Discover Concord Fall 2021 Issue

Discover

CONCORD FALL 2021

Fabulous Fall Foliage THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: BLACK HEROES AT THE WAYSIDE Nathaniel Hawthorne

and The Yorkshire

15

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THINGS TO SEE & DO THIS FALL

The Revolution

Before the Revolution

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Cooler temperatures, changing leaves, firepits, and cider donuts. After this year’s brutally hot summer, we’re ready for autumn and delighted to bring you a new issue of Discover Concord.

There are lots of exciting things going on in Concord this fall, so don’t miss our pick of the best in Top Things to See & Do on page 8. Speaking of cider donuts, where can you find this tasty autumn treat around Concord — and pick your own pumpkin for decoration or carving at the same time? Check out “Cider Donuts & Pumpkin Patches: Autumnal Rites of Passage in New England” (p. 54) for everything you need to know.

While we approach the fall of 2021 with thoughts of seasonal foods, family gatherings at Thanksgiving, and the excitement that a change of seasons seems to bring, the men and women of Concord in the fall of 1774 had much more on their minds. Tensions were high as the relationship between colonists and Britain continued to decline and Concord was just months away from revolution.

“The Revolution Before the Revolution in Concord” (p. 22) and “Concord on the Eve of War” (p. 24) take you back to those pivotal months in Concord as war loomed on the horizon.

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Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

The summer of 1842 was an entirely different story. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Alcott family, Ellery Channing, and Margaret Fuller were all in town.

They were neighbors and friends who delighted in each other’s company and who would spearhead an intellectual revolution. “The Summer of Authors” (p. 10) takes you into that remarkable season.

Did you know that there were no fewer than six stops on the Underground Railroad in Concord?

“The Underground Railroad: Black Heroes at The Wayside” (p. 14) explores Concord’s role both as a town with dozens of enslaved people and a community that included those dedicated to the abolition of slavery. In fact, a fugitive on his way to Canada stayed with the Alcott family at The Wayside, an experience that greatly influenced the young Louisa May Alcott.

These are just a few of the fascinating, insightful, or just plain fun articles that you’ll find in this issue.

Each will bring you a new appreciation for this amazing town that we love. So, grab a cider donut, pull up a chair to the firepit and relax with the Fall issue of Discover Concord!

Cynthia L. Baudendistel Co-Founder

Jennifer C. Schünemann Co-Founder

COMING SOON

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four curated homes · shared vegetable gardens · butterfly & wildflower gardens · grape arbor · cooking shed · fruit tree orchards · open play space

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p. 44

contents

p. 14

8

10

The Summer of Authors

12

The Bell

14

22

p. 26

24

p. 8

26

The Underground Railroad: Black Heroes at The Wayside The Revolution Before the Revolution in Concord Concord on the Eve of War A New Concord Museum Experience

28

Sticking with the Stick Style

30

Living in a Work of Art

34

36

Faith and Fire: Stories of Concord’s First Parish Gregory Maguire’s Enchanting New Tale: The Brides of Maracoor

39

List of Shops and Restaurants

40

Walking Maps of Concord

44

p. 30

Top Things to See & Do in Concord This Fall

Slam Dunkle: Concord’s Two-Wheeled Troubadour Contents Continued on Page 6

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Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

Discover CONCORD

p. 50

discoverconcordma.com CO-FOUNDER

Cynthia L. Baudendistel CO-FOUNDER

Jennifer C. Schünemann ART DIRECTOR

Beth Pruett DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR

Wilson S. Schünemann

p. 58

ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR

Olga Gersh ADVISORY BOARD

p. 54 p. 46

Bobbi Benson

Alida Orzechowski

NORTH BRIDGE ANTIQUES

CONCORD TOUR COMPANY

Patricia Clarke

DEBRA’S NATURAL GOURMET

SARA CAMPBELL

Marie Foley REVOLUTIONARY CONCORD

Michael Glick CONCORD’S COLONIAL INN

Maria Madison THE ROBBINS HOUSE

Jennifer McGonigle JOY STREET LIFE + HOME

46 50 54 58 60

Experiencing The Wayside as Hillside, Home of the Alcotts A Dangerous Race and the Tides That Bind: Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Yorkshire

62

Concord Trivia

64

Arts Around Town

66

Discovering History Through the Burying Grounds of Concord

Cider Donuts and Pumpkin Patches: Autumnal Rites of Passage in New England

68

Meet the Rangers of Minute Man National Historical Park

70

Concord Coupons

Artist Spotlight

71

Advertiser Index

A Sight to Behold: Where to Find the Most Beautiful Fall Foliage

© 2021 Voyager Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISSN 2688-5204 (Print) ISSN 2688-5212 (Online) For reprint and permission requests, please contact cynthia@voyager-publishing.com | 314.308.6611

Debra Stark Carol Thistle CONCORD MUSEUM

Jan Turnquist LOUISA MAY ALCOTT’S ORCHARD HOUSE

Steve Verrill VERRILL FARM

Jerry Wedge THE UMBRELLA ARTS CENTER

Robert Munro

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THE ROBBINS HOUSE

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COVER PHOTO: Fall in Concord ©Jennifer C. Schünemann AUTHORS/CONTRIBUTORS:

Susan Bailey Cynthia Baudendistel Pierre Chiha Marissa Cote Victor Curran Eve Isenberg Jaimee Leigh Joroff Erica A. Lome Maria Madison Rob Munro Jennifer Pierce Ray Raphael Barbara Rhines David Rosenbaum Jennifer C. Schünemann Richard Smith Anke Voss Dave Witherbee PUBLISHED BY:

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1

Nature: A Walking Play

Join The Trustees and TigerLion Arts for Nature: A Walking Play celebrating the dynamic connection between humanity and the natural world. This immersive and family-friendly telling of Emerson, Thoreau, and their mutual love of the natural world arrives at The Fruitlands August 27 – September 6. Visit thetrustees.org/program/ nature-play for more information.

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Get in the Halloween spirit with a spooky walk through Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Wander around the cemetery alone (if you dare!) or join a guided tour through Concord Visitor Center, Concord Tour Company, or Concord Museum. visitconcord.org, concordtourcompany.com, concordmuseum.org

Things to See & Do 4 3

Celebrate Concord’s 386th birthday and the opening of Concord Museum’s new permanent galleries all week September 6 – 12. Admission is free to Concord residents on September 11 and 12. For a full program listing of gallery talks, walking tours, forums, panel discussions, encampments, family activities, and more visit concordmuseum.org.

Head over to the Performing Arts Center at 51 Walden Street for Enchant the Night, a conversation with Gregory Maguire in celebration of his new book, The Brides of Maracoor. Concordian Gregory Maguire is best known, perhaps, for Wicked, his wildly successful retelling of The Wizard of Oz. October 13, 6-7. concordplayers.org

in Concord this Fall 5

The 7th Annual Trunk or Treat will take place October 31, 2-3:30 in the Beede Center parking lot. Costumes and candy! concordrec.com/1364/trunk-or-treat

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Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

Photo courtesy of Concord Conservatory of Music

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Grab some popcorn and head over to the basketball courts at 90 Stow Street for Outdoor Movie Night presenting Shrek.

A free event for the whole family. September 24, 7:00. concordrec.com

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Join the Concord Museum for Indigenous Peoples’ Day as the Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers present a very special performance of Eastern social song and dance accompanied by a water drum and handcrafted rattles. October 11, 10-11. concordmuseum.org

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The 29th Annual Concord Festival of Authors Annawon Weedon of the Wampanoag celebrates the written and Nation Singers and Dancers spoken word on October 15 - 31! Overseen by the Friends of the Concord Free Public Library and co-created by a townwide collaborative team, the CFA 2021 offers 30 online and in-person events. For more information visit concordfestivalofauthors.org.

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Award-winning author Robert Gross will be in town this fall to discuss his newest book, The Transcendentalists and Their World, a fascinating exploration of Concord as a town and the philosophers and authors that created the transcendental movement. Join the event live at the Concord Museum or watch online. November 10, 7-8. concordmuseum.org

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Have you ever wished that you could play a musical instrument, but weren’t sure which was best for you?

Concord Conservatory of Music can help at their Instrument Petting Zoo on September 11, 1-3. Whether you are four or 94, you can explore a variety of instruments in a hands-on way. CCM faculty will demonstrate how to hold, play, and experience these instruments. concordconservatory.org

13 14

Join Verrill Farm in celebrating Family Farm Day. There will be games to play, tractors to touch, delicious food, and so much more. September 18, 11-3. verrillfarm.com/events/calendar Discover West Concord Day is here! Join in the fun with artists, musicians, free food, shopping discounts, kids’ events, and more at this popular event. Discover the amazing variety of shops, restaurants, and people that make West Concord so special.

October 23, 10–2.

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Don’t miss the 16th Annual Concord Ag Day in downtown Concord on September 11, 10-2. This annual celebration of Concord’s farming community will feature stands from more than a dozen farmers and local organizations, great food, and even a veggie car race! So pop some wheels on that zucchini and come celebrate! concordagday.com Photo courtesy of Concord Agricultural Committee

Photo courtesy of Concord Museum

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Mark your calendar for West Concord Porch Fest on September 25, 1-5. Stroll the streets of West Concord and treat the family to more than two dozen live music acts, all outdoors. For a list of acts, maps, and more go to montbach.com/west-concordporchfest.

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Join Minute Man National Historical Park for Preparing for Winter, Preparing for War. Autumn in colonial New England was a time of change and transition when many gathered to share the fruits of summer labor and prepare to survive the coming winter. In 1774 it was also a time of preparation for the coming conflict; colonial militia mustered to train their soldiers, British Regulars drilled on the Boston Common, and both sides scrambled to secure supplies.

Living history volunteers will bring this tumultuous time to life.

October 16–17. nps.gov/mima

Veggie race at Ag Day 2018

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The Summer of Authors

I

In the summer of 1842, Concord was like any other New England town. Sitting 18 miles west of Boston, the town of 2,000 souls was still very rural. The railroad wouldn’t come through for another two years, and there was no telegraph yet; only the daily stagecoach and the post office connected Concord to the rest of the world.

While most Concordians were farmers, the center of town was a bustling place with shops, a coffee house, taverns, and a blacksmith and livery, all doing lively business. Concord was a shire town in 1842, and the Middlesex County Courthouse and the county jail were both in the center of town. Next to the jail was the imposing Middlesex Hotel, which provided lodging, food, and drink for teamsters coming through town, as well as for lawyers and litigants who were in Concord on court days.

However, one man stood out amongst the farmers, tradesmen, and shopkeepers of Concord. His name was Ralph Waldo Emerson and in 1842 he was already famous.

Having moved to Concord in 1834, the ex-Unitarian minister had quickly made a name for himself with a series of essays and lectures on man, God, nature, and 10

Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

Concord in the 1840s.

their connection to the universe. While the younger generation read and admired Emerson’s works, others, particularly the Unitarian hierarchy in Boston and the faculty at Harvard College (Emerson’s alma mater), were not so impressed with what was now being called “Transcendentalism.” One minister called Emerson’s views “the latest form of infidelity.”

After publishing “Nature” in 1836 and his “Essays” in 1841, Emerson was assumed by many to be the leader of the Transcendentalists. But these freethinkers weren’t organized enough to be a movement, and Emerson certainly didn’t consider himself their leader. Still, they would meet every so often at Emerson’s house and Concord soon became the epicenter for poets, writers, and philosophers of all stripes and talents.

One of the young men who was now a part of Emerson’s orbit was a native Concordian.

In fact, of all the Transcendentalists, he was the only one actually born in Concord, and his name was Henry Thoreau.

In the summer of 1842, Thoreau was 25 years old, five years out of Harvard College, and not doing much of anything. The school that he and his brother John operated had closed with John’s death from lockjaw in January. And now, he was living at Emerson’s house, acting as a general handyman, and learning how to be a writer.

Emerson was always discovering young men and women whom he thought showed talent as writers and poets. Of all his protégés, Thoreau was the one who seemed to hold the most promise. The young man’s wit, humor, and encyclopedic knowledge

Lithograph by J.W. Barber & J. Downes

BY RICHARD SMITH

©Richard Smith

©Richard Smith

Emerson’s house

of nature greatly impressed Emerson. The two men soon became close friends; in his journal, Emerson often gushed over the “valiant,” “noble,” and “good” Henry Thoreau.

Waldo did his best to encourage Thoreau to write. It was at Emerson’s suggestion that Thoreau kept a journal; Emerson was certainly the reason that some of Thoreau’s poetry and early essays appeared in various periodicals.

But, in 1842, Henry Thoreau was still a young writer trying to find his literary voice.

Another budding writer in Concord was 38-year-old Nathaniel Hawthorne. Born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts, Hawthorne and his new bride, Sophia, were now living in The Old Manse (Emerson’s ancestral home).

Married in Boston on July 9 and coming straight to Concord, they were madly in love, calling the Manse “our Eden” and “Paradise.”

“We are as happy as people can be, without making themselves ridiculous,” Hawthorne would write.

Hawthorne was a writer of short stories with little success. He had one book to his name, an 1837 collection of previously published works called Twice Told Tales.

Over the next couple of years he would put together 25 short stories that would be published as Mosses From an Old Manse in 1846. But in the summer of 1842, he was happy to be newly wed and spend as much time as possible with his “Ownest.” The two books that would make him a literary star, The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, were still several years down the road.

Alcott’s house

Another family in Concord that summer was the Alcotts, and Concord considered them the strangest of all. They were renting a house on the outskirts of Main Street, a small cottage called Dovecote. Bronson Alcott was an educator and philosopher by trade, and he was getting no work doing either. He was the most Transcendental of Emerson’s circle; intelligent, idealistic, and reform minded, he wanted to change the world. Emerson had great faith in Alcott, calling him “a half-god” and a “noble genius,” and he often helped the Alcotts with financial assistance by hiring Bronson to do odd jobs.

Alcott’s wife, 41-year-old Abigail May Alcott, a die-hard abolitionist and reformer in her own right, truly believed in her husband’s idealism, but philosophizing did little to pay the bills or put food on the table. Poverty was a real concern for the Alcotts and they had four little women to raise: Anna (age 11), Louisa (age 9), Lizzie (age 7) and Abbie (age 2), born at the Dovecote in 1840 — the only Concordborn Alcott. The next summer, Bronson would start the ill-fated Transcendental commune called Fruitlands in Harvard, Massachusetts.

Others would come and go to Concord, and all were drawn to Emerson. One was the moody and eccentric Ellery Channing (“Whim, thy name is Channing,” Alcott once wrote) who fancied himself a poet. He would, with Emerson’s help, publish his first volume of poetry in 1843.

Another visitor to Concord was the brilliant Margaret Fuller, perhaps the most well-read of all the Transcendentalists and nearly as

famous as Emerson. She’d already made a name for herself by holding “Conversations” for women in Boston, but was yet to publish her best remembered work, Woman in the 19th Century. She connected with Emerson on an intellectual level unlike anyone else, and the two became close friends. She was, Emerson would write, “my audience.”

Both Ellery and Margaret would spend that summer at Emerson’s house.

And, to add to the mix, Ellery would suddenly marry Margaret’s sister, Ellen, in September. The couple would move into a cottage not far from Emerson’s home and they would have a tumultuous 14-year marriage until Ellen’s death from tuberculosis in 1856.

That was Concord in the summer of 1842.

At first glance it was a sleepy New England town, but, upon closer inspection, it was a town filled with creative, innovative writers and thinkers. These men and women would create an intellectual revolution that would shape 19th-century American literature and thought. And in the summer of 1842, they were friends and neighbors, supporting each other, influencing one another, and basking in each others’ brilliance.

——————————————————————— Richard Smith has worked as a public historian in Concord for 21 years, specializing in Henry David Thoreau, the Transcendentalists, the Anti-Slavery movement, and the Civil War. He has written six books for Applewood Books and is a tour guide for Concord Tour Company.

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The Bell

F

A Resounding Symbol Comes to The Robbins House BY ROB MUNRO

For the past decade, The Robbins House has committed to telling the story of Concord’s African American history and culture through the narratives of the inhabitants of the house and their participation in Concord’s rich history of independence, civil rights, and activism. Enmeshed throughout this narrative is the concept of “the long Civil Rights movement,” a conceptual framework that recognizes that the struggle for black and indigenous civil rights began the moment the first African was enslaved on US soil and continues today; it spans both time and place, enslaved and free, White and Black.

This October, The Robbins House will expand their interpretation of the long civil rights movement through the Bell on the acquisition of an early 19th century plantation bell. “The Bell,” as it’s been termed, in 1895 was originally cast by prominent bellfounder, Jose Giroud, of Trinidad, Cuba, for a family sugar plantation.

The Bell was used to signify the beginning and end of the day for the enslaved. It was an ominous symbol of control, dehumanization, and fear. In 1927, The Bell was bequeathed to the newly-founded private school, Belmont Hill School in Belmont, MA. For some thirty years, The Bell stood sentry in the middle of the campus and was rung by the students on the occasion of chapel. Although The Bell ceased Image courtesy of the Massachusetts State Archives to be rung in the 1950s, it remained

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Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

in its posts until very recently. Through the hard work of Belmont Hill students and two history teachers, The Bell’s slave past came to light. In order to do justice to the dynamic, painful, and redemptive story of The Bell, the Belmont Hill School bequeathed The Bell to The Robbins House, who will house, interpret, and offer programming about The Bell. Through the partnership with Belmont Hill, The Robbins House will also offer educational opportunities for students to engage with The Bell.

Despite The Bell’s painful past, it does offer an opportunity to talk about the dynamic relationship between enslavement and freedom. As much as it is a symbol of oppression, The Bell, and bells in general, also hold significant symbolic power within the Black community. Martin Luther King’s famous declaration “let freedom ring” is but one example of the power of the collective and resounding reverberation of the fight for independence and agency. Another poignant example is in the opening line of the Negro National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring.

The Robbins House is open from Memorial Day through Labor Day and with shortened hours through the end of October. The Bell will be placed outside and will be accessible to visitors even when the house is closed. Stay tuned for more news on when The Bell will be installed at The Robbins House.

————————————————————————————— Rob Munro, Co-President of The Robbins House, is the Dean of Academic Program and Equity at Concord Academy. He also serves on the Board of Governors at the Concord Museum.

Photo courtesy of Maria Madison

Image courtesy of The Belmont Hill School

Five hundred pound bell taken down in preparation for the move to The Robbins House

Bell on scaffolding in 2019

public domain

“The heroism and desperate struggle that many of our people had to endure should be kept green in the memory of this and coming generations.”

William Still, Pennsylvania, circa 1840s

The Underground Railroad:

I

Above: William Still, born 1821, New Jersey, d. 1902, Father of The Underground Railroad.

The quote is from his self-published book, The Underground Railroad.

His book is the only first-person account of the Underground Railroad that is written and self-published by a Black American.

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Black Heroes at The Wayside

Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

BY MARIA MADISON, ScD

It remains a moral, political, and economic necessity to understand America’s underground railroad’s origin and legacy.1 The Wayside in Concord, Massachusetts provides us with an inside view into this history. The Wayside is part of the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program. The NPS program “commemorates and preserves the historical significance of the Underground Railroad which sought to address the injustices of slavery and make freedom a reality in the United States and is a crucial element in the evolution of our national civil rights movement. Inhabitants of The Wayside house have witnessed a dramatic spectrum of American history including the ongoing struggle for freedom and equality.”2 The Wayside is a colonial house that was home to authors including Louisa May Alcott and Nathaniel Hawthorne, minuteman Samuel Whitney, farmers, artisans, reformers, and teachers.3 Nathaniel Hawthorne dubbed the house The Wayside while living there from 1852 - 1869, when he hosted pro-slavery advocates such as Franklin Pierce. Pierce was responsible for ordering federal troops to enforce the “rendition” of fugitive slave Anthony Burns

back to Virginia. The Wayside inhabitants were connected to everyday occurrences and sweeping events that shaped America’s heritage, either through their action or inaction.

SLAVERY IN CONCORD AND THE WAYSIDE As described by the National Park Service, the land associated with The Wayside was originally owned by Concord farmer Nathaniel Ball, 1686. Twenty years later the lot passed to Nathaniel’s son three days before his marriage to Mary Brooks. Through the 1700s the house was inhabited by farmers and artisans. From 1769-1778, and during the American Revolution, Samuel Whitney, a shopkeeper from Boston, owned and lived in what would become known as The Wayside (in the mid-1800s). Whitney held a “strong role in town affairs,” including as a muster master of the Concord minutemen on April 19, 1775.

As early as 1725, Concord’s earliest tax rolls report slavery in Concord, including a 1740 bill of sale for a 2-year-old toddler named Violet (later changed to Nancy). Imagine, if you can, your two-year-old daughter being ripped from your arms, by contract. A letter from William Wilson of Concord, cites the sale of Violet

Case Whitney looking glass, 1750-1800. Concord Museum Collection; Gift of Cummings E. Davis. F2521.

Photo courtesy of M. Madison

for 30 British pounds to Sarah Melvin, also of Concord. Wilson states I “fully and absolutely sell, grant, convey and pass over Violet to Sarah Melvin for her use and service during Violet’s natural life.”

Beginning before the Revolution, slavery impacted every aspect of society, morally, politically, and economically, including in Concord.

From 1725 to 1780 (when slavery began Casey’s Home to gradually be abolished in Massachusetts), there were dozens of enslaved people in CASE FEEN6: RESISTANCE AND Concord. By 1808, Concord’s connection to FLIGHT IN DEFENSE OF DIGNITY the economic boon of slavery became appar- The Whitney family enslaved two men at ent through the cotton mill opened by HartThe Wayside. According to one of Henry well and Brown in west Concord. The mill David Thoreau’s journal entries one of depended on cotton from Georgia and South Whitney’s enslaved men was referred to as Carolina. This tied Casey. Casey Concord directly to preferred the the southwestward name Case Feen, advance of slavery as this is the and the Cotton name he used to Kingdom. enlist in the army.

Samuel Case escaped Whitney’s from the Whitney family was one household of the twelve just before known Concord the American households Revolution. enslaving Africans, “Although the including Reverend exact details Emerson of the of his journey Old Manse and remain a mystery, Benjamin Barron.4 he returned to Concord as a free Other Concord man after the residents, such as Case Whitney’s looking glass war.” According Tilley Merrick, had to the Concord owned plantations Museum, “Case Whitney likely fought in and in the south and the Caribbean islands prior survived the battle at the North Bridge and to moving to Concord. Others assisted later emancipated himself after serving in with the industries that thrived and built an the continental army.”7 economic boom from the sugar and cotton harvested through torture, especially in the Case’s looking glass is on exhibit at the face of rebellions and resistance.5 Concord Museum. The Concord Museum

description of the glass reads “This object holds significance as one of the few documented possessions of an 18th century African-American, Casey.8 The glass may also have represented to Case a means for trying to gain agency, securing the vital part of his spirit.9 The paper in Casey’s looking glass quotes “Extremes in nature = good produce/Extremes in man concur to general use.” From Moral Essays by Alexander Pope.

A plaque in Case’s honor stands on a path adjacent to The Wayside. The plaque reads “In 1775 Casey was Samuel Whitney’s slave.

When revolution came, he ran away to war, fought for the colonies, and returned to Concord a free man.”

Case may have fled bondage both out of a desperate desire to return to his family, as well as due to the physical and mental torment of slavery. He experienced discrimination’s blunt edge when Sam Whitney’s son pelted him (Case) with snowballs. As noted in Thoreau’s journal, Case retaliated, no doubt fueling his plan to flee. Case was “pursued by Samuel Whitney’s neighbors,” ingeniously eluding capture while hiding in the river and using survival skills unparalleled by Concord White elite. This version of the Underground Railroad leads Case back into Concord as a place where he would be protected. Like others on the Underground Railroad, Case avoided capture and remained in town

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15

until his death in 1822, likely assisted and protected by Black and White townspeople.10 It is likely that Case is the same Casey11 cared for by Caesar Robbins. According to historians Robert Gross and Anne Forbes, the town, via the overseers of the poor, was paying Caesar Robbins, to care for the ailing Case.12 Caesar was also a previously enslaved Revolutionary War veteran residing in Concord. It was common practice for Concord to aid its needy residents. State and local practice provided assistance to the needy, Black and White alike. This is an instance of inclusion of Blacks and Whites in a common social arrangement.

By supporting and caring for Case Whitney from 1815-1819, Caesar Robbins and Jack Garrison would have been the lowest bid to the town to receive payment for Case’s board, a remnant of the “venduing” system of caring for paupers.

“ELEMENTS OF THE HERO” AT THE WAYSIDE When the Alcotts lived in The Wayside, 1845-1848, they referred to the property as Hillside. They documented observations of Africans fleeing enslavement. The official NPS Underground Railroad marker to the right of The Wayside states “A young Louisa May Alcott learned firsthand lessons about slavery that would influence her life and writing.”

In the National Park Service reference to “Freedom Seekers at Hillside,”13 by 1845 the

Alcotts were ardent abolitionists. The Alcotts aided at least one African fleeing slavery, heading toward Canada. While living at The Wayside, Mrs. Alcott wrote to her brother in January 1847, “We have had an interesting fugitive here the last two weeks – right from Maryland. He is anxious to get to Canada and we have forwarded him the best way we could. His sufferings have been great, his intrepidity unparalleled. He agrees with us about boycotting slave produce. He says it is the only way the abolition of the slave can ever be effective. He says it will never be done by insurrection.”14 In reference to the same individual, Bronson Alcott wrote in his journal that the enslaved man was “scarcely thirty years old, athletic, dexterous, sagacious, and self-relying. He has many of the elements of the hero.

His stay with us has given image and a name to the dire entity of slavery, and was an impressive lesson to my children, bringing before them the wrongs of the Black man and his tales of woe.”1 5 (emphasis added)

Continued on p. 18 16

Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

Jack Garrison, carte-de-visite, about 1866. Concord Museum Collection; Gift of Mrs. Olive Brooks Banks.

Photo courtesy of M. Madison

The Wayside Underground Railroad NPS designation

EPILOGUE: FIVE OTHER KNOWN STOPS ON CONCORD’S UNDERGROUND RAILROAD In addition to The Wayside, other known Underground Railroad stops in Concord include the homes of Mary Rice, Anne and Francis Bigelow, the Thoreau family,16 Col. William Whiting, and Addison Grant Fay. Though not officially on the NPS Underground Railroad designation (yet), The Robbins House on Monument Street looms large in the narrative of individuals fleeing slavery and yet remaining in Concord, MA. This was particularly true for Jack Garrison (c. 1768), a Black man fleeing slavery in New Jersey arriving in Concord by 1810, in his thirties. Jack lived in the Robbins house for two decades.

Caesar Robbins’ son-in-law, Jack Garrison, remained in Concord until his death in 1860. Jack lived during a time when he could have been captured and taken back to New Jersey, potentially vulnerable to the enforcement of Massachusetts’ state ban on “African and Jack Garrison, Negro” foreigners Concord citizen and a 1793 federal fugitive slave law. Jack received a walking stick commemorating his old age with an inscription indicating he was 100 years old, although records put his age closer to 91 when he died. Perhaps Jack stayed in Concord due to love, marrying

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Caesar Robbins’ daughter, Susan, or perhaps due to the sense that he would also not be abducted. Either way, Jack remained in concord and his image became the symbol of antislavery sentiments prior to the Civil War. Similar to Case Feen, by 1850 Jack is listed as being in the town poor house.

Both men benefitted from their relationship to Caesar Robbins (Case benefitted through a loan and Jack a home), yet neither man could recover decades and generations of stolen wages from slavery, ending up in poverty. Their Concord stop on the Underground Railroad left them disenfranchised. Eventually Jack’s son, John, was able to remove his father from the town’s poor house through his own steady income from prestigious positions in town.

At its peak, 1850-1860, the Underground Railroad was associated with more than 100,000 people successfully fleeing enslavement. Many ventured into homes like The Wayside that had previously

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©istock.com/traveler1116

The Robbins House

enslaved people, now finding passageways to freedom through Black and White solidarity, though they did not find sustained equality. None of their descendants remain in Concord today.

————————————————————————— Dr. Maria Madison and her wonderful family moved to Concord in 1999. Shortly thereafter she was moved by the numerous references to Black and indigenous early Concord residents throughout the landscape. As an elementary school class parent and METCO Family Friends member,

1 Connecting escaping enslavement, losing culture, and confronting racist customs impacted economic outcomes for generations of White and Black Americans. 2www.nps.gov/ mima/learn/historyculture/thewaysideugrr. htm. 3nps.gov/mima/learn/historyculture/ thewaysidetimeline.htm. 4Barron’s house, located on Lexington Road, makes note of his enslaved man, John Jack. John Jack is buried in the Old Hill Burial Ground with the famous epitaph written by Daniel Bliss. 5Numerous sources throughout oral histories and slave narratives; Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass, William Still, Sojourner Truth, etc. 6Feen was the preferred last name Casey held for himself, in reverence to his wife and homeland. He enlisted in the army for a three-year term under the name Case Feen on March 1, 1781.

7 concordmuseum.org/collection/looking glass; D. Wood, Curator, Concord Museum confirmed 8.9.21, as this was the practice at the time, for enslaved persons to serve in the militia with their masters. Samuel Whitney served on the North Bridge. 8Casey may have

Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

she, along with incredible partners, began giving tours to Boston and Concord children.

The tours promoted a sense of belonging and inclusion for all kids by highlighting Concord’s multicultural roots. The original source for the first tours was Concord: Its Black History written by Janet Jones and Barbara Elliot, published in 1976 through the Concord Public Schools. Updated tours are now part of the historic site experience at the Robbins House, located across from the North Bridge. For more information see therobbinshouse.com.

also been Casy Minott (1732-1822) per the Concord Museum. Casy Minott was possibly the slave of Timothy Minott (1692-1778) or his son Timothy (1726-18054), although more recent research indicates that a slave “Case” was actually owned by Samuel Whitney. The looking glass descended to George Prescott Minott (1783-1861), friend of Concord Museum’s founder, Cummings E. Davis. 9See Black Walden, nkisi and Casey Feen, p. 143. Elise Lemire. 10Individuals who likely assisted Casey in eluding capture included the Cogswells, Minots, and others. 11Individuals who likely assisted Casey in eluding capture included the Cogswells, Minots and others. 12Courtesy of Anne Forbes from Concord Overseers of the Poor, payments for the support of Case: 5/1815: to Caesar Robbins $1.25/week 5/1816: to Jack Garrison $1.25/week 5/1817: to Caesar Robbins “state” $1.25/week (this may mean that Case had been declared a state pauper and the town was receiving state money for his support, which they then paid out to the lowest bidder for his care)

5/1818: to Caesar Robbins “state” $1.25/week 5/1819: to Caesar Robbins “state” $ ??

12/21/1819: $22.48 to be paid to Stows & Merriam. (We have photocopies of this, including the Stows & Merriam bill, which has a note of endorsement on the reverse from Caesar regarding his order to the store for supplies for Case). 13nps.gov/mima/learn/ historyculture/thewaysideugrr.htm. 14nps.gov/ mima/learn/historyculture/thewaysideugrr. htm. 15nps.gov/mima/learn/historyculture/ thewaysideugrr.htm. 16Such was the case for Shadrach Minkins, for example. February 15, 1851. According to Mass Moments, “On this day in 1851, a group of about 20 black men burst into a courtroom in Boston, grabbed Minkins ‘by the collar and feet’ and ran out the door, rescuing Shadrach Minkins, the first escaped slave seized in New England under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. Minkins journeyed on the Underground Railroad travelling through Concord’s Bigelow home, arriving safely in Canada.” massmoments.org/moment-details/ shadrach-minkins-seized.html

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Public domain

Amos Doolittle engraving showing British regulars gathering in front of the Wright Tavern, which still stands at the corner of Main Street and Lexington Road.

Further up Main Street, near Keyes Road, once stood Jones’ Tavern.

The Revolution Before the Revolution in Concord

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Colonial rebels in Concord did not wait until April 1775 to reject British rule. They did so in October of 1774, a full six months earlier— and a small tax on tea was the least of their complaints.

Earlier that year, as punishment for the Boston Tea Party, Parliament had passed the so-called Coercive Acts. Today, closing the Port of Boston gets all the press, but two different measures actually tipped the scales and led to revolution. The Massachusetts Government Act revoked the 1691 Provincial Charter, effectively disenfranchising the citizenry: no more town meetings, no more say in choosing local and provincial officials.

The Administration of Justice Act allowed the Crown to transport accused citizens to Great Britain for trial. Before this, the colonial population was divided between so-called “Whigs” or “patriots,” who protested various acts of Parliament, and so-called “Tories” or “government men,” those more sympathetic to British law. But after these measures, only a handful of diehards dared argue that disenfranchisement was the way forward.

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Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

BY RAY RAPHAEL

Their constitution nullified and their right to a fair trial abrogated, people throughout Massachusetts, more united than ever before and possibly ever since, rose up as a body to say: “No way!”

At the time, British authority was administered through the quarterly sessions of county courts—not just judicial cases, but executive minutia like road improvements.

So, in each “shiretown” (county seat), when the court was first scheduled to meet under the new arrangements, local patriots showed up en masse to ensure it did not.

In Concord on September 13, 1774, when ten judges and justices of the peace tried to convene the Middlesex County Court of General Sessions, “a great number of Freeholders and others” blocked their entrance into the courthouse. The officials proposed a compromise: they would call the court to order but conduct no business.

The protestors replied they would take the matter under consideration. While the County Convention of Committees of Correspondence, which staged the event,

deliberated on the town common, judges and justices huddled inside Ephraim Jones’ Inn and waited for a reply—through the morning, past midday, and late into the afternoon. At last, according to a newspaper report, “after the Setting of the Sun,” the “Body of the People” gave their answer: no compromise!

The court would not sit on any terms—in fact, it never would sit again. From that day on, the Crown and Parliament held no sway over the people of Middlesex County.

Middlesex was not alone. Everywhere in mainland Massachusetts—excluding only Maine and Suffolk County, where Royal troops were stationed in Boston—energized patriots terminated British authority by shutting down the courts. In Springfield, the shiretown of Hampshire County, some 3,000 militiamen, parading with “staves and musick,” forced the judges, in full public view, to disavow Crown authority. In Plymouth, after 4,000 militiamen unseated court officials, a splinter group hoped to celebrate by digging up Plymouth Rock and carrying to the courthouse—but “they found it

American Antiquarian Society. Access on “Documents” page of rayraphael.com.

Ebenezer Parkman’s Diary: Head count of Worcester County militiamen on September 6, 1774.

Worcester City Hall. Access on “Documents” page of rayraphael.com

impracticable, as they found it to weigh ten tons at least.”

The largest and best documented court closure came in Worcester. There, on September 6, 4,622 militiamen from 37 town militias ousted two dozen court officials with dramatic flair. Ebenezer’s son Breck, one of the participants, took an actual headcount: 156 from Uxbridge near the Rhode Island border, 45 from Winchendon near the New Hampshire border, and so on, totaling half the adult male population of sprawling Worcester County. (After listing the head count that Breck reported from each town, Ebenezer mistakenly computed the total as 4,722 rather than 4,622.) The companies lined both sides of Main Street, while deposed officials, barred from the courthouse, cowered inside Daniel Heywood’s tavern. Representatives for the militia companies forced the officials to sign a renunciation of British authority, but that alone would not suffice. One-by-one, the judges and their henchmen were released from the tavern and ushered through a gauntlet of militiamen lining Main Street. Hat in hand to signify submission, each recited his recantation over thirty times so all could hear.

Nobody, of course, thought the Crown and Parliament would let an American colony slip away without a fight. To prepare for a counter-revolution they knew would come, some 300 representatives from 209 towns convened in Concord to form the Massachusetts Provincial Congress—a far greater number than the Massachusetts Assembly, under British rule, had ever mustered. The turnout was so large that the body adjourned to Cambridge, better suited to accommodate the delegates.

In Worcester on October 4, the town meeting instructed its delegate to the Provincial Congress: “You are to exert yourself in devising ways and means to raise from the dissolution of the old constitution, as from the ashes of the Phenix, a new form, wherein all officers shall be dependent on the suffrages of the people, whatever unfavorable constructions our enemies

Worcester’s declaration in favor of independence, twenty-one months before July 4, 1776.

may put upon such procedure.” This was the first known public body to push for a new and independent government, a full 21 months before Congress’s Declaration of Independence.

For fear of alienating other colonies, which were not yet ready for “independency,” the Provincial Congress focused on the critical task at hand: preparing for a British counterattack, expected once General Gage, in Boston, received reinforcements. Over the next several months, it procured armaments and supplies needed to field a fighting force of 15,000. To pay for all this, the Provincial Congress commandeered all taxes collected from its citizenry, originally intended for the British receiver-general.

Supplies were stored in two places: Worcester and Concord. General Gage knew this, and the patriots knew he knew.

Naturally, when Gage initiated his counteroffensive, he would strike at one of these targets. It was hard to imagine he’d go after Worcester, the heart of resistance and three times as far from Boston. Concord it must be.

By early April 1775, when Gage received his reinforcements, the Provincial

Congress had stockpiled sufficient supplies.

Militia companies had trained through the winter. Chains of command had been determined. Last but not least, intelligence networks had been set in place so militias would receive the earliest warning. Nobody was the least bit surprised when, on the night of April 18, British Regulars set out from Boston to seize arms stored at Concord.

War was underway, but the actual revolution—the transfer of power from one body to another—had already occurred.

Not in other colonies, but throughout the Massachusetts countryside, patriots had seized control in the late summer and early fall of 1774 and would never look back.

——————————————————————— Ray Raphael is an author and historian.

Among his 10 books on the Founding Era are A People’s History of the American Revolution and Founding Myths: Stories that Hide our Patriotic Past. Two books focus on the Massachusetts Revolution of 1774—The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord and Spirit of ‘74: How the American Revolution Began.

Discover CONCORD | discoverconcordma.com

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LEFT: Meeting Warrant for the September 26, 1774, Town Meeting.

BELOW: Map of Concord, Mass Central Village as it was 18101820. Drawn from memory by Edward Jarvis, 1883.

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BY ANKE VOSS

In the fall of 1774, only months from the confrontation at the North Bridge, the Town of Concord was a thriving farming community and a regional trading hub accessible to Boston via two roads and with a population of nearly 1,500 inhabitants.

The Town had grown gradually since its incorporation in 1635. Townspeople actively engaged in Town government and established businesses, schools, and churches to support the needs of its growing population. The inhabitants regularly squabbled over factional conflicts, but the community was harmonious in many respects.

However, the previous decade witnessed a steadily declining relationship between the American colonies and the British Empire.

The effects of those increasing tensions were having an impact on communities in colonial America. Resistance to the acts of a progressively hostile British Parliament united townspeople along the Atlantic coast, including those residing in the inland community of Concord.

In an attempt to replenish their coffers after a costly French and Indian War (17541763), a conflict that determined authority over the territory of North America, Britain levied new taxes and increasingly tightened regulations on its American colonies, beginning with the Stamp Act (1765), followed by the highly unpopular Townshend

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Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

Map: Special Collections, Concord Free Public Library Warrant: Town of Concord Archives, Early Town Records Collection

Concord on the Eve of War Acts (1767). Finally, after the Boston Massacre (1770) and the colonists’ actions at the Boston Tea Party (1773), Britain imposed the retaliatory Coercive Acts (later known as the Intolerable Acts, 1774), which along with other measures, closed the port of Boston.

These acts provoked deep resentment in the colonies. In response, and with representatives from all territories, except Georgia, the First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia, September 5, 1774, to draft a coordinated response to Parliament’s Coercive Acts.

With tensions rising, on September 26, the townsmen of Concord took matters into their own hands and voted to raise a militia that could be ready “at a minutes warning in case of an alarm.” The Town also resolved to purchase ammunition and firearms to add to the Town’s stock.

Finally, in direct defiance of the Crown’s authority, the new Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, consisting of nearly 300 delegates, convened in Concord on Oct. 11, 1774. At the Wright’s Tavern, built by Ephraim Jones in 1747 but managed by Amos Wright since the early 1750s, the committees debated and drew up measures to end compliance with the Crown. Next door, at the First Parish Meeting House, the entire assembly deliberated and voted on the resolutions with John Hancock as president.

Rev. William Emerson, an enthusiastic patriot, known for his inspirational sermons, officiated as Chaplain. The Provincial Congress assumed all powers to rule the province, collect taxes and supplies, and organize a military response.

Most consequential to Concord’s role in the events of April 19, Massachusetts’ Committee of Supplies, on November 7, 1774, recommended purchasing food and other provisions, including ammunition, and storing them at Worcester and Concord. While spies working for General Gage, the British Governor, kept him updated on the colonists’ amassing and storage of provisions, the colonists kept careful note of the movement of the Regulars in Boston.

In Concord, preparations continued throughout the mild winter and into spring.

The minute companies exercised regularly.

Provisions were plentiful. Was a crisis at hand? The anticipation was palpable.

To learn more visit the William Munroe Special Collections and Town Archives at the Concord Free Public Library.

———————————————————————— Anke Voss is Curator of the William Munroe Special Collections at Concord Free Public Library.

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A New Concord Museum Experience 26

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Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

Regiment marched to join the Civil War on Museums do not often get to reinvent April 19, 1861. themselves, but the Concord Museum seized The pursuit of liberty in Concord did not this once-in-a-generation opportunity after always live up to the ideal. The Concord renovating their main building and constructing Museum’s new galleries recognize the town’s a new Education Center in 2018. Years in the historic ties to the slave trade, as well as the making, the curatorial team took advantage of violence and dispossession its English colonists over a dozen empty galleries and a world-class inflicted on local Native communities. In the first collection and embarked on a major project that would transform the Concord Museum and gallery, a sword which descended in the Clark family of Concord and was worn by a militia visitor experience. This August, that exciting officer in the 1600s tells parallel narratives: one and challenging process concluded with the of Massachusetts Bay Colony’s restoration of opening of ten new permanent galleries. their charter-granted rights in 1689 and another The earliest phase of this project featured of Native resistance in the wake of escalating two new galleries: Concord: At the Center of disputes over land, resources, political authority, Revolution, which introduces visitors to the and spirituality in 1675. This sword may very history of Concord through ten iconic artifacts, well have been present for both. and People of Musketaquid, which brings together the history and artistic traditions of Concord’s Indigenous community. Last year, the Museum opened three additional galleries centered on the revolutionary events of April 19, 1775.

The final phase of the New Museum Experience builds on these narratives while exploring new terrain. Taking advantage of every room, hallway, alcove, and ramp, these latest galleries provide a comprehensive glimpse into the everyday lives of Concord Chest, 1690-1700. Concord Museum, Gift of residents, some famous Mrs. Selden A. Jacobs and Samuel D. Robbins; F128. and others almost invisible, beginning with the town’s incorporation Another gallery explores the issue of slavery in 1635. These galleries also feature the finest in Concord, using maps, probate records, and most significant objects from the Concord and other archival material to bring to life the Museum’s collection and tell stories that are experiences of the men, women, and children new, engaging, and inclusive. whom the law referred to as “servants for Like their fellow immigrants, the fourteen life.” By 1830, when the institution of slavery English families who came to Concord had ended in Massachusetts, Concord was in 1635 aimed to create a society where home to 30 African American inhabitants, they could worship and govern without including the Garrison family. Jack Garrison oversight. A royal charter guaranteed that (1768-1860) arrived in Concord in 1810, having Massachusetts Bay colonists enjoy the same fled enslavement in New Jersey. Two years “liberties and immunities” as any English later, he married Susan Robbins Middleton, subject. Over the next 140 years, the people who had grown up in Concord. Jack Garrison of Concord fiercely protected those liberties became a familiar sight around town and was even when it was considered treasonous gifted a walking stick at the age of 92 to honor to do so. The new galleries explore this his longevity. This walking stick, displayed in theme through multiple revolutions linked the gallery along with his portrait, acts as one by the remarkable coincidence of their date: entry point to explore the African American Concord’s participation in the ousting of the experience in Concord. Included here are British Governor Edmund Andros on April 19, artifacts associated with the Concord Female 1689; to the war for independence sparked Anti-Slavery Society, established by Mary in Concord on April 19, 1775; and when Merrick Brooks in 1830 to raise awareness and members of Concord’s Fifth Massachusetts

Flute, Concord Museum, Gift of Mr. Walton Ricketson and Miss Anna Ricketson; Th40.

Jack Garrison, carte-de-visite, 1866. Concord Museum, Gift of Mrs. Olive Brooks Banks; Pi1103.2.

rally funds to support the abolition of slavery and immediate emancipation for enslaved people. Susan Garrison was a member of the Society and worked with her neighbors to make Concord into a hub of antislavery activism, attracting notable speakers like John Brown and Frederick Douglass.

The lives of two of Concord’s most prominent and influential intellectuals, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, feature prominently in these new galleries.

In 1930, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association decided to move the furnishings of Emerson’s study to the Concord Museum so that people could visit it yearround. The Museum’s new re-installation includes an interactive element, allowing visitors to learn more about the objects on display in his study and the people who visited Emerson in Concord. Nearby is a bust of Emerson made by Concord sculptor Daniel Chester French. Emerson sat for the young artist over 30 times and this is arguably the best portrait sculpture—the Ralph Waldo Emerson by Daniel Chester French, 1905. Concord Museum, Gift of William T. Loomis and Leslie Becker; 2013.11.

most detailed and lifelike—of the famous writer. Emerson’s face, as French recalled, beheld “an infinity of detail, the delicacy of which evinced the refinement of the soul that evolved it.”

The Concord Museum has long been a site of pilgrimage for readers of Henry David Thoreau, and two new galleries celebrate his life and works as never before seen. In one, visitors stand in front of Thoreau’s desk and are immersed in a media presentation based on a series of quotes from his writing.

An elegant text treatment of these quotes animates on individual screens and at times across all screens, surrounding visitors on all sides. Filled with texture and evocative imagery inspired by the natural, spiritual, and social world in which Thoreau was steeped, this presentation expresses his philosophy and viewpoint of a world in which boundaries between the individual and the universal are blurred.

Another gallery features the highlights from the Concord Museum’s collection of over 250 objects related to Henry David Thoreau, half of which came to the Museum, directly or indirectly, through a single source: Sophia Thoreau, the author’s sister. Guided prompts and interactive media accompany the visitor as they encounter artifacts Thoreau made or used himself, such as his flute. Thoreau once described his approach to playing this flute as “unpremeditated music,” improvising against his own echo while on the water. The flute is inscribed with the initials “JT,” which stands for John Thoreau, Henry’s brother, as well as “Henry D. Thoreau.” This flute originally belonged to John and was given to Henry before John’s untimely death in 1842.

Another set of galleries explores daily life in Concord through objects drawn from the Museum’s collection. These objects provide insight into such people of the past as a silversmith plying his craft in a workshop on the Milldam, a Black yeoman farmer

at work in his fields, a wealthy magistrate welcoming visitors to his parlor, or a family secretly preparing for rebellion on the eve of April 19, 1775. Taken together, these galleries showcase decorative arts made and sold in Concord and provide a glimpse into the homes of men and women who lived at both ends of the economic spectrum.

Silver cream pot by Samuel Bartlett, Concord Museum, Gift of the Decorative Arts Fund, in memory of Ruth S. Kondon; S150.

Though the reinstallation of these galleries marks the completion of the New Museum Experience, the Concord Museum has many more stories to tell through temporary exhibitions, public programming, social media, and in its Education Center.

In the spirit of the Concord Museum’s founder Cummings E. Davis, who understood the power of objects to shape collective memories of the past and bring people into larger communities of historical belonging, these new galleries will educate and delight a new generation of museum visitors.

———————————————————————— Erica Lome is the Peggy N. Gerry Curatorial Associate at the Concord Museum.

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Sticking with the Stick Style

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Concord Center’s beautiful homes are a pageant of architectural history, and among the Federal-era, Colonial-era, and Victorian homes stands this delightful Stick Style home. A rare style in Concord, the home was built in the 1860s for William Munroe Jr.’s gardener. The Stick Style is notable for its functional-appearing but decorative woodwork, such as the diagonal trusses that span the roof’s gable ends.1 It also celebrated the use of wood as a building material in residential construction. New England homes are traditionally made of wood, but older styles often emulated the look of masonry, such as in the Greek Revival style. Soon the Stick Style with its fanciful fretwork would morph into the more commonly seen Queen Anne style of later Victorian architecture.

After the Munroe gardener’s death, the home became a rental property and was eventually purchased by Eric Parkman Smith, an esteemed Concord resident who was a partner in West Concord’s Damon Mill.

Remarkably, this home was continuously rented from 1873 until 2016 when its present owners moved in!

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Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

Photos ©Pierre Chiha Photographers

BY BARBARA RHINES

The home caught the eye of the current owners when they spied its gable behind overgrown shrubbery and a For Sale sign in 2007. “We weren’t really looking to move,” explains the present owner, “but we saw the house and the walkable neighborhood, and it was just what we were envisioning for our upcoming empty-nester lifestyle.” They made an offer, which was accepted, and continued to rent the home for several years while formulating restoration plans.

The original features throughout the home were largely intact. One challenge was the discovery of mortared bricks between the exterior clapboards and the original interior plaster, an insulation idea from the mid-1800s that wasn’t very effective. They decided to redo the plaster and bring the R-value up to current codes with new insulation. The couple also selected new slate to replace the existing slate roof, a decision that was expensive but felt important to keep the home’s charm and integrity. The gable trusses and window overhangs are all original. The chimneys were rebuilt with historically accurate

chimney pots. (The cracked original chimney pots are carefully stored in the newly built garage.)

The home had a late-19th century utilitarian addition built at the back. This was removed, and a new addition was designed to provide a family room and upstairs primary suite. A second-floor balcony matches the star latticework found at the front of the house. “Our architect, Frank Oliva of Yarmouth, Maine, did a wonderful job of integrating the new wing with the original part of the house,” the owners concur.

Professional landscaping by Kyle Zick opened up the yard to the street so that this historical Stick Style house once again takes its place in the neighborhood vista.

———————————————————————— Barbara Rhines is a freelance writer in the Boston area specializing in architectural history, home renovation, and the decorative arts.

1 Blumenson, John J.G. (1983). Identifying American Architecture, American Association for State and Local History, Nashville.

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O Living in a Work of Art A Concord Couple Revel in Their 1964 House of Glass and Gardens

BY EVE ISENBERG

Photos courtesy of the author

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Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

One of the lovely things about living in Concord is the view.

From Monument Street overlooking fields of grass to views of Warner’s Pond in West Concord to the dappled light of the forests on ORNAC, the viewer only needs to stand still and look around to notice. Many builders and architects of the 1940s-1960s (the mid-century modern era) understood this and sited homes to take in the surroundings. I feel privileged to be working with a family who bought one of these beautiful houses in the northwest section of town. They recognized immediately that the gardens were an essential component of the home’s value. “Every improvement we make to the lot—new shrubs, new flowers, new mulch—is visible both when you’re outside the house and when you’re in it,” says the homeowner. “As with the mid-century aesthetic, the outside comes in, and the architect did a good job.”

The visitor must climb a hill to approach the house from the street and enter a private yard where the house presents a modest facade. The flat roof and floor-to-ceiling windows allow glimpses of the interior and views through to the back yard, with little distraction. The home’s public spaces are located to maximize views to the largest area of yard, and sunlight streams in all day, while the private spaces have smaller windows for privacy.

This home was designed by Concord architect Joseph James Schiffer, MIT professor and owner of his own firm in Newton from 1957-1989. It was built in 1964 for Rosemary and Frank Nicholson, whose eponymous interior design firm still operates in Acton. The house was bought in 1982 by Larry Harris and renovated in the mid-1980s, including a greenhouse addition and the latest interior finishes of that day.

The building footprint has not been substantially altered over the years, and the current homeowners inherited all the wonderful potential of the original house. They worked to bring the home to current standards with a careful kitchen renovation and opened the interior to create a traditional Japanese aesthetic of views through a sequence of interior and exterior spaces. The residents are enjoying their gardens. “This house and its gardens feel to us like a work of art. Our old colonial—we loved it—but it was ordinary,” says the homeowner. “In this house, every time we come up the front steps, it makes us smile. Just like good art should.”

These clients have lived in other homes in Concord, and I asked them how living in a mid-century modern home has changed them, if at all. Their answer reflects their appreciation of the transparency of their house and the careful siting within the surrounding nature. “The midcentury floor plan has reinforced our lifestyle in a very positive way. [The house floorplan is] arranged as a hub and spokes. No matter where we are in the house, we are not far from one another. We’re a close family, and this design works well for us. Plus, we all take great interest in the evolution of our garden because it is such an integral part of being in the house.”

———————————————————————————————— Eve Isenberg, Principal of the Concord based, women-owned InkStone Architects LLC, is a MA and NH registered architect and a Deck House homeowner in Concord.

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Courtesy Concord Free Public Library

People of Concord gathered to examine the ruins of the First Parish meetinghouse after a fire destroyed it on April 12, 1900.

FAITH AND FIRE

Stories of Concord’s First Parish

I

It was April 1900, and the First Parish in Concord was putting the finishing touches on a splendid renovation of its historic meetinghouse on Lexington Road. No expense had been spared, for in a few days the parish would celebrate Easter Sunday, and less than a week later, the town would gather in its pews to honor the 125th anniversary of the minutemen’s victory at the North Bridge.

As the sun set on Wednesday, April 11, carpenters and electricians packed up their tools, and painters stowed their cleaning rags 34

Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

BY VICTOR CURRAN in a closet. They headed home, pleased with their work.

Around 2:30 on Thursday morning, a night watchman named Patrick Varney was patrolling the silent streets when he spotted flames in the meetinghouse. He rushed to the nearest fire-alarm box—a brand-new system getting its first use—and pulled the handle.

Willard Farrar, the sexton of the nearby Trinitarian Congregational Church, heard the commotion and sprinted toward the burning meetinghouse. He forced his way in through a locked door, grabbed the bell rope, and

with all his might he rang the First Parish bell, which was considerably louder than the town’s new fire alarm.

Farrar fearlessly rang the bell until 3:30, when the steeple itself was engulfed in flames, and he escaped moments before the blazing structure collapsed.1 The next day, the governing board of the First Parish received a letter from their counterparts at the Trinitarian church. “We tender to you for your use our meeting house, as long as you desire… [the] facilities of the building are freely at your disposal.”2

public domain

Amos Doolittle’s 1775 print of British soldiers in Concord shows part of the 1711 meetinghouse on the left. The building on the far right with the belfry is the courthouse that was built using components of the 1673 meetinghouse.

The Trinitarian Congregational Church had been founded nearly seventy-five years earlier by First Parish members who defected over doctrinal disputes. But when disaster struck, all conflicts of theology were swept aside by the moral imperative to help a neighbor in need.

F

or almost two hundred years, the First Parish was the only church in Concord.

Parish business was town business, and vice versa. Rev. Peter Bulkeley wasn’t just the parish’s first minister, he was also one of

Model of First Parish Church by John Wesson, 1841. Concord Museum Collection, Gift of Cummings E. Davis. M408.

This model shows the First Parish Meetinghouse as it appeared between 1791 and 1841.

the town’s founders and financed much of its early growth, including the grist mill from which the Milldam neighborhood takes its name. The mill stood roughly where Main Streets Café is now.

The parish built a meetinghouse on the ridge overlooking present-day Lexington Road and buried their dead in the churchyard, now known as the Old Hill Burying Ground. In 1673, they built a new meetinghouse across the road, near the present Wright Tavern. That building, a square gabled structure topped with a belfry, was later dismantled and reassembled 500 feet away to become the courthouse that can be seen in Amos Doolittle’s 1775 print of British soldiers marching into Concord center.

The meetinghouse that is partly visible in Doolittle’s picture was built in 1711. It was much larger than its predecessor and required considerable labor to build. Instead of cash, the workers were paid in food and drink, which included “barrels of rum,” according to contractors’ records.3 The next year, the parish called Rev. John Whiting as its minister. Whiting was a popular preacher, more liberal in his theology than his Puritan predecessors. Unfortunately, his performance of his duties was somewhat impaired by a “fondness for the flowing bowl,”4 and in 1737 the parish replaced him with Rev. Daniel Bliss. Bliss was a “New Light” preacher whose fiery sermons drove some parishioners to form their own congregation

with Rev. Whiting presiding. Perhaps fittingly, Rev. Whiting’s renegade flock met in the Black Horse Tavern on Main Street at Sudbury Road (the present Library site).

After Bliss’ death, the First Parish installed a young Harvard graduate as its new minister. His name was William Emerson, and although he hailed from Malden, Massachusetts, he had Concord roots, being descended from Rev. Peter Bulkeley. He married his predecessor’s daughter, Phebe Bliss, and they built the house we call the Old Manse as a home for their growing family.

Emerson ascended to Concord’s pulpit in 1765, the same year the Stamp Act provoked the rage of the American colonies against their mother country. His vocal support for the colonists’ rights earned him the nickname of “Patriot Preacher.” He welcomed the Provincial Congress to use the Concord meetinghouse in 1774 to plot Massachusetts’ resistance to English rule, and the following year, he invited Harvard University to hold classes there while the fledgling Continental Army trained recruits on the Cambridge campus.

No armchair patriot, Emerson joined the Army himself as a chaplain in 1776, but his service and his life were cut short by dysentery. His widow, Phebe, struggled to raise their five children, and eventually remarried—to her late husband’s successor, Rev. Ezra Ripley.

Ezra Ripley became Concord’s pastor in 1778 and continued in that role for an astonishing 63 years, until his death at age 90. Over his long ministry, he devoted himself to building a harmonious community rather than splitting theological hairs, but eventually his more orthodoxminded parishioners—including some Thoreau family members—resigned to form the Trinitarian Church in 1825. Those who

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35

NOTES

much as Willard Farrar would do more than half a century later—and lustily rang the bell himself.

The bell that Henry rang was damaged beyond repair when the meetinghouse burned in 1900. But parishioners preserved it, and it now occupies a place of honor on the front lawn of the meetinghouse, where a plaque tells of the bell’s connection to Concord’s literary and antislavery heritage.

——————————————————————— Victor Curran writes and leads tours of historic Concord and is an interpreter at the Concord Museum and the Old Manse. He teaches courses and writes articles about the men and women who The First Parish bell that Henry David Thoreau rang in made Concord the home of American 1844 was salvaged from the 1900 fire and occupies a independence and imagination. place of honor in front of the meetinghouse.

1 Edward Wesley Tucker, “The Meeting Houses of the First Parish,” in The Meeting House on the Green (John Whittemore Teele, ed.), First Parish in Concord, 1985. 2David Britton Little, “Concord and Its Churches,” in Teele, op. cit. 3Edward Wesley Tucker, “The Meeting Houses of the First Parish,” in Teele, op. cit.

4 Eric Parkman Smith, The Church in Concord and Its Ministers, (pamphlet), 1971. 5The Unitarian and Universalist denominations merged in 1961, so the First Parish now officially identifies as Unitarian Universalist.

Gregory Maguire’s Enchanting New Tale: The Brides of Maracoor

T

The debut of a new book by Concordian Gregory Maguire is always cause for celebration in our town. His best-selling books, including Wicked, A Wild Winter Swan, Hiddensee, and others are loved by readers around the world.

This October, Gregory will launch a new spin-off sequel series, Another Day. Expanding on the characters we’ve come to love from his initial series, The Wicked Years (which included Wicked), the first in this series is The Brides of Maracoor, featuring Elphaba’s granddaughter and a few familiar faces from Oz—all in a fantastically new setting filled with a new and compelling cast of characters.

The Brides of Maracoor finds Elphaba’s granddaughter, Rain, washing ashore on a foreign island, Maracoor Spot. Comatose from crashing into the sea, Rain is taken 36

Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

BY CYNTHIA BAUDENDISTEL

in by a community of seven “brides” committed to obscure devotional practices seemingly necessary to the existence of this universe. Like Elphaba, the young and vibrantly green-skinned Rain is a misunderstood born leader who instantly upends the lives and orderly ways of those around her. Meanwhile, as the mainland of Maracoor suffers an assault by a foreign navy, the island’s civil-servant overseer struggles to understand how an alien arriving on the shores of Maracoor Spot could threaten the stability and well-being of an entire nation. Is it myth or magic at work, for good or for ill?

The Another Day trilogy will follow this green-skinned girl from the island outpost into the unmapped badlands of Maracoor before she learns how, and becomes ready, to turn her broom homeward, back to her family and her lover, back to Oz, which—in its beauty, suffering, mystery, injustice, and possibility— reminds us all too clearly of the troubled yet sacred terrain of our own lives.

Join Concord Players on October 13 for Enchant the Night: A Conversation with Gregory Maguire in Celebration of The Brides of Maracoor. concordplayers.org.

As readers may recall, we interviewed Gregory and his husband Andy Newman for the Winter 2019 issue of Discover Concord and were delighted to find their personal lives every bit as magical as Gregory’s prose and Andy’s paintings. You can find that article, “There’s No Place Like Home,” on our homepage at discoverconcordma.com.

Photo by Dianne Weiss

remained faithful to the First Parish called themselves Unitarian, as they still do.5 1841 saw great changes at First Parish.

One was a change of leadership, as Rev. Barzillai Frost became senior minister after Ezra Ripley’s death. The other was a change of architecture, as the historic meetinghouse was dismantled and rebuilt perpendicular to its old footprint. The steeple, which had previously faced Main Street, now faced Lexington Road, as it does now.

A few years later, in 1844, an excited Henry David Thoreau arrived at the meetinghouse asking the sexton to ring the bell. Ralph Waldo Emerson was about to give an antislavery address, and Henry wanted the bell to summon the whole town to hear him. When the sexton refused, Henry burst in and seized the bell rope—

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Artisan’s Way Barrett Sotheby’s Int’l Realty Barrow Bookstore Concord’s Colonial Inn Concord Players Compass Real Estate

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Slam Dunkle

Concord’s Two-Wheeled Troubadour

©Pierre Chiha Photographers

BY VICTOR CURRAN

O

One autumn day in Monument Square, a visitor asked me about Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. “Is that the one in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow?” he wanted to know.

“No, that one is in New York,” I smiled.

(I hear that question a lot.) “There’s no headless horseman here.”

“Then who’s that?” he asked, pointing over my shoulder. I spun around to see a figure all in black, strumming a black guitar as he cruised through the roundabout on his bicycle. But the weirdest part was, his head was conspicuously absent.

Concord’s cycling minstrel goes by the name of Slam Dunkle, and he’s irresistibly drawn to novel ideas and opportunities. A couple of years ago, he spotted a broken guitar in a trash barrel, put it back together, and painted it black. Then he painted his 44

Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

beach cruiser bicycle black to match. He found a bargain-priced headless horseman outfit in a costume shop, and voilà, the headless horseman materialized.

Of course, it helped that Matt Dunkle (his real name) has been an avid cyclist since childhood, and he’s a Berklee-trained musician who’s pretty handy at making and repairing instruments. Once he had his guitar and costume, he was ready to hit the streets (and yes, he’s playing real music as he rides around town).

Like many Concord stories, the tale of Slam Dunkle begins at Walden Pond. On hot summer days, Matt likes to ride to Walden for a swim. Heeding Thoreau’s dictum to simplify, he wears his swimsuit while riding to and from the pond. In 2015, inspiration struck: let’s have Christmas in July! He put

on a red swimsuit and a Santa Claus hat, hopped on his red beach cruiser, and rode around town belting out Christmas carols, all the while wondering “Can I get away with this?” To his surprise, no one heckled him or called the cops. They waved, smiled, even sang along, and the performer Slam Dunkle was born.

He really got noticed when he found a big red exercise ball to toss and catch while he cycled around town in a Speedo. Next, he put his musical talent into the mix, playing a trumpet (his main instrument since he was eleven years old) or a flute as he rode.

He attracted the attention of the Concord Journal, which ran a story on him in October 2017, and at Halloween in 2020, his headless horseman was featured by the Boston Globe, WBZ television, and WCVB’s Chronicle.

Matt even has a website now (slamdunkle.com), but public acclaim hasn’t gone to his head. Like Henry Thoreau, he lives simply so that his imagination can flourish. Fans occasionally hire him to bring Slam Dunkle to life at parties, and he’s even performed at a fashion show at West Concord’s Three Stones Gallery, but he most often appears on the streets of Concord with no sponsor, not even a tip jar. What animates him is the excitement of doing the unexpected and unconventional. Most of all, he loves seeing his joyful spirit reflected in his viewers’ happy faces. So if you see Slam Dunkle making his rounds, be sure to greet him with a wave and a smile.

———————————————————————— Victor Curran writes and leads tours of historic Concord and is an interpreter at the Concord Museum. He teaches courses and writes articles about the men and women who made Concord the home of American independence and imagination.

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Experiencing The Wayside as Hillside, Home of the Alcotts

ADDITIONS AND RENOVATIONS / OLDER GIRLS’ BEDROOMS AND BRONSON’ STUDY Initially, Hillside was a small 145-yearold colonial with two to three bedrooms.

Bronson enlarged the structure using a wheelwright shop on the property. Along with his carpenter friend Edmund Hosmer, Bronson cut the shop in two and grafted the halves onto the east and west sides of the house. He added a porch to the front and a peak to the center of the roof.1 The western 46

Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

The Wayside as it appears today

addition created two first-floor bedrooms, one for Anna and the other for Louisa, plus a study for Bronson. The east wing included a bathing room, laundry area, and woodhouse.

According to Abba Alcott, the bathing room accommodated a “tub and shower bath fixed with weight and pulleys so that even Elizabeth [could] give herself a bath without help.”2 KITCHEN Enlarging the kitchen requiring removing a wall between two smaller rooms (one of which could have been a bedroom). The fireplace with an oven, since rebuilt, represents the area where Abba did her cooking. She noted that “I have had the water brought into the kitchen and a new pump—had the well cleaned out and stoned round it.” Lizzie frequently wrote in her journal “of cleaning the knives and from time to time of ironing, of sweeping the sitting room and washing the hearth, or of washing the dishes.”3 UPSTAIRS BEDROOMS The original entrance (since closed off with a bay window) opens to a stairway built

by Bronson that leads to the east chamber where all four girls slept until Anna and Louisa got their own rooms. The sisters played out parts of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress on these stairs, carrying their burdens. The bedroom contains an old colonial fireplace which conceals a space that the Alcotts may have used to hide slaves making their way north.4 Bronson and Abba occupied the west chamber, a favorite play space for Lizzie and Abby May, as noted in Lizzie’s journal: “We played have a ball and danced;” “We played with our dollies in mother’s chamber;” “After dinner, I washed the dishes and Catherine, and Abba and I played in Mothers’ chamber. I was a sick lady and Abba was a doctor.”5 DINING ROOM Back on the first floor, the dining room (presently the sitting room) stands to the left of the stairs. Willis recalled Bronson’s “table talks” during meals where the former educator made metaphysical topics understandable to the youngest listener.6 During breakfast, Bronson read scripture and

All images courtesy of the author

N

Nothing brings historical figures to life more than visiting where they lived. The popularity of house museums such as The Wayside and Orchard House attest to that premise. By peering through windows, touching the walls, walking the floors, and observing artifacts, the tour can transform into a pilgrimage.

Although the setting of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women is Orchard House, The Wayside is where much of the action takes place. The Alcotts owned the property from 1845-1852, naming it Hillside. Because the house has been renovated many times since 1852, it is difficult to imagine how it appeared during the time of the Alcotts. Fortunately, because of the work of Margaret Lothrop and Minute Man National Historical Park, writings describe Hillside in detail, both inside and out. Another vital document by ten-year-old Elizabeth Sewall Alcott provides an eyewitness account of daily life at the home. Her record of the three years she lived there is her only surviving journal and provides another look at how the “little women” lived.

So that you, too, can envision Hillside, this article includes a plan of the first floor labeled to conform to how the Alcotts used each room. Anecdotes from Lizzie’s journal, other family members, and their student boarder, Frederick Llewellyn Willis, add some color. Armed with the knowledge mentioned above and a little imagination, one can piece Hillside back together into the glorious and much-admired Alcott homestead.

BY SUSAN BAILEY

Original floor plan courtesy of Minute Man National Historical Park with labeling by the author.

sang hymns with the girls. His diary mentions Lizzie discussing the reading with him; sometimes, the girls would copy verses into their journals.7 The dining room doubled as the schoolroom where Bronson conducted two hours of study per day. Lizzie’s diary

documented arithmetic lessons involving multiplication and long division. She wrote lists of spelling words and copied poems.

In the study of botany, Lizzie viewed flower parts under a microscope. Geography involved drawing maps, including one Lizzie drew of Hillside. Journal writing required writing a description of her day on a slate; once approved by Bronson, she would copy it into her journal with perfect penmanship.8 PARLOR The parlor (currently the dining room) is on the east side. Willis described the space as “an expression of inherent simplicity and charm” “with its pretty chintz curtains, its cool matting, its few fine engravings, its Parian busts of Clytie and Pestalozzi, . . . its books and cut flowers, and its indescribable atmosphere of refinement.”9 Here the older girls sewed while their mother read from Scott, Dickens, Cooper, Hawthorne, and Shakespeare. Each week, the family gathered in the parlor where Bronson read aloud his daughters’ journals. Lizzie was too shy to have hers read, and he respected her feelings.10

Front stairs where the girls played The Pilgrim’s Progress

LANDSCAPING Like the home, the property, too, was transformed. In 1845 the run-down dwelling

was situated on a treeless gravel lot.

Bronson’s daily journal entries describe how he beautified the property with shrubbery, lush gardens, terraces, and a summer arbor. Taking the children with him, he went to Walden Pond and surrounding areas and dug up flowers, shrubs, and trees to transplant. Bronson transformed the barren yard into a haven while providing needed privacy. Regrettably, time eroded these enhancements. The final blow was the hurricane of 1938, which destroyed most of the transplanted trees. One surviving memento is a stone stairway leading to the steep hill and the terraces that once existed.

The girls often used this hill to playact scenes from The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Louisa May Alcott drew much of her material for part one of Little Women from the family’s years at Hillside. I hope this article will help you experience The Wayside as Hillside during your tour. Let the rooms, stairs, walls, floors, and windows speak to you about the sisters and their daily lives in this historic home.

——————————————————————— Susan Bailey is the author of two books (Louisa May Alcott: Illuminated by the Message and River of Grace) and webmaster for the Louisa May Alcott is My Passion blog.

Matteson, John, Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father, p. 176. W. W. Norton & Company: Illustrated Edition, November 17, 2008., p. 173.

Lothrop, Margaret M., The Wayside: Home of Authors, p. 46-47. American Book Company: 1968. 3Ibid, 48, 52.4Ibid, p. 48. 5Alcott, Elizabeth Sewell. MS Am 1130.9.

Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. A.MS. “Diary 19 April-4 October 1846,” (24), Saturday, August 29, Tuesday, September 8, Tuesday, September 29. 6Linn, Edith Willis Linn, Willis, Frederick Llewellyn Hovey, et al. Alcott Memoirs, Posthumously Comp. From Papers, Journals and Memoranda of the Late Dr. Frederick L. H. Willis. The Gorman Press: Boston, 1915, p. 25. 7Lothrop, The Wayside, p. 52. 8Ibid, p. 52-53; Alcott, Elizabeth Sewall, journal. 9Willis, Alcott Memoirs, p. 25. 10Alcott, Amos Bronson, Diary for 1846. Vol. XX. Concord, Mass., April (no date). MS Am 1130.12.IV. (15).

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49

Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Yorkshire

In 1853, American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne crossed paths with the infamous clipper transport ship The Yorkshire. While the man and the ship led separate lives, each was entwined with the sea and their fates were destined to meet again years later in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s final hometown of Concord, Massachusetts. This is that story.

Born July 4, 1804, and descended from “the hanging judge of the Salem witch trials,” Nathaniel Hawthorne came from a family steeped in the oceans’ peril. During the American Revolutionary War, his grandfather, Captain Daniel Hathorne, nicknamed “Bold Daniel,” was a privateer, patrolling the waters near New England and stalking the far-off treacherous coasts of Scotland and Portugal.

The official American Navy had not yet been founded, and Hawthorne’s grandfather and other privateers were half protectors of America and half pirates, sanctioned by the American colonists to attack English ships and profit from their plunder.

In a more respectable manner, Hawthorne’s father was a sea captain, 50

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BY JAIMEE LEIGH JOROFF traveling for trade to the West Indies, Africa, and South America. When Hawthorne was just four years old, his father became ill and died at sea. Hawthorne, his sister, and mother, moved in with his grandfather in Salem and there Hawthorne grew up surrounded by the seaside town’s history, stories from travelers, and his family’s dark role in the Salem witch trials.

By the year 1817, Hawthorne was beginning to think about attending college.

At the same time, to the south of Massachusetts in New York, a group of Quaker merchants was forming a line of clipper transport ships. The men included Jeremiah Thompson, father and son Issac and William Wright, Francis Thompson, and a non-Quaker, Benjamin Marshall. With an initial fleet of four, their ships became the first of their kind to carry mail, goods, and passengers, sailing between New York and Liverpool, England. Flying high atop the ships’ masts, a red flag adorned with a black ball streamed proudly in the wind, eventually inspiring the fleets’ name of The

Black Ball Line. While highly skilled seamen commanded the ships, most of the crews were desperate men plucked straight from prisons. And although many of the founders were peaceful Quakers and abolitionists, the Black Ball Line was notorious for vicious treatment of the lower seamen.

In 1821, as the Black Ball Line began anchoring its seafaring reputation, Nathaniel Nathaniel Hawthorne

Library of Congress

I

©istock.com/ReidPhoto

A Dangerous Race and The Tides That Bind:

commons.wikimedia.org

Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College in Maine. There he met fellow classmate Franklin Pierce, and the two became lifelong friends.

After college, Hawthorne began a writing career gaining some early success. On his wedding day in 1842, Hawthorne and his bride, Sophia Peabody, moved to Concord, Massachusetts, where they rented Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ancestral home, the Old Manse. They lived there for three years during which time Hawthorne compiled his book Mosses From An Old Manse.

At the same time, back in New York, great changes were happening in the design of the Black Ball Line.

Shipping and passenger transport was a competitive business, even in-house, and the Black Ball Line captains bet against each other as to who could be the fastest back and forth across the ocean. The need for speed created a dangerous race and drove the redesign of ships.

The Wayside

Inspired by English opium running ships that were made to be small and fast to evade authorities as English crews trafficked illicit opium between India and China, the Black Ball Line redesigned its ships and in 1843 The Yorkshire was added to the packet, soon proving her place as the fastest ship in the fleet and pride of the entire Black Ball Line.

As the years passed, both the ship and Hawthorne’s fame grew. The Yorkshire raced back and forth between New York and Liverpool, and Hawthorne moved back to Salem, Massachusetts where he worked as a surveyor in the Custom’s House. In 1850,

he published The Scarlet Letter, and a year later The House of the Seven Gables.

In 1853, Franklin Pierce became the United States’ 14th president and appointed Hawthorne to be Consul in Liverpool. With his family, Hawthorne moved to England. It was there, in October of 1853, that The Yorkshire, under the command of Captain Edward Young, once again sailed into port where, this time, it was met by U.S. Consul Nathaniel Hawthorne. Of the crewmen he met, Hawthorne wrote that they are the “most rascally set of sailors that ever were seen - dirty, desperate, and altogether pirate-like in aspect.”

Leaving the sailors on the ship, Hawthorne escorted Captain Young to the Consular Office where Hawthorne formally documented receipt of the ship. Along with Captain Young, Hawthorne signed a Consul document verifying the goods of The Yorkshire and applying the official U.S. Consulate seal to the document.

Nine years passed. By 1862, Hawthorne had returned to America and was living at The Wayside in Concord. The American Civil War was causing strife on land; and on the open waters, the Black Ball clipper ships were still racing each other across the Atlantic.

On February 2, 1862, The Yorkshire once again set sail from New York to Liverpool. In addition to her cargo, she was carrying three passengers and 32 crew. She was never seen or heard from again.

Two years later, while on a trip to New Hampshire in the company of Franklin Pierce, Nathaniel Hawthorne died. He was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.

Twenty miles to the east of Hawthorne’s grave is the Atlantic coastline and somewhere, out in that vast ocean, presumably rests The Yorkshire, her cargo, and the remains of 35 souls she had aboard.

©Barrow Bookstore

United States Consular document signed by Nathaniel Hawthorne

In a poem called “The Ocean,” Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote, The ocean has its silent caves, Deep, quiet and alone; Though there be fury on the waves, Beneath them there is none.

The awful spirits of the deep Hold their communion there; And there are those for whom we weep, The young, the bright, the fair.

Calmly the wearied seamen rest Beneath their own blue sea.

The ocean solitudes are blest, For there is purity.

The earth has guilt, the earth has care, Unquiet are its graves; But peaceful sleep is ever there, Beneath the dark blue waves.

Over a century and a half passed. On July 4, 2021, on the 217th anniversary of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s birth, the memory of Hawthorne and The Yorkshire resurfaced together when an “Autograph Edition set of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne” sailed into Concord’s Barrow Bookstore. Bound into Volume One, quietly waiting to be found, is the United States Consular document signed and sealed by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Captain Young for receipt of The Yorkshire’s 1853 arrival in Liverpool. Their meeting in life, bound together for eternity, a story among many, waiting to be found.

Visit Barrow Bookstore’s YouTube channel for the audio version of this article.

——————————————————————— A Concord native, Jaimee Joroff is Manager of the Barrow Bookstore in Concord Center, which specializes in Concord history, Transcendentalism, and literary figures. She has been an interpreter at most of Concord’s historic sites and is a licensed town guide.

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“ ‘Tis the good reader that makes the good book.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Barrow Bookstore RARE AND GENTLY READ BOOKS

Specializing in Concord Authors and History; Transcendentalism; Revolutionary War, American, and Military History; Children’s Literature; and a wide selection for the eclectic reader.

Literary-themed gifts, postcards, and beeswax candles.

79 Main Street, Concord, MA (behind Fritz and Gigi) | www.barrowbookstore.com | 978-369-6084

Photo © Mike Frederick

SUNFLOWERS, SELFIES, AND BOUQUETS! PICK YOUR OWN! (thru mid-Sept.)

PICK YOUR OWN PUMPKINS! (thru Oct.) 1 day Festival on Oct. 2, 11-3 p.m.

A portion of sales from these 2 events will be donated to Emerson Hospital’s Pediatric Unit Fresh Stonewood Farm turkeys for Thanksgiving Online orders for turkeys and all the fixins!

11 Wheeler Rd. | 978-369-4494 | Verrillfarm.com

The Thoreau Society Shop at Walden Pond

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53

A

Autumn is a special time in New England. For my family, September means an excursion to a local orchard for apple picking, apple cider, and apple donuts. Then in October, it is off to the farm for pumpkin picking.

For anyone who is new to New England, or somehow has never had a cider donut, let me tell you these are a delicious fall treat! The best donuts are fresh from the fryer, covered in cinnamon sugar. They have a delicate crust and a warm, bready interior that is redolent of apple cider and cinnamon. When you bite into one of these treats, it is heavenly. Yum! You could buy cider donuts at the supermarket, but for my money, the best place is the local apple orchard or farm stand. Great options abound in nearby towns like Stow or Bolton where apple orchards are a legacy of Johnny Appleseed.

Of the self-pick orchards in the Concord area, Shelburne Farm and Honeypot Hill Orchard are two of my favorites for cider donuts, especially with some freshly 54

Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

Autumnal Rites of Passage in New England

BY DAVID ROSENBAUM

pressed, hot cider. Of course, if you want to make your own donuts, you can find good recipes on the internet.

As October rolls into Concord and the days and nights become even cooler, Halloween is just around the corner. Pumpkins, whether carved into beautiful jack-o-lanterns or displayed in your yard, are a true symbol of fall. These wonderful gourds fulfil the purpose of food, decoration, and even punch bowls for many of us. Pick-your-own pumpkin farms are close by and welcome the whole family, so bring the kids, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.

You can stay local and visit Concord’s own Verrill Farm, which has a variety of pumpkins: large and small, white or yellow, oblong or round, and anything in between! Or you can visit a slew of other farms in neighboring towns. We have a list of options for you here.

Wherever you go, make sure you stop by the farm stand after you finish your pumpkin picking to get some fresh baked goods, cider, or other farm produce.

One word to the wise, some farms are now requiring reservations to do pumpkin picking, so check the website before you go and make sure you will be able to get in when you want to pick.

Have a wonderful fall!

———————————————————————— David Rosenbaum is a Concord resident.

When he’s not enjoying cider donuts and seeking the perfect pumpkin, his day job is Solutions Engineer for Kaltura, Inc.

Resources: Mass Department of Agriculture Pick your Own finder: https://massnrc.org/farmlocator/ map.aspx?Type=PYO%20 (Pick%20Your%20Own) Cider Donut recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/ recipe/235088/apple-ciderdoughnuts/ DIY Pumpkin punchbowl: https://www.liquor.com/articles/ pumpkin-punch-bowl/

©istock.com/photo_chaz.

Cider Donuts & Pumpkin Patches:

Where to look for delicious cider donuts near Concord: Belkin Family Lookout Farm 89 Pleasant Street, Natick lookoutfarm.com (508) 651-1539

Doe Orchards 327 Ayer Road, Harvard doeorchards.com (978) 772-4139

Carlson Orchards 115 Oak Hill Road, Harvard carlsonorchards.com (978) 456-3916

Drew Farm 31 Tadmuck Road, Westford drewfarm.com (978) 807-0719

Carver Hill Orchards 101 Brookside Avenue, Stow carverhillorchard.com (978) 897-6117

Farmer Dave’s at Hill Orchard 4 Hunt Rd, Westford facebook.com/ westfordhillorchard (978) 392-4600

Derby Ridge Farm 438 Great Road, Stow derbyridgefarm.com (978) 897-7507

Honey Pot Hill Orchard 144 Sudbury Road, Stow honeypothill.com (978) 562-5666

Nashoba Valley Winery Orchard & J’s Restaurant 100 Wattaquadoc Hill Road, Bolton nashobawinery.com (978) 779-5521 Nicewicz Family Farm 116 Sawyer Road, Bolton nicewiczfamilyfarm.com (978) 779-6423 Old Frog Pond Farm 38 Eldridge Road, Harvard oldfrogpondfarm.com (978) 456-9616 Schartner Farm 211 West Berlin Road, Bolton schartnerfarm.com (978) 779-5588

Shelburne Farm 106 West Acton Road, Stow shelburnefarm.com (978) 897-9287 Verrill Farm 11 Wheeler Road, Concord verrillfarm.com (978) 369-4494 Westward Orchards Farm Store Massachusetts Ave. (Rt. 111), Harvard westwardorchards.com (978) 456-8363 Wilson Farm 10 Pleasant Street, Lexington wilsonfarm.com (781) 862-3900

©istock.com/juanmonino

Where to find the perfect pumpkin near Concord:

Barrett’s Mill Farm 449 Barrett’s Mill Road, Concord barrettsmillsfarm.com (978) 254-5609 Brigham Farm Stand & Greenhouses 82 Fitchburg Turnpike, Concord brighamfarmconcordma.com (978) 287-4334 Carlson Orchards 115 Oak Hill Road, Harvard carlsonorchards.com (978) 456-3916 Carver Hill Orchards 101 Brookside Avenue, Stow carverhillorchard.com (978) 897-6117

Clark Farm 185 Concord Street, Carlisle clarkfarmcarlisle.com (978) 254-5427

Marshall Farm 171 Harrington Ave, Concord marshallfarm.com (978) 369-4069

Colonial Gardens Florist & Greenhouses 442 Fitchburg Turnpike, Concord colonialgardensflorist.com (978) 369-2554

Millbrook Farm 215 Cambridge Turnpike, Concord millbrookfields.com (978) 287-0299

Derby Ridge Farm 438 Great Road, Stow derbyridgefarm.com (978) 897-7507

Nashoba Valley Winery Orchard & J’s Restaurant 100 Wattaquadoc Hill Road, Bolton nashobawinery.com (978) 779-5521

Doe Orchards 327 Ayer Road, Harvard doeorchards.com (978) 772-4139 Dowse Orchards 98 North Main Street, Sherborn dowseorchards.com (508) 653-2639 Honey Pot Hill Orchard 144 Sudbury Road, Stow honeypothill.com (978) 562-5666 Hutchins Farm 754 Monument Street, Concord hutchinsfarm.com (978) 369-5041

Nicewicz Family Farm 116 Sawyer Road, Bolton nicewiczfamilyfarm.com (978) 779-6423 Old Frog Pond Farm 38 Eldridge Road, Harvard oldfrogpondfarm.com (978) 456-9616 Rotondo Farm 737 Bedford Street, Concord

Scimone’s Farm 505 Old Bedford Road, Concord (978) 337-8504 Shelburne Farm 106 West Acton Road, Stow shelburnefarm.com (978) 897-9287 Sunshine Farm 41 Kendall Avenue, Sherborn sunshinefarmma.com (508) 655-5022 Verrill Farm 11 Wheeler Road, Concord verrillfarm.com (978) 369-4494 The Walden Woods Project Farm 1047 Concord Turnpike, Concord walden.org/property/the-farmat-walden-woods (978) 369-2724 Westward Orchards Farm Store Massachusetts Ave. (Rt. 111), Harvard westwardorchards.com (978) 456-8363

Schartner Farm 211 West Berlin Road, Bolton schartnerfarm.com (978) 779-5588

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Last

WideOpen

theandOldM an the OldM oon

Holidays Under

The Umbrella

by Audrey Cefaly Music by Matthew M. Nielson Directed by Nancy Curran Willis

by PigPen Theatre Co. Directed by Julia Deter

Directed by Sarajane Morse Mullins

MAY 13 - JUN 5, 2022 MAR 18 - APR 10, 2022 JAN 28 - FEB 20, 2022

DECEMBER 17-19, 2021 NOV 12 - DEC 5, 2021 SEPT 24 - OCT 10, 2021

ANNOUNCING OUR 2021-2022 SEASON

by George C. Wolfe Directed by Pascale Florestal

A World Premiere

by Hortense Gerardo

commissioned by The Umbrella

Directed by Michelle Augillon

Head over Heels SM

S T A G E

C O M P A N Y

by Hortense Gerardo

40 STOW STREET, CONCORD MA 01742 978.371.0820 TheUmbrellaStage.org

Adaptated

by James Magruder Conceived and Original Book by James Whitty Songs

by The Go-Go’s Directed by Brian Boruta

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57

I

Spotlight The Guardians of Fertility. Clay. ©Jaeok Lee

BY MARISSA COTE

JAEOK LEE Jaeok Lee has been a Sudbury resident for over forty years. Formerly working in watercolor, printmaking, and drawing, Lee’s three-dimensional practice is deeply influenced by the Korean folk art, traditions, and rituals that she grew up surrounded by. Lee says her Guardians series “taps into Korea’s cultural past,” and is rooted in the historical contexts of womanhood, motherhood, and the traditional significance of fertility for Korean women. In the past, Lee primarily focused on botanicals and nature. It was on a trip to South Korea in 2009 that Lee rediscovered the traditional stone sculpture she knew as a child. One of the sculptures, a simple rendering of a baby in stone, fascinated her, motivating her to consider making figurative work. Upon returning home, she learned she would soon be a grandmother to her first grandchild. To her, the connection between both experiences was unmistakable. She shifted focus to the figure and has held that focus ever since.

Jaeok Lee is an avid gardener and says that her garden is the center of all her creative work. Her ideal day is spent in equal parts gardening and sculpting in clay. See Lee’s work at LexArt this October, and in her solo exhibition at the Boston Sculptors Gallery in May 2022. Her work is frequently shown in juried and member exhibitions at Concord Art. jaeoklee.com 60

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Continental Method. Oil on canvas. ©Kaffee Kang

Artist

In this series, we highlight two of the many artists who contribute to the deep creative culture of Concord. Throughout Concord, there are many organizations dedicated to uplifting the arts and artists through exhibitions, educational programs, performances, and workspace. The Concord Museum has temporary and permanent exhibition spaces, both contemporary and historical. Concord Art has a rotating contemporary art gallery and art education that includes classes, lectures, and demos. The Umbrella Arts Center has studio space for over 50 local artists, classes, an exhibition space, and live performances.

Concord also has commercial galleries to explore, such as The Garage @ Jane Deering Gallery, Lucy Lacoste Gallery, and Three Stones Gallery. If you want to see art or further your own artistic skills, you can find an excellent school, gallery, or workspace in Concord.

KAFFEE KANG A former architect from Sudbury, Kaffee Kang spends her days painting in the home studio she designed herself and built in 2019.

Her work is firmly rooted in concepts of identity, such as gender roles, minority status, the immigrant mentality, the political divide, aging, and body image. Her bright, richly colored oil paintings have a graphic quality and often incorporate distinctive patterns throughout the composition. Kang doesn’t stick to any single subject and allows ideas and interests to drive her paintings. Recently, she has been focused on hands at work that are busy with knitting, woodworking, and playing guitar.

Kaffee Kang has always wanted to be an artist. Now that she’s retired from her career in architecture, she is able to explore her passion for painting. She says, “I just don’t get bored painting at all. I never knew I would love this so much...I’m living the dream.”

Kaffee’s work is a highlight of many juried shows at Concord Art. brushandlathe.com —————————————————————————————————————— Marissa Cote is an interdisciplinary artist and art administrator living in Brighton, MA. She holds a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Cote is the Programs Manager at Concord Art, an arts non-profit dedicated to advancing and promoting the visual arts and artists through exhibitions, artist talks, educational programs, and more. Learn more by visiting concordart.org.

Barrow Bookstore Presents:

CONCORD

Q 1

Trivia

After meeting while attending Bowdoin College, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Franklin Pierce became lifelong friends.

When Pierce became the 14th President of the United States (1853-57) he appointed Hawthorne to what role? a) Secretary of State b) U.S. Consul to Liverpool c) Lead speechwriter d) Ambassador to Italy e) Chief Minister of Puritan Justice

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An accidental massive harvest. Have you ever planted too much of something in the garden? While living at Walden Pond, in a nearby field, Henry David Thoreau grew a particular crop “the length of whose rows, added together, was seven miles….” Why he grew this massive crop was a mystery, even to Henry who wrote in Walden, “But why should I raise them? Only Heaven knows.”

What was he growing? a) Apples b) Beans c) Hemp d) Huckleberries e) Sweet corn

3

Concord’s statue of the minuteman farmer stands overlooking the North Bridge where the April 19, 1775, battle occurred between the King’s troops and colonists. Made by Concord resident and sculptor Daniel Chester French, the statue depicts a minuteman farmer leaving his field and, musket in hand, heading to battle. The statue was formally unveiled on the April 19, 1875, centennial of the Battle of Concord and has since been a symbol for which of the following: a) Women’s suffrage b) The United States National Guard c) The Air National Guard 62

Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

Flint knapping is: a) Stealing someone else’s musket b) Priming a musket to fire c) Making stone tools d) Letting flat bread rest after baking to harden

Before Concord’s downtown Main Street existed, the stretch of road now lined with shops had been used by the Pennacook tribe as a: a) Fishing weir b) Trading post c) Flint knapping factory d) Large apple orchard

8

“Leaf peeping” is a common fall activity in New England. Which 19th century Concord author noted that “Europeans coming to America are surprised by the brilliancy of our autumnal foliage” and observed that “[t]he autumnal change of our woods has not made a deep impression on our own literature yet. October has hardly tinged our poetry.” a) Louisa May Alcott b) Ralph Waldo Emerson c) Nathaniel Hawthorne d) Margret Lothrop e) Henry David Thoreau

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In August of 1842, while living at the Old Manse in Concord, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote in his journal that doing something was “like nursing and educating another person’s children.” Was he referring to: a) Editing and reviewing someone else’s work b) Re-writing a draft for his editor c) Cleaning the home he was renting from the Emerson family d) Tending his garden

“I’m walking here!” If you were in mid19th century Concord and saw a horse in a field walking on a treadmill you weren’t hallucinating; you were witnessing a horse doing which of the following: a) Training for a race b) Remaining fit to compete with newly arising locomotives c) Powering a threshing machine d) Breaking in new horseshoes

Upon moving to the New World, the first colonist settlers in Concord were introduced to pumpkins. A Native American food staple, the colonists originally called pumpkins which of the following names? a) Orange Bowl b) Rondegourd c) Pumpion d) Jacquovine and bonus question: Are pumpkins considered a fruit or a vegetable?

If you want to get ready for Halloween by reading a story featuring sentient gingerbread slaves, volcano ovens, and resurrection funerals for sugar-people, you should read a story by which author? a) Louisa May Alcott b) Nathaniel Hawthorne c) Margaret Lothrop d) Edgar Allan Poe

A 1. b) U.S. Consul to Liverpool.

2. b) Beans. Of the bean crop that he planted, Thoreau wrote in Walden, “I came to love my rows, my beans, though so many more than I wanted.

They attached me to the earth, and so I got strength like Antæus. But why should I raise them? Only Heaven knows. This was my curious labor all summer.” [Walden, Ch. 7]

3. All of them! While the minuteman farmer seems a likely emblem for military units, its image was also used by suffragettes. In a 1911 flyer titled “To the Farmers and Fruit Growers of California,” suffragette Milicent Shinn wrote, “In the War of American Independence, it was the ‘embattled farmers’ at Concord Bridge that made the first stand and fired the first shot against Taxation without Representation.

The Battle Is Not Yet Fully Won. There is still one class of American citizens that is taxed without any voice of their own, and governed by officials they have had no part in choosing and laws they have had no part in making. Your own mother, your wife and sister are that class.”

look include at the back of the parking lot behind Tuttle’s Livery (45 Walden Street) and behind Main Street Café (42 Main Street) near the Keyes Road Parking lot.

help farmers in this arduous task. They could be powered by steam or horses walking on treadmills, a practice still used by some Amish farmers in America.

6. d) Tending his garden. Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne married on July 9, 1842. Following the ceremony, they immediately moved to Concord, MA, where they rented the Old Manse on Monument Street. As a wedding present, Henry David Thoreau planted a large vegetable garden for the Hawthornes in the field in front of the Manse. In August of that same year, Hawthorne wrote in his journal, “I find that I am a good deal interested in our garden, although, as it was planted before we came here, I do not feel the same affection for the plants that I should if the seed had been sown by my own hands. It is something like nursing and educating another person’s children.”

8. e) Henry David Thoreau in Autumnal Tints. Looking for a great place to leaf peep in Concord? Visit Thoreau’s Walden Pond in the fall.

4. c) Making stone tools. Used by the Pennacook tribe who inhabited Concord prior to the town’s founding in 1634, flint knapping involves chipping away at certain stones to fashion them into tools. Examples of these stone tools may be seen in the Concord Museum, or, if you are lucky, occasionally dug up around town.

7. c) Powering a threshing machine.

Originally done by handheld flails, threshing was the act of removing grains from the stalk and chaff. In the 19th century, threshing machines arrived to

5. a) Fishing weir. Modern day Concord Center was built over the mill brook. You can spot the mill brook still running its course through town. Places to

9. c) Pompion. Bonus: Grown from seeds and on a flowering plant, pumpkins are considered fruits.

10. a) Louisa May Alcott’s story “The Candy Country.” This story starts off sweetly, with a little girl named Lily being whisked away by the wind to a sugar-based land whose inhabitants are built entirely of candy. However, the story quickly takes a dark turn as Lily starts to eat her way through the population.

All photos ©istock.com

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63

Arts Around Town ts Center

This fall brings an array of arts-related events to the Concord

area. Please be aware, though, that due to changing pandemic

e Umbrella Ar

guidelines, plans can change at the last moment. Be sure to check the websites for the latest information on scheduling, mask

Courtesy of Th

requirements, and more.

Michael MacMahon’s Shiver Me Timbers

VISUAL ARTS CONCORD ART 37 Lexington Road | concordart.org 22ND FRANCES N. RODDY OPEN COMPETITION The Frances N. Roddy Open Competition, or The Roddy, is an annual competition and is one of the art association’s most exciting and competitive shows. Don’t miss this all-media show featuring innovative new work that is sure to delight.

September 23 - October 24 THE FACULTY SHOW Join Concord Art as they celebrate teachers and showcase their work this fall. November 4 - November 28 ARTIST TALK: SEEING THROUGH THE FOREGROUND WITH WILHELM NEUSSER Artist Wilhelm Neusser considers the construction of space in painting and looks at examples from different art historical periods.

Landscape painting, in particular, focuses on the illusion of depth, luring the viewer into the imaginary world beyond the picture plane.

But what if things are getting in the way? Like a door frame, a curtain, a tree? November 11 TRUE STORIES TOLD LIVE: “FROM THE CLASSROOM” In collaboration with Fugitive Productions, Concord Art presents another edition of “True Stories Told Live”. This time, the stories are “From the Classroom”. Enjoy an evening of storytelling and community. November 17 THE UMBRELLA ARTS CENTER 40 Stow Street | theumbrellaarts.org WORKS BY MICHAEL MACMAHON Don’t miss the exhibition of works created by Michael MacMahon during his two-year term as artist-in-residence at The Umbrella Arts Center. He was recently awarded Boston’s Dana Pond award for painting and maintains a rigorous studio practice. Michael’s paintings explore a diverse set of subjects including artistic and political history, methods of mass communication, explorations in color theory, and more. September 23 - October 31 64

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GO OUT DOORS – METROWEST The Umbrella Arts Center’s regional exhibition of upcycled, artistdecorated doors continues to expand, now on display in outdoors trails and cultural areas throughout Concord, Metrowest, Minute Man National Historical Park, and Greater Boston. August 1 - November 15 ART RAMBLE: SOMETHING IN THE AIR The Art Ramble is back! Umbrella Arts & Environment Program’s annual outdoors exhibition by Fairyland Pond in Hapgood Wright Town Forest features site-specific, large-scale artworks on the theme of “Air”. September 1 - November 14

THEATRE CONCORD PLAYERS 51 Walden Street | concordplayers.org STEEL MAGNOLIAS Alternatively hilarious and touching, this beloved comedy-drama portrays the bond among a group of Southern women in northwest Louisiana. It reveals, over time, the depth of the strength and purposefulness of its unforgettable characters — ladies who are “as delicate as magnolias but as tough as steel.”

September 3 - 12 SENSE & SENSIBILITY This adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel follows the fortunes (and misfortunes) of the Dashwood sisters — sensible Elinor and sensitive Marianne — after their father’s death leaves them financially destitute and socially vulnerable. Set in late 18th-century England, the play is full of humor and emotional depth. November 5 - 20 THE UMBRELLA ARTS CENTER 40 Stow Street | theumbrellaarts.org THE LAST WIDE OPEN Fate plays its hand in this romantic comedy that features original songs and live music to imagine how the universe conspires to bring us together.

September 24 - October 10 THE OLD MAN AND THE OLD MOON An imaginative, family-friendly, sea-faring epic encompassing apocalyptic storms, civil wars, leviathans of the deep, and cantankerous ghosts, as well as the fiercest obstacle of all: change.

November 12 - December 5

Take a Stroll With Us Through Living History Unique and Fun Walking Tours for All Ages Bring History Alive for your Kids Reenactments & Living History Featuring: The Rude Bridge Tour The Real Little Women African American History in Concord Wide Awake in Sleepy Hollow And many more!

For more information about our safe, socially distanced, and fascinating outdoor tours, please visit us online or call 978.399.8229 | concordtourcompany.com

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Discovering History

Through the Burying Grounds of Concord

T

BY JENNIFER C. SCHÜNEMANN

Old Hill Burying Ground Concord’s earliest burial site is located on a hillside overlooking the town center and includes some of the town’s oldest graves. The oldest marked grave here belongs to Joseph Merriam, who died April 20, 1677, at the age of 47.

History buffs will recognize the names of Col. James Barrett, John Beaton, Capt. David Brown, Reuben Brown, Col. John Buttrick, Hugh Cargill, Dr. John Cuming, Rev. William Emerson, Joseph Meriam, the Honorable James Minot, Peter Wright, and the Honorable Ephriam Wood, among many others. The grave of John Jack documents the life of a man born in Africa, enslaved in Concord, and who died a free man (he purchased his freedom from the widow of the man who had enslaved him). Daniel Bliss, a Tory who felt it was hypocritical of colonists to cry for freedom from England while they themselves enslaved others, wrote an eloquent epitaph for John Jack which was later published in a London paper.

Music enthusiasts will appreciate the legacy of Miss Abigail Dudley. A monetary gift she bequeathed to the Town of Concord back in 1812 66

Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021

endures to this very day and is used to support choir music at the First Parish Meetinghouse.

Many more fascinating pieces of history can be discovered by roaming this old burying ground.

South Burying Ground in Fall

South Burying Ground Also called Main Street Burying Ground, this is Concord’s second-oldest cemetery. According to town legend, it was considered bad luck to transport a corpse across a body of flowing water – and the Mill Brook runs through the center of town. And so, a second burying ground was established near what is today’s Keyes Road.

Here you will find many ancestors of families who are still quite prominent in Concord today. There are 13 graves decorated with markers identifying them as American Revolutionary War veterans.

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Sleepy Hollow is Concord’s largest, and best known, cemetery. Spanning 119 acres, Sleepy Hollow includes the graves of Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Daniel Chester French, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and many others. The cemetery is also home to the famous sculpture “Mourning Victory” by Daniel Chester French. The haunting statue watches over the Melvin memorial, burial place of Asa, John, and Samuel Melvin – Concord brothers killed during the Civil War.

Please do not rub images from the fragile gravestones in Concord cemeteries. We know that scholars and history enthusiasts alike may want to learn more about Concord’s fascinating people and their grave markers – but rubbing images of the markers contributes to the deterioration of these important parts of our cultural heritage. To help you discover more, and to preserve our history, Concord Public Works undertook a Grave Marker Preservation Program in 1999. A photographic record and a database of every grave marker in the South Burying Ground and the Old Hill Burying Ground can be found at the Concord Free Public Library. Learn more at concordlibrary.org/specialcollections/gravemarker-data.

You can also learn more about the fascinating stories behind the graves found at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery by visiting friendsofsleepyhollow.org

Photo by J. Schünemann

The expression “dead men tell no tales” may not quite ring true. The men, women, and even small children buried in Concord’s three burying grounds have much to teach us about the town’s early colonial history, its revolutionary chapter, and even our literary legacy. Take a stroll, enjoy the stunning fall foliage, and take a trip back in time to learn more about Concord’s British and American history.

Antique Caucasian Karachof circa 1880

Antique and New Decorative Carpets and Rugs Sales, Carpet Cleaning, Restoration & Appraisals 624 Hammond Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 617-264-2002 | www.wovenartcollection.com

A SIGHT TO BEHOLD:

Where to Find the Most Beautiful Fall Foliage STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVE WITHERBEE The beautiful fall colors of Concord are a sight to behold! Many of you have your own favorite spots, but perhaps I can point out a couple you have not visited or just need a reminder to go back to again. Be sure to bring a camera or your cell phone.

Fairhaven Bay seen from the shore near the boat house has stunning fall color. Frame your picture with the trees and vegetation found there.

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Two very special places with a strong connection are October Farm, jointly managed by the Concord Land Conservation Trust and the Town of Concord, and Brewster’s Woods, owned by Mass Audubon.

There is a glacial feature at the Brewster’s Woods site that rises to a great view of the Concord River below (the bench at the top is the perfect place for a break). On top of the hill is an American beech grove which is well worth seeing at the end of October or early November. The fall beech colors are yellow and then turn to gold.

Below are more locations that I enjoy visiting to enjoy fall colors, and I suggest you make a point to go to these places in other seasons also.

The Andromeda Trail

The Andromeda Trail on the west side of the train tracks behind Walden Pond. It is fed by the aquifer leaching out of Walden on its way to Fairhaven Bay.

Hutchin’s Pond Reflections on water add an extra dimension to your lovely photos and vistas, and keep in mind that the reflections themselves can be artwork. This one was taken along the Sudbury River.

Hutchin’s Pond is a pretty spot not far from the beginning of the Monument Street entrance to Estabrook Woods. Here you can find a beaver lodge and harvested tree stumps, along with a “beaver deceiver.” Beavers use hearing to find and block water flow. A “beaver deceiver” pipes water under the surface from one waterway to another to hopefully fool the beaver.

Mink Pond

Mink Pond in Estabrook Woods is a great place to find color, birds, and what I think is the biggest beaver lodge in town. It is a beaver hotel!

Gowing Swamp

Gowing Swamp is a natural bog in back of the Ripley School. A bog has no surface inflow or outflow which helps make them very acidic, hence, the plant life is very different. Gowing has an island of sphagnum moss that cranberries, blue berries, larch, and black spruce trees live upon. It also has pitcher plants that eat insects and small amphibians. Look it up and pay it a rewarding visit.

The misty river colors were found on the Sudbury River in the early morning.

Stop by the Visitor Center in Concord or go to the websites for each of these amazing natural treasures for more information on hours, trail maps, and more. visitconcord.org walden.org/property/fairhaven-bay nps.gov/mima/index.htm sudbury-assabet-concord.org concordland.org/land/october-farm-riverfront massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/wildlifesanctuaries/brewster-s-woods mass.gov/locations/walden-pond-state-reservation estabrookcouncil.org

This photo, taken October 30, 2020, shows the beautiful fall colors and a light dusting of snow at Minute Man National Historical Park. The Old North Bridge offered a snow-covered view of the Battle Road.

concordland.org/land/gowings-swamp ——————————————————————————— Dave Witherbee has been traveling the trails and rivers of Concord for 50 years and has been enchanted with the small and large aspects of its nature. Dave’s love of photography has enhanced the attraction.

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Fabulous Fall Foliage

FALL 2021

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD BLACK HEROES AT THE WAYSIDE

:

Nathaniel Hawthorne

and The Yorkshire

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THINGS TO SEE & DO THIS FALL

The Revolution

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Fall 2021 ANTIQUES 49 North Bridge Antiques ARCHITECTURE, CUSTOM BUILDING & INTERIOR DESIGN 1 Appleton Design Group 65 Forever Tile 45 Inkstone Architects 73 Platt Builders ARTS, GUITARS & ART SUPPLIES 32 Albright Art Supply 45 Jane Deering Gallery 61 Minuteman Guitars BOOKS, MAGAZINES & SCHOLARLY WORKS 33 Barefoot Books 53 Barrow Bookstore 70 Discover Concord 53 The Thoreau Society CATERING, RESTAURANTS, AND SPECIALTY FOOD & WINE SHOPS 32 Adelita 33 Concord Cheese Shop 70, 74 *Debra’s Natural Gourmet 70 *Dunkin’ 48 Fiorella’s Cucina

Advertiser Index 53 31 32

Verrill Farm West Concord Wine & Spirits Woods Hill Table

EXPERIENTIAL 65 Be Well Be Here 20 Concord Festival of Authors 17 Concord Museum 20, 37 Concord Players 65 Concord Tour Company 56 The Umbrella Arts Center FLORISTS 65 Concord Flower Shop HOME FURNISHINGS, DÉCOR & UNIQUE GIFTS 49 Artisans Way 49 Belle on Heels 31 Concord Pillows 19 Joy Street Life + Home 48 Nesting 45 Patina Green 32 Revolutionary Concord 67 Woven Art

JEWELERS 37 Artinian Jewelery 49 Fairbank & Perry Goldsmiths PHILANTHROPY 13 Gary’s National Kidney Registry PROFESSIONAL SERVICES 70 My Side Virtual Assistant Professionals 48 West Concord Pharmacy 57 Pierre Chiha Photographers REAL ESTATE 3, 7 The Attias Group C2, 72 Barrett Sotheby’s Int’l Realty 5, 21 Compass 38 Engel & Völkers 25 LandVest 43 William Raveis TOYS 32

The Concord Toy Box

VISITOR RESOURCES 52 Concord Visitor Center

LODGING 29 Concord’s Colonial Inn *Money Saving Coupon on page 70

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a beautiful necessity Realizing how many hours you spend cleaning up life’s little messes is eye-opening. Shouldn’t the space you do it in be pleasant? With a focus on form and function, we’ll create a stylish and hard-working space you’ll love.

Need inspiration? Follow us on Instagram and Facebook PLATTBUILDERS.COM | 978.448.9963 photography by Greg Premru

Expansion Update

Blimp Support Required

Turning West Concord's old 5&10 into Debra's Next Door continues. We hope to throw open our doors late December. Meanwhile, realization dawned. The weight of all the fun new things we are ordering could sink a battleship, or in this case, our vintage 1899 building. But our consultants have a brilliant idea. A blimp to keep everything upright and ship-shape! Wouldn't that be a hoot? Debra's Next Door will be just like Debra's Natural Gourmet has always been ... stuffed…only more!

Winner: 2015 Retailer of the Year — “Best health food store in the country” award (WholeFoods Magazine)

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