Concord Trivia Volume 8 Issue 3

Answer: D. “Dreary trash.” In the introduction to Mosses from an Old Manse, Hawthorne wrote, “A part of my predecessor’s library was stored in the garret, —no unfit receptacle indeed for such dreary trash…” Despite Hawthorne judging that “the old books would have been worth nothing at an auction,” he did note their redeeming quality as being passed down through the “consecrated hands from the days of the mighty Puritan divines” and autographed by a number of famous figures. Check out the “dreary trash” yourself by visiting the Old Manse and keep an eye out for their special “Attic Tours” throughout the year.

Answer: C. Guests became deeply relaxed and fell asleep. Hawthorne wrote, “Our precincts were like the Enchanted Ground through which the pilgrim travelled on his way to the Celestial City. The guests, each and all, felt a slumberous influence upon them; they fell asleep in chairs, or took a more deliberate siesta on the sofa, or were seen stretched among the shadows of the orchard. . . . I held it as a proof that they left their cares behind them as they passed between the stone gate-posts at the entrance of our avenue.” Follow in the footsteps of Hawthorne’s guests. Leave your cares behind you as you pass through those same stone gate-posts and visit Concord’s Old Manse Museum at 269 Monument Street.

Answer: B. Cleveland and Copeland. While Cleveland and Copeland submitted a proposal for New York’s Central Park, the winning design was created by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. (If you guessed Olmsted and Vaux, you get partial credit as Olmsted designed the campus of Middlesex Academy in Concord.)

Answer: A. “A garden for the living.” Emerson’s full address may be read in The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in the volume titled Miscellania.

Answer: B. Molasses. In Walden, Chapter 1, “Economy,” Thoreau wrote that he discovered “that I could make a very good molasses either of pumpkins or beets. . . . For, as the Forefathers sang, ‘we can make liquor to sweeten our lips of pumpkins and parsnips and walnut-tree chips.’”

Answer: A. Chasing rats. As described in a November 1, 1935, Boston Globe article, “around Concord . . . they chased rats. For six years the citizens of Middlesex County have turned out on the eve of All Saints’ Day to kill the rodents—and to give the boys and girls something to do besides ringing doorbells and changing gates.”

Answer: C. An ugly. While quilted pumpkin-hoods were warm to wear, their nickname might not have been a selling point for fashionistas.

Answer: This was a trick question—B and D. Henry David Thoreau’s sister Sophia moved Henry and other family members from the New Hill Burying Ground up to Author’s Ridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Sophia Hawthorne and her eldest daughter, Una, were originally buried in England and were brought back to join Nathaniel on Author’s Ridge in 2006. Read more about “A Hawthorne Homecoming” by Victor Curran here: DiscoverConcordMA.com/articles/ 767-a-hawthorne-homecoming.

Answer: C. Removing kernels from dried corn.

Answer: B. Frolicking. Described by John Neal in his 1825 book Brother Jonathan: or, the New Englanders, if neighbors came to help at a husking, the farmer who invited them would permit attendees “to tumble and roll about, in his barn, all night long, if they please; eat his pumpkin pies; drink his cider, and waste his apples; under pretence of husking corn.” Contemporary newspapers occasionally reported husking parties and frolics getting out of hand with frolickers accidentally stumbling into fires, stabbing each other, or meeting untoward ends due to excess drink.

Contact Barrow Bookstore for a list of sources. Barrowbookstore@gmail.com.