Lexington
Lexington names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Lexington a town of Middlesex County
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a town of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, about twelve miles northwest of Boston. It was settled in 1642. It was noted as the scene of the first bloodshed between the colonists and the British troops at the opening of the Revolutionary War. A force sent out by General Gage to capture and destroy military stores attacked the American militia on Lexington Common April 19, 1775. Men fell on both sides. The loss of the British during the retreat that followed was considerable. Lexington is still a prosperous agricultural town of about 4,000 people. The triangular village green is still open. The old Buckman Tavern has been converted into a dwelling house. The Clark parsonage, in which Hancock and Sam Adams slept the night before the battle, has been moved from its original site, but it still stands. The bones of those who fell on the green have been reinterred in a mahogany sarcophagus and placed in a stone vault. A quaint old monument now mantled in ivy bears a long inscription written by the pastor, Jonas Clark. It is inscribed in hourglass fashion, giving the names of those who fell, and is punctuated by such sentences as, "The die was cast," "They nobly dared to be free." In Memorial Hall, as a part of the Town House is called, there is a collection of Revolutionary relics. There are statues of John Hancock and Adams. Tablets give the names of the Lexington men who fell in battle. A modern tablet gives the names of twenty Lexington men who fell in the Civil War. It bears the inscription, "The sons defended what the fathers won." There are several cases of relics. Major Pitcairn's pistols, captured during the retreat, are kept here, as well as quite a collection of old flint muskets. See Revere ; Concord
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a town in Middlesex co., Mass., on the Boston and Maine railroad; 12 miles N. W. of Boston; contains the villages of Lexington, East Lexington and North Lexington; and is principally engaged in farming, dairying and market-gardening. There are a public high school, Hancock and Adams grammar schools, Tidd primary school, Cary library, electric light plant, savings bank and newspapers. Lexington was settled in 1642 and was long known as Cambridge Farm, and was incorporated as a town in 1713. It was the scene of the first conflict between the colonists and British troops in the Revolutionary War, on April 19, 1775. The 119, 1775. British obtained the advantage and destroyed the stores of the colonists he colonist lost in the action man kille wounded. Pop. ( 1910) 4,918; 6,350.
Lexington a city and county-seat of Fayette co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city and county-seat of Fayette co., Ky., on the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific, Chesapeake and Ohio, Louisville and Nashville and Southern railroads; 80 It is the miles S. of Cincinnati, O. trade, social, and political center of the famous " blue grass " region; is a noted Soon after obtaining his medical degree horse-breeding, hemp and tobacco growwent to India, where his proficiency ing region; and manufactures flour, and especially Indo-Chinese planing - mill products, saddlery, harness, of carriages and wagons. It is the seat of Hindustani at Fort William Kentucky University, Transylvania Uni- , Calcutta. He is the author of versity, State College, Hamilton College; tant Infirmary, Colored Industrial Home, St. Joseph's Hospital, National and State banks, public library, and court house. Lexington has wide and well - paved streets, electric light and street railroad plants, daily and weekly periodicals. Pop. (1910) 35,099; (1920) 41,534.
Lexington a city and_county-seat and cou of Rockridge co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city and_county-seat and cou of Rockridge co., Va.; on James river, on Jamen and the Baltimore and Ohio, and the Chesapeake and Ohio railroads; 48 miles W. of Lynchburg. It is the seat of Washington and Lee University and the Virginia Military school; is engaged in agriculture and has deposits of sulphur light plant, waterworks ore, electric supplied by mountain streams, and Nares tional and State banks.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 note that Lexington, Massachusetts "is still a prosperous agricultural town of about 4,000 people" has been overtaken completely: the farms and market gardens Collier's listed in 1921 are gone, and the town is an affluent Boston suburb of roughly 34,000. The battle sites are now federally protected as Minute Man National Historical Park, created in 1959; Buckman Tavern, which Aiton found "converted into a dwelling house," was restored by the Lexington Historical Society and is again shown to visitors, and the Hancock-Clarke parsonage has been returned to a site beside its original one. Lexington, Kentucky, listed at 41,534 in 1920, merged with Fayette County in 1974 into a single consolidated government and now holds well over 300,000 people; its hemp trade vanished with federal prohibition and only returned as a legal crop after 2018. The "State College" of the Kentucky entry is today the University of Kentucky, while Lexington, Virginia, remains a small town built around Washington and Lee University and the Virginia Military Institute.
Written for this edition, 2026.