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 57
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The system went on with varying expenditure, upon annual-occa- 'sionally special-appropriations by the city council ; the minimum being one thousand dollars in 1872, and the maximum more than fifty thousand, in 1876. In the latter year-during the administra- tion of Mayor Pillsbury-nearly nine miles of sewer were laid within
1 Seventeenth Annual City Report, p. 80.
527
WATER SUPPLY.
a sewerage precinct established in 1873, with the same boundaries as those of the gas precinct. The introduction of Long pond water greatly stimulated sewer construction ; and the former was decidedly promoted by the latter. By 1880 the precinct had been nearly permeated by the system's invisible contributors to the convenience and health of the people.
The question of providing a proper Water supply for the com- pactly occupied portion of Concord waited long for a satisfactory answer. Wells were early, and to some extent late, the means of supply. In 1829, the springs at the base of Sand Hill were thought of as sources of supply, and William and Joseph Low, Jacob B. Moore, Stephen Brown, and others were incorporated as the "Concord Aqueduct Association," with a capital of two thousand dollars, and empowered to take water from them, and deliver it to customers at such price as they deemed expedient. What, if any- thing, this association accomplished is not known; but not a great while later, Amariah Pierce was supplying customers through an aqueduct of white-pine logs, twelve feet in length and six or eight inches in diameter, bored with a pod-auger. In 1849, Nathan Call obtained for himself and others a charter for the " Torrent Aqueduct Association," with a capital of twenty thousand dollars, and did busi- ness under it successfully. The conduct of the enterprise then came into the hands of James R. Hill, who finally sold his interest to Nathaniel White. After the death of Henry M. Robinson, who had begun to supply water from the locality afterwards to be known as White park, and from other sources, Mr. White purchased the rights of the heirs therein ; and made strong efforts in the Fifties and Sixties towards meeting the increasing demand for water. Down to the year 1859,-it may here be remarked,-the municipal fire department de- pended upon reservoirs only for its water supply,-too often scanty and uncertain ; but, that year, the city organized and incorporated, as a portion of its fire department, the Concord Railroad and Hose Company, No. 1, for the purpose of operating the hydrants and hose connected with the Merrimack river, and belonging to the railroad corporation as a part of the means which it had independently pro- vided, at an expense of ten thousand dollars, for its own protection against fire.
On the 16th of December, 1859, a committee, previously appointed by the city council, and consisting of Joseph B. Walker, John Abbott, and Benjamin Grover, to inquire as to the feasibility and cost of abundantly supplying the compact part of the city with water, for fire and other purposes, reported that the population was then supplied in part from wells, and in part by aqueduct companies,
528
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
the two principal of which were the Torrent Aqueduct Association, and that of Nathaniel White; that these furnished with water some six hundred families and the hotels, besides supplying large amounts to public buildings, stores, shops, stables, and the Old Cemetery ; and that there were several others of more limited capacities, cach supplying from one or two to forty families. As to the fountain of supply, the committee gave the preference to Long pond ; and esti- mated the cost of the introduction and distribution of the water therefrom, at one hundred seventy-two thousand four hundred seventy-five dollars and thirty-five cents. The cost of execution seemed to the committee the most serious objection to the immediate accomplishment of the project. Eleven years later, on the 30th of July, 1870, in the administration of Mayor Jones, the city council, realizing that the supply of water furnished in the compact part of the city was insufficient in quantity, and much of it so impure as to be wholly unfit for use, appointed a committee of seventeen consist- ing of Lyman D. Stevens, David A. Warde, Benjamin S. Warren, Jesse P. Bancroft, Abraham G. Jones, Asa McFarland, James S. Norris, Josiah Minot, Nathaniel White, Daniel Holden, James N. Lauder, Edward A. Abbott, John Kimball, John M. Hill, Benjamin A. Kimball, Moses Humphrey, and Benning W. Sanborn, to report the most proper course to be taken to secure the early introduction of an adequate supply of pure, fresh water from Long pond. The citizens of Concord were becoming thoroughly convinced that the safety, health, prosperity, and growth of the city absolutely demanded a greater and better supply of water than it then had, as they expressed themselves in resolution, at a full meeting in Eagle hall, on the evening of October 1, 1870. On the 29th of the same month, the committee of seventeen reported in favor of Long pond as the source of supply; by reason of the remarkable purity and softness of its water; its sufficiency to afford a constant and abundant supply; its elevation great enough to force the water over all the buildings, except a small number on the highest points, and into most of those ; and the comparative ease with which the water could be conducted by aqueduct over the three and a half miles from the outlet of the pond to the state house.
The committee found that nothing hindered the immediate begin- ning of the work but the failure to make any satisfactory arrange- 'ment with the owners of the mills at West Concord, whereby might be secured the right to divert, for the purpose of the aqueduct, a part of the water hitherto used exclusively by the mills. Hence, active operations had to await state legislation. The committee accordingly reported the recommendation that measures be taken on
529
INTRODUCTION OF LONG POND WATER.
behalf of the city to obtain the necessary legislation, and that in the meantime plans and details be prepared ready for the work when the proper time came for commencing it. The recommendation was referred to Josiah Minot, Benjamin A. Kimball, John M. Hill, and David A. Warde, who, on the 10th of August, 1871, reported that the necessary legislative action had been procured. They also sub- mitted an ordinance placing the management of the city water-works in a board of commissioners, to consist of six citizens and the mayor ex officio. After strenuous opposition and long discussion in both branches of the city council, the ordinance passed on the 30th of December, 1871. The mayor and aldermen, in January, 1872, appointed as the first board of water commissioners, John M. Hill, Benjamin A. Kimball, Josiah Minot, David A. Warde, Benjamin S. Warren, and Edward L. Knowlton; Mayor Jones serving ex officio till March, and thenceforward Mayor Kimball. James A. Weston, who engineered the sewerage system, was appointed chief engineer, and Charles C. Lund, assistant. The dispute with the owners of the water-power having been settled by referees in the unexpectedly large award of sixty thousand dollars, the city obtained the right to draw three hundred sixty-five million gallons yearly from the pond. The city purchased the stock of the Torrent Aqueduct association and the water rights of Nathaniel White for twenty thousand dollars ; and paid for other water rights and for land damages, the sum of twenty-one thousand three hundred thirty-four dollars. The Amer- ican Gas and Water Pipe company, of New Jersey, contracted to construct the main line from Long pond to the northerly end of Main street, and all the distribution pipes therefrom through the main portion of the city, and to set gates, hydrants, and other appen- dages, for the sum of one hundred forty-three thousand eight hun- dred eighty-two dollars. Within eight months after the contractors commenced work, water was, on the 14th of January, 1873, admitted into the pipes from the pond. By the last day of that year, twenty miles of piping had been laid and were in use. Under the act of June 30, 1871, authorizing the establishment of water-works, a water precinct was established having the same boundaries and containing the same territory as the gas precinct. On the 1st of January, 1875, the board of water commissioners thought it proper that the con- struction account should be closed at the amount of three hundred fifty thousand dollars, and that the indebtedness for the works, which had not already been provided for by the issue of bonds, should be likewise funded. And thus it was that the quiet waters of Lake Penacook began to be utilized in multiform benefits to the city.1
1 See Analysis of Long Pond Water, in note at close of chapter.
35
530
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
MIGRANITE
BANK
Board of Trade Building.
By October of the year 1873-the year of the first abundant inflow of "pure sweet water "-the subscription of members of the Board of Trade, recently organized, had erected on the eligible corner of Main and School streets a stately busi- ness edifice, handsome without and pleasant with- in, with its convenient illuminated clock in sightly tower, and its mellow bell of steel,-the latter, the generous individual gift of George A. Pillsbury. Though that building was long to outlive the organ- ization under whose auspices it was erected and whose name it bore, yet, in any just appreciation, it should stand as a monument of an honorable attempt "to promote the prosperity of Concord." 1
Attention to the subjects of Public Health and the prevention of disease was specially awakened in connection with the introduction of sewerage and the new water supply. Concord, however, from the beginning of its city govern- ment had had its health officers. About the year 1866, Dr. Gran- ville P. Conn began to advocate sanitary improvement, and so far gained the ear of the city council that an ordinance was passed pro- viding for a house-to-house inspection,-the first in the state, if not in the United States,-this measure having been the more readily adopted in view of the ravages of eholera in Europe. Hygienie con- siderations were thenceforward, year after year, impressed upon the people in annual reports of city physicians and health officers-espe- cially in the Seventies-until the city came to be laudably progres- sive in the matter of sanitation, and more and more ready to adopt scientific means and methods for warding off disease and death.
The historic glance may now be turned from topics especially per- taining to the material progress and physical well-being of the city to others of importance, but having less direct reference thereto. The beginning and early growth of the City Library have been recorded in a previous chapter. The city appropriation of three hundred dollars for this institution was continued for four years, or until 1867, when, the burden of war being somewhat lightened, it became five hundred. This continued till 1876, when, in accordance with a suggestion of the trustees, the library was removed to the board of trade building, 'after having had its home in the city hall building for nineteen years. In its new rooms, its six thousand seven hundred volumes found a more convenient situation. The city appropriation was doubled to one thousand dollars, and the library was kept open every afternoon
1 See Board of Trade Festival, in note at close of chapter.
531
KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS.
and evening-Sunday excepted-for the exchange of books, and its privileges were extended to persons residing out of town upon the annual payment of one dollar each. The next year the reference library was assigned a separate room, while the adjacent reading- room of the Young Men's Christian association became available for the patrons of the library. It had received, in 1863, a legacy of one thousand dollars from Gardiner P. Lyon, a publisher and statistician ; and in 1870 another of the same amount from the estate of ex-Presi- dent Pierce.
With the means of intellectual improvement thus and otherwise maintained, there were also opportunities for the cultivation of fra- ternal benevolence in addition to those already afforded by Masons and Odd Fellows. It was sought to teach practically the lesson of the friendship of Damon and Pythias, as told in history and sung in poetry, through the ritual of a secret fraternal order instituted at Washington in 1864, and styled " The Knights of Pythias." Accord- ing to its declaration of principles, this organization is "intended solely to disseminate the great principles of Friendship, Charity, and Benevolence. Nothing of a sectarian or political character is per- mitted within its portals. Toleration in religion, obedience to law, and loyalty to government are its cardinal principles."
On the 18th of November, 1870, a Lodge was instituted in Con- cord as Concord Lodge, No. 8, Knights of Pythias. The ceremonies of institution took place in an upper room of the Cyrus Hill block, known as Memorial hall, and occupied by. the Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. These ceremonies were performed by Grand Chancellor Stillman S. Davis, assisted by Joseph L. Dow as Grand Recording and Corresponding Scribe and other Grand Lodge officers, and in the presence of visiting brothers from Manchester and Nashua. The fifteen charter members thus initiated and organized were: Cur- tis White, L. K. Peacock, A. H. Morrison, W. H. Buntin, D. E. Howard, J. W. Saul, Moses Ladd, E. N. Doyen, A. W. Smith, J. B. Colby, J. L. Green, J. S. Merrill, C. H. Peacock, W. A. Webster, and F. H. Newman. Officers were at once elected and installed.
During the year 1871 thirty-six members were added. In Janu- ary, 1872, the quarters to be permanently oceupied by the Lodge as Pythian hall-then known as Central hall-were leased, and posses- sion taken, with a publie dedication held on the evening of Wash- ington's birthday. The hall was much the worse for wear, and the furniture the plainest of the plain. As for paraphernalia, the mem- bers had only the things they could not get along without, and many of these made by the members themselves were rather crude. The membership was only fifty-eight, and the exchequer was low. "But
532
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
the members," writes the historian1 of the Lodge, " were active, earnest, and full of faith. They gave of their time and of their money ; they labored with their hands, and furnished most of the material for arranging the Castle Hall as we now have it." By such efforts and from the proceeds of a fair and of two presentations of the play of " Damon and Pythias," the Lodge could show a hall that the grand chancellor, in 1876, pronounced " an honor to the Order." From the first, the meetings were held on Wednesday evenings, and have been reported as rarely missed for thirty years. Section No. 11 of the endowment rank, composed mostly of members of the Concord Lodge, was instituted on the 7th of December, 1877, and had paid, up to the year 1900, the sum of nineteen thousand dollars to the families of deceased members. At the latter date, too, the active membership of the Lodge was one hundred thirty-three.2
During most of the time in which were occurring the events since the war, thus far narrated, one day each year was specially observed throughout the North as sacred to the memory of those who had served in the military defense of their country-an observance aris- ing from the formation of a national fraternal order of Union veter- ans under the name of "Grand Army of the Republic." In 1866 the idea of establishing the Order was suggested and urged by Major Benjamin F. Stevenson, of Illinois, and under his supervision its rit- ual was prepared and its first Post immediately instituted at Decatur, in that state. Other Posts were speedily established throughout Illinois and other states, and Departments organized, so that, on the 20th of November of the same year, the first national convention or Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic was held at Indian- apolis, which was attended by representatives from ten states and the District of Columbia. During the year 1867 the Order spread rapidly, and state, county, and town organizations were formed.
In 1868 a Post of the Grand Army of the Republic was estab- lished at Concord-the second in the state, and bearing the name of its honored hero and martyr, Edward E. Sturtevant. Early that year, General John A. Logan had been chosen commander-in-chief. To him belongs the honor of first designating a day on which the Grand Army should observe the beautiful ceremony of decorating, with flowers and otherwise, the graves of the Union dead. He appointed the 30th of May, 1868, as the day for that purpose. The Concord Post readily procceded to comply with the order of the commander-in- chicf. Mayor Stevens, on May the 29th, made proclamation in the following appropriate terms: "The Grand Army of the Republic having extended to the people of Concord an earnest invitation to
1 Frank J. Pillsbury.
2 Sce Connected K. of P. Organizations, in note at close of chapter.
.
533
FIRST MEMORIAL DAY.
unite with them to-morrow in offering a floral tribute to the memory of the Union soldiers who died in defense of Liberty and the Gov- ernment, it seems highly proper that it should be accepted ; I there- fore recommend that on to-morrow the citizens of Concord close their places of business from two to four o'clock in the afternoon, and participate in the ceremonies at Eagle Hall and at the Cemeteries, and thus aid in the inauguration of a custom which should be ob- served while we continue to enjoy the blessings secured to us by the achievements of the heroic dead."
On the morrow came the first Memorial Day, and with it due man- ifestation of popular interest and sympathy. As recommended, busi- ness was suspended for two hours in the afternoon. Eagle hall, fitly decorated, and which earlier had received in profusion bouquets and wreaths tastefully arranged by young ladies of Concord, now received the people in goodly num- bers to participate in the first regular exercises of the day. Pupils of the high school and of the grammar schools, with their teachers, and Ben- jamin B. Davis, who led their singing, were among those in attendance. The comrades of the Post, headed by their com- mander, Colonel James E. Larkin, were the last to enter the hall, and were received with acclaim. State Street, rear of State House-1880. Each carried a wreath or bouquet, and wore upon the left arm crape bound by a knot of red, white, and blue.
The exercises were opened with prayer by the Post chaplain, the Reverend James F. Lovering, followed by " America," sung by the school pupils and the audience. Having read General Logan's order, Commander Larkin called upon Mayor Stevens to address the meeting, who did so, and also read with effect Lincoln's classic speech at Gettysburg. These exercises were the introduction of the day's programme, of which the decoration of graves was the conclu- sion. A line of march in procession was taken to the burying grounds. The grave of Lieutenant Charles A. Walker, one of the first victims of the war, was the first to be decorated with flowers and marked with flag. At seven other graves in the Old North cem-
534
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
etcry, and at ten in Blossom Hill, the same ceremony was performed. To the nameless graves of seven soldiers in the latter cemetery like honors were paid. The solemn service of decoration having been completed, a dirge sung by the school children, and the benediction pronounced by the grand chaplain, closed the first observance of - Memorial Day in Concord.
Only the graves of those who had served in the recent Civil War then received such decoration; but later those of others who had served in any of their country's wars were to receive the like token of grateful remembrance. Within eleven years two other Posts of the Grand Army were established within the city limits: W. I. Brown, No. 31, at Fisherville, or Penacook, in 1877, and Davis Post, No. 44, at West Concord, in 1879. About the year 1880 the city council appropriated one hundred fifty dollars, distributed to the three posts, towards defraying the expenses of Decoration Day. The appropriation gradually increased to four hundred dollars, as it stood in 1900.
In 1870 the " Ancient Order of Hibernians," and the "St. Pat- rick's Benevolent Society " were organized; the latter to answer its humane purpose for twenty-five years; the former to find itself, at the end of the century, prosperous, and giving promise of an indefi- nite future of usefulness. For the Irish element of population had been growing in numbers and importance for twenty years or more, and was furthering, as it would continue to further, the progress of Concord. Nor should it be forgotten that it had readily supplied its quota of good men and true to serve their adopted country in the late Civil War. In connection with the mention of Irish mutual- benefit societies, the fact should not be overlooked that the later and smaller element of French immigration had, as early as 1868, its permanent and useful "French-Canadian Association."
It may be well here to add, in their chronologie order, certain detached facts arising under topics more fully treated in previous narration, and to note others not hitherto mentioned, but treated in a special chapter. In 1868 a new feature was added to the Pauper system, in the appointment of an overseer of the poor in Wards 3, 4, 5, and 6, to supply upon application provisions, fuel, rent, and other necessities to needy persons not at the Poor Farm, and who, with a little timely aid thus rendered, might never be there. . Charles F. Stewart, city clerk, was the first overseer, and so remained for many years, until succeeded by Joseph A. Cochran, his successor in the city clerkship. The same year (1868) a structure of wood was erected, at a cost of two hundred dollars, in connection with the poor house, for a house of correction. It was subsequently destroyed
535
WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION.
by fire. As early as 1869 the committee on the city farm suggested " the impropriety of sentencing criminals to the present house of cor- rection ;" adding, " that the honest poor should be compelled to labor and associate with such criminals, we believe to be unjust and unnecessary."
In 1873 the limits of Blossom Hill cemetery were enlarged by the purchase of twenty-three acres of additional land for a little more than three thousand five hundred dollars. Long pond water was introduced into the cemetery the same year. In 1874 the Catholics purchased, as a site for Calvary cemetery, land adjoining Blossom Hill on the north.
The restraints of the prohibitory law and the efforts of moral suasion continued in these days to co-operate in promoting the cause of temperance and sobriety. Lecturers were in the field; the columns of newspapers were open to appeals; the reports of city marshals and of the police court contained reminders and warnings- all of which tended to keep public attention awake to the evils of intemperance. Organized effort was continued and enlarged. The St. John's Catholic Temperance Society, with branch at Fisherville, was formed, and, under the discreet and earnest Christian guidance of Father John E. Barry, accomplished noble results. It is stated as a fact that for some years there were only three Catholics in Fish- erville who were not total abstainers from the use of intoxicants. In 1873 the women of Concord were moved by the impulse of reform then sweeping the country to try the effect of concerted action against intemperance in their own vicinity. Correspondence was held with ladies in other places relative to forming temper- ance leagues, and finally a call was issued for a woman's temperance convention to be held at Eagle hall, in Concord, on the 11th of November, 1874. The call-sent out on postals-was signed by three Concord ladies, as follows: "Mrs. N. White, Mrs. J. H. Gal- linger, Mrs. Elisha Adams, Committee." Nearly one hundred women responded to the call, and the result of the mecting was the form- ation of the New Hampshire Woman's Temperance League, with Mrs. Nathaniel White of Concord for its first president. Three years later the name was changed to the Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union, to be in harmony with the national organization. The W. C. T. U. was to grow till in 1900 there should be reported one hundred fifteen local "Unions," with a membership of eight thousand two hundred three, being the largest, in proportion to population, of any state in the country.
In 1868 the charge of the Concord Post-office was given Dr. Moses T. Willard, who retained it till 1870. Colonel James E.
536
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
Larkin succeeded him, holding the postmastership four years, or until 1874. By reappointment, Dr. Willard became in turn his suc- cessor for three years, or until 1877, when, by reason of his failing health and ensuing death, the office again fell to Colonel Larkin. The second term of the latter continued four years, or from 1877 to 1881. Between those dates the post-office was removed from the loca- tion on School street, which it had occupied since 1863, to White's Opera House block, recently erected upon the site of the historic American House. The removal occasioned considerable excitement, and wordy warfare in which the old rivalry between the North End and the South End secmed for a while to flame anew.
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