May 7, 1861: The First New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry Regiment, gathered in Concord, completes its organization under Col. Mason Tappan of Bradford. Company I is the Concord company, with 34 members from the capital, including its three officers, Capt. Edward E. Sturtevant, 1st Lt. Henry W. Fuller and 2nd Lt. Enoch W. Goss.
May 8, 1900: Having made several battery-powered cars at his American Manufacturing Co. in Penacook, Adrian Hoyt secures a 10-year local tax exemption for his auto-making concern. He hopes to employ 150-250 men and make three cars a day. A few days later he will drive one of his cars through downtown Concord to show how efficiently a car can deliver the mail. The car business never takes off, but Hoyt Electric does.
May 8, 1996: Concord’s South Congregational Church votes to officially welcome lesbians and gays. The measure passes, 123-26, at the congregation’s 159th annual meeting. The church will now write acceptance of gays and lesbians into its bylaws.
May 9, 1944: The woman who played the title role in Cover Girl, the current feature at the Capitol Theater, is living on Court Street in Concord. She is Susann Foster, a blonde who stands 5-foot-8 in high heels. Foster’s husband, Private Ralph Foster, was a flight instructor at Concord Airport but has been reassigned to the Midwest. Susann Foster stayed behind temporarily to see through her pregnancy. She is due in two weeks. The Monitor reports that Foster “doubts she’ll ever return to modeling, believing motherhood to be a far more important career.”
May 9, 2003: Two Weare police officers who were accused of gate-crashing their way into the Hopkinton State Fair last summer are cleared of all charges in Concord District Court. The state fails to prove that Sgt. James Carney and Officer Hicham Geha each committed a $12 theft by attending the fair in August, Judge John Yazinski says just before he acquits the officers.
May 10, 1847: Residents of Concord gather to honor Franklin Pierce after he is commissioned brigadier general for the war with Mexico. The ladies of the town present Pierce with a sword. The men have purchased a fine horse for him. When the horse suddenly dies, William Walker, proprietor of the Eagle Hotel, sells the men his black horse, which is given to Pierce.
May 10, 1944: Pinched by the labor shortage, the Brezner Tannery in Penacook has put up cash prizes for the best slogan aimed at a convincing women to take jobs. The results are in. Contestants had to complete the sentence: “I shall help bring an early victory by taking a job because . . . ” Taking home the $10 top prize is Margaret Fanning of Hills Avenue, whose entry read: “ . . . now is the time, any job calling for help is the place, any unemployed woman is the girl, an age-old threesome guaranteed to bring speedy, satisfactory results when they are properly combined.”
May 11, 2003: State geologist David Wunsch offers an early theory as to why the Old Man of the Mountain may have tumbled from Cannon Mountain, the Monitor reports. A piece of the Old Man’s granite-hewn Adam’s apple that anchored the formation may have come loose, causing the chin to dislodge and the rest of the rock face to just fall away from the cliff.
May 12, 2002: Democratic gubernatorial candidates Sen. Bev Hollingworth and Sen. Mark Fernald attended a forum in Concord with members of the state employees’ union, the Monitor reports. Both painted themselves as pro-labor, both said they had pushed for higher wages, improved benefits and better working conditions for state employees, and both supported replacing the statewide property tax with an income tax.
May 12, 2003: The Concord City Council continues its green-tinged track record when it approves a plan to conserve 28 acres of land near Walker State Forest. The decision comes two weeks after a lengthy debate over whether the city should encourage housing developments or preservation projects deadlocked the council and left a group of tree-loving neighbors wondering what to do next.
May 13, 1726: A group of Massachusetts colonists with a royal land grant arrive to settle Penny Cook. They find Judge Sewall, the first white settler, living on his 500-acre tract on the east side of the Merrimack.
May 13, 2002: In an effort to entice its sophomores to perform better on the state’s standardized tests, Concord High School offers the incentives of bagels, apple pie and candy bars, as well as entry into a lottery for more than $1,200 in prizes and gift certificates donated by downtown merchants. “They pretty much bribed us to do well,” says Meagan Jameson, 17.
May 13, 2003: In a bold move, the Senate Judiciary Committee strips the parental notification provision from the House parental notification bill and instead passes an amended bill that outlines the required counseling a minor must receive before she can have an abortion.
