There’s more to the Old North Cemetery than a bunch of mossy grave stones. It’s filled with interesting folks from Concord’s past. This feature will tell some of their stories.
Aug. 11, 1746, was a day of infamy for Concord when a clash between a group of Native Americans and soldiers claimed the lives of five residents.
Lt. Jonathan Bradley, his son, Samuel Bradley, John Lufkin, John Bean and Obadiah Peters all died after making a fatal mistake: Someone in their party shot a Native American believing he was a deer. The men were outnumbered by the natives by 100 men, according to some estimates.
Four of the men died almost instantly. Jonathan Bradley, one of three men held hostage, attempted to fight off the natives with his gun. He suffered a bloody death by tomahawk.
An excerpt from the journal of Abner Clough, who served as a clerk to Capt. Daniel Ladd, chronicled reaction to the massacre: “The bodies of the dead – mangled, bloody, and some of them naked – were laid side by side in a cart which had been sent up with a yoke of oxen to convey them down the main street. . . . There a great multitude of men, women and children collected to see the dreadful sight; they wept aloud. Mothers lifted their young children to see the dead bodies in the cart.”
The Bradleys were buried together; Lufkin, Bean and Peters were buried together nearby.
