Charles E. Shepard
The Abbot-Downing Company of Concord, New Hampshire shipped some 3,700 coaches worldwide between 1830 and 1900. A new coach cost between $1,000 and $1,200, depending on capacity and other options.
Coach #425 first ran between Hopkinton and Concord, New Hampshire. In 1883, Amos Whipple purchased the stage line between the Potter Place depot and New London. The coach, which he purchased in 1888, brought visitors to Whipple’s new Heidelburg Hotel. Using five horses, the 8 mile trip took an hour.
In 1890, Charles E. Shepard joined Amos Whipple to help operate the stage and livery business. Whipple left in 1893 to manage hotels around Boston and sold his interest to Charles Shepard, William Leonard, and others. By 1903, Shepard was operating three livery stables with over 100 horses. He drove the coach for 22 years, until it was finally retired in 1911 when a pair of Stanley Steamers took over the route. Later used only for occasional Shepard family outings, the coach was donated to Colby-Sawyer College.
The college donated the coach to the society in 1992, and it was professionally conserved in 2001.
► More vehicles from the collection.