concord new hampshire Archives - New England Historical Society

Henry David Thoreau took his little boat Musketaquid out of the cellar in early March 1855 because the Concord River had iced out and he didn’t want to miss a day on it.

Egg Rock, where the Sudbury and Assabet rivers form the Concord, or Musketaquid, River

We know this because he wrote about it in his journal on March 8, 1855:

This morning I got my boat out of the cellar and turned it up in the yard to let the seams open before I calk it. The blue river, now almost completely open (i.e., excepting a little ice in the recesses of the shores and a good deal over the meadows), admonishes me to be swift.

Thoreau and his brother John had built the Musketaquid together, and then taken it on a week-long river voyage in 1839. They rowed and drifted from Concord, Mass., to Concord, N.H., in 1839.

We seemed to be embarked on the placid current of our dreams, floating from the past to future as silently as one awakes to fresh morning or evening thoughts. We glided noiselessly down the stream, he wrote.

Three years later, John died in Henry’s arms. He had developed tetanus after cutting himself shaving.

Henry David Thoreau, 1854

From 1845-47, Henry David Thoreau lived at Walden Pond, where he wrote A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers as a tribute to his brother. In it, he described the Concord River and the grassy meadows through which it flowed:

The Musketaquid, or Grass-ground River, though probably as old as the Nile or Euphrates, did not begin to have a place in civilized history, until the fame of its grassy meadows and its fish attracted settlers out of England in 1635, when it received the other but kindred name of CONCORD from the first plantation on its banks, which appears to have been commenced in a spirit of peace and harmony. It will be Grass-ground River as long as grass grows and water runs here; it will be Concord River only while men lead peaceable lives on its banks. …Concord River is remarkable for the gentleness of its current, which is scarcely perceptible, and some have referred to its influence the proverbial moderation of the inhabitants of Concord … it appears to have been properly named Musketaquid, or Meadow River, by the Indians. For the most part, it creeps through broad meadows…

March 10, 1807, Concord, New Hampshire organized a fire department and Timothy Chandler was named one of five fire wards. In early America, towns named fire wards to keep watch at night for fires and to inspect the houses and other buildings for fire safety violations, such as using wood in constructing chimneys.

Chandler was very active in town affairs, and it’s not surprising that he would be chosen for the position. He was born in the town and relocated to Connecticut for a time in the 1880s to serve an apprenticeship as a wool carder. It was during his time in Connecticut that he most likely learned the clock-making trade.

When he returned to Concord, by 1791, Chandler had the skills to set himself up as a silversmith and clockmaker. In 1797 he joined the minutemen militia and was given the rank of Major in 1799.

At the time Chandler was in business, a clock was a luxury item available only to prosperous families, and Chandler was one of a very limited number of clockmakers operating in New Hampshire. Historians say his clocks were somewhat cruder than the clocks available in cities like Boston. But they were still sought-after status symbols.

Late on August 17, 1809, a half-hour before midnight, the inhabitants of the Concord were roused from sleep by cries of “Fire, fire!” An air furnace or forge in Chandler’s clock factory had sparked a fire that quickly consumed the entire factory, as well as his house, sheds and a barn full of hay. Before it could be contained, the fire spread to two large barns belonging to Robert Harris and burned them, as well.

Chandler suffered a $5,000 loss in the fire. This was before the widespread use of fire insurance, but the people of the area took up a collection and donated $1,200 to Chandler to help offset his losses.

Chandler would rebuild, and continue his career as a clockmaker. In 1814, when Governor Gilman ordered creation of local companies to defend the town in the event of attack, Chandler, now in his 50s, again volunteered to serve in the militia.

And in 1825, Timothy Chandler was one of the first officers of the newly formed New Hampshire Mutual Fire Insurance Company, one of New Hampshire’s earliest fire insurance providers.

Chandler would live until 1848. He briefly entered business with two sons, but the joint ventures did not last. He left behind a legacy of silver pieces and clocks that are today valued in the thousands.

concord new hampshire

The Musketaquid Comes Out of the Cellar

Timothy Chandler – New Hampshire Clockmaker – Learns About Fire