Practically everybody outside of the one mile area of
Concord Center were farm people. It didn't make any difference
which direction you traveled from town, practically everybody
lived on a farm. Some of the people who lived in the village
also had farms outside of town. On the farm, milk was the
principal product. Everybody had cows and of course, that
supplied the home with all the milk necessary. Everybody also
made cottage cheese from the surplus milk, especially in the
summer when milk didn't keep very well. No one made butter, that
required a little more time than the people had. So milk was the
sustaining product.
A man who had a contract came around each day to pick up and take the milk to Cambridge where it was processed for distribution to Boston and areas around Boston.
Asparagus seemed to be the principal crop throughout town and also strawberries. Again, a man came around each night and collected the strawberries and asparagus and took them to Boston to Fanueil Hall to the produce merchants. Thinking back now, I think of all the hard work that went in to raising these strawberries and asparagus, and if we got 123 a box for strawberries, we thought we were doing very well. The same for asparagus, two bunches sometimes three bunches for 25$. So farming was not a profitable career by any means.
Then there were some who raised corn for market and again in the fall that crop went into Boston. Potatoes were raised only for home use along with turnips, carrots, and other vegetables that were put into the root cellar for winter use. We didn't appreciate all those vegetables.
Of course, everybody had their chickens and eggs. Although we didn't have any, there were always people who raised pigs and in the fall they would slaughter some of those pigs and we would buy pork and salt pork, which was put down in kegs for the winter. Fall was a very busy time putting in the potatoes and other vegetables for the winter.
One thing we had on our farm was the indian corn, which we raised and took to the mill to have ground for corn meal. Our own corn meal right from the farm to the mill to our cupboards to our tummies. Of course, there were also apples that were made into sweet cider, and if it turned a little too soon which it did sometimes, that was our vinegar.
In winter, there was always the woodlot which kept people busy and out of mischief. We used the wood for fuel. And in those days there was some wonderful lumber in the woods. The telephone company was always looking for the chestnut trees for the telephone poles. Oak we used for lumber in our own buildings. When my father built our barn, he went into the woods and chose some chestnut trees for the great underpinnings of the barn. And when it burned, those chestnut underpinnings didn't burn, they just stayed solid. They're tremendous in size. The oak was used for other construction in the barn.
The lumber was taken to the mill. I can see a team of four horses taking those big trunks of trees to the mill. The willow trees were used for the powder mills. Those didn't come into play until World War I as that was when the powder mills were around. Of course, the willow tree will sprout right up again as soon as it is cut, so that was a source of supply for the mills. As I remember, there wasn't any profit to it, as they were donating something for the benefit of the country. I think the telephone company paid pretty well but I don't seem to remember the money end of it.
The Lowell Road-Barrett's Mill Road area of our community had a identity of it's own. There was a rumor at one time this area might become the center of town but I don't really see how since the town was already well established. I don't think there was another area around Concord that was a community like this.
I think perhaps it started when Mr. Hildreth, who built the big brick house at the corner of Lowell Road and Barrett's Mill Road. Directly behind that house, he built another building and that was a store. In that store, he had everything that this area needed from molasses and vinegar right through to spools of thread and underwear. It was a wonderful gathering place in the evenings especially for the men in the community. In the winter they gathered there to play checkers and I have the checker board that belonged to my grandfather.
My father told the story that if a person came into the store and asked for a better grade of molasses that the storekeeper just went into the back of the store and took it out of the same barrel as the original. I think people were probably too shrewd for that but that was the story.
Next door was a little cobbler shop, and next door to that was a blacksmith shop. When I was a child, the store and the cobbler shop were gone but the blacksmith's shop was still there. Of course, everybody in this area took their horses there to have them shod. I think that was in operation until about 1926 or so.
There was also a little cooper's shop and I suppose by having the mill there with lumber, there would be lumber for the barrels which would be used for apples. The grist mill was also there where the corn was taken. It was a pretty lively little mill, but it did go out of operation before the sawmill. By this time it was about 1917 or 1918 and people were buying their grain at a store more than raising corn for their own grain.
It's very interesting now to look at the ledger for the store at the prices compared to today and to see the manner in which people bought, very small amounts, only what they could afford.
The Milldam was a very interesting spot, it was almost like going to the circus in a way to go into town. The very first memory I have of going into town at age six or seven was seeing the depressing Middlesex Hotel which dominated the entrance to the town. It was a large decrepit, brown building with a porch along the side facing the Unitarian Church. I was talking to a man of my age and I asked him if my recollection was correct of it and he agreed that he remembered it the same way. He also mentioned that on the Fourth of July, on the porch there were exhibits of all sorts of things.
Another impression of the Milldam was the porches that came out over the sidewalks. The sidewalks were just dirt and the street was just plain dirt, and all along the sidewalks were hitching posts. These were used by the farmers when they came to town for their shopping on Saturday afternoons and evenings.
The principal stores, of course, were the grocery stores. On the side of the street where Vanderhoof's is was Walcott & Holden's grocery store and farther down where Anderson's is was Towle & Kent's Market. Dave Anderson's grandfather, Lars, worked for Towle & Kent so that's how it happened to go into the Anderson family. Lars Anderson was the one that would come around on Wednesday mornings to take grocery orders and deliver the orders about 3:00 in the afternoon every week. He was a wonderful salesman. If you ordered a yeast cake, he would say "And a barrel of flour?" And I think it goes right on to the third generation.
Across the street was another grocery store, J.D. Murray. He was a very quiet, retiring person and business wasn't very brisk in that store. I believe he had lost an arm at some time and the store sort of reflected that atmosphere.
Beside J.D. Murray's store was the store of Mr. Whitcomb. We always called him Mr. Whitcomb. He was a very gracious, elderly man, who sat very comfortably in his chair and would get up quietly to get what you wanted. Children loved his store. I'm sure he had things for adults like newspapers, magazines, and writing material but he had a great case of drawers. And in that case he had everything for every season. He had tiny little dolls not more than two inches long up to about seven or eight inches, and they varied in price from a penny a piece to about ten cents a piece. I still have one of those little bitty dolls. Then there was another drawer filled with valentines, and another for paper dolls, another for tops, another for marbles, and another for all kinds of candies. You name it, he had it. And the prices were within reason. If you had 5 cents, you could always find something to satisfy your heart at Mr. Whitcomb's. It didn't matter to him if you only spent 14 and you took a half hour to decide, he was very gracious.
Next to Mr. Whitcomb's was Billy Cross' store. He was a brisk, little man bent on business. He had two clerks who never smiled and they sat around that pot-bellied stove. He had everything from needles to clothes. If he didn't have it, it wasn't being manufactured any more.
And beyond that was Mr. Urquhart's bakery. He also went around and took orders. Even though most people did their own baking, many housewives wouldn't relish doing the fancy baked goods such as eclairs, creme puffs, or fancy cakes. Again everything was in drawers. He would open a drawer and you chose what you wanted.
On the opposite side of the street next to Towle & Kent's was the Concord Bank, where the Harvard Trust Bank is now. The inside was divided and on one side was the Concord Bank with two men, Danny Keyes and Fay Heywood. I can still see Fay Heywood sitting up on the stool at a schoolmaster's desk recording all the transactions. It was a very busy place.
On the other side was the savings bank and there were two men in there, Henry Smith and Herbert Bosley. Those four men were the institution of the bank, and they handled everything.
There was also a shoe store, Frank Pierce's shoe store. He was a dapper, little man, and he was just neat as a pin and so was his shoe store. You sat on a bench covered with carpeting and that was more than any other shoe store had, and he took his time with you, fitting your shoes just as if he were fitting a glove to your hand. Everything was done just so.
The other day I was talking to someone about our reminiscences and he mentioned about how all the merchants met at Richardson's Drug Store after their business hours saying it was "time to wood up" so they would put more wood in the stove. So life among the merchants was very pleasant as they all gathered together at the end of the day making comments about the day.
There was a Chinese laundry there next to the shoe store. The man running it was a very kindly, friendly person with a long pigtail. He went to church as he was a Christian. He always had nuts for the children. He was a very congenial man. And he had a good business there especially with the people that had to dress up to work in Boston every day because not everyone was a farmer.
Not right in the center of town but up at the depot was a butcher named Whitney. He went around twice a week delivering meat, at least he came here every Monday and Friday. You would choose your meat from his cart. I don't know if he ever carried any ice to keep the meat fresh. The fish man also came around once a week and I don't know if he carried any ice either.
One of the joys of having these merchants come around was to
bring the news of the town. They were glad to impart it and we
would add our little 5 cents worth to his collection of news. We only
got to town once a week to get our mail so we got most of our
information from those merchants who came around.
One story about the grocery man bringing news, was on one
Wednesday he came to our house and said Mr. Lawrence had smallpox
and had given it to the whole family. He went to Boston to the
horse market and got smallpox. Oscar Lawrence sat behind me in
school, we were in the fourth grade. When he was absent from
school, the teacher asked about him because no one missed school
in those days, and I said "Oh, he has smallpox. His father went
to the horse market in Boston and got smallpox." The teacher
said, "No, you must mean chicken pox". And I insisted it was
smallpox. So the teacher sent me to the principal, Miss Legate.
She wasn't one to fool with. She put me through the third degree
and I still insisted. So she sent me over to Dr. Titcomb's, the
doctor in town, and he said "Yes, they have smallpox."
So the school committee got going and had the schoolroom fumigated. I was never vaccinated in my life because my father was strongly against vaccination. He always went to the State House every year and got an exemption for us. And I used to chew Oscar Lawrence's pencils, day in and day out, so if anybody was ever going to get smallpox I should have been right down in Sleepy Hollow now. I never got smallpox but several other people did, it was a small epidemic.
There was a very definite difference especially in the children of those that lived in town and those that lived outside of town. Those children that lived in town had all the advantages. They could take dancing lessons, music lessons, and had more social life among themselves because they lived close together, where out here in the country, we were isolated. There was no such thing as dancing lessons or music lessons or anything of that sort. Our folks couldn't take us to town for anything like that. We spent our time playing with the animals on the farm. We had rabbits, chickens, cows, and I talked my father into letting me have a couple of pigs and I had a goat. I loved working in the garden and tending to the flowers. So our life was entirely different.
The children in town used to like to come out here and play with my goat and go on picnics. It was a real luxury to me to get invited to go into town to play with someone or have dinner at the Inn with a friend of mine that was living at the Inn. This was when I was older and had my bicycle and could get there.
These children also had the advantage of having their parents have time to help them with their schoolwork. Where out here, when it was time for me to work on my studies, my parents were either busy or tired and needed time for themselves to read. I think in the country children were taught to be more self-reliant and not expect the parents to help them with the work that was the children's work. We were provided for in all the essential ways, such as food and clothing, but I think in the country people felt their children had an obligation to carry on our own work particularly school work.
We had two schools in Concord in my day. The kindergarten and first grade were in the Ripley School, which was the former high school and was where the Hunt Gym now stands. Then we went to the Emerson School which was across the street which is now the old youth center, and there we went through the eighth grade except the second and third grades. They were over in the high school which is now a vacant lot across from the library. Between the Emerson School and the high school was a little school that had been moved there from where the library is now and we had what we call today manual training. From the eighth grade, girls and all went over there for one hour a day and in high school it was an elective.
There was also a school in West Concord which stood on the play yard of what is now the Harvey Wheeler School. When the West Concord people were ready for high school, they came to Concord center by electric car, which were around by that time. Children from Bedford came here to high school by electric car and the children from Lincoln also came here but by train. Also the children from Carlisle came here, and in my class, there was only one that came from Carlisle by horse and carriage every day.
The transportation to school for most of us was by barge, which was on wheels. In the winter, it was the same type of vehicle but on runners. Hay was put in the bottom of it but we used to freeze to death. It took a long time, those horses were so slow. But in the summertime we would have the curtains up on the barge and we didn't mind the ride. On the last day school, everybody all around town collected wild flowers and decorated the barges to see who had the most beautiful barge. But the winters were agony. After the eighth grade you had to find your own transportation which was usually the bicycle except in the winter when your father might have to drive you.
The early 1900s saw a new type of transportation, the automobile, come into use. I remember the first automobile that appeared on Lowell Road, my father came dashing into the house calling us all to come look at the horseless carriage.
Everybody used to go out for a ride on Sunday afternoons and everyone had a special or dress-up carriage for Sundays. It was kept neat and clean and covered over during the week. I can remember the first experience we had meeting an automobile. We were out riding and my father saw an automobile coming and made everyone get out of our carriage and over the stone wall while he held the horse. The same thing happened when we saw an electric car on a visit to my grandparents in Bedford.
As the automobiles came in, there were some people who still retained their horses and carriages. The people in town had stables behind their houses for their driving horses and carriages. In the country the farmers had farm horses and a driving horse for their carriage for the women. In town many of the women had maids, out here we had hired girls, and those women that had maids would go out riding in the afternoons. One or two of them had coachmen. The ladies would sit in the back with their parasols. I have one of those little parasols that I carried in a parade last year. I remember Miss Kennedy from Monument Street, the Conant sisters from Sudbury Road and Nine Acre Corner, and Mrs. Pope on Strawberry Hill Road. Mrs. Pope had a very handsomely outfitted coachman.
The electric car revolutionized country travel. It brought people to Concord and took people out of Concord. It was a very happy day when the electric cars came especially for the women. It made them more independent. They could go anywhere themselves. One of the things the electric cars did was to give us Lexington Park. This was a joy spot enjoyed by adults and children. It was a park on the Lexington-Bedford line. It was an attractive spot with animals for the children and a fairgrounds with a stage where they had very satisfactory vaudeville entertainment once a week. There was an afternoon and evening performance, and it was very good, high-class vaudeville. When the automobile came, people could then go to more distant spots and the park didn't last long after that.
With more and more automobiles being used, there became a need for better roads. Macadam roads were developed using crushed stone, so many, many stone walls were taken down and crushed for the new roads.
After World War I, life in Concord was entirely different. The men came back after having the experience of being away, and some had to find different employment than what they had been doing. It just seemed the whole nature of the town changed particularly in growth. With the coming of automobiles, more people were coming out from the cities and building began. Of course, with the war, industry came in which hadn't been flourishing before. For instance, the harness factory in West Concord was booming making harnesses for the horses used in the war. Business seemed to grow and there were new avenues of business.
I started teaching in Somerville in 1926. Of course, there was no Route 2 or 128 at that time so I had to drive through Lexington, Arlington, and Cambridge. It was quite a distance. I had an Essex which didn't have automatic windshield wipers, you just took your hand and swished across the window. No heat as well, I would heat up a brick before I left and a hot water bag and put them in the car as well as some chicken wire in case I went off the road. I could use the chicken wire to get back on the road. Concord's roads were plowed pretty well, Lexington's a little less, Arlington's even less, and Cambridge's roads had nothing done to them at all. Those were the good old days before Route 2.
The Clark family roots go back to the very first settlers of Concord. Thomas and Grace Brooks came to Concord with Peter Bulkeley and Buttrick. They built a house where the Scout House now stands. He was in the state legislature and helped make the laws for Massachusetts. I also suspect he was a tanner because I found members of the second generation were tanners and he lived near the mill pond. Then the Brooks family moved down to Lexington Road and the house still stands near a brook where they were tanners. Brooks family members eventually took over that whole eastern section of Concord and Lincoln.
The Balls were here directly after 1635 and they settled first in the center of town and then on Monument Street. Then the Flints were early settlers as well and they settled in Lincoln because Lincoln and Concord were one at that time. Flints then came to Concord to a farm on Monument Street, and the bridge on Monument Street used to be called Flint Bridge. The Flints and the Balls intermarried and the Brooks and the Pratts intermarried. These people were all puritans as far as I know. The first Pratt went to Salem and was listed as the first surgeon in Essex County. He then moved to Gloucester, and his son came to Concord about 1665. These were people who were very studious not eager for wealth. All through the generations many of my family were and still are teachers. An interest in books just runs in the family.
Benjamin Clark, my great-great grandfather, lived on Estabrook Road very close to the North Bridge. He was 28 years old at the time of the Revolution. He had a baby, three-months old, who was my great grandfather, Brooks Clark. He took his wife and baby into the woods to a concealed spot and told them that if he didn't come for them by sunset that they would know he had been killed. But he wasn't killed. He also went to Bunker Hill. He was not in the battle but was stationed there.
Benjamin Clark also put the family's silver down the well when the British were coming. I had the silver until thieves took it from my house not long ago.