Place Information
|
Lincoln is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 8,056 at the 2000 census, including residents of Hanscom Air Force Base that live within town limits. Without the base, which is largely self-contained, Lincoln is home to 5,152 people, according to the 2000 census. History
Lincoln was settled in 1650 as part of neighboring Concord. It was incorporated as a separate town in 1754. Due to their "difficulties and inconveniences by reason of their distance from the places of Public Worship in their respective Towns," local inhabitants petitioned the General Court to be set apart as a separate town. Comprising parts nipped from three adjacent towns, Concord, Weston and Lexington, it was sometimes referred to as "Niptown." Chambers Russell, the most distinguished citizen of the community and a Representative in the Court in Boston, was influential in the town's creation. In gratitude, Russell was asked to name the new town. He chose Lincoln, after his family home in Lincolnshire, England. His homestead in Lincoln was the property we now call Codman House, which was occupied after his death by his relatives, the Codman family. Lincoln is reportedly the only town in America named after Lincoln, England. Lincoln was where Paul Revere was captured by British soldiers, on the night of April 18, 1775, before he reached Concord. Another prominent citizen was the Rev. Charles Stearns (1753-1826), a Harvard-trained minister who served the Congregational Church in Lincoln from late 1781 until his death. Only a handful of his sermons were printed, most in the early nineteenth century. In addition, Stearns was principal of the Liberal School, a relatively progressive and coeducational institution that opened in early 1793. While at the school, Stearns wrote and published a number of education-related works, including Dramatic Dialogues for Use in Schools (1798), a collection of thirty original plays that were performed by the students. After the school closed in 1808, Stearns continued to tutor students privately. Among his pupils were Nathan Brooks, a Concord lawyer, and George Russell, a Lincoln physician. Stearns's published works can be accessed via Early American Imprints, a microform and digital collection produced by the American Antiquarian Society. A summary article that looks at Stearns as a producer of children's drama is Levy, Jonathan. The Dramatic Dialogues of Charles Stearns: An Appreciation. In Spotlight on the Child: Studies in the History of American Children’s Theatre. Ed. Roger L. Bedard and C. John Tolch. New York: Greenwood, 1989. 5-24. Research Tips
|
