Concord was first settled in 1635 and was officially incorporated in that same year. Concord was a site of the initial conflict in the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Lexington and Concord. Concord also has a remarkably rich literary history centered in the mid-nineteenth century. Among them were writers Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) and Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888), whose novel Little Women (1868) was based in part on her experiences as a child in Concord; and TranscendentalismTranscendentalist philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) and Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), who lived in a small cabin on nearby Walden Pond, where he wrote Walden (1854). Philosopher Bronson Alcott (1799–1888), father of Louisa May, and William Emerson (minister)Rev. William Emerson (1769–1811), father of Ralph Waldo, were also notable residents. These persons all lived nearby and knew each other, some quite well, and were also connected with the major cultural center of Boston. Many are buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord. The Wayside house, which was occupied by scientist John Winthrop (1714-1779)John Winthrop (1714–1779) when Harvard College was temporarily moved to Concord during the Revolutionary War, was later the home of Bronson and Louisa May Alcott (when it was called Hillside), who sold it to Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1852 and named it The Wayside. Nathaniel Hawthorne had previously lived in The Old Manse. The Alcotts moved into Orchard HouseThe Orchard House in 1858, where Lousia May wrote Little Women. Today, The Wayside and The Orchard House are both museums. Ephraim Bull developed the now-ubiquitous Concord grape at his home on Lexington Road, where the original vine still grows. Welch's, the first company to sell grape juice, maintains a small headquarters in Concord. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concord%2C_Massachusetts