Aug. 1, 1848: The Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad opens its line to Meredith Bridge (Laconia).
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, 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 quarters at 214 North Main Street are now the offices of the Gallagher, Callahan and Gartrell law firm.
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, 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. 3, 1813: A 20-year-old man from Lexington, Mass., who has rented a room on Concord’s Chapel Street for the past three months announces in the Patriot that he has commenced a wheelwright business. His name is Lewis Downing, and in time his business, Abbot & Downing, will build the coaches that bring Concord national fame.
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. Their father Moses, an innovator in the leather industry, has operated tanneries in Franklin, Chichester and Manchester. The sons will display their belting at the 1876 Centennial exposition in Philadelphia and the 1893 Columbian exposition in Chicago.
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 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.
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. 4, 1862: Gen. Oliver Howard of Maine and Col. Edward Cross of Lancaster, both wounded at the recent Battle of Fair Oaks, are among the speakers at a war recruiting meeting in Concord. The Patriot will report that the speeches were “able and eloquent” with the exception of Howard’s approving mention of “negro projects,” a reference to the plan to allow black men to serve in the Union Army.
Aug. 4, 1926: It is announced in Concord that Allen Hollis, a local lawyer and civic leader known as “The Kingfish,” will donate 11.9 acres on South Fruit Street and $5,000 toward a football field and other athletic facilities. The land will become Memorial Field.
Aug. 4, 1965: Concord begins celebrating its bicentennial with neighborhood fairs, a Bicentennial Queen pageant, badminton, water polo and tugs of war.
Aug. 4, 2002: In their first-ever playoff appearance, the Concord Quarry Dogs’ eke out a 2-1 win in the bottom of the ninth over Mill City, the Monitor reports.
Aug. 5, 1861: New Hampshire’s First Regiment, its three months’ enlistment up, returns to Concord without having fought a battle. Gov. Nathaniel Berry, the Governor’s Horse Guard and a large crowd of citizens greet the regiment and accompany it to the State House. There, the soldiers stack arms. Many will volunteer for service in the three-year regiments now forming.
Aug. 5, 2000: The Concord National Little League All-Stars travel to Lewes, Del., for the Eastern Regional Softball Tournament. The first game is a tough one, and Concord falls, 6-3.
Aug. 5, 2002: The Quarry Dogs season ends with a 7-5 loss to the Mill City All-Americans.
Aug. 6, 2000: About 20 people gather along the Merrimack River near Concord’s Loudon Road to pray for a world without a nuclear threat. Marking the 55th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, the peace activists toss flowers into the water.
Aug. 6, 2001: After spending 10 years at the head of the city council’s table, Mayor Bill Veroneau decides not to run again. Veroneau, 71, announces his decision to councilors at a neighborhood forum in Penacook.
Aug. 7, 2001: The Concord Baseball Association announces that Pete Dupuis has been named the general manager of the Concord Quarry Dogs for the 2002 season. Dupuis was the assistant general manager under Warren Doane, who passed away earlier this year.
