Nashua NH’s Long-Time Merchandiser, Business and Civic Leader, and Choirist: Gertrude May Batchelder (1891-1974)

Posted on 21 March, 2016 by Janice Brown
Gertrude May Batchelder, daughter of Fred L. & Annie (Lampron) Batchelder of Nashua NH. Photograph probably taken in 1910.

Gertrude May Batchelder, daughter of Fred L. & Annie (Lampron) Batchelder of Nashua NH. Photograph probably taken in 1910.

This photograph of Gertrude May Batchelder was probably taken around her high school graduation of 1910 in Nashua NH. She was an only child, born in Somersworth, New Hampshire, attending schools in the Portsmouth NH area, until 1905 when her parents removed to Nashua. Her father was a train engineer for the B&M railroad.

About 1909 she started working for the H.S. Norwell Company of Nashua NH, that was owned and managed by the founder, Harry Slater Norwell. He established the business in 1878. When the H.S. Norwell Company was purchased in 1912 by Sceva Speare, and renamed the Speare Dry Goods Co., Inc., Gertrude Batchelder was kept on the sales staff. The company was housed in the Oddfellows Building on Main Street in Nashua NH.

Continue reading →

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Chichester New Hampshire Preacher, Educator, Organizer: Anna Merrill (Seavey) Smith (1835-1899)

Posted on 19 March, 2016 by Janice Brown
Photograph of "Anna Smith, the preacher," taken at D.F. Tripp, Photography, Merrimack Block, Main Street, four doors north of Phenix Hotel, Concord, NH.

Photograph of “Anna Smith, the preacher,” taken at D.F. Tripp, Photography,
Merrimack Block, Main Street, four doors north of Phenix Hotel, Concord, NH.

She was both a wife and daughter of a Methodist minister. She was well educated, having graduated from both Pittsfield Academy and Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, to prepare herself for her life’s work. She in turn, became an educator, and following the Civil War, she not only taught in local New Hampshire schools but she also went to South Carolina, teaching the newly freed slaves to read and write (through the Freedman’s Relief Association).

After her marriage, as she traveled with her husband from one church post to another in New Hampshire, where she energetically organized religious Auxiliaries and Districts. She was a preacher of Methodism, espousing beliefs important to her, her family, and community. Continue reading →

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A New Hampshire Éirinn go Brách: Addie (Ryan) Manning (1879-1968)

Posted on 17 March, 2016 by Janice Brown
1967 Photograph of Addie (Ryan) Manning at the Hillsborough County Nursing Home, with granddaughters, Kathi and Janice Webster.

1967 Photograph of Addie (Ryan) Manning at the Hillsborough County Nursing Home, with granddaughters, Kathi and Janice Webster. She died the following year, three days after her 89th birthday.

She insisted that I wear green on St. Patrick’s Day.  If I forgot, all it took was her gentle look of personal displeasure to make me quickly change.  When this Irish holiday comes around, she is always the first person I think of–my maternal grandmother.  That being stated, it is only natural that she is the focus of this year’s Irish story.

Addie Cornelia Ryan was born on 12 Mar 1879 in Jay, Orleans County, Vermont to Patrick John & Emily (Brown) Ryan.  Her father had been born in Ireland–County Cork or County Limerick, depending on what version of his family history that you choose.  Her mother died when she was 5 years old, so her grandmother, Abigail (Judd) Brown-Bangs-Dean had lived with them to care for the younger children.  During her teenage years, she, along with most of the family moved to Manchester, New Hampshire to find better work opportunities. Continue reading →

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Cow Hampshire: Celebrating my 10th Year Blogging Birthday

Posted on 16 March, 2016 by Janice Brown

Happy 10th Birthday Cow Hampshire.  My first post on this blog was made on March 16, 2006.

Bright flowers against a Canterbury NH fenceOn that date I posted this photograph, taken by my sister Kathi Webster at Shaker Village in Canterbury, New Hampshire.  She had passed away the month before.

Initially I wasn’t sure about the direction of my blog, but within a few days I was already writing about women in my family, and seeking my creative compass.

Thank you Kathi, for inspiring me to write, to blog, to look at the world from a woman’s perspective, to focus on our collective memories and important stories.  As long as we remember, as long as we share–we will show our children that women were, and are, essential to history. We are forever sisters.

Janice Webster Brown

Editor’s Note: I was a bit conflicted on whether to celebrate my blog “Birthday” vs “Anniversary.”  There has been a great deal written about when to use each of these terms.  Was my first blog post a birth, or an event/occasion.  Deciding that Cow Hampshire is less an event, and more an entity to me, I’ve selected to celebrate the day as a  birthday.

 

 

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New Hampshire’s First Woman County Commissioner: Keene New Hampshire’s Grace A. Richardson (1873-1947)

Posted on 13 March, 2016 by Janice Brown
Grace A. Richardson, New Hampshire's first county commissioner, from the Boston Globe newspaper.

Grace A. Richardson, New Hampshire’s first county commissioner (Cheshire County). Her photograph from a 1922 Boston Sunday Globe newspaper.

According to Leon Anderson, New Hampshire legislative historian, “Grace A. Richardson of Keene “agent” for that city’s Bureau of Public Service ( a private charitable society) became New Hampshire’s first woman County Commissioner in the 1922 election. She was re-elected on the Republican ticket for the following 12 years.”

A Boston Herald newspaper article of 1923 adds many details to this brief synopsis: “Miss Richardson has been running Cheshire county since the last election, when she won over two men in her own party (Democratic) and seven in the Republican party, both sides giving her the vote. Miss Richardson, who has been in social service work for many years, came to Keene from Boston in 1919. While in Keene she has not only been at the head of the social service work, but held for three years a position in the office of the county commissioner, where she became fully acquainted with its requirements. She was convinced that her vote in county affairs help the women and children of the county and that is her reason for becoming a candidate for the office.” Continue reading →

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