May 10, 1847: Residents of Concord gather to honor Franklin Pierce after he is commissioned brigadier general for the war with Mexico. The ladies of the town present Pierce with a sword. The men have purchased a fine horse for him. When the horse suddenly dies, William Walker, proprietor of the Eagle Hotel, sells the men his black horse, which is given to Pierce.
May 10, 1944: Pinched by the labor shortage, the Brezner Tannery in Penacook has put up cash prizes for the best slogan aimed at a convincing women to take jobs. The results are in. Contestants had to complete the sentence: “I shall help bring an early victory by taking a job because . . .”
Taking home the $10 top prize is Margaret Fanning of Hills Avenue, whose entry read: “. . . now is the time, any job calling for help is the place, any unemployed woman is the girl, an age-old threesome guaranteed to bring speedy, satisfactory results when they are properly combined.”
May 11, 2003: State geologist David Wunsch offers an early theory as to why the Old Man of the Mountain may have tumbled from Cannon Mountain, the Monitor reports. A piece of the Old Man's granite-hewn Adam's apple that anchored the formation may have come loose, causing the chin to dislodge and the rest of the rock face to just fall away from the cliff.
May 11, 2002: Notre Dame College celebrates its final graduation before closing its doors. The small Catholic school was founded by the Sisters of the Holy Cross 52 years earlier. Officials said financial difficulties and a declining student population forced them to close the school.
May 11, 2001: Dartmouth College announces it is permanently stripping the 48-member Zeta Psi fraternity of all campus recognition. The decision is prompted by two newsletters printed by the fraternity. One describes members' sexual escapades with women. The other promises that a future issue will give one member's “patented date rape techniques.”
May 12, 2003: The Concord City Council continues its green-tinged track record when it approves a plan to conserve 28 acres of land near Walker State Forest. The decision comes two weeks after a lengthy debate over whether the city should encourage housing developments or preservation projects deadlocked the council and left a group of tree-loving neighbors wondering what to do next.
May 12, 2002: Democratic gubernatorial candidates Sen. Bev Hollingworth and Sen. Mark Fernald attended a forum in Concord with members of the state employees' union, the Monitor reports.
Both painted themselves as pro-labor, both said they had pushed for higher wages, improved benefits and better working conditions for state employees, and both supported replacing the statewide property tax with an income tax.
May 13, 2003: In a bold move, the Senate Judiciary Committee strips the parental notification provision from the House parental notification bill and instead passes an amended bill that outlines the required counseling a minor must receive before she can have an abortion.
May 13, 2002: In an effort to entice its sophomores to perform better on the state's standardized tests, Concord High School offers the incentives of bagels, apple pie and candy bars, as well as entry into a lottery for more than $1,200 in prizes and gift certificates donated by downtown merchants. “They pretty much bribed us to do well,” says Meagan Jameson, 17.
May 13, 1726: A group of Massachusetts colonists with a royal land grant arrive to settle Penny Cook. They find Judge Sewall, the first white settler, living on his 500-acre tract on the east side of the Merrimack.
May 14, 1864: On the march with the 2nd New Hampshire Cavalry in Louisiana, Lt. George S. Cobbs of Exeter is captured by a rebel force during a skirmish. When his men attack in an effort to rescue him, a Confederate officer shoots Cobbs in the head. His men later bury him on the banks of the Red River under a wooden cross and Masonic emblem.
May 16, 1893: After a sensational trial in the killing of a young woman who jilted him, Frank C. Almy, also known as George Abbott, is executed at the state prison. He is the ninth man hanged in New Hampshire and the last before capital punishment is repealed. It will be resumed in 1916. The execution is botched, the rope slipping over Almy's head as he falls. Over his protests, he is quickly hanged again – and efficiently. There are rumors afterward that Almy's body has been stolen, but Warden George W. Colbath assures the public that he knows precisely where it is buried.
