USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Concord > History of Concord, New Hampshire, from the original grant in seventeen hundred and twenty-five to the opening of the twentieth century, Volume I > Part 48
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The town voted to accept the report, and to adopt the accompany- ing resolutions, thus sanctioning the immediate establishment of the library. But no immediate action followed, as prescribed in the vote of the town, and within a year the town had become the city. It was at the opening of the second year of the latter that Mayor Low called attention, as has been seen, to the undertaking that had lain in practical abeyance for two years, and was so to lie one year longer. At the beginning of the city's third year, Mayor Clement, in his inaugural address in March, 1855, earnestly renewed the recommend- ation of his predecessor, and, a few days later, ex-Mayor Low trans- mitted to the city council a communication enclosing a letter from John L. Emmons, of Boston, pledging from himself and John C. Abbott, both natives of Concord, one thousand dollars to aid in es- tablishing a public library. The ex-mayor recommended early and favorable consideration of the offer. The communications and the general subject therewith connected were referred by the city council to a joint committee consisting of William Prescott, Nathan Farley, and Rufus Merrill. This committee, on the 28th of July, submitted a report, presenting strong considerations in favor of immediately establishing the library. This report was accompanied by a bill enti- tled "An ordinance for the establishment and perpetual maintenance of a public library in this city." The views of the committee were favorably received, and the ordinance reported by it was passed at the next regular session of the city council, held August 25, 1855. At the same session, and under the ordinance just enacted, the first trustees of the public library were elected, seven in number, or one
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from each ward of the city. Named in the order of wards from one to seven, these were Abial Rolfe, Cvrus Robinson, Simeon Abbott, William Prescott, Henry A. Bellows, Lyman D. Stevens, and Josiah Stevens.
The ordinance appropriated fifteen hundred dollars for the purpose of establishing, commencing, and accommodating a public library. This sum was provided for in another ordinance, passed at the same session, to raise funds for completing the city hall, and for other pur- poses, being the second ordinance for funding the city indebtedness, as already narrated. Of the appropriation, the sum of three hundred dollars was allowed to be expended by the trustees " in procuring furniture, fixtures, and other articles " necessary for the accommoda- tion of the library, for the ensuing municipal year; while the remain- ing twelve hundred dollars were to be laid out in the purchase of books, maps, charts, and other publications. The duties of the trus- tees were prescribed, with the provision that they were to receive no compensation for their services.
The board of trustees was organized by the choice of a president, secretary, and treasurer. A code of by-laws for the regulation of the institution in its charge was adopted, and committees were elected for purchasing, numbering, and arranging books, and for other pur- poses, all with a view to carrying the enterprise into full effect as soon as possible. But as the room assigned to the library in the still unfinished city hall building was not ready for occupancy, and it was not deemed expedient to procure and fit up another for a few months only, little or no progress could be made toward putting the library in operation. Indeed, at the end of the municipal year, 1855, the trustees reported that none of the money appropriated had been expended, though it had been drawn from the city treasury, and deposited in the Merrimack County bank, so as to be at hand for its designated uses.
The second board of trustees was elected April 5, 1856, and con- sisted of David A. Brown, Thomas D. Potter, Simeon Abbott, Amos Hadley, William H. Bartlett, Artemas B. Muzzey, and Jeremiah S. Noyes. It organized a week later by choosing Thomas D. Potter, president; Artemas B. Muzzey, secretary ; Jeremiah S. Noyes, treas- urer, the last, upon early resignation, being replaced by Ebenezer S. Towle, cashier of the Merrimack County bank.
To this board fell the lot of making the library a practical fact by setting it in operation. In the autumn of 1856, Secretary Muzzcy, . assisted by Amos Hadley, proceeded, by appointment of the board, to the selection and purchase of books. One thousand of the fifteen hundred dollars appropriated in the ordinance of 1855, was allowed
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PUBLIC LIBRARY.
by the board to be expended in the purchase. By early winter, the library room on the second floor in the south end of city hall building was ready for use; and the purchased books, received and properly prepared for distribution, began to find their places upon the shelves. On the 3d of January, 1857, Andrew Capen, a former bookseller and publisher, was chosen librarian at a yearly salary of fifty dollars.
With ten hundred fifty dollars,-for the board allowed the original one thousand to be increased half a hundred,-about fourteen hun- dred volumes, systematically selected from the various departments of literature, were obtained-all intended for general circulation and reading. Nearly six hundred volumes had been early donated, but were mostly unadapted to circulation.
An increasing public interest in the enterprise was manifested. The newspaper press had a good word for it. Thus, the Statesman, in January, had this to say : " We understand that a portion of the books have already been purchased. From the known taste and learning of the gentlemen to whom the selection has been confided, we cannot but anticipate the most favorable results."
In remarks at the opening of the city hall, General Low suggested that, under the guidance and control of the ladies of Concord, of all denominations, a grand levee be held, the proceeds to be appropri- ated to the enlargement of the public library. The suggestion was heeded. The library levee came off on Tuesday evening, February 24, 1857, and this is the Statesman's enthusiastic description of it: " The Court-House and City-Hall building was all ablaze. Alow and aloft, it was effulgent with burning gas. Notwithstanding the badness of the traveling, the attendance was very large. The main tables were handsomely laid, and abundantly supplied with the usual viands prepared for such occasions; and from side-tables were dis- pensed that class of luxuries for which consideration is paid. The ladies of all religious societies were engaged in the undertaking, and entered with zest into proceedings preparatory to opening the doors of an edifice, the common property of all, for this first and only social gathering, -- in one body, in beautiful and spacious apartments,-of people of all sects, and from all portions of Concord. Colonel Josiah Stevens had charge of arrangements within the hall. The Concord Brass Band, which has attained a high degree of skill, and become an institution without which the city would be an imperfect muni- cipal organization, was in attendance. The proceeds, after defraying all expenses, were $380: the money to be immediately placed in the hands of those gentlemen who made the present purchases for the city library ; and such books as are bought with these proceeds are to be prepared for circulation with all practical despatch."
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One day in March, 1857, not long after this brilliant and helpful levee, and before its proceeds could be realized in books, the city library was opened to the public use, and its fourteen hundred vol- umes began to migrate from their shelves into the hands of eager readers. Yearly cards were issued to patrons, or subscribers, upon the payment of twenty-five eents. The purpose of this unburden- some requirement was that the annual amount of these small sub- scription fees might, as it did, afford relief-always acceptable, some- times almost indispensable-to the finances of the institution.
The third board of trustees was elected a few days after the opening of the library. At its organization, Amos Hadley became president ; holding the position for fifteen of his seventeen years of service as trustee. Before the end of the fiscal year, 1857-'58, more than three hundred volumes, purchased with the proceeds of the ladies' levee, had increased the number of books intended for circula- tion to nearly seventeen hundred fifty. In their annual report, the trustees said : "During the past year the public library has been opened to the use of our citizens. We are happy to say that its advantages have been very largely enjoyed. The full attendance at the library-room during the hours of delivery, and the avidity of the demand for books have attested that a public library is an institution imperatively demanded by the intellectual wants of our people." The first year's patronage, so gratifying to the trustees, was to eon- tinue with a steady increase, year by year. The small yearly charge to patrons was largely relied upon to pay the moderate salary of the first two successive librarians, Andrew Capen and Frederick S. Craw- ford, together with sundry incidental expenses, such as re-covering and re-binding books. But for supplying the constantly inereasing demand for reading matter, consequent upon inereasing patronage, the library depended mainly upon appropriations made by the city council. The aid offered at the outset to the library enterprise by non-resident natives of Concord was not realized, probably beeause of some change in the circumstances of those who offered it. The consequent deficiency was, however, partially remedied from the proceeds of two levees projected and carried out by the public- spirited ladies of the city: the first being held, as already described, just before the opening of the library; the second coming off in the summer of 1860, and netting for its purpose one hundred sixty-two dollars. The city council's first appropriation in favor of the library, after its establishment, came in 1858, and was only fifty dollars. The next year an allowance of two hundred dollars was made, which was annually continued until 1863; when, notwithstanding the burdens of war, the appropriation was raised to three hundred
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PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
dollars. At the end of the fiscal year, 1865, the trustees reminded the city council that the sum of three hundred dollars had not been for two years past, and, probably, would not be for some years to come, adequate to supply the necessary books. This was an enforce- ment of their report for 1864, in which they had set out the some- what remarkable fact, that notwithstanding the excitement occa- sioned by the great national struggle which had been going on during the year, the library had attracted more readers than in any previous year of its existence. Though the first eight city appro- priations in favor of the library after its opening hardly counted fifteen hundred dollars, yet, by wise expenditure, they increased the number of circulating volumes from fourteen hundred to nearly four thousand, for the use of the goodly number of readers represented by seven hundred patrons. Subsequent pages will note, in due time and order, the continued and more rapid progress of the institu- tion.
Since the public library was to be an institution tending to perfect "and render available the elementary knowledge acquired "1 in the public school, the movement to establish the former was fitly coinci- dent with another eminently suited to advance the interests of the lat- ter. In 1846 a fruitless attempt had been made to unite the ninth, tenth, and eleventh districts. But now, in 1855, nine years later, the consummation long wished for by the progressive friends of education came; and, under an ordinance passed the year before, and by the major vote of each district, the three became the Union School Dis- trict. Soon the Somersworth act was adopted, and committees, pru- dential and superintending, were elected. The latter consisted of Arte- mas B. Muzzey, Henry E. Parker, Amos Hadley, Asa Fowler, and Paltiah Brown. Four years later the state legislature authorized the district to choose a board of education, consisting of nine members- the terms of three of whom should expire each year-to take the place of the committees. The first nine were elected on the 10th of September, 1859. They were Henry E. Parker, David Patten, Josiah P. Nutting, Caleb Parker, Jesse P. Bancroft, Paltiah Brown, Parsons B. Cogswell, Asa Fowler, and Joseph B. Walker. The board of edu- cation, as well as the whole system of which it was an essential part, was the result of healthy evolution, and could not but be perma- nent.2
Charity in those days inspired much noteworthy educational effort. Mayor Low, in 1854, commended to the attention of the city council the schools established by benevolent ladies for the mental and indus-
1 Report of committee in 1852.
2 See more detailed treatment in special Educational chapter.
30
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trial education of neglected and friendless children, and invited thereto not pecuniary aid but individual and corporate influence in promoting the success of an enterprise so important and valuable. The schools thus referred to were conducted under the auspices of the two leading charitable organizations of the city. The sewing school of the Concord Female Benevolent Association connected withi the Unitarian church had been in successful operation for seventeen years, when, in 1853, the Rumford Charity School was instituted by the Concord Female Charitable Society -- a movement especially prompted by the reception of a legacy from the Countess of Rum- ford. The former school had been from its beginning in the faithful, self-sacrificing charge of Mrs. Capen, wife of the first city librarian, and had steadily grown in favor, till its attendance increased from eight pupils to seventy. This form of humane effort was, therefore, no doubtful experiment when the second school was established. There was no new plan to be devised and carried out; two, with a common purpose, were to till a broadening field of charitable endeavor where one had tilled before. That purpose was to bring together within the reach of salutary influences, on the afternoons of Satur- day, from May to October of each year, destitute young girls, to be trained in needle work, and in making up, from materials usually supplied by the societies, garments and other articles for their own use ; to impart to them wholesome moral, unsectarian instruction ; and to foster in them self-respect, promptness in duty, neatness, love of order, and good manners. Those school seasons bore promises of precious fruitage in the life of many a pupil. Of the fulfilment of those promises, the closing sessions of the school terms gave constant assurance ; while they were of themselves frequently occasions of much attractive interest. Especially so were those of 1864, when the sixty children of one school at the close of its eighteenth season, and the seventy of the other at the close of its second, appeared in neat uniform attire, made by themselves from material furnished by Mayor Low, whose presence they welcomed with a hearty and grace- ful expression of thanks. "Who knows," wrote a visitant on one of these occasions, " what a shield against temptation will hercafter be the happy remembrance of that day to many a young heart-what an incentive to carnest well-doing in life." 1
The Lyceum, in its lecture courses, continued to co-operate with other educational forces in promoting the intellectual growth and literary culture of the community. Of the choicest talent of the land, then utilized in this form of popular instruction, there appeared upon the platforms of the Merrimack and the Penacook lyceums not
1 State Capital Reporter, Oct. 6, 1854.
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a little of the best; for Horace Greeley, Bayard Taylor, Benjamin P. Shillaber, John G. Saxe, Herman Melville, John Pierpont, George Sumner, Wendell Phillips, John B. Gough, George William Curtis, and Henry Ward Beecher sometimes stood there before Concord audi- ences to delight and edify. Nor did Parker Pillsbury, the sturdy, eloquent "Anti-Slavery Apostle," fail to do honor there to home tal- ent in his treatment of miscellaneous themes.
Here instances of literary activity, manifesting itself in literary pro- duction exclusive of journalism, demand a place in the regular course of narration. Thus, some of the genius-born thoughts of Nathaniel P. Rogers had been transferred from the columns of a Concord newspaper to the pages of a book that was in its second edition in 1849. During the early fifties, the second superintendent of the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane, Dr. Andrew McFarland, a son of Concord's third minister, produced a pleasing volume entitled " The Escape," embodying observations made upon a short vaca- tion trip to Europe ; and his brother, Asa McFarland, who accom- panied him, produced another entitled "Five Months Abroad." In 1856 was published " The History of Concord from the First Grant in 1725 to the Organization of the City Government in 1853," the conscientious work of the honored pastor of the North church. The author has told the story of its preparation in the following words of autobiographie recollection : 1
" I resolved at the outset that the work should not interrupt or interfere with my weekly labors for the pulpit, nor with my ordinary parochial duties. It did not perceptibly. I gathered facts as I went round among the people, and placed them on file. At stated times, I examined the old Town records, and took notes. I kept an eye on all the passing events of the town. . . . When the time arrived to put the abundant materials of twenty years' collecting into a history ; when I resolved to take up my pen and write a volume, that should not interfere with my work-' hic labor, hoc opus.' That was a toil to which, I confess, human endurance was hardly equal. I favored myself somewhat by writing out only one sermon a week ; preaching extemporaneously, and now and then 'turning over the barrel,' as the phrase is-that is, using an old sermon with new trimmings. My history went on till, after three years, the work came to its termination. It was a little too much ; towards the close, I found myself becoming nervous and uneasy. After writing an hour or so, my hand would tremble; I thought the pen was tired of my fingers, and would n't make a good mark. Then I would lay it clown, and walk awhile across the room, or run out into the open air.
1 Autobiography of Rev. Nathaniel Bouton, D. D., 39-40.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
But thanks to the good Providence that watched over me, I finished the composition of the history, in about three years, and wrote the whole with one gold pen-nor was I hindered in this, or any part of my work, by a single day's sickness."
The town, at its last meeting in March, 1853, gave aid to the proposed History by appropriating three hundred dollars, to be expended by a committee consisting of Nathaniel B. Baker, Jonathan Eastman, and Joseph B. Walker, in procuring the publication of portions of the original Proprietors' and Town Records, either in connection with the History, or otherwise. As the work neared completion, the city council, on the 24th of February, by ordinance, authorized Joseph B. Walker to expend one hundred fifty dollars in providing engraved maps for the History of Concord. Thus, under both the town and the city government, the important literary undertaking received a substantial test of appreciation in a direct draft upon the treasury.
In the autumn of 1852, a movement was made, looking especially to " the improvement of the moral, mental, and social condition of young men." It was estimated that there were, at that time, in town, twenty-four hundred males, between fourteen and forty years of age, and fourteen hundred, between fourteen and twenty-five; and that, in the main village, there were fifteen hundred of the first class and eight hundred of the second.
On the evening of October 25, fifty young men, representing the churches of the different " evangelical " denominations in town, met in the vestry of the South church to consider the subject of forming a Young Men's Christian Association, similar in its plan and object to one already in existence in Boston. Of this meeting, Lyman D. Stevens was chairman, and Isaac N. Elwell, secretary. The wisdom of trying the proposed experiment was discussed. There were seri- ous doubts in some minds " whether it was wise to organize such a society in a place so small as Concord then was."1 The Reverend Augustus Woodbury, pastor of the Unitarian church, came to the meeting, and ineffectually " urged the organization of the society on such a basis as to include the young men of his congregation."1 Finally, a committee was appointed to report a constitution and by-laws.
The committee made a report on the 8th of November, which was adopted. At once, a permanent organization of the Concord Young Men's Christian Association was effected by the choice of George B. Chandler as president; Abraham J. Prescott and John D. Teel as vice-presidents ; Rufus Lane as corresponding secretary ; Isaac N.
1 Letter of Prof. J. H. Gilmore, University of Rochester, N. Y., Oct. 20, 1895.
*
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Elwell, as recording secretary ; Henry A. Newhall, as treasurer; and H. F. E. Nichols, as librarian. A board of ten managers was also selected, consisting of two members of each of the following churches : Baptist, North Congregational, South Congregational, Episcopal, and Methodist. Two classes of members were constituted: active, com- prising members of evangelical churches; and associate, made up of young men of good moral character. The annual membership fee was one dollar.
Early in the winter, 1852-'53, a reading-room was secured in the new Exchange building, with the hope-as expressed by the corre- sponding secretary, in an address to the public through the news- papers-" that, in a warm room, well-lighted with gas, and in com- panionship with good associates, books, and periodicals, the young man" might "spend his leisure evening hours away from temptation, and in the cultivation of mind and heart." A library was contem- plated; and one was actually begun, in a small way, with books presented by members. A course of lectures, or addresses, was pro- jected, and partially, at least, carried out. The opening address was delivered on Sunday evening, January 18, 1853, by the Reverend Charles W. Flanders, pastor of the Baptist church. It was published in pamphlet, and somewhat widely circulated. It put at about one hundred the membership of the Association at that time ; and char- acterized the organization as "a Christian Union, combining the force of lecture, reading-room, and social meeting, thereby aiming to pro- mote right principles, virtuous habits, useful lives, and so far as God will aid us, to secure to young men a trusting and peaceful close of life."
But the well-intentioned undertaking was short-lived. Its limited financial means precluded efforts and outlays necessary to arouse and sustain public interest. Its reading-room, upon which high hopes had been set, had no secretary or librarian, regularly in charge, to welcome visitors, and at an early date-as recalled by one member at least-" was fearfully unattractive, and generally empty, as it de- served to be."1 Besides, the "evangelical " exclusiveness of the Asso- ciation naturally created a sectarian prejudice against its operations that tended to hinder success. Be the causes what they might, the Association becanie temporarily extinct. The more successful move- ment of similar intent and under the same name, made fifteen years later, is a topic reserved for treatment in its proper time.
As a promoter of fraternity and beneficence Freemasonry had, for nearly sixty years, been represented in Concord by Blazing Star Lodge, when the Masonic quarters long located in the Concord Bank
1 Letter of Prof. J. H. Gilmore.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
building, but now outgrown, were exchanged for others more attrac- tive and commodious. In January, 1858, the Lodge accepted a propo- sition made by Robert N. Corning, to erect a building on the corner of Main and Pleasant streets, and to furnish apartments therein for Masonic purposes. The corner-stone of the proposed structure was laid on Monday, the fifth day of July following, with a programme of happily combined exercises appropriate both to the special occa- sion and to the celebration of the national holiday. The procession was a prominent feature. Under the chief marshalship of Edward H. Rollins, the Trinity Commandery of Knights Templar of Man- chester, and Masonic bodies from other parts of the state, escorted the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of New Hampshire from the old Masonic hall to the front of the state house. The procession, having there been joined by members of the city government and of the fire
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