Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient: Piermont NH’s Nathaniel Churchill Barker (1836-1904)

Posted on 2 July, 2014 by Janice Brown
A sketch of Sergeant Nathaniel C. Barker from Boston Herald (Boston MA), Thursday, October 14, 1897, page 9.

A sketch of Sergeant Nathaniel C. Barker from Boston Herald (Boston MA) in 1897, when he received his Medal of Honor.

The town of Piermont is celebrating the 250th anniversary of its founding this year (2014).   According to the Gazeteer of Grafton County NH by Hamilton Child, in 1880 Piermont had a population of 752 souls. By 2010 it had only 38 more residents for a total of 790.

Nathaniel Churchill Barker was born in that tiny New Hampshire town on 28 September 1836, the son of carpenter, Samuel Barker and his wife Sally Jackson. He received at least a basic education in the local schools before his family moved to Manchester, NH, evidenced by the diaries that he kept during the Civil War. Of the 3,464 Medals of Honor awarded to date, 1522 were awarded during the American Civil War. One of these recipients was Nathaniel C. Barker.  Continue reading →

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New Hampshire Glossary: Steeplejack (and Steeplejill)

Posted on 29 June, 2014 by Janice Brown

A chance encounter with a blog story about a Baltimore Steeplejack suddenly raised my

DETAIL OF CUPOLA - South Meeting House, Meeting House Hill, facing Marcy Street, Portsmouth, Rockingham Co., NH; HABS, Library of Congress.

DETAIL OF CUPOLA – South Meeting House, Meeting House Hill, facing Marcy Street, Portsmouth, Rockingham Co., NH; HABS, Library of Congress.

awareness of an interesting New England occupation–a steeplejack.  And yes, I know steeples can be found outside of the northeast, but we probably have more per capita. If you think of the typical, quintessential New Hampshire town, in your mind’s eye you envision at least one white church spire.

From the moment that the first church steeple was erected in New Hampshire, so came the need for men to repair or replace them.  It was dangerous work in a day without cranes or sturdy metal ladders.  Continue reading →

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Manchester NH’s Hot Dog Kings: The Schoenland Family

Posted on 25 June, 2014 by Janice Brown

Today we still know it as frankfurter, dog, hotdog, frank, sausage, wiener, pig in a blanket, bowwow, or wiener-wurst. Growing up in Manchester, New Hampshire, and in

W.F. Schonland & Son's building on Blaine Street in Manchester NH, circa 1950. Photo by Peter C. Used with permission.

W.F. Schonland & Son building on Blaine Street in Manchester NH, circa 1950. Photo by Pete Caikauskas Sr. Used with permission of family (Dave Caikauskas).

many other parts of New England, we also called them Schonland’s franks.  Even though they are now produced and sold by Kayem Foods who purchased the brand in 1987, their products still have the family name of Schonland on the package.

The Schonland hotdog itself is probably better known than the actual people who first produced it.  The Kayem history states that Schonland franks and sausages “have graced” our tables since 1883. That is the date when the Schonland company was officially created.  But the expertise in curing and making sausage and hotdogs goes back to Germany before 1855. Continue reading →

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Manchester New Hampshire’s Philosopher and Educator: Professor Emeritus Isabel Scribner Stearns (1910-1987)

Posted on 23 June, 2014 by Janice Brown
Isabel Scribner Stearns, 1935, taken at the time of her receiving the Mary Garrett Graduate European Scholarship

Isabel Scribner Stearns, 1935. Taken at the time of her receiving the Mary Garrett Graduate European Scholarship

Isabel Scribner Stearns is not well known in her native state, except perhaps among those in philosophy or educational circles.  She was born in Manchester, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire in 1910 to a privileged family–her father was an attorney, and her maternal grandfather was a physician. If she was still alive, she would be 104 today.

Daughter of Hiram Austin-9 & Elizabeth Scribner (Brown) Stearns, Isabel grew up in the large house at 681 Union Street.  Even into the 1950’s she is shown in the city directory as residing here.  She graduated from Straw School (in the 1923 graduating class), and probably also from the Manchester High School.  She was a cousin to Henry H. Stearns, Mayor of Manchester from 1885-1886.

She went on to become what Alfred North Whitehead called “the most talented female philosopher in America.”

Continue reading →

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Pearl Harbor USS Arizona Casualty: Manchester NH’s Sea1c Joseph S. Rozmus (1919-1941)

Posted on 20 June, 2014 by Janice Brown
Sea1c Joseph Rozmus, killed aboard the USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor

Sea1c Joseph Rozmus, killed aboard the USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor

Joseph Stanley Rozmus, son of Polish immigrants, Franciszek (Frank) & Maryanna (Potoczna) Rozmus, was born in 1919 in Manchester NH. He grew up on Cedar Street [249 & 253] in Manchester and attended St. Joseph’s, and graduated from Central High School in the class of 1939, playing football and basketball, in addition to being an excellent student. “Tis more painful to do nothing than something,” is the quote under Rozmus’ name in the school yearbook.

On 15 October 1940, at the age of 21 Joseph Rozmus enlisted in the United States Navy in Boston, MA. He went through boot camp and had been assigned to the U.S.S. Arizona, and was received on board 10 December 1940. Continue reading →

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