"Happy Jack" Chandler" discusses his famous great grandfather, a pioneering Abolitionist US Senator, John Parker Hale of New Hampshire

This interview was conducted in October 1989, where Mr. Chandler discusses his great grandfather, and grandfather, both of whom had distinguished carreers in New Hampshire politics, as well as his own long service as a state senator, state representative and governor's councilor. "Happy Jack," as he was commonly known, I had known for many years. Controversial, colorful, blunt spoken, a wealthy blue-blood whose ancestry dated to the Colonial Era, and American Revolution, to the fight to free the slaves and after...a true "character," an original in the Yankee tradition.

Loons at play by our deck at our cottage on Lake Wicwas, Meredith NH, on an otherwise quiet July Sunday morning, not so long ago.

 For the times in which we live...

      Memorial Day Sunday, CenterPoint Church, Concord, New Hampshire, May 27, 2024

Fifty-Four years ago this month, a huge anti-Vietnam War rally took place on the University of New Hampshire Durham campus - UNH, featuring nationally known activists Jerry Rubin, David Dillinger and Abbie Hoffman, in what state newspapers billed as "The Chicago 3." They and other anti-war leaders, dubbed variously as the "Chicago 7" and Chicago 8, lead riots and demonstrations interrupting the nationally televised Democratic National Convention in 1968. In New Hampshire, on May 5, 1970, a police and national guard presence was everywhere either near, or on the campus, however mostly unseen. 

The New Hampshire event may have generated higher than normal tension among local law enforcement since the long-planned UNH event happened to land on the day following similar demonstrations in Ohio, where on the Kent State University campus, state national guard troops shot and killed 4 four, and wounded nine unarmed student demonstrators. The New Hampshire event, however, ended without incident.

In this video, New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, who was president of his UNH senior class, and was himself in attendance at the rally, reminisce about these events and other memories with two state troopers operating on campus as plain cloths-men that day. They are retired NH State Police Majors Ernie Loomis and Dick Campbell. This video was conducted at the state archives building, Concord, New Hampshire, December 11, 2018.

 

 

New Hampshire's Indomitable US Senator Styles Bridges

Yours truly (just barely) with Cong. Chester Merrow, Bridges, Gov. Wesley Powell, October, 1960

at a stop at the Belmont Town hall, where a reporter grabbed this shot, appearing the next

 day in the Laconia Evening Citizen. County Attorney Dick Brouilliard is seen behind, at rear. 

 

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Anyone ever notice the little signs that read “Senator Styles Bridges Highway” posted intermittently along New Hampshire’s I-93, beginning from Concord to the Canadian border?

 

Styles Bridges served one two-year term as New Hampshire's governor (1935-1937), and spent the rest of his life in the United States Senate, becoming the most senior and powerful Republican in that body, dying in office just over a year after being re-elected to his fourth term in 1960.

I met him once as a kid when I was maybe eleven. I was with my grandfather during an all-day political event, visiting every town in Belknap county. The fall election was weeks away, and we were with a group of Republican candidates for local government seeking votes, headed by the governor, our congressman, and Bridges, all up for re-election. I was the only youngster among them. The first stop was Meredith, and my grandfather, himself up for re-election both as county commissioner and state representative, and a friend of Bridges for some 30 years, made sure I shook the Great Man’s hand. Actually it’s a moment I’ve not forgotten. 

Styles Bridges spoke in a kind of nasal, Yankee drawl. He was five-seven, maybe? That day: gray hair, gray suit, gray over-coat. Pale face, grayish-blue eyes. When speaking, his left eyebrow would occasionally rise slightly over that eye. His mouth had a little crooked way about it. His teeth, I think, were not good, some might have been missing, couldn’t quite tell. So his smile was unnatural, like he was being careful not to part his lips. A man I later worked for who knew Bridges for many years called it, “That grin.”

We traveled in cars from town to town, in a caravan called "The Flying Squadron," which occurred every election time for many years, where a reception of people awaited at each, with of course refreshments and decorations of flags and campaign posters. The major candidates gave brief remarks, maybe a joke, often with references relating to that town. Bridges, at every stop, though, gave exactly the same speech, word-for-word, in a droning monotone without much inflection. All about arcane bills and policies. We visited ten towns that day. A Daniel Webster he was not.

After the speeches, people enjoyed socializing, meeting candidates, some of whom were seriously politicking, "working the room," a ritual I would later learn to understand.

With Bridges, there was none of that. He'd stand there by a table, or in the middle of the room, where ever he landed after the speeches, chatting with people as they came by, not scanning the room to see who he should  soon move on to talk with next. He appeared to be a quiet listener. No rush. People came by him, then moved on. He reminded me of a favorite uncle at one of our family reunions. I didn't see any celebrity in him.

But he was.

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Senator Styles Bridges talks Presidents he's known and...the ATOM BOMB

 

 Two rascals at the back door on a warm summer day....