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By JAMES SPAIN

There was a time in the early years when the Merrimack River offered our ancestors a good life. It provided fertile grounds along the floodplain for planting crops and provided food to the hungry. Along the banks our ancestors found American Elm...

By JAMES SPAIN

The ship left Galway under a heavy fog. The light rain coated the already slick surface of the sailing ship destined for the port of Boston. Between the many passengers stood four young Irishmen destined for America: Martin, James, Michael and Thomas....

By JAMES SPAIN

The citizens of Concord have always held the sanctity of trees very close to their hearts. When the first unpaved streets were established, there was much discourse to travel the roads with the blaring sun of summer, frozen earth so bumpy to each...

By JAMES SPAIN

There is a place I go to travel back in time. A quick walk along the same roads and paths through the forest where I stand and admire, just as my ancestors did almost one hundred years ago. My journey is both practical and functional. As I stand and...

By JAMES SPAIN

There are times in life that an experience or brief encounter can change your course. You may be a serious person, a sad person or maybe even a career criminal. People might try to help you along the way while others simply do not want to be involved....

By JAMES SPAIN

There are times in life when simple things trigger memories that surface along with thoughts not recalled for decades. Such is the case with the arrival of the spring season. Those first warm rays of sun, the receding snow and the dampness it leaves...

By JAMES SPAIN

There are times when we travel the long way home, that extra moment of solitude so very needed. We might also take a road to a place there is a need to visit, or perhaps it brings you back to where you started your journey. To this very day there are...

By JAMES SPAIN

As a life long resident of our little community, I have had the advantage of witnessing some fascinating history as it occurred. Times I will always remember, perhaps history was not as important to the young child within me, but history it was. I...

By JAMES SPAIN

On this February day, I walk the hallowed grounds of the Blossom Hill Cemetery and the Old North Cemetery. I stop to visit and pray for my ancestors, the four generations that have preceded me here in Concord. I find them in their eternal rest and bid...

By JAMES SPAIN

As I walk the paths, hills and valleys of White Park this beautiful winter day I observe a dream that was planted almost a century and a half before. It was the vision of our forefathers to establish this utopia for the generations that would follow....

By JAMES SPAIN

It was on Jan. 18, 1782, when New Hampshire ushered in a new child on a frontier farm in Salisbury. The event was similar to many other births, the challenges of reaching adulthood were constantly threatened with common ailments such as childhood...

By JAMES SPAIN

It was during the colonial period when we were still ruled by England that Concord residents were expected to act in a certain manner and certainly expected to consume imported products and pay their taxes. The streets here were all cobbled with small...

By JAMES SPAIN

The Christmas tree no longer illuminated, wreaths now being removed from the front door, resolutions have been made, the new year will be so much more. The cold days are only growing colder and darkness is visiting us earlier each afternoon, we seek...

By JAMES SPAIN

When my grandfather’s grandfather walked the cobbled streets of Concord over two hundred years ago, he did not walk alone. Concord was known as Rumford then and destined for a bright future. Our little town was at a crossroads and it was soon...

By JAMES SPAIN

Like many young boys craving adventure, it is the lore that draws you in. You hear a story or stumble upon a mystery in your youth and you think about it still from time to time. Your young heart once knew what your old heart still remembers.As a...

By JAMES SPAIN

Our early Concord ancestors knew the value and rewards of hard work. The earliest settlers in our community would never have survived if they did not produce food, shelter and clothing. With the original grant by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the...