April 6, 1945: The New Hampshire Methodist Conference rejects Rev. Robert G. Friend because he smokes. Friend is unrepentant, saying: “I do not intend to refrain from smoking unless it becomes clearly evident that the cause of Christ is being damaged.” The bishop nullifies the vote.
April 6, 1993: For the first time, Concord’s Bob Tewksbury gets an opening day start, pitching for St. Louis at San Francisco. He loses but will soon be on track to a 17-win season.
April 7, 1968: About 350 people attend a memorial service on the State House plaza for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader who was assassinated three days earlier in Memphis. In a statement drafted in conjunction with other local clergy, Rev. Paul Beattie, a Unitarian minister, suggests that nearly all-white Concord should actively seek to diversify. “Concord is an ideal town for developing a full inter-racial community,” he says. “We do not have a ghetto. We do not have a street where all or most Negroes live.” He suggests that Concord invite to town “some of the black people who have lost all hope while living in the segregated squalor of urban centers.”
April 7, 1774: The New Hampshire Assembly, predecessor of the Legislature, reconvenes after a long hiatus. It does not immediately choose a new committee of correspondence, the vehicle by which the colonies share information about acts of Parliament, but will soon do so in response to British efforts to control the Port of Boston.
April 7, 1965: The Monitor reports on plans for a new $1.2 million state liquor store on Storrs Street in Concord. “The state store is expected to become the first of its sort in the nation. Ohio has featured self-service liquor stores for a dozen years, but they have not also featured specialty liquors and wines, as planned in the model Concord store.”
April 8, 1864: Capt. Dana W. King of Nashua and 47 members of the 2nd New Hampshire Cavalry are captured during the disastrous battle of Sabine Cross Roads, La. They are taken to “wretched captivity in the famous ‘stockade,’ or poison pen, at Tyler, Texas,” their adjutant reports.
April 8, 1977: Poll results are released showing 62% of New Hampshire residents favor construction of the Seabrook nuclear power plant, with 22% opposed.
April 8, 1939: From the “More Things Change Department”: A Monitor headline announces “Two-Monikered Streets Cause Befuddlement.” The reporter, describing plans to rename dozens of city streets, notes calmly: “There’s no hurry about this proposition, of course. Most of the streets have gone by their names for many years and couple more won’t hurt.”
April 9, 1991: After two consecutive days when the temperature reached 85 degrees, Concord settles for a high of 77. It’s apparently a big year for hot streaks: The city enjoyed another historic heat wave at the beginning of February.
April 9, 1931: Gov. John Winant appoints a commission to determine what industries might be suitable for the prison. The prisoners have been working as contract laborers for a chair company, but a federal law soon to go into effect will prohibit interstate commerce in prison-made goods.
April 9, 1866: New Hampshire’s governor and council approve money for a monument to be erected at Winchester, Va., in honor of the 14th New Hampshire Volunteers. The monument will list the names of 31 officers and men who “are here buried in one common grave” and 13 others mortally wounded in the September 1864 Battle of Winchester.
April 10, 1865: At 2 p.m., news of Robert E. Lee’s surrender reaches Pittsfield. In a letter to her son at Dartmouth College, Mrs. Drake of a prominent family in town describes what happens next: “I assure you all business was suspended for the remainder of the day and evening. They acted as though they thought the Year of Jubilee had come. Indeed, it was a time of general rejoicing without any distinction of sect, sex, or party. Bells were rung, cannons were fired, flags were raised, torches burned, etc.”
