which was organized under the Rev. Peter Bulkeley and John
Jones as pastor and teacher, but after a few years Mr. Jones left for
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 m