Dr. William Davis
Belknap House
Interviewed March 30, 1979
Age 88
Concord Oral History Program
Renee Garrelick, Interviewer.
No tape made at interviewee's request.
My father came to Concord in 1872 to start a provision store
and established a general store that sold meat and vegetables and
was called after him, Nathan A. Davis. He was a great hunter and
sold and received a lot of game shot by local people. These used
to hang outside at the entrance to the store. He had quite a
corp of men working for him. His store was located on Main Street
where the shoe store is now and he lived on Monument Street.
He used to go into Boston to get specialties and bring them
out with him. Most of his time seemed to be spent on the railroad
and he would leave as early as 6 a.m.
Other shopkeepers that I remember at the turn of the century
were J.D. Murray, a representative of the S.S. Pierce stores,
Whitcomb's store sold newspapers and a variety of trinkets, W.D.
Cross ran a dry goods store, Daniels a jewelry store, Bartolomews
a fruit store and Urquart's a bakery in the alley of Independence
Court, where Pat White ran a blacksmith shop. The county jail
was where the present priest's house is now and was quite a political
place then. The Middlesex County Courthouse lawyers would stay
at the hotel which had a covered sidewalk and had places for chairs
that went out over the sidewalk.
Where Snows is was J.C. Friend's apothecary shop. He had the
only telephone in Concord for a while and got all the news of the
Spanish American War. Above him was a dentist by the name of Towns.
A club room looked down on Walden Street and had billiard tables
for the businessmen of Concord. Miss Buck's next store on Main
Street was another dry goods store.
On the other side of Main Street (east to west) was Wolcott
and Holden's grocery store, a chinese laundry, Hopkins harness
shop and Towle-and Kent's grocery which later became Anderson's,
then the Concord National Bank, Fitzpatrick's blacksmith shop where
the Harvard Trust is and the Middlesex Institute for Savings was
a field. Mrs. Pritchard's block house, actually used at one time
for defense against the Indians stood here before it was moved to
Lowell Street, and then came the old burying ground.
On Walden Street there was the post office, with mail wagons
in the back, Ed Tuttle's fish market, Middlesex Motors was then
Horace Tuttle's livery stable. On the other side of the street
next to Friend's, Tom Petersen had a clothing store.
I grew up during the era of horses and bicycles, where the front
wheel was large and the back wheel small. We used to make our own
fun and spent a lot of time in the woods. It was a wonderful
childhood more akin to Huck Finn's than today. We were independent
and free, enjoying canoeing and camping along the river from
Fairhaven Bay to the Carlisle bridge. Mr. Brewster, who owned the
October Farm, on Monument Street, was a great naturalist and had
campsites along the river. We used the river a lot and swam in the
Concord River. I also did a lot of studying on the river.
I attended the Concord schools and was in the high school
graduating class of 1908 with Elmer Joslin. It was an excellent
public school system and a Mr. Bill Eaton was a marvelous school
superintendent.
My brother-in law was Charles Edgarton and the Edgartons,
the Berkeley Wheeler's and the Davises all rented cottages on the
Cape together. Bill Towler used to chauffeur and drove for
Charlie Brown who started the taxi business in town.