Aug. 14, 1852: Concord officials vote to build the Sewalls Falls bridge.
Aug. 14, 1864: One day before the deadline imposed by the Legislature, Concord Mayor Benjamin Gale and other citizens remove a house south of the State House to make way for the building of Capitol Street.
Aug. 14, 1945: The victory bell rings at 7:11 p.m., signaling the defeat of Japan and the end of the war. Thousands of people rush into downtown Concord to celebrate peace. One planned event is an “o so joyful Hara Kiri parade.” Children in kimonos carry parasols down Main Street, vying for $1 prizes for the best costumes. Also in the parade is an overturned canoe labeled “Jap Navy.” A man standing atop a Main Street building gaily fires a 10-gauge shotgun again and again.
Aug. 14, 2003: 550 people attend a memorial service for Sarah and Philip Gehring at South Congregational Church in Concord.
Aug. 15, 1864: Steam whistles and cannon herald the opening of Capitol Street along the south side of the State House grounds. A month earlier, the Legislature voted that if the street was not constructed by this day, they would move the capital.
Aug. 15, 1945: The Monitor’s lead headline reads: “City At A Standstill, Thousands Greet End Of War.”
Aug. 16, 1843: A severe gale accompanied by torrents of rain destroys a large elm tree in the State House yard. The tree is 20 inches in diameter at its base. The wind breaks it off 20 feet about the ground.
Aug. 16, 1982: The Concord City Council votes to maintain its ban on overnight parking. And it refuses to increase the number of exemptions allowed to individual residents. “I see it as creating a crime problem,” warns Councilor Kenneth Jordan.
Aug. 17, 1809: An immense fire near the present-day Fayette Street in Concord destroys Timothy Chandler’s clock factory, along with barns, outbuildings, a shop and a home.
Aug. 17, 1990: Pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals, Concord’s Bob Tewksbury goes seven perfect innings against the Houston Astros before finishing with a one-hitter. It is his second consecutive shutout.
Aug. 18, 1999: The Executive Council denies a pardon hearing request from a convicted murderer who says, after 23 years in prison, he is a changed and repentant man. Gary Farrow, 43, is serving a life sentence for the 1976 murder of 19-year-old Michael Stitt of Laconia, whose body was found lying behind a state liquor store in Concord.
Aug. 18, 2003: Premium Vending wins its second straight Sunset League title, 7-6 over Craigue and Sons at Doane Diamond in Concord.
Aug. 19, 1863: With the Union armies in need of more soldiers, Concord takes part in the draft. Of 924 names placed in a turning wheel, the city’s quota of 277 is drawn. The city will pay each man a bonus of $300.
Aug. 19, 1875: Birth of H. Maitland Barnes, who will grow up to be choirmaster and organist at St. Paul’s Church in Concord. He will also start the custom of singing Christmas carols to prison inmates and hospital patients across Concord with his choir boys.
Aug. 20, 1816: A wandering portrait painter named Samuel F.B. Morse writes to his parents that he has just been to a party in Concord and met a 17-year- old woman who is “very beautiful, amiable and of excellent disposition.” She is Lucretia Walker, a member of one of Concord’s most prominent families. Morse decides to stay in Concord for awhile.
Aug. 20, 1844: Samuel Jackman, the oldest man in Concord, dies at the age of 96. He was a veteran of the American Revolution.
Aug. 20, 1853: Jefferson Davis, U.S. secretary of war, arrives in Concord. He dines at the Phenix Hotel, takes a ride through town and talks to residents at the Eagle Hotel. Those who had shaken hands and conversed with him at the informal reception, little thought then what a decade would bring forth and that President Pierce’s cabinet officer would be the president of a Confederacy arrayed in rebellion against the Union, a city history reports.
Aug. 20, 1945: With government defense contracts suddenly canceled, more than 2,000 New Hampshire workers are laid off, including many at Swenson Granite and Page Belting in Concord.
