Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/182

 i68

��EARLY HISTORY OF THE CONCORD PRESS.

��start. Samuel Fletcher, then a young Concord lawyer, was to furnish "lead- ers," Mr. Hough to make selections, and various clergymen were to furnish articles upon such topics as came to mind. My father, being the only Con- gregational clergyman within six miles of the Observer establishment, was of course expected to perform regular and gratuitous service in its behalf. But Mr. Fletcher undoubtedly soon found that he could not prosper with two irons in the fire, as my father did, that he had parish work enough to occupy his time, while the out-of-town clergy- men gradually ceased to make contri- butions. The result was that good Mr. Hough was not long in ascertain- ing — as others had before him — that an "Association of Gentlemen" is not a newspaper support of reliable char- acter. The "Observer" was com- menced January, 1819, and Mr. Hough contrived to sustain it until the autumn of 1822, when it was sold to Mr. John W. Shepard, a* gentleman several years in trade at Gilmanton, his native place. He commenced with .an office of his own, in a chamber over the old corner store, where the Masonic Temple now stands. Thence the office was trans- ferred to a building which stood oppo- site the State House yard, now placed back of the bakery of Mr. Bradbury, and occupied by Mr. Daniel A. Hill, for the repair of household furniture. Mr. Shepard made a change which was no improvement, as many did be- fore and have since. He dropped the word "Observer" and thenceforth the paper was known as the "New Hamp- shire Repository." It had a life of trial and vicissitude, the stages of which it is unnecessary to trace. It is suffi- cient to say that in the course of its existence it took a journey to Ports- mouth, and was published for a time by Messrs. Miller & Brewster, and even another to Portland, but eventually re- turned to the place of its birth. It was known through many of its last- years as the " Congregational Journal," which title it bore at the time its sub- scription list was purchased of B. W. Sanborn, Esq., by the proprietors of

��" The Congregationalism" The life of the paper embraced a period of forty- four years, and during its last years there was no lack of ability in its col- umns ; Rev. Henry Wood and Rev. Benjamin P. Stone having, separately, had charge of it. It was published seventeen years by Mr. Sanborn ; but it having ceased-to be self-sustaining, that gentleman sold the subscription list, as stated above.

There were jealousies between North- End Democrats and their down-town political brethren so long ago as fifty years. They at the North-End re- garded those beneath the shadow of of the State House as desirous of giv- ing law to the Democratic party. The last-named men were spoken of as " Parliament-corner politicians ;" aterm which included Isaac Hill, William Low, Joseph Low, Richard Bartlett, Jacob B. Moore, and a few other active and influential men south of the present City Hall. Those North-End gentle- men of the same party who were be- coming, if not alienated from, at least jealous of their down-town brethren, and who immediately or more remote- ly partook of this feeling, were John George, Robert Davis, Samuel Coffin, Abiel Walker, Francis N. Fiske, Charles Walker, Samuel Sparhawk, and other less conspicuous men. There were also Democrats in other portions of New Hampshire who had become jealous of the " Parliament corner " leaders, and this at first slight misunder- standing, or disaffection, culminated in the commencement of the journal known as the " New Hampshire States- man," January 6, 1823; a paper that is one of the very few which, growing out of a mere feud among local politi- cians, became a permanent establish- ment. Luther Roby, then in business at Amherst, moved to Concord, and became printer and publisher of the Statesman, and Amos A. Parker, then in the practice of law at Epping, was engaged to conduct it.

To revert to the preceding year : In June, 1822, Hon. Samuel Dinsmoor, senior, of Keene, was nominated for governor by the Democrats (or Repub-

�� �