The Parish Meetinghouse was where the patriots prayed before going off to fight on April 19, 1775. It was also where the ammunition was stored since it was an unheated building and considered safe. James Dickerson, a carpenter who also built the first sawmill in Shirley, was principal workman in building what is actually the second meeting house. The actual First Meeting House was Amos Dole's house on Parker Rd/Green Lane. Dickerson also kept a public house or tavern on Horse Pound Road, last a Holden house. Almost all the men in Shirley marched out on the 19th. Tradition has it that only five men were left in town that day.            

The path of the Shirley patriots probably started from where the men assembled. Headed east, the route went down present route 2A, next to the Mulpus Brook, past the Bull Run (near old Sawtelle's Tavern) along the "old road to Shirley", and over the Nashua River at Page's Bridge (this is the old foundation west of the Camp Stevens monument and present offices of David Ross, architect), then along the old Fitchburg Road and Park Street in Ayer (then Groton). There was a grist mill on the banks of the Nonacoicus Brook where it met the road, which was the future site of Phelps's saw mill (now Moore's). The route continued down Main Street and East Main Street near the shore of School House Pond, where there is only the trace of a footpath today, to a point a short distance south of Flanagan's crossing, passing Groton-Harvard Road, Page Street and Harvard Road. The road crosses Sandy Pond Brook further east by the sawmill of the Calvin Fletcher/Joseph Stone farm (site of Ayer's current pumping station) to the vicinity of the present Carlton Circle. Near where McDonalds is now, the road turned north along the present Sandy Pond Road, then easterly, passing south of Sandy pond and the site of the Sandy Pond School. Then it went to Willow Road to Pingry Village, then east on 2A toward Littleton.            

Corporal Aaron Bennett lived in Shirley until around 1773. This is where the first two of his four children were born.            

Nineteen Revolutionary War soldiers are buried in this cemetery.            

John Wason and John Davis were both sergeants. Little is known of Wason but Davis owned the Sylvanus Holden property off Holden Road. He is credited with planting the "Twelve Apostle" trees on the south side of Holden road. Eleven maple trees for the good Apostles and a pine tree for Judas. His wish that they be a memento of his existence was well carried out.

He fathered thirteen children. Silas and Jonathan Davis were brothers who answered the alarm and did three years of volunteer service. Silas lived in a house in the woods beyond the "Pest House", near the Shirley-Lunenburg line. The children attended the nearest school, which was Pound Hill. Jonathan's family lived on Frost Road, now Fort Devens property.

Deacon John Ivory was the deacon of the Church and Town Clerk. Young John Ivory, the Deacon's son trained in March 1775, and attended a general muster in Groton on April 11th along with 41 other men from Shirley.            

Ebenezer Gowing, 2nd. Lieutenant, lived in the north part of Shirley on what is now Townsend Road, where his twelve children were born.            

William Bolton and Thomas Burkham were drummers. Little is known of Burkman, but Bolton was born on Groton Road in a house built by Amos Holden in 1756 and long since gone. He was in his early twenties when he carried his drum the 74 miles to Concord and beyond and back. Phinehas and Daniel Page also served and were recorded as living at the Philemon Holden place at the time of the war. A total of eight Holdens from ages 15 to 55 marched to Concord and Lexington: Asa was the youngest and Stephen the oldest, Then there was Sawtelle, Zachariah, Amos and Amos Jr. Lemuel, the son of Philemon was 24 and lived near his brother Stephen's home. Simon lived near the Squannacook. Not all their burial places have been identified.            

John Longley at 65 was joined by his 17 year old son John and spent 8 months in the company of Capt. Robert Longley of Bolton.            

The first school in Shirley was set up in the house of Jonas Longley on Hazen Road. Jonas was the first treasurer of the town. His son Jonas Jr, who went with his father to Concord was killed by a falling tree in 1779.            

Corporal Joseph Longley marched in 1775, enlisted and later went to Ticonderoga, was put in prison in Philadelphia and in 1778 while on board a prison ship was exchanged and once again joined his regiment surviving cold, hunger, and disease, from which more than half the group died. His five children were all born in Shirley.            

James Parker was a gentleman farmer who kept a diary as did many people in those days. Parker’s entries include mention of training prior to April 19th as well as this for April 19th about the regulars or the British, "they came up as far as Lexington, killed eight men, from thence to Concord..." He describes the scene of dead and wounded. And then the following entry for April 23 when he apparently came back home: "Was the Sabbath. I came back to Cambridge & heard preching in ye forenoon. In ye afternoon 6 of us sot out to come home." James Parker wrote about other patriots: Abel Chase, Titus Colburn, Daniel Chatman, Jonathan Conant. He lived on Hazen road at one time and was fifty-two at the time of the Alarm. His diary provides a glimpse of the early stages of the war and describes how some of the men from Shirley marched to Lexington.            

The meeting place for militia to discuss and have debates. The owner Obadiah Sawtelle was a militia. He also held town, state positions and appointments. His son Obadiah Jr., who also served, was 20 in 1775.            

Sylvanus Smith, 1st. Lieutenant, began his career with the 1775 alarm. He was a carpenter by trade and built the first dam across the Nashua river. He had seven children, never owned a home of his own, but lived at different places on hire.            

Where the militia and minutemen went for meetings.            

This unusual stone structure built into a small mound is located on land that was part of the early 20th century Ayers Dairy Farm. This farm had been in the Spaulding family since 1806 when Heziekiah Spaulding built the Federal style farmhouse. The farm has been divided into house lots so that remnants of the farm are now on separate parcels with modern houses.        

Green Lane is an abandoned 18th century dirt road that connects Parker Road near Shirley Center with Great Road at Little Turnpike to the east. The road is privately owned and part of a 35-acre parcel that runs along a ridge. An alleé of trees marks the Parker Road end of Green Lane. Presently there is no public access to Green Lane, which is reported to have views of the surrounding countryside. It is one of the few remaining ancient roads that remains in an unimproved condition.

The Longley Homestead, so named for its long association with six generations of the Longley family, comprises a ca. 1786 center-chimney Georgian house and 33 acres of surrounding pasture land and hayfields. The five-bay, side gabled Georgian house with side and rear ells is one of the best examples of this house type in the area.            

Mulpus Brook meanders through Shirley north of Shirley Center in a southeasterly direction from Townsend to the Nashua River which forms part of the Shirley-Ayer boundary. The area near the eastern border of Shirley was known as Woodsville, named for the Woods brothers (Robert E., Moses and Harvey) who were millers in the mid 19th century. A number of mills were constructed on the brook near Great Road and Hazen Road as early as the late 18th century       

This intact mill complex, originally built by the Shakers, is at the intersection of Phoenix Street and Shaker Road in Shirley Village. It consists of several mill buildings constructed next to Phoenix Mill Pond, which is an impoundment formed by damming of the Catacunemaug Brook. On the west side of the road, which runs along the edge of the pond, is the lower part of the Catacunemaug Brook and its adjacent marshland, an environmentally sensitive area that offers a scenic view from the road and is part of the Phoenix Mill landscape.

The Catacunemaug Brook flows through Shirley Village from west to east just north of Leominster Road until it flows under Main Street at which point it heads southeasterly between Harvard Road and Fredonian Street. The mill privilege on the brook is on the northwest side of the intersection of Leominster Road, Main Street and Lancaster Road. Some stonewalls line the brook west of where it flows under the stone arched bridge carrying Main Street over the brook.         

Located in the southern part of town and south of Shirley Center which was the 18th century institutional center, Shirley Village is a linear industrial center that grew up around the mills and railroad. Main Street and the Fitchburg Railroad (1845) are the backbone running through the village, connecting it with Ayer to the east and Leominster to the west. Main Street ends up north of the railroad corridor, and Front Street, laid out in 1950s, is south of the railroad.