gcls_WFP_453

Concord, Mass.

When the trouble between the colonies and Great Britain began, a body of 800 British troops were sent to Concord to seize the stores and supplies which were there and to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock.

The colonists, known as "minutemen" opposed their advance. The first small battle was fought at Lexington. The colonists were defeated and the British continued their march to Concord.

They were met here by 400 militiamen who finally drove the British off with severe losses.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the Concord Hymn.

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.

"The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

"On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

"Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee."

Even though [handwritten] our hearts are stirred by the thoughts of Concord as a battlefield, yet the town will probably be known to history in other countries as the home of Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Louisa M. Alcott, and William Ellery Channing.

Although known to most people primarily as an essayist, Emerson is considered by many to be our greatest poet. Such thoughts as those from "Threnody" can never die,

"What is excellent,
As God lives, is permanent;
Hearts are dust, hearts' loves remain;
Heart's love will meet thee again."

The Rock from Concord was secured by the boys of the Mackey tour in 1929 and given to the lodge.