Concord Village is named after the successful 1600's pilgram settlement near Plymouth Rock, a town which was later immortalized by Paul Revere's Ride to warn Concord, the first battleground of the revoluationary war. In the 1800's, Concord writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau created the first "American literary voice." This blog explores some of that early history and the history of our own modern Concord Village here in Arizona.
The town of Concord Massachuesetts played an important role in the underground railroad. Click on the map to the left to download a PDF of significant locations in Concord used by slaves escaping Southern states. At least a dozen buildings in Concord are known to have hidden rooms which housed slaves during part of their year-long nighttime trek North.
Dictionary.com defines "concord" as an "agreement between persons, groups, nations, etc.; concurrence in attitudes, feelings, etc.; unanimity; accord; agreement between things; mutual fitness; harmony; peace; amity; a treaty; compact; covenant." The original Concord Village in Massachuessetts was named as such in 1635 because of the peaceful accord with the neighboring natives from whom they purchased the land just a few months earlier.
Concord's agricultural interests continued on with their 200-year deforestation process until in 1850 the forest only covered about 10% of the land, compared to 90% when the native Algonquians lived here, leaving only the forest around Second Division Brook and Walden Woods. The town's giant sponge, its forest, is largely gone, so water levels rise taking in surrounding industrial pollutants even sewage. Many swamps are drained for pasture, but with extensive erosion and sedimentation, farmland ditches must be dug out regularly. Farm size decreases and land is used intensively. With the nearly extinct wilderness and further encroachments of modern society as a backdrop, Concord's home-brewed brand of naturalist writers began to explore the purity of nature and man's role in the natural order of things.
Concord Village started the 18th century 70% forested with sawmills buzzing. More roads are built, and the town center is a busy crossroad and gathering place. At the 1775 Revolution it is only about 30% forested. and as hunting continues, game grows increasingly scarce. Cultivation, pastures, and wandering livestock cause erosion, sedimentation, and murky waterways. Productive soils and woodlot firewood are scarce, so subsistence farming becomes common. As the local people face scarcity, British rule and taxation taking away further money and resources begins to seem unreasonable.
The original town of Concord Village in Massachuesetts was founded in 1635 when an English merchant peacefully purchased six square miles of land from local natives. The village was named for the uniquely harmonious "concord" (or accord) struck with local Algonquians.
In the years preceding the purchase, there was a small native community called Musketaquid, which was situated on Nashawtuc hill in Concord, but the tribe was decimated by the small pox plague brought by the Europeans, leaving only a remnant of its prior population. Several early American outposts had failed with entire communities starving to death in the winters, or in violent conflicts with local tribes, and so this uniquely peaceful relationship caused the settlers to honorably rename the town from its Algonquian name within a year of founding it.
At the time of the purchase, the Concord area was 90% forest-covered and was the first official town in the interior of the Massachusetts Bay. This was the unspoiled rugged West of the day.
Sometimes, as the ONLY HUD financed coop in Arizona, Concord Village feels quite alone. No one really understands us, not propsective buyers, not the banks or the courts, and sometimes, not even our members.
However, while Concord is the only HUD coop in the state, we are not alone in the nation. In 2012, we are among 340 coops that are financed by HUD, and below is the list.