Jan. 13, 2003: The Concord City Council votes to schedule a public hearing on the future of the historic Rolfe barn, which is slated to be taken apart, shipped out of state and reassembled as part of a building project. The council wants to know if the city should take the building through eminent domain.
Jan. 13, 1943: Responding to the governor’s call for Victory gardens and home farming, Concord Mayor Charles McKee says: “Concord citizens can keep pigs and chickens in their backyards if they want to. There is no city ordinance to stop them.”
Jan. 13, 1944: In an unprecedented ceremony at Representatives Hall, Lt. Chester Wheeler of Concord is awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. At the battle of Attu Island in the Aleutians the previous May, Wheeler led his platoon forward again and again against attacking Japanese units. He was severely wounded in the hip and is recuperating. Among those in attendance at the State House ceremony is Gov. Robert O. Blood, who himself won the Distinguished Service Cross during World War I.
Jan. 13, 1891: Concord’s board of aldermen and common council appropriate $20,000 “for a Soldiers’ Memorial to commemorate the men of Concord who served their country on land or sea, in the several wars to establish, defend and maintain the unity of the Republic.” It is planned for White Park, then city hall, then the county building. It will be eight years before the Memorial Arch is finally dedicated in front of the State House.
Jan. 14, 2002: After hearing testimony from several people who think the buildings’ facades are worth preserving, Concord’s city council decides in a 10-3 vote that the dilapidated downtown Sears block will remain standing at least eight more months, despite warnings that it’s dangerous and could fall down. The block will be demolished in July.
Jan. 14, 1824: The “other Concord” – in the North Country – officially changes its name to Lisbon, ending confusion with New Hampshire’s capital city.
Jan. 14, 1873: More than two years after Long Pond was recommended as Concord’s municipal water supply, the first water flows from the pond into city pipes.
Jan. 15, 1932: It’s a January thaw to remember: For the third day in a row, the temperature in Concord tops 60 degrees.
Jan. 15, 1965: Gov. John King announces plans to purchase Concord’s old post office on State Street and turn it into state offices. A new post office is under construction at Pleasant and South streets.
Jan. 16, 1995: Springtime in January? The temperature in Concord tops out at 63 degrees.
Jan. 16, 1944: All flying and ground school aviation training is suddenly called to halt at Concord Airport. A private flying school under contract with the government had turned out more than 650 pilots for the War Training Service.
Jan. 16, 1874: Charles F. Low, Mexican War veteran, eccentric world traveler and erstwhile editor of the short-lived Concord Gazette, drowns in the Indian River in Florida. His obituary says Low was once robbed by Bedouins in the valley of the Jordan.
Jan. 16, 1942: Five soldiers from Manchester crash the car they are driving in West Concord, where one of them has just picked up a date. None of the 1941 coupe’s six occupants are injured, but the soldiers worry about getting back to their base in Gainesville, Fla. They also wonder what they’re going to tell the people at U-Drive-It in Gainesville, where they paid $125 to rent the car to drive home on leave.
Jan. 17, 2002: In her annual state of the state address, Gov. Jeanne Shaheen says New Hampshire needs an action plan to boost the economy and get people back to work. The state must extend benefits for laid-off workers, speed up approved state spending, boost tourism and foreign trade and train workers. “It is up to us to take on this economic battle with all the weapons in our fiscal arsenal – we cannot afford to hesitate and simply hope for better times,” she says.
Jan. 17, 2001: New Hampshire Public Radio announces plans to scrap its classical and jazz programming in favor of news and arts-oriented features. The change in format will prompt a lot of angry letters to the editor, but NHPR will go on to enjoy a record fundraising campaign.
Jan. 17, 1942: Concord’s zoning board unanimously approves the Brezner Tannery’s takeover of an abandoned mill in Penacook. The tannery will open later in the year, creating 200 jobs.
Jan 17, 1726: Massachusetts grants permission to settle the area that will become Concord. A supervising committee screens would-be settlers. It wants just 100 families.
Jan. 17, 1906: Charles Lakeman joins other employees of the Abbot-Downing Co. atop the building to watch a huge fire in North Pembroke. Seeing that the fire is near where he lives, Lakeman rushes to it and learns that it is his house and barn. Dead inside, authorities find Lakeman’s mother, sister and the sister’s five young children. The sister’s husband, Charles Ayer, is soon found dead in Chichester. Authorities will determine that before shooting himself in the head, he killed his mother-in-law and his wife and set fire to the house with his children inside.
Jan. 17, 1948: Concord’s new mayor, Charles McKee, says he’s not giving up on plans for a new man-made lake on the Turkey River, despite voter opposition. “As I understand it, there was a lake there once, but someone pulled out the plug and it drained away. I am told it would be a comparatively simple matter to put the plug back in.”
Jan. 18, 2003: 200 people rally in front of the State House in Concord, protesting the possibility of military action in Iraq.
Jan. 18, 1982: New Hampshire is rattled by the worst earthquake in 42 years. In Concord, a city council meeting has just gotten under way. As Mayor David Coeyman gavels the meeting to order, the windows begin shaking and papers begin shuffling. “I will always remember this,” Coeyman says.
Jan. 19, 1968: Speaking to students at St. Paul’s School, Arthur Schlesinger, onetime special adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, opposes U.S. policy in Vietnam. He says it is based on a misguided analysis of post-World War II political realities.
January 19, 1942: Sylvia Esty, an 8-year-old Jehovah’s Witness, puts her hand over her heart but refuses to say the words of the Pledge of Allegiance at the Garrison School in West Concord. She says God has forbidden her to pledge allegiance to flag and country. Concord’s school board says it may have to expel her.
