This week in history

Aug. 6, 1728: A grant creates the Plantation of Suncook (an Indian term meaning “place of the goose” or “rocky place”). Massachusetts grants the land to the 47 soldiers and survivors of an Indian-hunting expedition to the north known as Lovewell’s War. Francis Doyen of Penacook, one of Lovewell’s soldiers, is believed to have been the first white settler.

 

Aug. 6, 1812: At a convention in Brentwood, Federalist Daniel Webster presents a draft of a document he has written opposing the declaration of war that led to the War of 1812. The document establishes Webster’s belief in free trade and will lead to his nomination (and election) to Congress on the “Peace Ticket.”

 

Aug. 6, 1854: When President Franklin Pierce declines a besotted South Carolinian’s invitation to have a drink with him, the man berates the president and throws a hard-boiled egg at him. Pierce has the man arrested.

 

Aug. 6, 1971: Long a supporter of Richard Nixon, the Union Leader’s William Loeb breaks with the president over his decision to visit China. A front-page cartoon shows Nixon appeasing China while the Statue of Liberty weeps. Loeb’s editorial is headlined “A Sad Good-bye to an Old Friend.” The visit, Loeb writes, is “immoral, indecent, insane and fraught with danger for the survival of the United States.” Nixon, visiting Nashua, says: “Whatever he writes about me – I’m his friend.”

 

Aug. 6, 1777: Gen. John Stark and his New Hampshire militia reach Manchester, Vt., where Stark refuses orders from the regular army to march on to Saratoga, N.Y. His duty, Stark says, is to defend Vermont, thus defending New Hampshire.

 

 

Aug. 7, 1856: Benjamin Chandler, age 75, becomes lost while hiking Mount Washington. Rescuers are unsuccessful, and his body will not be found until the following year. Years later, Chandler Ridge, Chandler Brook and the Chandler Brook Trail will be named in his memory.

 

Aug. 7, 1978: Calling anti-nuclear opponents a “gurgling, spurting bunch of non-productive individuals,” Gov. Mel Thomson warns that any illegal demonstration at Seabrook will be “met by the full force” of New Hampshire’s police resources.

 

Aug. 8, 1861: After eight years and several failed efforts, the Mt. Washington Summit Co. completes the road up Mt. Washington. The road covers eight miles while rising 4,700 feet. The mountain’s peak is 6,288 feet above sea level.

 

Aug. 8, 1974: As news of the impending resignation of President Nixon sweeps the nation, the Monitor interviews people in the streets of Concord. “I feel a tremendous sense of renewal for the American system,” St. Paul’s School English teacher Richard Lederer tells a reporter. The president announces his resignation in a televised speech, and Vice President Gerald Ford assumes the presidency.

 

Aug. 8, 1861: The Democratic Standard, a Concord newspaper with Southern sympathies, refers to the Union Army as “Old Abe’s Mob.” When angry returned soldiers from the First New Hampshire Volunteers gather outside the Standard office, the paper’s frightened proprietors stand in the windows, pistols in hand. The owners fire three shots in the melee that follows, but no one is injured. The mob burns some of the Standard’s property and dumps its type cases in the street.

 

Aug. 8, 1992: Former U.S. senator Tom McIntyre dies. McIntyre, of Laconia, served in the Senate from 1962 through 1978.

 

Aug. 9, 2003: Concord’s Little Blue takes a 13-6 loss to Bakersfield in the 16-year-old Babe Ruth World Series in Jamestown N.Y.

 

Aug. 9, 1746: A band of 50 to 100 Indians invades Rumford (Concord), but the Indians will be scared off the next morning by 30 armed guards who escort church-goers back to their garrisons.

 

Aug. 9, 1903: Omer T. Lassonde is born in Concord. An artist, he will be federal arts director of the WPA in New Hampshire during the Depression. The subjects of his many portraits will include U.S. Sen. Styles Bridges, Gov. John G. Winant and the King of Samoa.

 

Aug. 9, 1842: The Webster-Ashburton Treaty establishes New Hampshire’s border with Canada on the north and northwest. The total length of the border is 59.9 miles.

 

Aug. 9, 1887: A warehouse is damaged by fire in downtown Concord. “The losses were not heavy, but the fire was a memorable one form the fact that so many boys were injured in jumping from the windows,” the New Hampshire Patriot reports.

 

Aug. 9, 1777: Without a supply line, British Gen. Burgoyne decides to send a party east to Bennington, Vt., for food and horses. Gen. John Stark will be there to meet the raiding party.

 

Aug. 10, 1987: Owners of the Ramada Inn on Main Street in Concord get city permission to build over Storrs Street. “The building that is there right now is, quite frankly, ugly. But what you see there now is not what you’ll get,” says lawyer Ray D’Amante. The plan never happens.

 

Aug. 10, 1737: A cavalcade of horses, coaches and carriages forms at Hampton Falls. The assemblies of Massachusetts and New Hampshire have come together to determine the border between the two colonies.

 

Aug. 11, 2001: Monitor reports: While speculation about who will run for mayor this fall has been widespread, most people are in agreement on what key issues face Bill Veroneau’s replacement. Economic development and quality of life in Concord seem to be the words on everyone’s lips when asked what’s important to them and what they hope will be important to a new mayor.

 

Aug. 11, 1746: Thirty or 40 Indians attack a seven-man military party in Rumford (Concord) near the current site of Concord Hospital. The Indians kill five men outright – Samuel and Jonathan Bradley, Obadiah Peters, John Bean and John Lufkin – and strip and mutilate their bodies. Alexander Roberts and William Stickney are captured. The dead are brought to town in a cart and buried immediately.

 

Aug. 11, 1766: John Wentworth is appointed governor of new Hampshire by King George II and also “surveyor of the king’s woods in North America.” He will take charge the following summer.

 

Aug. 12, 2003: Rain pours down on Penacook and Boscawen, filling storm drains and waterways beyond capacity. The storm carries away a 15-foot section of River Road, where a culvert leads into the Contoocook River.

 

Aug. 12, 1970: Attorney General Warren Rudman labels Meldrim Thomson an extremist after Thomson, a candidate for governor, tells an interviewer that there’s a point at which freedom of speech or any other right guaranteed under the constitution must be put to one side if we are to preserve the government. Thomson was commenting on the states recent decision to allow Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and David Dellinger to appear at the University of New Hampshire.

Author: Insider Staff

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