June 22, 1825: The Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American Revolution, visits Concord during his government-sponsored tour of all 24 states. Driven down Main Street in a four-wheel carriage, he is greeted by a crowd of 30,000 to 40,000. At the State House, 200 to 300 Revolutionary War veterans gather to shake his hand. Many weep. Nine years later, Concord’s Fayette Street will be named in memory of this day. An elm planted on the State House lawn to commemorate the event will flourish until 1956, when the state pays $300 to get rid of it. Gov. Lane Dwinell will salvage a few engraved gavels from the Lafayette elm. Other residents will use slabs from the trunk for coffee tables.
June 22, 1843: Col. Franklin Pierce, the future president, delivers a temperance lecture at Concord’s old North Church. Pierce is part of a committee whose aim is to “most certainly and speedily cause the use and traffic in intoxicating drinks to cease in town, except for mechanical and medical purposes.”
June 22, 1941: On the day that Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Russia dominates the radio news, Yankee third baseman Red Rolfe of Penacook homers with two out and no one on the ninth inning to tie a game with Detroit. Teammate Joe DiMaggio’s double figures in the winning rally. DiMaggio has now hit in 35 straight games.
June 23, 2001: A strong economy and a shortage of apartments have pushed up the median cost of rent and utilities for a two-bedroom apartment in Concord by 23% over the last four years, the Monitor reports. What used to cost $710 a month now costs $873, according to the state Housing Finance Authority.
June 23, 2000: James Hall is convicted of second-degree murder for strangling his 77-year-old mother in their Concord apartment.
June 23, 1785: A committee is appointed to lay out Main Street in Concord. A final report won’t be drafted until 1798.
June 24, 2000: New Hampshire Bituminous, the Merrimack Valley Little League champion, defeats the Eagles from Concord American Little League, 5-1. The result marks the first time in recent history that the Hilliker Cup will be headed to Penacook.
June 25, 2003: The Penacook Historical Society holds an open house for the Rolfe barn, a 200-year-old building that the group had fought to save for months. The event gives many supporters their first peek at the property.
June 25, 1774: The ship Grosvenor anchors in Portsmouth harbor. Twenty-seven chests of Bohea tea are quietly unloaded and stored in a warehouse. When the leaders of a boycott on tea imported from Britain learn of its presence, they will call a town meeting. A committee appointed by townspeople will negotiate the tea’s return to the Grosvenor, which will take it – at the town’s expense – to Halifax.
June 25, 1978: During a peaceful Clamshell Alliance rally at the Seabrook nuclear plant site, an anti-protester protester carries a placard reading: “Clams should be steamed, not heard.”
June 25, 1975: Reversing a position from two years earlier, Gov. Mel Thomson tells the Executive Council he no longer objects to the state buying its road salt from Chile. “Chile is no longer communist. I have no objection to the salt coming from Chile now,” the governor says.
June 26, 2003: Matt Bonner, who led the Concord High basketball team to three straight state championships before evolving into a star at the University of Florida, realizes a lifelong dream when he’s selected in the NBA Draft. Initially drafted by the Chicago Bulls in the second round, he’s soon traded to the Toronto Raptors.
June 26, 1855: The Legislature incorporates St. Paul’s School. The first student body: three boys from Boston.
June 26, 1741: John Langdon is born in Portsmouth. He will be one of the state’s leaders in the American Revolution, serving as a member of the Continental Congress and, after the war, as a delegate to the convention that drafts the U.S. Constitution. He will later be a U.S. senator, leading that chamber in 1789 until the arrival of the first vice president, John Adams.
June 26, 1817: After years of missed deadlines by the map-maker, the Legislature approves Philip Carrigain’s map of New Hampshire. It is the first to delineate town boundaries.
June 27, 1835: The Concord Railroad Corp. obtains a charter for a railroad between Nashua and Concord. The Boston and Maine Railroad also obtains a charter on this date. The Concord corporation will be delayed by the Panic of 1837 and other factors, and the first train will not pull into Concord until September 1842. The B&M will not open its first line in the state until 1849.
June 27, 1862: Colonel Jesse A. Gove, a Weare native, is killed leading the 22nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment at Gaines’s Mill on the Virginia Peninsula. Gove studied law with Franklin Pierce before the war and served as New Hampshire’s deputy secretary of state from 1850 to 1855.
June 28, 2003: For seven years, 17-year-olds have been adults in the eyes of the criminal justice system, the Monitor reports. Next week, a task force appointed by the Legislature will recommend raising the age back to 18, making 17-year-olds juveniles once again. The change would mean that crimes committed by 17-year-olds would no longer become part of their adult criminal records.
June 28, 2001: The Franklin Opera House, unused for performances in 30 years, reopens for a 40-minute variety show attended by nearly 130 people. The restoration of the theater is ongoing.
June 28, 1833: During his eastern tour, President Andrew Jackson stays at the Eagle Coffee House across from the State House in Concord. Since no bed in the hotel is deemed adequate for a president, Mrs. John Estabrook has lent the house her large mahogany model. Slightly ill, Jackson passes up the renowned hotel cuisine, subsisting on bread and milk.
June 28, 1990: Franklin Mayor Brenda Elias tells the Monitor she has declined two invitations to speak to the Franklin Rotary, which doesn’t admit female members. If she goes to a meeting, she says, it will be as a member.
June 28, 1853: James O. Lyford is born. He will become a journalist and politician and write histories of Concord and Canterbury.
