Lexington – The Town of History-Makers

“Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”  – Captain John Parker

On April 19, 1775, seventy-seven “minutemen” (town militia who could be ready to fight at a minute’s notice) faced down seven-hundred British troops on the Lexington town green who were searching Lexington and Concord for weapons that could be used for rebellion. Nobody knows who fired the first shot between the two groups, but somebody did, a moment immortalized in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” With this first shot and the proceeding musket-fire, the Revolutionary War began. The Battle of Lexington, as it would later be known, ended in a British retreat, and the Revolutionary War would ultimately end with colonial victory and the birth of the United States.

Lexington has always been a town of history-makers – people who were willing to stand up for what they had but also push further to make things better for themselves and those around them. This doesn’t just mean people from colonial times, like the gallant Captain John Parker who led the Lexington militia in 1775 against the British at the Battle of Lexington, or the resolute Abigail Harrington who encouraged her son before the battle that “the regulars are coming, and something must be done!” It also refers to the many celebrated Lexingtonians who have emerged from this town over the years and who have changed the world by their actions.