By Sharon McDonald, Town Historian
Are you familiar with Wilson Park, the grassy triangle where Concord Road, North Road and the Great Road meet?
If you have ever attended Bedford’s Polecapping Ceremony, when several hundred people gather every April to commemorate the18th century revolt against the British, you’ll know Wilson Park honors Jonathan Willson. He was the Captain of the Bedford Minutemen who lost his life on April 19th, 1775. It was from under a huge elm tree that once grew there, that the Bedford men set off for Concord’s North Bridge on the opening day of the American Revolution. The tree is gone, now, but the Liberty Pole, with its defiant red freedom cap, stands in its place.
Unfortunately, the 1939 Town Meeting warrant article that set aside that patch of ground misspelled our hero’s name, and Town maps and documents have called it “Wilson Park” ever since.
Does it matter? Isn’t it true that in earlier times, people weren’t particular how they spelled their names and so we even have the Bard himself spelling “Shakespeare” every which way? The thing is, Captain Willson was quite consistent about the spelling of his name. In his birth record, his marriage record, his death record and on his gravestone over in the Old Burying Ground, his name always has two “l”s. (There was also a “Wilson” family in Bedford, found in the names of Wilson Mill and Wilson Road with only one “l,” which confuses things a bit.)
This year, Chris Nelson, Bedford’s GIS Analyst, suggested that it finally be corrected, and Don Corey of the Bedford Historic Preservation Commission took it to the December 8th Selectmen’s meeting. They determined that, because the misspelling was passed that way by Town Meeting, it required a vote by the Selectmen to rectify it. And so they have voted unanimously to correct this 76 year old spelling error in Town records, and Willson Park it shall be, henceforth.
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Thank you, Sharon- and Don too. Excellent work!