Concord History

Ralph Waldo Emerson lived in Concord for most of his life and probably explored almost every inch of it on foot. As he once said, “I go through Concord as through a park.” Today, we can follow in the footsteps of the “Sage of Concord.” 

On April 22, 2023, we have many reasons to celebrate. Led by Henry D. Fairfax, Concord Academy’s 11th head of school, the school is observing its 100th year of educating young people. It’s our birthday—and it’s also Earth Day!

On August 31, 1922, Headmistress Elsie Garland Hobson placed an advertisement in the New York Times. It read: “Concord Academy: A small boarding and day school for girls in the historic town of Concord, Mass., situated on the beautiful Samuel Hoar estate. The school life is planned to develop the qualities of initiative and self-reliance, to stimulate intellectual curiosity, and to give a thorough preparation for college.”

When Sophia Peabody met Nathaniel Hawthorne at her home in Salem, Massachusetts, he had little to offer but his Byronic good looks. He had published two books, but they brought him neither fame nor fortune, and at age 33, he had run out of ideas and motivation. 

Concord transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote about life being full of circles. And this year, with the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, Concord, Massachusetts, once again finds itself full circle back in a world tied to a King Charles; this time, King Charles III.

The William Munroe Special Collection’s mission is to understand and appreciate Concord’s history and culture. One unique collection administered by Special Collections is the Renee Garrelick Oral History Program (also known as the Concord Oral History Program). Its recordings and transcripts add a unique voice to Concord’s storied past. 

Under the direction of Marjorie Garrard, in 1976, the Town of Concord’s Historical Commission established an oral history sub-committee “to coordinate and carry out a program for the collection of an oral history of the Town. A large number of residents of diverse backgrounds and interests will eventually be contacted and asked to respond to this program by recording their recollections of the Town as it was.” By 1977, local historian Renee Garrelick had already recorded 30 interviews, which the Commission reported, “are highly professional and the beginning of fulfilling a longtime goal of the Commission and other local historians.” 

Winters can be long and harsh in New England, but at least we have hope every year that, soon enough, spring and then summer will make their return. But what if warmer weather never returned? That’s exactly what happened in 1816, The Year Without a Summer. 

This is a story of insanity, and it begins in ancient Ireland, where legend says there once lived the powerful Tuatha de Danann. They were Kings, Queens, Druids, and those possessed with magic arts long since forgotten or explained away by modern science. Among them was Cailleach (translation, “Old Hag”), the Witch Queen of Winter.

Shortly after sunrise, Reuben Brown crouched on a hill just outside the center of Lexington, Massachusetts. He was out of breath from his six-mile ride from Concord, and what he saw didn’t make him breathe any easier. More than 700 British troops were on the road, and 70-odd provincial militia were all that stood between them and Concord. 

In 1774 when Parliament passed the Boston Port Act in an attempt to break the Massachusetts colonists of their resistance to crown policy, it also authorized English General and acting Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage to undertake any military measures necessary to help bring the colony under control. In late winter and early spring of 1775, Gage received a series of dispatches from London ordering him to not only arrest the leaders of Massachusetts’ opposition party but to launch a major strike against the apparently growing provincial stockpiles of weapons and munitions located throughout eastern Massachusetts.