o send her militia to the field under the gallant
young farmer-soldier, Colonel Prescott, who at Petersburg,

"Showed how a soldier ought to fight,
And a Christian ought to die."

[Illustration: R. Waldo Emerson]

In memory of the brave who found in Concord "a birthplace, home or
grave" the plain shaft in the public square was erected on the spot
where the Minute-men were probably first drawn up on the morning of the
nineteenth of April. 1775 to listen to the inspiring words of their
young preacher, Rev. William Emerson, and ninety years after in the same
place his grandson R.W. Emerson recounted the noble deeds of the men who
had gallantly proved themselves worthy to bear the names made famous by
their ancestors at Concord fight. The Rev. William Emerson in 1775
occupied and owned _The Old Manse_, which was built for him about
ten years before, on the occasion of his marriage to Miss. Phoebe Bliss,
the daughter of one of the early ministers of Concord. Mr. Emerson was
so patriotic and eager to attack the invaders at once, that he was
compelled by his people to remain in his house, from which he is said to
have watched the battle at the bridge from a window commanding the
field. He soon after joined the army as chaplain and died the next year
at Rutland, and his widow married some years after the Rev. Dr. Ripley
who succeeded him in his church and home, and lived until his death in
the Manse which has always remained in the possession of his
descendants. Dr. Ripley ruled the church and town with the iron sway of
an old-fashioned New England minister, and the old Manse has for years
been a literary centre. In the old dining room, the solemn conclave of
clergymen have cracked many a hard doctrine and many a merry jest,
seated in the high-backed leather chairs which have stood for one
hundred and twenty years around the old table. Here Mrs. Sarah Ripley
fitted many a noted scholar for college in the intervals of her
housekeeping labors before the open kitchen fireplace. In an attic
room, called the Saint's chamber, from the penciled names of honored
occupants, Emerson is said to have written _Nature_, and perhaps
other works, as much of his time was spent in the Manse at various
periods of his life. Here Hawthorne came on his wedding tour and lived
for two happy years and wrote the _Mosses from an Old Manse_ and
other works. In his study over the dining-room, his name is written
with a diamond on one of the litt