Sept. 16, 1845: Benjamin O. Bartlett, 57, of Pembroke dies. “He has left his surviving friends the rich consolation of believing that their loss is his gain,” the New Hampshire Courier reports in his obituary.
Sept. 16, 1973: Three Roman Catholic laymen announce plans to open a new liberal arts institution, Magdalen College, for 300 students, saying American universities have lost their intellectual and moral vigor. Years later, the college will move to Warner.
Sept. 17, 2001: After 11 years of operating out of a strip mall, Epsom is looking for new digs, the Monitor reports. The proposed move comes after a decision by the selectmen to close the town hall on Oct. 1.
Sept. 17, 2000: Fans at New Hampshire International Speedway voice their displeasure with the use of restrictor plates during today’s Dura Lube 300 Winston Cup race. “They should ride around in convertibles and wave,” quips Anne Marie Gamache of Manchester. “We almost didn’t come.”
Sept. 17, 1987: The poet Robert Lowell dies. He has family ties in Dunbarton, where he will be buried. His epitaph: “The immortal is scraped unconsenting from the mortal.”
Sept. 18, 1972: Campaigning in Nashua for father-in-law Richard Nixon, Edward Cox says New England’s young people are rallying around Nixon because “they finally found a president they could trust.”
Sept. 18, 1990: Steven McAuliffe testifies on behalf of Supreme Court nominee David Souter before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee: “In David Souter’s attorney general’s office we sought the right answer, not the expedient answer – and never the political answer,” McAuliffe says.
Sept. 19, 2003: After winning the preliminary swimsuit competition, Candace Glickman of Manchester, 21, competes in the Miss America pageant on ABC. Glickman makes it to the top 10, but the crown ultimately goes to Miss Florida.
Sept. 19, 2001: Concord Planning Board approves the renovation of the Riverbend Community Mental Health’s building on North State Street The building is the former home of the Concord Monitor and was donated to the agency in 1999. The project will involve tearing down a 1969 addition that housed the newspaper’s printing press.
Sept. 20, 2003: The rain stops and crowds pour into Hopkinton for the Highland Games, the event’s new home after 27 years in Lincoln.
Sept. 20, 2002: State and federal officials approve a plan that allows the Concord Municipal Airport to reconstruct a 3,200-foot runway and make other improvements while protecting the endangered Karner blue butterfly.
Sept. 20, 1992: The first Sunday Monitor is published.
Sept. 21, 2003: Merrimack Valley High School holds its homecoming football game against Goffstown, the first football game to be played on one of three new field at the high school. The celebration includes 1,500 hot dogs, a banner-bearing airplane and a Black Hawk helicopter. Merrimack Valley loses to Goffstown, 31-7.
Sept. 21, 1983: Officials announce that Rumford Press will close at the end of the year, putting 400 Concord employees out of work. “It’s a phenomenal shock to them,” says Charlie Stott of the AFL-CUIO. Mayor David Coeyman describes the impact on the city: “In a community interested in revitalization, this is not necessarily the kind of opponent we seek. Concord has not , since the railroad left Concord, had to deal with a major employer closing its doors.”
Sept. 22, 2002: Authorities announce that they have issued an arrest warrant charging Joseph Sawtell, 21, of Plaistow, with shooting his girlfriend to death. He is charged with second degree murder.
Sept. 22, 1979: The Washington Post reports that Gerald Ford will “take a serious look” at running in the 1980 GOP presidential race, partly in response to a Draft Ford movement started in New Hampshire. Still, the former president expresses some skepticism: “We seem to be doing better not being a candidate,” Ford says. “If that’s the case, why change the strategy?”
Sept. 22, 1958: In a letter accepting the resignation of his scandal-hounded special assistant, Sherman Adams, President Eisenhower writes: “Your performance has been brilliant; the public has been the beneficiary of your unselfish work.”
