Lincoln field finally gets its historically correct name

Betsy Dakin (left) and Erica Dakin Voolich of Somerville at the dedication of Dakin Field.

For years, Lincolites have known the field at the corner of Sandy Pond and Baker Bridge Roads as the Muster Field. But now, thanks to some historical correction, it’s been officially renamed Dakin Field.

Almost a dozen Dakins from all over gathered at the field on October 13 to witness the installation of a new sign above the wooden “Lincoln Conservation Land” sign. Lincoln’s Betsy Dakin and others in her clan wielded a power screwdriver to tighten the last couple of bolts.

The etched rock a few feet away says “Here men from the western part of town joined the Minute Men and militia marching from the town center” and quotes from an 1850 affidavit by Amos Baker, then a 94-year-old veteran of the Revolutionary War’s opening battle. So far, so good — Baker and several others — did indeed meet other Lincoln soldiers on that spot, according to local historian Rick Wiggin, a guest at the Dakin Field dedication and author of a 2021 Lincoln Squirrel article on this topic.

There were seven members of the Baker family who were in arms at Concord the morning of April 19, 1775: brothers Amos, Jacob, James, Nathaniel, and Samuel; their father, Jacob Sr.; and their brother-in-law, Daniel Hosmer. Jacob Sr. was probably there as a private citizen (probably too old to have been in the militia) to look out for the well-being of his sons and son-in-law. Three of their neighbors (Daniel, Nathan, and Timothy Billing) were also in arms at Concord as members of the Minute Man company, so it’s likely that they were with the Bakers as they rendezvoused with the two companies at Dakin’s Field. The Bakers and Billings all lived more or less along what is today Route 126 and Old Concord Road and Baker Bridge Road.

Representatives from several branches of the Dakin family gathered at the dedication of Dakin Field.

When the alarm rose, it wouldn’t have made sense for them to go to the Lincoln’s actual muster (gathering of troops) in the town center, where they drilled and where Bemis Hall now stands, and then pass to the field near their home again on the way to fight the British in Concord, Wiggin explained.

The field didn’t actually get its erroneous name until the early 1980s, when Sumner Smith was offering to sell several parcels of land to the town, Wiggin said. His ancestors had bought the land from the Dakins and some years earlier, had given another large parcel to the town for the schools (hence Smith School, the name of the southern end of the Lincoln School when it was treated as a separate middle school).

The town couldn’t afford all the land being offered in 1983; “they were about to let this field go for development,” Wiggin said, until the late Henry Rugo (a charter member of the modern Lincoln Minute Men) stood up at Town Meeting and protested, saying, “This is where the Lincoln Minute Men mustered!” or words to that effect. Given the parcel’s apparently valuable historical significance, the town went ahead and bought it.

The story became local lore and the boulder dedicating the “Muster Field” was dedicated on the 225th anniversary of the battle in 2000. (The erroneous history can also be found on page 151 of the A Guide to Conservation Land in Lincoln.) It was another example of a misstatement inadvertently becoming received knowledge, “but it saved the land, and that’s the important thing,” Dakin said.

The Dakin family has not been continuous in Lincoln since the Revolution. Betsy Dakin moved here to Ryan Estate from Plainville several years ago. She had an idea of the family’s earlier connection to Lincoln and she was curious to find the site of the old homestead, “so I did some detective work,” she said. “I was delighted that it was conservation land — I was afraid I’d have to knock on the door” of a newer house standing on the spot.The Dakin name lives on in the area — the LEAP School, a Sudbury preschool, moved into the former Dakin Homestead at 123 Dakin Road in 1998.