When Concord was still a province of the British and the little town still known as Rumford, there was a strong need for community.
For with numbers there comes safety and an inner peace that we desire to this very day. Our ancestors, not really unlike all of us, needed the warmth and comfort that comes with a sense of belonging, just being together. With this basic need the people of Rumford built the First Meeting House on the northeast corner of Chapel Street and North Main Street, the site of a present-day dry-cleaning business.
The First Meeting House was constructed with logs and featured high windows to help protect the good citizens contained within from the threat of attack from the Native Americans in and around our town. There was a heavy oak door that could be barricaded while the building was being used as the First Church, meeting house and school for a period of 24 years until the North Church was built.
In 1751, the North Church was built on the site of the present-day Walker School Media building across the street from the Old North Cemetery. It was indeed a grand structure made of wood with a solid foundation. Being a center of activity, it was enlarged in 1755 by adding a pentagonal addition and continued to be used until the fire of 1842. It was constructed again and in use until the next fire struck years later.
There were many very important functions held in the North Church, later referred to as the Old North Church, over the years. The Lord was celebrated and many a marriage vow was said. Election sermons were even preached for many years. The North Church even hosted the convention to ratify the United States Constitution back in June of 1788, which meant that as the ninth state to approve the Constitution they set the wheels of the United States in motion.
This North Church was the center of community and maintained with pride by our ancestors. It was this pride held by the people of Concord that eventually brought a large bell to town. The men worked diligently to raise the bell one morning and secured it in the belfry, which certainly delighted every person in Concord. This is where the bell remained, up in that belfry overlooking our little town, until the church burned down.
This bell was very symbolic for many. Perhaps it represented liberty or a sense of well being and comfort. This was a rural community back in the early 1800s and it meant something to the people that cold morning as the men hauled the bell up to the belfry.
The community was delighted and they did celebrate, just about every day for many years to come. You see, they celebrated by ringing that bell every single day at 7 a.m., 9 a.m. and noon with the only exception being the Sabbath Day. They never tired of ringing the bell and it has been written that the Old North Church bell would be rung at other times too when an excuse was at hand.
When fire struck the Old North Church on June 29, 1873, burning the building to the ground, the bell was still in the belfry.
Concord’s very own Frank West Rollins stood on North State Street with many as the Concord Fire Department attempted to douse the flames consuming the Church.
Gov. Rollins was a skilled artist and the author of multiple books and he practiced his art across the street in his home, the current St. Peter’s Rectory, also known as the Rollins Mansion. Rollins documented the fire with a magnificent ink sketch of the flames consuming the Church, leaving future generations a very sad image of the fire.
In addition to his sketch, he also wrote of the disaster in vivid detail. Rollins is quoted as saying “The bell went first, and many a man felt sad as it crashed into the fiery furnace below, there to be turned into the molten mass from which it was cast.”
As I look toward Walker School, imagining the Old North Church with the bell shining in the early morning sunrise over Concord, I can almost hear the echo of that bell ringing 200 years later in the north end, still proud to be living in a community that we cherish.