Oct. 23, 1890: A statue of John Stark is dedicated outside the State House.
Oct. 23, 2001: Former vice president Al Gore meets with several Concord-area Democrats at the Barley House in Concord. During his visit to the state, he also speaks with out-of-work mill workers in Berlin and attends a concert by Voices From the Heart, a 200-woman choir, in Portsmouth.
Oct. 23, 2003: Wesley Clark keeps his appointment at Concord High School, but a case of laryngitis forces him to leave the talking to the students. When one of them opposes the war in Iraq or supports high school sports, Clark tells them – in a whisper – that he agrees.
Oct. 24, 1805: The first Quaker meeting is held in Concord. It will be 10 years before a Quaker meeting house goes up on what is now the State House plaza.
Oct. 24, 1852: News of Daniel Webster’s death at Marshfield, Mass., reaches Concord at 2:38 p.m. Bells toll and flags are lowered to half-staff. At a memorial service the next day Gen. Franklin Pierce, just days before his election to the presidency, will be the principal speaker. Of Webster, Pierce will say: “The great heart of the nation throbs heavily at his grave.”
Oct. 25, 1843: Col. Richard M. Johnson, the noted Kentuckian who is reputed to have killed the Indian chief Tecumseh, visits Concord. Franklin Pierce and others greet him at the station, and Johnson rides down Main Street on a white horse. At the State House, he wears the same red vest he wore in the Battle of the Thames, during which he is said to have slain Tecumseh. Eleven shots pierced the vest. At a dinner presided over by Pierce, someone will raise doubts about Johnson’s famous act and ask him if it really happened. “In my opinion,” Johnson responds, “I did kill Tecumseh.”
Oct. 25, 1852: Following the lead of a Boston group, 50 young men of various Christian denominations meet in Concord to consider forming a local Young Men’s Christian Association. A committee appointed from this group will lead to the organization’s local founding.
Oct. 26, 1988: State officials break ground for the $1.8 million Christa McAuliffe Planetarium in Concord.
Oct. 26, 2001: Patricia Cloutier of Concord, believed to be a founder of Classy Touch Enterprises, a Penacook prostitution business, turns herself in at police headquarters. According to police, Cloutier founded the business with Amy Sullivan and allegedly ran the business out of Sullivan’s home.
Oct. 26, 2002: In Concord U.S. House Minority Leader and possible Democratic candidate for president Richard Gephardt urges New Hampshire Democrats to get out the vote. “Don’t sleep. Don’t eat. Don’t nap,” he says. “Don’t do anything. Don’t even take a coffee break. You give it all you got.”
Oct. 27, 1951: State Sen. Winnifred Julia Wild marries state Sen. George Wesley Tarlson – right in the Senate chamber.
Oct. 27, 2003: In a coffee shop on Main Street in Concord, the New Hampshire Green Party throws its support behind presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. And if Kucinich fails in his attempt for the Democratic nomination, Green Party spokesman Guy Chichester says the party may try to recruit the Ohio congressman to run on its ticket in the general election.
Oct. 28, 1906: The New York World reports that Mary Baker Eddy of Concord is mentally and physically unfit to lead the 800,000-member Christian Science church, which she founded. Eddy is 85 years old. “Mrs. Eddy looked more dead than alive,” wrote two reporters who had never seen her. “She was a skeleton, her hollow cheeks thick with red paint.” Mayor Charles Corning visits Eddy after hearing this account and finds her “keen of intellect and strong in memory. A surprising example of longevity, bright eyes, emphatic expression . . . alertness.”
Oct. 28, 2003: About 700 people attend the unveiling of the new and improved Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord. The theater sports a three-story glass atrium, a new paint job and a refurbished conference room.
Oct. 29, 1792: The first issue of The Mirror is published in Concord. The cost: 5 shillings per year. The publishers requests 1 shilling cash and the rest in “country produce.”
Oct. 29, 1795: Concord Bridge, the town’s first span across the Merrimack, opens with a party and parade. It is near the site of today’s Manchester Street bridge. A second toll bridge will be built to East Concord in 1796.
