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Concord, New Hampshire

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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Concord, Massachusetts

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The capital of New Hampshire, U.S.A., and the county-seat of Merrimack county, on both sides of the Merrimac river, about 75 m. N.W. of Boston, Massachusetts. Pop. (1890) 17,004; (1900) 19,632, of whom 3813 were foreign-born; (estimated, 1906) 21,210. Concord is served by the Boston & Maine railway. The area of the city in 1906 was 45.16 sq. m. Concord has broad streets bordered with shade trees; and has several parks, including Penacook, White, Rollins and the Contoocook river. Among the principal buildings are the state capitol, the state library, the city hall, the county court-house, the post-office, the Fowler public library, the state hospital, the state prison, the Centennial home for the aged, the Margaret Pillsbury memorial hospital, the Rolfe and Rumford asylum for orphan girls, founded by the countess Rumford, and several fine churches, including the Christian Science church built by Mrs Eddy. There are a soldiers' memorial arch, a statue of Daniel Webster by Thomas Ball, and statues of John P. Hale, John Stark, and Commodore George H. Perkins, the last by Daniel C. French; and at Penacook, 6 m. N.W. of Concord, there is a monument to Hannah Dustin (see Haverhill). Among the educational institutions are the well-known St Paul's school for boys (Protestant Episcopal, 1853), about 2 m. W. of the city, and St Mary's school for girls (Protestant Episcopal, 1885). From 1847 to 1867 Concord was the seat of the Biblical Institute (Methodist Episcopal), founded in Newbury, Vermont, in 1841, removed to Boston as the Boston Theological Seminary in 1867, and after 1871 a part of Boston University. The city has various manufactures, including flour and grist mill products, silver ware, cotton and woollen goods, carriages, harnesses and leather belting, furniture, wooden ware, pianos and clothing; the Boston & Maine Railroad has a large repair shop in the city, and there are valuable granite quarries in the vicinity. In 1905 Concord ranked third among the cities of the state in the value of its factory products, which was $6,387,372, being an increase of 51.7% since 1900. When first visited by the English settlers, the site of Concord was occupied by Penacook Indians; a trading post was built here about 1660. In, 1725 Massachusetts granted the land in this vicinity to some of her citizens; but this grant was not recognized by New Hampshire, whose legislature issued (1727) a grant (the Township of Bow) overlapping the Massachusetts grant, which was known as Penacook or Penny Cook. The New Hampshire grantees undertook to establish here a colony of Londonderry Irish; but the Massachusetts settlers were firmly established by the spring of 1727, Massachusetts definitely assumed jurisdiction in 1731, and in 1734 her general court incorporated the settlement under the name of Rumford. The conflicting rights of Rumford and Bow gave rise to one of the most celebrated of colonial land cases, and although the New Hampshire authorities enforced their claims of jurisdiction, the privy council in 1755 confirmed the Rumford settlers in their possession. In 1765 the name was changed to the "parish of Concord," and in 1784 the town of Concord was incorporated. Here, for some years before the War of American Independence, lived Benjamin Thompson, later Count Rumford. In 1778 and again in 1781-1782 a state constitutional convention met here; the first New Hampshire legislature met at Concord in 1782; the convention which ratified for New Hampshire the Federal Constitution met here in 1788; and in 1808 the state capital was definitely established here. The New Hampshire Patriot, founded here in 1808 (and for twenty years edited) by Isaac Hill (1788-1851), who was a member of the United States Senate in 1831-1836, and governor of New Hampshire in 1836-1839, became one of the leading exponents of Jacksonian Democracy in New England. In 1814 the Middlesex Canal, connecting Concord with Boston, was completed. A city charter granted by the legislature in 1849 was not accepted by the city until 1853.

See J. O. Lyford, The History of Concord, New Hampshire (City History Commission) (2 vols., Concord, 1903); Concord Town Records, 1732-1820 (Concord, 1894); J. B. Moore, Annals of Concord, 1726-1823 (Concord, 1824); and Nathaniel Bouton, The History of Concord (Concord, 1856).