Sept. 28, 1818 – Samuel F.B. Morse and Lucretia Walker are married in Concord. In need of income, he has laid aside his itinerant painting career and embraced mechanics, inventing an improved fire engine which the town purchases for $200.
•Sept. 30, 1864 – Private Robert H. Potter, a Concord farmer, is shot through the left lung during the Battle of Poplar Springs, Va. Because the surgeon says it is “a question of only a few moments with him,” Potter is carried to the dead house. The next day, he is found lying in a pool of water, still breathing faintly. Potter will recover and be promoted to captain.
• Sept. 30, 1829 – Ralph Waldo Emerson and Ellen Tucker marry in Concord. The festivities last three days. The couple moves to Boston, where Emerson has just been ordained as assistant minister at the Second Church in the North End.
Oct. 2, 1856 – Near the end of his term, President Franklin Pierce visits Concord to stump for James Buchanan, the Democrat nominated to succeed him. Pierce is greeted with a great parade and reception downtown. A fine horseman, he himself rides in the procession down Main Street.
•Oct. 4, 1861 – A fire on the southwest corner of Main and Centre streets destroys the Merrimack House, a marble works and a doctor's home and office.
