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Concord MA

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Concord, Massachusetts
Town
View of Concord’s Main Street, looking east
Seal
Motto(s):  Quam Firma Res Concordia (Latin) “How Strong Is Harmony”
Location in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Concord, Massachusetts Location in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Coordinates: 42°27′37″N 71°20′58″W / 42.46028°N 71.34944°W / 42.46028; -71.34944Coordinates: 42°27′37″N 71°20′58″W / 42.46028°N 71.34944°W / 42.46028; -71.34944
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
County	Middlesex County
Settled	1635
Incorporated	September 12, 1635
Government
• Type	Open town meeting
Area
• Total	25.9 sq mi (67.4 km2)
• Land	24.9 sq mi (64.5 km2)
• Water	1.0 sq mi (2.5 km2)
Elevation	141 ft (43 m)
Population  (2010)
• Total	17,669
• Density	680/sq mi (260/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (Eastern)
ZIP Code	01742
Area code(s)	351 / 978
FIPS code	25-15060
GNIS feature ID	0619398
Website	www.concordma.gov

Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2010 census, the town population was 17,668. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers forms the Concord River.

The area that became the town of Concord was originally known as Musketaquid, an Algonquian word for “grassy plain.” Concord was established in 1635 by a group of English settlers; by 1775, the population had grown to 1,400. As dissension between colonists in North America and the British crown intensified, 700 troops were sent to confiscate militia ordnance stored at Concord on April 19, 1775. The ensuing conflict, the battles of Lexington and Concord, were the incidents (including the shot heard round the world) that triggered the American Revolutionary War.

A rich literary community developed in Concord during the mid-19th century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson’s circle included Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau. Major works written in Concord during this period include Alcott’s novel Little Women, Emerson’s essay Self-Reliance, and Thoreau’s Walden and Civil Disobedience. In this era, the now-ubiquitous Concord grape was developed in Concord by Ephraim Wales Bull.

In the 20th century, Concord developed into an affluent Boston suburb and tourist destination, drawing visitors to the Old North Bridge, Orchard House and Walden Pond. The town retains its literary culture and is home to notable authors, including Doris Kearns Goodwin, Alan Lightman and Gregory Maguire. Concord is also notable for its progressive and environmentalist politics, becoming in 2012 the first community in the United States to ban single-serving PET bottles.

History

Prehistory and founding

The area which became the town of Concord was originally known as “Musketaquid”, situated at the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers. The name was an Algonquian word for “grassy plain”, fitting the area’s low-lying marshes and kettle holes. Native Americans had cultivated corn crops there; the rivers were rich with fish and the land was lush and arable. The area was largely depopulated by the smallpox plague that swept across the Americas after Europeans arrived.

In 1635, a group of English settlers led by Rev. Peter Bulkeley and Major Simon Willard received a land grant from the General Court and negotiated a land purchase with the local indigenous tribes. Bulkeley was an influential religious leader who “carried a good number of planters with him into the woods”; Willard was a canny trader who spoke the Algonquian language and had gained the trust of Native Americans. They exchanged wampum, hatchets, knives, cloth, and other useful items for the six-square-mile purchase from Squaw Sachem of Mistick, which formed the basis of the new town, called “Concord” in appreciation of the peaceful acquisition.

Battle of Lexington and Concord

The Battle of Lexington and Concord was the first conflict in the American Revolutionary War. On April 19, 1775, a force of British Army regulars marched from Boston to Concord to capture a cache of arms that was reportedly stored in the town. Forewarned by Samuel Prescott (who had received the news from Paul Revere), the colonists mustered in opposition. Following an early-morning skirmish at Lexington, where the first shots of the battle were fired, the British expedition under the command of Lt. Col. Francis Smith advanced to Concord. There, colonists from Concord and surrounding towns (notably a highly drilled company from Acton led by Isaac Davis) repulsed a British detachment at the Old North Bridge and forced the British troops to retreat. Subsequently, militia arriving from across the region harried the British troops on their return to Boston, culminating in the siege of Boston and the outbreak of the war.

The colonists initially publicized the battle as an example of British brutality and aggression; one colonial broadside decried the “Bloody Butchery by the British Troops”. But a century later, the conflict was remembered proudly by Americans, taking on a patriotic, almost mythic status (“the shot heard ’round the world”) in works like the “Concord Hymn” and “Paul Revere’s Ride”. In 1894, the Lexington Historical Society petitioned the Massachusetts State Legislature to proclaim April 19 “Lexington Day”. Concord countered with “Concord Day”. Governor Greenhalge opted for a compromise: Patriots’ Day. In April 1975, Concord hosted a bicentennial celebration of the battle, featuring an address at the Old North Bridge by President Gerald Ford.

Literary history

Concord has a remarkably rich literary history centered in the 19th century around Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), who moved there in 1835 and quickly became its most prominent citizen. A successful lecturer and philosopher, Emerson had deep roots in the town: his father, Rev. William Emerson (1769–1811), grew up in Concord before becoming an eminent Boston minister, and his grandfather, William Emerson Sr., witnessed the battle at the North Bridge from his house, and later became a chaplain in the Continental Army. Emerson was at the center of a group of like-minded Transcendentalists living in Concord. Among them were the author Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) and the philosopher Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888), the father of Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). A native Concordian, Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was another notable member of Emerson’s circle. This substantial collection of literary talent in one small town led Henry James to dub Concord “the biggest little place in America.”

Among the products of this intellectually stimulating environment were Emerson’s many essays, including Self-Reliance (1841), Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women (1868), and Hawthorne’s story collection Mosses from an Old Manse (1846). Thoreau famously lived in a small cabin near Walden Pond, where he wrote Walden (1854). After being imprisoned in the Concord jail for refusing to pay taxes in political protest against slavery and the Mexican–American War, Thoreau penned the influential essay “Resistance to Civil Government”, popularly known as Civil Disobedience (1849). Evidencing their strong political beliefs through actions, Thoreau and many of his neighbors served as station masters and agents on the Underground Railroad.