Cow Stories: A New Hampshire Toreador of 1920

Posted on 6 January, 2016 by Janice Brown
Photograph: Cows on the train tracks, c1917-1934; Leslie Jones photographer; Copyright Leslie Jones Collection, Coutesy of the Boston Public Library Collection

Photograph: Cows on the train tracks, c1917-1934; Leslie Jones photographer; Copyright Leslie Jones Collection, Courtesy of the Boston Public Library Collection

Bull fights are illegal in New Hampshire, but the animals involved in this story were cows. It happened when a flock of cows with “one track minds” congregated on the Boston & Maine line between here and York Harbor and refused to permit a train to pass.

They were shooed off the track several times, but always returned with bovine complacency. Finally a brakeman armed with a red signal flag assumed the role of toreador. Whirling the flag about his head he started for an open field. Continue reading →

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The Neal Family of Meredith, Belknap County New Hampshire

Posted on 2 January, 2016 by Janice Brown
Old postcard: Road to Meredith Village at Lake Winnipesaukee

Old postcard: Road to Meredith Village at Lake Winnipesaukee.

The Neal Family of Meredith New Hampshire is ancient, and its lineage complicated.  The surname is spelled a variety of ways: Neal, Neale, Nele, etc. This name is found in the earliest records of New Hampshire’s immigration history.

This article is not being written to prove a detailed ancestry of the Neals, but rather to focus on two people — Mrs. Hannah (Smith) Neal, and her son Smith Neal of Meredith. I will let the genealogy below, speak for itself.

Continue reading →

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Cow Hampshire’s Strange But True Blog Statistics for 2015

Posted on 1 January, 2016 by Janice Brown

Victorian New YearsFirst, Happy 2016 to All.  I thought the first post of the year should include offering a few insights into where my readership comes from, and what sort of stories they (and you) prefer.

As far as how viewers arrived here–it was not by stage coach or bullet train.  Instead, it was the traditional search engines, in this specific order:  Google, Bing, Yahoo, Google Image Search, AOL, Ask.  This was followed by readers arriving from Facebook, Searchroots, and Wikipedia. Continue reading →

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Not New Hampshire: President John Q. Adam’s New Years Day of 1827

Posted on 31 December, 2015 by Janice Brown
Daguerreotype circa 1850 of John Quincy Adams, artists, Albert S. Southworth, Josiah J. Hawes, and Philip Haas. Metropolitan Museum

Daguerreotype circa 1850 of John Quincy Adams, artists, Albert S. Southworth, Josiah J. Hawes, and Philip Haas. Metropolitan Museum

Are you expecting a crowd on New Year’s Day? Is your home the epi-center of your family’s festivities on January 1st?

Be happy that the following did not happen to you.  It did to John Quincy Adams in 1827. Continue reading →

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When Death Found Dustin Sweatt in Gilmanton, New Hampshire

Posted on 28 December, 2015 by Janice Brown

Yes, I realize my story title is a bit dramatic, but honestly isn’t death dramatic, especially when it involves a young person?

Dustin C. Sweatt was was a handsome young man, named after his uncle Dustin. He was one of nine children born to his father (who had two wives).

Dustin was only 17 years old when he died of “congestion of the lungs.” We can’t be sure of the exact cause of his lung problems, but in that era diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia were among the top ten causes of death in the general population.

Fifty years later in 1900, it was much the same with lung diseases being the top two killers. In 2000 TB, though still around, has dropped out of the top 10 but pneumonia combined with influenza sits at the number seven killer.

Continue reading →

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