In response to the Monitor's Sept. 24 editorial concerning the proposed Concord history, I offer the following suggestions: A competent town history is not a novel; it is a factual reference book about people. This means it must be easy to find information about who lived where and what they accomplished with their lives.

One of the finest local histories is Rev. Moses Runnels's two-volume set on Sanbornton published in 1882. It has a magnificent index. Volume One is a comprehensive 500-page, 32-chapter integrated history of the town, with a nine-appendix list of town officials and societies and a 67-page index with detailed maps of who lived where. Volume two is the more popular volume. It has a remarkably detailed 880-page genealogy of the various families who lived in the town and a 139-page first name specific index.

In contrast, Lyford's 1896 two-volume history of Concord is a 1,381 page collection of miscellaneous information with a hopeless 93-page index in Volume Two for both books, undifferentiated, with no organized genealogy.

This means if you want to find out who James Shepard Norris was, you must look through two books of eight-page references to find out that:

Fire burned his bakery in 1859 - see page 458 of Volume One.

He was selected to be on the water committee in 1870 - see page 528 of Volume One.

He bought his bakery in 1850 - see page 641 of Volume One.

He was a bank director - see page 660 Volume One.

He was a bank director (again) - see page 663 Volume One.

He was an officer of the home guard - see Volume Two, page 1173.

His business baked two tons of bread each day during the Civil War with crackers, etc. - see page 1192, Volume Two.

A crowd met at Norris's house during the Civil War and decided to march to ex-president Franklin Pierce's place to hear a brief speech - Volume Two, page 1196.

In summary, when it comes to finding information, Lyford's history is not worth 10 percent of the Sanbornton history.

The Sanbornton history would have all the above information under one listing in the genealogical volume and include Norris's 500-word obituary, where it is also mentioned in the Oct. 1, 1900, Concord Monitor that he was given the honor of lying in state, that he lived at 20 S. Main St. and that his bakery was later Concord Theater at 16-18 S. Main St. next door to his house.

In summary, there is no substitute for maps and a competently indexed genealogy in a local history. I encourage the Concord Monitor to follow up on the financial progress of this historical project. I for one will be happy to contribute to whoever is in charge of this much needed Concord history.

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