USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Concord > The history of Concord, Massachusetts > Part 3
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Just east of this yard is the site of one of the town's old garrison houses.
"Sleepy Hollow" the latest cemetery in Concord is situ- ated on the outskirts of the central village to the eastward, and a few minutes walk from the public square. The land was bought of the heirs of Reuben Brown in 1855. At its dedication the oration was delivered by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and an ode was sung which was written by Frank B. Sanborn.
The natural conformation is admirably suited for the purpose of a cemetery, and the locality was called Sleepy Hollow long before it was used as a place of burial. The first interment was in 1855. Here by the Ridge Path is the grave of Hawthorne marked by a simple stone bear- ing only his name. Just behind it is that of Thoreau, at the head of which is a common red stone, and near this is the grave of Emerson marked by a large piece of rock. In 1869 the town obtained a strip of land which united the New Hill burying ground with Sleepy Hollow.
The most notable natural object in Concord is the river. It takes its rise in Hopkinton and Westboro, and empties into the Merrimac at Lowell. Its original name is Mus- ketequid, signifying in the Indian language grassy ground. It is about two hundred feet wide where it enters the town and three hundred where it leaves it. Its current is so slow as sometimes to be scarcely perceptible.
Its meadows are broad and in places extend to woody uplands, fertile fields and pleasant secluded nooks, where grow the cranberry vine and the wild grape.
There are places of interest along the banks of this river in other towns as well as Concord ; a few miles south- westerly in the town of Wayland is the Old Town Bridge of Sudbury over which the Indians under King Philip were driven in 1676. Near by stands the late home of Lydia Maria Child, noted author and abolitionist. And on a tributary of this stream in the adjoining town of Sudbury stands the "Wayside Inn" made famous by Longfellow.
EMERSON'S GRAVE.
HAWTHORNE
HAWTHORNE'S GRAVE.
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Other of the prominent natural features of Concord are three hills, Nashawtuc, Annusnuc and Punkatassett. These names are all of Indian origin. Nashawtuc is just west of the river, near the South bridge. At or near the foot of this hill was the wigwam of Tahattawan, and the squaw Sachem, two of the aboriginal owners of the Con- cord territory. At the southwesterly was the homestead of Major Simon Willard, the site of which is marked by a tablet.
Annusnuc is at Concord Junction near the Massachu- setts Reformatory. About this hill in the early days of the settlement was the "Hog-pen walk" a tract of land set apart by the original grantees for the pasture of swine.
On the plain land stretching to the southwesterly was held the famous State Muster by order of Gov. Nathaniel P. Banks, where in 1858 were encamped all the volunteer militia of Massachusetts.
Punkatasett is in the northeast part of Concord, about a mile from the North Bridge. It is conspicuous in Concord history as being the point of observation for the "embattled farmers" as they awaited events on the morning of April 19, 1775. Upon and about these hills there is a good out- look from which a large portion of the town can be seen and more or less of the winding river courses may be traced.
Fairhaven hill in the southwest part of the town over- looks Fairhaven pond, a tract of water or bay in Concord river having an area of about seventy-three acres.
Brister's hill is beyond Walden pond near Lincoln. These latter places are frequently referred to in the works of Henry Thoreau.
Among the highlands which hardly attain hill propor- tions is the "Ridge" which skirts Concord center toward the east and south. This locality is of much historic inter- est as along the base of it was the "little strate strete" now a part of Lexington road along which the earliest house lots were laid out.
Upon the uplands to the rear were some of the first corn
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lands of the settlers, and from the more prominent points of this natural observatory they could look off upon their meadow lands which in those first years were the main means of sustenance for their live stock.
The Public Library building is of recent date being erected in 1873. It is situated at the junction of Sudbury road and Main street and stands upon or near, the spot where one of the town's old time taverns early stood. This Library is of especial interest because of what it con- tains of Concord authorship, having, besides the books that were written by Concord men and women, a valuable col- lection of the manuscripts from which the books were pro- duced. There are also deposited here relics, pictures and pieces of sculpture relating to or made by Concord people. The Library is but a short walk from the public square and on the way to the Fitchburg Railroad station.
On the right hand side of Main street going westward and nearly opposite the Public Library is the house formerly occupied by the late Hon. Samuel Hoar. Here were born Hon. E. Rockwood Hoar, formerly a Judge of the Mas- sachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and Attorney General in the Cabinet of President Grant, and Hon. George F. Hoar, United States Senator.
The portion of Main street from a point a little to the east of this place is of comparatively modern construction, the old road passing a little to the north of the present one, leaving the burying ground to the south of it.
The short strip of Main street between the Public Square and the beginning of Walden street was formerly in part the Mill Dam, and was not used as a regularly laid out highway until almost within the memory of people now living.
The site of the first "Corn Mill" in Concord was here, at a spot just east of the Old Bank building.
The pond which furnished the mill power extended from the dam southward.
The Trinitarian Church is upon, or near the site of
THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
MAIN STREET, OPPOSITE THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
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Concord's first store which was kept by Robert Meriam, who had over a score of acres of land granted him in that locality.
The three-story dwelling house on the same side of Walden street, and next but one north of it, was long the only three-story house in Concord. It was built and owned by Duncan Ingraham, a wealthy merchant and father of Captain Ingraham of the United States Navy, who cleared the decks of his warship for action in the harbor of Smyrna, Turkey, in behalf of the Hungarian refugee, Martin Koszta, remarking, "Blood is thicker than water."
On the corner southwest of the Public Square, at the beginning of Main street was the Old Middlesex Hotel, where in the days when County Courts were held at Con- cord, many noted jurists were entertained.
Such is Concord in the present; and the foregoing are some of the objects and places much visited by the tourists, who on gala occasions and throughout the milder seasons throng into the town sight seeing, gathering souvenirs and pensively pondering upon the past.
CHAPTER III.
Origin of Settlement - Early Results - Erection of "Corn Mili" - Meeting House - Parsonage - Resumption of Traveler's Narative - Coming from Watertown-First Conference with the Con- cord Colonists - Visit to the Home of William Hartwell - Indian Mission Service at Nashawtuc
T HE earliest mention of this region was probably made by William Wood, in a book entitled "New England Prospects", a work supposed to be based upon his personal observation about 1633. An early description is also given by Johnson, in his "Wonder Working Providence of Sion's Saviour in New England," published in 1654, in which the writer sets forth the Concord plantation as a place where the pioneers found hard fare, and built their huts by leaning the rough logs against the hillside, which served the double purpose of a support and a chimney back.
The breaking of ground upon this plat for a permanent settlement was about 1635, when there arrived from Eng- land by way of Watertown, then Newtowne, which town, with Cambridge, then bounded Concord on the easterly, the other sides being bounded by an unclaimed wilderness, a company of colonists, under the direction of Rev. Peter Bulkeley, Elder John Jones, and probably Simon Willard, a merchant. Among the names of these colonists are some still familiar in Concord, which designate ancient and honored households, whose continuity with the distant past has never been broken by time's rude touch, and like faith- ful waymarks of history still chronicle by their suggestive-
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THE OLD BURYING-GROUND.
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ness what has made the old town great. 6 Supplemental to such friendly services as borne by the living is that borne by the dead, and
"In that village on the hill,
Where never is sound of smithy or mill,"
the old-time tombstone, with its grime and its gray, and its quaint, weather-made defacement, stands representative of connecting links, as if, by a poor proxy like this, it could make the past and present, one.
That success attended the settlement is well attested by early results ; and though the records of these results have been lost, so that for a half century and over not a sentence comes to us from the written page, save as we receive it from colonial sources, or in scraps and fragments of family documents, yet tradition, often true in its intent to pre- serve, and trustworthy even in matters of moment, speaks unmistakably of Concord's early town life. The earth and brush cabins soon gave way to substantial structures ; the forest was felled along the plain land and the meadow margins ; and a mill was erected "to grind the town's corn."
The spot selected for the mill was near what is now the Common, or public square, and the little stream upon which it was situated is known as "Mill Brook," though it is now so small as might lead one to doubt whether it ever had any mill power at all. But we should remember that not only do times and customs change, but nature changes also, and while the little brooklet that once ran a-roar- ing by the plain can still sing in the sweet strain of Tenny- son, "And men may come and men may go, but I go on forever," yet it runs with a lessened current and speaks with a voice more subdued. Why it has become thus modest is not because it stands abashed at the busy human tide that trips over it, or because in many instances the traveler is all unconscious of its former worth and never stops to reflect that it once ground the fathers' corn and furnished meal for the brown bread and pan dowdy ; but
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its modesty is occasioned doubtless by a changed condition of surroundings.
It is considered probable by local historians that by the clearing up of the forests less water runs in some of the streams than formerly ; and, probably, this is the case here ; so that the Rev. Peter Bulkeley, for he it was who caused the erection of this mill, made no mistake, doubtless, when he gauged the capacity of this now miniature water power and concluded that it would suffice every purpose of a vil- lage grist mill.
But, conspicuous above everything else as marks of progress, were events of an ecclesiastical character. It was a usual condition of the colonial court in conferring a town grant that the grantees should maintain a gospel ministry, and pursuant to this important requisite the Concord inhabitants early erected a meeting house. The spot selected was on the summit of the ridgeway, near the bury- ing ground, not far distant from the present public square. The first structure was probably of logs; but this was soon succeeded by one of framework; for it was not in accordance with the customs of the forefathers to live in sealed houses while God's temples were neglected. Pre- viously, however, to the building of the meeting house, and not far from the meadow margin a house was built for Minister Bulkeley. The site of this parsonage is on the present Lowell street a few steps from Monu- ment Square, and is modestly marked by a memorial tablet bearing the following record.
"Here, in the house of the Reverend Peter Bulkeley, first minister and one of the founders of this town, a bar- gain was made with the Squaw Sachem, the Sagamore Tahattawan and other Indians, who then sold their right in the six miles square called Concord to the English planters and gave them peaceful possession of the land, A. D. 1636."
This tablet has more than a passing interest to a reflec- tive mind. It opens up by the suggestiveness of its simple
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inscription thoughts relating to over two centuries. Here, doubtless, if anywhere, centralized for a twelve month at least much that was political and religious, relating to the early land grant and its grantees. Here, doubtless, if in any place, was the cradle in which the township had its infancy, and as the little woodland municipality was nursed and grew strong, probably conference after conference was held here to consider matters relating to highways, bridges, and perhaps "cow commons" and "common planting fields;" for the minister in those days was not only the village high priest, but he had also a certain quasi magisterial jurisdic- tion, and by a generally recognized common law principle was "head center" of the settlement. As the parsonage was built prior to the meeting house, it is quite probable that the latter was here planned. Here, too, it may be, the church council was considered, which, July 5th, 1636, convened at Cambridge and organized the Concord church.
Other works of public convenience and necessity quickly followed. Roads were opened, bridges built, laws formu- lated; and the sunlight of civilized life was soon shining in the hitherto dark forest.
Such is an outline of some of the features of Concord, and of her early history. And now as we are about to leave the general for the particular, and consider character, processes, and events in detail, we will state that our plan is to suppose that we lived in that far away period, visited the settlers in their homes and sat by their fire-sides, and that the sparks were in part our oracles; also that we are living in the present when we are relating what we then saw and heard, together with some facts which occurred subse- quently.
Assuming then that we are the traveler who two centu- ries and a half ago sat by the hearthstone of Goodman Hartwell on that fall evening, we will resume our narra- tive by saying, that we started from Watertown following the trail probably made by the first settlers, finding here and there what we suspected were sad traces of their toil-
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some journey, which Johnson has so dolorously described in his "Wonder-working Providence." On the upland was good traveling, but there were swamps and hard places which because of their wetness or stony nature, the forest fires of the Indians had not kept clear of underbrush, so that we were many times forced from our direct course and obliged to make long and painful detours. We traveled for a time by the "Old Connecticut Path", the ancient trail of the Nipnet Indians to the sea-board, and the same that was taken a few years previous by Rev. Messrs. Hooker and Stone on their way with a hundred people from Cam- bridge to Hartford, and which was traveled a little earlier by John Oldham of Pequod war fame. But, on arriving at the plain lands about the Charles river, near a stony brook, we veered northerly into a broken country, and after some hours emerged from the woods upon a sandy ridgeway where we found some squaws harvesting corn.
From our high point of observation we looked over a broad intervale threaded by a winding, sluggish stream, and we knew by this and by the houses on a little "strate strete" below us that we were in Concord.
Being a stranger to both place and people it mat- tered little whom we approached, or where we went, and as there were beyond the mill brook some people talking we joined them. Approaching, we found they were settlers and were talking English, but it was not such English as we hear to-day. In fact we found that here were brought together the dialects of Surrey, Kent, York and Bedford- shire. Goodman Buttrick, William Hartwell and James Hosmer were talking with Simon Willard the merchant, about a suitable place for a "cow common" because it had been represented to them that the cattle and goats roaming unrestrainedly through the "great meadows" much "dam- nified" the marsh red-top and lute grass, and that it would be better to have a place of common pasturage and "size it out" and have the income go to help pay the minister,
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rather than to risk any farther "indamnifying" by stray creatures.
As we introduced ourselves and disclosed our errand we were most cordially received and at once invited to their homes.
The first invitation was extended by William Hartwell, which we accepted ; and it being near nightfall we were soon on our way to his house in the east quarter which we reached after a half hour's walk. Not long after our arrival we sat down at the supper table which was spread in a large kitchen before a great, open fire. After the meal and the returning of thanks, for Goodman Hartwell was a man of prayer, the men went to the barn to do the chores and the stranger was conducted to the front room to await the family and the arrival of the company who were to talk over town meeting. As it was no longer early evening, the work both indoors and out was done in a hurry and soon all were seated about the fireside as described in the opening chapter. And now to resume our narrative as there commenced, suffice it to say, the neighborhood gather- ing broke up to convene again at the parsonage two nights later. Meanwhile, particular care was to be taken in observing noises about the "buryin ground pastur" and as to tracks of the strange creature which Goody Rice saw.
Immediately after the company had departed we retired, for we were weary and the hour was late. Our sleeping apartment was large and unfinished, yet it had an air of comfort and its very commodiousness was of itself restful. The night was a quiet one. Silence almost perfect pervaded everything, and our slumber was undisturbed save by the occasional hoot of an owl amid the pines which had been left near the house for a stormbreak and shade for the cattle.
As our visit to the Hartwells on this occasion was only for the night, it having been arranged with Timothy Wheeler at our interview with the settlers at Mill brook, to meet him at the village store the following day, and as we
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visited the Hartwell home later, we will defer any descrip- tion of it for a subsequent chapter. About mid-afternoon of the next day we mounted an ox cart and behind a yoke of half broken bullocks started for the village, meeting Timothy Wheeler at the grocery according to previous arrangement.
As we were about starting for the home of our new host we learned that the Apostle, John Eliot, was to hold an In- dian mission meeting that evening at the wigwam of Tahat- tawan near Nashawtuc, by candle light. Upon hearing this announcement, it at once occurred to us that here was an opportunity of learning something of Indian mission work, and of forming an acquaintance with its founder, Reverend John Eliot ; so I asked Goodman Wheeler about the propriety of attending the proposed gathering. Our kind host immediately called back the swarthy messengers, who had just brought the announcement of the meeting, and upon my desire being made known, they invited me to go with them to Tahattawan's wigwam. It was not long before we were away, for although the distance was short it was approaching nightfall. Before starting, however, we called Goodman Wheeler aside to satisfy ourselves as to the safety of our proposed visit among the Indians, and to arrange about the time of making the visit to his home which had been so unexpectedly deferred. As to the first matter he informed us that we would be as safe with our Indian friends as with anyone; and with regard to the visit he said he would meet us at the coming town meeting when we would go home together.
THE CONCORD RIVER FROM NASHAWTUCK HILL.
1
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CHAPTER IV.
Tahatawan's Wigwam - Supper Served by Squaws - Rev. John Eliot Preaching by Candlewood Light - Tribal Relations of the Musketequids - Stone Relics and Sites of Indian Villages - Spread of Christianity among the Concord Aborigines - Nash- oba - Exile of Christian Indians to Deer Island - Humane Efforts of John Hoar in their behalf.
S TARTING out from the village store we were soon in the forest.
Our course was single file through a winding wood- path to the meadow margin, and from there amid cluster- ing cranberry vines, we proceeded to the river bank, where an Indian was waiting with a light canoe. As we passed through the woods we noticed along the way scarcely anything but tall timber trees, and these so scattered and so devoid of low branches that a man on horseback could easily ride between them. So singular was this circumstance that we afterwards inquired about it, and were told that the woods were kept mainly clear of underbrush by the Indians, who, to facilitate the capture of game, annually set forest fires, and that this was done just before the fall rains. We stepped into the canoe, which was made of birch bark tied with thongs of deer skin, and were soon afloat on the Musketequid and swiftly borne by the paddle strokes of Tahattawan to Nashawtuc. The short river ride was made silently, for our friends were as mute as the grave, except that now and then a low murmuring went out from one of them, which, as it mingled faintly with the rising night wind -for it was now evening - and the strange whistling of the wings of a be-
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lated water fowl, were the only sounds save the splash of the water that we heard.
Soon we reached the large wigwam of Tahattawan near Nashawtuc, and were ushered into the simple arcana of Nature's children, where all was new and surpassingly strange to us. In broken English we were presented to the head of the household and his daughters, of whom there were present Noonansquaw and Tahunsquaw, the latter of whom was the wife of Waban of Natick.
Although not invited to do so we sat down upon a low, rude platform upon which was a dressed skin of some wild animal, and silently observed the preparations for sup- per. Besides a "nokake" made of maize meal and baked in the ashes, they poured from a kettle into a rude wooden tray a stew or soup thickened with dried chestnut meal, and which consisted, as we were afterwards told, of dried alewives, several strings of which hung in a corner, and a few bones cut into small pieces. There was also in a smaller dish some substance that they called sic-qua-tash (suc- cotash), which consisted of dried green corn and beans. Supper over, we were glad enough to have our loneliness ended by the arrival of Messrs. Gookin and Eliot. It was not long before there entered several families from wigwams near, on both the upper and lower meadow and also several individuals from about the Assabet. The candlewood was soon lighted just outside the wigwam door, and the scene thereby revealed to us by these flambeaux was a weird and impressive one.
After a prayer in the Indian language Mr. Eliot addressed his swarthy audience in the same tongue, exhort- ing them, as our interpreter informed us, to beware of the evil influences of Hobbommoc (the devil), and to hold steadfast to the newly found Kiton (good spirit). Espec- ially he advised them to beware of powwowing, and to have nothing to do with medicine men, whom he de- nounced as true children of Hobbommoc. At length, after another prayer in the Indian language, there arose the
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low sound of singing or chanting, in gutteral, harsh, dis- cordant tones ; the effect was striking, for as the strains floated out over the moist meadows and up the woody slopes of Nashawtuc, not so much as the call of a night bird, not even the wind's moaning was heard, as a wild inter- lude to the words of the hymn.
At the close of the singing Mr. Bulkeley, who had accompanied Mr. Eliot, was asked to pray, and as the group kneeled on the matted leaves, such a petition went up from "Big Pray", as the lowly children of the Musketequid had rarely listened to. Slowly, reverently and peacefully, we were lifted heavenward by every sen- tence ; and when he ceased we almost forgot we were on the earth.
At the conclusion of the evening services we were invited to remain all night, and as Major Gookin was pro- posing to do so, Mr. Eliot having gone home with Mr. Bulkeley, we accepted of our host's hospitality and were soon seated around the wigwam amid a little group consist- ing of Tahattawan's household.
As the flames flickered upward through the small aper- ture in the roof, we did not wonder so much at the copper colored complexion of the Indian, for every now and then the heavy night wind forced down the smoke, and an occasional rain drip on the coals made a close, thick atmos- phere.
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