Concord, New Hampshire

“ Harriman in Concord, where he has now lived since 1872, is a delightful one, and no one enjoys it with more satisfaction than he himself. A great traveler, by the necessities of his public career, he has a mastering fondness for quiet domestic life, and never are his rich stores of experience, his knowledge of men, and his fine sense of humor with its exhaustless fund of material, more ready at his command than of an evening in his own house. ”

“ Public Interests.—The city is well laid out with finely shaded streets, is lighted by gas and electricity, and has an extensive waterworks plant. The noteworthy buildings include the State Capitol, a fine building of Concord granite, the City Hall and Court House, the State Prison, State Insane Asylum, and the United States Government buildings. There is an excellent system of public schools, and several private schools, including St. ”

“ In Concord, New Hampshire, the men, who all came armed to meeting, stacked their muskets around a post in the middle of the church, while the honored pastor, who was a good shot and owned the best gun in the settlement, preached with his treasured weapon in the pulpit by his side, ready from his post of vantage to blaze away at any red man whom he saw sneaking without, or to lead, if necessary, his congregation to battle. ”

“ George is public-spirited, and freely devotes his time and energies to the furtherance of every movement and the advocacy of every measure which he believes calculated to promote the material or educational welfare of the community. No man in Concord has done more than he to advance the prosperity of the city in every essential regard. The efficiency of the public schools has ever been an object of deep interest to him ”

“ The repair-shops of the Boston and Maine Railroad are situated here. The manufactures include carriages, silverware, harness, furniture, flour, cotton and woolen goods, leather belting and leather hose, pianos, shoes, etc. Industrial statistics for 1900 give the following figures: Number of industries, 81; invested capital, $1,959,238; value of production, $3,252,302; persons employed, 1829. Under the charter of 1853, as amended, Concord is governed by a mayor, chosen every two years, and a bicameral city council. The assessors and the school board are chosen by popular election ”

“ The richness of the intervals at Penacook, now Concord, New Hampshire, had been observed by explorers, and, according to the historian of Haverhill, in the
“year 1726, considerable progress was made in the settlement, and a road was cut through the wilderness from Haverhill to Penacook. In the fall of 1727, the first family, that of Captain Ebenezer Eastman, moved into the place. His team was driven by Jacob Shute, who was by birth a Frenchman, and he is said to have been the first person who drove a team through the wilderness. ”

“ Kirk Pierce. These houses are not in the village proper but just outside, in a location known as Hillsboro Bridge, a romantic, wooded section on the main road, where in the early days the stage-coach passed on its way to Concord, New Hampshire, not so very far away.
Franklin Pierce was born on November 23, 1804, in the old homestead where his father, Governor Pierce, lived, and here he passed his [Pg 142] early days. ”

“ We had the Adamses to set the Revolution on foot, the soldiers of New Hampshire and rural New England to fight its battles; but its noblest leader must come to us from the Potomac, and take us back there, when the long fight was won, to establish our government beside its waters, in sight of his own broad domain. It was not till this century, now declining, that Concord could{289} show an intellectual Washington; and Emerson must be born in Boston, less provincial than our meadowy village, our “rural Venice,” as Thoreau called it in times of river-freshet. ”

“ Baldwin, sheriff of Middlesex, who had a natural taste for engineering, and they came to the conclusion that the plan was feasible. Should the undertaking succeed between Concord and Boston, the gradual increase in population and traffic would in time warrant the completion of the programme. Even should communication never be established beyond Concord, the commercial advantages of opening to the market the undeveloped resources of upper New Hampshire would be a sufficient justification. ”

“ At the age of eighteen years he gained his first experience in railroad business, serving as a clerk in the freight department of the Boston & Lowell Railroad, under his father, who was agent of the upper roads doing business with that corporation. Accepting a clerkship in the office of the Concord Railroad, he removed to Concord in 1851. After a year's service with the Concord Railroad, he entered the employ of the Concord & Claremont Railroad, where he remained until 1865, a period of thirteen years. ”

“ But the spirit which led to these mischiefs in other regions of Massachusetts and Connecticut was all about us; and it narrowed the minds and the opportunities of Concord before the Revolution. It was chiefly in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, where ecclesiastical domination was less rigid, that mental freedom manifested itself. In the other colonies of the North, wealth and culture were apt to be on the side of England, when our troubles began; in Virginia and the Carolinas, and to some extent in New Hampshire and Maine, wealth took the colonial side. ”

“ It flows southward through New Hampshire into Massachusetts, turning northeast to the ocean. The river passes near Salisbury, where Daniel Webster was born in 1782; then, seventy-five miles northwest of Boston, comes to Concord, the capital of New Hampshire, which has a fine Capitol building and quarries of excellent granite; and eighteen miles below, it reaches Manchester, the chief city of New Hampshire, having sixty thousand people and many large mills owned by wealthy corporations. ”

“ He was the more pleased that he had called the men together, when, on the very morning of the gathering, he received a notice from Concord that the king had forbidden the colony to take an active part against New York in the matter of the grants.
In other words it meant that the king would protect New York and oppose all claims of New Hampshire to the lands.
"Men of the mountains," Allen commenced, "we are met to form laws to protect ourselves and our property. We must rely on ourselves alone. ”

“ Of the quaint ancestral homes still standing in the old Granite State, none is more picturesque or more interesting from the historical view-point than the Stark house in the little town of Dunbarton, a place about five miles' drive out from Concord, over one of those charming country roads, which properly make New Hampshire the summer and autumn Mecca of those who have been "long in populous city pent." Rather oddly, this house has, for all its great wealth of historical interest, been little known to the general public. ”

“ His love for his old home manifests itself in all his tastes, and in his residence he has wrought in the beautiful New Hampshire granite brought from his old home in Concord.
In 1841, Mr. Pillsbury married Margaret S. Carleton, a lady beloved by all, who has always busied herself in acts of goodness and benevolence. No one has ever known her but to love her. ”

“ We took the map and cast our eyes up and down New Hampshire, but whether we fled to the borders or zigzagged through the interior, there was no escaping familiar routes. Being unanimously persistent in facing north, we bethought ourselves of the transformed “Flume,” and immediately fixed upon Plymouth for a mail centre. Charlie’s spirits were unabated the next day, and we rested him at Warren. It was useless to ask directions, for everybody was determined we must take the great highway to the mountains, through Concord. ”

“ The 15 towns exceeding each 4000 inhabitants collectively contain 46.7 per cent. of the total population. The density of population in 1900 was 45.7 per square mile. The State sends two members to the National House of Representatives.
Cities. The population of the largest towns in 1900 was: Manchester, 56,987; Nashua, 23,898; Concord, 19,632; Dover, 13,207; Portsmouth, 10,637. The capital is Concord.
Religion. The Roman Catholic element amounts to about 10 per cent. of the total population of the State. The principal Protestant denominations are the Congregational, with about 20 per cent. ”

“ For several years, also, he discharged the duties of road master and master of transportation of the Concord and Manchester & Lawrence railroads. As chief engineer of the Concord & Portsmouth Railroad, he superintended the construction of a considerable portion of the line, as he subsequently did that of the Suncook Valley Railroad. As a civil engineer, he occupies a place in the front rank in his profession in New England; and his services have been in demand far beyond his ability to respond, in making surveys for proposed railways, water-works, etc. ”

“ Among the principal buildings are the state capitol, the state library, the city hall, the county court-house, the post-office, a public library (17,000 vols.) , the state hospital, the state prison, the Centennial home for the aged, the Margaret Pillsbury memorial hospital, the Rolfe and Rumford asylum for orphan girls, founded by Count Rumford’s daughter, and some fine churches, including the Christian Science church built by Mrs Eddy. ”

“ Rising at an equal height with the Connecticut, the Merrimack reaches the sea by a course only half as long, and hence has no leisure to form broad and fertile meadows like the former, but is hurried along rapids, and down numerous falls without long delay. The banks are generally steep and high, with a narrow interval reaching back to the hills, which is only occasionally and partially overflown at present, and is much valued by the farmers. Between Chelmsford and Concord in New Hampshire, it varies from twenty to seventy-five rods in width. ”

“ In 1848 the Boston, Concord, & Montreal Railroad was built and completed from Concord to Plymouth. In anticipation of this event the firm of Charles Ranlet & Co. built large and extensive car-works at Laconia, which they designed particularly for the construction of freight-cars. The firm commenced and carried on the business until the decease of the senior partner, in 1860, when the works were suspended. In 1861, Mr. Moulton became a partner, and by his great energy and business capacity has developed a large business, which employs some two hundred men, most of whom are skilled workmen. ”

“ On the seaside there are only a distant sail and a few coots to break the grand monotony. A solitary stake stuck up, or a sharper sand-hill than usual, is remarkable as a landmark for miles; while for music you hear only the ceaseless sound of the surf, and the dreary peep of the beach-birds.
There were several canal-boats at Cromwell’s Falls passing through the locks, for which we waited. In the forward part of one stood a brawny New Hampshire man, leaning on his pole, bareheaded and in shirt and trousers only, a rude Apollo of a man, coming down from that “vast uplandish country” to the main ”

“ New Hampshire.In New Hampshire.—From Concord, in Rockingham county, by the M’Crillis tavern, in Canterbury, Northfield meeting house, Sanbornton, Smith’s village on the turnpike, across the river near Pine Hill, and Bridgewater, to Plymouth. ”

“ And be it further enacted, Post roads established.That the following post roads be established:
In New Hampshire.—From Hopkinton, through Warner, Bradford, Fisherfield, Wendell and Newport, to Cornish in the county of Cheshire. From Concord in the county of Rockingham, through Weare, Dearing, Hancock and Packersfield, to Keene in the county of Cheshire. From Gilmanton to Meredith. From Concord, by Loudon, Gilmanton, Meredith and New Holderness, to Plymouth, thence by New Hampton, Sandbornton, Northfield and Canterbury to Concord. ”

“ In the presidential canvass of 1848 he used his best efforts (and with success, so far as New Hampshire was concerned) in behalf of the candidate of his party. A truer and better speech has never been uttered on a similar occasion than one which he made (during a hurried half hour, snatched from the court rooms) in October of the above year, before the democratic state convention, then in session at Concord. It is an invariable characteristic of General Pierce’s popular addresses, that they evince a genuine respect for the people ”

“ NEW HAMPSHIRE, Cheshire County, Dublin, Windmill Hill (Dublin MRA) , Windmill Hill Rd. (12/18/83)
NEW HAMPSHIRE, Merrimack County, Concord, Concord Civic District, 107 N. Main St., 25 Capitol St., 39-45 Green St., 20-30 Park St., and 33 N. State St. (12/22/83)
NEW HAMPSHIRE, Merrimack County, Concord, Crippen, Henry J., House, 189-191 N. Main St. (12/22/83)
NEW YORK, Chemung County, Elmira, Near Westside Historic District, Roughly bounded by Chemung River, College Ave., 2nd and Hoffman Sts. ”

“ Benefactors like Munroe, who built the Public Library, Dr. Ripley, who for half a century filled the pulpit and took pastoral care, and John Tileston, who brought the public schools to their present useful form; soldiers of the Civil War, like Colonel Prescott and Lieutenant Ripley, and hundreds of unnamed soldiers in the battle of life,—women no less than men,—have given their innumerable touch of vigor{297} and grace to the ever-building structure of Concord life. Painters of our own have added color, and sculptors like French, Elwell and Ricketson have adorned the town with art. ”