This week in Concord history
June 29, 2002: In Laconia, two bikers are shot in an episode that police link to motorcycle gang violence. “It appears that it’s part of the ongoing feud between the Hells Angels and rival motorcycle gangs,” says Laconia police Sgt. John MacLennan. The bikers are treated at Lakes Region General Hospital and released. June 29, 1835: Celia Thaxter is born. She will become a renowned Portsmouth poet. June 29, 1873: The...
This week in Concord history
June 22, 1825: The Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American Revolution, visits Concord during his government-sponsored tour of all 24 states. Driven down Main Street in a four-wheel carriage, he is greeted by a crowd of 30,000 to 40,000. At the State House, 200 to 300 Revolutionary War veterans gather to shake his hand. Many weep. Nine years later, Concord’s Fayette Street will be named in memory of this day. An elm planted on the...
This week in Concord history
June 15, 2002: Concord High School junior Rachel Umberger wins the national title for the 800 meters. She runs it in 2 minutes, 9.67 seconds, a personal best. June 15, 1983: The Legislature fails to override Gov. John Sununu’s veto of a bill establishing Earth Care Week in honor of the late governor Hugh Gallen. Sununu objects to the section of the bill stating concern for protecting New Hampshire and the planet from the...
This week in Concord history
June 8, 1941: Yankee third baseman Red Rolfe of Penacook hits a homer in the first game of New York’s doubleheader sweep at Cleveland. Rolfe’s teammate, Joe DiMaggio, homers twice in the first game and has two hits in the second. His hitting streak now stands at 24 games. June 8, 1798: State House chaplain Joshua Heywood is fired after two days on the job. His infraction: failure to pray for President John Adams. June 9, 2002:...
This week in Concord history
June 1, 2002: At a $100-a-plate gala for Concord Hospital’s cancer treatment center, some 350 donors are surprised to learn that two major contributors recently came forward. Norman and Melinda Payson of Hopkinton donated $2 million and Jim and Marianne Cook donated $1 million. “We must understand that the purpose of this cancer center is to help the people that surround us,” Jim Cook says. “The health and...
This week in Concord history
May 25, 2002: Nearly 400 students graduate from New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord, marking the college’s first year as an accredited school in its 35-year history. May 25, 1983: Return of the Jedi debuts in Concord and 700 people turn out to watch. “My kids have been talking about this for three months,” says Lynn Ring of Northwood. “Is there any other movie?” May 25, 1854: Believing it will...
This week in Concord history
May 18, 2001: The Concord School District has been named one of the top 100 places in the country to get a quality music education, the Monitor reports. The survey was conducted by the VH1 Save the Music Foundation, Yamaha Corp., the National School Boards Association, the Music Teachers National Association and the American Music Conference. May 18, 2000: A 14-10 vote in the Senate makes New Hampshire’s legislature the first in...
This week in Concord history
May 11, 2003: State geologist David Wunsch offers an early theory as to why the Old Man of the Mountain may have tumbled from Cannon Mountain, the Monitor reports. A piece of the Old Man’s granite-hewn Adam’s apple that anchored the formation may have come loose, causing the chin to dislodge and the rest of the rock face to just fall away from the cliff. May 11, 2001: Dartmouth College announces it is permanently stripping the...
This week in Concord history
May 4, 2003: On a clear day that is sunny and perfect for hiking, hundreds gather at the foot of Cannon Mountain to remember; to mourn and to see with their own eyes that the Old Man of the Mountain is really gone. “It’s hard to believe people can have such an emotional attachment to a piece of rock,” says Dan Burbank, who came to the Notch from Moultonboro with his son, Chris. “But it almost brings tears to your eyes.” May 4,...
Looking back: Timeline for the Durgin Silver Company
1854: William B. Durgin arrives in Concord and sets up a small office near the “Free Bridge” on Main Street for a short period. At this time his focus is primarily on silver spoons & utensils. 1855: Within a year he has moved his silver business to the School Street location, which burned in 1860. 1866: William Durgin builds a large brick factory on School Street. 1890s: With the strong demand for his silver products William’s...
This week in Concord history
April 27, 1861: The city of Concord appropriates $10,000 to aid the families of local volunteers who go off to war. It expects the state to reimburse it, and for the most part it will. By the end of the year, the city will have doled out $3,000 to soldiers’ families. April 27, 1987: Fire breaks out in the south end of the Legislative Office Building in Concord. Hundreds gather to watch as a cool wind whips the flames pouring...
This week in Concord history
April 20, 1965: Concord Police Chief Walter Carlson reports that the city’s population is up by 219 adults and 20 minors over 1964. The report also reveals there are 62 more dogs in the city this year than last. April 21, 2002: Last year, the state’s nursing schools turned out 150 graduates, the Monitor reports. At least 500 nurses were needed to fill the spaces that had opened up. And if the trend continues, the consequences...
This week in Concord history
April 13, 2003: A fire breaks out in an apartment building off East Side Drive in Concord, attracting the attention of Kyle Bissonnette, 12, Matthew Peters, 12, and Nate Bell, 10. Seeing flames shooting from a downstairs window in the Regency Estates apartment building, the three pull their bikes over and flag down a passer-by, who calls the police. Kyle and Matthew head into the building and start knocking on doors, making sure...
This week in Concord history
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...
This week in Concord history
March 30, 1964: The state agrees to buy the summit of Mount Washington from Dartmouth College. The cost: $150,000. The state gets 50 acres, the Summit House, the old Tip Top House and building housing the Mount Washington Observatory. March 31, 2002: A Concord man found dead in his Hall Street apartment was murdered, the police announce. Tobby Publicover, a 28-year-old described as a “gentle giant” by his mother, died of a...
This week in Concord history
March 23, 1867: Forty-two years after becoming Concord’s Congregationalist minister, the Rev. Nathaniel Bouton resigns. During his tenure, Bouton became a trustee of Dartmouth College and, in 1856, published a history of Concord. Seven months before leaving the pulpit, he was named state historian. March 23, 1770: Eighteen days after the Boston Massacre, a black-bordered issue of the New Hampshire Gazette depicts the victims...
This week in Concord history
Feb. 16, 1812: Henry Wilson is born in Farmington. He will serve as vice president to Ulysses S. Grant. Feb. 16, 1943: The temperature falls to 37 below zero at 8:30 a.m., the coldest temperature ever measured in Concord. The record had been 35 below, set Jan. 8, 1878. Feb. 16, 1974: Gov. Mel Thomson appeals a U.S. District Court decision which says homosexuals have the same rights as other students at UNH. Judge Hugh Bownes ruled...
This week in Concord history
Feb. 9, 1986: Former U.S. Senate majority leader Howard Baker names Tom Rath of Concord to direct his 1988 presidential campaign. The campaign will founder in March 1987, however, when Baker calls it off upon becoming President Reagan’s chief of staff. Feb. 9, 1988: Fresh from a first-place finish in Iowa, U.S. Sen. Bob Dole takes a hard anti-Communist line in a Concord campaign appearance. He warns against “glasnost fever,” saying:...
This week in Concord history
Dec. 22, 2001: In a state where primary campaigns rarely heat up until just before the election, Craig Benson has thrown more extravaganzas than any of his four competitors – probably more than any candidate in the state’s history so far out from the election – and he never lets anyone leave hungry, the Monitor reports. Food, folks and fun is not his only tactic, but Benson knows that in a good activist’s heart, eating is next...
This week in Concord history
Dec. 15, 1774: On the third day of unrest in Portsmouth since the warning visit of Paul Revere, Major John Sullivan of Durham rides in with another mob of defenders. Upon learning that word of the approach of British troops is a false rumor, the crowd agrees to disperse. It reneges on this promise, however, marching that night to Fort William and Mary and hauling off 16 cannons and 60 muskets. Dec. 15, 1836: The Legislature...
This week in Concord history
Dec. 8, 1979: Concord City Manager Jim Smith rescinds the fire department’s ban on live Christmas trees in public buildings. Dec. 8, 2001: Former Franklin city manager James Pitts will start work in January as Bow’s second town manager, the Monitor reports. “I’ve always admired the way the town had a lot of pride in itself,” Pitts said. In Bow, he continued, there’s “a strong focus on a community spirit. I am delighted to get a chance...
This week in Concord history
Dec. 2, 2000: Shortly before 2 p.m. Canterbury Country Store owner Bob Summers rings up his final sale and then shuts the place down. The store will reopen nearly a year later, after members of the community invest several hundred thousand dollars to buy it. Dec. 2, 1774: New Hampshire’s committee of correspondence, formed the previous year to stay in touch with other colonies about acts of the British Parliament, sends a...
This week in Concord history
Nov. 23, 2002: The Holiday Magic Parade, which has marked the beginning of the holiday season in Concord for 51 years, marches up Loudon Road in Concord. The procession includes emergency response vehicles, floats, decorated vehicles, equestrian units, clowns, eight marching bands and Santa Claus. Nov. 23, 1911: The New Hampshire Historical Society dedicates its building in Concord. The building was designed by Guy Lowell, also...
This week in Concord history
Sept 8, 1774: At Portsmouth, an angry mob stones the house of Edward Parry, the tea agent, after learning that, in violation of their boycott, he has allowed the unloading of 30 chests of tea from the mast ship Fox. Sept. 8, 1679: New Hampshire is declared a separate royal colony. Sept. 8, 1974: One month after Richard Nixon’s resignation, President Ford pardons him. Retiring U.S. Sen. Norris Cotton of New Hampshire...
This week in Concord history
Sept. 1, 1782: The Rev. Timothy Walker, who has served as Concord’s Puritan minister from around the time of its settlement in 1730, collapses while preparing for a service and dies. He is 77 years old. Sept. 1, 1939: Germany attacks Poland. The Concord Monitor’s lead editorial says: “We feel certain that try as hard as we may, we cannot stay out of the war if it is at all prolonged.” Sept. 2, 1947: Plans to install the...
This week in Concord history
Aug. 25, 1855: Concord establishes its first public library. The city council appropriates $1,500: “$300 for fixtures, the residue for books.” Aug. 26, 1988: State Rep. Eugene Daniell Jr. of Franklin, firebrand soapbox orator and former radical, dies at 83. He was one of the first politicians in New Hampshire to call for the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Aug. 26, 1988: Developers abandon plans for a seven-story...
This week in Concord history
Aug. 18, 1976: The federal government declares hog cholera under control and lifts a quarantine imposed on swine shipments from Cheshire, Hillsborough and Rockingham counties. Aug. 19, 2001: Author Philip Roth wins the Edward MacDowell Medal for literature. The award is given by the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, the oldest artists’ colony in the nation. Aug. 19, 1863: With the Union armies in need of more soldiers,...
This week in Concord history
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, 1927: In the...
This week in Concord history
Aug. 4, 1926: It is announced in Conco rd 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....
This week in Concord history
July 28, 1776: New Hampshire militiamen are mustered atop Mount Independence, across from Fort Ticonderoga, for a reading of the Declaration of Independence, adopted earlier in the month in Philadelphia. They cheer heartily and fire a 13-gun salute. July 28, 1927: Nellie Taylor Ross, the nation’s first woman governor, stops at the Concord home of former New Hampshire governor John G. Winant. She is on her way to Tilton, where...
