• March 1, 1923: Two Concord newspapers, the Evening Monitor and the New Hampshire Patriot, merge. They will operate as the Concord Daily Monitor and New Hampshire Patriot under Editor James M. Langley, Dartmouth graduate and World War I veteran. Circulation by the mid-'20s will exceed 5,000.
March 1, 1930: The Granite Monthly reports on a special session of the Legislature which apparently accomplished little. “The proposed income tax was the rock on which the session crashed. The income tax was never popular, although it passed the House. . . . A variety of reasons accounted for that action by the lower branch, including the old legislative custom of passing the buck to the Senate, the proverbial hard-boiled branch of the Legislature.”
March 1, 1876: Concord's North Church, at North State and Chapel streets, is consecrated for worship. The church was built on the site of the previous church, which burned to the ground in June 1873. The cost of the new church: $50,883.86.
March 2, 1960: Mayor Charles Johnson of Concord appeals to the Capitol Theatre not to show the movie Jack the Ripper. Johnson hasn't seen the film but has heard from more than a dozen callers to city hall that it contains scenes of violence and horror. Two days before the movie is scheduled to open, theater manager Theresa Cantin agrees to cancel it.
March 3, 1863: To the ringing of bells, the firing of cannon and the music of bands, the Second New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry Regiment is feted in Concord on its return from the front. The regiment has been fighting with the Army of the Potomac since the first Battle of Bull Run in July 1861.
March 3, 1945: G-men with machine guns swarm Main Street after word reaches Concord that two prison escapees from Iowa are holed up downtown. At midday an inspector and three FBI agents arrest 31-year-old killer Edgar Cook at the point of machine guns at the Phenix Hotel. Cook is described as “a tough-looking character with plenty of cash.” Later, a Concord police officer has a hunch that Cook's partner may have gone to the Capitol Theater to see a matinee of the current feature, The Suspect. The hunch proves correct, and George Stubblefield, a/k/a William Giles, is captured outside a barbershop shortly after leaving the theater.
March 3, 1915: The Legislature takes a poll on Prohibition. Of Concord's 18 state representatives, only one votes in favor. After all, that year there are 33 places in Concord where liquor can be legally sold: 13 saloons, five hotels, six “bottled goods places,” eight drug stores and one club.
March 4, 1777: Concord's town meeting votes to “break off all dealings” with attorney Peter Green, Dr. Phillip Carrigain and merchants John Stevens and Nathaniel Green. Although the four are among 156 area men who have signed the Association Test, an oath of loyalty to the Patriot cause, they are suspected of being Tories.
March 5, 1740: After years of disputes over Massachusetts claims on New Hampshire, King George II approves the boundary between the two colonies.
The decision increases New Hampshire's size by 3,500 square miles and costs Massachusetts 28 chartered towns, including Suncook, Bow, Concord, Penacook, Webster, Salisbury, Dunbarton, Weare, Hopkinton, Warner and Bradford.
