This week in Concord history

Jan. 21, 2000: Barney’s Clothing, a fixture in downtown Pittsfield since the 1940s, announces it is going out of business. “It’s an end of the era for the downtown,” says shopper Sandy Burt of Barnstead. “I think it’s too bad they can’t compete with the superstores.”

 

Jan. 21, 1857: A choral concert celebrates the opening of the new city hall and county building on the site of the current Merrimack County Courthouse.

 

Jan. 21, 1775: ­ Frustrated by his inability to capture and jail men who have risen up against royal decrees, Royal Gov. John Wentworth of New Hampshire requests that Gen. Thomas Gage in Boston send two regiments of British regulars north to be stationed in Portsmouth. The problem, Wentworth writes, is that if anyone is

 

Jan. 22, 1942: The Monitor reports that rather than wait for the draft, 32 men have enlisted at the Concord recruiting office for the duration of the war. Eleven are from Concord. Most have signed up for the air corps and been sent to Missouri to train.

 

Jan. 22, 1808: Gilmanton Academy burns to the ground.

 

Jan. 22, 1811: A cow belonging to Abner Farnum Jr. of Concord gives birth to a two-headed calf.

 

Jan 22, 1997: On her way to a rally commemorating the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, newly elected Gov. Jeanne Shaheen wades through a dozen protesters who yell “Shame on you” and wave pictures of aborted fetuses. “It’s very important, particularly these days when there’s a new rash of clinic violence, for each of us to stand up and be counted and not be intimidated by people who would deny women the right to make our own decisions about our future,” she says.

 

Jan. 23, 2002: Snowmobilers, fishermen, hunter, hikers and wildlife watchers who revel in North Country solitude can relax, the Monitor reports. It appears that the vast, privately owned forest covering the top of New Hampshire will be protected for public recreation and logging forever. In an unusual show of bipartisan support, lawmakers lined up yesterday in favor of a $10 million state bond to secure public access to the land for perpetuity.

 

Jan. 23, 2000: Concord’s Tara Mounsey is named one of two defensemen on the Hockey News All-World Team of the 1990s. Mounsey’s Olympic teammate Cammi Granato is the other American in the starting six; they are joined by three Canadians and a Finn.

 

Jan. 23, 1938: The Sacred Heart Hockey Club, composed mostly of young Concord men of French Canadian descent, plays Butterfield of Quebec at the White Park rink. A crowd of 1,167 pays the 15-cent price of admission.

 

Jan. 24, 1901: Wilbur Sweatt, 22, of Penacook, is accidentally stabbed in the chest by his friend, Fred Carr, while playing with a knife. Sweatt dies Feb. 6, and an autopsy will show that the knife pierced the lung and cut a half inch into his heart. It was considered a wonderful case that he could have lived so long with such a wound, a local history reports.

 

Jan. 24, 1988: For the first time in a decade, Aerosmith has a hit album. “Permanent Vacation” is in the Top 20 and has sold 1.3 million copies. “All those people who thought Aerosmith was dead were dead wrong,” Steven Tyler, who formed the band in Sunapee in 1970, tells the Los Angeles Times.

 

Jan. 24, 1993: With Bill Moyers there to direct the filming of the PBS documentary A Life Together, Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon read their poems to a large audience of their neighbors at Wilmot Town Hall.

 

Jan. 25, 2002: Area lawmakers approve $24.2 million worth of renovations and additions to the Merrimack County jail, wrapping up years of discussion on whether and how much county taxpayers should pay to reduce the facility’s crowding.

 

Jan. 25, 2001: Bow Police Chief Peter Cheney will retire next month, the Monitor reports. His decision comes just two weeks after the retirement of Deputy Chief Robert Graves. “A lot of history is walking out that door,” says Bow firefighter Nicholas Cricenti. “And history is tough to replace.”

 

Jan. 25, 1775: The 144 delegates to the second Provincial Congress meet in Exeter. They name delegates to the next Continental Congress and issue a series of requests to the populace: Maintain law and order. Respect private property. Support the boycott on British goods. Increase local manufacture.

 

Jan. 25, 1944: The state announces the deer kill in last fall’s open season at 5,137 and says it expects trappers to have a banner season on beaver in March. Pelts are expected to bring $40 to $60 each.

 

Jan. 25, 1960: Praising the New Hampshire primary during a speech to the Nashua Rotary Club, Sen. John F. Kennedy says: “The days when presidential candidates – unknown and untested – can be nominated in smoke-filled rooms by political leaders and party bosses have passed forever from the scene.”

 

Jan. 26, 2002: Merrimack Valley’s Luke Norton finishes second in the long jump and fourth in the high jump at the Class I/M/S boys’ indoor track championships. Which isn’t really all that impressive – unless you take into account the fact that both events occurred simultaneously. In doing so, he also led the Indians to a surprise third-place performance.

 

Jan. 26, 1968: U.S. Sen. Eugene McCarthy brings his presidential campaign to Concord. He meets with Gov. John King, who is leading President Johnson’s campaign in the state, and says of New Hampshire: “It looks like Minnesota.”

 

Jan. 26, 1839: In Concord, rain falls for 24 hours straight. The Merrimack rises 15 feet in 15 hours. Several bridges are destroyed.

 

Jan. 26, 1994: Ron Morgan of Greenwich, Conn., by way of Arizona and California, proposes to build a $1 billion paper recycling plant in Bow. It will never be built.

 

Jan. 26, 1984: Weeks before the New Hampshire presidential primary, former president Richard Nixon predicts that Walter Mondale will win the Democratic nomination to face President Reagan in the fall and that Mondale will name one of his current rivals, Sen. John Glenn, as his running mate. His prophecy will prove half right.

 

Jan. 26, 1984: Webster Bridges, chairman of the state Sweepstakes Commission, brings a sample of the state’s newest instant lottery games to the State House. Gov. John Sununu buys a scratch ticket and promptly wins $2.

 

Jan. 27, 2003: The Concord City Council votes to take the historic Rolfe barn through eminent domain, stopping Ken Epworth, the barn’s owner, from dismantling the building and selling the parts to an unnamed client. The Penacook Historical Society asked the city to step in so it can use the barn as a museum and community center.

 

Jan. 27, 2002: New Hampshire high school football coaches said the New England Patriots will need to dig deep to defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Monitor reports of the AFC championship game. “Pittsburgh comes out on top in all categories,” said Bob Camirand, who has coached football at Concord High School for 30 years. “But you can’t measure heart, and the Patriots have gotten by on that.” New England will win 24-17.

 

Jan. 27, 2001: Dartmouth professors Half and Susanne Zantop are found murdered in their Etna home.

 

Jan. 27, 1942: Speaking at the swearing-in ceremony for Concord Mayor John Storrs and the city’s aldermen, Gov. Robert O. Blood has this to say about the world war: “We will put an end to this conflict in two years.”

 

Jan. 27, 1943: An anonymous Webster man applies to the Concord War and Price Rationing Board for 600 pounds of sugar. “I make alky mash and need sugar to make it ferment and taste right,” he writes. The board r ejects his request.

 

Jan. 27, 1983: Concord native John Bluto makes a brief TV appearance on an episode of “Cheers.” He plays an insurance salesman, a role he played in real life in Concord for more than 10 years.

Author: Insider Staff

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