Sadie Kane of Weare NH
There are many Kane, Kean, and Keane families who hail from pre-Civil War New Hampshire. A photograph of “Sadie Kane” popped up for sale on E-bay and thinking her face was a lovely one, I bought it, determined to research who she was. Born Sarah A. Kane in 1870 in North Weare, New Hampshire, her parents were Irish immigrants who met and married on “this side of the pond.”
This modest monument is easy to miss, sitting in a shaded corner of land next to what is now Darlings Tire and Auto. At the time that the monument was placed, the land belonged to the Hickman family, as did the nearby business, then called the Harold W. Hickman Service Station. Continue reading
Portrait of John W. Weeks, then Senator of Massachusetts 31 May 1916 sitting in room, Chicago IL at Republican National Convention. From Chicago History Museum, via The Library of Congress: American Memory.
In 2011 the United States Forest Service celebrated the 100th anniversary of one of the most successful land conservation efforts in the United States. The Weeks Act was signed into law in 1911, after a decade-long debate about the role of the federal government in protecting forest lands. The Weeks Act is named after John Wingate Weeks, a New Hampshire native who, in 1909 while serving in the U.S. Congress for 12th Congressional District of Massachusetts, introduced a bill concerning the federal purchase of forest reserves. Continue reading
The Industrial Department Life Buoy was a magazine issued free, on a monthly basis, to 
employees of the Industrial Department of the Portsmouth Navy Yard, in Portsmouth New Hampshire. It was intended to inspire, to give a sense of collective purpose, and to provide news as one might share within a family.
This particular collection of magazines published from 1917 to 1920 contains important historical and biographical information, the excerpts of which I will provide here, with links back to the original text. Anyone with a relative who worked at the shipyard during this time, or who has an interest in submarine and ship building in the World War I era will find the information fascinating. Continue reading
“A glass factory of considerable extent and remarkable for its employment of Hessians and Waldeckers who were deserters from the British army was established 1779 or 1780 at Temple, NH by a Mr. Hewes of Boston, but was burned down in 1780-81 and was not rebuilt; some of its products, a glass plate, etc. are in Harvard University.” [from Johnson's universal cyclopedia: a scientific and popular treasury; Vol 3: Glass, American Manufacture of", p 506] Continue reading