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 61
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
than two hundred a year." These suggestions were heeded ; and in 1897 the city council authorized the purchase of the Bradley lot to enlarge Blossom Hill cemetery. The lot included about thirty acres, and the sum paid was five thousand dollars. Along with this instance of the city's foresight in providing ample burial grounds is to be record- ed the honorable fact that in 1900 the city treasurer was in account with no less than one hundred and forty trust funds for the care and improvement of cemeteries-the accumulation of twenty years.
The town or City Farm, with its almshouse, after having been for fifty-five years the characteristic feature of Concord's pauper system, was in 1883 dispensed with. That year a state law was passed mak- ing any indigent person who had not acquired a town settlement since the year 1870 a county charge. On the 13th of September, 1883, when the change under the new law as to settlements went into effect, there were four county and two city paupers at the poor farm. But after that date no city paupers were left to be supported there ; the two having become a county charge, subject to be removed, as they soon were, to the Boscawen county farm. There- upon, the joint standing committee on the city farm-Mayor Edgar H. Woodman, Albert H. Saltmarsh, Gardner B. Emmons, Daniel B. Smith, and Jeremiah Quinn-became satisfied, after thorough investigation, that the city farm could no longer be retained with benefit to the city. The committee reported that the buildings were much in need of repair, and to make them respectable for the purposes of continuing the city farm would require a considerable outlay, or a larger outlay for the erection of new buildings. It did not seem judicious to tax the citizens for either of those purposes, unless there should be a sufficient number of city paupers to be supported at the farm to warrant it. There being none at that time, the committee were unanimously of the opinion that it was a use- less expense to continue it ; the published reports showing that the expenses above receipts averaged about five hundred dollars per year for the past four years, without considering the interest upon the investment.
The city council having authorized the committee to sell the farm and personal property at auction, a sale took place on the 21st of December, 1883, at which Harrison Partridge, a former superintend- ent of the farm, bought the portion of the premises east of the high- way for five thousand dollars. The portion left unsold, including the pasture containing the quarries, and the timber lot adjoining Pena- cook park, was valued at about three thousand dollars. The sales of personal property amounted to about seventeen hundred dollars.
" It is believed," further reported the committee, "that there will
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POLICE DEPARTMENT.
be no immediate need of purchasing another farm, as it is found that small sums used for outside aid will generally enable the poor to meet their present necessities, and thus prevent their becoming per- manent charges to the city. This course is more agreeable to people in needy circumstances, as it enables them to retain their self-respect, and it does not destroy their ambition to help themselves." This view of the committee had already been verified by the overseer sys- tem, noticed in a former chapter, which for fifteen years had been effectively and humanely dispensing to the indigent the city's appro- priated aid, exclusive of the aid rendered at the almshouse, and which, thenceforward to 1900, was to be of itself the sufficient department of the poor. After 1890 the average annual appropriation for the city poor, reported by Overseer Joseph A. Cochran, as distributed, was less than one thousand dollars.
The Police department shared in the progressive tendencies of other departments of the city government. Under its city charter Concord, from the first, had its police court, with its justice, "ap- pointed and commissioned by the governor to take cognizance of all crimes, offences, and misdemeanors, committed within the city of Concord." The justice of the court was to receive annually from the city the sum of two hundred fifty dollars in full compensation for his services, while the special justice was to be paid two dollars for each day's service.
The six incumbents of the office of police justice from 1853 to 1900 were, in order : Calvin Ainsworth, Josiah Stevens, John Whip- ple, David Pillsbury, Sylvester Dana, and Benjamin E. Badger. The last three held the position forty-three of the forty-seven years : Pillsbury, five; Dana, twenty-four; Badger, fourteen. In 1868 the salary became by city ordinance four hundred dollars per annum. In 1874, by amendment of the charter, the police court became a court of record, with the salary of the justice at eight hundred dollars, and the justice was required to appoint a clerk thereof at a yearly salary of two hundred dollars. The gradual increase of compensation of the justice was the natural result of the growing importance of the police court, not only as a criminal but a civil tribunal; for the legislature in 1887, under the amended state constitution, gave it jurisdiction in civil actions involving sums not exceeding one hundred dollars.
The special justices of the court, in their order of service, from 1853, were Stephen C. Badger, Arthur Fletcher, Ai B. Thompson, Luther S. Morrill, Arthur W. Silsby, Benjamin E. Badger, Reuben E. Walker, Robert A. Ray, and Amos J. Shurtleff. The clerks were Herbert S. Norris,-appointed by Judge Dana in 1874,-Rufus P. Staniels, George M. Fletcher, and Harry R. Hood.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
The functions of the most important executive officer of the police department, the city marshal, were summarily defined in the amended city charter of 1859 in these words : " The city marshal shall, under the mayor, have the control and direction of the police of the city ; shall attend upon the mayor and aldermen, when required, and shall be, by virtue of his office, constable and conservator of the peace." The original charter placed upon this officer the collection of taxes, and the first three city marshals of Concord performed that duty. The city marshals, from the beginning of the city to the year 1900, werc, in their order, John C. Pilsbury, Jonathan L. Cilley, Benjamin F. Gale, Nehemiah G. Ordway, John Kimball, Jonathan L. Picker- ing,-with intermission between terms of service; William H. Bun- tin, in the intermission ; John Connell, and George Scott Locke. The city marshal, his assistant or assistants, and other police officers were appointed by the mayor and aldermen, with compensation fixed by the city council. In course of the years to 1900 the salary of the marshal was increased from two hundred dollars per annum to twelve hundred.
Up to 1883 the whole police force never numbered more than nine -generally less. That year it consisted of the city marshal, assist- ant marshal, three regular police and night watch, and eighty special police appointed for the seven wards of the city, and also twelve for the railroad. This arrangement continued till 1889, though the per- sonnel was somewhat changed, and the number of the police and night watch had become one more. George Scott Locke had, the year before, succeeded John Connell, resigned after eighteen years' service as city marshal. The salary of the office now became twelve hundred dollars per annum ; a uniformed police squad of fifteen, with Charles L. Gilmore as captain, was organized, later to be known as special reserve officers, and of whom George H. Silsby was captain after 1896. The special police for the wards and railroad was con- tinued with the addition of four for the Concord Horse Railroad. In 1890 the special police of the wards numbered one hundred, while, on the petition of the Concord & Montreal Railroad Company, two hundred policemen were appointed for that corporation, and at its expense. This large-sometimes larger-supply of police was yearly made for the railroad until 1896.
The number of regular police and night watch, including the cap- tain, rose from four in 1888 to ten in 1892. In 1898 it became nine, and so remained through 1900. During the first two years of the period from 1892 to 1900, James E. Rand was captain of the night watch, but served for the remaining years as assistant city marshal, being succeeded in the captaincy by Daniel S. Flanders. Speaking
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POLICE DEPARTMENT.
of the police force in January, 1889, Mayor Stillman Humphrey said : " The uniforming of our patrolmen has met with universal approval, and will doubtless be continued. The special squad organized dur- ing the past year, which has done escort and other duty in this city and elsewhere, has won the hearty favor of all, at home and abroad, by its gentlemanly bearing and excellent deportment."
Under a law passed in 1893, a board of three police commissioners was appointed by the governor, to which was assigned the power of appointing or removing police officers, hitherto vested in the board of mayor and aldermen. The commissioners were required to report quarterly to the city council, and annually to the governor and coun- cil. The first appointees upon this commission were Charles C. Danforth, Stillman Humphrey, and Giles Wheeler; but by 1900 the board had come to consist of Josiah E. Dwight, Giles Wheeler, and Myron J. Pratt. During the first year of service the commission issued a book of rules which, as City Marshal Locke reported, "proved valuable to the force." Mayor Woodworth, in 1897, at the close of his first year's administration, expressed this opinion of the commission feature of the police system : "Careful observation leads me to believe that the removal of the police department from the domain of politics has been a good thing for the efficiency of our ser- vice." On the contrary, Mayor Martin, in his inaugural in 1899, took this ground : "The people are fully as competent to choose their police officers as to elect other officers. They should choose their police officers, and remove them when occasion requires. There is no doubt in my mind that the police department would be more efficient under the control of the city than under a commission."
"Police Signal Service " was a de- sideratum supplied in 1898, when a police telephone line with twelve boxes at convenient points was constructed by the New England Telephone Company from the South end to Penacook, and proved to be an efficient aid to the de- partment. The number of duty calls that were rung in by police officers during the year 1900 was twenty-nine thousand three hundred, besides a large number of emergency calls.
Eight years before, in 1890, the de- partment had had occasion to express its gratification over an improvement in these enthusiastic words of its chief mar-
Police Station, Warren Street.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
Police Station, Penacook.
shal in his report : "To Mayor Stillman Hum- phrey and the city council, the citizens of Concord should be grateful for the model police station which was so much needed. That we have one of the most convenient and suitable buildings for its purpose in New England, there is no doubt." The erection of this building for police and other purposes upon the city lot on Warren street had been preceded by not a little opposition from those who urged the disposing of the city's inter- est in the city hall property, and the building of a large and expensive structure in " some central location." But a progressive conser- vatism had prevailed; and now a suitably dimensioned, two-storied edifice of brick, gran- ite-trimmed, and firmly built without extravagant ornament, arose, where for fifteen years had stood the lobby, nicknamed the "St. James," unsightly, unhealthy, and unfit even for the detention of criminals, much more for the temporary lodging of innocent unfor- tunates who had no other shelter. Later a handsome police station was built at Penacook.
In connection with the police department may here be named the ten City Solicitors, who for forty-seven years held the position of municipal law officers. They were, in order from the beginning : William H. Bartlett, Lyman D. Stevens, William E. Chandler, Na- poleon B. Bryant, Lyman T. Flint (two terms), John Y. Mugridge, Charles P. Sanborn, Robert A. Ray, Henry W. Stevens, Harry G. Sargent.
Previous narration left the City Library in the Board of Trade building, with nearly seven thousand volumes upon its shelves ; with its librarian for more than twenty years-Frederick S. Craw- ford-still in custody; and with its annual appropriation of one thousand dollars from the city treasury. Early in the Eighties a movement was made in regard to the erection of a building for the state and city libraries. At the request of a citizens' meeting, Mayor Cummings appointed a committee of eighteen to take the matter into consideration; but no practical result followed. At another time, petitions numerously signed by business men were presented to the city council, representing that " the credit and welfare of the city would be greatly promoted by the establishment of a Public Library Building with a Reading Room and other suitable connec- tions ; " and that "a favorable opportunity now " presented "itself
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THE FOWLER CITY LIBRARY.
for the successful accomplishment of those purposes. The premises of Mr. Lorenzo D. Brown, at the corner of State and School streets," were, "in location and other respects, very eligible and suitable for a City Library ; and a comparatively small sum " would "be sufficient to place them in proper condition for present use. The whole cost of the premises and fitting up " would "probably be less than twenty thousand dollars." The petitioners therefore prayed the city council to " authorize the purchase and completion of the same by the city." This project did not succeed.
On the 29th of June, 1887, Lurana C. Brown-widow of Lorenzo D .- conveyed by deed to William P. and Clara M. Fowler the prem- ises already mentioned as situated at the corner of State and School streets. The brother and sister had made the purchase with the intention of presenting to the city of Concord a building for the use of the public library, "in grateful and loving remembrance of their parents, Asa Fowler and Mary C. K. Fowler, for fifty years residents of Concord, and always active promoters of the educational and intel- lectual improvement of its citizens."1 They soon made arrange- ments to alter the large brick dwelling-house into a library building. On the 6th of February, 1888, they formally communicated to the city government their intention, and requested the appointment of an advisory building committee, that should "also be authorized to agree upon the terms of the deed of gift, and to accept the same in behalf of the city." They also suggested the names of Benjamin A. Kimball, William L. Foster, and Charles R. Corning as members of the committee. The city council, in convention, so constituted the committee, with Mayor Robertson joined thereto. After delibera- tion the architectural plans, prepared by Walker & Best of Boston, were agreed upon, and the terms of the deed were accepted. On the 10th of October, 1888, occurred the dedicatory exercises of the Fowler Library Building. Mayor Robertson presided. An original hymn having been sung by the choir of the Unitarian church, an address was delivered by the Rev. Dr. Augustus Woodbury, of Prov- idence, Rhode Island. The choir then rendered the anthem, "To Thee, O Country," and Mrs. Abba Goold Woolson, of Boston, read . a poem. After the applause elicited by this effort, William P. Fowler, of Boston, presented the deed of gift to the trustees of the library in fitting words, to which William L. Foster responded in behalf of the trustees. Concluding prayer was offered by the Rev. Dr. Frank- lin D. Ayer, of the First Congregational church, and the exercises were brought to a close by the singing of "Auld Lang Syne," in which the audience joined.
1 Inscription over entrance to delivery room.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
Four days later->October 22-the removal of the books to the new library building was commenced; and on the 1st of November the rooms in the Board of Trade building were given up. By No- vember the 12th the books for circulation were so far arranged in their new quarters that their delivery began.
A newspaper description of the building, given at the time, con- tains the following points: "There are two entrances, one from School and the other from State street, both of which are reached by granite steps, and both have porticos of handsome design. The School Street entrance is the main one, and opens into a large vesti- bule. This opens into a two-storied delivery-room, twenty-two by fifteen feet, lighted by triple windows; the delivery-desk being on the right of the entrance. Opposite the delivery-room is the reading-room, eighteen by thirty feet, while the office of the Librarian is on the right of the vestibule and adja- cent to the delivery-desk. To the right of the desk is the library proper, twenty by twenty-seven feet, and two stories in height, with a winding iron stairway. It contains alcove book-cases with a capacity of twenty-three thousand vol- umes. An open gallery, with a hand- some balustrade, ten by twenty-three feet, adjoins the upper story of the libra- ry, and is designed for the accommoda- tion of foreign books. The second floor, which is reached from the vestibule by a broad oaken staircase, contains the The Fowler Library. trustees' office, fourteen by twenty-five feet; a room directly over the reading-room, which it is proposed to set apart for a 'Shakespeare Club Room'; 1 and a cloak-room. . The interior is handsomely finished in hard wood, mostly oak, and, with the ceilings painted in oil, presents a rich and tasteful appear- ance. The contract for the entire work was awarded to Eben B. Hutchinson, and was carried out in a most creditable manner."
The entire outlay for this gift of such auspicious import in the history of the library was twenty-five thousand dollars. It was met by a liberal increase of city appropriations. To be sure, these had · been increasing till, by 1888, the sum of three thousand dollars a year had been reached; but from that date to 1900 the figures never-with the exception of those of 1899, and then but little- fell below five thousand dollars. For four of the twelve years, the
1 See Shakespeare Clubs, in note at close of chapter.
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LITERARY PRODUCTION.
regular annual appropriation was six thousand dollars, and for two, six thousand five hundred-the latter being the maximum. In addi- tion to the earlier Lyon and Pierce bequests, the institution received two in the Nineties from gentlemen who had been of its board of trustees : one, of five hundred dollars, from the Reverend Thomas G. Valpey, of St. Paul's School; the other (in 1895), of five thou- sand, from ex-Mayor Parsons B. Cogswell.
In 1888 the yearly charge of twenty-five cents for each card issued to patrons was abandoned, and the library became-as re- quired by the laws of the state, and in accordance with the condi- tions of the Fowler gift-free for the use of all the inhabitants of Concord. The library had, for years, been open every week day ; but now, under the terms of the deed of gift, the reading-room was to be "open at seasonable hours every day throughout the year." By vote of the city council an arrangement was effected in 1888, whereby books might be transmitted twice a week for use in Pena- cook ; and sometimes eight or nine thousand volumes a year were sent thither, and safely returned.
In 1882 Frederick S. Crawford, after nearly twenty-five years of faithful and acceptable service as librarian, resigned his trust. Dan- iel F. Secomb succeeded, and in the fourteenth year of work and duty to which he was eminently adapted, and which he loved, was called away by death. His successor, entering office in 1895, was Miss Grace Blanchard, as to whose official service, the trustees' report of 1900 bears the following testimony: "The trustees are gratified by the excellent work of the librarian and her assistants. Thoroughly business-like methods everywhere prevail, and especially to be commended is the solicitude with which the public are served and their wants anticipated."
By this time twenty-two thousand volumes were upon the shelves of the institution, and more than half a thousand new patrons, or bor- rowers, had applied during the year for the right to use the library. Indeed, such privileges as it affords have been nowhere else more highly appreciated and improved than in Concord, where, in a single year, ninety thousand books have been given out at the delivery-desk.
Amid other activities, Literary Production, outside that of the newspaper press, continued to manifest itself after the Sixties as it had done before. Though literature has not been a profession in Concord, yet there has existed sufficient literary taste and talent to do creditable literary work. And such work has been done in vari- jus departments of letters-history, biography, travels, essays, fiction, and poetry. Some of the men and women of Concord-native or res- ident-whose writings can thus be classed, have already been named ;
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
others find record here, with mention of the department or depart- ments in which each labored :-
History and Biography-Frances M. Abbott, Franklin D. Ayer, Nathan F. Carter, William E. Chandler, Parsons B. Cogswell, How- ard M. Cook, Charles R. Corning, Ebenezer E. Cummings, Sylvester Dana, Samuel C. Eastman, William L. Foster, Jacob H. Gallinger, John H. George, William F. Goodwin, Amos Hadley, Isaac W. Hammond, Otis G. Hammond, Walter Harriman, Alma J. Herbert, Howard F. Hill, George E. Jenks, John Kimball, John C. Linehan, James O. Lyford, G. Parker Lyon, John N. McClintock, Henry McFarland, Henry H. Metcalf, George H. Moses, John C. Ordway, Harlan C. Pearson, Jonathan Eastman Pecker, Chandler E. Potter, William Prescott, Henry Robinson, Joseph W. Robinson, Henry P. Rolfe, Frank W. Rollins, Harry G. Sargent, Jonathan E. Sargent, Daniel F. Secomb, John C. Thorne, Joseph B. Walker.
Travels-John Bell Bouton, Parsons B. Cogswell, Charles R. Corning, Jane Anthony Eames, Walter Harriman.
Essays-Frances M. Abbott, Granville P. Conn (medical), Wil- liam H. Kimball, Edward P. Tenney, Irving A. Watson (medical), Abba Goold Woolson.
Fiction-Helen Mar Bean, Grace Blanchard, John Bell Bouton, Clara F. Brown, Samuel C. Eastman (translations from the French, German, and Norwegian), Charles H. Hoyt (playwright), Will Cressy (playwright), Frank W. Rollins.
Poetry-Helen Mar Bean, Laura Garland Carr, Nathan F. Carter, Alma J. Herbert (translations from the German), Edward Augustus Jenks, George Kent, George Frederick Kent, Daniel C. Roberts, Abba Goold Woolson.
Of these writers, some of whose productions have been published as books, are the following: Helen Mar Bean, John Bell Bouton, Clara F. Brown, Laura Garland Carr, Parsons B. Cogswell, Charles R. Corning, Jane Anthony Eames, Amos Hadley, Walter Harriman, Edward A. Jenks, John N. McClintock, Henry McFarland, Chandler E. Potter, William Prescott, Frank W. Rollins, Daniel F. Secomb, Joseph B. Walker, and Abba Goold Woolson.
Many productions in the departments of literature under consid- eration have found exclusive publication in pamphlets, society pro- ceedings, magazines, reviews, and newspapers. But, outside these · restricted departments, many minds have wrought with more or less of literary art upon scientific, educational, political, social, moral, and religious themes, and have helped to give Concord a good position in the domain of letters.
The Lyceum, with its courses of miscellaneous lectures, had been
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WALKER LECTURE COURSE.
for years well sustained in Concord. It was vigorous during the war period, and for some time afterward. At length, however, it went into decline, and ultimately became a by-gone. But the occa- sional lecture, from the lips of Beecher, Gough, Talmage, Fields, or other thinkers who had a message worth delivery, was still gladly heard. Short courses on special subjects pertaining to literature and science found favor with audiences more or less select. The Young Men's Christian Association also had well attended courses. A foot- hold in the general public interest in Concord was maintained by the lecture, even with so powerful a rival as the drama. The theatrical stage of the opera house never ceased to be a lecture platform. In 1890 the people of Concord signified their attachment still to the lecture system, by full attendance, in the spring of that year, upon a free course delivered by residents of the city, comprising Rev. Franklin D. Ayer, Joseph B. Walker, Rev. Thomas W. Illman, Amos Hadley, Samuel C. Eastman, Rev. Daniel C. Roberts, Rev. James K. Ewer, and Professor James W. Patterson.
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