CONCORD, Itiofkilrd. A town in Middlesex County, .Mass., 20 miles northwest of Boston; on the Concord River and on the Boston and Maine Railroad (Map: Massachusetts, E 3). It has manufactures of rnhher goods and harness. The 'Massachusetts Reformatory is situated here. The government is administered by town meetings. held annually and at special call. Population. in 1890. 4427; in 1900. 5652.
Concord. settled in 1635. is the oldest interior town in Massachusetts, and by the time of the Revolution had come to be "one of the great centres, not only of intellectual life, but also of political influence and power." In August. 1774. the illiffillesex Convention, the first county con vention assembled in Massachusetts, was held here, every town Iceing represented; and ' on October 11, under the stimulus of the Revolu tionary agitation. the first Provincial Congress, presided over by dohn Hancock. met to consider
the ways and means of resisting the tyrannies of the mother colliery. Later large quantities of ammunition and military supplies were stored here, and in an attempt made by the British to destroy them. on April 19. 1775. occurred the memorable fight which precipitated the War of the Revolution. (See LEXINGTON.) In 1787, during Shays's Rebellion, a body of insurgents entered Concord and prevented the sitting of its courts. The town is chiefly notable for having been the home of a distinguished coterie of writers and thinkers, including Emerson. Tho reau, A. Bronson Aleott, Louisa M..Alcott. Haw thorne. and William Eller• Channing, 'the poet.' Consult: Hun]. History of Middlesex County (Philadelphia, 1890) : Emerson, Historical Dis course Drlirered in /S35 (Concord, 1835).