Feb. 17, 2003: Former Vermont governor Howard Dean makes his case for the Democratic presidential nomination at a house party in Concord hosted by Stonyfield Yogurt founder Gary Hirshberg and his wife Meg. “I really believe this fellow can win,” Hirshberg says. “This is an opportunity for someone to win who is for and of the people.”
Feb. 17, 1943: The low temperature in Concord is 18 below zero, but that’s a big improvement! It was 37 below the day before.
Feb. 17, 1874: Franklin B. Evans, killer of Josianna Lovering of Northwood, is hanged at the state prison. On his last night, Evans sold his body for $50 to a Concord doctor who planned to bring it to the Dartmouth College medical department. Evans was curious to learn if his bones would be wired together. The idea amused him. Over three years later, in a prank, students will steal his skeleton from a lecture hall and hang it on the college grounds.
Feb. 17, 1942: St. Paul’s School holds a blackout drill. A steam whistle blast announces the onset of 10 minutes of darkness for the school’s 750 students.
Feb. 17, 1900: Deep in debt, the 96-year-old Abbot & Downing coach and wagon company is taken over by creditors. Employment has dropped from 300 to 200. The families of Lewis Downing and Stephen Abbot will no longer be involved in running the company after 1901, and the new bosses will struggle to keep the enterprise afloat.
Feb. 18, 2003: Moving from the Carolinas to New Hampshire, a slow-moving snowstorm closes down the East Coast. The storm starts mid-afternoon in the Concord area and dumps 9.3 inches of snow on the city, and about a foot in most southern parts of the state.
Feb. 18, 2000: New Hampshire native Laurence Craigie will be among four air and space pioneers inducted this year into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, the Monitor reports. Born in Concord, Craigie earned his Army Air Service wings in 1924 and went on to hold key positions in aircraft testing and development. He saw combat duty in World War II and retired from a NATO command in 1955 as a lieutenant general. He died in 1994.
Feb. 18, 1827: The Rev. Asa McFarland, Concord’s Congregationalist minister for 30 years, dies at the age of 58. Two portraits of McFarland exist, including one by Samuel F.B. Morse, a resident of Concord in the early 19th century.
Feb. 18, 1988: At the short-lived Johnny Babe’s Restaurant in Eagle Square, Democrat Gary Hart tries to convince the media he really didn’t mind coming in dead last in this week’s presidential primary. “I think we’ve got to get away from the notion of win-lose all the time,” Hart tells NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw. “There are other ways to serve one’s country than just standing high in the polls or winning primaries.”
Feb. 18, 1842: The radical and conservative factions of the Democratic Party brawl in Concord’s town hall over control of a party caucus. An observer, Henry McFarland, writes that “seats and desks were smashed, wigs flew in the dusty air, and bloody noses were seen on most respectable faces. There was a great uproar and a clatter of flying feet, combatants chasing their foes as far down as Centre Street.”
Feb. 18, 1996: In Concord to promote his book, Bill Bradley says he wants two things from a second Clinton term: more use of public power on behalf of the middle class and more effort to heal racial tensions.
Feb. 18, 1869: Fire destroys Concord’s Columbian Hotel.
Feb. 18, 1974: Archibald Cox, the special Watergate prosecutor fired four months earlier by President Nixon, receives a hero’s welcome at St. Paul’s School, where he graduated in 1930. Speaking of the possibility of impeachment, Cox says that by his definition, to meet the constitutional test of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” an offense would have to be “a major crime against the body politic.”
Feb. 19, 2003: Democratic Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina brings a populist, blue-collar message to Page Belting factory in Concord, his first appearance in New Hampshire since joining the 2004 presidential race.
Feb. 19, 2002: The Diocese of Manchester holds a lunch meeting in Concord for all the Catholic priests in the state. Although no agenda has been set by Bishop John McCormack, most priests interviewed said they expect him to address the news that has shaken clergy and parishioners alike: Fourteen priests, whose names the diocese released last Friday, have been accused of sexual misconduct with children over the last 30 years.
Feb. 19, 2000: Concord wins the Class L wrestling title – but has to share the crown with Timberlane and Salem. A pin in the final match of the day should have given the Crimson Tide the title outright, but the team is penalized one point for premature celebration, and that leaves all three teams with the same score.
Feb. 20, 1994: On the way to spring training, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Tewksbury of Concord, winner of 33 games the last two seasons, stops in New York for salary arbitration. He loses. His salary for 1994 will be $3.5 million.
Feb. 20, 1772: Philip Carrigain is born in Concord. His father is a local physician. Philip will graduate from Dartmouth, practice law in Concord and become New Hampshire’s secretary of state. Chosen in part for his distinguished handwriting, in 1816 he will produce the first map of the state to show town boundaries.
Feb. 20, 1996: Pat Buchanan wins the New Hampshire primary, defeating Bob Dole by one percentage point. The Monitor’s headline: “Pat’s peak is Dole’s downfall.” The Union Leader’s: “Read Our Lips.”
Feb. 22, 2002: At the Winter Games of Salt Lake City, the U.S. hockey team loses 3-2 to Canada in the gold medal game. Concord native and team member Tara Mounsey says, “It was difficult, but it doesn’t take away from what we’ve done this year.”
Feb. 21, 2001: A plaque honoring New Hampshire veterans of the Spanish Civil War will not be displayed at the State House, a legislative panel unanimously decides. The decision follows heated testimony from lawmakers and other residents who contend that the plaque effectively honors Communists. “I’d say put it in the river,” quips Sen. Jack Barnes, “but the fish might die.”
Feb. 21, 2000: More than 500 students join Concord’s Bob Tewksbury at Beaver Meadow Elementary School to celebrate the joys of reading. A former major league pitcher, Tewksbury tells the youngsters he used books to help fill the down time between starts. Reading, he says, “engages not only our minds but our hearts.”
Feb. 21, 1968: The death of 21-year-old Army Sergeant Ronald D. Roach of Concord is confirmed. He had been missing for nine days since coming under mortar fire in Hue. Roach was the most valuable player on the Concord High hockey team in 1964, the year he graduated. His father Arthur says his son believed in his military mission: “His letters always said we must help South Vietnam.”
Feb. 21, 1980: Carter-Mondale campaign staffer Maura Carroll, 23, of Concord, tries to make the best of voters’ lack of enthusiasm toward the president. She tells a reporter: “A lot of people say, ‘I’ll take the literature, but I can’t say I’m voting for the president right now.’ That’s not a positive response, but it’s not negative either. People here consider themselves politically sophisticated, independent thinkers. Not that they’re all undecided; many just don’t want to say.”
Feb. 22, 2002: After a six-month national search that yielded 70 applicants, Concord’s own Fire Division Commander Chris Pope is named Concord’s new fire chief.
