Job Brooks House facts for kids

The Job Brooks House is a very old and important building. It is a historic site from the American Revolutionary War. You can find it in Lincoln, Massachusetts, in the United States. Today, it is part of the Minute Man National Historical Park. This park helps protect places important to American history.

The house is on North Great Road. It is close to Battle Road, which used to be called Bay Road. It's about half a mile west of another historic spot, the Hartwell Tavern. There are three other houses nearby that belonged to the Brooks family. These are the Samuel Brooks House, the Noah Brooks Tavern, and the Joshua Brooks House. Because of these houses, this area is known as Brooks Village.

Who Lived Here?

Job Brooks (1717–1794) built this house in 1740. He lived there with his family. The house was just east of his second cousin Samuel Brooks's home. This area was part of Concord back then. Job's family had owned land here since the mid-1600s. By the time of the American Revolution, this spot was called Brooks Hill. The group of houses became known as Brooks Village.

Job Brooks was married to Anna Bridge. She was from nearby Lexington. They had three children together. Their names were Mathew, Asa, and Anna. When Job died in 1794, his son Asa inherited the house.

A Park Treasure

The Minute Man National Historical Park bought the Job Brooks House in 1959. Today, the house is used for storage. It holds many old items found by archaeologists. These items are called artifacts. The park has over 250,000 artifacts! They come from different time periods. Some are from the early Archaic period, which was thousands of years ago. Others are from the 20th century.

The Start of the Revolution

The famous battles of Lexington and Concord happened on April 19, 1775. This was before sunrise. British soldiers marched right past the Job Brooks House. They were going to Concord. Later, they marched back past the house on their way to Boston.

The night before, on April 18, Paul Revere and William Dawes made their "Midnight Ride." They were trying to warn everyone that the British were coming. A British Army patrol stopped them nearby. But another rider, Samuel Prescott, was with them. Prescott was able to escape. He jumped his horse over a wall and rode into the woods.

Prescott then reached the Hartwell Tavern. He woke up Ephraim Hartwell and told him about the British soldiers. Ephraim sent his enslaved person, Violet, to warn his son and his family. Mary Hartwell then told Captain William Smith. Captain Smith was the leader of the Lincoln minutemen. His home was a bit further west along Battle Road, and it still stands today. Because of these warnings, the minutemen knew the British were coming. They got to Old North Bridge in Concord before the British soldiers. Samuel Prescott also made it to Concord to spread the word.