Editing Concord, Massachusetts (section)

===Prehistory and founding===
[[File:Egg Rock Inscription.jpg|thumb|Photo of Egg Rock inscription, {{c.|1904}}]]
The area which became the town of Concord was originally known as "Musketaquid", situated at the confluence of the [[Sudbury River|Sudbury]] and [[Assabet River|Assabet]] rivers.<ref name="Musketaquid">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9025094/Concord#195620.hook|title=Concord|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=April 9, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016154159/https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9025094/Concord#195620.hook|archive-date=October 16, 2007}}</ref> The name was an [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]] word for "grassy plain", fitting the area's low-lying [[marsh]]es and [[Kettle (landform)|kettle holes]].<ref>"Native Americans, Colonial Settlement, and the Concord River". Lowell Land Trust. Retrieved July 28, 2013.</ref> Native Americans had cultivated corn crops there; the rivers were rich with fish and the land was lush and arable.<ref name="Bulkeley">{{cite web|url=http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/member_staff/peter_bulkeley_deacon_and_co_founder_of_concord_m_659_517.asp
|title=Peter Bulkeley: Settlement in Concord|publisher=New England Historic Genealogical Society|access-date=April 9, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927032104/http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/member_staff/peter_bulkeley_deacon_and_co_founder_of_concord_m_659_517.asp <!-- Bot retrieved archive -->|archive-date=September 27, 2007}}</ref> The area was largely depopulated in 1633 by an [[Massachusetts smallpox epidemic|epidemic of smallpox]],<ref name=Shattuck1835>{{cite web|last=Shattuck|first=Lemuel|author-link=Lemuel Shattuck|title=History of the Town of Concord, Mass|publisher=RootsWeb|year=1835|url=http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ma/middlesex/towns/concord/histch01.txt|access-date=February 5, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120161419/http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ma/middlesex/towns/concord/histch01.txt <!-- Bot retrieved archive -->|archive-date=November 20, 2007}}</ref> a disease likely to have been introduced to the New World by European explorers and settlers.<ref name=Riley2010>{{Cite journal|last=Riley|first=James C.|title=Smallpox and American Indians Revisited|journal=Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences|volume=65|issue=4|pages=445–477|year=2010|doi=10.1093/jhmas/jrq005|jstor=24631803|pmid=20219730|pmc=}}</ref>

In 1635, a group of English settlers led by Rev. [[Peter Bulkley]] and Major [[Simon Willard (Massachusetts colonist)|Simon Willard]] received a land grant from the General Court and negotiated a land purchase with the local [[Native Americans in the United States|indigenous tribes]]. Bulkeley was an influential religious leader who "carried a good number of planters with him into the woods";<ref>Moses Coit Tyler (1883). A History of American Literature, G. P. Putnam's Sons.</ref> Willard was a canny trader who spoke the Algonquian language and had gained the trust of Native Americans.<ref>"Simon Willard's Life In Concord." Marian H. Wheeler, Willard Family Association. Retrieved on July 28, 2013.</ref> They exchanged [[wampum]], hatchets, knives, cloth and other useful items for the {{Convert|6|sqmi|km2|adj=on|spell=in}} purchase from [[Squaw Sachem of Mistick]], which formed the basis of the new town, called "Concord" in appreciation of the peaceful acquisition.<ref name="Musketaquid"/><ref>{{cite book|title=Boston Monthly Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qvo-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA535|year=1825|publisher=S.L. Knapp|pages=535–536}}</ref>