Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Lexington (Mass.)

LEXINGTON, 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 British obtained the advantage and destroyed the stores of the colonists, but lost in the action 273 men killed and wounded. Pop. (1910) 4,918; (1920) 6,350.