Nov. 14, 1861: A fire at Main and School streets, the fourth major fire of the year in downtown Concord, destroys a harness factory, a shoe store, the gas-light company offices and homes.
Nov. 14, 1963: Visiting Concord, Mrs. Eddy Peterson, assistant chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, says she is excited about the prospect of Sen. Margaret Chase Smith running for president. Nevertheless, Peterson adds, “I don’t think the women of America are ready to see a woman candidate for president yet. I think the women are even less ready than the men.”
Nov. 15, 1978: The Monitor reports that Concord is about to hire Jim Smith away from Berlin as city manager. “He’s a good, solid choice,” says Councilor Rod Tenney. Smith will come to Concord after the first of the year and remain in the job for more than 13 years.
Nov. 15, 2001: After a request by Ward 3 City Councilor Andy Tarbell, a recount confirms that Kipp Cooper has won the seat, 263-260. The original count was 262-260.
Nov. 16, 1861: After several devastating fires in the city in preceding months, a committee under Concord Mayor Moses Humphrey releases a study recommending that a steam fire engine replace the hand pumper stationed on Warren Street near Main. The new engine, the “Gov. Hill,” will go into service in early 1862. It will work so well that the city will soon be shopping for another.
Nov. 16, 1896: A paltry turnout of 100 people comes to the 1,100-seat White’s Opera House on Park Street in Concord for the first motion picture, which is to be shown on Edison and Dow’s Rayoscope. The Rayoscope doesn’t work, and the crowd goes home disappointed.
Nov. 16, 1908: With a friend at the wheel, Mayor Charles Corning leaves Concord at 10:35 a.m. for a drive to Cambridge, Mass. “The highways are far from perfect, but we are covering mile after mile,” Corning writes in his diary. It takes them six hours to reach Harvard Square.
Nov. 17, 1965: Opening Day at Concord’s Everett Arena draws thousands of skaters. “They came streaming across the river bridge and down the hill from the Heights – the moppets and the middle-aged and here and there and old-timer. . . .This community, long known in sports circles as the ‘Cradle of American Hockey,’ celebrated in a mood of holiday revelry,” the Monitor reports.
Nov. 17, 2001: The plan to build a senior center in Concord, one of two state capitals in the country without such a facility, receives a positive response from the planning board, the Monitor reports.
Nov. 18, 1730: The Rev. Timothy Walker is ordained at Pennycook (later Rumford, then Concord), the community’s first minister.
Nov. 19, 1863: Lyman Stevens of Concord represents New Hampshire at the dedication of the national cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa. He is near Abraham Lincoln during the Gettysburg address. A prominent lawyer, Stevens will later serve as Concord’s mayor, a state senator, a school board member, a bank president and president of New Hampshire College at Durham.
Nov. 19, 1892: Concord’s Snowshoe Club, a men’s organization, has its first celebration at its new cabin at the end of today’s Via Tranquilla. Twelve members gather “in honor of Grover Cleveland and Ward 4.” E.W. Batchelder, apparently having “counted too heavily upon the strength of one Benjamin Harrison” in that month’s presidential election, pays for dinner.
Nov. 19, 2002: Federal prosecutors in Boston say that they will seek the death penalty against Gary Sampson, who is accused of going on a murder spree in July 2001 that left three people dead, including Concord city councilor and contractor Robert “Eli” Whitney.
Nov. 20, 1884: The Evening Monitor’s City Notes column reports: “One week from today is Thanksgiving. Let the turkeys paste that in their hats.”
Nov. 20, 2000: Six weeks after his impeachment trial acquittal, state Supreme Court Justice David Brock says the public’s faith in the judiciary has not been shaken. “I don’t see this as a long-term problem,” he tells the Monitor.
