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FW Hartford
Photo courtesy of
J. Dennis Robinson.
Who was FW Harford, other than a man for whom an obscure road was named in Portsmouth? FW Hartford was once the most powerful man in Portsmouth from 1910-1938, controlling the information flow the region. Using money loaned by local ale tycoon Frank Jones, Hartford bought all the competing newspapers in town and closed them down one by one- These included “The States and Union” (1918 closed), the “Morning Chronicle” (1918 closed), the “Portsmouth Journal of Arts and Letters” (closed 1903 and had opened in 1790s), and the “Daily Evening Times” (closed 1923). He also took over the NH Gazette, NH's first newspaper (begun in 1758) and published it as a weekly supplement to the Portsmouth Herald, which Hartford had founded and turned into the single surviving newspaper in the town. The Gazette eventually survived and was reborn in the 1990s, but the rest of the newspaper, like FW Hartford, have remained dead. Hartford then became the mayor of Portsmouth seven times, managing to be both mayor and publisher of the surviving newspaper at the same time. A rotund man, a good writer, and a powerful politician, Hartford is all but forgotten today, but his decimation of the local print media continues. So far, we have not located a single photograph of the man who controlled the news.
HOURS: Dawn to Dusk
ADDRESS: South Cemetery Portsmouth, NH 03802
DIRECTIONS: Harford's grave is the very last row of the South cemetery off Sagamore Ave where the stone wall reaches the Little Harbor road.
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