Captain William Smith House | |
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General information | |
Architectural style | Colonial |
Location | Lincoln, Massachusetts, U.S. (Concord until 1754) |
Address | North County Road |
Coordinates | 42°27′03″N71°17′19″W / 42.45086°N 71.28857°W |
Completed | 1692 |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 4 (including the cellar) |
Design and construction | |
Main contractor | Benjamin Whittmore [1] |
The Captain William Smith House is a historic American Revolutionary War site in Lincoln, Massachusetts, United States. Part of today's Minute Man National Historic Park, it is associated with the revolution's first battle, the 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord. Believed to have been built in 1692 (or possibly a decade or so earlier), in what was then Concord, it is believed to be the oldest house in Lincoln. [2]
It is located on North County Road, just off Battle Road (formerly the Bay Road), a few hundred yards east of the Hartwell Tavern and the contemporary Samuel Hartwell House. Its first known occupant was yeoman Benjamin Whittemore (d. 1734). [2] It was latterly the home of Captain William Smith (1746–1787), [3] commanding officer of the Lincoln minutemen [3] and the only brother of Abigail Adams, wife of the prominent patriot John Adams. [4] The house has been restored by National Park Service to look as it would have in 1775. [3]
William and Elizabeth Dodge purchased the home as a rental property in 1758. [1] When they moved to New Hampshire, they gave the house to their only daughter, Catharine Louisa Salmon. [1] Catharine married William Smith in 1771. [1] The couple lived in the house with their three children: Elizabeth, Louisa Catharine and William Jr. Their African slave, Cato, is not believed to have fought in the battles of Lexington and Concord, but on April 24, 1775, he enlisted as a soldier in Smith's newly formed company in the 6th Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Colonel John Nixon. [5] He died in New Castle, New York, in January 1777. [3]
Smith died in Philadelphia on September 3, 1787, aged 40, after abandoning his wife and (now six) [3] children and becoming an alcoholic. [4] Smith's father, Revd. William Smith, had assumed ownership of the family house in 1780. [3] [6] Catharine, who left Lincoln in 1795, survived her husband by 37 years; she died in 1824.
The house had a series of owners before it was added to the Minute Man National Historic Park in 1975. [3] (Manuel Silva purchased the property in 1924. A hog farmer, Silva had about four hundred swine at the time of his 1945 death. It is believed his wife divided the interior into four apartments around 1956.) [2]
The cove cornice visible below the roofline of the front façade is one of only four surviving examples remaining in Massachusetts (the others are the nearby Whittemore-Smith House, and also in Danvers and Marblehead). [2]
The battles of Lexington and Concord took form before dawn on April 19, 1775. Soldiers passed by the house on their way to Concord, and again on their way back to Boston. Three of Ephraim and Elizabeth Hartwell's children — Samuel, John and Isaac — were in the Lincoln minutemen that fought at Old North Bridge and on the battle road. All three later served in the Revolutionary War.
Paul Revere and William Dawes were detained by a British Army patrol nearby during the "Midnight Ride" to Concord of April 18. Samuel Prescott, who was also riding with them, escaped by jumping his horse over a wall and into the woods. Prescott emerged at the Hartwell Tavern, awakened Ephraim and informed him of the pending arrival of the British soldiers. [7] Ephraim sent his black slave, Violet, down the road to alert his son, Samuel, and his family. Mary Hartwell, Samuel's wife, then relayed the message to Captain William Smith. [8] The minutemen received the notice in time, and arrived at Old North Bridge before their enemy. Prescott made it to Concord. [9]
"The running battle back to Boston passed by Smith's house around 1:30 p.m., and a British regular who was wounded nearby was left in the care of Catharine Louisa, Captain Smith's wife. Despite her best efforts and those of Lexington physician Joseph Fiske, the soldier died of his wounds two or three days later, and he was buried near the farmhouse." – National Park Service
Samuel Prescott was an American physician and a Massachusetts Patriot during the American Revolutionary War. He is best known for his role in Paul Revere's "midnight ride" to warn the townspeople of Concord, Massachusetts, of the impending British army move to capture guns and gunpowder kept there at the beginning of the American Revolution. He was the only participant in the ride to reach Concord.
John Parker was an American colonial farmer, smith, soldier, and colonial militia officer who commanded the Lexington, Patriot, colonial militia at the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775.
The North Bridge, often colloquially called the Old North Bridge, is a historic site in Concord, Massachusetts, spanning the Concord River. On April 19, 1775, the first day of the American Revolutionary War, provincial minutemen and militia companies numbering approximately 400 engaged roughly 90 British Army troops at this location. The battle was the first instance in which American forces advanced in formation on the British regulars, inflicted casualties, and routed their opponents. It was a pivotal moment in the Battles of Lexington and Concord and in American history. The significance of the historic events at the North Bridge inspired Ralph Waldo Emerson to refer to the moment as the "shot heard round the world."
Minute Man National Historical Park commemorates the opening battle in the American Revolutionary War. It also includes the Wayside, home in turn to three noted American authors. The National Historical Park is under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service and protects 970 acres (392.5 ha) in and around the Massachusetts towns of Lexington, Lincoln, and Concord.
The Battles of Lexington and Concord, were some of the leading military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy, and Cambridge. They marked the outbreak of armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and Patriot militias from America's thirteen colonies.
Isaac Davis was a gunsmith and a militia officer who commanded a company of Minutemen from Acton, Massachusetts, during the first battle of the American Revolutionary War. In the months leading up to the Revolution, Davis set unusually high standards for his company in terms of equipment, training, and preparedness. His company was selected to lead the advance on the British Regulars during the Battle of Concord because his men were entirely outfitted with bayonets. During the American advance on the British at the Old North Bridge, Davis was among the first killed and was the first American officer to die in the Revolution.
Roger Brown was an American carpenter and soldier in the American Revolutionary War.
Battle Road, formerly known as the Old Concord Road and the Bay Road, is a historic road in Massachusetts, United States. It was formerly part of the main road connecting Lexington, Lincoln and Concord, three of the main towns involved in the American Revolutionary War. It was on Battle Road that thousands of colonial militia and British regulars fought during the redcoats' retreat from Concord to Boston on the morning and afternoon of April 19, 1775.
Mary Flint Hartwell was an American woman who played a prominent role in the battles of Lexington and Concord, during the American Revolutionary War of 1775 to 1783.
Hartwell Tavern is a historic American Revolutionary War site associated with the revolution's first battle, the 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord. It is located on North County Road, just off Battle Road in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and operated as a historic house museum by the National Park Service as part of the Minute Man National Historical Park. Built in 1733, in what was then Concord, it is staffed from Memorial Day weekend to October by park rangers dressed in colonial attire who offer programs daily.
The Minute Man is an 1874 sculpture by Daniel Chester French in Minute Man National Historical Park, Concord, Massachusetts. It was created between 1871 and 1874 after extensive research, and was originally intended to be made of stone. The medium was switched to bronze and it was cast from ten Civil War-era cannons appropriated by Congress.
The Samuel Hartwell House is a historic American Revolutionary War site associated with the revolution's first battle, the 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord. Built in 1733, in what was then Concord, it was located on North County Road, just off Battle Road in today's Lincoln, Massachusetts, and about 700 feet east of Hartwell Tavern, which Hartwell built for his son, Ephraim, and his newlywed wife, Elizabeth, in 1733. The site is part of today's Minute Man National Historic Park.
The Job Brooks House is a historic American Revolutionary War site in Lincoln, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of today's Minute Man National Historic Park.
The Jacob Whittemore House is a historic American Revolutionary War site in Lexington, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of today's Minute Man National Historic Park. It is located on Airport Road, just off Battle Road. It is the only house of the "witness" houses of the April 19, 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord to fall inside the Lexington town line; the others are in Lincoln or Concord.
The Samuel Brooks House is a historic American Revolutionary War site in Concord, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of today's Minute Man National Historic Park. It is located on North Great Road, just off Battle Road.
Virginia Road, also known as North County Road, North Country Road and Bay Road, is a historic road in Lincoln, Massachusetts, United States. It was part of Concord until 1754. Today, it is in the care of the Minute Man National Historical Park.
The Noah Brooks Tavern is a historic American Revolutionary War site associated with the revolution's first battle, the 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord. It stands, on the site of a previous home, on North Great Road in Lincoln, Massachusetts, just south of the former Battle Road, in an area known as Brooks Village. It is one of eleven houses within the Minute Man National Historic Park that still exists today.
Brooks Hill is a historic American Revolutionary War site associated with the revolution's first battle, the 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord. It was here, beside the Battle Road, that the British regulars passed on their marches to Concord from Boston, and again on their retreat east. It has also been referred to as Hardy's Hill.
Ephraim Flint was one of the founders of today's Lincoln, Massachusetts, in 1754.
William Smith was a captain of the minutemen of Lincoln, Province of Massachusetts, during the battles of Lexington and Concord, which began the American Revolutionary War.