WHY I BLOG
Mark Twain wrote, “History doesn’t repeat itself – at best it sometimes rhymes.” He was partially true. Unless we study history, and pay attention to the lessons it brings, we are bound to repeat its mistakes. If it rhymes, then it may just end up in the poetry section of my blog.
My father passed along a love of history and everything New Hampshire to me, and I try to share that joy with my readers. I do not pretend to be a historian, but am rather a woman with an overly curious mind. I love old cemeteries, dusty books, and ancient people.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
I agree, one cannot copyright public information. However, within the text of MOST of my stories are personally owned photographs. Also the creative content that was added to these stories make them uniquely my own. The hours and hours of research, and the compilations of genealogical material again, make each article a unique work of love. You may use what is here ONLY for personal use. I do NOT give you, or anyone else, permission to use anything on my blog in a commercial way– published, electronic, or on a CD (this means no, you can’t sell my stuff!).
I also NEVER give permission to post my photographs on commercial web sites such as Ancestry.com, Footnote.com or Find-A-Grave. Those organizations are very useful and I pay the commercial ones well to use their services. However I do not want them to own my photographs which might allow them to resell them. So NO, you may not copy my photographs and post them there or in similar locations, whether or not you are able to contact me for permission.
If you see something unique you’d like to borrow, or use in a commercial publication (for example, a chamber of commerce, another historical society, etc.) and you would like to ASK permission from me to use it, PLEASE DO contact me at my email address below. I might surprise you and say yes.
Copyright 2006-2011 Janice A. Brown, Blog: Cow Hampshire | http://cowhampshire.searchroots.com | Creative Commons License. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial- No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives. [Please note that most of these articles were originally posted on my first blog, hosted by BlogHarbor. In those cases the copyright extends back to 2006 or the date when they were first posted.]
LINKING TO MY BLOG
Please! If you get an idea, or use something specific from my blog, please at least give me credit for it. You can get my blog URL at the top of this page, and feel free to link back to me. Please do NOT link to my photographs in such a way that it steals my bandwidth. I pay for this blog with real money. If I discover that you have abused my blog by using my photographs without permission, or by stealing my bandwidth, I will ban you from my entire domain.
AWARDS
I am not really the “award-seeking” type, but I thought it was so very cool when the New Hampshire magazine editor picked me for the following award. Even more inspiring to me, is that they run the “Best of New Hampshire” awards each year, as a fund raiser to feed New Hampshire’s hungry. Kudo’s to them.
Editor’s Pick: Best History Blog, Best of NH 2007
“We live in a history-drenched part of the world, but Cow Hampshire is much more than a tour of the New Hampshire “Memory House” (thank Howard Mansfield for that excellent term). It’s a look at the state’s past and present through the eyes (and words) of a true Granitophile. Janice Brown digs through the stories of New Hampshire with an amazing knack for pattern recognition, finding the connections and the nuances that make the dustiest of footnotes into something relevant and entertaining.” — NH Magazine
CONTACT INFO
You may contact me at this email address: janicebr@earthlink.net
Please be patient, as I often receive over a hundred email inquiries a day. If your question refers to a specific post on this blog, leaving a comment will be a much faster way to get my attention.
If you have learned something new about your family or yourself by reading my blog, and you wish to thank me, you can do so by making a donation to the following non-profit group (or to the veteran’s help group of your choice): Liberty House Inc., 75 West Baker Street, Manchester, New Hampshire 03103.
My dad recently told me a story of an old hotel in Barrington, NH the remains of which were on a piece of property his father used to own. He took me to the site last week and recounted several stories including that the dirt road that it is on was the original dirt turnpike that connected Portland and Boston. However I can’t seem to verify the existence of either the road or the hotel. The story has it that there were Indian attacks at this hotel back in the 1700s… I wondered if you might be able to point me to some resources to help me verify the existence of either. I did talk to someone in the area whose mother had told her similar stories of the old woman who ran the hotel… Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
Stacey,
Thank you for leaving a comment. New Hampshire indeed had an old series of “turnpikes.” I am not familiar with all of them, but I do know that the First New Hampshire Turnpike went right through the town of Barrington, N.H. It was not intended to connect to Boston, but rather to Concord, N.H., which then of course had stage coach route south into Massachusetts.
Here is a link to the article I wrote about the old turnpike system. You could learn more about it I’m sure at the New Hampshire Historical Society, and even possibly consider contacting the Town of Barrington, either their Historical Society or Heritage Commission.
To learn more about early landmarks in Barrington you could find the book, “Landmarks in Ancient Dover,” by Mary P. Thompson, 1892, that includes some places in Barrington.
Good luck with your research
Janice
I am so saddened to here of the passing of Mike Flanagan! I played for Derry Post 79 Legion Baseball when he pitched for Sweeney Post…I remembered just one time stepping to the plate only to be struck out! But then…about everyone struck out against him!
I am enjoying your blog so much this morning. You are educating me and making me laugh at the same time! Since I was born in Alabama and raised in the panhandle of Florida (aka Lower Alabama or as the natives call it LA), I am learning a lot about everything New Hampshire from you. Thank you!
My research of my husband’s family brought me to your site. He descends from the Young’s of Lisbon NH. This gives you a general idea of his line
George Abbot b 1615 to Hannah Chandler b 1630 married 12 Dec 1646
George b 1655
Henry b 1696
Lydia Abbot b 1723 married Joshua Lovejoy b 1719
Mary Lovejoy b 1745 married James Gould b 1743
Elizabeth Gould b 1788 Haverhill NH married on June 16 1812, Bela Young b 1789 Lisbon NH
Thank you and know you have a new reader to your blog
Karen Weekley Young
Milton, Fl
Karen,
I am pleased you are enjoying the stories on my blog. I always say that “we are related to everyone.” Well, in this case, the partial genealogy you posted shows me that I’m a distant cousin to your husband.
One of my lines also starts with George Abbot and Hannah Chandler, but through their son Thomas who married Hannah Gray. (I actually have 3 Abbott lines, that is one).
Best Wishes
Janice
Dear Janice,
Your article on my mother’s cousin Charles Revson is extremely well done. One of the best so far in regard to accurate history and genealogy. You reference the Weiss family tree on my site.
There are other details of the family, which I did not post on my site that I can give you from my Uncle Robert Fielding’s (Charle’s first cousin ne Finkelstein) family data before his death in 2005:
“The Revson brothers were staying at their maternal aunt and uncle’s (my grandfather NY State Assemblyman Dr. Samuel and Fannie (Nettie’s younger sister) Berg’s) home in Spring Valley, NY at the onset of the Great Depression. At that time in 1932, Charles was guided and encouraged by his uncle Dr. Samuel Berg to create a new business and Charles originated the idea of a unique nail laquer. Charles located the New Jersey chemist Charles Lachman and began the formulation of the product. Dr. Berg involved Charles’s maternal uncle Spring Valley, NY philanthropist and piece goods czar (owner of Pickwick dress company in NYC) Nathan Finkelstein to invest with Charles and Lachman in the initial funding for the nail laquer. The small bottle of nail laquer that would build an empire was formulated by Charles and Lachman in Dr. Samuel Berg’s dental laboratory in Spring Valley. Charles’ maternal Aunt Eva Weiss Joffe offered her lamp warehouse on Lafayette Street in Manhattan as an office and storage for the Revson brothers, as they launched the product in quality Beauty Salons beginning in Suffren, NY and then in Manhattan. The Revson brothers quickly made their Uncle Nathan Finkelstien’s investment in profits and repaid the loan.” – Robert Carter Fielding
Zachary,
You come from a very talented and interesting family. Thank you for adding more of your family history here.
Janice
Janice
I am writing you because a was googling about New Hampshire and the civil war and was very pleased when i ran across your article about Straw’s Point. My family and I have done a lot of family research and traced our family line back to The Locke’s of England. John Locke who is mentioned in your article is my Grandfather (many times removed). I can give you more info about John’s line to present once I dig out the papers. I do know he had a grandson who fought in the Continental Army and a grandson who fought in the Civil War, (again i would have to look to know how many generations they were removed from John. If you have any info i would love to hear from you. I am 30 years old and live in Iowa
Looking for old pictures of Vincent Astor aero sled on Shrewbury river or lake placid. Aero club of America
Hi Janice,
NH Peace Action is working on a history of Peacemakers in New Hampshire, and it looks like you have done a lot of the leg work for us, could I perhaps arrange a meet for some counsel on this project?
Thanks,
Will