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 II > Part 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82
855
CANALS, STAGE LINES, AND TAVERNS.
site came near being chosen in 1816 as the place for the state house. The tavern was a plain, spacious New England mansion, with gener- ous front, sitting high enough to be seen advantageously, well away from the street, and its outbuildings drew off to the westward to hold up a public hall. William Stickney opened its doors to travelers January 8, 1791, and it evidently took first rank among public houses of the town. Both lines of Boston stages drew rein at Stickney's, and up its crescent-shaped driveway, which turned off Main street as far away as Pitman, and returned almost as far north as Chapel street, Pearson and Walker reined their best relays of horses, to the admiration of the towns folk, big and little, who gathered to the hail- ing note of the driver's approaching horn.
Stickney's was an eminently respectable inn, where a judge of the superior court of judicature might stay and not be ashamed of either
J.STICKNEY
Stickney Tavern.
4 his quarters or the company that he met. Its cook- ery was famous as far away as the Canada linc, for northern stages stayed at Stickney's.
On March 7, 1798, there was a ball at Stickney hall to celebrate the ordination that day of a pastor for the old North church. That day, too, so Benjamin Gale, taverner, estimated, there were one thousand two hundred sleighs driven into . Main street by people who came, nominally at least, to witness the ordination. The hours of dancing parties at Stickney's were scemly, for the newspapers of 1808 make mention of such assemblies to begin at 5 p. m. Wan- dering portrait painters, too, had rooms and received their sitters at the Stickney tavern. This house kept its good reputation until its close, probably in 1837, and so long as it was a hotel it remained a Stickney tavern, John Stickney having succeeded William at the death of the latter in August, 1827.
856
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
Gale's tavern obtained mention as early as 1797, and as late as 1832. It was at the north corner of North Main and Warren streets, and was in some instances designated as "the well known Anchor Tavern, kept by Benjamin Gale." It was a resort of the early post- riders. Being a public house of entertainment, in a good situation, it became a place for important auction sales-say Sherburne Wig- gin's tan-yard, or ten thousand acres of land in Stewartstown. In January, 1815, the United States collector of internal revenue invited persons who wanted licenses to keep carriages to meet him at Gale's, and in May of the same year the manufacturers and mechanics of Concord were requested to assemble there on business which con- cerned them nearly, but what that business was is left to conjecture. Benjamin Gale died in 1856, at the age of eighty-seven years.
It is difficult now to realize that in the early part of the nineteenth century the north end of Main street was the busiest portion of the town. The postmaster was there, and general storekeepers ; so were printers, carpenters, jewelers, hatters, smiths, tailors, barbers, and probably other shopkeepers. The Portsmouth Wagon company of 1818 had its headquarters there. In 1815 two taverns were there. One, the Washington Hotel, was the home of Solomon Mann, an estate which he purchased of David George in 1807. David George was himself mentioned as an innkeeper in various advertisements in 1806. The main portion of this house, in existence still, is num- bered 250 North Main street. There was a hall of moderate size in a separate building on the premises, which was a place for dancing as early as 1808. A Portsmouth, and at times a Boston, stage de- parted from the Washington. One of the great events of its time and vicinity was a Fourth of July celebration in 1812, when a minia- ture ship, the President, was brought hither from Amherst, a sham battle fought with an imaginary Little Belt on Horseshoe pond, and a dinner served on the field east of the tavern. Another affair was the political ball which the Adams men held on the 22d of February, 1828. For this it became necessary to construct in forty days of midwinter an L to the southward, to contain a spacious hall-after- ward known as Washington hall-sufficient for such an assembly, and it is related that the gathering was a brilliant affair, attended by four hundred people of this and adjacent towns.
President Monroe was entertained at the Washington in July, 1817, when it was probably at the height of its renown. In 1843, Concord printers, binders, and booksellers had a great supper there, Nathaniel B. Baker, afterward governor, and Jacob H. Ela, afterward member of congress, being of the number.
People still observe the majesty of the four elms, a century old,
857
CANALS, STAGE LINES, AND TAVERNS.
which mark the front of the Washington tavern site. In the lower branches of one of these was long ago a large platform, with railing and seats, where a band of music might be stationed, or a group of ladies and gentlemen find an airy shelter from the summer sun.
The teamsters and pung-drivers who frequented the Washington a half century ago were accustomed to pay fifty cents for supper, lodg- ing, and breakfast. This included a cigar and a glass of rum.
The Washington ceased to be a tavern before 1852. Its landlords appear to have been, Solomon Mann, 1807-'11; Lemuel Barker, 1812-'26 ; John Coleman, 1830; Benjamin Emery, George Southwick, 1831 ; Obadiah Kimball, 1832; Jacob Rogers, 1834; Will- iam Walker, 1836 ; Daniel N. Hoit, 1837- '42; H. & J. Moore, 1842-'46; John L. Nevins, 1847-'48 ; and Robert P. Kimball, 1849-'50.
The prosperity of the Butters tavern at the South end brought a rival to its neigh- borhood in 1810, when Samuel Willey invited the public to " try and see the new tavern, on cheap and liberal terms, at the head of the Londonderry turnpike, at the Washington House. oval sign of S. W." This tavern was on the triangle between Turn- pike and Water streets, and, whatever its success may have been, was occasionally mentioned in print until 1821.
There is reason to think that before 1816 Major Peter Robertson, a townsman of varied accomplishments, was owner of a bake-shop at the northeast corner of what is now State House square. When the capitol was built, this bakery found temporary lodgment just below the southeast corner of the square. Thence it went a little further away to the site of the existing Columbian building, and the major seems to have become taverner for a time as well as baker. In the latter calling he surely had professional success, for the grateful fra- grance of his gingerbread lingered long in the memory of boys whose homeward way from the Bell schoolhouse led them at noon past the major's door.1 There came a day when the premises were enlarged, and Robertson, with Artemas Evans, kept a general store therein. Then it became the Columbian Hotel, and John P. Gass, a young man of twenty-seven, of considerable celebrity afterward, was its landlord. In 1823 the house could scat at table one hundred and twenty-five guests. Mr. Gass was original in his style of writing advertisements. In December, 1823, he said :
1 New Hampshire Statesman, May 28, 1859.
858
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
" Gentlemen who may attend the January Court are respectfully invited to make trial of the Columbian Hotel, and it shall not be the landlord's fault if Lawyers do not argue, Witnesses testify, and Jurors unanimously give their verdict in its favor."
In 1825, June 22, the Columbian served a dinner in the State House square to General Lafayette, and six hundred more, among whom were two hundred soldiers of the Rev- olution.
The Columbian had abundant stable room, and was a resort for horsemen. In 1830 stages to Boston, Portsmouth, Haverhill, and Charlestown departed from its door. In the glorious days of the state militia this house was the headquarters of the Columbian artil- Columbian Hotel. lery, a company of no mean repute, organized about the beginning of the century, composed in later years largely of printers. It seems probable that this choice of head- quarters fell on Major Robertson's house because in this company, when it marched to the defense of Portsmouth in 1814, like John Gilpin, "a train band captain eke was he."
Mr. Gass left this house in 1826, to return later. After that year there were the following landlords: John Wilson, 1827-'30; Paul R. George, 1830 ; John P. Gass, 1831-'32 ; Hoyt & Pinkham, 1833; N. S. Chandler, 1833-'34; Mical Tubbs, 1835-'43 ; Orin Foster, 1843-'47 ; Thomas Stuart, 1848-'52; Charles H. Norton, 1853-'55; Thomas Stuart, 1856; Enoch Watson, 1857-'62; Langdon Lit- tlehale, 1863-'66 ; George C. Fuller, 1867- '68. The Columbian was destroyed by fire February 18, 1869.
The premises 205 North Main street were maintained as a tavern from about 1814 to 1840. This was the Eagle Hotel, John George, proprietor, and the estate · remains still in possession of his descend- ants. There was an interesting public din- ner at this tavern in February, 1815, when toasts were drunk and cannon discharged to celebrate the peace with England. In
George Tavern Sign.
859
CANALS, STAGE LINES, AND TAVERNS.
the same year William Butters, collector of internal revenue, gave notice that he would there receive the public dues. Governor Ben- jamin Pierce lodged at this Eagle Hotel when he came to be inau- gnrated in 1827. In November, 1820, James Madison, barber and hair-dresser, late from Paris (so he styled himself), could be found in constant attendance, one door south, from sunrise till 9 o'clock in the evening,-evidently not a member of any barbers' union. It was Mr. George who gave the name of " Parliament Corner " to the down town locality where the legislature sat.
Another Concord hotel around which pleasant memories cluster, was the Phenix (as the name is locally spelled), built by Abel Hutchins on the site of his burnt dwelling, and opened to the public January 4, 1819. Its situation was advantageous, and the mail- stages to Boston via Londonderry, to Hanover, and to Haverhill, came down from Stickney's and made it their booking-place. It was built in the hotel manner of that time, with two front portals and one at the side, broad piazzas, and a large central room where in cool days an open fire gave warmth and welcome to people who lifted the latch.
The Phenix became the rendez- vous of gentlemen of the Whig party. There they celebrated their infrequent * political victories, and consoled one another in defeat. If they were beaten, they lost neither hope nor honor. A long line of famous names might be culled from Old Phenix Hotel. its registers, among them those of Abraham Lincoln, Winfield Scott, Horace Greeley, Adalina Patti, Teresa Parodi, Anson Burlingame, Lord and Lady Amberley, Edwin Booth, and Caroline Ritchings. Daniel Webster was often there. The old house was destroyed by fire December 28, 1856, and the existing hotel was built on its site the following year.
Abel Hutchins conducted the Phenix until 1832. Afterward it had the following landlords: Ephraim Hutchins, 1832-'42; Will- iam Dole, 1843-'44; A. C. Pierce, 1845-'51; Pierce & Dumas, 1851-'53; S. H. Dumas & Co., 1853-'56 ; Hutchins & Clark, Corn- ing & Clark, Corning & Dumas, 1857-'62; Dumas & Thompson, 1863-'66; Langdon Littlehale, 1867-'68; J. L. Seavey, 1869-'71; J. R. Crocker, 1872-75; W. S. Baker, 1876-'80; James R. Hill, 1881-85; Oliver J. Pelren, manager, 1885-'93. The Phenix has been maintained in connection with the Eagle Hotel since 1890.
860
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
PHENIX
The house numbered 220 North Main street was a tavern for a period of thirty years and more, bearing at different times the names of Merrimack House, Merrimack Farmers' Hotel, and Pavilion. During sessions of the legislature it was the abiding-place of a goodly number of " court boarders," as rep- resentatives were then termed. George Dame, who was its host in some of its later years, ran an omnibus between the railroad station and his door. On one panel of this vehicle was a picture of an unlucky Portsmouth train butting through the north doors of the passenger station; on another was the state house. In 1856 it made hourly trips through certain streets. The successive landlords of this public house Pnenix Hotel, 1860. appear to have been,-Richard Herbert, 1824-'34; B. E. Langmaid, 1834-'35; True Osgood, 1836-'37; Samuel T. French, 1838-'39 ; Stephanus Kelley, 1840; James D. Bailey, 1843; Albert Herbert, 1850-'51; George Dame, 1852-'54; Philip Grant, 1855; C. C. Hartford, 1856-'57.
The original Eagle Coffee House was built by William Richardson in 1827 on the site where the Eagle Hotel still stands. The building resembled other public houses of its period in being constructed of wood, painted white, with green window blinds, and having piazzas along the front of its first and second stories. In an L joined to its easterly side, as part of the hotel property, was Grecian hall, the scene of many a hop and festivity.
The landlords of the Eagle have been : William Richardson, 1828 -'29 ; John P. Gass, 1829-'34; Zebina Lincoln, 1834-'35 ; Hiram Locke, 1835; William Walker, 1836-'49; John Gibson, 1849-'56; Charles H. Norton and S. H. Dumas, 1857-'58; S. H. Dumas and E. Sawyer, 1859-'61; John Lindsay, 1861-'66; H. O. Cram, 1867 ; T. A. Ambrose, 1868-'71; Nathaniel White, 1872-'73; John A. White, 1873-'89 ; Oliver J. Pelren, manager for the Eagle and Phe- nix Hotel company, 1889-1903. Mr. John P. Gass, who left the Columbian in 1826, came to the Eagle in 1829, having been mean- while landlord of the Broadway House, New York. In 1831-'32 he managed both the Eagle and the Columbian.
In May, 1832, an enlargement was made to the Eagle, and its landlord declared " the living is so good that I have already got the gout, and as for the bar, that is well enough." In the following June he applied to himself the words of Falstaff, "A good portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent, of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and
861
CANALS, STAGE LINES, AND TAVERNS.
a most noble carriage," and closed with a pun, a bit of unconscious prophecy, to wit :
" Almost every one at all conversant with modern discoveries in chemistry is aware of the many purposes to which gas has been applied, but the individual who now addresses the public is not informed that any one save himself has hitherto availed of this important agent in car- rying to perfection the art of cookery."
Among notable events at the Eagle were the Jackson ball of 1828, and the banquet in 1843 to Colonel Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, the reputed slayer of Tecumseh. In Grecian hall were presented the first public dran- atic entertainments ever given in Con- cord; in July, 1828, for two weeks, such plays as the Honey Moon, and Eagle Coffee House. Othello; in the following November, for three weeks, She Stoops to Conquer, the Heir at Law, Timour the Tartar, and others; in Novem- ber, 1829, for one week, the Apostate, etc. The players in these were the company of Gilbert and Trowbridge. In February, 1835, for one week, another com- pany - among whom are found the nanies of Wes- ton, Morton, Rounds, Her- bert, Spear, and Durivage, -gave The Brigand, Rent Day, Forty Thieves, Major Jack Downing, etc. As there were then none but weekly newspapers, proba- bly many of the plays pre- sented did not obtain print- ed mention. On Saturday evenings neither of these companies gave entertain- ments ; both gained popu- New Eagle Hotel. lar favor. It may be doubt- ed whether so many good plays have since been given in Concord by players of equal excellence. The Gilbert of the first company was John Gilbert, then a youth of eighteen, afterward one of the most famous American actors. Some of the others can be identified with
13
862
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
tolerable certainty. The Trowbridges were probably Henry Trow- bridge of New Haven, and his wife, a pleasing English actress. Mr. and Mrs. John Herbert, Jr., were both English by birth; her name was Helen Kent. John M. Weston is mentioned with commendation in dramatic chronicles. He was a favorite at New Orleans and Mobile. J. E. Durivage and George G. Spear were Boston actors of good stand- ing; the last named died a few years ago in the Forrest Home near Philadelphia.
There were noted names on the books of the Eagle, among them Andrew Jackson-who, it is said, neglected the dainties and ate bread and milk-Benjamin Harrison, Levi P. Morton, who dwelt there when in business in Concord, 1841-'43, Sam Houston, and, in 1853, Jef- ferson Davis and A. D. Bache, who visited the White Mountains under the guidance of our townsman, William P. Hill.
The rates at the Eagle may be taken as specimen charges at the better Concord hotels. These in the time of William Walker were one dollar a day. Tourists to the mountains paid one dollar and fifty cents, and if a guest looked like a real millionaire two dollars was rather timidly suggested.
The original Eagle Coffee House was destroyed by fire August 25, 1851. It was rebuilt in 1852 as the Eagle Hotel, and enlarged and reconstructed in 1890.
The hotel which first had the name of American House in Concord was a spacious and picturesque structure, bearing family likeness to many New England taverns of its time, three stories in height, with white paint and green blinds, two-story piazzas on both fronts, standing at the north corner of North Main and Park streets, with two entrances on one and one on the other street. It was built in haste, to be ready for the assembling of the legis- lature of 1834. Six weeks of April and May weather sufficed for its construction. It was in Old American House. an admirable place ; the real · estate in the block northward of it was rather better then than now, and the dining-room and gentlemen's parlor had outlooks toward the State House square. More than thirty years this hotel was a grateful abiding place to many travelers. Its atmosphere was peculiarly agree- able to men of the Democratic faith, and it sheltered noted individ-
1
863
CANALS, STAGE LINES, AND TAVERNS.
uals of that party before and after the nomination of General Frank- lin Pierce for the presidency. The names of James K. Polk, James Buchanan, Commodore Charles Stewart, who sailed the frigate Consti- tution in 1813-'14, George Barstow, John A. Dix, John Van Buren, William F. Richie, editor of the Richmond Enquirer (who married Anna Cora Mowatt), Levi Woodbury, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Isaac O. Barnes, and Isaiah Rynders, could be found on its registers. Pierre Soulè once made an address from the upper piazza. It was conducted by the Gasses, John P. and John, and was regarded locally as in the same rank with the Eagle and Phe- nix hotels. J. S. Appleton took charge of it in 1859 or 1860, and Charles H. Norton in 1861-'62, Oliver E. Coffin, Elm House. 1863-'67, and John Muzzey, Jr., a few weeks before it was destroyed by fire July 13, 1867. George W. Hoyt-the father of Charles H. Hoyt, writer of many plays-was clerk with John Gass for a consid- erable period, about 1845-'52.
The Elm House, which for nearly half a century occupied the northeast corner of North Main and Pleasant streets, was a dwelling before the railroad station was located. In 1844 it became a hotel. Its site was so advantageous, and it was usually so well conducted, that it was always prosperous. Its landlords and their periods of occupation, as nearly as they can be stated, were William M. Carter and John Priest, 1844-'52; William M. Carter, 1853-'55; Albert Foster, 1856-66; J. S. Dutton, 1867-'75; George F. Bean, 1876- '77; John L. Coffin, 1878; Brown & Wilkinson, 1879; Poore & Brown, 1880-'81 ; Dutton & Moore, 1882; Thomas Gray, 1883- '87 ; Merrick & Martin, 1888-'90.
The widening of Pleasant street in 1890 occasioned the removal of the Elm House, which obtained its woodland name from a hand- some group of trees which stood along its front. The last of those trees was felled October 30, 1871.
The Brown tavern at West Concord was built by William Fiske in 1808. Orlando Brown was its owner, 1810-36; Mrs. Orlando Brown, 1836-39; George W. Brown, 1839-'50. This was a house of note and prosperity. Divested of its barns, which formerly shel- tered forty or sixty horses nightly, it is standing at the corner of North State and Knight streets.
There is early mention and nothing more, of the Sun tavern (1792), of William K. Smith's hotel (1817), Nathan Walker's (1827), and
864
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
Smart's (1829). The house of William Low, formerly at the corner of Main and School streets, and that of Jolin West, which was oppo- site the Historical Society building, have been mentioned in, a sketch of Concord as taverns, but such they never were.
There have been within the town limits wayside inns which ob- tained a share of the tavern business, sheltered drivers and teams, and fed flocks and herds on their way to market. Such were the East Concord taverns of John Hoyt, 1780-1805; Ebenezer Eastman, 1795-1830; Nathaniel Ambrose, 1810-'20 ; Meshech Lang, 1825-'30; Isaac Emery, 1812; James Eastman, 1835-'36 ; Aaron Austin, 1800- '13 ; 1 and Samuel Carter, 1828-'53, the last being at the corner of the Canterbury and Sewall's Falls roads. It has not been very long since occasionally at nightfall a time-honored vehicle drew up at the door of this ancient hostelry, a traveler looked out, with an in- terrogation mark on his face, for the well-wrought old sign-board, bearing " 1828 " on its panel, which TON HOUSE has been in honored retirement these forty-seven years, inquired if that was the Carter tavern, and found shelter because of the tradi- tions of the place. Then there was Barnard Elliott's tavern on the Borough road, once the main road to Hanover, 1830-'40; that of Washington Hotel, Penacook. B. H. Weeks on the Hopkinton road, 1805-'30 ; and that of Samuel Farnum, which has been the prop- erty of the family above a hundred and fifty years, on the West Con- cord road, now North State street, 1831-'40. Captain Enoch Coffin, who dwelt in a house which stood where is now number 1 Fiske street, is mentioned as an innholder in 1797.
A tavern on the Loudon road, 1861-'80, known in common speech
1 A glimpse of the social life of East Concord in old tavern days is shown by an invitation in existence yet, written in a careful hand on old English paper. It reads as follows:
"Saml. W. Lang presents compliments to Miss Polly Eastman and will be very happy to . accompany her to a Ball at Mr. Austin's on Wednesday the 5th of June at 3 o'clock p. m. Please to send an answer by the Bearer.
I am, Dear Madam,
Your Humble Servant
S. W. LANG."
Aaron Austin's tavern was at the corner of Shawmut and Penacook streets; John Hoyt's beyond the Mountain; Ebenezer Eastman's in the home of the late John L. Tallant; Na- thaniel Ambrose's, in the house of David Morrill; Meshech Lang's, opposite the site of the Eastman school, and James Eastman's stand is at the corner of Penacook and Depot streets.
865
CANALS, STAGE LINES, AND TAVERNS.
as the " Break o' Day," will not escape recollection. The Birchdale, near Birehdale Springs, built in 1868 by Dr. Robert Hall, was an attractive resort until destroyed by fire July 26, 1885.
There was a hotel called sometimes the Union, afterward the Mer- rimack House, on North Main opposite Bridge street, 1852-'61, in a house formerly the residence of Captain Richard Ayer, destroyed by fire October 4, 1861. That, as well as the existing American, started as the Sherman House, 1864; the Central-Commercial House, corner of North Main and Centre streets, 1876, and the Hotel Nardini, may present more graphic features when time shall impart perspective to their history. The Washington Hotel at Penacook was built in 1846, and has had George Dame, Major Jere- miah S. Durgin, the Edgerlys, Morrisons, Gilman Shaw, John Hopkins, Cornelius O'Brien and others, as landlords. Another famous tavern is Bonney's, just across the river at Penacook, but largely associated with the history of Concord. There have been within the town lines other publie houses of lesser note.
Bonney's Hotel, Penacook.
The canal-boat and the stage-coach have gone more surely out of local use than have the canoe and the snowshoe. Old tavern methods are gone, too. The bell which the host rang at noon by the front door, with many a dextrous sweep of the arm, is laid away ; likewise the Chinese gong, which made the guest wince and the household Argus howl. Seven hundred travelers' horses can no longer find nightly shelter in our tavern stables. The last of the old stagemen, who not many months ago gave us a page of his recol- lections, has gone to the country whence no traveler returns. The portly landlord no longer stands in Macgregor's place and carves the roast. The bar where decanters stood in as plain sight as were the andirons on the hearth is banished. The old American House where loud voices discussed the Dartmouth college case years after it had been decided in the courts, and the old Phenix, where friends of Webster and Clay read their speeches aloud by the winter evening fire, both went out in smoke. Stickney's, where the great London banker, George Peabody, once in his youth sawed wood to pay a tavern bill, and Colonel Darrington, Philip Carrigain, and Major Bradley danced to the music of dark Heman Tye's fiddle, is nothing but a memory. If one could find the shelter of the old Eagle Coffee House, it would be proper now to select a pair of sheepskin slippers from the public supply in the half-open bar-room drawer, light a candle, and go quietly to bed.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.