The New International Encyclopædia/Concord (New Hampshire)

CONCORD. A city, capital of New Hampshire, and county-seat of Merrimack County, 75 miles north-northwest of Boston; on the Merrimac River and on the Boston and Maine Railroad (Map: New Hampshire, J 9). It has wide streets, shaded and well paved, and a good water-supply, owned and operated by the municipality. Among the principal buildings are the State House, built of granite, United States Government building, court-house, and city hall. State prison. State insane asylum, the Margaret Pillsbury Hospital, State Library, and Saint Paul's School (Episcopal) for boys. There are several parks: White's, Rollins, Fiske, Contoocook River, and Pennacook. In the Statehouse park is a bronze statue of Daniel Webster, and at Pennacook, a monument to Hannah Dustin. In the vicinity are extensive quarries of fine-grained white granite, the quarrying of which is one of the leading industries. The repair-shops of the Boston and Maine Railroad are situated here. The manufactures include carriages, silverware, harness, furniture, flour, cotton and woolen goods, leather belting and leather hose, pianos, shoes, etc. Industrial statistics for 1900 give the following figures: Number of industries, 81; invested capital, $1,959,238; value of production, $3,252,302; persons employed, 1829. Under the charter of 1853, as amended, Concord is governed by a mayor, chosen every two years, and a bicameral city council. The assessors and the school board are chosen by popular election; other appointments are controlled by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen, and the Council. Population, in 1890, 17,004; in 1900, 19,632.

Concord was founded in 1725, on the site of Pennacook, the chief village of the Pennacook Indians, and bore that name until 1733, when it was incorporated as Rumford. It suffered greatly in all the Indian wars and was the scene of a massacre in 1746. In 1765 Rumford was renamed ‘Concord.’ On the adoption of a State constitution it became the capital of New Hampshire, and in 1853 was incorporated as a city. Consult: Moore, Annals of Concord, N. H. (Concord, 1824); and Bouton, The History of Concord (Concord, 1850).