's corner. The old house stands as it stood
when the Reading and other troops under the command of Gov.
Brooks, came up and joined the men who had come across the
great fields from the North Bridge, and killed and wounded
several of the retreating British.

HOUSES OF HISTORICAL INTEREST. 59

On the Bedford road are two or three houses of great
age.

On the Turnpike and Lincoln roads the Tuttle and Fox
houses date back to 1740 or 65.
Returning to the square and crossing the old mill-dam,

the Vose house is remarkable as being the only three-story
house ever built in town. In a picture taken about 1775 it is
very prominent, and was doubtless one of the chief houses of
the village. Above it on the right, on Main street stands the
house of Dr. Barrett, one room of which was a portion of the
old block house dating back perhaps to King Philip's War; near
this house, at a corner of the burial ground, stood the old jail
in which some of the British prisoners were confined. The
road turned at this point and went toward the Wheeler house,
which was built in the present form in 1700, and has always
remained in the possession of the same family. A few rods
above the South Bridge was the home of Capt. Joseph Hosmer
who was requested by Maj. Buttrick to act as adjutant, and
rendered very efficient service in marshalling and collecting the
Americans as they arrived from various points ; it has remained
in the family of his descendants ever since its erection in 1761,
and was a place of concealment for stores which were saved by
the courage and ingenuity of Mrs. Hosmer; a detachment of
British soldiers was sent to capture their cannon balls which
were heaped in one of the rooms, and the kegs of powder which
had been hidden behind some feathers under the eaves, but the
shrewd lady contrived to send the troops away without discov-

60 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

ering them, although they destroyed several of her beds in the
search.

Nearly behind this house is another old one built about 1763,
which was the home of Ephriam Wood, Esq., who was a zealous
patriot and an officer of the town, and was engaged in secreting
some stores in another place, and escaped the search which was
made for him through the house. A short distance up the road
which passes in front of Adjutant, afterwards known as Maj.
Hosmer's house, is another old house which belonged to a
member of the same family, and half a mile east of it is the
Louse of Abel Hosmer, the builder of which was on his way to
Charlestown for a load of brick when he met the British coming
from Lexington.

Opposite the Depot of the extension of the Middlesex
branch of the Central R. R. stands the house of the celebrated Dr.
Cummings* In early life he was a soldier in the wars with the In-
dians. Being wounded, he was captured, treated with severity
at first, and afterwards with kindness. He received a commission
from the Crown as Justice of the Peace, and at the beginning of
the Revolution he became chairman of the committee of corre-
spondence, inspection and safety. After the war he acquired
property and left bequests to the church, town, Harvard Col-
lege, etc.

Going up Monument street toward the Battle Ground,
the first of the old houses is that owned by Mr. Keyes, which
was built by Elisha Jones, the stepfather of Captain Nathan
Barrett, who had command of a company at the Concord

HOUSES OF HISTORICAL INTEREST. 61

fight. This house stands on the left side of the road.
It is one of the oldest in town, and was owned by Elisha
Jones at the time of the fight, and bore marks of age at that
time. It remains much in the same form, and the present
owner John S. Keyes, Esq., has carefully preserved many relics
of the time, among which are copies of the old pictures of the
battle, and a view of the town as it then existed. In the L
part a bullet hole is plainly visible, which was made by a British
bullet, near which is a portion of the old North Bridge nailed
against a beam ; underneath this stands the stone across which
Capt. Isaac Davis fell. This stone formed a portion of a row
which were used as stepping stones when the water was high on
the causeway, and it was identified by certain stains which
appear on it. The wife of a grandson of Col. Barrett lived in
this house and used to relate her vivid recollections of the day,
as she watched the red coats march by the house as she stood
at a window on a pile of salt fish which formed part of the
stores concealed there. Her husband's father built a house on
Ponkawtassett where Mr. Daniel Hunt also lived.

On Ponkawtassett Hill, near these houses the min-
ute men and militia went to watch the movements of the British,
and after receiving reinforcements marched down to the high
ground by Maj. Buttrick's house which still stands, and is now
occupied by Mr. J, Derby. This house was built by Jonathan
Buttrick in 1712, and the front part remains the same as in 1775,
and it was in the possession of the Buttrick family until 1832.
It is recorded on the grave stone of Jonathan Buttrick that
thirteen well-instructed children followed him to the grave, one

62 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

of whom was Maj. John Buttrick the hero of the Fight. His
brothers Samuel, Joseph and Daniel all left their farms and
served under the Maj. at the bridge. Their houses are now
standing on the Carlisle road above Ponkawtassett on the farms
which were given them by their father. The Ball Hill farm-
house was also built long before 1775, and a son of the family,
Benjamin Ball, was killed at Bunker Hill. The old Whittaker
house was also where it is now, just behind Ponkawtassett.
The Hunt house was the oldest on this hill, and it was the one
at which the Americans were supplied with food as they assem-
bled on the hill waiting for reinforcements. The house of
Capt. Nathan Barrett who commanded the fourth company at
the fight, and who joined in the pursuit of the British, and was
wounded in the afternoon of that day, was near Mr. Hunt's on
Ponkawtassett; and the house of his father, Col. James Barrett,
also stands near Annursnuck hill on the same spot as it occu-
pied in 1775. He was in command of the American forces
engaged, and discharged the onerous duties also of the arrange-
ment and protection of the public stores. Being one of the
most prominent men of the town, a party of British soldiers
searched his house as well as that of his brother which stood
near. They were provided with refreshments by the wife of
Col. Barrett who refused payment, saying: " We are com-
manded to feed our enemies." She afterwards kept with reluc-
tance the money which they threw into her lap, saying, " this
is the price of blood." This heroic woman succeeded in con-
cealing a quantity of ammunition, but fifty dollars was taken by
the soldiers who also arrested her son whom she persuaded them

HOUSES OF HISTORICAL INTEREST. 63

to liberate with the remark " this is my son and not the master
of the house."

The vicinity of Col. Barrett's house is a very important
point in the history of the town, for his prominence as Col. of
the Militia rendered him and his property objects of peculiar
importance and suspicion to the British who were well informed
through their spies of the state of things at Concord. For
this reason a detachment of troops was sent to this house early
in the forenoon in the hope of capturing Col. Barrett himself,
as well as some of the munitions of war which were known to
be concealed there; some of them were saved by being buried
in a newly-planted field and by being ingeniously hidden in
other ways. The British had made a pile of the gun carriages
and of the articles which they succeeded in finding, and were
about to burn them when their attention was turned from the
work of destruction by the sound of firing at the old North
Bridge.

On hearing the repeated volleys of musketry the company
which numbered about one hundred men took up their line of
march toward the center of the town which had been held by
the main body of the troops, under Smith and Pitcairn, as they
were in great danger of being cut off in their retreat. They
had to march a distance of nearly two miles and were well
aware, from small bodies of minute men who passed within
sight, that the citizens of the neighboring towns were rapidly
hastening to the relief of Concord.

On their return they were obliged to pass over the old North
Bridge where the Fight occurred, but were enabled to do this in

THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

safety, as the victorious Americans did not attempt to follow
the British with whom they had been engaged, on their way
back to the center of the town, b ut they crossed over the great
fields as before stated in order to intercept the British forces at
Merriam's Corner.

The college road which is near the Barrett house is a lasting
memorial of the time when Harvard College was removed to
Concord in the winter of 1775, by order of the Provincial Con-
gress, as the college buildings at Cambridge were needed for
the use of the soldiers of the American Army. The Rev. Dr.
Ripley and Dr. Hurd, and several other men afterward well
known in the annals of their state, were among those who
made a visit to Concord at this period. A letter of thanks
from the President of the college is still extant, in which he
expresses his gratitude and apologies in graceful terms. The
Professors were quartered in several houses in the village, the
President himself residing at Dr. Minot's near the Middlesex
hotel.

Many of the students boarded at the old mansion house,
built by Simon Willard, one of the founders of the town, at
the foot of Lee's hill. If this article were not necessarily con-
fined to the Historical houses at present standing, a picture
of the Willard house would be of great interest; but the
building unfortunately was destroyed by fire about twenty
years ago.

This house stood on the farm of a noted tory named Lee,
who made himself so unpopular that he was confined to the
limits of his farm, and legend states that the minute men when

College Road.

HOUSES OF HISTORICAL INTEREST. 65

returning from their drill often made a target of his buildings.
The house was owned formerly by the Woodis family with
whom the Barrett family were connected, and Joseph Barrett,
Esq., a grandson of Col. James Barrett, owned and occupied
it for many years. He was a prominent citizen of Concord,
and was appointed to many places of trust and honor, having
been at the time of his death Treasurer of the Commonwealth.

Opposite the Library stands the old inn, at which stages
running between Boston and the up-country towns used to
change horses. The swing sign marked " Shepard's Tavern," is
now in the possession of Mr. R. N. Rice, who purchased the
building, and has modernized it into a pleasant residence.
Bigelow's tavern, another ancient inn, stood just below, and
its extensive grounds comprise a part of his fine estate. In
front of his stable stood the old jail in which British prisoners
were confined in 1775. Mr. Rice commenced business in the
old green store which occupied the site of the Catholic church.
He went to Michigan in 1846, in the service of the Michigan
Central Railroad, of which he was afterwards general manager
for thirteen years. In 1870, Mr. Rice built his present house,
and was prominent in various extensive town improvements,
including Hubbard and Thoreau streets. Other gentlemen
were associated with Mr. Rice, among whom were Mr. Samuel
Staples, who has for years been an authority on the subject
of real estate, and has lived in town for half a century.

William Hunt, in connection with several other families,
settled on the borders of the beautiful stream which has now
become historic. They had braved the dangers of the stormy

66 THE CONCOKD GUIDE BOOK.

Atlantic to seek a new home in America, and they fearlessly
faced the hardships of a new life in the rugged wilderness
where they sought to establish a home secure in the blessings
of civil and religious liberty. How well they builded is a part
of the world's history.

The descendants of William Hunt assembled to commem-
orate the share that their ancestor had in the settlement of the

town of Concord, by a reunion of the different branches of
the Hunt family, and their alliances, at Concord, Wednesday,
August 12, 1885.

On the 12th of September, 1885, the town of Concord cele-
brated its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary with appro-
priate exercises. A committee was appointed to designate by
tablets the chief places of note in connection with the early
history of the town. This was done, and these tablets are fully
described in the succeeding chapter.

CHAPTER V.

THE TABLETS, AND HOW TO REACH THEM.

The Willard Tablet, commemorating one of the founders
of the town, is built into the wall which bounds the south-
western end of the famous farm so often mentioned in these
pages. To reach it from the Fitchburg Depot, keep to the left
sidewalk of Nashawtuck avenue until Main street is crossed.
The last house on the right, before reaching the one on the
corner of Main street, is the one in which Mrs. Pratt, the Meg
of " Little Women," died in August, 1893. The walk on the
right side of Main street leads to the tablet which is on the
hill after crossing the Stone Bridge. The tablet reads :

6S THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

ON THIS FARM DWELT

SIMON WILLARD

ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF CONCORD

WHO DID GOOD SERVICE FOR

TOWN AND COLONY

FOR MORE THAN FORTY YEARS.

Simon Willard was a soldier and engineer, and one of the
first settlers, 1635. He was instrumental in the purchase and
laying out of the six mile square tract which formed the
plantation. One of the corner boundaries still remains, now in
the town of Carlisle, which consists of large rocks piled up by-
Mr. Willard and his associates. In Philip's War he went
to the defence of Brookfield, as did the pious Major Wheeler,
one of whose descendants has lately purchased the estate.

" Up to old Brookfield just in time the pius Wheeler went
With old queen's arm and muskatoon Philip to circumvent.
Men who could fight as well as pray, the crafty savage saw,
Could equal him in strategy and conquer him in war."

Simon Willard was the head of the noted family of that
name which has furnished Harvard College with two Presi-
dents, one of whom was a minister, as many of his descendants
have also been. Tory Lee was for many years confined to the
limits of this farm on the penalty of being shot by the minute-
men if he left it.

ON THE HILL MSHAWTUCK

AT THE MEETING OF THE RIVERS

AND ALONG THE BANKS

LIVED THE INDIAN OWNERS OF

MUSKETAQTJID
BEFORE THE WHITE MEN CAME

The Tablet at Egg Rock.

THE TABLETS, AND HOW TO REACH THEM. 69

This tablet is at Egg Rock, which is a central bound of this
same Nashawtuck Farm which owes its name to the Indian
title, which means the meeting of the waters. From its situa-
tion on the promontory it can be reached best by a canoe-trip
of half a mile from the Stone Bridge near by. The Squaw
Sachem alluded to on the next tablet is supposed to have lived
near the point marked by the above inscription, which is cut
upon a rock on the shore of the river. The Squaw Sachem
was a person of influence, whom legend says ruled the tribe
wisely and well, and the town Has certainly been under female
dominion ever since. In her career was solved, the question
which has for so many years agitated the minds of the advocates
of Woman's Rights.

" The woman's right to labor to her was not denied,
The good man smoked the pipe of peace, a helpmeet was his bride ;
She built the lodge, and cooked the food, and brought the wood and water,
And patiently did all the work as every woman ' oughter.' "

The Squaw Sachem is said to have afterwards given up her
independence by marrying the medicine-man, as many widows
have done before her, and her son was one of the praying
Indians converted by Eliot and Gookin. Some idea of the
power of this remarkable squaw may be gathered from the
tablet which stands on Lowell street, in front of the second
house from the Square on the right hand side, which marks
the former home of the Rev. Peter Bulkley, who was the
minister who led his church from Newtown to settle in
Concord.

70 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

HERE IN THE HOUSE OF THE

REVEREND PETER BULKELEY

FIRST MINISTER AND ONE OF THE

FOUNDERS OF THIS TOWN

A BARGAIN WAS MADE WITH THE

SQUAW SACHEM THE SAGAMORE TAHATTAWAN

AND OTHER INDIANS

WHO THEN SOLD THE RIGHT IN

THE SIX MILES SQUARE CALLED CONCORD

TO THE ENGLISH PLANTERS

AND GAVE THEM PEACEFUL POSSESSION

OF THE LAND

A.D. 1636.

On account of the peaceful manner of its purchase, the name
of the plantation was changed from Musketaquid to Concord,
a name which its inhabitants have shown their right to by the
most active participation in every battle since, from King
Philip's to the great Rebellion, including the uprising against
Sir Edmund Andros and Shays's Rebellion.

Returning to the Square, upon the right side of which, near
the head of Lowell street, is the tablet which marks the site of
the first Town and Court House, which building was set on fire
by the British troops, who plundered it in their search for
stores ; but a woman who lived near persuaded them to put out
the fire by saying there was a large quantity of gunpowder in
the building. Her ancient bill for this service was presented
at the last centennial anniversary of the town.

THE TABLETS, AND HOW TO REACH THEM, 71

NEAR THIS SPOT STOOD

THE FIRST TOWN HOUSE

USED FOR TOWN MEETINGS

AND THE COUNTY COURTS

1721-1794.

On the other side of the Square the following tablet is on the
wall in front of the burial ground :

ON THIS HILL

THE SETTLERS OF CONCORD

BUILT THEIR MEETING-HOUSE

NEAR WHICH THEY WERE BURIED,

ON THE SOUTHERN SLOPE OF THE RIDGE

WERE THEIR DWELLINGS DURING

THE FIRST WINTER,

BELOW IT THEY LAID OUT

THEIR FIRST ROAD AND

ON THE SUMMIT STOOD THE

LIBERTY-POLE OF THE REVOLUTION.

This old graveyard, which is more fully described in another
place, is the oldest in town, and is full of quaint inscriptions,
the most of which are on the side towards the village ; and
legend says that the three earliest ministers of Concord were
buried in one tomb, the exact locality of which is not certain.
Antiquarians and others interested in searching for their ances-
tors are referred to the book described above, which may be
seen at the Library.

THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

Gateway to the Old Manse.

A little way west of the burial ground, in front of the Unita-
rian Church, is a tablet descriptive of the stirring scenes which
have occurred near the spot.

THE TABLETS, AND HOW TO REACH THEM. 73

FIRST PROVINCIAL CONGRESS

OF DELEGATES FROM THE TOWNS OF

MASSACHUSETTS

WAS CALLED BY CONVENTIONS OF

THE PEOPLE TO MEET AT CONCORD ON THE

ELEVENTH DAY OF OCTOBER 1774.

THE DELEGATES ASSEMBLED HERE

IN THE MEETING HOUSE ON THAT DAY,

AND ORGANIZED

WITH JOHN HANCOCK AS PRESIDENT

AND BENJAMIN LINCOLN AS SECRETARY.

CALLED TOGETHER TO MAINTAIN

THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE,

THIS CONGRESS

ASSUMED THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE

AND BY ITS MEASURES PREPARED THE WAY

FOR THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

In sight of this tablet are two interesting buildings, the yel-
low block on the right, and the Wright Tavern on the left.
From the door on the upper corner of the yellow block, Lieut.-
Col. Robinson came forth on the 19th of April, before going
to the fight as a volunteer aid to Major Buttrick. The Wright
Tavern, of which a picture and description are given, is owned
by the church, and two legends of it are alluded to in these
verses :

" The legend tells that in this house, the silver of the church
Was hidden in a keg of soap away from British search.
Certain it is her ancient creed so guarded sacred things,
That to her solemn verities no soft soap ever clings.

74 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

One Brown once kept the tavern Wright, and a brave man was he,
For in the Boston tea-party he helped to pour the tea.
This fact is chiseled on his stone and grave stones never lie,
But always speak the living truth just as do you and I."

Crossing the street, and turning to the left, the sidewalk
leads to the tablet at Merriam's. Corner, along the road to
Lexington, passing many remarkable houses in the following
order : the rough-cast house once occupied by a surgeon of the
Revolutionary war, the two houses of the patriot brothers Lee,
who also did good service in the same war, and the houses •
owned by Captain Brown. The first of these, in which the
leather accoutrements were made for the soldiers of the Revolu-
tion, is now owned by Mrs. Julia Clark, a resident of the town
for seventy years, and closely identified with its charitable
work ; she also once occupied the next house, which was the
home' of Capt. Brown, and is now the headquarters of the
Antiquarian Society. In this house she has entertained
many remarkable guests, including Ralph Waldo Emerson,
his eccentric aunt, Mary Moody Emerson, and the family
of John Brown, who spent much time there between his
visit to Kansas and Harper's Ferry. The Concord Antiqua-
rian Society, described in another chapter, now occupies this
house. The next below is one of the oldest in town, having
been the home of John Beaton, who founded the charity which
has for two hundred years helped the silent poor of the town.
A few rods below, the house of Ralph Waldo Emerson, which
he occupied from 1835 until his death in 1882, is on the
opposite side of the road. Ascending the hill past Mr. Moore's

Merriam's Corner.

The Tablet on Keyes' Hill.

THE TABLETS, AND HOW TO REACH THEM. 75

green-houses, the School of Philosophy is reached, in the same
lot with the Orchard House, where the Alcott girls lived in
their prime. In the great trees near the front door the owls
and squirrels congregate as in. the days of the " Little Women ; "
and from Jo's room, which faced the south, their merry gambols
could be overlooked. Amy's room was behind her sister's, and
both rooms are decorated by her pen and brush. Wayside, the
home of the Hawthornes from 1852 until Mr. Hawthorne's
death, is the next in line.

A few rods below, the parent vine still bears Concord grapes,
although its originator, Mr. Bull, has retired to the village.
After walking a half-mile farther, the same sidewalk brings one
to Merriam's Corner and to this tablet.

THE BRITISH TROOPS

RETREATING FROM THE

OLD NORTH BRIDGE

WERE HERE ATTACKED IN FLANK

BY THE MEN OF CONCORD

AND NEIGHBORING TOWNS

AND DRIVEN UNDER A HOT FIRE

TO CHARLESTOWN

The Medford and Reading companies, under the command of
Gov. Brooks, were joined by the Concord minute-men who had
marched across the great fields after their victory, and a sharp
skirmish took place.

ON THIS FIELD

THE MINUTEMEN AND MILITIA

FORMED BEFORE MARCHING

DOWN TO THE

FIGHT AT THE BRIDGE

76 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

The above * tablet marks the place where the little band
of minute-men awaited re-enforcements from the neighboring
towns, before marching down to the bridge. The approach to
this by water has already been described. The road which goes
around the two-mile Square passes it about midway ; and it can
be reached from the Square by Lowell or Monument streets,
by a very pleasant walk past the old Jones house, the Manse,
the Battle-field, the home of Major Buttrick, and the tablet
which marks the former home of Rev. Peter Bulkley.

CHAPTER VI.

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST.

The Home of Ralph Waldo Emerson is a plain, square,
wooden house, standing in a grove of pine trees, which conceal
the front and side from the gaze of passers. Tall chestnut
trees ornament the old-fashioned yard, through which a road
leads to the plain, yellow barn in the rear. A garden fills half
an acre at the back, and has for years been famous for its roses
and also has a rare collection of hollyhocks, the flowers that
Wordsworth loved, and most of the old-time annuals and
shrubs. From the road a gate, which is always open, leads
over marble flag-stones to the broad, low step before the hospit-
able door.

78 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

A long hall divides the centre of the house, with two large
square rooms on each side ; a plain, solid table stands at the
right of this entry, over which is an old picture of Ganymede.

The first door on the right leads to the study, a plain, square
room, lined on one side with simple wooden shelves filled with
choice books; a large mahogany table stands in the middle,
covered with books, and by the morocco writing-pad lies the
pen which has had so great an influence for twenty-five years
on the thoughts of two continents. A large fire-place, with
a low grate occupies the lower end, over wThich hangs
a fine copy of Michael Angelo's Fates, the faces of the strong-
minded women frowning upon all who would disturb with idle
tongues this haunt of solemn thought. On the mantle-shelf are
busts and statuettes of men prominent in the great reforms of
the age, and a quaint, rough idol brought from the Nile. A
few choice engravings hang upon the walls, and the pine trees
shade the windows.

Two doors, one on each side of the great fire-place, lead into
the large parlor which fills the southern quarter of the house.
This room is hung with curtains of crimson and carpeted with
a warm color, and when a bright fire is blazing on the broad
hearth reflected in the large mirror opposite, the effect is cheer-
ful in the extreme. A beautiful portrait of one of the daugh-
ters of the house is hung in this pleasant and homelike room,
whose home circle seems to reach around the world ; for almost
every person of note who has visited this country, has enjoyed
its genial hospitality, and listened with attention to the words
of wisdom from the kindly master of the house — the most

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST,

modest and most gifted writer, and deepest thinker of the age.

Years ago the chatty, little Frederika Bremer paid a long visit
here, a brisk old lady, as restless as her tongue
and pen. Here Margaret Fuller and the other
bright figures of The Dial met for conversation.
Thoreau was a daily visitor, and his "Wood-
Notes " might have been unuttered but for the
kind encouragement he found here. The Al-
cotts, father and daughter,
were near neighbors, and it was

HOME OF EMERSON.

in this room that Mr. Alcott's earliest " Conversations " were
held, now so well known. Here, too, old John Brown was of-

80 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

ten to be met, a plain, poorly-dressed old farmer, seeming out
of place, and absorbed in his own plans until some allusion,
or chance remark, would fire his soul and light up his rugged
features.

But a dozen volumes would not give space enough to mention
in full the many guests from foreign lands, who have been
entertained at this house, which is also a favorite place for the
villagers to visit. The school-children of Concord are enter-
tained here every year with merry games and dances, and they
look forward with great interest to the eventful occasion.

The house was partially destroyed by fire in the spring of
1873, and was rebuilt as nearly as possible like the former.
During the building a portion of the family found shelter in the
Old Manse, the home of Mr. Emerson's grandfather, while Mr.
Emerson himself visited Europe. Upon his return an im-
promptu reception took place ; the citizens gathered at the
depot in crowds, the school children were drawn up in two
smiling rows, through which he passed, greeted by enthusiastic
cheers and songs of welcome. All followed his carriage to the
house and sung " Home, Sweet Home," to the music of the
band. A few days afterward he invited all his fellow-citizens
to call and see him in his new home, and nearly all the inhabi-
tants availed themselves of the opportunity.

The house stands on an old country road, up which the
British marched on the memorable 19th of April, 1775. It is
not necessary to speak of the writings of Mr. Emerson, as they
are too well-known to need mention here. Mr. Emerson died
on the 27th of April, 1882, and was buried on the following

BOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 81

Sunday. At the public funeral in the old church, Judge Hoar de-
livered an address and read one of Watts's hymns ; Dr. Furness
read selections from the Scriptures ; Rev. James Freeman Clarke
gave an address, and after a prayer by Rev. Howard M. Brown,
followed a sonnet by Mr. Alcott.

The Old Manse which has been at various times the home
of Emerson, stands at the left of the Battle Ground and is
approached by an avenue of noble trees, which were originally
black ash, a tree very rare in this part of New England. Many
of these ash trees have died from age, and their places have
been supplied by elms and maples. Two high posts of granite
mark the entrance to the avenue, which extends for about two
hundred feet to the door of the house. Opposite, across the
narrow country road, a hill overlooks the village, and gives a
fine view of the winding river, and distant mountains. A
solitary poplar crowns the summit of the hill, and affords a
landmark to the river-voyager, as it can be seen for miles up
and down the stream. A romantic legend is connected with
this tree, about a party of young girls who were at school in
the Old Manse, each of whom caused a tree to be set out, and
called by her name. Year by year, the girls and trees grew up
together in grace and beauty. At length, one by one, the old
ladies died, and the trees died too, until one very old lady and
this old weather-beaten poplar, alone remained. The lady for
whom the surviving poplar was named, has gone to her rest, and
the tree seems likely to follow before long.

The large field at the left of the Old Manse, which divides
it from the Battle Ground, was, centuries ago, the site of an

THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

Indian village, and often rough arrows and spear-heads have
been turned up by the plough. The savages probably chose
this gentle slope by the river for the sake of the fish with which
it then abounded, for the earlier settlers report a plentiful
supply of shad and salmon, where now poor little breams and

THE OLD MANSE.

horn-pouts alone tempt the idle fisherman. Behind the house
there extends to the river an ancient orchard of apple trees,
which is in itself a monument of energy and faith, for it
was set \>y Dr. Ripley, who came to the house in 1778, as
stated below. The house, built for Rev. William Emerson

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 83

in the year 1765, and occupied by him the next year after
his marriage to a daughter of the Rev. Daniel Bliss, with the
exception of a few years when it was occupied by Hawthorne,
has always been the home of ministers and the descendants ot
the builder. Nearly all the old New England ministers have
been entertained under its roof, and many questions affecting
the beliefs of the age have been here discussed and settled.
The room in which this article is written, was the study of the
Rev. Ezra Ripley, who as stated elsewhere married the widow
of the builder of the home, and here thousands of sermons
have doubtless been written. It is a small, square room with
high wainscot and oaken beams overhead, with a huge fire-place
where four-foot sticks used to burn on great, high, brass
andirons.

It was in this room, too, that the ghost used to appear,
according to Hawthorne, but it probably only existed in his
brilliant imagination. Often, on a winter night, the latch of
the old door has lifted without human help, and a gust of cold
wind has swept into the room.

Opposite the study, is a larger room, which is modernized by
rare photographs and recent adornments, and is used as a parlor
by its present owners, the grandchildren of the original pro-
prietors. From this apartment a door opens into the ancient
dining-room, in which the old-time ministers held their solemn
feasts, and it is said that they were well able to appreciate the
good cheer which covered the long table that nearly filled the
narrow hall. In one corner of this room stands a tall clock,
looking across at its life-long companion, the ancient desk of

84 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

Dr. Ripley ; and a set of curious, old, high-backed chairs recall
the days of our upright ancestors.

Opposite this room is a big kitchen with its enormous fire-
place, which twenty-five years ago was used wholly by the
present occupants for all purposes of cooking. The hooks
which held the long, iron crane on which the pots and kettles
hung still remain, although a modern cooking stove occupies
the chief part of the broad hearth.

The Old Manse was the principal house of the town for many
years, and probably the only one which had two stories, as
almost all of the houses of its period were built with a lean-to.
It was also the only one which was built with two chimneys,
thus giving a large garret, which is rich in the curious lumber
of two generations, and stored with literature enjoyed only by
the spider and the moth. In one corner, on the southern side,
is a curious little room which has been always known as the
" Saints' Chamber," its walls bearing inscriptions in the hand-
writing of the holy men who have rested there.

The room over the dining-room is perhaps the most interest-
ing, for it was here that Emerson wrote "Nature" and also
many of his best poems. Hawthorne describes this room,
which he also used as his study, in his "Mosses from an Old
Manse," which was also written here. It has three windows
with small cracked panes of glass bearing inscriptions traced
with a diamond, probably by some of the Hawthorne family.
From the northern window the wife of the Rev. William
Emerson watched the progress of the 19th of April fight ; and
one hundred years later, on the same day, her grandaughter,

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST.

who now occupies the room, pointed out to her guests the

honored men who marched in
over the old North Bridge to
monument and celebrate the
the memorable day. The Old
mentioned, was ^ ST

home of Dr. Ezra <^^^
sketch fol

long procession
dedicate the new
anniversary of
Manse, as before
for years the
Ripley, of whom a short
lows.

ley was born May 1st,
1751, at Woodstock, Conn.
He was the fifth of nine-
teen children. His father
was born in Hingham,
Mass., on the farm first
purchased by Wm. Ripley
from England, at the first
settlement of the town. Thir-
ty years ago the seventh and
eighth generations still lived
on this farm. By his own
' exertions, and the patronage
of Dr. Forbes, of Gloucester, he fitted himself for college,
and entered Harvard University in July, 1772. Owing to his
high moral and religious character, he was called by his class-
mates " Holy Ripley." He became the pastor of the church
in Concord, Nov. 7, 1778. The times were disordered and
the currency depreciated. His salary of five hundred and fifty
pounds, when paid, was found to be worth only forty pounds.

86 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

For many years he did a man's work in the field, more than
three days out of the week on an average, to support his family.
Scarcely any minister ever took so deep an interest in the tem-
poral prosperity of his people as Dr. Ripley. The honor of the
town was almost as dear to him as that of his own family.
Education, temperance, and morals were the subjects of his
watchful care. He formed, more than seventy years ago, per-
haps the first Temperance Society that ever was formed. He
went round among his people and got them to agree to banish
intoxicating drinks from funerals. But the following extracts
from a notice of him by Mr. R. W. Emerson, will be more
appreciated :

" He was a natural gentleman — no dandy, courtly, hospitable,
manly and public spirited, his nature social, his house open to
all men. His brow was open and serene to his visitors — for he
loved men and he had no studies, no occupations which com-
pany could interrupt. His friends were his study, and to see
them, loosened his talents and his tongue.

" He was open-handed, just, and generous. Ingratitude and
meanness in his beneficiaries did not wear out his compassion.
He bore the insult, and the next day his basket for the beggar,
and his horse and chaise for the cripple were at their door. A
man of anecdote, his talk in the parlor was chiefly narrative.
We remember the remark of a gentleman who listened with
much delight to his conversation, ' that a man who could tell a
story so well, was company for kings.' An eminent skill he
had in saying difficult and remarkable things. Was a man a
sot or a spendthrift, or suspected of some hidden crime, or had

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST.

he quarreled with his wife, or collared his father, or was there
any cloud or suspicious circumstances in his behavior, the good
pastor knew his way straight to that point. In all such passages
he justified himself to the conscience, and commonly to the
love, of the person concerned. He was the more competent to
these searching discourses from his knowledge of family history.
He knew every body's grandfather, and seemed to talk with
each person rather as the representative of his house and name
than as an individual. This, and still more his sympathy, made
him incomparable in his parochial visits, in his exhortations and
prayers with sick and suffering persons."

The Home of Nathaniel
Hawthorne. Mr. Hawthorne
returned to Concord from Len-
nox in 1852, and bought of Mr.
Alcott the small house which
with later additions became
his home. It then had about
twenty acres of form and wood
land attached. It stands close
upon the wayfaring of the Lex-
ington road, about a mile south-
ward from the centre of the vil-
lage, and Hawthorne gave to the
place a name of his own choice,

MR. HAWTHORNE'S INKSTAND. " W ayside."

Only a few yards from the
windows of the front, but separated from the grounds by a

88 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

hedge, is the highway, along which the British troops advanced,
April 19, 1775, and again retreated after their repulse by the
Minute Men. A few feet behind the house a ridge of land
slopes upward to a height of sixty or seventy feet, running be-
side the road from the village to a point beyond the house ;
and from the crown of this ridge, puffs of smoke and flame on
the memorable battle-day showed where the patriotic farmers
were posted to pick off the grenadiers below and turn their
retreat into rout. About one half of the house as it now is
existed at that time, and the low ceilings with heavy beams
coming through, together with the gambrel roof of the older
.part, attest its antiquity.

/ Although the name of u The Wayside " applies to the physi-
/ cal situation, Hawthorne probably also connected with it a fanci-
' ful symbolism. In the prefatory letter to a friend accompanying
" The Snow Image," he wrote : " Was there ever such a weary
delay in obtaining the slightest recognition from the public as
in my case? I sat down by the wayside of life, like a man
under enchantment, and a shrubbery sprung up around me and
the bushes grew to be saplings, and the saplings became trees,
until no exit appeared possible through the entangling depths
of my obscurity." I think it pleased him to conceive of him-
self, even after he became famous, as sitting by the wayside
and observing the show of human life while it flowed by him.
What was only a fancy at the time he wrote thus, in regard to
the springing up of a maze of trees, has become fact in the
dense, tall growth of firs, pitch-pines, larches, elms, oaks and
white-birch, which now envelopes the hill. Many of these

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 91

were set out by his direction, and give the scene the impress of
his taste. Close by the porch, too, is a flourishing hawthorn
tree, which serves as a silent record of his name.

The whole place seems to be imbued with his character —
open to all the world, yet unobtrusive and retiring, and pro-
vided with mysterious, sheltered retreats. The rambling house
has a plain domestic air; and one end is covered with rose-
vines and woodbine ; but the dark pines in front of the lawn,
and the prevalence of evergreen trees on the hill, introduce a
shadowy presence like that of serious thoughts or a musing
mind. Hearing the wind stir in their branches, one recalls
Longfellow's dirge for Hawthorne, in which the pine tree's
murmur is spoken of as

" The voice so like his own."

A thicket of locust trees in one place spreads a drift of snowy
blossoms among the darker boughs in June ; and the leafy hill-
side distills -sweet perfumes and a dewy coolness at the close of
hot summer days.

From the house and ridge you look over fertile meadows to
other low wooded hills. " To me," wrote Hawthorne, " there
is a peculiar, quiet charm in these broad meadows and gentle

eminences. They are better than mountains A few

summer weeks among mountains, a lifetime among green
meadows and placid slopes .... such would be my sober
choice."

Here he wrote his " Tangle wood Tales" for children, before
going to Europe. On returning he produced here his English

92 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

sketches, which formed the volume called "Our Old Home ;"
and he was engaged upon his last, unfinished romance when,
going for a short journey with the hope to recover strength, he
died away from home. This incomplete work, " Septimius
Felton," has since been published. Its scene is laid at The Way-
side itself; and as the period chosen was that of the Revolu-
tion, such a setting was eminently fit. But there was another
reason for it. The subject of " Septimus " was a man's search
for the means of earthly immortality, and by a curious coinci-
dence one of the former occupants of The Wayside had been
interested in this same subject. " I know nothing of the his-
tory of the house," said Hawthorne in a letter to a friend, " ex-
cept Thoreau's telling me that it was inhabited a generation
or two ago by a man who believed he should never die. I
believe, however, he is dead ; at least I hope so ; else he may
probably appear and dispute my title to his residence." He
never did appear in the flesh, but Hawthorne seems to have
secured him immortality here below (though of a different
kind), by putting him into a book.

If this deathless person haunts the place at all, it must be in
the form of a gray owl fond of appearing near the house at twi-
light, or else of the whip-poor-wills and squirrels which also
frequent the neighborhood.

When he came back from England and Italy Hawthorne
made some changes and additions, among other things putting
up a small square structure above the main building. This he
called " the tower," in half pla}'ful reminiscence of the tower
he had so much enjoyed in the villa of Monte Outo, near

HAWTHORNE'S PATH IN THE WOODS.

j^^IBRA^

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

tM.n

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 95

Florence. The top room of this tower he used as his study.
Its character was very simple. A few pictures hung upon the
walls, and on the mantel were two or three ornaments. His
writing table was of the plainest style, having at one side a
desk with a sloping lid, and at the other some drawers. On it
stood the inkstand — still preserved — which he used in
writing " The Marble Faun " and his later works. It is
an Italian bronze, with a cover representing the well-
known Boy Strangling a Swan. In his last years Haw-
thorne sought relief from writing in a cramped position
by using a standing desk which he had had made near
one of the windows. From any of these windows one
may look out upon the tree-tops, and some of the branches
on one side almost brush the panes. Placed above the
rest of the house and approached by a steep flight of cov-
ered stairs from the second story the room is thoroughly
secluded and at the same time commands the pleasantest
influences of its rural surrounding.

But besides this Hawthorne had another study, out-of-
doors, his favorite resort — the crest of the ridge already
mentioned, behind the house and looking down on its roof,
the lawn, the road and the meadows. The tangle of trees
and underbrush extends back over the high ground un-
broken for about half a mile, and on the edge of this
Hawthorne used to pace up and down, among the sweet-
fern and wild blackberries, meditating on whatever he
purposed to write.

From the lawn below the hill I have looked up and

96 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK,

seen Mr. Hawthorne's dark, quiet figure passing slowly
across the dim light of mingled sky and branches, his
tread measured, and his head bent — and he seemed to be
at one with those surroundings, of eloquent and sombre
pines, and the un cloying scent of the sweet-fern. Mr.
Hawthorne's long out-door meditations in composing were
explained by a remark he once made, that if he found
he had been composing from a mood, he felt almost guilty
of having perpetrated a lie.

The time for this was afternoon, and the mornings
were usually given to writing. There on his Mount of
Vision, as Mrs. Hawthorne called it, he dreamed perhaps
as many unwritten books as those he published. His con-
stant pacing along the brow of the hill wore an irregular
path there, which is still visible.

Since Hawthorne's death in 1864 nothing has been done
to preserve the path his footsteps made ; yet nature, as
if by a secret sympathy with his genius, has thus far
refused to obliterate it, and it remains distinct amid the
bordering wild-growth.

During the last year of his life he occupied very often
the small lower room upon the left of the house, where
his books were collected. Here, in a voice rich and smooth,
and changing in sympathetic cadence with the flow of wit
and pathos, he read aloud the novels of Sir Walter Scott
to his family.

The property passed into the hands of his son-in-law,
George Parsons Lathrop, in 1879, who sold it in May,

■ i*m^mmm$** * ^^^mmm*

..._—..!:. j:"l

THE STUDY IN THE TOWER.

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

^»f

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 99

1883, to Daniel Lothrop, Esq., the well-known publisher
whose energy, judgment and literary taste have made his
large and flourishing publishing house a power in the
world of letters.

Since his death in 1892, Mrs. Lothrop has used The Wayside
as a summer residence, the family spending their winters in
Boston.

She has left the grounds unaltered from the original designs
of Alcott and Hawthorne, only putting the estate in thorough
order. The interior shows every relic of Hawthorne care-
fully preserved, while his old home is made beautiful with
all the surroundings of a -cultured taste.

Mrs. Lothrop has made her nom de plume of Margaret
Sidney a household word in thousands of homes and hearts,
by her sparkling contributions to the juvenile and other
magazines, as well as by her delightful children's books of
which " The Five Little Peppers ; and How They Grew," and
"What The Seven Did" are very popular.

July 27, 1884, their daughter Margaret was born,
probably the first child born for a century under this ancient
roof.

'Neath the philosophic arches
Of the solemn pines and larches,

Where of old the moody genius dreamed and wrote,
Winsome baby talk beguiles
All the dim and shaded aisles,

To echo with a higher, truer note.

ioo THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

Miss Elizabeth P. Peabody, a sister of Mrs. Hawthorne, has
devoted herself through a long and busy life to philanthropic
and educational labors. It was chiefly through her instrumen-
tality that the kindergarten was introduced into this country.,
She has written much upon this and kindred subjects, being one
of the few close interpreters of Froebel's system of child-devel-
opment.

The Poet Channing,who has lived in town for forty years,
was a friend of Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau ; of the last
he has written a biography, as well as many other books in
prose and verse, the best of which, " Near Home," is a poetical
guide book of Concord.

Thoreau was born in Concord on the 12th of July, 1817,
and graduated at Harvard College in 1837. Having a distaste
for all professions he worked at the manufacture of lead pencils
until he had made one which was pronounced perfect by the
chemists and dealers, and fully equal to the best of foreign
manufacture, and then said he would make no more.

In writing of Thoreatt's Home let us try to go back to the
ancient Walden where Emerson walked through miles of his
own woods, and where the hermit poet and philosopher Thoreau
lived alone for over two years. Then Walden was a deep, well-
like pond without visible inlet or outlet, half a mile in length
and one and a half in circumference, wholly surrounded by hills
which rise from forty to one hundred feet in height, densely
covered with pine and oak trees.

The water of Walden is cool in all weather and so transpar-
ent that objects can be distinctly seen at a depth of twenty-five

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. ioi

feet. The pond rises and falls, but it is impossible to tell what
laws govern it, as it is often higher, in a drought than in a rainy
season. On the northern side is a high sand-bar which was
bare in 1825, but is now covered by about three feet of water,
behind which a pleasant cove extends for about twenty rods to
a gentle eminence on which stood Thoreau's house, built in
1845, of timbers which grew on the spot, covered with boards
which he brought from the shanty of an Irishman who had
helped to build the railroad. With the exception of a little
help in raising the frame, the house was the work of its owner
and cost about thirty dollars. It was a completely weather-
proof room, ten feet wide by fifteen long with a garret, closet,
door and window, with two trap doors in the floor, and a brick
chimney at one end.

Moving into this little house in 1845, Thoreau lived for eight
months, from July to the following May, at an expense of
eight dollars and seventy-six cents or about one dollar nine
cents per month. He cultivated a crop of beans to supply the
small sum needed for his daily wants, thus being able to devote
the greater part of his time to writing and study. He was a
sincere philosopher and wished to protest by his simple life and
habits against the folly of devoting much time to the demands
of society. He used to make long journeys on foot, thinking
it was cheaper and quicker than to devote the time to earning
money for his railroad tickets, as he could easily walk thirty
miles a day for weeks at a time. In this way he travelled over
much of New England. He has left interesting accounts of
these excursions, especially of his journeys through the Maine

102 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

woods and lakes, and to Mt. Katahdin and the other great
mountains which they contain. Often he wandered alone
through these grand old primeval forests ; at other times he
took an Indian guide or joined some roving band of savages
who welcomed him as a lover of nature, and taught him their
simple woodcraft, sometimes gliding for days in a birch canoe
like an autumn leaf on the gentle lakes, or down the foaming
rapids, and sometimes climbing rough mountain sides or scaling
dangerous precipices. He knew just what could best sustain
life, and travelled with as little baggage as possible. He could
content himself without food or water longer than even the
Indians, and was able to bear great extremes of heat and cold,
and made a variety of experiments upon his powers of
endurance. He is said to have slept one night in a barrel
buried in a snow-drift to ascertain the warmth of that kind
of comforter.

His walks about Cape Cod are full of interest, and are pub-
lished in a book, as are also his voyages on the Concord
and Merrimac rivers, which he carefully explored in an open
boat. He also wrote a book on Walden itself which contains
a chapter on wood sounds, which everybody who loves to be
out of doors ought to know by heart. Although rather shy
of strangers, Thoreau was always glad to welcome children to
his house, to walk with them through the woods, and teach them
to love nature as he did. He was noted late in life as a lecturer,
and was obliged to spend some of his evenings in city life, but
he was always glad to go back to the woods and was never
lonely when alone in their solitude. Living thus out of doors

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 103

he became a close observer, could tell the notes of all insects,
birds and animals, and the meaning which they wished to
express. He knew where all the scarce and curious flowers
grew, and discovered plants in Concord woods which no one
had ever seen there. He first found the climbing fern, and is
said to have discovered the red snow of the Arctic regions. He
was an earnest admirer of old John Brown, and made an elo-
quent address in his praise directly after his arrest at Harper's
Ferry ; although his townsmen doubted the advisibility of it at
the time as the current of public sentiment had not then begun
to turn strongly in favor of the old hero.

Thoreau was born in an old house ON the VIRGINIA BOAi>
which still stands, and he died on the 6th of May 1862, in the
house now owned by Mrs. Pratt, who lives there at present with
her father Mr. Alcott, and her sister Miss Louisa M. Alcott.

It is the intention of his friends to mark permanently the site
of Thoreau's home at Walden Pond with a monumental boulder
which will be put in position with appropriate exercises and
addresses by his friends.

The house of the Hon. Samuel Hoar stands near the
library on Main street. It is one of the most noted in Concord,
if literary and political interests are considered. Of the life
and character of its first proprietor, no description can exceed
the grand and simple statement of his epitaph, recorded in the
account of Sleepy Hollow. The same eulogy may be accorded
his daughter who accompanied him on his famous journey to
Charleston, when he was forcibly removed from the State by a

104 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

mob for attempting to test the legality of the imprisonment of
free colored sailors. He was himself a member of and sent two
sons to Congress, where one of them still continues his
fearless and devoted labors in that capacity. The house oppo-
site also sent the Hon. William Whiting to the same body, so
that four United States Congressmen were furnished from a
half acre of Concord ground.

The Hon. E. R. Hoar was born in this house, his mother
being the daughter of Roger Sherman. He graduated at Har-
vard College in 1835, was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas
from 1849 to 1855 ; Judge of the Supreme Judicial Court from
1859 to 1869; Atty. Gen. of the U.S. from 1869 to 1870;
Member of Joint High Commission which made the Treaty of
Washington with Great Britain, in 1871 ; Fellow of Harvard
College from 1858 to 1868 ; President of Board of Overseers of
Harvard College 1879 and 80; Presidential Elector 1872; Mem-
ber of the 44th Congress 1873 to 1875.

Among his printed works may be mentioned, Report of Con-
cord committee to build Soldiers' Monument, 1867 ; Address at
laying corner-stone of Memorial Hall at Harvard College, Oct.
6, 1870; Opinions in Massachusetts Reports from 13 Gray to 101
Mass.; Opinions as Attorney General of United States. He
was identified for years with the history of the town, whose
people depended on him as they did on his father. Judge Hoar
died in February, 1895. On the occasion of his funeral the
Old Church was crowded with distinguished people. He was
buried in the family lot in Sleepy Hollow.

The Orchard House, noted as having been for many years

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 105

the home of the Alcott family, stands on the old Boston road
about half a mile below the house of Emerson, and next to
The Wayside, the house once owned and occupied by Haw-
thorne.

Amos Bronson Alcott was born at Walcott, Ct., Nov. 29th,
1799. He went to school until he was thirteen years old, and
at the age of twelve began to keep a diary, a practice which he
has continued the greater part of the time since. Still earlier
he had read Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the book of all
others which had the greatest influence on his mind. He learned
to write by practising with chalk on his mother's kitchen floor
and became in his boyhood a skillful penman, so that his first
essay in teaching was as master of a writing school in Carolina.

At the age of fourteen, he worked for a while at clock
making at Plymouth, Ct., and in the same year went on an excur-
sion into northern Connecticut, and western Massachusetts, sell-
ing a few articles as he went, to meet the expenses of his
journey.

On a similar journey in Virginia, a few years afterwards he
was kindly received at the great houses of the planters, where
he received generous hospitality and permission to explore their
libraries, where he found many books he had never seen. Biog-
raphy was his favorite reading; then poems and tales; and
books of metaphysics and devotion.

His first school was in a district three miles from his home,
where he taught for three months for ten dollars a month,
and his board ; afterwards he taught a famous school at
Cheshire, Ct.

106 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

In January, 1828, he wrote a brief account of his method of
teaching, which attracted much attention. He continued this
system in a similar school in Bristol in the winter of 1827-8,
and then removed to Boston to take charge of an infant school
in Salem street, in June, 1828. In the following April, he
opened a private school near St. Paul's church on Tremont
street, in which he remained until November 5th, 1830, when
he gave it up to open a school in German town, near Philadel-
phia, where with his associate, Mr. W. Russell, he remained a
little more than two years. On the 22d of April, 1833, he
opened a school in Philadelphia, which continued until July,
1834, soon after which, September 22, 1834, Mr. Alcott returned
to Boston and there began his famous Temple school, concern-
ing which so much has been written and published.

He first gave his pupils single desks, now so common, instead
of the long benches and double or three-seated desks, still in
use in some sections. He gave his youthful pupils slates and
pencils, and blackboards. He established a school library, and
taught them to enjoy the benefits of careful reading ; he broke
away from the old rule of severe and indiscriminate punish-
ments, and substituted therefor appeals to the affections and the
moral sentiment of children, so that he was able almost wholly
to dispense with corporal punishment. He introduced, also,
light gymnastic exercises, evening amusements at the school-
room, the keeping of diaries by young children, and, in general,
an affectionate and reverent mode of drawing out the child's
mind towards knowledge, rather than the pouring in of instruc-
tion by mechanical or compulsory processes.

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 107

Among the eminent women who took an interest in his school
maybe named (besides Miss Martineau), Miss Margaret Fuller,
Miss Elizabeth Peabody, her sister, the late Mrs. Hawthorne,
and others. Both Miss Fuller and Miss Peabody were assistant
teachers in the Temple school at Boston, and Miss Peabody
compiled the accounts of it which were published under the
title of " Record of a School," and " Conversations with Chil-
dren on the Gospels."

Mr. Alcott was one of the originators and members of the
somewhat famous Transcendental Club, which met under various
names, from 1836 to 1850. It was first called " The Sym-
posium," and met originally on the 19th of September, 1836,
at the house of George Ripley, then a minister in Boston. In
the October following, it met at Mr. Alcott's house (16 Front
street), and there were present Mr. Emerson, George Ripley,
Frederic H. Hedge, O. A. Brownson, James Freeman Clarke,
and C. A. Bartol. The subject of conversation that day was
" American Genius ; causes which hinder its growth." Two
years' later, in 1838, we find it meeting at Dr. Bartol's in
Chestnut street, Boston, where of late years the " Radical
Club" often gathered; there were then present Mr. Em-
erson, Mr. Alcott, Dr. Follen, Dr. C. Francis, Theodore Par-
ker, Caleb Stetson, William Russell, James Freeman Clarke,
.and John S. Dwight, the famous musical critic. The topic
discussed was "Pantheism." In September, 1839, there is
record of a meeting at the house of Dr. Francis, in Water-
town, where, besides those already mentioned, Margaret Fuller,
William Henry Channing, Robert Bartlett, and Samuel J. May,

108 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

were present. In December, 1839, at George Ripley's, Di
Channing, George Bancroft, the sculptor Clevenger, the artist-
poet C. P. Cranch, and Samuel G. Ward, were among the com-
pany. These names will give some notion of the nature of the
Club, and the attraction it had for thinking and aspiring persons.
In October, 1840, we find Mr. Alcott in consultation with
George Ripley and Margaret Fuller, at Mr. Emerson's house,
in Concord, concerning the proposed community, which wTas
afterwards established at Brook Farm. In 1848, the Trans-
cendental Club became the " Town and Country Club," on a
wider basis, and in a year or two came to an end, having done
its work.

During this period of Transcendental agitation, from 1835 to
1850, Mr. Alcott gradually passed through the various degrees
of his progress as a reformer. In 1835, he gave up the use
of animal food, and the next year invited Dr. Sylvester
Graham to lecture in his school. Still earlier he had joined
the Anti-Slavery society, when founded by William Lloyd Garri-
son, and he was present at many of the celebrated gatherings
of abolitionists — for instance at the Lovejoy meeting in Faneuil
Hall, in 1837, when Wendell Phillips made his first appearance
as an anti-slavery orator.

In company with Charles Lane, he examined estates in order
to choose one for the proposed community, and finally Lane
bought the u Wyman Farm," in Harvard, consisting of ninety
acres, with an old farm-house upon it, where Mr. Alcott and
his family, with Mr. Lane and a few others, took up their resi-
dence in their new home " Fmitlands ; " which experiment was

MR. ALCOTT'S HOME.

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

HO USES OF LITER A R Y INTEREST. 1 1 1

not a financial success. He finally abandoned the farm, in
poverty and disappointment, about the middle of January,
1844. The lesson thus taught was a severe one, but Mr. Alcott
looks back upon it as one of the turning points in his life.
From that day forward, he has had less desire to change the
condition of men upon earth than to modify and enlighten
their inward life. He soon after returned to Concord, and in
1845 bought a small farm there with an old house upon it,
which he rebuilt and christened " Hillside." A few years later
when it passed into the hands of Nathaniel Hawthorne, he
changed the name to " Wayside." It is the estate next east of
the Orchard House in Concord. At " Hillside " Mr. Alcott
gardened and gave conversations, and in the year 1847,
while living there, he built in Mr. Emerson's garden, not
far off, the unique summer house which ornamented the grounds
until within ten years past, when it decayed and fell into ruin.
In 1848 he removed from Concord to Boston, and did not return
until 1857. Since then he has lived constantly in Concord.

In 1858 he became the Superintendent of the Public Schools
of Concord, and wrote very admirable reports of them.

He for a few years published many essays, poems, and conver-
sations in the Boston Commonwealth and The Radical, between
1863 and 1868, and in the last-named year brought out a modest
volume of essays entitled "Tablets." This was followed, in
1872, by another volume styled "Concord Days," and still other
volumes have since appeared. Mr. Alcott has been pressed to
write his autobiography, for which his journals and other
collections would give him ample material, and it is to be hoped

112 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

he will apply himself to this task. Should the work include
his correspondence with contemporaries, it would be of ample
bulk and of great value.

At all times he was enamored of rural pursuits, and he prac-
ticed gardening with zeal and success. His Orchard House
estate, of a few acres only, was laid out and for years cultivated
by himself. It was a favorite theory of Mr. Alcott's through all
this period of agitation and outward activity, that he could prop-
agate his ideas best by conversations. Accordingly, from 1839
to the present time, a quarter of a century, he has held conver-
sations on his chosen subjects, and in many and widely separated
parts of the country. In later times he has visited and spoken in
the schools wherever he happened to be lecturing or conversing,
particularly at the West, where he has been warmly welcomed
in his annual tours. His home has been at all times a center
of hospitality, and a resort for persons with ideas and aspira-
tions. Not unfrequently his formal conversations have been
held there ; at other times in the parlors of his friends, at
public halls or college rooms, or in the chambers of some club.
Mr. Alcott has held opinions and engaged in enterprises, during
his lifetime, which would not have commanded the entire
approbation of his townsmen, had they been called to pass
judgment upon them ; but with the general result of his long
and varied life, neither they nor he can have reason to be dis-
satisfied. He has not accumulated riches, nor attained political
power, nor made labor superfluous and comfort cheaper by
ingenious mechanical inventions. But he has maintained, at all
times and amid many discouragements, the Christian doctrine

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 113

that the life is more than meat, and that the perishing things of
this world are of small moment compared with things spiritual
and eternal. He has devoted himself, in youth with ardor, in
mature and advancing years with serene benevolence, to the
task of improving the hearts and lives of men, by drawing
their attention to the sweetness of philosophy and the charm
of a religion at once contemplative and practical. There is no
higher work than this, and none that leaves so plainly its
impress on the character and aspect of him who spends a life-
time in it.

Mrs. Alcott was a daughter of Col. Joseph May, of Boston,
and was born in that city, October 8, 1800. The Rev. Samuel
J. May, of Syracuse, whose memoir has been quoted, was her
elder brother, born 1793. It was at his parsonage house in
Brooklyn that she first met Mr. Alcott, in 1827, when he was
teaching school in Cheshire, and it was largely on her account
and through the efforts of her family and friends that he went
to Boston, in 1828, and took charge of the Salem street infant
school. They were married May 23, 1830, and resided in
Boston until their removal to Germantown in the following
winter. Their oldest daughter Anna Bronson, now Mrs. Pratt,
(the mother of Miss Alcott' s " Little Men ") was born at
Germantown, March 16, 1831, and Miss Alcott herself (Louisa
May) was born at Germantown, Nov. 29, 1832, A third
daughter, Elizabeth Sewall, was born in Boston, June 24, 1835,
and died in Concord, March 14, 1858. Miss May Alcott, the
youngest of the four daughters, a well-known artist, was
born in Concord, July 26, 1840, and died in Paris in December

H4 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK,

1879, having earned great fame as an artist, especially in her
copies of Turner's pictures, in which one of the greatest critics
of England pronounced her unsurpassed. She lived for a time
in London and Paris, where she won hosts of friends, and several
art prizes in the exhibitions. She married Mons. Nieriker, and
died after a short illness deeply lamented, leaving a daughter
Louisa.

The eldest of the four sisters, Anna Bronson Alcott, named
for her grandmother, was married May 23, 1860, the anniversary
of her mother's wedding day, to Mr. John B. Pratt, of Concord,
a son of Minot Pratt, one of the Brook Farm community in
former years, and afterwards an esteemed citizen of Concord.
Their children are the famous " Little Men " — Frederick
Alcott Pratt, born March 28, 1863, and John Sewall Pratt,
born June 24, 1866. Mrs. Pratt was left a widow by the
sudden death of her husband Nov. 27, 1870, and has since
resided much of the time, with her two sons, at her father's
house in Concord.

Miss Louisa May Alcott, the popular writer of humorous
and pathetic tales, owes her training, and thus her success in
writing, to her father and mother more than to all the world
beside. Her instruction for many years came almost wholly
from them, and though her genius has' taken a direction
quite other than that of Mr. Alcott (guided strongly by her
mother's social humor and practical benevolence), it still has
many traits of resemblance ; while the material on which it
works is largely drawn from the idyllic actual life of the
Alcott family. It can scarcely be remembered when Miss

A. BRONSON ALCOTT.

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST.

115

Alcott did not display the story-telling talent, either with her
voice or with her pen. Her first book was published twenty-five
years ago, and was written several years before that.
For a long period afterwards she contributed copiously to
newspapers and periodicals of no permanent renown, though
some of the pieces then written have since appeared in her
collection of tales. Her first great success as a writer was
in 1863, when, after a brief experience as an army nurse,
followed by a long and almost fatal illness, she contributed
to the Boston Commonwealth those remarkable "Hospital
Sketches." These were made up from her letters written home
during her army life, and bore the stamp of reality so strongly
upon them, that they caught at once the popular heart. They
were re-printed in many newspapers, and in a small volume, and
made her name known and beloved all over the North. From
that time forward she has been a popular writer for the periodi-
cals, but her great success as an author of books did not begin
until she found a publisher of the right quality in Mr. Thomas
Niles, of the Boston firm of Roberts Brothers, who have now
published all her works for ten years. Within that time the
" Little Women " and their successors have been published, and
the sale of all her books has exceeded a quarter of a million
copies. Her earliest novel, " Moods," published in 1864, by A,
K. Loring, of Boston, did not at first command much attention,
but many thousand copies have since been sold. Her second nov-
el u Work," was published by Roberts, in the summer of 1873,
and at once had a great sale, both in America and in Europe.
Many of her books have been translated into French and Ger-

Ii6 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

man, and there are now few living authors whose works are
so universally read.

Dr. W. T. Harris, the well-known writer on philosophic
and educational topics, purchased the Orchard House of
Mr. Alcott in 1884. He was attracted to this town by
his interest in the Concord School of Philosophy, of which
he was one of the original founders. Dr. Harris still de-
votes himself to the interests of education, on which theme
he delivers lectures at the conventions held in different parts
of the country. He was superintendent of the St. Louis
Public Schools for twelve years, and his annual reports were
greatly esteemed as education documents and received hon-
orable mention at the World Exposition at Paris and
secured for him the honorary title of "Officer of the
Academy " from the French Minister of Education. Dr.
Harris founded, in 1867, and still edits, The Journal of Specu-
lative Philosophy, the first periodical devoted to its special
theme in the English language. Besides these works he
has also published many articles in the North American
Review, Atlantic Monthly, and the educational journals of
the country. Dr. Harris was also associate editor of
Johnson's Cyclopaedia, writing for it forty of the more
important articles on philosophic subjects. In 1878 he
compiled and edited the Appleton's School Readers which
have had an immense sale in all parts of the United
States. In the grove back of the Orchard House Dr.
Harris has erected a tower around the tallest pine on
the crest of the hill with safe stairs ascending to the top

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 117

from which fourteen of the mountains of Massachusetts
and New Hampshire can be seen.

The house of F. B. Sanborn is now situated at the
upper part of Main street at the bend of the river near
the stone bridge. Mr. Sanborn came to Concord in March,
1855, the year of his graduation at Harvard College. He lived
in the house opposite Thoreau, (then the residence of Ellery
Channing,) and took his dinners at the same house with Thoreau,
and became a frequent companion of his daily walks and rows
on the river.

He started the Concord School which lasted eight years,
at which were several pupils now noted in literature. He be-
came interested in John Brown, whom he first brought to
Concord in 1857, and who made his celebrated Kansas speech in
March of that year, in which his simple eloquence inspired the
citizens to open their hearts and purses for the relief of Kansas.
He passed a portion of his last birthday, May 9th, 1859, at Mr.
Sanborn's house, leaving at noon for his noted campaign in Vir-
ginia, having spoken at the Town Hall on the previous evening.
Funeral services of great impressiveness were held on the death
of John Brown, Dec. 2d, 1859, for which the hymn was written
by Mr. Sanborn, and addresses were made by Emerson, Thoreau,
and others. During the progress of these exercises Rev. E. H.
Sears wrote his celebrated and prophetic ode to the memory
of the old hero.

On account of his complicity and supposed knowledge of
the plans of John Brown, Mr. Sanborn was summoned to appear
to testify before a committee of the U. S. Senate, of which

n8 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

Mason of Virginia, was the chairman. On his refusal to comply
with this demand, the United States Marshal with four men came
to his house, and after calling him out on a false pretence, hand-
cuffed him and would have carried him away, had not his sister
by her vigorous attack upon the men and their horses prevented
them until her outcries had summoned a crowd of his infuriated
fellow-citizens to his aid. Judge Hoar issued a writ of habeas
corpus, upon which he was discharged the next day by Judge
Shaw of the Supreme Court. On his return home the same
day, April 4th, he was received by his townsmen with a salute
of cannon and other testimonials of rejoicing, and a public meet-
ing was held at which Col. Higginson and others made congrat-
ulatory remarks. Mr. Sanborn became an editor of the Com-
monwealth in 1863, and left it in 1868 to become an editor of the
Springfield Republican, with which paper he is still connected.
In 1863 he was appointed by Gov. Andrew, Secretary of the
Board of State Charities, in which Board he continued for
twelve years, and with Dr. Howe, Dr. Wheelwright and others,
reorganized the whole charitable system of the State, introducing
many changes which have since been widely copied.

For many }^ears he has been a contributor to Scribners Monthly,
for which he wrote the illustrated article on Emerson ; and
an occasional writer in the Atlantic Monthly, in which his most
noticeable papers were those on John Brown, upon whose biog-
raphy he is now engaged. To this work he proposes to devote
his best energies in order to make it worthy of its subject. His
home has often given shelter to fugitive slaves, and once was the
place of concealment of ^wo of John Brown's soldiers, when a

HOUSES OF LITER AR Y INTEREST, 1 19

large reward was offered for their apprehension. He was one
of the founders and Secretary of the Social Science Associ-
ation, and, with Mr. Alcott, originated the Concord School of
Philosophy.

Of the many distinguished writers, who have from time to
time made Concord their home, William S. Robinson (" War-
rington") is one of the very few who were born in that
rare old town. His ancestors were of English and Welsh
descent, and on both the father's and mother's side, had lived
there for two generations.

Lieut. Col. John Robinson, who " led the soldiers in double
file," on the famous 19th of April, 1775, was a brother of Mr.
Robinson's grandfather. His maternal grandfather, Lieut.
Emerson Cogswell, (a descendant of one of the ancestors of
Mr. R. W. Emerson) was one of the minute men of Concord,
and a member of the Committee of Public Safety of that town
during the revolution. This committee afterwards became the
" Social Circle," and Mr. Cogswell was one of its founders.

Mr. Robinson was born Dec. 7, 1818, in what is now called
the " old block," (near the Unitarian church) once his grand-
father's homestead. He was educated in the public schools
of the town, and at seventeen years of age began to learn
the printer's trade. When twenty-one, he became editor
and proprietor of the Yeoman's Gazette, afterwards called the
Concord Bepubliean. In 1842, the Republican was merged in
the Lowell Courier and Journal, and Mr. Robinson moved to
that city, and became one of ite editors. Subsequently he was
the editor of the Boston Daily Whig, and the Boston Republi-

120 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

can, leading free-soil newspapers of 1848-9. For nearly four
years he edited and published a free-soil and anti-slavery news-
paper which he had started in Lowell, called the Lowell
American. He wrote letters and articles for the Boston Com-
monwealth, the Atlas and Bee; the New York Tribune, the
Evening Post, and many of the other leading newspapers in
the country.

He was one of the founders of, and leaders in, the free-soil,
and republican party. For twenty years, during the fiercest of
the anti-slavery struggle, and the war of the rebellion, he
wrote for the Springfield Republican. It was through his
letters to this newspaper, that he became known as the re-
nowned war correspondent, and made famous his nom de plume
of " Warrington." In all his writings, he advocated the
freedom of the slave, personal and political purity, and the
equal rights of woman. One of his most distinguished con-
temporaries in the field of journalism said of him : " He was
the sharpest, steadiest, truest journalist, in all the mighty battle
for freedom." He was Secretary of the Constitutional Con-
vention of 1853, and eleven years Clerk of the Massachusetts
House of Representatives.

His published works are, Warrington's Manual of Parliamen-
tary Law ; The Salary Grab ; and a volume of selections from
his writings, (Warrington Pen Portraits, with a Memoir by Mrs.
Robinson) published after his death.

He died March 11th, 1876, and lies buried in Sleepy Hollow
Cemetery.

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST, 121

William W. Wheildon was born in Boston. He was
educated in the public schools, and when he was a boy, dur-
ing the sickness of one of the carriers, used to distribute
around the west end of the town the New England Palla-
dium. In 1822 he went to Haverhill, as an apprentice
to the printing business, with Nathaniel Greene ; returned to
Boston with him, and assisted in the issue of the first num-
ber of the American Statesman. In 1827 Mr. Wheildon
established the Bunker Hill Aurora, at Charlestown, and
continued its proprietor and editor until September, 1870,
more than forty years. A complete file of the Aurora for all
these years is now in the public library at Charlestown, and
contains the material for a full and complete history of the
town during that period. In 1846 Mr. Wheildon moved to
Concord, where he died in 1892, and where he wrote many
valuable scientific works.

Mr. G. W. Curtis lived in Concord for two years, and she
is proud to claim him also as a native. He was born in
Providence, R. I., Feb. 24th, 1824, and came to Concord in
1844 and remained over two years, working a part of each
day on a farm, and devoting the rest of his time to study.
After a long journey in the Levant, he published, in 1851-52,
his exquisite pictures of Oriental life, entitled " Nile Notes
of a Howadji, " " The Howadji in Syria ; " and " Lotus Eat-
ing," " Prue and I," " Trumps," and other books have since
been published, and with his editorial work in Harper's Weekly,
and in the " Easy Chair " of Harper s Magazine, have well
earned for him the distinction of being " one of the clearest

122 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

and tersest writers of the day." As a lecturer, he was seldom
equalled for brilliancy, grace, and polish, while his fame as a
political and< patriotic orator is unsurpassed. For this reason
he was often selected to deliver the oration at the dedication
of the principal Soldiers' Monuments in many parts of the
country.

He was chairman of the first civil service commission, and
was one of the most interested and influential workers in
that reform. He died Aug. 31, 1892.

On the other side of Main street is the birthplace of the
Hon. William Whiting, who graduated at Harvard College in
1833, and began the practice of the law in 1838. His prac-
tice soon became so extensive and varied that the Court of
Common Pleas was often humorously called Whiting's Court.
He soon turned his attention chiefly to patent cases, of which
he studied the mechanical details so closely, as to be able to
instruct his clients upon practical defects in their inventions
as well as upon the law. In 1862-65 he was the solicitor of
the War Department, in which office his services, which he
gave gratuitously, were of immense importance to the coun-
try at its most critical need. He was president of the New
England Historic Genealogical Society from 1853-58, and a
member of many of the societies in the United States de-
voted to antiquarian and similar researches. He has left over
thirty published works on legal and historic topics, and his
work on the " War Powers of the President " has passed
through forty-three editions in this country and abroad. He
was elected to Congress \\\ 1872, but died in June. 1873,
before taking his seat.

HO USES OF LITER A R Y INTEREST. 123

Hon. George Frisbie Hoar, who was born in Concord, August
29th, 1826, graduated at Harvard, and settled in Worcester in
1849, where he has since resided. He had perhaps the largest
practice in Massachusetts west of Boston, being extensively
retained in the conduct of important cases.

He was a member of the Legislature in 1852, and chairman
of committee of probate and chancery. In 1857 of the State
Senate, and chairman of the committee of the judiciary.

He was elected representative from Worcester to XLL, XLIL,
XLII., and XLIV. Congresses, declined re-election to XLV.,
but was elected to the U. S. Senate to succeed Geo. S. Bout-
well, and took seat March 5th, 1877.

He was author of the bill to extend national education in the
South, which passed the House, but was not acted on in the
Senate. Chairman of committee of House of Representatives
in 1875, at request of Legislature of Louisiana, to investigate
election returns of 1884, and wrote report of a part of the com-
mittee, consisting of W. A. Wheeler (vice-pres.), W. P. Frye
of Maine, and himself. One of the managers of the Belknap
impeachment in 1876, selected by his associates to argue the
question of jurisdiction, the only serious legal difficulty in-
volved in the trial. Member of the committee which formed
the Electoral Commission Bill of 1876 ; and one of the few
Republicans in the House who advocated the measure, and
was chosen a member of the commission. One of the founders
of the Worcester Free Institute.

The Rev. Grindall Reynolds was settled as pastor of the
Unitarian society on the 8th of July, 1858. His house stands

124 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

on Main street, and is partially shaded by a magnificent elm.
His garden abounds in flowers and fruit, and the Sudbury Riyer
flows at its foot. On the banks of the river grows a beautiful
clump of willows, under which several boats are moored. As
before stated, Mr. Reynolds is a close student of history, and
has made many valuable contributions to magazines and books
on that and kindred subjects. For full information on the his-
tory of Concord, and the important part taken by her citizens in
the Shays Rebellion, of which it is not in the province of this
little book to treat (as it is a guide-book, not a history), readers
are referred to Mr. Reynolds's able paper on Concord in Drake's
book, and to his pamphlets on Shays's Rebellion and Concord
Fight, which are considered the most able and exhaustive
papers on these subjects ever published. He has at various
times published, in the Atlantic and other magazines, articles
of historical interest, a partial list of which is given.

A discourse on leaving the old meeting-house at Jamaica
Plain.

A discourse on the death of Gen. Zachary Taylor, July
21st, 1850.

A lecture before the American Institute of Instruction ;
Moral Office of the Teacher; Parish Organization; John Cal-
vin ; Rationale of Prayer ; Mexico ; Fortnight with the Sani-
tary Commission ; English Naval Power and English Colonies ;
French Struggle for Naval and Colonial Power; Saints Who
have had Bodies ; Late Insurrection in Jamaica ; Borneo
and Rajah Brooke ; Abyssinia and King Theodore ; Concord
Fight; Siege of Boston; From Ticonderoga to Saratoga; Our

HOUSES OF LITER AR Y INTEREST. 1 25

Bedouins, and What shall We do with Them? The New
Religion.

William Munroe was born in Concord, Mass., June
24th, 1806.

His father, William Munroe, was a descendant of the Mun-
roes of Lexington, of Revolutionary fame, and was himself
worthy of note as the first, and for many years the only, manu-
facturer of lead pencils in the United States.

His mother was of the Greenough family of Boston, and
daughter of Capt. John Stone, architect and builder of the
first bridge connecting Charlestown with Boston.

William was the eldest of nine children. He was, in his
youth, conscientious, earnest, generous, and reliable ; and
these, added to strict integrity, unfailing industry, and marked
unselfishness, were his ruling characteristics through all his
business career, and to the close of life. As was recorded by
one of his friends : " During his long life he was noted for
his many acts of disinterested kindness; his career as a busi-
ness man was most honorable ; he was straightforward in all
his dealings ; while those who enjoyed his friendship found in
him purity of purpose which gave a charm to his quiet life."

He had a delicate constitution ; and although prepared to
enter college when quite young, a student's life was not
considered advisable for him, and at the age of fifteen he
entered a store in Boston, where he soon gained the confi-
dence of his employers, and very early was intrusted with
the care of purchasing goods in New York and in Europe,
and subsequently became a partner in the firm. He was

126 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

afterwards engaged in business with parties in England and
this country, and finally became a member of the firm of
Little, Alden, & Co., Boston. He was one of the prime
movers in establishing the " Pacific Mills " at Lawrence, Mass.,
to the interests of which he gave the last few years of his
business life.

In 1861 his health failed, and he was obliged to retire from
active business. After an extended tour through Europe,
he returned to Boston where he resided until 1876.

He devoted much of his time during the last years of his
life to making plans for the benefit of his native town, and
especially for the erection and endowment of a Free Public
Library, which he lived to see completed as it now stands;
and plans for the future addition of an Art Museum, etc.,
gave him occupation and delight during the many weeks
and months of severe bodily suffering which he was called
to bear, and which terminated his life. He died at the home
of his sisters, in Concord, April, 27th, 1887, at the age of
seventy-one.

The Concord Grape, now so well known all over the
country, may properly be mentioned in this connection. This
grape was produced by the scientific process of hybridizing, by
Mr. Ephraim Bull of Concord. It is believed to be a cross
between the Isabella and the native wild grape, from which it
was obtained. The grapes prior to this in Massachusetts were
the Isabella, Catawba, Diana, and one or two others, all of which
were more or less uncertain in ripening their fruit, as they are
at the present time. The Concord was introduced to the public

HOUSES OF LITERARY INTEREST. 127

in 1855, and immediately became very popular, not only in New-
England, for which it was specially fitted by its early ripening,
but all over the country. Nursery-men everywhere multiplied
the plants as fast as they were able, and in a few years there
were thousands of vines all over the country, as there are now
millions of them, in the numerous vineyards of the South and
West.

In 1852, Mr. James S. Lippincott of New Jersey, in the Agri-
cultural Report of that year, remarks that many hardy northern
grapes " find in lower latitudes and warmer zones a more con-
genial climate, and attain there a degree of perfection never
reached farther north. Thus the Concord is so highly esteemed
in some parts of the West, in lower latitudes, as almost to sur-
pass the Delaware." In some respects it does surpass the Dela-
ware, which rarely ripens in the New England States.

In 1868, in Iowa, 50,000 gallons of wine were made in Des
Moines county alone, and it was said, " the Concord is the favor-
ite grape, though many others are grown."

In Missouri, in 1868, it was said, " thousands of pounds of
grapes are now produced where one pound was grown twenty
years ago." " The Concord maintains its reputation in all parts
of the State." " The Concord with ample room, frequently pro-
duced one hundred pounds to the vine." Mr. Husmann "thinks
it will produce the wine for the masses ; a life and health inspir-
ing, gentle stimulant, destined to become the every-day drink
of the sturdy laborer, and supplant the fiery whiskey that has
been too long the national beverage."

In Wisconsin, in 1868, the Concord was the favorite variety \

128 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

and in Michigan, it was said, the Concord and Delaware were
the most extensively planted. In Ohio, the same year, 143,767
gallons of wine were produced, largely from the Concord grape.
It ripens early everywhere, and is admitted to be a good table
grape, and some years ago, all through the West and North-west,
was regularly sold to passengers at all the railroad stations east
of the Rocky Mountains. In the great region beyond the Mis-
sissippi, as well as throughout New York, the Lake Region,
Pennsylvania, and Virginia, there are thousands of acres of
vineyards and millions of vines. The nursery-men in the West-
ern States sell hundreds of thousands of vines, one, two, and
three years old, and in some years were not able to supply the
demand. It is entirely safe to say that no single fruit of any
kind ever produced has been received with such favor, given
such universal satisfaction, or been so widely spread, in our
own, and to a considerable extent in foreign countries.

CHAPTER VII.

FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

In its Free Public Library Concord feels a just pride.
To the visitor it is one of the first and most attractive points of
interest.

The Library building, though quite picturesque in appear-
ance, is of no positive order of architecture, but rather a com-
bination of the old and the modern styles. From every point
of view, it strikes the eye most pleasantly, and is a decided
ornament to the town. The front view is particularly attrac-
tive, suggesting a uroup of buildings rising successively one
above the other. It is situated in a central and beautiful
portion of the village, on the slightly elevated part of an

acre of land, triangular in shape, at the junction of Main and

129

130 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

Sudbury streets. A full description of the building would
require more space than can well be spared. The engraving
presents a good idea of its outward appearance from one point
of view.

The plans of the building, its construction, and the interior
fixtures were completed under the direction, and at the expense
of Mr. Wm Munroe, as a gift to his native town. The build-
ing and land adjoining were conveyed by him in trust to the
Concord Free Public Library, subject to certain conditions and
restrictions, as follows : " To forever keep and maintain there-
upon a building for a public library, for the use of the inhabi-
tants of Concord ; that no building shall ever be erected upon
the granted premises, except for the use of the public library,
as aforesaid ; and the ground not so used, to remain open for
light and air, and as an ornamental enclosure for the benefit of
the inhabitants of Concord, but without a right in said inhabi-
tants to go upon, or use the same, except for reasonable access
to said library, under such regulations as may be made by said
Corporation," etc.

The building was dedicated for the use of the library on the
1st of October, 1873, with ceremonies appropriate to the
occasion.

A circulating library has existed in Concord probably for a
longer period of time than in any other town in the United
States.

Most of the early settlers in Concord, were men of liberal
education and refinement, though, as with the Puritans gener-
ally, the religious sentiment predominated far above the intel-

FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 131

lectual. " The religious bias of our founders," says Mr.
Emerson, " had its usual effect to secure an education to read
the Bible and hymn-book, and thence the step was easy for
active minds to an acquaintance with history and with poetry."

In 1672, the town, by a committee, instructed the select men
to see " that care be taken of the Books of Martyrs and other
books that belong to the town, that they be kept from abusive
usage, and not be lent to persons more than one month at a
time." How long previous to this record, that little nucleus of
a library existed here, can only be conjectured, but as Bulkeley,
Flint, and others, brought with them from England quite
respectable sums of money, and personal property of various
kinds, no doubt those " Books of Martyrs," and other books
were among the effects brought into Concord by those religious
enthusiasts in 1635, and freely circulated, to keep alive the
sentiment which prompted them to seek this new home in the
wilderness, and to sustain all its trials.

During the next hundred years or more there were, no doubt,
other books added to this collection from time to time, but to
what extent is not known.

In 1786, a literary company was formed in the village, with a
collection " consisting of well-chosen books in the various
branches of literature " which were purchased by subscription.
In 1795, the Charitable Library Society was organized, and ot
the books of this Society, there is a copy of the catalogue now
in the Concord Alcove, printed in 1805, which has two hundred
and fifty volumes recorded. The members of this library
united with others in the organization of another, which was

1 32 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

incorporated in 1821. This was called the Concord Social
Library. In 1835, it had 1168 volumes on its shelves. No
records exist to enable us to give all the statistics we would
like in reference to the Social Library. It was owned by
shareholders, and supported by contributions ; the shareholders
paying a certain sum yearly, and others a larger sum, for the
privilege of taking out books, the money so contributed going
towards buying new books and paying expenses. In 1851, the
Social Library was merged into the Town Library. Two other
collections, the Parish Library and the Agricultural Library,
were afterwards added to the Town Libraiy which continued
in existence till the autumn of 1873. Its books were then
transferred to the present Concord Free Public Library.

The first annual report of the Town Library Committee
ending March 1st, 1853, represents the number of volumes re-
ceived from the Social Library to be 1,318, to which were added
during the previous year 199 volumes, 111 by purchase, and 88
by donation. The number of books taken out during that year
was 4,288, the largest number in one day being 80, and the
smallest five. A special appeal was made in this report, to the
friends of the library, for additional contributions, which how-
ever, was not responded to very liberally, for during the next
year, only 18 books were presented, 131 others were purchased,
making the whole number 1,663. When the Social Library con-
veyed its property to the town, it bound the latter by contract
to raise annually the largest sum allowed by law. The amount
so raised in 1853 was $141.75. The number of books taken
out the following year is not reported, but the use of the library,

FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 133

the committee say, was " constant and increasing." In 1856
the committee reported with some exultation, that " 295 vol-
umes a month have been taken out, on an average throughout
the year." The report of 1858 says " the interest of the peo-
ple in the library continues without abatement."

The amount appropriated by the town, varied but slightly
from year to year up to 1860, when the law seems to have been
changed authorizing towns to appropriate fifty cents each of the
ratable tolls, instead of twenty-five cents as had previously been
the law. The whole number of volumes in the library in 1860
was 2,762. With the larger appropriations from 1860, the
library increased in a greater ratio from year to year up to the
time immediately preceding its transfer to the present Free
Public Library, Oct. 1st, 1873, when the number of the volumes
was 6,887.

Previous to the opening of the new library building, an ap-
peal was made to citizens of the town, to natives who resided
elsewhere, and to all lovers of old Concord, for donations of
books, etc., the great object being to bring the number of books
up to what is termed a first-class library, viz: 10,000 volumes.
Such was the interest and enthusiasm excited by this appeal,
that money, books, pamphlets, coins, medals, busts and pictures
come in from all directions. There were one hundred and
nineteen donors. The totals of the gifts were as follows :
Money $3,570 ; books, 2,489 ; pamphlets, 1,360 ; three oil paint-
ings ; forty-eight heliotype impressions ; seven busts of promi-
nent men ; twenty medals ; five hundred and sixty-nine coins ;
ind seven autograph manuscripts. One lad}' sent a thousand

134 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK,

dollars ; Geo. Wm, Curtis sent a full set of his works. Jas. T.
Fields presented six autographs, viz ; original manuscripts of
« Dorothy Q," by O. W. Holmes; " The Cathedral," by J. R.
Lowell ; " Culture " by R. W. Emerson ; " Walking " by H. D.
Thoreau ; M The Brazen Serpent," by Nath'l Hawthorne, and an
address by J. L. Motley. Of the books presented, there were
many rare and valuable ones ; one old Bible printed in 1598
and other ancient and curious works covered with the wrinkles
of age, containing autographs of the Bulkeleys, the Emersons,
and the Ripleys of old.

Under these favorable circumstances, the new library com-
menced its career of usefulness, and its success has more than
realized the most sanguine expectations, " making," as Mr. Em-
erson said it would, " readers of those who were not readers,
scholars of those who only read newspapers and novels till
then," and greatly adding to the many attractions which make
Concord a desirable place of residence.

In the report of the Social Library in 1836, the committee
congratulated the public on its increased love of reading. It
says : " Judging by the number of books taken out, your com-
mittee are happy to state that the library has been useful during
the past year beyond all precedent." The number of books
given out that year was 2,438, a less number than is now fre»
quently given out in a single month.

On commencing its work Oct. 1st, 1873, the Concord Free
Public Library had upon its shelves nearly 10,000 volumes, ex-
cluding duplicates. Since that date up to March 1st, 1880, over
5,000 volumes have been added to the library, about half of

FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

135

which have been donations, and the others by purchase, making
the present number of volumes in the library a little over 15,-
000. Besides books, there are over 5,000 pamphlets.

The annual circulation since the opening of the new library
has averaged over 23,000. The largest number of volumes

THE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

given out in any one year is 26,000 and in any one month is
2,868, and the largest number in any one day 278.

A portion of the library room is devoted to reference books,
and conveniences for consulting them. About 5,000 volumes
are used here annually in addition to the circulation of the
lending library.

This seems a most extraordinary showing for a population of
less than 3,000. Nearly ten books for every man, woman and

I36 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

child ; and including the books used in the reference depart-
ment, more than ten to each person. It is doubtful if any other
library in any town or city in the world can make so favorable
a showing.

The reading room, which is separate from the library room,
is liberally furnished with magazines aud other periodicals, by
subscriptions and donations. By the last report March 1st,
1880, there were on the tables twenty-nine quarterly and
monthly magazines, twenty-four weekly and two daily papers.
The number of readers in this room varies from twenty to fifty
per day, which should also be added to the previous statement
of the reading capacity of Concord people.

From the commencement, the new library has been extremely
fortunate in securing and retaining the services of a very effici-
ent librarian, Miss Whitney. Much credit is due to her for the
interior arrangements and for the successful management of
the library. The catalogue of books compiled by Miss Whit-
ney is a most admirable one. All the books are alphabetically
arranged and classified under the names of authors, titles, and
subjects, with many cross-references. The books are all classi-
fied, each subject, and each division of a subject being by itself.

One alcove in the library is devoted exclusively to the books,
pamphlets, etc., relating particularly to Concord.

The reference department is a very important one. It in-
cludes many valuable books in all departments of learning. Its
advantages are seen every day, not only in connection with
general readers, but with scholars from the higher schools ;
words, technical terms* names, dates, and places in history,

FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY, 137

geography and science, and illustrations and references in fiction,
are made clear by the works in this section.

Since the opening of the new library to the present date, a
period of six years and five months, during which time over
one hundred and fifty-two thousand volumes have been given
out, not a volume has been lost or seriously injured, without
being replaced by the borrower.

The library is now supported by appropriations from the
town, and by income from a permanent fund donated and be-
queathed to the library by different individuals.

The library is open every day except Sundays and holidays,
from 9 to 12 A. M. and from 2 to 6 P. M., and on Saturday
evenings from 7 to 9 o'clock.

Visitors will be interested in the fine oil painting of Emer-
son, by David Scott of Edinburgh, painted in 1848; an oil
painting of Columbus copied from the portrait by Titian; a
copy of Stuart's Washington by Win. Marshall ; an engraving
of Emerson by Schoff, made from Rouse's crayon; a crayon of
Thoreau by Rouse ; a bust of Emerson by Gould ; bust of
Plato ; Miss Landor's bust of Hawthorne ; Richetson's bust
of Louisa Alcott ; Dexter's bust of Agassiz ; Gould's bust of
Mr. Munroe ; French's bust of Simon Brown ; a bust of Horace
Mann ; a picture of the old jail, drawn by a British officer im-
prisoned there ; the sword carried by Capt. Isaac Davis at the
Concord Fight; spontoon carried at the Concord Fight; scis-
sors with which the cartridges were cut ; and the anvil on which
guns were repaired previous to the Concord Fight.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE MONUMENTS.

The Monuments. The spot on which the British fought
has long been marked by a plain, granite monument, which
bears upon a tablet the following inscription written by Dr.
Edward Jarvis.

Here

on the 19th of April, 1775,

was made the first forcible resistance to

British Aggression.

On the opposite bank stood the American militia,

Here stood the invading army.

and on this spot the first of the enemy fell

in the War of the Revolution,

which gave In4ependence to these United States.

138

THE MONUMENTS.

139

In gratitude to God, and in the love of Freedom,

This monument was erected,

A. D. 1836.

For the side where the Americans fought, Mr. D. C. French,

a young sculptor of the town, has designed a bronze statue of

THE NORTH BRIDGE AND MONUMENT.

the Minute Man of the day, with wonderful truth and vigor of
action ; and it is visited daily by people who come from far and
near, and the bridge, which has been built by the citizens of the
town to copy the old North Bridge, is constantly being crossed
by every description of vehicle, conveying passengers to study
the details of the monument, as the costume of the expectant
soldier, the old-fashioned plough upon which he leans, and the
old flint-lock musket, which he grasps, are careful copies of the

i4o THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

originals from which the young artist made the closest studies.
Upon the granite base are cut the first lines of one of Emerson's
hymns. It has been well said, " Few towns can furnish a poet,
a sculptor, and an occasion."

As they pass over the bridge on their return, even the most
careless visitor pauses for a moment at the grave of the British
soldiers, who, for a hundred years, have lain on the spot where
they were hastily buried on the afternoon of the Fight, by two
of the Concord men who made a grave for them just where
they had fallen. No one knew their names, and they slept un-
wept, save by the murmuring pines, with the very same rough
stones from the wall which have been their only monuments for
one hundred years until at the last centennial celebration the
town caused this inscription to be cut on the stone which forms
a part of the wall, " Grave of British Soldiers." The avenue
of pine trees was set out by the citizens in one morning, as each
one brought and placed in the row a little sapling; and
some of the towns-people are now able to tell which tree was
planted by their ancestor. The two large trees which stood
near the river were in existence at the time of the battle.

The monument on the Common in memory of the soldiers
who fell in the late civil war was erected April 19th, 1867. It
bears on a bronze tablet the names of all the departed heroes
"who found in Concord a birthplace, home or grave." The
motto " Faithful unto death " is cut on the south side, and the
dates of the beginning and the end. of the war are on the north
side, Near it is an elm tree under which, according to tradition,

THE MINUTE MAN.

THE MONUMENTS. I43

the Rev. William Emerson delivered his famous speech on the
morning of the fight. A hundred years later, when the descen-
dants of the same men who fought that day returned from the
bloody battle-fields of the South, bearing in honor the same an-
cient names and assisted at the dedication of the monument to
their comrades who were " faithful unto death," the present Mr.
Emerson delivered an address, standing in the shade of the
same noble old elm, making true the lines in the ode sung on
that day :

" Beneath the shadow of the elm where ninety years ago
Old Concord's rustic heroes met to face a foreign foe,
We come to consecrate this stone to heroes of to-day,
Who perished in a holy cause as gallantly as they.

The patriot preacher's bugle call that April morning knew,
Still lingers in the silver tones of him who speaks to you,
As on their former muster fields called by its notes again,
Those ancient heroes seem to greet brave Prescott and his men.

And as each soldier saint appears to answer to his name,
Not one has dimmed the lustre of its old unconquered fame;
They, too, have left their peaceful fields for scenes of bloody strife
And death has changed to hallowed ground the fields they tilled in life.

The bronze and stone we proudly rear must surely pass away,
But deathless lives of dying braves can never know decay;
For freed from stain of slavery, our re-united land,
The soldier's proudest monument will ever firmly stand."

144

THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK,

An eloquent address was made upon this occasion by th«?
Hon. E. R. Hoar, who also made a speech of welcome to the
soldiers on their return, which is remembered with pride and
pleasure by all who heard it.

V..;.^

■••■■--.;'' — '":>?''.?

..••V-^-"'^"'^'''^

THE MONUMENT ON THE COMMON.

The 19th of April will ever be a memorable day in Concord,
not only as the anniversary of the first battle of the Revolution,
but because of its singular bearing upon the history of our whole
country ; for we learn from Palfrey that in June, 1602, Gos-
nold's ship, the Concord^ left America on her return. Eighty-

THE MONUMENTS. 145

six years after, on the 19th of April, Sir Edmund Andros was
imprisoned; eighty-six years after, on the 19th of April, the
battle of Concord was fought ; eighty-six years after, on the
f 9th of April, the first attack was made in Baltimore upon the
Northern forces on their way to Washington, and on the same
day the first company left Concord for Washington, composed
largely of descendants, bearing the names of the same men who
fought in 1775.

The Town Hall is behind the old elm, where the orators
before alluded to have spoken ; and next on the right is the
building formerly used as a Court House, behind which an old
gate stood, within the memory of some natives of the town,
which was the entrance to the field held in common by the forty
original holders.

The Grand Army of the Republic holds monthly meetings
in its hall on the Milldam. It is composed of veterans, many
of whom are the direct descendants of the minute-men of 1775.
This organization celebrates Decoration Day in an original man-
ner, and which attracts thousands of visitors yearly. It is
constantly employed in unostentatious works of charity.

CHAPTER IX.

THE STUDIO AND THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY.

The studio of Mr. Daniel Chester French stands in the
orchard of the farm of his father, Hon. H. F. French, not far from
the station of the Fitchburg Railroad. It was built in the year
1879 in the modified Queen Anne style, after a plan of his own.
It consists of two buildings united, the reception and the work-
ing room; the outside is finished to a height of ten feet in
olive-green mastic, over which round shingles of Venetian red
extend to the brown roof which rises to a height of nineteen
feet from the entrance, which is twelve feet.

The reception room is ornamented with antique furniture, and
decorated with tapestry and curtains and pieces of Kensington
r 146

Mr. French's Studio, where the Minute Man was modelled.

The Thoreau Corner, in the Antiquarian Rooms.

OF Tub-

MR. FRENCH'S STUDIO.

work. Endymion, Echo, and other statues, and bas-reliefs of
owls and other figures, are in this room, and the space by the
door is filled with a deep window-seat of a quaint and rich

mr. French's studio.

design, with a tasteful combination of colors; and the space
above it is filled by a bas-relief and Japanese and other orna-
ments. The work room contains The Minute Man in the original
plaster, his great group of Law, Prosperity and Power, busts of
Emerson and Judge French, and many models and works in vari-
ous stages of completion. Mr. French's earliest important

148 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK,

work, " The Minute Man," which as before mentioned,
stands on the scene of the Fight at the old North Bridge,
was completed in 1874, when he was twenty-four years old.
Before its dedication he went to Florence, Italy, to pursue his
studies, and while there, among other works of lesser note he
modelled his " Endymion." After his return to this country he
worked awhile in Washington, then in Boston, and in the
spring of 1879 permanently established himself in his dearly
loved town and built the studio.

His bust of Emerson, showing in the best light the ripe ma-
turity of the scholar, teacher and poet, is well worth the year's
work if nothing else had been done.

Mr. French's colossal designs of " Peace and Vigilance " and
" Law, Prosperity and Power," have been much admired, while
his portrait busts are very successful.

His swift advance in his twenty years' devotion to his art,
from the time when his first clay was given him by the lamented
May Alcott, to the day when his matured work, " Death and the
Sculptor," a memorial of Milmore, commanded praise from the
severest critics, is a warrant that his name and fame will be
inseparably linked with that of historic old Concord.

On Lexington Road, a few rods east of the public Square,
is the house of the Concord Antiquarian Society, one of the
oldest buildings now standing in Concord, and which was occu-
pied in 1775 by Reuben Brown, a saddler, who made cartridge
boxes and military equipments for the patriots, in his shop
(still standing) next west of his house. The shop was set on

THE STUDIO AND THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 149

fire by the British soldiers on April 19, 1775, but fortunately
was not destroyed.

In the year 1886 the house was purchased by the Concord
Antiquarian Society, and the antiquarian collection of Mr.
Cummings E. Davis, which the Society bought at about the
same time, was removed from its former place of storage in
the Court House, and tastefully arranged in its new quarters.
The collection had been half a century in the making, and is
very largely of objects of local interest, each of the old families
of Concord having contributed something in the way of furni-
ture, china, kitchen utensils, weapons, books, or the like.

As far as possible the house has been furnished as if it were
still occupied as a family residence, and the old kitchen espe-
cially, with its broad fireplace and high-backed settles, its wide
" dresser," covered with shining pewter, its churn and spinning-
wheel, and all the old-fashioned implements of housekeeping,
recalls "the good old colony times when we lived under the
King." There is china galore in every room of the house ;
spider-legged and claw-foot tables; stiff, hard, uncompromising
old chairs of the Provincial period, and the later and more
graceful productions of the Chippendale school; half a dozen
tall clocks, one of them once belonging to Dr. Jonathan Pres-
cott, who, his gravestone tells us, " married the amiable and
only daughter of the Hon. Col. Peter Bulkeley," almost two
hundred years ago; furniture from " the Old Manse," including
the study chair of the Rev. Daniel Bliss, the great-grandfather
of Emerson, and the chair of the Rev. Dr. Ripley, for more than
sixty years minister of Concord ; an old piano, one of the first

150 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

made in America ; antique, high-posted bedsteads ; ancient
chests-of-drawers, bureaus and mirrors, and all the thousand
and one articles of domestic utility or ornament of the days
long past. Here is a little cream pitcher once belonging to
Robert Burns, and a bit of tapestry from the bed-chamber of
Mary, Queen of Scots, cheek by jowl with one of Paul Revere's
lanterns, and a part of the ancient pewter communion service
of Concord's church. Here are weapons that have been borne
in every war in which New England has ever had a part, from
the early Indian wars to the great Rebellion ; and among them
the musket of a British soldier killed in Concord Fight, and the
sword of a grenadier then taken prisoner, absolutely the two
first British weapons captured in the Revolutionary war. Here
are the great tortoise-shell combs, the high-heeled shoes, the
fans, and the patch-boxes of long-forgotten belles ; the knee-
buckles, the snuff-boxes, and the iron-rimmed spectacles of seri-
ous old Puritans long since " gone to their reward," and the
arrow-heads, tools, and implements of the Indians whom they
supplanted.

One room in the house contains the desk of Henry D. Tho-
reau, his bed, his chairs, and many other of his personal belong-
ings. The house is kept closed during the winter months, but
for the greater part of the year it is open in the afternoons, a
small fee being charged to defray the expense of its care.

CHAPTER X.

VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS.

The Middlesex Mutual Fire Insurance Oo. was organ-
ized March 29, 1826. Its first President was the Hon. Abiel
Heywood, distinguished as a physician as well as for honorable
service in town and state, as in later life he turned his attention
from professional to public duties, and was Associate Judge of
the Court of Sessions, and as Justice of the Peace and Quorum
heard most of the cases in and about the town which were
within his jurisdiction ; he was also town clerk for a period of
thirty-eight years. He graduated in 1781, was married at the
age of sixty-two, and died Oct. 29, 1839, aged 80 years.
His monument of Scotch granite is one of the ornaments of
Sleepy Hollow, and his memory is cherished by his townsmen.
His son, George Heywood, holds the position of his father as

151

152 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

President of the Insurance Company, and was town clerk, the
books having been kept by them for over sixty-five years. He
has also been for seven years in the Massachusetts House of
Representatives and Senate, and was, also, a member of the
Governor's Council. The Company's Secretary and Treasurer
was the Hon. Nathan Brooks, whose upright character and wis-
dom made him the counsellor and guide of thousands, and his
genial wit and kindness of heart will make him long remem-
bered and loved. He was a successful lawyer, in which profes-
sion he was succeeded by his son, the Hon. George M. Brooks,
who was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representa-
tives and Senate, and United States House of Representatives,
and was, Judge of Probate. The present Secretary is Richard
Barrett, Esq., and the organization under the existing manage-
ment is one of the most powerful and trustworthy in the
State.

The Charitable Society has been successful in relieving
distress and almost exterminating pauperism from the town,
since 1814 to the present day, when it is more vigorous and
efficient than ever, being managed wholly by ladies.

The Fire Society was organized May 5, 1794. Each
member was obliged to keep in order a long ladder, and two
or more fire buckets in a convenient place, and many of the
latter are to be seen hanging in the entrys of the old houses.
The first fire engine was procured in 1794.

The B. 0. & W. Club has its room in Friends' block on
the Mill-dam. This Club was established in 1858, and was
" formed to promote social intercourse, and provide means of

THE SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY

VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 155

pleasant recreation among its members." Any gentleman is
eligible for membership. The club is limited to forty members.
The club-room is open, on week days only, from 9 a.m. to
11 P.M.

The Middlesex Agricultural Society held its first show
in Concord on the 11th of October, 1820, and formerly owned
a tract of land in the centre of what is now the area of Sleepy
Hollow. Upon the sale of this land to the town they pur-
chased the extensive grounds, and built the hall on Main street.

The School of Philosophy. It was opened in 1879 at
the Orchard House of Mr. Alcott, where the sessions were
held in Mr. Alcott's library and in the room adjoining, which
had been the studio of May Alcott, before she went abroad
in 1877, on that pilgrimage of art from which she was never to
return. For several years the sessions were held in a new hall,
still standing on the hillside west of the Orchard House, under
the pine-trees that crown the slope. It is a plain little struc-
ture, called " The Chapel," arranged for the convenience of the
school, but without luxury or ornament. Over its porch is
trained Mr. Aleott's largest grape vine, and on either side of
it shady paths lead by arbors to the hill-top.

The history of the Concord School of Philosophy, though
brief, is interesting, and dates back farther than the year of
its opening. So long ago as 1842, when Mr. Alcott (then
living at the Hosmer Cottage, where his daughter May was
born) visited England, he began to collect books for the library
of a school of the First Philosophy, to be established in some

156 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

part of New England. For this purpose Mr. James Pierrepont
Greaves, the English friend and disciple of Pestalozzi, who
died in March, 1842, bequeathed a collection of curious vol-
umes, which Mr. Alcott and an English friend, Charles Lane,
brought over from London and deposited in Concord. For
many years they have stood on the shelves in the Orchard
House, and they are now destined to form a part of the
library of the Concord School. In pursuance of his long-
cherished plan, Mr. Alcott, in 1878, arranged with his neigh-
bor, Mr. F. B. Sanborn, to make a beginning, and early in
the year 1879 a Faculty of Philosophy was organized infor-
mally at Concord, with members residing, some in that town,
some in the vicinity of Boston, and others at the West. In
course of the spring, the Dean of this Faculty, Mr. A. Bronson
Alcott, and the Secretary, Mr. Sanborn, issued a circular call-
ing the School together for a session of five weeks in July
and August.

Mr. Alcott, as Dean of the Faculty, opened the School on
the morning of July 15, 1879, with an address of welcome,
and closed it on the evening of August 16, with a valedictory
address.

The variety of subjects considered during the time that
the School existed, show that its scope was not a narrow
one ; and the wide diversity of opinion among those who
have spoken from its platform may serve as a guarantee that
no limitation of sect or philosophical shibboleth has been
enforced. The aim of the Faculty has been to bring together
a few of those persons who, in America, have pursued, or

MR. FRENCH'S BUST OF EMERSON.

VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 159

desire to pursue, the paths of speculative philosophy; to en-
courage these students and professors to communicate with
each other what they have learned and meditated ; and to
illustrate by a constant reference to poetry and the higher
literature.

This School was the last enterprise of a general character
in which Mr. Emerson engaged, and derived a portion of
its interest from his connection with it. This connection
was not very close, however, since its opening was delayed
until those later years of his life when he withdrew from an
active part even in conversation ; but he was fully cognizant
of its aims, and in the most friendly relation to its founders,
the chief of whom was Mr. Alcott. The last public meet-
ing in Hillside Chapel was the Memorial to Mr. Alcott in
May, 1888, on which occasion the building was crowded
with his friends, who united in paying loving testimony to
his talents.

The Concord Artillery was incorporated on Feb. 28, 1804.
It has a fine new armory on Walden street. The inscription
on their cannon is as follows:

"The Legislature of Massachusetts consecrate the names of Maj. John
Buttrick and Capt. Isaac Davis whose valor and example excited their
fellow citizens to a successful resistance of a superior number of British
troops at Concord Bridge the 19th of April 1775 which was the begin-
ning of the contest in arms that ended in American Independence."

This company formed a portion of the regiment under the
command of the gallant Col. Prescott which went from the
town to the seat of the Rebellion on the 19th of April, 1861,

160 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

and many of its members enlisted for the war and followed
him from Bull Run and the bloody field of Fredricksburg
to the victory of Gettysburg, and through the many engage-
ments between the Wilderness and Petersburg, where on the
18th of June he received a mortal wound and died the next
day. These verses were copied in his funeral oration :

" Deck out your hills old Concord in all your summer pride,
To welcome back your soldier who for Liberty has died.
Trail in the dust your weeping elms along the silent street,
And with pride and sorrow mingled, prepare your dead to meet.
For he loved the gentle river, with its calm and peaceful shore,
He loved the quiet village life, but he loved his country more ;
For he heard her earliest call for help, and answering to the cry,
Showed how a soldier ought to right, and a Christian ought to die.1"

The Institution of Masonry has always held a respectable
footing in Concord, and, in its history, numbers among its mem-
bers many of the most prominent citizens of the town. The
Corinthian Lodge was organized in 1797, under a charter from
the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts of the 16th of June, signed
by the M. W. Grand Master Paul Revere of Revolutionary
memory, and by Isaiah Thomas of equal historic eminence,
Grand Secretary. In the organization of the lodge, Rev. Dr.
Morse of Charlestown delivered the address, and at the dedi-
cation of the first hall, Nov. 13, 1820, a Masonic address was
pronounced by R. W. Benjamin Gleason, Grand Lecturer of
Massachusetts. W. Isaac Hurd was first Master, and Rev.
Dr. Ripley was one of the early initiates in 1798. Among the
Masters of the lodge may be mentioned the names of Francis

VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 161

Jarvis, Benjamin Ball, John Brown, John Keyes, William
Whiting, Ephraim H. Bellows, Louis A. Surette, George P.
How, and many others. Among its prominent members were
Abel Barrett, Abraham Skinner, Thomas O. Selfridge, Groves-
nor Tarbell of Lincoln, David Barnard, Gershom Fay, Nathan
Heald, Rufus Hosmer, Samuel Ripley, Calvin C. Damon,
Thomas Todd, Hartwell Bigelow, Samuel P. P. Fay (afterwards
Grand Master), and many others, including citizens of Acton,
Lincoln, Carlisle, Stow, Bedford, Chelmsford, Dracut, Weston,
Sudbury, and other towns. For many years the meetings were
held in the hall of the building used for a schoolhouse, and
afterwards as an engine house, opposite the Court House. In
1871, a new hall was erected on the main street in the village,
near the public Square, which was dedicated on the 26th of
February, 1872, when a Masonic address was delivered by R.
W. William Wilder Wheildon. The occasion was honored by
the presence of the officers of the Grand Lodge of Massachu-
setts, M. W. John J. Heard, Grand Master. The lodge is
now in a prosperous condition.

Walden Royal Arch Chapter, which was organized in 1874,
holds its monthly convocations in the new Masonic hall.

The Concord Bank was incorporated March 3, 1832. Daniel
Shattuck was the first President, and John M. Cheney Cashier.
Mr. Shattuck continued in office until October, 1860, when he
was succeeded by George Heywood. The bank re-organized
under the National Banking Act, Feb. 23, 1865, as the Concord
National Bank of Concord, retaining Mr. Heywood and Mr.
Cheney. Mr. Cheney died, Feb. 13, 1869, and was succeeded

162 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

by Henry J. Walcott and B. L. Fabens. Mr. E. C. Damon is
the present President of the Concord National Bank, and Mr.
Samuel Hoar is President of the Middlesex Institution for
Savings, the Treasurer of which is Mr. Henry J. Hosmer. For
the accommodation of the National and Savings Bank, a fine
brick building was finished in 1895.

Water Supply. Sandy Pond, from whence the water is
obtained which supplies Concord so abundantly, lies in the
neighboring town of Lincoln, two and a half miles from the
centre of Concord village. It is a beautiful sheet of water,
covering an area of one hundred and fifty acres at its mean
height, and varies only about two feet from its highest to its
lowest elevation. The pond is capable of furnishing half a
million gallons daily — enough for ten thousand inhabitants,
allowing fifty gallons each per day. The character of the
water is remarkable for its extreme purity, containing as it
does an unusually small quantity of mineral and organic mat-
ter in solution, there being only one and three-fourths grains
of solid matter in a gallon of the water. Prof. Goessmann says,
so far as he is able to determine, its analysis places the water
of Sandy Pond, as regards purity, first among all waters used
in this or any other country. The average impurities in the
waters from upwards of forty different sources in the United
States and Europe is 5.07 grains per U. S. gallon, the range
being from 1.77 for Concord to 16.38 for London. The mean
elevation of Sandy Pond above Main street is fully one hun-
dred feet, and when using hose, a stream can be thrown from
a hydrant to the top oi any building in town. Of all the bless-

VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 163

ings which Concord enjoys, this is certainly one of the purest
and best.

The Concord Lyceum was formed January 7, 1829, and
the Debating Society which had been in existence six years
was, united to it. Its organization consisted at first, of Presi-
dent, two Vice Presidents (all clergymen), two Secretaries, a
Treasurer, and three Curators, but for many years it has been
chiefly managed by two Curators.

Every lecturer of note in New England and New York
States has been heard before this organization, the most cele-
brated orators having made frequent addresses here, including
Beecher, Curtis, Gough, Whipple, Phillips, etc. On the occa-
sion of its centennial anniversary, Judge Hoar delivered a most
eloquent tribute to Emerson and others who had done much
to sustain and carry it on. In February of the year 1879, Mr.
Emerson delivered his one hundredth lecture before the
Lyceum. The hall was crowded with his townspeople, and
strangers who were attracted from Boston and other places, to
listen to him ; all were delighted to hear him speak with great
power, the lecture being, by every one, considered as one of
his best.

The Emerson School stands on the lot in the rear of the
present high schoolhouse, ending on Hubbard street.

The extreme length of the building is 106 feet, the depth
of the centre section 58 feet, and the depth of the two wings
44 feet. The centre section projects before the wings seven
feet on the east and west facades. The structure is a three-
story one, and the stone ashler underpinning is six feet high.

1 64 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

The brickwork of the first story is 10 feet high, and the wooden
second story 12 feet in height. The central roof, which is at
right angles to the wings is surmounted by a handsome spire,
which contains a belfry and ventilators. The entrance consists
of a 14-foot archway and recess with granite steps. This arch
has, for trimming, terra cotta casts and moulded bricks. A
roomy hall runs entirely through the centre of the building
crosswise. On each side, in both the first and second stories,
are convenient wardrobe rooms. The length of this hall is
57 feet, and the width 10 fe-et. There are eight schoolrooms,
four on each floor. In size 20 feet and 6 inches by 40 feet
and 6 inches, having a seating capacity of 56 pupils each.

It was first occupied in December, 1880, and cost, besides
the appropriation of 113,850, $500 contributed by Reuben N.
Rice and $500 by Edwin S. Barrett for the purpose of having
the first story of the structure built of brick instead of wood,
as was originally intended. The first-named donor also paid
for the weather vane. This account is condensed from that of
G. E. Harrington, Esq.

The building committee of the Emerson school house were
Samuel Hoar, John B. Tileston, and Henry J. Hosmer.

Among the peculiar institutions of Concord are the Clubs.

The Social Circle, the most venerable of these, was
founded about 1782, and probably grew out of the famous
Committee of Safety. It includes twenty-five of our most in-
fluential men, who sup together twenty-five times annually on
successive Tuesday evenings. After the death of any member
his memoir is read to the others and then preserved in manu-

VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 165

script. There has been only one instance of failure to do this,
and the member in question left town some time before his
death.

The Dramatic Club, which is the oldest to which both
ladies and gentlemen belong, was founded in 1875, has given
several excellent comedies and an operetta in the Town Hall,
and now occasionally reads plays at private houses to keep
itself in training for future triumphs.

The Saturday Club. Among the most interesting of our
literary and social meetings are those held by the Saturday
Club, which was founded by Mme. Nieriker, then Miss May
Alcott, on January 22, 1876, and has continued ever since to
assemble on alternate Saturdays, usually in the evening, at the
houses of the ladies and gentlemen composing it. There is a
large membership, and many guests have been invited to the
summer picnics, as well as to the so-called open clubs, before
which such visitors as Dr. Hedge, Dr. Peabody, Professor C. C.
Everett, Professor Davidson, Mr. C. D. B. Mills, and Rev. Wm.
J. Potter have read their essays. Memorial meetings were
held in January and February 1860, in honor of two of its
members recently deceased, one of these being its founder.

Concord's Home for the Aged was organized December
30, 1886, and in March, 1887, purchased a large house on
Walclen street, which it was enabled to do by the gift of
$20,000 from Miss Martha Hunt, in tribute to the memory of
her father. Under the efficient management of the principal
ladies of the town, it has done an excellent work in providing
a comfortable home for permanent residents of Concord.

CHAPTER XI.

LAKE WALDEN.

Lake Walden, or Walden Pond as it has always been
called in the good old days before the whistle of the railroad
engine gave place to the scream of the loon and honk of the
wild goose, is a pellucid basin of the purest water nestling
among low hills. Its rare and lovely beauty attracted alike
the poet, philosopher, and naturalist. Mr. R. W. Emerson loved
to ramble around it and was induced to purchase a large tract
which bordered upon it. Here he made his rustic study, and
wandering through its vistas mused upon the deep thoughts of
philosophy, and wove his subtle fancies which in essay and
poem have charmed students in two continents. In his poem
entitled "My Garden," Mr. Emerson has immortalized Walden
Pond, which is also reflected in many of his other works. Here

1 66

LAKE WALDEN. 169

he used to bring his children on Sunday afternoons, and thus
instilled into their young minds the love for nature which dis-
tinguished them in later life. The picturesque portion about
Thoreau's Cove is still owned by his family, and his youngest
daughter purchased Fairyland several years ago in order to
save its noble trees from the woodman's axe. This romantic
spot may be called a suburb of Walden, as it is only separated
by the width of a country road from Walden woods. Fairy-
land has a pretty pond embowered in trees, and a delicious
spring, cool and clear enough to have been patronized by
the fairies. It has always been a favorite haunt for the
children of the village, and many of the school children
have often used it as a play and picnic ground. Some
thirty years ago, the pupils of a well-known school used
to hold fairy masques and costume parties there, and if a
wayfarer had strayed in, he would have been surprised to
find himself in the centre of a fairy ring or gypsy carnival.
Now quiet citizens use it as a pleasant place for a summer
stroll ; and berrying parties in the summer, and nutting
excursions in the autumn, often visit it, and return with
abundant harvests. Climbing up its steep path by the
spring, the visitor soon enters Walden woods, and thread-
ing his way through the straight lines of pine-trees which
compose Thoreau's orchard, he can cross the patch which
was cultivated with six miles of beans by the Walden
hermit. Turning to the left, he revisits the shore of the
pond at the romantic point owned by Mr. Hoar, at the
bar which crosses the mouth of Thoreau's Cove, alluded
to in a former chapter.

170 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

Skirting the pond, still going toward the south, a walk
of a quarter of a mile brings him to the swimming-place
used by the Concord farmers for two hundred years. At
the top of the hill behind this beach was the hut occupied
by Brister, not far from which are the cellars which mark
the homes of the other settlers who wrere also mentioned
in the last chapter of Thoreau's "Walden/'

From this beach, the picnic grounds belonging to the
Fitchburg Railroad can be distinctly seen, with their swings
bathing-houses, and pavilions for dancing, as well as the
larger ones intended for the use of the many public speakers
who address large gatherings of people every summer on
the topics of the day.

Thousands of people are attracted to Walden Pond by
the athletic games and other contests of skill, and many
city churches bring their children of all ages to enjoy a
quiet day among its sylvan solitudes. Long before the rail-
road came to break its stillness, the woods around Walden
were used as a rallying point for the very earliest anti-
slavery agitators. The Fitchburg Railroad reached it in
1844, and many Irish laborers were employed in digging
through the enormous sand-hills which guarded the pond,
as its situation is far higher than the level of Concord
village.

In the words of Thoreau, nature soon adopts the railroad;
and in his famous chapter on Sounds, he shows how much
poetry an unromantic railroad can inspire. Many of the
old inhabitants regretted the invasion by picnickers of these

LAKE WALDEN. 171

quiet nooks where the philosophers and poets walked un-
molested, and a rustic bard has sung:

" O Walden Pond ! thy classic shore
Where Thoreau wrote and dreamed of yore ;
Where once the wild goose wandered free,
The tame one's haunt has come to be :
A dance-house and attendant pumps
Has stirred up all those ancient stumps ;
And loud reformers' noisy shout
The woodchucks from their holes bore out.
But this is selfish, when we think
How many thirsty mortals drink
From busy cities, crowded slum,
How many weary wanderers come
To bathe in Walden ! and delight
In God's pure air and welcome light.
We bid you welcome to these scenes,
Thrice welcome to your feast of greens ! "

In these lines reference is probably made to the poor chil-
dren's free excursions which formerly made use of these
grounds, coming in large numbers from Boston, under the
patronage of many philanthropic ladies and gentlemen; but
for some years they have occupied groves nearer to the
city.

In his picture of Walden the artist has shown some of
the buildings intended for the amusement of guests, and he
has given an idea in the upper corner of the form of
Thoreau's hut, suggested by a sketch of the late Miss May
Alcott. Tourists from the schools and colleges often come

172 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

in barges by the country road to Thoreau's Cove, near to
which the second road after ascending the hill brings them.

Leaving their carriages under the tall pines beside this little
road, they can follow well-worn paths down to the waterside,
past the cairn of stones which stands near the former site
of Thoreau's hut, a description of which as it existed until
1847, and his manner of life therein, will be found in the article
upon Thoreau.

Its close connection with Emerson, Thoreau, and the many
noted men whom they drew to its picturesque shore, renders
Walden Pond one of the most noted sheets of water in
America.

Visitor's Memorial. The site of Thoreau's Hut at Lake Walden.

OF THE

UV£RS1TY
OF

CHAPTER XII.

THE RIVER AND SURROUNDINGS.

Concord River begins at Egg Rock, where it is formed by
the junction of the Sudbury and Assabet ; the former rising in
Hopkinton and Westborough, and the latter in Grafton. It
varies in depth from two to fifteen feet, and from one hundred
to three hundred feet in width. In olden time its waters
abounded in shad and salmon, which were so plentiful that it is
stated in the records of the colony that " no apprentice can be
compelled to eat salmon more than five days in the week ; " but
now only miserable little perch, pout, and breams reward the
constant anglers who frequent the banks. Skilful fishermen
can secure pickerel of from half a pound to four pounds in
weight, and the black bass, with which the bay was stocked,
occasionally surprise them.

173

174 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

As the rivers become each year the highways of tourists who
come from the Charles River on their way to the Merrimac at
Lowell, a full account of the many objects of interest along the
banks, as well as a description of the streams, will be of use to
them, as well as to the visitors who come from many parts of
the United States and Europe to enjoy a quiet day in contem-
plating its literary and historic interests. We will begin with
the Sudbury River and Mine Hill, which is one of its Concord
outposts, and come v down stream until we pass out of the
boundaries of Concord, wrhich is all that the scope of this book
allows. Mine Hill, so-called on account of the remains of a
mine which was begun many years ago in search of copper ore,
commands a beautiful view of the hills of Sudbury and Fra-
mingham as far as Nobscot, the scene of the great ambuscade in
which crafty King Philip destroyed so many of his enemies.
A pleasant cottage stands under the lofty pines which crown
the summit of Mine Hill, which Mr. George Wright lets every
summer to city people who enjoy perfect retirement ; the best
of summer produce is furnished by the great farm of Mr.
Wright, which extends for miles down river, and embraces all
its left bank from Lee's Bridge to Conantum. Fruitful vine-
yards of the Concord and other grapes, and cultivated fields,
fill the valley between the rocky eminences above mentioned.

Gliding down the narrow river for a mile, it suddenly
broadens into Fairhaven Bay, which covers an area of over
seventy acres.

The depth of this clear bay and its freedom from rocks
renders it the best pla$e for the races and regattas of the

*^MK?

fi |

I1! S

ptt»-

f s

1m a

pp^

o
O

THE RIVER AND SURROUNDINGS. 177

Concord Canoe Club, which are held once or twice a year,
for the amusement of crowds of people who come to enjoy
the spectacle, and the picnic which precedes it.

At the right on entering the bay is Mount Misery, so-
called from a legend of some lost cattle who had strayed
away when yoked together, and were prisoned by a tree.
Skirting the right shore of Fairhaven Bay is Baker Farm,
immortalized by Emerson's poem of that name, and by the
pens of many minor poets. Its character has been changed
by the fine mansion owned by Charles Francis Adams, Esq.,
which, with its boathouse and other accessories, makes a
strong contrast to the ruined farmhouse which occupied the
place in former years. Camp Comfort, the summer home of
Watertown families, stands upon a small bluff, and Mr.
Staples's pleasant cottage completes the right shore of the
bay. Conantum cliffs, and the pleasant picnic ground in
front, bound the opposite side of Fairhaven Bay. This was
named by Thoreau, from an old cellar which was once a
part of the Conant farmhouse. At the foot of the cliffs,
or rocky ledges, are rude fireplaces for out-of-door cooking,
and a pump has been placed near an old spring which is
often dry. These grounds are in charge of the Concord
Canoe Club, who have built a long wharf at the landing,
and made various other improvements, with the consent of
Mr. Wright, who gives the control of the land to the club.

Leaving the bay and drifting down the river, Martha's Point
is on the left bank one-half mile below. This fine promontory
was named for a lady of literary taste and culture, who spent

178 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

many happy days there ; and for years it was the meeting-place
of the picnickers of Concord, until it was leased by some gentle-
men who have built a large house upon its crest ; but they have
done a good deed in boxing the excellent spring which is at
the foot of a maple near the point, thus preserving and keep-
ing clean the best drinking-water, upon which so many thirsty
travellers depend. The next point above is also used by the
pleasure seekers, who have had to abandon their former haunt,
as a small spring furnishes drink when the season permits, and
pretty rocks furnish rustic seats and tables under the shade of
the oaks. A small stone wharf has been built here, and wind-
ing paths lead to fine views and rural nooks. Opposite is
Fairhaven Hill, the haunt of Thoreau, which furnished him in
summer berries for his simple meals, and inspiration for his
vivid descriptions of all seasons of the year. He used to sit
often on the cliffs, which form the south-eastern side of Fair-
haven hill, and command a view of the bay and its surround-
ings, and also of the Lincoln Hills.

For more than a hundred years these cliffs have been a
favorite resort for the nature-lover, and the climax of many
a Sunday walk or autumnal holiday trip, as no better view can
be had of the waving tree-tops and gentle river.

Winding paths lead in circuitous ways to the river bank,
laid out by the cows according to their wandering fancy,
through tangled berry bushes and great clumps of juniper.
Opposite Fairhaven Hill, a few rods farther down stream, may
be seen the tall pines under which the gifted writer Frank
Bowles passed the nigjrt in his canoe to watch the owls of which

THE RIVER AND SURROUNDINGS.

J79

he was so fond, and of which he wrote so charmingly in his
"Land of the Lingering Snow; " and in tribute to the genius so

early called from the woods

he so loved to the glories

of the celestial,

it is hoped

that this fair

grove

F8&*

"THE HEMLOCKS" ON THE
ASSABET.

will al-
ways be
sacred to
his name,
and be
I called as now The
Frank Bowles
Pines. The river next
passes under Heath's
Bridge, which is in plain
view, over which the road
runs to White Pond, another clear
lake which has of late been, like

180 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

Walden, discovered by the railroad which skirts its bank, and
one house has been built upon its lovely shore. But the side
toward the Nine-acre Corner is still so retired as to form a
pleasant bathing and picnic place for those who have been
driven from Walden. Below Heath's Bridge is the swamp
so full of botanical curiosities, and the great lily-fields which
adorn the river for miles with their spotless purity. Miss Treat
tells a pretty story of the lilies, that each comes to the surface
three times to blossom, and when old age would mar their spot-
less purity, the long stem winds up like a spiral spring and
drags them down to die unseen. The studio of D. C. French,
built on the farm of his father, formerly Assistant Secretary of
the Treasury, is a mile from the river at the bend along which
the farm extends for many rods on the right bank. Opposite
this bend is a large kitchen-miden, originally a shell-heap thrown
up by the Indians to mark the place of one of their solemn
feasts ; excavations have been made in this bank by delegates
from various scientific societies, without finding many valuable
relics. This kitchen-miden stood on the ancient Wood farm ;
the original house of the former proprietor stands near. The
Fitchburg Railroad crosses the river at this point ; and there is
a fine spring forty rods above, on the bank of the former Mid-
dlesex Agricultural Society's grounds. The old South Bridge
is a few rods below that of the railroad, and resembles in form
the identical bridge guarded by the British on the morning of
the fight. The left bank of the river, between the South and
Stone Bridges, is full of interest, as two of the old houses
which still stand werp searched by the British soldiers. Adj.

THE RIVER AND SURROUNDINGS.

181

Joseph Hosmer lived in the house just across the railroad
track. He was adjutant ; and to his skill and valor much
of the success of Concord's fight is due. His wife, according to
Shattuck's history, said to the lieutenant, who was trying to
force open a locked door, " You will not disturb the sick ! " and
thus saved from confiscation a bed stuffed with cannon-balls.
The house now occupied by Mr. James Garland of the Home
School was also searched for the town clerk, Mr. Wood, who

MR. F. B. SANBORN'S HOUSE.

then lived there. On the left bank of the river are many
houses built by Mr. William Hurd, who, with his brother, has
done so much to improve the town ; and near the Stone Bridge
is Trinity Chapel, the new Episcopal Church, which is rapidly
gaining in interest and membership. The home of Mr. F. B.
Sanborn stands just below the bridge. On the left and opposite
is the ancient farm of Simon Willard, Esq., one of the fathers
of the town. This place is marked by a tablet, and its boun-
daries extend for a mile or more along the two rivers ; it is

182 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

now owned by Mr. Wm. Wheeler, who has sold many fine build-
ing-lots upon it, and laid out Willard Park at the summit near
the reservoir, and has built many costly walls and roads, allu-
sion to which will be found in another place. The beautiful
promontory called Egg Rock, because it was laid there, is the
most picturesque place in town ; the scene of daily picnics and
camping-parties of all sizes and ages, who delight to pass the
summer days upon its rocky seats, fanned by the cool breezes
which often visit it on sultry days. Opposite Mr. Wheeler's
house, on the right bank of the river, is the studio of Walton
Ricketson, Esq., at which charming retreat all lovers of litera-
ture and art are made welcome to his genial hearth, on which
a bright fire always glows in cool weather ; his cordial manner
never grows cool, but he is always ready to play a tune upon
Thoreau's flute, or his own violin or piano ; his medallions and
busts of Thoreau and the Alcotts are true to life, on account of
his close intimacy with them, and his intaglios of Twilight and
Dawn meet with great favor and ready sales. He also has
Thoreau's spyglass, and many pictures and papers of the poet-
naturalist, pictures of Miss Alcott at all ages, and many letters
and poems addressed to him by the author of " Little Women "
and her family. Like Thoreau, Mr. Ricketson is a lover of
the river, which is close behind his house, and an authority upon
its botany and natural history. The river forms the rear
approach to Main street, and is the boundary of its fine estates.
Nashawtuck Bridge, which crosses it, was built by the late
C. H. Hurd as a gift to the town. A little below is a half-acre
of land which is said £o have produced more legislative and legal

THE RIVER AND SURROUNDINGS. 183

talent than any other tract of the same size in America. Here
the sagacious Grant found a cabinet minister, while the martyred
Lincoln went across the street for his. At the next bend, where
the Boston and Maine Railroad crosses the river on its way to
the Reformatory, stands the canoe-house of Mr. J. M. Keyes,
which is full of graceful canoes, in which many citizens of
Concord and the neighboring towns enjoy delightful excursions
on the beautiful rivers. At the next bend was the calf pasture
of the Rev. Peter Bulkley, according to an ancient deed, and
at its farther end the river is crossed by the Red Bridge, so
called because it has been painted brown for years.

Near the bridge, on Lowell street, was the ancient farm of
Abram Winthrop, supposed to have been a descendant of the
governor, who divided the land with Dudley, at a place seven
miles down the river, marked by a pair of great bowlders which
still bear the names of the " two brothers," from this fact.
Under the road is a very old cave roofed over with great stone
slabs, which was occupied by the pigs of some of the oldest
inhabitants • and several Concord men have since been noted for
their pens. The next estate on the left bank is River Cottage^
once owned by Lieut.-Gov. Simon Brown, the well-known agri-
cultural author and editor, on which, at the top of the hill, is a
tablet which marks the training-field of the minute-men, where
they were formed to march down to the battle-field on the 19th
of April, 1775. Their route of march led across Battlelawn,
the home of Edwin S. Barrett, on which stands a tablet in com-
memoration of his ancestor's part in the battle.

The house which Major John Buttrick left to take command

184 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

of the fight still stands near, at the corner of Liberty street*,
and a short distance in front is the home of his descendants,
who keep up their ancient farm with as tender interest as they
do the memory of their heroic ancestor. The point graced bj
the famous statue of the Minute Man was a part of this farm
until 1875. On the right bank of the river below the Red
Bridge is the fine Nashawtuck canoe-house, the property of
Mr. Ed. Hill, which is a centre of refined hospitality. At the
next bend is the antique canoe-house owned by Mr. George B.
Bartlett, where many guests from many States pause on their
voyages, or are ferried across from the Minute Man, to take a
hasty cup of coffee before embarking from the little wharf, to
explore the rivers in the Squaw Sachem canoe, or the dainty
Red Wing, immortalized in song and story by the many artists
who have enjoyed lazy hours among its comfortable cushions.
Noted people from England and America have left their auto-
graphs or photographs on the canoe-house walls, which legend
says came from the barn owned by the man at whom the shot
was fired which made the bullet-hole which attracts so much
notice. The same authority says that the minute-men were
posted behind a stone wall. Where could this wall have gone
to, if not into the massive foundations of the old canoe-house?
As much history rests on a less firm foundation. At any rate, it
is on historic ground, bought by the patriot-preacher Emerson,
in 1765. Close by is the great rock from which Daniel Webster
once delivered an address, and of which Hawthorne speaks in
the " Mosses from an Old Manse," as the place from which he
embarked in Thore&u's boat. In contrast to the rude old skiff

THE RIVER AND SURROUNDINGS. 185

which Thoreau used are the beautiful canoes which Walton
Ricketson designs, that Mr. George Warren manufactures of
the best of material, and that are unequalled in strength and
symmetry by any craft. Mr. Warren is a practical canoist, who
yearly explores the rivers of Maine and Massachusetts, and
even ventures upon the ocean, so fully is he impressed with the
seaworthiness of his canoes.

THE ASSABET.

Before continuing the voyage down river, we will
follow the custom of summer-day tourists by taking a trip
up the Assabet River, the mouth of which is at Egg Rock,
where it joins with the Sudbury around a grassy island to
form the Musketaquid, or grass-grown river, now the classic
Concord, over whose gentle memory no shrouding grass can
ever grow, for resting beside its still waters many a genius
has dreamed great dreams which will echo forever along the
sounding shores of time.

Ascending the Assabet, on the left bank are the old hem-
locks of which Hawthorne speaks in the "Mosses from an
Old Manse," and of which every poet, philosopher, and story-
teller of Concord has delighted to sing the praise. Before
the Lowell Railroad destroyed many of these trees, one could
row in eight minutes from the bridge near the village into
the grand solitude of the forest ; and since tender hands have
planted willows to mourn over the fallen giants and hide the
railroad bank, it is beautiful even in desolation. Half a mile
farther, and the river seems again shut in like a lake, and the

i86 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

vines tangled among the trees and graceful black willows seem
as wild as when the Indians knew them. This romantic spot
is the supposed scene of the following lines, copied from
" Poems of Places."

FLOATING HEARTS.

One of Indian summer's most perfect days
Is dreamily dying in golden haze,
Fair Assabet blushes in rosy. bliss,
Reflecting the sun's warm good-night kiss.
Through a fleet of leaf-barques, gold and browns
From the radiant maples shaken down,
By the ancient hemlocks, grim and gray,
Our boat drifts slowly on its way ;
Down past Egg Rock and the meadows wide,
1Neath the old red bridge we slowly glide,
Till we see the Minute Man, strong and grand,
And the moss-grown Manse in the orchard land.

44 The boat is as full as a boat should be,

Just nobody in it but you and me.1'

As brown as the leaves are her beautiful eyes,

And as graceful her hand on the water lies,

As she catches the leaves which languid float

On the lazy current along the boat.

Now she asks its name as she tears one apart — -

" Fair lady, that is a ' floating heart.' "

Sad wrecks of years have drifted down
In the dreamless ocean to sink and drown,
Since the beautiful eyes saw that lovely night,
And haloed the river with visions bright ;
But the floating heart that was caught that day
Has never been able to get away.

THE RIVER AND SURROUNDINGS, 187

In order to show that the river-worship is not confined to
natives of the town, this graphic sketch by Mrs. Delano
Goddard is copied here:

"Concord itself is like no other town; it seems utterly-
undisturbed by the turmoil and agitation of life, utterly free
from worldly ambition or petty rivalries of any sort. The
hospitality of its people is boundless, and so is their refined
kindness ; and the beautiful village seems the one spot where
there is abiding 'peace on earth and good will to men.'
Besides its historic associations, its monuments, its library,
and, best of all, its people, Concord has its slow, lovely river,
of which Thoreau wrote : ' Concord River is remarkable for
the gentleness of its current. I have read that the descent
of an eight of an -inch in a mile is sufficient to produce a flow.
Our river has, probably, very near the smallest allowance. The
story is current, at any rate, though I believe that strict history
will not bear it out, that the only bridge ever carried away
on the main branch, within the limits of the town, was driven
up-stream by the wind. The sluggish artery of the Concord
meadows steals thus unobserved through the town, without
a murmur or a pulse-beat, its general course from southwest
to northeast, and its length about fifty miles ; a huge volume
of water, ceaselessly rolling through the plains and valleys
of the substantial earth, with the moccasined tread of an
Indian warrior, making haste from the high places of the
earth to its ancient reservoir.'

" The main street of the town is parallel with the river, and
the comfortable row of old houses which face the street have

188 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

gardens at the back sloping down to the water. The numerous
landings, each with its little fleet of boats, dories, canoes,
wherries, or other small outriggers, make the river very pictur-
esque, and add greatly to the charm of boating in it. The
morning we were there we idled for hours on the stream,
guided by one who knows every inch of its windings; we
rowed across the sunny reaches, floated 6mid lucid shallows,
just eluding water-lily leaves,' pushed under the trees, and
drank of the spring of living water which gushes out there
in some sylvan hiding-place, and let the boat rest in the very
spot that Hawthorne describes in his 'Mosses from an Old
Manse,' where 'there is a lofty bank, on the slope of which
grow some hemlocks, declining across the stream with out-
stretched arms as if resolute to take the plunge.' Only a few
are left now ; some, as our friend said, bent every year closer
and closer to the water, and the quiet stream lapped the earth
at their roots, till one by one they silently dropped into the
river and floated away. Others did not have that peaceful
death, but were cut clean away to make room for the new
railroad which has replaced them by a staring bank of yellow
sand, making a long, aggressive scar on the beautiful shore.
Healing hands of artist and poet have set willows thick in
the sand, and soon the unsightly bank will be green and soft,
though the hemlocks can never grow again. It might have
been our day on the river that Hawthorne wrote about. For
us, too, * the winding course of the stream continually shut
out the scene behind us and revealed as calm and lovely a one
before. We glided from depth to depth, and breathed new

THE RIVER AND SURROUNDINGS, 189

seclusion at every turn. The shy kingfisher flew from the with-
ered branch close at hand to another at a distance, uttering
a shrill cry of anger or alarm. Ducks that had been floating
there since the preceding eve were startled at our approach, and
skimmed along the grassy river, breaking its dark surface with
a bright streak. The turtle, sunning itself upon a rock or at
the root of a tree, slid suddenly into the water with a plunge.'
But we saw one congregation of seven turtles on a fallen tree
out in the river; and they went on sunning themselves and
never minded us at all, but disappeared in a flash, or rather
in seven flashes, when a boatload of boys paddled up to them
with a whoop of delight.

"Like Hawthorne, we, too, found in July the prophecy of
autumn. A few tall maples were the color of the purple beech,
a rare color for maples to take on, and fallen crimson leaves
flecked the water here and there, and the golden-rods were mar-
shalled in stately ranks just ready to unfold their superb yellow
plumes ; and with all the peace and beauty came, too, the
' half -acknowledged melancholy,' the feeling 'that Time has
now given us all his flowers, and that the next work of his
never idle fingers must be to steal them one by one away.'

" Concord is rich in wild-flowers and meadow grasses ; and
when one sums up its charms of philosophy and literature, art
and nature, in addition to some of the most delightful people
in the world, the story seems a little fabulous; but it is all
true."

Like most romantic rivers, the Assabet has its dangers, being
full of rocks. Just before reaching the hemlocks a ledge lies

igo THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

near the middle of the stream; at the next bend, opposite Water-
melon Cove, four large rocks are near the right bank, and two
others are under the Black Willow, and two at the left, another
is behind Gibraltar, and the channel behind Bird's-nest Island
has two others ; from this point it is well to keep on the left
side of the river until the two oaks are past, and then to keep
the middle of the stream, avoiding a large rock just below the
mouth of Spencer Brook. Passing under the second abut-
ment of the bridge, a ledge occupies the middle of the river,
after which it is quite navigable until the covered railroad
bridge two miles distant, above and below which are many-
treacherous shoals within the distance of a few rods. From
the hemlocks to Bird's-nest Island two graceful curves make
fine views which are constantly sketched by artists. Two rods
above the railroad culvert a well-worn path leads to a fine
spring. Gibraltar is a large rock in the middle of the river
opposite the estate of Edward W. Emerson, whose studio is
on the bluff in front of his house. Bird's-nest Island, around
which the Assabet divides, is a few rods above, and the two
oaks, the former trysting-place of Concord until one of the
trees was cut off in its prime by lightning. The mouth of
Spencer Brook is just below the bridge on the left, which is
often spoken of by Thoreau and others, for its abrupt turns
make its ascent difficult in summer time. The tall grasses
overhang both banks so that the canoe seems to be gliding over
the meadow. The pond which supplies Spencer Brook runs
two very old mills for grinding corn and sawing lumber. The
Assabet above the braok has high banks upon the right, and

THE RIVER AND SURROUNDINGS. 191

meadows upon the left. At the upper end of the bank, near
the one-arched bridge, several summer houses have been built.
Ascending the river after passing the Reformatory, the village
of Concord Junction stands upon the right bank above the
Fitchburg railroad bridge ; on the left, near the handsome Stone
Bridge, is the extensive harness factory of Mr. Harvey Wheeler ;
and a short distance above, the Old Colony Railroad crosses
the river. Between this bridge and the Damon factory at
Westvale the scenery is very picturesque ; great rocks and
high banks overhung with noble trees make this part of the
river as beautiful as it is retired. Large villages have grown
up about the Reformatory, Concord Junction, and Damon's
factory, and flourishing schools *and churches occupy good
buildings. The dam at Mr. Damon's factory puts an end to
the Concord canoe voyages on the Assabet.

Going down the Concord River again from the old
canoe-house, behind which the Old Manse stands in the orchard
which Hawthorne wrote of, we pass the field which Thoreau
said was full of the traces of Indian camps, and glide under
the old North Bridge, now a causeway of American history.

The boathouse on the right was built by the Rev. George
Simmons, and his son Edward was born in the house which
stands near. Mr. Edward Simmons has taken high rank as a
painter, having won prizes in the foreign academies as well
as in America, especially the largest award for designing the
decorations for the New York Court House. In the middle of
the river, opposite the end of the next wall, is a very large rock
on which many a canoe voyage has ended. With the exception

192 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

of a small rock just below the Stone Bridge, and another at
Barrett's ford, both close to the left bank, no rocks impede the
navigation for ten miles until the iron bridge is reached. The
first hill on the right below Mr. Simmons's boathouse is Honey-
suckle Island, a favorite resort of the children in their search
for flowers ; opposite is Buttrick's Cove, where in ancient
times great quantities of shad were taken.

The Stone Bridge, built by Hiram Blaisdell, is just below,
and the Y tree on the right bank is a landmark to the canoist,
and also shows the place at which the boys go to swim. From
this tree the most direct course down river is to run for the
oak on the left bank, a quarter of a mile below. This tree
has a literary and melancholy interest ; for under it the hat and
shawl of the young lady were found by Hawthorne and Curtis,
when they were searching the river in Thoreau's boat, to dis-
cover the body of the unfortunate girl. This scene made such
a deep impression on the mind of the morbid genius that he
gave a most vivid description of the sad details in the " Blithe-
dale Romance." Mr. G. W. Curtis lived for two years in the
house in plain sight on the hill above the oak-tree. He came
to Concord when about twenty years of age, and worked hard
on the farm at all sorts of labor. He often drove loads of hay
across the river at the ford just below, and guided the patient
oxen with the same irresistible skill with which he used
afterward to lead his eager thousands of enraptured audi-
ences. He delivered the address when the Minute Man was
unveiled in 1875 ; and another Brook-Farm boy, Gen. F. C.
Barlow, led the grand, array of witnesses to the ceremony,

THE RIVER AND SURROUNDINGS. 193

including his old leader, Gen. Grant, and nearly every noted
man in the States. When Brook Farm changed its first plan,
many scholars came to seek Concord culture, and Gen. Barlow
spent his boyhood in that eccentric village. Enlisting as a
private he rapidly rose to be one of the youngest major-generals
in the army. Miss Marianne Ripley built the house on the hill
in plain sight of the old oak-tree, and Minot Pratt bought the
large farm near.

Mr. Pratt was a scientific botanist and nature lover, and
has filled the river and by-places of the town with rare
plants and shrubs, most of which can be found near this
spot. The yellow iris, the trappa natans, or edible water-
chestnut, the Marsilea quadrifolia, the only water-fern, keep
his gentle memory green from earliest springtime till au-
tumn's radiant banner fades. Among the other native water-
plants are the pondeteria, arrow-head, the small nuphar, the
potomageton, the water-crowfoot, and the purple pink, yellow
and drifting utricularia, and the limnanthemum or floating-
heart described in verse above. The boathouse of the Rev.
Charles Hutchins is at Barrett's ford just below, which forms
a part of his extensive farm which comprises a large part
of Punkatasset Hill. This fine estate is now kept up to
the highest standard of cultivation, under the supervision
of this noted clergyman and musical author. This farm was
the former home of Capt. Nathan Barrett, who did such
gallant service at Concord Fight, and in the Hunt house in
the adjoining lot, the minute-men were furnished with break-
fast before going down to the Bridge. Both the Hunt and

194 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

Barrett farms lie along the river on the left bank, as also
do the three farms originally owned by the Buttricks. Each
of the owners served at the Bridge Fight under the gallant
major of the same family. On the lower farm stands Dakin's
Hill, the favorite picnic resort of the Concord canoist.
From this hill can be had an extensive view of the great
meadows, which extend for miles along the right side of the
river, and of the famous water-maples which bend above it.
Next to Dakin's Hill, on the left bank, the hills and woods
owned by Prof. William Brewster of Cambridge afford a
safe asylum for the birds which he loves, and of whose habits
he is the best authority in America. At Ball Hill, in the
center of his domain, Mr. Brewster spends much of his time
in a picturesque hut built into the bank near the river. In
his preserves, every plant which will grow there finds a home.
Ball Hill is laid out with paths, and vistas have been cut
which command fine views of the river, from the famous
horseshoe bend down to the boundaries of Bedford and
Carlisle. After passing Ball Hill the small house can be
seen at the left, from which Benjamin Ball is said to have
departed for the battle of Bunker Hill, where he lost his
life. The river curves about Holden Hill, also the property
of Mr. Brewster, and then runs in a straight course beyond
the limits of the town. Near the river bank the proprietor
has placed signs requesting visitors not to build fires or use
fire-arms, and the birds and animals gather there in large
numbers, as to a place of safety.

To establish the fact,- that Concord was the first to originate

THE RIVER AND SURROUNDINGS. 195

the carnival of boats, which has become so universal that it
has been abandoned here in favor of newer ideas, this early
account is copied from a magazine of fifteen years since.

CARNIVAL OF THE BOATS.

" At the appointed time the bridges and banks were covered
with anxious spectators, as the boats promptly assembled and
took their appointed places in the line. On they came, down
the open Sudbury, and from beneath the leafy arches of the
Assabet, where the great hemlocks reach over to see their
reflections in the black water.

" Mr. J. L. Gilmore had been selected as marshal ; and meet-
ing his aids in their light wherries, or birch canoes, he led
off the glittering train promptly and without confusion. The
new moon was fortunately obscured by a heavy cloud, and
dense blackness hung over the river until the procession drew
near, when sky and water were lighted up with ten thousand
rainbows. Many of the large boats carried lanterns of red
and green hung over the bow, close to the water. All had
high frames from which Chinese lanterns of many hues dangled
and danced with the motions of the oars.

" One graceful Whitehall boat was ornamented in truly
Japanese style, as a long bamboo rod projected from stem to
stern hung with lanterns of graduated sizes. One blue-and-
white dory was adorned with twenty-seven brilliant lanterns,
and was rowed by a young lady, while the owner sat in the
bow and burned gold fire in a large pan. A great black-and-
yellow dory bore a huge transparency representing the old

196 THE CONCORD GUIDE BOOK.

bridge and the Liberty Bell, while a neat boat from the
Hudson had a great crystal shield with appropriate device.
The cedar wherry, the pride of the river, was as graceful as
ever in its adornment ; and the boats from the North Bridge
were perfectly gorgeous with lanterns of gelatine and paper,
Roman candles, and brilliant fires of many hues. The place
of honor in front was, however, allotted to a low white boat,
having a handsome boy in costume at the bow, and a lovely
blonde from the South at the helm, with tri-colored gelatine
lanterns surrounding her fair head.

"Thus led, they glide solemnly under the dark bridge and
turn around a sharp bend till they see in surprise the bridge
between the two monuments appear in lines of colored light,
as its graceful outlines have been closely decorated by lanterns
of many kinds; and as the marshal's boat passes under it,
a volley of rockets spring up from Honeysuckle Island, and
fireworks of varied kinds follow until the long array of boats
has countermarched through the new Stone Bridge, and as-
sembled in a glittering crowd below the Minute Man, which
stands out from the darkness in its wondrous strength and
grace, by the fitful glare of the changing light.

" The spectators who crowd the high banks on each side
pronounce the spectacle unsurpassed by anything they have
seen, as at a little distance the boats are only distinguished
by the outlines of light, and the reflections above and below
seem to blend together in rainbows."

INDEX.

Alcott, A. Bronson, 105-113.
Alcott, Louisa M., 114-116.
Ricketson's bust of, 17.
Alcott, Mrs., 113.

Alcott Children's playground, the, 20.
Alcott Family, graves of, 42.
Alcott House, 14 (see, also, "Wayside).
Andersen, Rev. J. P., 30.
Antiquarian Society (see Concord).
Arlington, 14.
Arlington Heights, 14.
Assabet River, the, 11, 185.

Ball Hill, 12, 25, 194.

Ball Hill farmhouse, 62.

B. C. & W. Club, 152.

Barrett, Edwin S., house of, 183.

Barrett, Col. James, house of, 62.

Barrett, Capt. Nathan, house of, 62.

Barrett house, the Dr., 59.

Barlow, Gen. F. C, 192.

Bartlett, George B., Canoe house, 184.

Bartlett, Dr. Josiah, grave of, 38.

Battle ground, the, 45.

Road to, 17.
Battlelawn, 183.
Battle monument, the, 138.
Beal house, the, 56.
Bedford, 12, 13.
Bedford Springs, 13.
Belmont, 10.
Bigelow's Tavern, 65.
Bird's Nest Island, 190.
Bliss, Rev. Mr., 29.
Block houses, old, 27.
Boston, trip from, to Concord, 9.
Boston, trip to, from Concord, 11.
Bowles, Frank, his " Pines," 179.

Black Willow, the, 190.
Brooks, Nathan, grave of, 37.
Brown, Capt., house of, 74.
Brown, Dr. Ezekiel, 55.
Brown, Reuben, shop of, 56.
Brewster, William, 25.
Bryant, Orpha, gravestone, 34.
Bulkley, Rev. Edward, 24.
Bulkley, Rev. Peter, 18, 28.
Bulkley Tablet, the, 70.
Buel, E. W., 20.
Bunker Hill Monument, 9.
Burial Ground on Main Street, 35.
Burying Hill, 18, 30.

Old graves on, 18, 19, 30.
Buttrick, Major, house of, 18, 61.
Buttrick (Samuel, Joseph, Daniel),
houses of, 62.

Cambridge, 10.

Campbell, Rev. Walter, 30.

Canny, Rev. P. J., 30.

Carnival of the Boats, 195.

Charles River, the, 10.

Channing, W. E., 100.

Cheney, John M., grave of, 37.

Church, the Old, 27.

Clark, Mrs. Julia, house of, 74.

Codman estate, the, 11.

Concord, celebration of 250th anniver-
sary, 66.

Concord, name of, 26.

Concord Antiquarian Society, house of,
19, 74, 148.

Concord Artillery, the, 159.

Concord Bank, the, 161.

Concord- Canoe Club, 24, 177.

Concord Charitable Society, 152.

INDEX.

Concord Fire Society, 152.
Concord Grape, the, 20, 126-128.
Concord Home for the Aged, 165.
Concord Home School, 23.
Concord Lyceum, the, 163.
Concord Public Library, the, 129-137.
Concord River, boating on, 24, 173.
Concord Square, 17.
Concord Water Works, 22.
Copan, 12.

Cummings, Dr., house of, 60.
Curtis, George W., 121.

Dakin's Hill, 194.

Davis, Capt. Isaac, spot where he fell, 61.

Derby, J., house of, 61.

Dramatic Club, the, 165.

Dudley, Abigail, gravestone, 33.

Egg Rock, 173.

Egg Rock Tablet, 68, 69.

Emerson, Edward W., house of, 190.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, house of, 74, 79-81.

Grave of, 37.
Emerson Rev. William, 29, 52.
Emerson School, the, 163.
Esterbrook, Rev. Joseph, 29.

Fairhaven Bay, 174.

Fairhaven Hill, 178.

Fairyland, 169.

First Church, the (see The Old Church).

First Settler's Tablet, 71.

Fox house, the, 59.

French, Daniel Chester, 139, 146.

Frost, Rev. B., 29.

Garland, James S., 23.

Gibraltar, 190.

Goddard, Mrs. Delano, on the Concord River,

187.
Goodwin, Rev. H. B., 29.
Grand Army of the Republic, 145.
Grant's elm tree, Lexington, 13.
Grant, Rev. Henry M., Memorial to, 29.
Graves of British Soldiers' Memorial, 140.

Harris, Dr. William T., 116.
Hartshorn, Thomas, gravestone of, 17.
Harvard College, site of, 64.

Harvard University, 10.
Hastings Organ Works, 11.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, grave of, 37.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, house of <see

Wayside).
Heath's Bridge, 179.
Heywood, George, house of, 56.
" History of a Concord Farm," the, 22.
Hoar, Elizabeth, gravestone, 42.
Hoar, Hon. E. R., 104.

Grave of, 42.
Hoar, Hon. G. F., 123.
Hoar, Samuel, house of, 103.

Monument to, 38.
Hosmer, Abel, house of, 60.
Hosmer, Adjutant, house of, 60.
Hosmer, Joseph, house of, 59.
Holbrook, Mrs. Maria, 43.
Holden Hill, 194.
Hunt house, the, 62.
Hunt, Dr. Joseph, house of, 56.
Hunt, William, 65.

Descendants of, G6.
Hurd, C. H., 182.
Hutchins, Rev. Charles, 193.

Institution of Masonry, the, 160.

Jack, John, gravestone, 30, 31.
Jones, Elisha, house of (see Keys house).
Jones, John, 28.
Jethro's Oak, site of, 26.

Kendall Green, 11.
Keys house, the, 60.
Keys, J. M., Canoe house of, 183.
Lathrop, George Parsons, 96 (see, also,
Wayside).

Lee house, the, 74.

Lee, Jonas, house of, 59.

Lee, the Tory, 64.

Lexington, 13, 14.

Lexington Common, 13.

Liberty Street, 18.

Library, the Concord, 17.

Lincoln station, 11.

" Little Women," house of the, 75.

Lothrop, Daniel, 99 (see, also, Wayside).

Lothrop, Marg'et, 99 (see, also, Wayside).

INDEX.

199

Mt. Auburn Cemetery, 10.

■Martha's Point, 177.

Masonic Lodges (see Inst, of Masonry).

Massachusetts Reformatory, the, 11, 191.

Merriam's Corner, 20.

Merriam's Corner Tablet, 74, 75.

Merriam, Joseph, Monument, 30.

Merriam house, the old, 21, 56.

Middlesex Agricultural Society, 155.

Middlesex Mutual Fire Ins. Co., 151.

Mine Hill, 174.

Minute Man, the, 11, 139.

Minute Men's Tablet, 75, 76.

Moriarty, Rev. Edward J., 30.

Munroe station, 14.

Munroe, William, 125, 126.

Nashawtuck Canoe House, 184.
Nine-Acre Corner, 180.
Nineteenth of April, the, 140.
North Bridge, the, 191.
Norumbega Tower, 10.

Old Manse, the, 11, 81, 87.
Old Manse, road to, 17.
Old North Bridge, the, 139.
Orchard House, the (in which the Alcotts
lived), 20, 104.

Peabody, Elizabeth P., 100.

Ponkawtassett Hill, 61.

Porter's Tavern, 10.

Pratt, Mrs. ("Meg" in "Little Women"),

home of, 14.
Pratt, Minot, farm of, 18, 193.
Prescott, Col. Geo. L., monument to, 37.
Prichard, William M. (Gateway to Sleepy

Hollow), 18.
Provincial Congress Tablet, 73.

Rice, R. N., house of, 65.
Ricketson, Walton, studio of, 24.

His bust of Miss Alcott, 17.
Ridge Path, Sleepy Hollow, 37.
Ripley, Rev. Ezra, 29, 45.
Ripley Monument, Sleepy Hollow, 37, 38.
Ripley School, 22.
Red Bridge, the, 184.
Red Wing, the (canoe), 184.

Reformatory, the (see Massachusetts) .
Reynolds, Rev. Grindall, 29, 123-125.
Revere, Paul, ride of, 9.
Robbins, Mrs. Anna, 43.
Roberts Station, 10.
Robinson, William S., 119, 120.
Roman Catholic Church (St. Bernard's),
30.

Sandy Pond, 162.

Sanborn, F. B., 117-119.

Saturday Club, the, 165.

Scandinavian Methodist Church, 30.

School of Philosophy, the, 75, 117, 155.

Shady Hill Nursery, 13.

Shepard's Tavern, 65.

Sidney, Margaret, 99 (see, also, Wayside).

Simmons, Edward, 25, 191.

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, 35 ;

Decoration of, 36 ;

Graves in, 37;

Road to, 18.
Social Circle, the, 164.
Soldiers' Monument, the, 17, 140.
South Bridge, 180.
Southmayd, Rev. Daniel, 29.
Spencer Brook, 190.
Spy Pond, 14.
Squaw Sachem, the, 69.
Staples, Samuel, 65.
Stone Bridge, 180, 192.
Stony Brook station, 11.
Sudbury River, 174.
Surgeon's house, the, 74.

Tewksbury, Rev. Geo. A., 29.
Thoreau, Henry D. , haunts of, 12 ;

House of, 14, 100-103 ;

Birthplace of, 103 ;

Memorial of, 103.

Grave of, 37.
Thoreau's Cairn at Walden, 172.
Thoreau's Grove at Walden, road to, 21.
Thoreau House (public), 17.
Thoreau street, 21.
Tolman, George, inscriptions collected

by, 44.
Tolman house, the, 55.
Town Hall, the, 145.

200

INDEX.

Town House Tablet, 70, 71.
Trinitarian Congregational Church, 29.
Trinity Church (Prot. Episcopal), 30.
Trowbridge, J. T., home of, 14.
Tuttle house, the, 59.

Underhill, Orlando H., memorial to, 30.
Union Church (Concord Junction), 30.
Unitarian Church, 27.

Vose house, the, 59.

Walden Lake, 11, 166.

Walden Picnic Grounds, 21, 170.

Walden Woods, 169.

Warren, George, 185.

11 Warrington " (see Robinson, W. S.).

Watermelon Cove, 190.

Waltham Watch factory, the, 10.

Washington Elm, the, 10.

Water Supply, the, 162

Waverly, 10.

Waverly Oaks, the, 10.

Wayside, the, 20, 75, 87-100.

Westvale, 191.

Wheeler house, the, 59.

Wheildon, William W., 121.

Whiting, Rev. Mr., 29.

Whiting, William, 122.

Whiting Monument, Sleepy Hollow, 37.

White Pond, 179.

Whittaker house, the, 62.

Willard Common, 22.

Willard House, the, 64.

Willard Tablet, the, 67.

Winthrop farm, the, 183.

Wood, Ephraim, house of, 60.

Wright, George, 174.

Wright Tavern, the, 19, 54, 73, 74.

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