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 64
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594
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
By the 14th of May the regiment had been mustered into the national service. The twelve companies of the regiment had been divided into three battalions, designated as the First, Second, and Third, and each commanded by a major. The two Concord com- panies being among the first sworn in found the following battalion assignment: Company C to the First-Major Edmund Tetley of Laconia ; Company E to the Second-Major William Tutherly of Concord.
On Thursday afternoon, May 12th, the governor notified the war department that the quota of New Hampshire was full, and was in the service of the United States. A review, tendered by Colonel Rolfe to Governor Ramsdell, was held on the 14th of May, at the end of the first fortnight in camp. This revealed the wonderful improvement accomplished through the strict routine of camp duty which had been maintained-a routine rendered the more necessary from the large percentage of recruits in the ranks of the reorganized regiment. The numerical strength, too, of the regiment at this review, was within two hundred of the entire strength of the state brigade that had been wont, for years, to pass with honor the grand reviews of " Governor's Day " at June encampments.
Camp Ramsdell concentrated public interest as Camp Union had done thirty-seven years before. There was now the same eager thronging of visitors from all parts of the state as then. There existed now essentially the same spirit of kindly consideration for the "soldier boys " preparing for the uncertainties of war as then, though with less opportunity for its manifestation. The Soldiers' Aid Society was temporarily revived, and the women of Concord labored, with zealous haste, to supply with articles of comfort the Concord companies ; not overlooking the Franklin company, the captaincy of which had been accepted by General Joab N. Patterson, who could not allow a war to pass without personal service therein.
Concord had upon the roster of the regiment standing ready to march to the front the following officers: Colonel, Robert H. Rolfe ; lieutenant-colonel, William C. Trenoweth ; major, William Tutherly ; adjutant, George D. Waldron ; assistant surgeon, Arthur K. Day ; chaplain, Frank L. Phalen ; captains, Charles H. Staniels of Company C, and Otis G. Hammond of Company E; first lieutenants, Arthur F. Mckellar of Company C, Thomas F. Clifford of Company E, and . Daniel H. Gienty of Company G; second lieutenants, Alfred L. Trenoweth of Company C, and Charles L. Mason of Company E.
On Tuesday morning, May 17, 1898, the First Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers, in the War with Spain, left Camp Ramsdell on their march to the front. As the column passed out, the final
595
DEPARTURE OF THE FIRST REGIMENT.
salute was given to the garrison flag, and the volunteers marched westward over the river. When the regiment neared the junction of Bridge and Main streets, its escort was met, and the line was formed for the farewell parade through the streets of the capital. A platoon of police led, followed by Peabody's Cadet Band of West Concord, and Chief Marshal Major Hiram F. Gerrish with nine aids. E. E. Sturtevant Post, G. A. R., had the right of line, followed by Thomas B. Leaver Camp, Sons of Veterans. Then came the post-office force, led by Postmaster Byron Moore, and, following in order, Grand Can- ton Wildey, Patriarchs Militant: Pillsbury Company, Knights of Pythias ; Concord Council, Knights of Columbus ; the Concord Fire Department ; Concord Lodge, Ancient Order of Hibernians; the Wonolancet Club, and the High School Cadets.
Main Street, looking South from Park Street.
And now came the regiment itself, a thousand strong, with Colonel Rolfe at its head, leading the battalions in order along Main street, to the chimes of St. Paul's bells, and between the densely crowded ranks of spectators enthusiastically cheering. In front of the state house halt was called, and the regiment, taking company formation, listened to impressive words of Godspeed, pronounced by Governor Ramsdell, as he stood by the Soldiers' Memorial Arch; to other words of timely reminiscence, uttered by Concord's war mayor, Moses Humphrey, who, a generation ago, had participated in more than one occasion like the present; and, finally, to Colonel Rolfe's appropriate and modest words of response. The line re-formed, the regiment marched through Main and Freight streets to the railroad station, amid cheers upon cheers, and other demonstrations of admir- ing good-will from a multitude, one of the largest ever gathered in
596
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
Concord ; for business was suspended two hours, and the whole pop- ulace was out, while many from places near and remote thronged the city. The line of march was honored with elaborate decoration ; flags were everywhere, floating from projecting points, swathing door- ways, draping windows, and waving in a thousand hands.
Half an hour past noon the three sections of the railroad train, each carrying a battalion, steamed out of the station, within a few minutes of each other, and the First Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers in the War with Spain was on its way to the front, there to do whatever duty its country should demand.
The regiment, thus leaving Concord, with ten hundred and nine officers and men, reached Georgia within three days. On the 20th of May, it reported to Major-General John R. Brooke, commanding First Army Corps, Department of the Gulf, at Camp Thomas, Chick- amauga Park, where it was assigned to the Third Brigade, Third Division of the Corps. Six days later, or on the 25th of May, the president called for seventy-five thousand additional volunteers to serve for two years. The state's quota under this call was three hundred eighteen men, who were enlisted as recruits for the First New Hampshire by a recruiting party detailed from the regiment and sent to New Hampshire by direction of the secretary of war. Recruits to the requisite number were secured, and by the 5th of August, embodied with the command.
The encampment of the regiment was, for nearly three months, or until the 12th of August, at the southeast corner of the park, near Alexander's Bridge. On the 26th of June the command was ordered to be transferred to the Third Brigade, First Division, First Corps, in preparation for being sent to Santiago to reinforce General Shaf- ter, but the order was soon revoked. On the 23d of July the regi- ment was put in condition to move to Porto Rico, with the entire corps, and on the 4th of August was assigned to the Provisional Corps under General Wade; but neither of these movements was carried out.
The place of encampment was changed on the 12th of August to Smith-White Field, near Jay's Mills, whence, on the 26th of the same month, the regiment marched to Ringgold, and from there moved by rail to Lexington, Kentucky. For the hostilities of the Spanish-American War had ceased in the complete triumph of the American cause on land and sea. Having remained at Lexington until the 6th of September, the New Hampshire Volunteers started for Concord, which they reached on the evening of the 8th, just four months from the day on which their mustering into the service of the United States had begun.
597
RETURN OF THE FIRST REGIMENT.
Not the entire regiment, however, numbering under the two calls some thirteen hundred officers and men, thus returned. Three of its officers and twenty-three of its men had perished of typhoid fever, and two hundred eighty of its members were already at home upon sick furlough, many of them being at hospitals in Concord, Manches- ter, and Portsmouth. Of the ten hundred eighteen who returned on that evening of the 8th of September, sixty-four came upon the hos- pital train, forty-five of whom were suffering from fever; so that fewer than a thousand able-bodied men, coming upon the three sec- tions of the regimental train, reached the Concord station between the hours of five and seven in the evening.
The somewhat belated arrival was joyfully greeted by the waiting crowd, and by the welcome of cannon and bells. Having partaken of a substantial evening meal provided by the State Soldiers' Aid Society, and issued to the men massed in Railroad square, the regi- ment was formed in column for the march up town on its way to camp across the river. At the junction of Pleasant street extension and Main street, it met the escort, comprising Peabody's Cadet Band, the Wonolancet Club, the Concord Fire Department, and E. E. Stur- tevant Post, Grand Army of the Republic. Under the direction of Chief Marshal Louis C. Merrill, with assistants, the line of march was taken up Main street, densely lined with loudly cheering spectators, amid the glow of red fire and the discharge of rockets, until the Soldiers' Arch in front of the state house was reached. There a halt was made, and Governor Ramsdell addressed the troops in words of cordial welcome.
Colonel Rolfe responded thus : "On the 17th of May, when, in be- half of the state you bade us good- by, I had the honor to say to you, in behalf of the regiment, that we would do the best we could. I
*
Main Street, looking South from Centre Street.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
would most respectfully refer you to the reports of those officers of the First Army Corps who have commanded and inspected the regi- ment as to how well we have performed our duties."
The march was then resumed, and the tired men were erelong upon their old camp ground, and soon to be asleep in their blankets under quickly-pitched shelter tents. They remained in camp until the 12th of September, when, having been paid, they took furlough for thirty days. Officers and men returned on the 12th of October, and, after physical examinations and other details had been com- pleted, were finally, by the 31st of October, mustered out of the ser- vice of the United States.
The brigade encampment of the New Hampshire National Guard was omitted in 1898, one entire regiment and portions of the other two being absent on war duty. The encampment of 1899 came off as usual; but before that of 1900 was held the brigade had been reorganized, so that two twelve-company regiments-the First and Second-replaced the three of eight companies each, the light battery and troop of cavalry remaining as before. Under this reorganization, the Concord Light Infantry and the Capital Guards became com- panies of the Second regiment, retaining their letters C and E which had designated them in the Third regiment of the original National Guard, and in the First Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers in the Spanish-American War.
Early in 1882 congress passed an act appropriating two hundred thousand dollars for the erection of a United States court house and post-office in Concord.
At the time this act was passed Concord was honored in having two distinguished sons in high offices at Washington, Edward H. Rollins in the senate, and William E. Chandler in the cabinet of President Arthur. Moreover, Senator Rollins held the chairmanship of the important committee on public buildings, and to his efforts must be ascribed the large appropriation and a subsequent one of thirty thousand dollars.
No sooner had the structure become a certainty than discussion and dissension arose respecting its location. Several sites were pro- posed and urged with persistency. Among these were the Fuller corner, afterwards occupied by the Wonolancet club house; the Rus- sell corner, where the Christian Science church was later to stand ; . the Mead lot ; the site afterwards taken for the State Library, and the Call's Block property. To those unprejudiced, the last-named location seemed the most desirable. Call's block was a wooden res- idence block with brick ends, built several years before the middle of the century, and in its day was an ornament to Concord. It
599
NEW POST-OFFICE BUILDING.
extended along State street facing the state house, and was flanked at each end by property belonging to other owners. In the rear, fronting on Green street, stood several dwelling-houses. Capitol and Park streets then terminated at State street. It was plain to be seen that the new structure ought to occupy a site bounded on all sides by public streets such as Call's block and the Green street property afforded, but the difficulty of acquiring that site lay in the cost of the land. Much correspondence now passed between Mr. Folger, secretary of the treasury, and the owners of the various par- cels of land. Assistance was cheerfully lent by public-spirited citi- zens who were desirous of seeing Concord beautified with a federal building with appropriate surroundings. Meanwhile, the city gov- ernment signified its intention to extend Capitol and Park streets through to Green, thus contributing to the plan of an open square. This the city did at an outlay of fifteen thousand dollars for land damages. The remaining land and dwellings were then conveyed to the United States at a cost not exceeding thirty-five thousand dollars. At the June session of the legislature, 1883, an act was promptly passed ceding to the federal government jurisdiction over the prop- erty thus acquired. Plans and specifications had been prepared by the supervising architect at Washington, and in July, 1884, bids were called for by Nahum Robinson, the construction agent repre- senting the government. A year later the contract for the stone work was awarded, and the building went rapidly on toward completion. Owing to a change in the national ad- ministration, Mr. Robinson had retired, and Giles Wheeler suc- ceeded him as agent in charge of the work. On the 20th of January, 1889, the building was formally occupied by the post- office force, and a few wecks Call's Block. later the pension office and the court rooms were put to their respective uses. Among the Concord firms employed in the construction were Donegan & Davis, Mead, Mason & Company (whose contract included the brick and stone work and the roofing), and James H. Rowell & Company. The granite came from the quarries of Sargent & Sullivan and the Fuller Com- pany, and the million and a half of brick used in the construction
600
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
were made by Samuel Holt at his yards near the Margaret Pillsbury hospital. Before the structure was declared complete, the govern- ment found the need of a supplementary appropriation of thirty thou- sand dollars.
The post-office, which in 1889 found a permanent home in the gov- ernment building, had, in 1881, Lysander H. Carroll as postmaster, appointed under the Garfield-Arthur adminis- tration. In Cleveland's first presidential term, George W. Crockett came into the office and held it until his death, in 1888, when Warren Clark became his successor. During the term of service of the latter, which continued into the year 1891,-the second of President Har- rison's administration,-the post-office was removed from the Opera House block to its newly-prepared quarters. Henry Robinson succeeded Mr. Clark in May, 1890, and served The Post-office till June, 1894. His successor, Byron Moore, appointee in Cleveland's second term, held the office until August, 1898, when, by appointment of President Mckinley, Mr. Robinson entered upon his second term of service as postmaster of Concord.
As early as 1873 the local postal service had so far advanced that no fewer than fourteen hundred call and lock boxes were let at the office. About the year 1880, Postmaster Larkin borrowed from the postal authorities of Boston two small street letter-boxes and placed them on Main street-one at the corner of School street, and the other opposite the Statesman building. Collections were made from these two or three times a day by clerks detailed from the office. The experiment was received with so much popular favor that the City Free Delivery System was established with four carriers. These, by 1890, became nine, who daily-with fifty-two street boxes con- veniently located-made from two to six collections and deliveries. Ten years later the collection and delivery of the mail required the services of more than twice as many men.
The operations of this successful system were mainly confined to the compact part of the city until 1899, when, through the well directed and enthusiastic efforts of Postmaster Robinson, effectively co-operating with the well directed purposes of the national authori- 'ties, the system of Urban Free Delivery found important development into that of Rural Free Delivery. Thereby the Concord post-office became a center of consolidated postal service in a wide and widening circuit of territory. By 1900 this circuit embraced Penacook, West Concord, East Concord, and portions of Loudon and Hopkinton ; the
601
THE STATE LIBRARY.
post-offices of all of which having, by wise consolidation, become " stations" of the central Concord office, and their postmasters " superintendents, or clerks in charge " thereof, but without change of official tenure or responsibility. Other towns, as Boscawen, Bow, and Dunbarton, were also early in coming more or less directly under this system. The central office belonging to the first class, its sta- tions became entitled to the equipments and advantages of their principal. The West Concord station was assigned one city and one rural carrier, and that of Penacook three carriers in each branch of the service. Generally the stations themselves were, wherever practicable, made delivery centers of other rural routes, for daily distributing more widely mail received from the carriers over routes directly radiating from the central office. Besides, the local rural system under the immediate supervision of the Concord office came to be closely associated with similar systems having other centers ; and carriers frequently promoted facility of postal communication by interchanging mails. It was thus that what may be called the Con- cord Postal System came to comprise a city and rural-carrier service, covering hundreds of square miles, and accommodating thousands of gratified urban and rural beneficiaries with daily mail collections and deliveries made at their very doors. In all other branches of the postal service, the principal office was also abreast with the increasing demands of public convenience ; as, in the instance of money order and stamp-selling accommodation, to help in supplying which required the establishment of three special sub-stations in the city proper. In fine, the closing years of the century found the Concord post-office a model one, ably directed and conducted in all its departments, one, indeed, of the "first class," in the broadest and best sense of that term, and enjoying the due appreciation of the Post-office Department at Washington, as often expressed in high commendation.1
For ten years from 1881, the subject of providing new quarters for the State Library, hitherto occupying rooms in the state house, had been agitated at five biennial sessions of the legislature, when, in 1891, a definite practical solution was reached. A legislative appro- priation of one hundred seventy-five thousand dollars was then made suitably to accommodate the state library, and the law court of New Hampshire. Of that sum, twenty-eight thousand five hundred dollars was expended for a convenient site at the corner of State and Park streets, over against the northwest angle of the state house park. The work of construction was placed under the general charge of four commissioners, one of whom was Benjamin A. Kimball, of Con- cord. The special superintendency was entrusted to Giles Wheeler,
1 See Personnel of the Concord Post-office in 1900, in note at close of chapter.
602
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
also of Concord, who had performed similar service in the recent erection of the United States government building.
After the work was begun, it was found necessary to vary, by enlargements, the original architectural plans, and to meet the neces- sity, the legislature of 1893 made an additional appropriation of sev- enty-five thousand dollars. Nor was Concord remiss in contributing to the best suc- cess of the un- dertaking ; for, in June, 1891, the city council voted to acquire certain lands on Centre street to be used as a pub- lic park in con- nection with the state library lot. In April, 1892, the city proceed- ed to take those State Library. lands under au- thority granted by the legislature, and finally, on the 20th of Decem- ber of the same year, appropriated the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars for the payment of the amounts severally awarded to the owners of said property. This opening northward to Centre street much enhanced the eligibility of the library site.
The building-the erection of which was completed in 1894 at a total cost to the state of three hundred thirteen thousand six hun- dred eighty-seven dollars and thirty-nine cents-was fashioned after the architectural type known as the Romanesque; its main material was New Hampshire granite,-the red stone of Conway and the white of Concord, fitly conjoined for enduring strength and graceful orna- ment ; and, in its finish and appointments throughout, the claims of beauty as well as of utility were duly recognized.
On the 8th of January, 1895, occurred the formal dedication of the completed edifice, in the presence of a large and distinguished assemblage, including members of the executive, legislative, and judi- ยท cial departments of the government of New Hampshire-a brilliant function, creditable alike to city and state.
During the score of years ending with 1900 the field of politics in New Hampshire continued to be stiffly contested, and closely, too, until the last three biennial elections of the period. Besides the
603
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.
two main contesting parties, others, upon special issues, such as Pro- hibition and Populism, came at sundry times into the battle of the ballots, but, generally, affected rather the immediate returns of an election than its ultimate results. Thus, in 1886, 1888, and 1890, the Prohibition vote, varying in round numbers from fifteen hundred to two thousand, overcame Republican pluralities at the polls only to have them turned into majorities by Republican legislatures.
The Republican candidates in five presidential elections all re- ceived majorities in New Hampshire, though in the years 1884 and 1892 a Democratic president was elected. As the state went in those national contests so went its capital. In the state elections, also, Concord always gave Republican majorities ; but in the muni- cipal elections of 1886 and 18981 Democratic mayors were chosen. During the whole period, New Hampshire's two seats in the senate of the United States were filled by Republicans, both of whom, it may be added, were, throughout the Nineties, citizens of Concord.
Another Constitutional Convention was held in January, 1889, consisting of three hundred twenty-one delegates, and continuing in session ten days. Concord supplied the following delegation : George H. Curtis, Benjamin T. Putney, Joseph B. Walker, Amos Hadley, Luther P. Durgin, Charles C. Danforth, Edgar H. Wood- man, George H. Emery, Benjamin A. Kimball, James L. Mason, Isaac P. Clifford.
Seven amendments were adopted, and referred to popular decision in town-meetings to be held in March, 1889. They were: 1. Chang- ing the time for the meeting of the legislature, and for commencing the terms of office of the executive and legislative departments, from June to January ; 2. Compensating members of the legislature by a fixed salary ; 3. Filling vacancies in the state senate by new popular elections ; 4. Providing that the speaker of the house act as gover- nor, in case of vacancies in the offices of governor and president of the senate; 5. Prohibiting the manufacture or sale, or keeping for sale, of intoxicating liquor as a beverage ; 6. Amending article six of the Bill of Rights so as to make it non-sectarian ; 7. Making new pro- vision as to representation in classed towns. Of these propositions all but the fifth and sixth were approved by the requisite popular vote in the state; in Concord, majorities were cast against the first and fifth. The amendment as to the time of inaugurating the state government went into effect in 1891-and with the change the time- honored " Election Day " of June, elsewhere mentioned and described, became a thing of the past.
The figures of population have, as occasion required, been noted in
1 See Mayoralty Vote, in note at close of chapter.
604
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
previous narration. Now, by 1900, they had come to count nearly twenty thousand. The increase during the one hundred seventy-five years of civilized occupation, though not rapid, had been a steady and healthy process. European immigration-Irish, French, English, Scotch, Swedish, and Italian-had contributed thereto, and, generally, with ready assimilation, and without tendency to deteriorate the qual- ity of citizenship.1
The period embraced in the twenty years from 1880 to 1900, and reviewed in this chapter, was one of much importance in the history of Concord. To it the advantages of earlier periods fell as a valuable legacy to be wisely improved ; and Concord has not failed to meet the exacting demands of the progress of the age, in adopting new devices promotive of the public and private welfare. Improvement in old ways of doing, and the introduction of new and better ones have always been in order. The postal system and the several mu- nicipal departments-water, fire, sewerage, health, police, and high- way-have all been bettered. The appliance of electricity to tele- phonic, to lighting, to heating, and to motor purposes has become an essential matter-of-course. The means of social, intellectual, moral, and religious culture have been improved and multiplied. Fraternal and benevolent effort has opened hospitals and homes for the sick, the aged, and the friendless. As population and resources have increased, the former has extended north and south, east and west, within the territory of Concord, greatly enlarging the area of com- fortable-not infrequently elegant-habitation. Such are some of the conspicuous features of the city's progress during the two decades under consideration.
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