Connecticut with one-third of his flock.  Many other things occurred to discourage this little band, but their indomitable leader was not one to abandon any enterprise.  Rev. Peter Bulkeley was a gentleman of learning, wealth and culture, as was also Simon Willard who managed the temporal affairs of the plantation.  It is a curious commentary on the present temperance question to learn from early records that to the chief men alone was given the right to sell intoxicating liquors.  In many of the early plantations the land seems to have been divided into parcels, which were in some cases distributed by lot, and this fact may perhaps have originated the word lot as applied to land.  A large tract near the centre of the town was long held in common by forty associates, the entrance to which was behind the site of the former Courthouse, now occupied by the Insurance Office.  Before many years had passed this little town lost in some degree its peaceful reputation, and became a centre of operations during King Philip’s war, many bodies of armed men being sent out against the savages, and one to the relief of Brookfield, under Mr. Willard.  Block houses were built at several exposed points, the sites of which, with other noted places will soon be marked with memorial tablets.

Trained by this Indian warfare, the inhabitants of Concord were prepared for the events which were to follow, and when, in 1775, their town furnished the first battle-field of the American Revolution, they were able to offer “the first effectual resistance to British aggression.”  In the old church built in 1712 was held the famous Continental Congress where the fiery speeches of Adams and Hancock did so much to hasten the opening of the inevitable conflict between England and her provinces.  The same frame which was used for the present building echoed with the stirring words of the patriots as well as with the fearless utterances of the Rev. William Emerson, who, on the Sunday before Concord fight, preached his famous sermon on the text “Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.”  The events which preceded the Revolution need not be recorded here, nor any facts not intimately connected with the history of the town, which had been quietly making preparations for the grand event.  Under Colonel James Barrett and Major Buttrick, the militia and other soldiers were drilled and organized, some of whom under the name of Minute-men were ordered to be ready to parade at a moment’s notice.  Cannon and other munitions of war were procured, which with flour and provisions were secreted in various places.