The Lowell City Council had a light agenda on Tuesday night so today I’ll step back from current city politics and share some history. I’ve long been fascinated by all the important events that seem to have happened over time in the middle of April. As is almost always the case, there is usually a Lowell connection. Here are some examples:

Cambodian Genocide (1975) – This past Thursday, more than one hundred people gathered on Lowell’s JFK Plaza to commemorate the start of the Cambodian Genocide. April 17, 1975, was the day the Khmer rouge took over Phnom Penh and began the systematic persecution and killing of approximately two million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. Driven by a radical communist agrarian ideal, the Khmer Rouge forcibly evacuated cities, abolished money and private property, and subjected the population to brutal forced labor, starvation, torture, and executions. Intellectuals, professionals, and anyone perceived as an enemy of the regime were specifically targeted.

As the Khmer Rouge’s violence and radical policies intensified, many Cambodians sought to escape the country to survive. This involved dangerous journeys on foot through jungles and across mountainous terrain. The primary destination for initial escape was neighboring Thailand which was more accessible than Laos or Vietnam but was still fraught with risks from landmines, Khmer Rouge patrols, and the dangers of the environment.

As the influx of Cambodian refugees grew, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other international aid organizations established refugee camps inside Thailand. These camps provided necessities like food, shelter, and medical care, though conditions were often harsh, and resources limited. Life in the refugee camps was characterized by uncertainty. Refugees often spent months or even years in the camps, waiting for resettlement opportunities.

Following the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1979 and the fall of the Khmer Rouge, the United States began to accept significant numbers of Cambodian refugees for resettlement. This was partly driven by humanitarian concerns and partly by the geopolitical context of the Cold War.

Initial arrivals to the US often relied on existing small communities of earlier Cambodian immigrants or the support of their sponsoring organizations. These networks provided crucial social, cultural, and practical support in navigating a new country and language.

In Lowell, the establishment of strong community support systems, including temples, cultural organizations, and mutual aid networks, played a crucial role in helping Cambodian refugees rebuild their lives and preserve their cultural heritage in the United States. The arrival of so many Cambodian people in Lowell transformed the city by reversing a steady population decline and by contributing to the cultural and ethnic diversity that makes Lowell such a special place.

American Revolution Begins (1775) – On April 19, 1775, at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, the simmering tensions between the American colonists and British authorities erupted into armed conflict, marking the start of the American Revolutionary War. Early that morning, a force of 700 British soldiers set out from Boston to Concord to seize miliary supplies stored there. Alerted by Paul Revere, William Dawes and others, 77 men of the Lexington militia company confronted the British at that town’s common which was on the road to Concord. Someone fired, then more British troops fired, killing and wounding several Lexington men.

In Concord, as the British troops searched for the military supplies, local militia units from Concord and other nearby towns engaged in a firefight with the British at the North Bridge, killing several British soldiers whose comrades then began the march back to Boston.

Because of the masterful communications network that had been established by Paul Revere and others, news of the British excursion spread quickly and widely. In his book, Paul Revere’s Ride, acclaimed historian David Hackett Fischer wrote how before the British had finished unloading the boats that ferried them across the Charles River at the start of their mission, a rider brought the news to the home of Captain John Trull, the commander of the Tewksbury militia company (whose house was located on today’s Trull Brook Golf Course). While still in his nightshirt, Trull fired three musket shots out his bedroom window to alert the commander of the Dracut militia company who fired a shot acknowledging the message. Thus, before the British had even commenced their march to Concord, news of their incursion had reached the New Hampshire border and incited a mass mobilization of the region’s volunteer militia units.

Although Lowell was not established until 1826, English colonists living in the towns that would become Lowell, rushed to Concord as part of the local militia companies where they conducted a sustained and effective series of ambushes and attacks on the retreating British forces, demonstrating the widespread resistance to British authority and escalating the conflict into a full-blown war.

One of those who marched to Concord and joined the fight was 18-year-old Benjamin Pierce, who lived and worked on his uncle’s farm in what was then Chelmsford but is now Lowell. The Pierce farm began near the intersection of Chelmsford and Parker Streets and ran along Chelmsford Street towards Cross Point. Pierce joined the Continental Army and fought throughout the war. When the fighting ended, he moved to New Hampshire and ultimately became that state’s governor. His son, Franklin Pierce, became the 14th president of the United States.

Civil War Begins (1861) – At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, gun batteries of the South Carolina militia opened fire on Fort Sumter, a US Army installation that guarded the entrance to the harbor at Charleston. South Carolina had seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860, after the election of Abraham Lincoln as president. To them, Fort Sumter was occupied by a foreign power and they demanded its surrender. Neither President Lincoln (who took office on March 4) nor the US Army troops at Sumter were willing to surrender the fortress, however, by mid-April the soldiers would run out of food. A former US Navy officer named Gustavus Fox, who grew up in Lowell and graduated from Lowell High, offered a plan to secretly resupply the fort. President Lincoln ordered him to proceed, but when the ships under the command of Fox appeared at the entrance to Charlestown Harbor, the South Carolina forces commenced firing. Although the fort fired back, it sustained heavy damage and, with no hope of relief, surrendered 34 hours later.

Baltimore Riot (1861) – In response to the attack on Fort Sumter, President Lincoln issued a proclamation on April 15, 1861, calling for 75,000 state militia troops to mobilize to suppress the rebellion. With few loyal soldiers left to defend the American capital, the priority was to reinforce Washington, D.C. One of the first units to move out was the Lowell-based Sixth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment which contained nearly 400 Lowell residents in its ranks. As the regiment moved through the city of Baltimore on the morning of April 19, 1861, on its way to Washington, D.C., pro-Southern residents of Baltimore blocked the path of the troops to prevent them from reaching their destination. Someone in the mob fired at the troops and the soldiers returned fire. In the ensuing firefight, four of the soldiers were killed and more than a dozen were wounded. Among the dead were Luther Ladd and Addison Whitney, two young mill workers from Lowell who were deemed to be “the first martyrs of the rebellion.” Later that day, the rest of the Sixth Regiment became the first military unit to arrive in Washington where it deterred Southern militia units from seizing the city and the US government.

Assassination of President Lincoln (1865) – On Friday, April 14, 1865 – Good Friday – President Lincoln and his wife took in a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington. During the performance, John Wilkes Booth slipped into the President’s box and shot Lincoln in the head. Still alive, Lincoln was carried out of the theater into a rooming house across the street operated by William Petersen. Inside the house, the men carrying Lincoln laid the President in the only bedroom on the first floor. Lincoln died at 7:22 a.m. the next morning, still lying in the small bedroom. The usual occupant of that room was a young man from Lowell named William Clark. While serving in the United States Army earlier in the war, Clark was medically discharged for a chronic illness he contracted while in the service, however, he was then hired as a clerk at the War Department and remained in Washington. In the days following Lincoln’s death, Clark wrote to his sister in Lowell that his pillow and coverlet were stained with the President’s blood and that he had to go to the White House to deliver the President’s boots, which had been removed and left behind in the aftermath of the shooting. A few weeks later, Clark wrote another letter saying he had to move out of the room permanently because souvenir hunters were constantly breaking in and stealing his things. William Clark soon returned to Lowell but then moved to Boston where he worked in the retail clothing business until his death several decades later.

Ladd and Whitney Monument Dedication (1865) – Soon after the Baltimore riot, the people of Lowell began planning a monument for Luther Ladd and Addison Whitney. Despite many others – 725,000 in all – dying during the Civil War, the early momentum to honor Ladd and Whitney and the fact that the Baltimore Riot had occurred on the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, created unstoppable momentum for the monument. With a $2000 state appropriation and $2000 more raised by the people of Lowell, a granite obelisk was constructed on a grassy triangle at the junction of Merrimack and Moody Streets (the nearby Lowell City Hall was not constructed for another 28 years). An elaborate dedication ceremony was scheduled April 19, 1865, the fourth anniversary of the riot, however, that event was postponed because of the assassination of President Lincoln just a few days earlier. The dedication was rescheduled to June 17, 1865, the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill.

History is fascinating, and there is always a Lowell connection.

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This week on richardhowe.com

I did a post on Thursday’s Cambodian Genocide Remembrance Vigil that includes a transcript of the remarks of Congresswoman Lori Trahan.

Rich Grady wrote about a Revolutionary War related local event, the “Liberty Pole Capping” conducted by the Bedford Minutemen last week.

Continuing with the Revolutionary War theme, Paul Marion shared the story of Dracut’s Peter Coburn at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

In her monthly Living Madly column, Emilie-Noelle Provost wrote about the devastating decision by its private equity owner to close the much-loved Joann Fabrics.

Finally, in this week’s selection from L’Etoile, Lowell’s French-language newspaper, Louise Peloquin reminds us of how Lowell celebrated the arrival of spring 100 years ago.