Nov. 9, 1904: J. Duane Squires is born in Grand Forks, N.D. Beginning in 1933, he will run the social studies department at Colby Junior College in New London for many years, becoming a prominent New Hampshire historian.
Nov. 9, 1869: Josiah L. Pike, slayer of an old couple in Hampton Falls, is hanged – the first person executed in New Hampshire since colonial times. In the days leading up to his death, ministers’ wives and daughters brought him flowers, sang to him and held his hands. An observer describes Pike’s final days as “a surge of sentimental gush that scandalized the state and aroused the stinging sarcasm of Mark Twain.” Afterward, there is a change in prison management, and “murderers have not since been allowed ovations there.”
Nov. 10, 1777: Loudon townspeople vote to build a meeting house “the same bigness as the Epsom house.”
Nov. 10, 1995: The refurbished Capitol Center for the Arts reopens on South Main Street. The opening show features folkies John Sebastian, Jonathan Edwards, Janis Ian and New Hampshire’s own Tom Rush.
Nov. 11, 2000: For the first time in school history, the Concord High girls’ cross country team wins the New England Championships.
Nov. 11, 1769: Gov. John Wentworth marries Frances Deering Atkinson. Eventually, two New Hampshire towns will be named in her honor: Deering and Francestown.
Nov. 11, 1965: The Douglas N. Everett Arena opens in Concord.
Nov. 11, 1918: The Armistice ends the World War. Most New Hampshire draftees have served in the Yankee Division, trained at Fort Devens, Mass. New Hampshire battle deaths in the war totaled 697.
Nov. 12, 1885: Ten women in their late teens and early 20s form the Flower Mission, whose purpose is to deliver flowers at Concord hospitals and homes for the aged. The mission survives to this day.
Nov. 13, 2003: Gov. Craig Benson says that the Old Man of the Mountain will not be rebuilt, agreeing with the recommendation of the task force charged with creating a tribute to the Old Man. The final memorial plan includes roadside viewfinders, an expanded museum at the base of the mountain and walking trails along Profile Lake.
Nov. 14, 2001: DCYF, the state agency in charge of abused and neglected children doesn’t do enough to get and keep foster families, visit children in their temporary homes, monitor case workers or track state spending on foster care, according to a recent legislative audit, the Monitor reports.
Nov. 15, 2003: A comprehensive federal energy bill released today presents a major obstacles to New Hampshire’s attempt to sue the oil industry over drinking water pollution. The 1,700-page bill protects manufacturers of the gasoline additive MtBE from paying cleanup costs by declaring that it is not a “defective product” – one of the major strategies in New Hampshire’s argument.
