The Town of Concord, in the year 1782, chose a committee of ten leading
citizens to give instructions to its selectmen. The third of the
seventeen articles proposed by them read thus: “That care be taken
of the Books of Marters and other bookes, and that they be kept from
abusive usage, and not lent to persons more than one month at one
time.” This indicates the root of a town library. A constitution of a
Library Company, dated 1784, is extant. In 1806 a Social Library was
incorporated, which was merged in the Town Library in 1851. The books
were kept in a room in the Town House which was open for borrowers on
Saturdays.
William Munroe, son of a Concord tradesman who vied with the Thoreaus in
the manufacture of lead pencils, after leaving the Concord schools went
into business, and later into the manufacture of silk. His intelligence
and force of character secured prosperity. He loved Concord, and, to use
his own words, “desired to testify my regard to my native town by doing
something to promote the education and intelligence, and thus the welfare
and prosperity of its people.” He gave to Concord a lot of land in the
heart of the town and a building for a Free Public Library, which, with
great care and thoroughness, he had built thereon and duly furnished;
and made handsome provision for care of the land and the extension of
the building later. He added a generous gift for books of reference and
standard works. The town thankfully accepted the gift, placed their books
in it, and chose their library committee. On a fine autumn day in 1873,
the library was opened with public ceremonies. Mr. Munroe in a short
and modest speech explained his purpose; Mr. H. F. Smith, on behalf of
the new library committee, reported its action and the gifts which had
poured in; Judge Hoar received the property on behalf of the Board of
Corporation, and Mr. Emerson, but lately returned with improved health
from his journey to the Nile, made the short address. Writing was now
very difficult for him, but the occasion pleased and moved him, and his
notes on books and on Concord, and the remembrance of his friends the
Concord authors but lately gone, served him, and the day passed off well.
[222] _Page 498, note 1._ _The Gospel Covenant_, printed in London in
1646, and quoted by Mr. Emerson in the “Historical Discourse.”
[223] _Page 499, note 1._ Major Simon Willard, a Kentish merchant was
Peter Bulkeley’s strong coadjutor in the founding of Concord. He also is
alluded to in the “Historical Discourse.”
[224] _Page 500, note 1._ These extracts are from the diary of Miss Mary
Moody Emerson.
[225] _Page 500, note 2._ This letter was written not long after the
death of John Thoreau, Henry’s dearly loved brother, and also of little
Waldo Emerson, to whom he became greatly attached while he was a member
of Mr. Emerson’s household.
[226] _Page 501, note 1._ Mr. Emerson here speaks for others. He could
not read Hawthorne because of the gloom of his magic mirror, but the man
interested and attracted him, though even as neighbors they seldom met.
[227] _Page 506, note 1._ Mr. Emerson notes that this is an allusion to
the “Harmonies of Ptolemy.”