July 29, 2001: The New York Post runs a first-person essay by Concord’s Adam Young about the experience of trying to make the New York Giants’ roster. “I think I have a different perspective than a lot of guys,” Young writes. “You appreciate the things that come to you after having to battle your way through the ranks.”
July 29, 1988: Developers announce plans for an eight-story office and retail building at the corner of Main and Bridge streets in Concord. (It won’t happen.)
July 29, 1927: Police Chief A.S. Kimball orders the Lapp carnival on the Bridge Street fairgrounds to close “forthwith.” The shutdown follows the arrest of two men who work for the carnival on gambling charges. Both are convicted and fined $50. The chief investigated after receiving reports of gambling and indecent shows at the fair, including one show to which only men were admitted. The sponsoring Elks Club will argue in vain for a reversal of Kimball’s closure order.
July 30, 1777: After riding all night from Exeter, Lt. Col. Gordon Hutchins, Concord’s legislative representative, bursts into the Sunday service at Concord’s meeting house to say that Gen. John Stark is marching west but needs more men. “Those of you who are willing to go had better go at once,” Rev. Timothy Walker tells his congregation. All men present leave.
July 31, 2001: Massachusetts authorities arrest Gary L. Sampson in Vermont and accuse him of murdering three men, one of them former Concord city councilor Robert “Eli” Whitney. Sampson will also be charged with killing a 19-year-old college student from Kingston, Mass., and a 69-year-old retiree from Marshfield, Mass.
July 31, 1983: Walter Mondale speaks to voters at the Archway Restaurant in Concord and is impressed with the seriousness of their questions. “It was a thoughtful meeting,” he says. “They didn’t want the razzmatazz.”
July 31, 1947: The Monitor is inundated with letters to the editor urging the city to build a swimming pool. One resident, Hazel M. Stiles, writes: “Oh yes, we have Bear Brook if you have a car and someone to take you over. Most parents are working daytimes and cannot take the children. Yes, we have a bus at the cost of 35 cents each way, making 70 cents and an admission fee when you get there. How many times can a child afford to go there?”
July 31, 1911: Samuel Eastman buys the assets of the Abbot & Downing Co. for just over $50,000, with more than half the money going to pay down the failing company’s debt. Eastman will reorganize the company.
July 31, 1860: Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, the Democratic nominee for president, comes to Concord. The crowd at the railroad station is “dense and ungovernable,” and 5,000 people jam onto the State House yard to see the most famous politician of his day. Douglas denounces his fellow Democrat, President James Buchanan, for placating the South.
Aug. 1, 2001: The Concord Planning Board votes unanimously against a developer’s proposal to build a grocery store and shopping center in the South End. The developer will respond with a lawsuit challenging the decision.
Aug. 2, 2003: If you ask Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the faltering U.S. economy has a lot to do with China, the Monitor reports. Manufacturing jobs are going there. And the Chinese government is supporting its manufacturing in a way the American government is not, Lieberman tells a Monitor editorial board, meaning America is not doing enough in the way of tax incentives to prevent companies from moving manufacturing sites to Asia, rather than keep them at home.
Aug. 2, 2001: The last sheets of fiber used for heel cups roll through Penacook Fibre Co. The company is shutting down after more than 60 years in business.
Aug. 2, 1927: Granite cutters from Concord join others from throughout New England in appealing for a five-day week with a $9-a-day wage. They currently work 5½ days a week at $8 per day.
Aug. 2, 1830: The Rev. Roger C. Hatch rides from Hopkinton to Concord to make the first deposit in the New Hampshire Savings Bank. The amount is $100. The bank’s headquarters at 214 North Main St. are now the offices of the Gallagher, Callahan and Gartrell law firm.
Aug. 3, 2002: Nan Hagen has had a lifelong love affair with downtowns, the Monitor reports. As the first coordinator of Main Street Concord, Inc., she’ll bring that love – and 11 years of experience rehabbing community business districts – into Concord’s downtown.
Aug. 3, 1871: Brothers George and Charles Page organize the Page Belting Co. after buying a large tannery on Commercial Street near Horse Shoe Pond in Concord.
Aug. 3, 1967: To the shouts and jeers of Mayor J. Herbert Quinn’s supporters, Concord’s Board of Alderman votes 13-1 to impeach the mayor. Quinn’s main offense: an attempt to engineer the arrest of Monitor editor James M. Langley on a drunken driving charge. Quinn will appeal his dismissal in the courts, but ultimately his ouster will stand and Concord will revert to a weak-mayor, council-manager form of government.
