All photos ©www.thoreaufarm.org
Thoreau Farm:
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A Place Where Thoreau Guides the Discussion BY NANCY SNYDER
In October 2019, I designed a literary pilgrimage that would take me to the Thoreau Farm in Concord, Massachusetts. I would be a writer in retreat in the secondstory bedroom where Thoreau was born, and a few days later I would be a student participating in a writing workshop held by The Write Connection and taught by Heidi Jon Schmidt. It was a trip meant to happen: Concord’s dazzling fall foliage made Thoreau Farm more beautiful, more reflective of the possibilities of living an authentic life. I returned from Thoreau Farm challenged with eliminating all that was unnecessary and paying attention to what is most significant. 44
Discover CONCORD
| Fall 2020
Thoreau Farm is about four miles east of Concord center. The house and its adjoining farmland had long been established before Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817. Native Americans cultivated the land for centuries before Concord was chartered in 1635. The first known private owner of the land was Sgt. Thomas Wheeler, an early settler. Sgt. Wheeler acquired large amounts of acreage in the area. Wheeler’s son, John, made the farm more prosperous and in 1730 built the farmhouse that would become Thoreau’s birthplace. In 1756, the farm was sold to John Wheeler’s cousin, the Deacon Samuel Minot. When Deacon Minot passed, his
son, Jonas Minot, acquired the farm and expanded it to almost 104 acres, making Minot Farm one of Concord’s largest. Jonas was widowed in 1792 and married Mary Jones Dunbar six years later in 1798. Mary, Thoreau’s grandmother, brought her children from her previous marriage, including her daughter Cynthia (Thoreau’s mother), to the farm with her. Cynthia lived on the farm for fourteen years and would later tell young Henry cherished memories of growing up there. In 1812, Cynthia married John Thoreau and the young couple returned to the farm in 1813 to assist Mary in making the farm prosperous once again. Unfortunately, as a
