What a public fireworks display looked like a century ago is depicted in this photo posted on Flikr. Note the sparks flying through the air.

In 1920, one hundred years ago this weekend, the Fourth of July happened to fall on a Sunday.

So not only was it a nationally celebrated holiday, it was also the Sabbath, meaning everything, from government offices to factories, from all kinds of businesses to corner markets, were closed up tight.

That is, with one exception, according to a Nashua Telegraph headline in the Tuesday, July 6 newspaper.

“Municipal Court Session on Fourth … Multiple Offenses by People in Our Good City,” the headline writer fairly quipped with – my guess – tongue firmly planted in cheek.

The author of the story didn’t mince words.

Courtesy photo by Museum of American History A 1920s-era greeting card, like many from that period, shows children interacting with fireworks, an image that surely could not be found today.

“Wife-beating, manufacturing rum, pulling false fire alarms, violations of the Fish and Game laws, failure to license dogs, assaults, and five charges of simple drunks” were among the docket items heard before a good-sized “gallery of police court spectators,” the story begins.

That “wife-beating” allegations were lumped in with failure to license dogs for the purposes of the suspects’ first court appearances was, I suppose, a sign of the times.

The Fourth of July still today can bring out the mischievious, if not criminal, instincts that some of our fellow Nashuans exhibit from time to time, not because such behavior is patriotic – although there is that faction of miscreants who tie their misbehavior to a rather warped sense of patriotism.

The Telegraph of Saturday, July 3, “Fourth of July Eve,” if you will, listed the factories beginning their two-week shutdown, a common practice at the time, apparently because it made more economic sense than having employees rotate their vacation time, as we do today.

That meant folks could kick off their vacations with Nashua’s Fourth of July celebration, which the Telegraph predicted “will be in progress all over town.”

Dean Shalhoup

Longtime reporter, columnist and photographer, is back doing what he does best ñ chronicling the people and history of Nashua. Reaching 40 years with The Telegraph in September, Deanís insights have a large, appreciative following.

Also popular at the time were holiday baseball games, played either at South Common (Elm Street Middle School) or Lawndale (before the Lawndale Avenue neighborhood was built), or both.

The holiday baseball card 100 years ago also had a pair of doubleheaders played at North Common (you know where that is).

Baseball then gave way to a twilight golf tournament at Nashua Country Club, which a century ago was a mere four years old. Once it got too dark for golf, the fireworks began going off, an NCC tradition until the show moved north when Holman Stadium was completed.

Criminal acts by nature anger, irritate, frustrate and even sadden others, but now and then there’s a case that instead brings chuckles.

Such was the case of poor old Arthur Niquette, a Hudson man who at the time “was living on the old Walsh place on Chase Hill,” according to The Telegraph.

It was around dusk Fourth of July Eve, and Arthur was hard at work whipping up a special batch of celebratory spirits for the holiday.

But when he looked out and saw police Chief James Merrill and a “revenuer” – a federal agent – drive into his yard, he ran to a window, jumped out and led the lawmen on a “lively chase across the fields.”

After catching Arthur and getting him transport to jail, Merrill and the agent went back to his house to have a look at Arthur’s operation.

“The still was one of the crude, homemade affairs, with the mash bubbling merrily in an old wash boiler … the distilled fluid was dripping into a glass jar,” which, by then, “had about an inch of moonshine in it.”

Arthur got a $50 fine and 30 days in jail. That was the local sentence; he still had to face federal charges.

A post-Fourth of July wrapup that ran in the July 6 Telegraph reported “Nashua’s Holiday Safe and Sane, Says the Record.”

But that may be another case of tongue-in-cheek headline writing, because the story led off by describing a crowd of “two to three hundred people” who “started the ball a rolling with cannon crackers,” referring to the celebration.

Then came “torpedoes, guns, revolvers and all the customary noise producers … including tin cans attached to motorcycles and automobiles.”

Mercy.

My favorite part is envisioning the following, probably because we’d never be able to get away with anything even close these days.

Celebrants jumped into the coupes and roadsters and ragtop speedsters with Roman candles and similar fireworks, firing them off as the drivers sped up and down Main Street. One volley “suceeded in setting fire to a window awning at the Pennichuck Water Works offices,” which were then at the corner of Main and High streets.

Although a handful of arrests were made for minor things like “overspeeding” and drunkeness, there occurred an incident described as “one of the most reckless attempts of this kind in the history of the city.”

Someone tossed a five-inch, lighted firecracker into the lap of firefighter Anthony Molloy, who was driving a fire truck to a call that turned out to be a false alarm.

And it apparently went off, but Molloy “escaped serious injury,” as he “kept his nerve” and kept control of the truck.

Speaking of things we’d never get away with today, a Fourth of July wrapup story in the July 5, 1906 Telegraph actually named a series of private residences where fireworks shows were put on, and whose owners had, shall we say, recognizable names.

The biggest show of the night followed a dance party at the Nashua Boat Club, which was along the Nashua River at the sharp bend just west of Main Street.

The “fine private displays,” as the Telegraph called them, that were “worthy of praise” included the stately home of I. Frank Stevens, the large residence with an adjacent pond at the corner of Berkeley and Beasom streets.

Also hosting a “fine display” was Nashua lawyer and the current U.S. District Attorney, C. H. Hamblett, at his Webster Street home.

Ditto for Willis H. Blanchard over on Courtland Street, Dr. H. L. Smith on Auburn Street and state Engineer Arthur Dean on Hall Avenue.

A second Berkeley Street show was put on at William H. Cadwell’s place, while two others were hosted at the homes of Dr. Charles collins and Charles E. Smith on the Lowell Road, today’s Daniel Webster Highway.

Dr. Albert Brownrigg even hosted a show at his sanatorium, which at the time occupied what’s now a giant apartment building at 1 Beauview Ave.

Finally, the Fourth of July 1907 celebration in Nashua was marred by what they called a “runaway accident,” those that resulted from a horse suddenly taking off, usually after being spooked.

That’s exactly what happened in Railroad Square that evening, when a large firecracker exploded and spooked the horse pulling a carriage driven by Mrs. Frank Hamlin.

With her and her three young sons still in the carriage, the horse “dashed down Canal Street headed east, the carriage wheels running in the electric railway tracks,” the Telegraph reported.

When the horse swerved to the left, all four were “thrown out of the carriage as it tipped over.”

Mrs. Hamlin suffered a broken nose, facial injuries, a scalp laceration and “wrenched” arms, along with a hip injury.

Two of the boys escaped injury, while the third, age 9, suffered “serious contusions and bruises” over much of his body.

Best wishes for a great holiday weekend, and for the fortunate among us, have a great holiday week.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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