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 58
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Amateur theatricals had all along been a favorite form of literary recreation in Concord. In the Sixties a histrionic club existed. In 1874 the Concord Young People's Union was organized-at first under the special auspices of the Universalist society-and flour- islied for several years. Among those prominent "upon the boards " during the existence of this organization and of the Concord Art Club that grew out of it, were Nathaniel C. Nelson, Frank Cressy, Charles N. Towle, Miss Belle Larkin, and Mrs. Belle Marshall Locke. Miss Maude Dixon, who afterwards became the wife of Salvini, the younger, sometimes appeared upon the stage. Among the many dramas acceptably presented were " Ingomar," "The Octo- roon," "'The Lady of Lyons," and " Damon and Pythias." The pop- ularity of such theatricals, usually given in Eagle hall, was a prime inducement for Nathaniel White to provide an opera house.
The receptions, respectively, of President Grant, in 1869, and President Hayes, in 1877, as well as Concord's celebration of Inde- pendence Day, in 1876, having been fully described in a special chap- ter, need to be given here merely their chronologie place.
Concord, before the national Centennial of 1876, fitly commemo- rated, on the 17th of June, 1875, her third semi-centennial, one hun- dred fifty years having clapsed since her original township grant in 1725. The day was celebrated by a musical entertainment given by the Concord Choral Union, and a public dinner; but especially by the discourse of the Rev. Dr. Bouton, who, upon invitation of the city council and the board of trade, addressed the people assembled in city hall upon the subject of the moral, social, and civil progress of Concord during the last fifty years. This discourse was the last of the venerable author's many contributions-and one of the most valuable-to the history of his beloved town.
When the centennial year came Concord made observance of it, not only in its own home celebration of a century of national inde- pendence and progress, but in contributing to the display of the
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HOME FOR THE AGED.
grand " exhibition of American and foreign arts, products, and man- ufactures," held at Philadelphia. The exhibits of Concord made espe- cially in the departments of education, agriculture, and manufactures, though not numerous, were highly creditable, and secured an honor- able share of awards. Interest in the Phil- adelphia exposition had been increased through the efforts of Miss Elizabeth S. Stevens, of Concord, a member of the Woman's Centennial Committee for New Hampshire, who raised, in her own city, in the winter of 1875-76, more than six hundred dollars towards the erection of the Woman's Pavilion. In this beautiful structure were exhibited the results of woman's taste, skill, and industry, and as to which the testimony has been borne, that "it contained the fullest representa- tion of woman's genius and skill ever made in one collection."
First Centennial Home for the Aged.
In course of the same centennial year Christian benevolence founded in Con- cord a home for the aged. The thought of such an institution first shaped itself into action when, in January, 1876, a contribution of one hundred ten dollars to the Concord Female Charitable Society was set aside as the beginning of a fund for the proposed home. In the fol- lowing February a large meeting of the women of Concord was held, and a society organized to promote the desired purpose. The officers of this pioneer organization were: President, Mrs. Nathaniel Bouton; recording secretary, Mrs. William H. Bartlett; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Charles C. Pearson ; treasurer, Mrs. William M. Chase. The draft of a constitu- tion was presented by Mrs. Nathaniel White, committees were designated, and an advisory board of gentlemen was selected. A charter having been obtained from the legislature in June, 1876, incorporating " The New Hampshire Centennial Home for the Aged,"-an institution for the support and maintenance of aged people of both sexes,-the society, in July, accepted the act of
Present Centennial Home for the Aged.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
incorporation, organized under it, and adopted a constitution. The former officers of the society were re-elected, and fifteen trustees- ten men and five women-were chosen. On the first day of January, 1879, the Home was opened upon premises-at first hired but subse- quently purchased-eligibly located on Pleasant street. Two years later the permanent fund reached more than eighteen thousand dol- lars, through the generous gift of ten thousand dollars contributed thereto by Mrs. Nathaniel White in memory of her husband. Within twenty-five years the little fund of one hundred ten dollars was to be increased to ninety-seven thousand, a more commodious residence erected, and sixty-four aged ones enrolled as permanent dwellers in a happy home.
As during the Civil War the Republican and Democratic parties in the North had been arrayed against each other, so were they during the era of Reconstruction. The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments of the constitution were of Republican initia- tion, adoption, and ratification against Democratic opposition. The same was substantially true of other measures adopted to enforce those amendments in their purpose of securing to " all persons born or naturalized in the United States " the unabridged " privileges and immunities of citizens," as well as of maintaining "the validity of the public debt," and upholding the financial honor of the nation against any form of repudiation. Herein were involved the vital and absorbing issues that divided parties during the period extend- ing from 1865 to 1880.
New Hampshire met these issues as they rose, and helped to for- ward their settlement in accordance with the views of the Republi- can majority of the country. She was the second state of twenty- seven to ratify the Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment; doing so by the Republican vote of her legislature in the early summer of 1865. In four successive presidential clections she cast an average majority of four thousand for the four successful tickets headed respectively by the names of Grant, Hayes, and Garfield. To that majority Concord steadily contributed an average of one tenth, or four hundred ; while the number of voters gradually increased from twenty-four hundred to thirty-five hundred. With the exception of the two detached years, 1871 and 1874, the state government was, throughout the period, in full Republican control. Nor did the cir- cumstances under which that control was then broken denote any vital change of popular sentiment as to the great national issues of the day.
In 1870 the Temperance party appeared at the polls, and cast for its gubernatorial ticket cleven hundred thirty-five votes. Thence-
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CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.
forward for the remaining ten years of the period its vote appeared in the election returns with fluctuations reaching the maximum of twenty-five hundred in 1874, and contributing that year to the brief anti-Republican ascendancy in the state government. Pending the resumption of specie payments the shorter-lived Greenback party arose. In November, 1878, at the first biennial election, when the Temperance party cast its minimum of ninety-one votes, this later organization cast its maximum of sixty-four hundred, drawing heav- ily upon Democratic strength. Greenbackism could not long sur- vive the successful operation of the Resumption Act, which went into effect in 1879; its strength falling at the next election to five hundred, in its rapid decline to zero. But all the while Concord was little moved by side issues in politics. Its line of party division was not wont to veer much from that which separated the two lead- ing parties ; and in contests, national, state, and municipal, Republi- can strength was steadily predominant.
The attempt made in 1850 to secure amendment of the state con- stitution was virtually fruitless-as recorded in a previous chapter- but now another more successful was made in 1876. On the 6th of January of this year, a constitutional convention of three hundred seventy delegates assembled at the state house. To this number Concord contributed the following fifteen : John S. Brown, Daniel W. Fox, John L. Tallant, Abijah Hollis, Ai B. Thompson, Jacob H. Gallinger, Benjamin E. Badger, Jonathan E. Sargent, John Kimball, William E. Chandler, Joseph Wentworth, Benjamin A. Kimball, Lewis Downing, William W. Critchett, Isaac W. Hammond. Dur- ing a session of ten days thirteen amendments were agreed upon for submission to the people at the March election of 1877. These, numbered in order, were: 1. Omitting the word "Protestant " in the Bill of Rights; 2. Authorizing "the trial of causes in which the value in controversy does not exceed one hundred dollars, and title to real estate is not concerned, without the intervention of a jury ; " 3. Establishing " the biennial election of governor, councillors, mem- bers of the senate and house of representatives, and biennial sessions of the legislature ;" 4. Basing the house of representatives " upon population ;" 5. Constituting " a senate of twenty-four members; " 6. Providing for "the election by the people of registers of probate, solicitors, and sheriffs;" 7. "Abolishing the religious test as a quali- fieation for office ; " 8. Prohibiting "towns or cities to loan or give their money or credit to corporations ; " 9. "Changing the time for holding the State election from March to November; " 10. Provid- ing " that appeals from a justice of the peace may be tried by some other court without the intervention of a jury ;" 11. Increasing "the
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
jurisdiction of justices of the peace to one hundred dollars; " 12. "Prohibiting the removal of officers for political reasons ; " 13. " Prohibiting money raised by taxation from being applied to the support of schools or institutions of any religious sect or denomina- tion."
Eleven of these propositions were accepted by more than two thirds of the legal voters of the state present in annual town-meet- ing, and voting thereupon. The first-providing for the omission of the word " Protestant " in the Bill of Rights-and the twelfth-pro- hibiting the removal of officers for political reasons-were rejected. Concord, however, approved of both, but disapproved of the third, which authorized biennial elections in certain cases. Thus, not till after the lapse of eighty-five years did the people of New Hampshire consent to any material change of the revered constitution of 1792.1
NOTES.
Analysis of Long Pond Water. In 1872, S. Dana Hayes, state assayer of Massachusetts, analyzed Long pond water, and found it to contain 1.80 per cent. of total impurities, mineral and organic, com- pared with the percentages of fourteen other water supplies of prom- nent places, as follows : Boston, Cochituate lake, 3.20 ; Charlestown, Mystic lake, 5.68 ; Lowell, Merrimack river, 1.94; Manchester, Mas- sabesic lake, 2.82; Lynn, Flax pond, 4.08; New Bedford, Acushnet river, 3.18; Fall river, Watuppa pond, 1.80; Springfield, Chicopee river, 2.70 ; Providence, Pawtuxet river, 2.57; New York, Croton river, 4.98; Philadelphia, Schuylkill river, 3.50 ; Chicago, Lake Michigan, 6.68; Paris, France, Seine river, 8.83 ; London, England, Thames river, 16.38.
Board of Trade Festival. The occupation of new rooms in the new Board of Trade building was made the occasion for a social gathering of the members of the board, with their ladies and invited guests, on the evening of October 20, 1873. The music was supplied by Blais- dell & Ingalls's band, and a choir of nine male voices ; an opening address was made by Lyman D. Stevens, president of the board, and the principal one by Asa McFarland, followed by a poem entitled "Concord," by Mrs. Abba Goold Woolson. After the exercises in Board of Trade hall, the company repaired to the Eagle hotel, where a banquet was served. With post-prandial sentiments and responses the happy occasion closed at midnight.
In the course of his historical address Mr. McFarland said : " But while speaking of this edifice as one which arose under the auspices of the board of trade, I should be chargeable with a serious omission
1 See Concord Men in Official Positions, in note at close of chapter.
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1
CONCORD MEN IN OFFICIAL POSITIONS.
were it not stated that it is doubtful if the purpose of erecting a beautiful, commanding, and substantial edifice for business purposes, in place of a structure that had become a conspicuous blemish, would have been successful but for the earnest and persistent labor of Isaac A. Hill. It is not impossible but the enterprise would have been successful in the hands of some other one of our fellow-citizens, but I entertain the belief that most of the business men of the city would have thrown by the subscription paper before they had explored half the ground. For this edifice, and the costly and reliable clock in its tower, our people are especially indebted to Mr. Hill."
Connected K. of P. Organizations. In addition to the organizations mentioned in the text, others were instituted in the course of years, so that the following existed in 1900: Kearsarge Lodge, No. 48; Pillsbury Company, No. 3, U. R. K. of P., instituted in 1877; Su- preme Lodge, Pythian Sisterhood ; Grand Lodge, Pythian Sisterhood; Young Assembly, Pythian Sisterhood, No. 1.
Concord Men in Official Positions. In course of the period under review in the text, the following citizens of Concord held official position : William E. Chandler, first assistant secretary of the treasury for two years, 1865-'67 ; George G. Fogg, recent minis- ter to Switzerland, U. S. senator from August, 1866, to March, 1867 ; Edward H. Rollins, serving his third term in the house of represent- atives of the thirty-ninth congress, 1865-'67, and as U. S. senator from March, 1877; Onslow Stearns, governor, in 1869, '70; Moses Humphrey, councillor, for the same years; Lyman D. Stevens, pres- idential elector, at the second election of General Grant, in 1872; John Y. Mugridge (1868, '69), David A. Warde (1872, '73), George E. Todd (1874 and 1876), Jacob H. Gallinger (1878, '79), members of the state senate, and all save the third serving as presidents of that body ; Asa Fowler in 1872, Charles P. Sanborn in 1875 and 1876, speakers of the house of representatives; Nathan W. Gove, 1870, William Butterfield, 1874, Ai B. Thompson, 1877 (date of first election), secretaries of state ; Peter Sanborn, 1857-'71, state treasurer; Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Bouton, 1866-'77, state historian ; Granville P. Conn, 1877, '79, railroad commissioner ; Amos Hadley, 1867-'69, state superintendent of public instruction.
Concord, from Cupola of Court House.
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CHAPTER XVI.
THE CITY OF CONCORD .- TWO DECADES OF PROGRESS .- TOPICS, OLD AND NEW, TREATED TO CONCLUSION.
1880-1900.
The biennial system of electing city and ward officers had, under the amended charter, gone into operation in Concord on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November of the year 1878. On that day those officers were chosen for the two ensuing years, as there- after their successors were to be. Horace A. Brown, who had already served in the mayoralty eight months under the old, or annual, sys- tem, was the first to be elected to the same office under the new. The amended charter also extended the term of office of the city council, elected in November, 1878, from March, 1879, to the Tues- day next after the day of the biennial election in November, 1880.
The mayors during the years of the next two decades were : George A. Cummings, 1881,'82; Edgar H. Woodman, 1883, '84, '85, '86; John E. Robertson, 1887, '88; Stillman Humphrey, 1889, '90 ; Henry W. Clapp, 1891, '92; Parsons B. Cogswell, 1893, '94; Henry Robinson, 1895, '96; Albert B. Woodworth, 1897, '98; Nathaniel E. Martin, 1899, 1900.
With the change of time for holding the municipal election, the date of organizing a newly-elected city government was changed from the third Tuesday in March to the fourth Tuesday of January next after the November election. Under an amendment of the charter, the city council in 1882 came to be composed of an equal number of aldermen and common councilmen, each ward having as many men in either branch as it had members of the general court. Hitherto the board of aldermen had consisted of seven members, and the common council of fourteen ; now each had twelve until 1891, when the number was increased to fifteen. When, however, in 1894, the two new wards, eight and nine, were created, the total member- ship of the city council was not increased.
Of an important enterprise, the continued record of which comes in order here, the board of water commissioners,-John Kimball, Wil- liam M. Chase, James L. Mason, James R. Hill, Samuel S. Kimball, Luther P'. Durgin, and Mayor George A. Cummings,1-made in 1882
1 See Number and Tenure of Water Commissioners, in note at close of chapter.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
the following report: " Our city has now been supplied with water from Long pond for a period of ten years. We can review these years with much satisfaction. No one at the present time doubts the wisdom of the undertaking. The original works were thoroughly constructed, so that only a very small sum has been required for repairs. The cement-lined pipe has been found adapted to our wants. The water supplied has been pure and generally abundant. Takers have increased from year to year and are still increasing; the rates have been reduced ; large improvements have been made in the works, and with moderate rates the income is ample to pay interest charges on the bonded debt, and all charges for care and maintenance. The destruction of property in the city by fire has been largely dimin- ished in consequence of the ample supply of water at hand to extin- guish fires. Insurance rates have been correspondingly reduced. The great majority of our citizens have been abundantly supplied with water for family uses, and large quantities have been furnished for sprinkling lawns and for other purposes. By the recent improve- ments, it is believed that every citizen who desires the water can be supplied, and that the annoyances that have heretofore occurred at the high points in the city by reason of an intermittent supply will be remedied."
One of the "recent improvements " referred to in the report was the laying of "a second and larger main from the dam to a point opposite the entrance to Blossom Hill cemetery, and another large pipe from that point through Walnut street to its intersection with Franklin street." This work had been done in 1882 at an expense of nearly forty-five thousand dollars, for which the city council made cheerful provision. The enterprise continued to prosper. The ad- vantages of an adequate water supply were so earnestly desired by the residents of West Concord, Fisherville, and Millville, that in 1887 they were admitted to the water precinct. The city council had with remarkable unanimity consented to the extension, though involving a large outlay by which forty thousand dollars was added to the indebt- edness of the city.
The works were self-sustaining. Thus, in 1890, the income from reasonable water rates was sufficient to pay the expenses of mainten- ance, the cost of new pipes,-amounting to seven thousand seven hundred dollars,-and the interest upon the water-works, and to leave a balance of earnings amounting to six thousand two hundred dollars. But the low pressure in the most elevated parts of the pre- cinct was a defect which could be remedied only by expensive means. In 1890 the commissioners had under consideration two methods of relief : One, to pump water from Long pond into a reservoir located
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PUMPING STATION.
upon a convenient elevation, and to distribute it thence by gravity ; the other, to depend still exclusively upon gravity by bringing water from the higher level of Walker pond in the town of Webster. Which method to adopt was long and seriously considered. Each involved large expenditure. Finally, in 1891, the board of water commis- sioners, then consisting of George A. Young, William P. Fiske, James L. Mason, Joseph H. Abbot, Willis D. Thompson, James H. Chase, and Mayor Henry W. Clapp, adopted the first plan, thereby introducing " High Service " into the Concord system. Before the season closed a good beginning was made. The Pumping Station was located upon land purchased of Moses II. Bradley, and situated at the junction of State and Penacook streets. This was to receive water from a main leading from Long pond and force it into the Reservoir. This was located upon an elevation of land on Penacook street pur- chased of Joseph B. Walker; and from it distribution could be made with ade- quate pressure. Contracts were closed for the various departments of con- struetion and supplies. The pump- ing station, with coal shed, shop, and stable, was completed in 1892, under contract, by Eben B. Hutchinson of Concord, at an expense of seventeen thousand six hundred dollars. This structure had separate rooms for its pumping-engine and boilers. Its boiler- room, measuring thirty-eight by thirty- two feet, had its monitor roof, and was Pumping Station. connected with a chimney eighty feet high and twelve feet square at base. Two boilers were set in brick, each fifteen feet long and fifty- four inches in diameter. The pumping-engine was furnished by Henry B. Worthington of New York, for nine thousand two hundred dol- lars. The water was taken from the fourteen-inch main into the pump under pressure through a surface condenser, and then forced into the reservoir through a twenty-inch pipe. It was capable of delivering two million gallons of water in twenty-four hours.
The reservoir, constructed under the supervision of Engineer W. B. Fuller of Malden, Mass., had a capacity of two million gallons, and its grounds embraced nine acres. Water was let into it on the third day of December, 1892, its cost of construction having been about thirty-five thousand dollars. At the close of 1893, Superin- tendent V. C. Hastings could report : "The new high service system has worked very successfully during the year."
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
There had also been done, in 1892, in connection with the high service, a considerable work of laying pipes and setting gates and hydrants, involving, in labor and materials, an expense of about twenty-four thousand dollars. Indeed, the years 1892 and 1893 were marked years in the history of the water department, not only in perfecting the works themselves, but in securing for the city the absolute and unquestioned control of the water supply. Thus, in the former year, a settlement was effected with the Concord Man- ufacturing Company, whereby that company relinquished all right and title to the waters of Penacook lake for the sum of eighty thou- sand dollars. The next year, the commissioners, looking ahead to possible contingencies, secured of Charles H. Amsden, for five thou- sand dollars, his water-rights in Long pond, in Webster, favorably situated for giving the city an additional supply of water, should it be needed.
So this important enterprise went on through its first twenty-eight years-from 1872 to 1900-with an expense of nearly eight hundred sixty thousand dollars, but without financially oppressing the city.
" No city has purer water than this," said the Board of Health, in 1881; " surely nine tenths of our people within the water-supply use the water from the main source." "This city," added the board, " has now invested in sewers seventy-five thousand dollars; we believe we have a very complete system." Those statements were followed by the timely reiteration of suggestions as to the necessity of keeping the fountain of the water supply free from outside con- tamination, and of so laying, trapping, and ventilating sewer pipes as not to endanger health from noxious exhalation. The latter lcs- son, especially, needed enforcement not only then, but even in later days. Until 1888, the department of sewerage was under the care and direction of a committee on sewers and drains, composed of the mayor and two aldermen; the number of aldermen then becoming three, and later, four. The regular annual appropriation for sewers rarely exceeded five thousand dollars, but was sometimes aided by a special one; as in 1890, when a special appropriation of twelve thousand dollars-notwithstanding the unusually large annual one of seven thousand-was made for building the South End sewer, four thousand eighty feet long, extending from Allison street to the Merrimack river-an enterprise completed in 1891, and properly deemed highly important, since it relieved the Brook sewer of exces- sive pressure, and afforded drainage to the vicinity of Pillsbury street and Broadway, including the premises of the new Margaret Pillsbury hospital. Care was also wisely taken to provide newly settled local- ities with sewerage; as, in 1891, in the vicinity of Curtis avenue,
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