This Week in Concord History

July 30, 1777: After riding all night from Exeter, Lt. Col. Gordon Hutchins, Concord’s legislative representative, bursts into the Sunday service at Concord’s meeting house to say that Gen. John Stark is marching west but needs more men. “Those of you who are willing to go had better go at once,” Rev. Timothy Walker tells his congregation. All men present leave.

July 30, 2003: According to documents that are unsealed in Concord District Court, Manuel Gehring told investigators that he shot his children Sarah, 14, and Philip, 11, on the side of a road, 30 to 45 minutes from Concord. Hundreds of miles later, he said a prayer over their bodies before leaving them in a shallow grave with crosses made from duct tape on the chests.

July 31, 1860: Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, the Democratic nominee for president, comes to Concord. The crowd at the railroad station is “dense and ungovernable,” and 5,000 people jam onto the State House yard to see the most famous politician of his day. Douglas denounces his fellow Democrat, President James Buchanan, for placating the South.

July 31, 1911: Samuel Eastman buys the assets of the Abbot & Downing Co. for just over $50,000, with more than half the money going to pay down the failing company’s debt. Eastman will reorganize the company.

July 31, 1947: The Monitor is inundated with letters to the editor urging the city to build a swimming pool. One resident, Hazel M. Stiles, writes: “Oh yes, we have Bear Brook if you have a car and someone to take you over. Most parents are working daytimes and cannot take the children. Yes, we have a bus at the cost of 35 cents each way, making 70 cents and an admission fee when you get there. How many times can a child afford to go there?”

Aug. 1, 2001: The Concord Planning Board votes unanimously against a developer’s proposal to build a grocery store and shopping center in the South End. The developer will respond with a lawsuit challenging the decision.

Aug. 2, 1830: The Rev. Roger C. Hatch rides from Hopkinton to Concord to make the first deposit in the New Hampshire Savings Bank. The amount is $100. The bank’s quarters at 214 North Main Street are now the offices of the Gallagher, Callahan and Gartrell law firm.

Aug. 2, 1927: Granite cutters from Concord join others from throughout New England in appealing for a five-day week with a $9-a-day wage. They currently work 5½ days a week at $8 per day.

Aug. 3, 1813: A 20-year-old man from Lexington, Mass., who has rented a room on Concord’s Chapel Street for the past three months, announces in the Patriot that he has commenced a wheelwright business. His name is Lewis Downing, and in time his business, Abbot & Downing, will build the coaches that bring Concord national fame.

Aug. 3, 1871: Brothers George and Charles Page organize the Page Belting Co. after buying a large tannery on Commercial Street near Horseshoe Pond in Concord. Their father Moses, an innovator in the leather industry, has operated tanneries in Franklin, Chichester and Manchester. The sons will display their belting at the 1876 Centennial exposition in Philadelphia and the 1893 Columbian exposition in Chicago.

Aug. 3, 1967: To the shouts and jeers of Mayor J. Herbert Quinn’s supporters, Concord’s Board of Alderman votes 13-1 to impeach the mayor. Quinn’s main offense: an attempt to engineer the arrest of Monitor Editor James M. Langley on a drunken driving charge. Quinn will appeal his dismissal in the courts, but ultimately his ouster will stand and Concord will revert to a weak-mayor, council-manager form of government.

Aug. 4, 1862: Gen. Oliver O. Howard of Maine and Col. Edward E. Cross of Lancaster, both wounded at the recent Battle of Fair Oaks, are among the speakers at a war recruiting meeting in Concord. The Patriot will report that the speeches were “able and eloquent” with the exception of Howard’s approving mention of “negro projects,” a reference to the plan to allow black men to serve in the Union Army.

Aug. 4, 1926: It is announced in Concord that Allen Hollis, a local lawyer and civic leader known as “The Kingfish,” will donate 11.9 acres on South Fruit Street and $5,000 toward a football field and other athletic facilities. The land will become Memorial Field.

Aug. 4, 1965: Concord begins celebrating its bicentennial with neighborhood fairs, a Bicentennial Queen pageant, badminton, water polo and tugs of war.

Aug. 5, 2000: The Concord National Little League All-Stars travel to Lewes, Del., for the Eastern Regional Softball Tournament. The first game is a tough one, and Concord falls, 6-3.

Author: Insider Staff

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