One day, a weary traveler from Massachusetts on an unusual quest found himself in the heart of Adams Electric Cooperative territory. Hungry and tired, he made a last-minute call to the nearby Red Bird Inn in Clayton. The proprietor answered, explaining that though there were no rooms available, he was welcome to book the cabin on the property.
Rob Morrison, a history teacher and resident of Concord, Mass., was on a journey to visit every Concord in the United States. His destination this time was Concord Township, adjacent to Clayton.
Upon arriving for the night, he met innkeeper Becky Barlow, who sits on the Adams Electric Cooperative board of directors and is the vice chair of the Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives board.
“I left you some homemade chocolate chip cookies and four books that have some pictures and the history of Adams County. I’m sure you’ll find some information about Concord Township,” she told him, which he later shared on his blog, concordrob.com.
Some time after his departure, Barlow received a letter from Morrison in the mail.
“It was about this big goings-on to celebrate ‘the shot heard ’round the world,’” she says. “He says, ‘Dear Becky, I hope I can reciprocate your hospitality and welcome you to Historic Concord, the inspiration of the name of your township. This should be a memorable event, and I hope you can make it, Rob.’ I looked at [Jim] and said, ‘We never do anything crazy like this. We need to go.’”
The couple embarked on the 18-hour drive with their dog, Bing, on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, and arrived in Concord, Mass., the following day. The next few days were spent sightseeing and congregating with their hosts and the rest of the “Concord cousins” — an affectionate nickname someone came up with for the people Morrison had met on his journey and invited to the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution.
Finally came the day of the main event — Saturday, April 19, 2025. “The big day!” Barlow recorded in her trip diary, along with the following:
“Walked to ‘North Bridge’ and witnessed firing of the musket for opening ceremonies and the firing of cannons. … The parade was huge!
“There were 13 ‘cousins’ who walked! … Ten states were represented: New York, Vermont, California, Minnesota, Maine, Ohio, Georgia, New Hampshire, West Virginia and Illinois.”
Afterwards, the couple, along with Bing, said their goodbyes and headed home later that same day.
“This parade was three-and-a-half miles long, there was no candy being thrown, and the people were five or six deep the whole route,” Barlow later describes. “It just gives me goosebumps to talk about it.”
According to Morrison, his journey and the cousins all came about because of his own curiosity. “I was teaching history here in Concord, Mass.,” he explains. “And it’s the site of the Battle of Lexington and Concord — the first battle of the American Revolution. … As I started looking more and more at [local] Concord history, I kept running into these other Concords — Concord, Calif., and Concord, N.C., Concord, N.H., and it just got me curious as to what these other places were like.”
Morrison, also a guide for the Minute Man National Park in Concord, Mass., began researching and compiling a list of all the Concords in the U.S. When he and his wife drove their daughter’s car to her in Arizona, they began visiting the other Concords.
“Instead of doing the four-day direct route out to Arizona, we took a little bit of a meander,” he laughs. “We had lunch in Concord, N.Y., and then dinner in Concord, Pa., and the next day we went to Concord, Va., then Concord, Tenn., Concord, Ala., Concord, La., [and a] couple of Concords in Texas.”
Every place he went, he photographed and documented. Twelve years passed. “[It was] kind of fits and starts, as I was a teacher,” Morrison explains. “Summertime … a long vacation, long weekend … I started knocking them all off.”
There are more than one might think — 97, in fact. Four of them are in Illinois. East Texas ranks the highest with 14 Concords. There’s only one in California, though it’s the largest, and then there’s Concord, Idaho, with a population of two. He says some are nothing more than graveyards at this point.
“I try to find a story that can be illustrative of what life is like in that Concord, so I end up talking to a lot of strangers and going up to people on the street or somebody mowing their lawn and saying, ‘Excuse me, I’m Rob from Concord, Mass. I’m doing this strange little project and going to all the Concords in the country.’ They always [have] the same reaction — they look at me, and then they kind of tilt their head a little bit, [there’s] silence, and then they go, ‘Well, that’s cool,’” he laughs. “It’s been a universally positive experience meeting strangers, and I ask everybody I meet what the best part of living in their Concord is … [and] how it’s changed since they first moved there.”
When plans for the 250th anniversary of the battle were underway, Morrison thought it would be fun to invite the people he’d met to come for the celebration. “I was on the invitations committee, and I pitched this idea to the town, and again people kind of turned their heads sideways,” he laughs. It was then that the “Concord cousins” were born.
Morrison says the hardest part of the quest was staying focused. “I’d have to drive past all these things, and tell myself, ‘No, no, I’m just going to Concord. I’m not going to Mount Rushmore [or the] Badlands. I’ve got to get to Concord, S.D.,’” he laughs, citing an example.
And, of his visit to Concord Township in Illinois and Barlow’s Red Bird Inn, Morrison says, “I got all the history of the township, I certainly got great hospitality and a beautiful little stay at her bed and breakfast … she’s a lovely woman.”
Photos courtesy of Maia Kennedy Photography
