EXTENT: .42 linear ft. (1 container)

ORGANIZATION AND ARRANGEMENT: Organized into three series: I. “The Parish”; II. “Concord During the Shays Rebellion”; III. Memoir of Joseph Lasinby Brown.

BIOGRAPHY: Clergyman in Concord, Mass.; Secretary of American Unitarian Association (1881-1894); author on historical and religious topics.  Born Dec. 22, 1822, in Franconia, N.H.; died Sept. 30, 1894, in Concord, Mass.  Raised in Franconia and in Boston.  Graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1847.  Married Lucy Maria Dodge in 1848.  Ordained to Unitarian ministry in Jamaica Plain.  Minister of First Parish in Concord 1858-1881.  Active in town life of Concord.  Member of Library Committee 1859-1873, then of Concord Free Public Library Corporation.  Vice President of Concord Antiquarian Society.  Speaker before and President of (1859, 1860, 1868, 1869) Concord Lyceum.  Speaker at various public occasions.  Member of the Social Circle in Concord.  During Civil War, attended meetings of Soldiers’ Aid Society (of which his wife was President), kept track of individual soldiers and of troop movements, visited Washington.  Temperance advocate.  Member of American Antiquarian Society.  Awarded honorary M.A. by Harvard in 1860, Doctor of Divinity in 1894.  Published articles in Atlantic Monthly, Monthly Religious Magazine, and Unitarian Review.

SCOPE AND CONTENT:  Papers include: holograph address “The Parish,” delivered before Ministerial Union, Oct. 10, 1870; working papers for and drafts of “Concord During the Shays Rebellion,” which was completed in 1877 and published (posthumously) in 1895 in A Collection of Historical and Other Papers (this material including 1875 correspondence to Reynolds from Crawford Nightingale and Seth Chandler, notebooks, loose notes, newspaper article 1875, reprinted 1877 and three holograph drafts, the last dated 1877 Jan. 31, varying somewhat from the printed version); and holograph “Memoir of Joseph Lasinby Brown,” published in Memoirs of Members of the Social Circle in Concord, 2^nd Series, 1888.   

PROCESSED BY: LPW; finding aid prepared 3/30/96.  Prepared for the Internet by Peter K. Steinberg, 10/27/2005.


CONTAINER LIST

SERIES I. “The Parish”:

Folder 1:
Manuscript, 30 pages, of address given before the Ministerial Union, Oct 10, 1870

SERIES II. “Concord During the Shays Rebellion” (manuscript completed 1877, published in 1895 in A Collection of Historical and Other Papers):

Folder 2:
Letters to Reynolds, 1875 (from Crawford Nightingale and Seth Chandler)

Folder 3:
Notebooks (6 v.)

Folder 4:
Loose notes

Folder 5:
Newspaper article, 1875 (reprinted 1877)

Folder 6:
Early draft; plus “Notes from Concord Records, 1780-1785”

Folder 7:
Draft

Folder 8:

Draft (final?), dated Jan. 31, 1877 (varies somewhat from printed version)

SERIES III. Memoir of Joseph Lasinby Brown (manuscript; published in Memoirs of Members of the Social Circle, Second Series, 1888):

Folder 9:
Manuscript, 46 pages, bound

c2005 Concord Free Public Library, Concord. Mass. Not to be reproduced without permission from the Library.

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