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Lewis Downing, a wheelwright, started a wagon (the old spelling is waggon) building business in Concord, New Hampshire, on August 3, 1813. By 1826, seeing the need for road type coaches, and needing the services of an expert coach body builder, Downing engaged the services of J. Stephens Abbot, and the men entered into partnership in the next year. The company was called Downing and Abbot.
Abbot and Downing, as it is commonly called, became known the world over for its Concord Stagecoach, but the company actually manufactured over 40 different types of carriages and wagons at their wagon factory in Concord. The Concord Stagecoaches were built as solid as the Abbot and Downing Company's reputation and became known as coaches that didn't break down.
After twenty years in business together, Abbot and Downing went their separate ways in an amicable split. Both companies continued to build Concord Coaches, and in 1865 the two companies merged again, when Lewis Downing, Jr., and J.S. and E.A. Abbot Company formed the Abbot-Downing Company. They continued to manufacture coaches, wagons, and carriages under that company's name until 1919.
Most of the time, the Abbot-Downing Company employed about 300 people. All were men except for one: from 1865 to 1895 Marie F. Putnam stitched leather seats and trim for every stagecoach that rolled out of the Concord factory, including those purchased by Wells Fargo & Company. For the entire 30 years, she was the company's only female employee.
Each coach was given a number by the Abbot-Downing factory, and each has its own story. The Concord Coaches had a reputation for being sturdy, roomy, and comfortable. The mid-1800s definitions of "roomy" and "comfortable" were far different from today's definitions.
These stagecoaches were used from eastern Maine to San Diego and were the coaches most of us visualize when we think of the stagecoaches in the Old West. Indeed, hundreds of these stagecoaches were sold west of the Mississippi. Wells Fargo Bank still uses an Abbot-Downing Coach in its corporate logo and owns several restored coaches.
Buffalo Bill used Concord Coaches in his Wild West Shows. Old western movies filmed in the 1930s or 1940s usually used authentic, old Concord Coaches in their scenes. In fact, you can watch some of the older westerns to see crashes in which the movie studios filmed these antique coaches running off cliffs and smashing into the canyons below. You won't see that in modern westerns as the original coaches are now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each!
If your ancestors have been in North America for more than 100 years, chances are that many of them rode in Concord Coaches. Sometimes the passengers both walked and rode, as described by the stagecoach fares in and around Lincoln, New Hampshire:
--1st class: $7.00 (rode all the way)
- 2nd class: had to walk at bad places on the road
- 3rd class: same as above, but also had to push at hills
OFFICERS
President: Brian Erickson
VP: Esther Crowley
Treasurer: Pat Maimone
Secretary: Sheila Knight