Aug. 16, 1978: Gov. Mel Thomson says he has “irrefutable proof” that communists were involved in the June 24 anti-nuclear power demonstration at the Seabrook construction site – and urges Congress to investigate.
Aug. 16, 1843: A severe gale accompanied by torrents of rain destroys a large elm tree in the State House yard. The tree is 20 inches in diameter at its base. The wind breaks it off 20 feet about the ground.
Aug. 16, 1982: The Concord City Council votes to maintain its ban on overnight parking. And it refuses to increase the number of exemptions allowed to inpidual residents. “I see it as creating a crime problem,” warns Councilor Kenneth Jordan.
August 17, 1990: Pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals, Concord's Bob Tewksbury goes seven perfect innings against the Houston Astros before finishing with a one-hitter. It is his second consecutive shutout.
Aug. 17, 1809: An immense fire near the present-day Fayette Street in Concord destroys Timothy Chandler's clock factory, along with barns, outbuildings, a shop and a home.
Aug. 18, 1999: The Executive Council denies a pardon hearing request from a convicted murderer who says, after 23 years in prison, he is a changed and repentant man. Gary Farrow, 43, is serving a life sentence for the 1976 murder of 19-year-old Michael Stitt of Laconia, whose body was found lying behind a state liquor store in Concord.
August 18, 1778: Concerned about the administration of the war effort, Dr. Josiah Bartlett writes from Congress in Philadelphia to John Langdon in New Hampshire: “I am sorry to say our Treasury, Marine & Commercial Affairs are in a very bad situation owing to their being conducted by members of Congress who can spare but little of their time to transact them.” After nearly three years in Congress, Bartlett will soon return home and take a leadership role in military and civil affairs in his home state.
Aug. 19, 1863: With the Union armies in need of more soldiers, Concord takes part in the draft. Of 924 names placed in a turning wheel, the city's quota of 277 is drawn. The city will pay each man a bonus of $300.
Aug. 19, 1875: Birth of H. Maitland Barnes, who will grow up to be choirmaster and organist at St. Paul's Church in Concord. He will also start the custom of singing Christmas carols to prison inmates and hospital patients across Concord with his choir boys.
Aug. 20, 1853: Jefferson Davis, U.S. secretary of war, arrives in Concord. He dines at the Phenix Hotel, takes a ride through town and talks to residents at the Eagle Hotel. Those who had shaken hands and conversed with him at the informal reception, little thought then what a decade would bring forth and that President Pierce's cabinet officer would be the president of a Confederacy arrayed in rebellion against the Union, a city history reports.
Aug. 20, 1844: Samuel Jackman, the oldest man in Concord, dies at the age of 96. He was a veteran of the American Revolution.
Aug. 20, 1816: A wandering portrait painter named Samuel F.B. Morse writes to his parents that he has just been to a party in Concord and met a 17-year- old woman who is “very beautiful, amiable and of excellent disposition.” She is Lucretia Walker, a member of one of Concord's most prominent families. Morse decides to stay in Concord for awhile.
Aug. 20, 1945: With government defense contracts suddenly canceled, more than 2,000 New Hampshire workers are laid off, including many at Swenson Granite and Page Belting in Concord.
Aug. 21, 1851: Concord's downtown is ravaged by the worst fire in its history. The fire starts in the old “Mechanics Home” and spreads through old wooden buildings on the east side of Main Street from Park Street south and past the State House. Lost are the Eagle Coffee House, a drug store, the Merchants Exchange, the Prescott Piano Factory and a host of other stores, offices, sheds and houses. More than 1,000 firefighters joined the futile battle. Witnesses say the glow of the fire could be seen in Francestown and Portsmouth – even Portland, Maine.
