Sudbury is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, population 17,977 . It has the sixth highest per capita income in the state. Sudbury also contributed the most militia during King Philip's War and was the site of a native raid. One main contributor was Ephraim Curtis who put up only victories for the militia of West Sudbury. Sudbury militia participated in the Battle of Lexington and Concord, in 1775, where Sudbury members sniped on British Red Coats returning to Boston. One of Sudbury's historic landmarks, the Wayside Inn claims to be the country's oldest operating inn, built and run by the Howe family for many generations. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote Tales of a Wayside Inn, a book of poems published in 1863. In the book, the poem The Landlord's Tale was the source of the immortal phrase "listen my children and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. " The property was owned, restored and expanded by Henry Ford between 1923 and 1940. The expansion included a boys school, the Old Grist Mill, the Martha-Mary Chapel and the Redstone Schoolhouse, reputed to be the school in Sarah Josepha Hale's nursery rhyme Mary Had a Little Lamb, which was moved from Sterling. However, Giuseppi Cavicchio's refusal to sell his water rights scuttled Henry Ford's plans to build an auto parts factory at the site of Charles O. Parmenter's mill in South Sudbury. In August 1925, a Sudbury farm was the scene of a riot between local members of the Ku Klux Klan and Irish-American youths from the area. Five people were wounded by gunshots, and the State Police arrested over 100 Klansmen. Massachusetts officials cracked down on the group's meetings theafter, and the area Klan died out. Sudbury was considered to become the part of the site for the headquarters of the United Nations, along with parts of Lincoln, Concord and Marlborough. Protests by townspeople and the Knights of Columbus caused the United Nations to choose a different location. In the post-war period, Sudbury experienced rapid growth in population and industry. Defense contractor Raytheon became a major employer after opening a large research facility in Sudbury in 1958. Another major employer in that period was Sperry Rand. In the 1970s, the town was home to many of the engineers working in the minicomputer revolution at Digital Equipment Corporation in nearby Maynard. Sudbury was also one of the largest carnation-growing towns, with many greenhouse operations. Residentially, Sudbury's 1-acre (4,000 m) zoning bylaws helped the town maintain a more rural character through the 1970s and 1980s, when developments of single-family Colonials and large Capes established it as an affluent location. Commercial growth was restricted to the town's main thoroughfare, US Route 20, and significant tracts of open space — including much wetland - were preserved in the northern half of town. As subdivisions of large homes continued to be constructed well into the 1990s, Sudbury became one of the wealthiest towns in Massachusetts. Contrary to local legend, the town's ZIP code 01776 was not issued to Sudbury for having sent more volunteer militia to the battle in Concord than any other community.