Oct. 2, 1856: Near the end of his term, President Franklin Pierce visits Concord to stump for James Buchanan, the Democrat nominated to succeed him. Pierce is greeted with a great parade and reception downtown. A fine horseman, he himself rides in the procession down Main Street.
Oct. 2, 1918: Two Concord troops – Marine Lt. Paul Corriveau and Pvt. Herbert C. Drew – die in France on the same day. Corriveau is killed in action; Drew succumbs to pneumonia. Drew’s mother will call the Monitor’s attention to the coincidence that 20 years before, the two men were in the same kindergarten class at Walker School.
Oct. 2, 1929: Vincent Cozzi of Albin Street in Concord is the sculptor of a fully equipped 6-foot doughboy being carved from a 3-ton block of granite at Swenson Granite Co. When it is completed, the statue will be shipped to Harrisonville, Mo., to stand in the square as a memorial to that town’s World War dead. Cozzi is using a photo of a Missouri soldier as a model for his statue, which he expects will take eight weeks to complete.
Oct. 2, 1963: Gov. John King announces the formation of the New Hampshire Commission on the Status of Women. The chairman will be Margaret Normandin of Laconia, the vice chairman Marion Alexander of Concord. The commission is modeled after a national commission created by President John F. Kennedy in 1961.
Oct. 2, 2000: Campaigning in Concord, Ralph Nader criticizes the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has excluded him from tonight’s debate in Boston. He says the two major parties “have wasted democracy in this country.”
Oct. 3, 1924: Malcolm McLane is born in Manchester. McLane will serve on the Concord City Council from 1956 to 1976, including six years as mayor. He will also serve on the Executive Council and run an unsuccessful third-party race for governor against Mel Thomson.
Oct. 4, 1861: A fire on the southwest corner of Main and Centre streets destroys the Merrimack House, a marble works and a doctor’s home and office.
Oct. 4, 1983: Chubb Life President John Swope announces his company’s plans to expand, bringing 300 new employees to Concord. “This is exactly the kind of employment Concord wants,” he says. “The only environmental problem we cause is we produce too much paper.”
Oct. 5, 1817: An earthquake rocks Concord at about 11:40 a.m. It lasts 1-2 minutes.
Oct. 5, 1918: Concord’s Board of Health urges the discontinuation of public funerals because of the Spanish Influenza epidemic, which is at its peak. The board strongly suggests that until further notice only “kinsmen and very near friends attend the last rites of people who die.”
Oct. 5, 1935: The first New Hampshire Peace Union convention meets in Concord. The state pacifist movement’s leader, Agnes Ryan, has stated the group’s goal, saying its members will witness the greatest thing “since Christ was on earth. You are going to live to see the war method abolished from the earth.”
Oct. 5, 1985: The Band, minus Robbie Robertson, plays at the rickety old Capitol Theatre on Concord’s South Main Street.
Oct. 6, 2001: Concord High School senior Matt Delois wins the Class L individual golf championship, beating out sophomore teammate Mike Beeson for the title.
Oct. 7, 2000: Concord High quarterback Matt Skoby sets the school record for touchdown passes thrown in a game with five during a 38-10 win over Manchester Central.
Oct. 7, 2001: Concord native Tom Mailhot begins the Ward Evans Atlantic Challenge, a 2,900-nautical mile rowing race from the Canary Islands off Africa to Barbados in the Caribbean. Mailhot is a member of the only American team in the race.
Oct. 8, 1856: A show called Price’s Ethiopian Minstrels opens at Concord’s Phenix Hall. The show, according to an ad in Concord’s Patriot, is “affectionately portraying the lights & shadows of a darky’s life.”
Oct. 8, 1869: Franklin Pierce, 14th president of the United States, dies in Concord.
Oct. 8, 2001: Concord area cancer patients and their families win a prolonged and sometimes agonizing battle, when a state board approves Concord Hospital’s plan to bring radiation treatments closer to home. The decision clears the way for the hospital to install a $7.8 million radiation device in its new cancer treatment center.
