USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Old landmarks and historic fields of Middlesex > Part 31
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
363
LECHMERE'S POINT TO LEXINGTON.
pilgrim. The shaft is of granite, with a marble tablet bearing the following inscription, written by Rev. Jonas Clark of Lex- ington. Lafayette and Kossuth have both read it.
"Sacred to the Liberty and the Rights of Mankind !!! The Freedom and Independence of America -Sealed and defended with the blood of her sons - This Monument is erected by the In- habitants of Lexington, under the patronage and at the expense of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to the memory of their Fel- low-citizens, Ensign Robert Monroe, Messrs. Jonas Parker, Samuel Hadley, Jonathan Harrington, Junr., Isaac Muzzy, Caleb Harring- ton and John Brown, of Lexington, and Asahel Porter, of Woburn, who fell on this Field, the first victims of the Sword of British Tyr- anny and Oppression, on the morning of the ever-memorable Nine- teenth of April, An. Dom. 1775. The Die was Cast ! !! The blood of these Martyrs in the cause of God and their Country was the Cement of the Union of these States, then Colonies, and gave the Spring to the Spirit, Firmness and Resolution of their Fellow-citi- zens. They rose as one man to revenge their Brethren's blood, and at the point of the Sword to assert and defend their native Rights. They nobly dared to be Free ! !! The contest was long, bloody, and affecting. Righteous Heaven approved the Solemn Appeal ; Vic- tory crowned their Arms, and the Peace, Liberty, and Indepen- dence of the United States of America was their glorious Reward. Built in the year 1799."
The bodies of the seven individuals belonging to Lexington were originally enclosed in long wooden boxes made of rough boards, and buried in one grave in a corner of the town bury- ing-ground, separate and distinct from all other graves. A few days prior to the celebration in 1835, the remains were disin- terred and placed in a wooden coffin enclosed in lead and made air-tight, the whole being then placed in a mahogany sar- cophagus. At the conclusion of the exercises on that occasion the sarcophagus was deposited in the tomb constructed near the base of the monument. When the bodies were exhumed the coffins were completely decayed. The bones were also more or less decayed.
The people of Lexington, sensible of the impression which the monument gives the beholder, have some time contemplated the
364 HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
building of a new one on a more enlarged plan. This idea has finally obtained expression in four memorial statues, which are placed in the Town Hall ; two of which represent a soldier of 1775 and of 1861; and two others of life size, John Hancock and Samuel Adams. The figure of Hancock, by Gould, is a work of great elaboration. Its left hand holds a scroll, having the words, " We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." The statue of Adams is by Milmore. We must say that it does not appear from this measure how the defects of the old mon- ument, with its too lengthy inscription, are to be remedied. The memorials placed within four walls fail to inculcate any moral lesson, and are completely shut out from the obser- vation of the passer-by. The old monument, not being of itself a relic of the Revolution, its materials might be included in a new structure more properly commemorative of the event. It stands just where it should, - on the spot where the tocsin first sounded " To arms !" It should not be inferred that vis- itors are not admitted with all courtesy to view the statuary, but we should much like to see a shaft national in its character and worthy to illustrate one of History's most eventful pages, standing on the ancient parade.
The troops, having finished their bloody work, and being joined by the rear column, re-form, give three huzzas for vic- tory, and push on for Concord. As, however fast they may march we shall be sure to overtake them, we desire the reader to accompany us to the old Clark house so called.
What is now Hancock Street was the old Bedford road in 1775. The parsonage was situated on the west side, a quarter of a mile distant from the old meeting-house.
The house belongs certainly to two, and perhaps to three, periods. It is composed of a main building in the plain, sub- stantial style of the last century, and of a more antiquated structure standing at right angles with it. The first confronts you if you have come down the road from the Common ; the last faces the street, from which the whole structure stands back a little distance, with a space of green turf between. A large willow is growing in front of the main house, and on the
365
LECHMERE'S POINT TO LEXINGTON.
verge of the grass-plot stands an elm, its branches interlacing those of a fellow-tree on the other side the way, so as to form a triumphal arch under which no patriot should fail to pass. We have christened the twain Hancock and Adams. The one is sturdy, far reaching, and comprehensive ; the other, graceful, supple, but of lesser breadth. About the house flourish lilacs, syringas, and the common floral adjuncts of a New England home.
In this house the afterwards proscribed fellow-patriots, Han- cock and Adams, were lodging at the time of the night march, of which one object was supposed to be their arrest. They were advised by Gerry that the British officers were patrolling the road with some sinister design. A guard of the town's alarm-list was placed about the house, and when Revere rode up, " bloody with spurring," to warn the patriot leaders, he was requested not to make a noise for fear of waking them. " Noise!" quoth our bluff mechanic, "you'll have noise enough before long. The regulars are coming out !" After some further parley with the Rev. Mr. Clark, Hancock, who recog- nized his friend's voice, arose and bade him enter. William Dawes, the other messenger sent by Warren, arrived soon after. This was not long after midnight, and sleep, we may suppose, was banished the house for the remainder of the night.
The room occupied by " king " Hancock and " citizen " Adams is the one on the lower floor on the left of the entrance. Care has been taken to preserve its original appearance. The woodwork, of Southern pine, has remained unpainted, acquiring with age a beautiful color. One side of the room is wainscoted up to the ceiling, the remaining walls bearing the original paper in large figures. The staircase in the front hall has also re- mained innocent of paint, and is handsome enough for a church. Age has given to the carved balusters and panelled casings a richness and depth of hue that scorns the application of any unnatural pigment. The room we have just left is in the south- west corner of the house. Passing to the opposite side of the hall, we enter the best room, which corresponds in finish with that just described, except that the painter's brush has been applied to the wainscot and newer paper to the walls.
366
HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
In this apartment there is no manner of doubt Hancock courted "Dorothy Q.," while his graver friend discussed state- craft with their reverend host, or, buried in thought, paced up and down the grass-plot by the roadside. Dorothy, the daughter of Judge Edmund Quincy of Braintree, was at this time living in the house under the protection of Madam Lydia Hancock, the governor's aunt. When turned of seventy she had a lithe, handsome figure, a pair of laughing eyes, fine yel- low ringlets in which scarcely a gray hair could be seen, and although for the second time a widow, was as sprightly as a girl of sixteen. What her youth was the reader will be at no loss to infer. Charming, vivacious, and witty, with a little dash of the coquette withal, one might pardon Colonel Hancock, late of the Boston Cadets, for becoming her servant.
Hancock had aspired to and obtained a military rank. He was a trifle of a dandy in his attire, particularly in his military garb, when his points, sword-knot, and lace were always of the newest fashion, and rivalled those of any of his Majesty's offi- cers. Gage revoked Hancock's commission, and the indignant corps disbanded, flinging - figuratively - the governor's stand- ard in his face, which made him as mad as a March hare. He is supposed to give his wrath utterance in verse : -
" Your Colonel H-k by neglect, Has been deficient in respect ; As he my sov'reign toe ne'er kiss'd, 'T was proper he should be dismissed ; I never was and never will By mortal man be treated ill ; I never was nor never can, Be treated ill by mortal man. O, had I but have known before The temper of your factious core, It should have been my greatest pleasure,
To have prevented this bold measure. To meet with such severe disgrace, My standard flung into my face ! Disband yourselves ! - so cursed stout ? O had I, had I, turn'd you out !"
On the 12th of June, 1775, Governor Gage by proclamation
367
LECHMERE'S POINT TO LEXINGTON.
exempted Hancock and Adams from his offer of a general par- don, and declared all persons who might give them aid or shel- ter rebels and traitors. Copies of this document were posted in all the public places, and left with every householder in the town of Boston. This being as far as the authority of the royal governor extended, the objects of his paper decree were never in any apprehension of their personal safety. Outlawry by the king's government was to make them the two most conspicuous figures in the Colonies, and the selection of Hancock to preside over the Continental Congress partook largely of an act of bravado. Trumbull's burlesque of Gage's proclamation, which appeared in June, 1775, evidently formed the germ of his hu- morous epic of MacFingal.
Hancock's martial pride, coupled, perhaps, with the feeling that he must show himself, in the presence of his lady love, a soldier worthy of her favor, inclined him to show fight when the regulars were expected. His widow related that it was with great difficulty that herself and the colonel's aunt kept him from facing the British on that day. While the bell on the Green was sounding the alarm, Hancock was cleaning his sword and fusee, and putting his accoutrements in order ; but at length the importunities of the ladies and the urgency of other friends prevailed, and he retired with Adams to a place of concealment. The astute Adams, it is recounted, a little
annoyed perhaps at his friend's obstinacy, clapped him on the shoulder, and exclaimed, looking significantly at the weapons, " That is not our business ; we belong to the cabinet." It will now be easily understood by the reader why Hancock, who was also a relative of Rev. Mr. Clark, chose to come so far from Concord, where the Congress was sitting, to lodge.
The patriots first repaired to the hill, then wooded, southeast of Mr. Clark's, where they remained until the troops passed on to Concord. They were afterwards conducted to the house of Madam Jones, widow of Rev. Thomas Jones, and Rev. Mr. Marrett, in Burlington. From here, upon a new alarm, they retired to Mr. Amos Wyman's, in Billerica, leaving an elegant repast, to which they had just sat down, untasted. Revere,
368
HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
after his misadventure on the road to Concord, rejoined the patriots, as did also Madam Hancock and her niece.
It was while walking in the fields after hearing the firing that Adams made the observation, " It is a fine day." " Very pleasant," replied one of his companions, supposing him to mean the glories of the dawning day. "I mean," said the patriot seer, " this day is a glorious day for America." The veil was lifted, and perhaps he alone saw the end of which this was the beginning. During the firing random shots whizzed past the house he had quitted, and some of the wounded Amer- icans were brought into it to have their hurts cared for. The whole affair on the Common was visible from this spot.
The house in which we have been loitering was built by Thomas Hancock, the Boston merchant of whom we have already had occasion to speak. He was not born until 1703, served his time with Henchman, the stationer, and had not acquired wealth until a much later period ; so that we suppose the building to have been erected about 1740, and not earlier, as has been stated by some. Thomas Hancock did not build his own princely mansion in Boston until 1737. He was the son of the old Bishop Hancock, as he was called, who was or- dained in 1698 over a society which then inhabited this part of Cambridge, called " the farms." The merchant, as soon as his position enabled him to do it, doubtless looked to the more convenient housing of his honored parent, who received his name of bishop on account of his great influence among the ministers. Lexington was incorporated in 1712.
The best room communicates with the ancient or original house, which is seen fronting the street with its single story and picturesque dormer windows and roof. This part was doubtless built by the bishop's parishioners soon after his settle- ment. It formerly stood nearer the high-road until the new building was completed, when it was moved back and joined upon it. The house is a veritable curiosity, and would not make a bad depository for the household furniture and utensils of the period to which it belongs, being of itself so unique a specimen of early New England architecture. The floors and
369
LECHMERE'S POINT TO LEXINGTON.
wainscot are of hard wood, upon which time has left not the least evidence of decay. The farmers clearly meant their min- ister to inhabit a house of a better sort than their own, as is apparent in the curious panelling of the outer door, which still retains its original fastenings, and in the folding shutters of the little study at the back. A cramped and narrow staircase con- ducts to the chambers above, from the room in which we are standing. The same old dresser is attached to the wall, gar- nished of yore by the wooden trenchers and scanty blue china
of the good bishop's housekeeping. Some old three-legged tables are the only other relics of the former inhabitants. This one room, according to the custom of the times, served as kitchen, dining-room, and for the usual avocations of the family. The little study has the narrow windows which first admitted light upon the ponderous folios of the minister or the half-writ- ten sheets of many a weighty sermon. And perhaps he listened here to the tale of domestic wrong wrung in bitterness from some aching heart, or wrestled in prayer with an awakening but still struggling spirit. We see him in the common apart- ment performing the marriage rite for some rustic swain and his bride, or reading aloud the news from the metropolis, which he alone of all the village receives. Teacher, guide, parent, and friend, the clergyman of the olden time feared not to preach a political sermon or lay bare the abuses of society. In general, if something severe, he kept himself above reproach in his pri- vate life. He was steadfast, never confounding his flock with a sudden change of doctrine. These were the men who laid line and plummet to the foundation-stone of New England society, and we yield them the respect their teachings have gained for her sons.
On the day of the battle the clergymen followed their parish- ioners to the field, with the town stores of ammunition, which they busied themselves in distributing from their chaises. On the Sunday ensuing those who had taken part in the fray stood up in the aisles of the churches, - many with bullet-holes in their garments, - while thanks were publicly offered for their safe return. The country was all on fire. The young men
16 * X
370
HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
hastened to array themselves for the war that was seen to be inevitable. " Arms ! " was the cry, " give us arms !" Hearken to one young, ardent spirit : " I would not be without a gun if it costs me five guineas, as I shall be called a tory or something worse if I am without one. Pray don't fail of sending me a gun ! a gun ! a gun and bayonet ; by all means a gun ! a gun !"
At the celebration in 1783 Hancock, then governor, was present, again sojourning at Mr. Clark's. At the appointed time Captain Munroe appeared with his company, and escorted his Excellency to the meeting-house, where Rev. Mr. Adams of Lunenburgh preached the anniversary sermon. Cannon were fired, and the United States flag hoisted at sunrise over Cap- tain Brown's, and near the spot where the militia were slain. The Rev. Mr. Clark has recounted the events of the day, which he witnessed in part from his own house.
The old burial-ground of Lexington is so secluded that the stranger might pass it without suspecting its vicinity, if some friendly hand did not guide him to the spot. It lies back of the Unitarian Church, and is reached by a little avenue from the street. We looked for the older graves here with the same ill success which has befallen in many similar places. The " forefathers of the hamlet " have scarcely left their traces upon the stones. There is a handsome marble monument over the remains of Governor Eustis, erected by his widow, the daughter of Hon. Woodbury Langdon of Portsmouth. She lived to the great age of eighty-four, and now reposes by the side of her husband. The stone for the governor's monument was quarried in the Berkshire Hills.
The noise which the battle of Lexington made reached Eng- land. A subscription was raised in London and forwarded for the relief of the widows and orphans of those who fell here and all along the blood-stained road. Walpole deplored it in a let- ter to Sir Horace Mann, and Rogers, the poet's father, put on mourning. The fatal news was carried from Salem to England by Richard Derby, reaching there May 29.
371
LEXINGTON TO CONCORD.
CHAPTER XVII.
LEXINGTON TO CONCORD.
" Why, our battalia trebles that account ; Besides, the king's name is a tower of strength, Which they upon the adverse faction want."
SHAKESPEARE.
TT would be difficult to imagine a more beautiful Indian summer's day than that on which we marched from Lexing- ton to Concord with the ghosts of Colonel Smith's command. A heavy frost still incrusted the grasses and shrubbery by the wayside, but the energetic rays of the sun speedily transformed the beautiful crystal masses into commonplace grass and shrub. Some respectable hills, now made more passable by nearly a hundred years' labor of the sturdy tax-payers of old Middle- sex, must have tried the sinews of the king's troops, already wearied with their ten miles of hurried tramp from Lechmere's Point. They may have paused, as we did, on the summit of the highest of these, to breathe awhile and glance at the glistening white tower of Bedford Church, before descending into the plain of Concord.
The road over which the troops marched and retreated is in some places disused, except for the accommodation of the neigh- boring farm-houses. Fiske's Hill, a high eminence a mile and a third from Lexington, is now avoided altogether. Another segment of the old highway, grass-grown and roughened by the washings of many winters, enters the main road at an abandoned lime-kiln, before you reach the Brooks tavern. In this vicinity one of the severest actions of the 19th of April was fought.
It was in the days of the epizootic, and the highway was as deserted as could have been desired for our purpose. Proceeding onward, a farm-house almost always in view, there seemed a
372
HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
sort of fascination in the old, moss-grown, tumble-down stone- walls. No great stretch of imagination was necessary to con- vert them into the ramparts of a century ago, behind which the rustic warriors crouched and levelled the deadly tubes.
A grand old elm standing sentinel at the entrance of the town may have murmured a challenge to the advancing war, or waved back the scarlet array with its then youthful arms. But the goal was almost reached. The officers tighten their sword- belts ; the men fasten their gaiters and fix their grenadier caps more firmly. Onward !
The high hill around which the road winds as it enters Concord is the position from which the Americans viewed the approach of the regulars, and which was immediately occupied by a British detachment. By his spies Smith knew the places where the munitions were deposited. The bands disperse to their allotted work.
Concord is one of those places which, not having any scenic features sufficiently marked to arrest the tourist, has yet found - and this apart from its battle reminiscences - a group of writers who have made it one of exceeding and wide-spread attractiveness, so that no town in New England, we will ven- ture to say, is so well known to the world in general. And this, as in the play which but for the excellent acting would be doomed to fatal mediocrity, is what Emerson, Hawthorne, Channing, Thoreau, Alcott, père and fille, with others unnamed, have done for quiet, inland Concord. Nature knew it in the commonplace pastoral sense. War left the print of her bloody hand there. Man's intellect has breathed upon it, and clothed it with such beauty that we seem to see gems sparkling in the drifts of gravel, nuggets .. mong the river's sands, and feel an uncontrollable desire to view for ourselves all those objects by which our interest has been fixed while regarding the picture from a distance. And a closer acquaintance confirms our pre- possession.
At the very entrance of the town, but at the distance of about a mile from the public square, are several dwellings consecrated by pleasant memories. The hill itself, a brave old headland,
373
LEXINGTON TO CONCORD.
throws its protecting arm around the northern and eastern sec- tion of the settled portion of Concord. Were a second invasion of the place ever again to occur, a few pieces of cannon posted here would, with the possession of some outlying hills, effectu- ally command the approaches and the town itself. The hill-top forms a generally level plateau, sinking gradually away near the northerly extremity of the public square, where a section of it has been removed to place in orderly array some handsome buildings. Following the base of the hill through the town, with your face to the north, you arrive at the site of the old North Bridge, of which hereafter. Upon the summit and slopes of this eminence is the ancient burial-place, considered by many the oldest in Concord. Here you may command a superb view of the town at your feet ; of Concord River, with its fertile meadows; and of the hills which rise and stretch away along the northwest, where the Americans rallied after retreating from the town, and gathered strength for their onset. In this same hillside the first settlers burrowed in caves ; and we are left not only to wonder at their endurance, but to mar- vel at the patience and humility with which they recount their privations. The hill was the key to Concord in 1775, and the British seized and held it until they evacuated the place.
The yellowish-brown house, with its pointed gables and its square tower between, is that in which Hawthorne lived after his return from his English consulate. The house itself is al- most hid from view among the masses of evergreen by which it is surrounded. For some distance a cool walk skirts the street, -a row of thickly-set larches next the road, with an inner rank of firs or spruces. These trees were set out by Hawthorne. Back of the house, and dominating above it, the hill ascends in terraces, but sc densely is it covered with ever- green-trees, planted by Alcott when he lived here, as to resem- ble nothing more than a young forest of native growth. The character of the trees which Hawthorne chose to have about him conveys the idea that he loved their constant verdure and balmy breath, if, indeed, he was not susceptible to the subtle and saddening influence of the bared and wintry arms of the statelier woodland varieties.
374
HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX.
Partly ancient and in part modern, the novelist's dwelling has little or nothing peculiar to itself except the before-men- tioned tower, which he built in defiance of architectural rules on the top of the house. Towards the road, this retreat over- looked a broad reach of sloping meadow in the highest state of tillage. Hill and dale, stream and pool, with all those concom- itants of New England landscape which the artist so well knew how to weave into his pen-pictures, are here in the charming prospect. From the back window appeared the dark masses of evergreens with their needles glistening in the sun. As we looked out of the little study, we could not believe pagan ever worshipped fire more than Hawthorne loved nature.
We are told that the astrologers of old always pursued their studies of the heavens from some lofty castle-turret, whither the would-be questioner of Fate was conducted, bewildered by long, winding staircases, to find himself at last in the wizard's cabinet, confronted by all his unearthly and startling parapher- nalia. A corner of the arras is lifted, and the man of destiny appears.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.