Cow Stories: Claremont New Hampshire’s American Mammoth Ox and Hon Isaac Hubbard

Posted on 8 December, 2015 by Janice Brown

Photograph print of a lithograph entitled, The American Mammoth Ox, Brother Jonathan. Collection is a photographic print.Series VII.1, Photographs, Box 7.1/2, file "II. Big Ox [1839]," USDA History Collection, Special Collections, National Agricultural Library.

Photograph print of a lithograph entitled, The American Mammoth Ox, Brother Jonathan. Collection is a photographic print.Series VII.1, Photographs, Box 7.1/2, file “II. Big Ox [1839],” USDA History Collection, Special Collections, National Agricultural Library.

My regular readers know, due to my blog title, that it is mandatory for me to throw in a bovine story from time to time. I came across a marvelous lithograph of a great ox, and heard a tale immediately mooing.

For those who don’t know the difference between various cattle i.e, cow, bull, steer, heifer or ox here is a quick guide. A cow is always female, and has given birth to at least two calves, and they have a visible udder. A bull is an adult male bovine, with his reproduction organs still intact. A steer is an adult male bovine that has been castrated. A heifer is a female less than a year old that has never produced a calf. An ox (or oxen if more than one) is a bovine trained for pulling carts, wagons or plows, also known as draft work. Although a female technically can be trained this way, usually the preferred gender for this work is a male And then of course there are stags, bred heifers, first-calf heifers, and free-martins, but I’ll leave those cattle for another day. Continue reading →

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Nashua, New Hampshire’s Newspaperman and Advertising Executive: Charles Frederick Goldthwaite (1882-1943)

Posted on 4 December, 2015 by Janice Brown
Charles Frederick Goldthwait of Nashua NH, probably around his high school graduation.

Charles Frederick Goldthwait of Nashua NH, newspaperman.

Charles Frederick Goldthwaite was a distinguished son of Nashua. His parents, Charles Alvin & Etta F. (Shedd) Goldthwaite were local people, married in Nashua. He grew up and was educated in the Nashua schools. The photograph seen here probably was taken about 1900 for a high school graduation or slightly later.

By 1910 he had married Alma Taylor, and is seen in that year’s census, living in Nashua, New Hampshire, a newspaper reporter. [The 1910 Nashua City Directory shows he worked for the Boston Globe newspaper].  His first child, Catherine, was born in Nashua. This career in the newspaper business was one he embraced his entire life. Continue reading →

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The Diary of a New Hampshire Farmer: George Henry Wadleigh of Lyme, New Hampshire (1851-1941)

Posted on 30 November, 2015 by Janice Brown
Photograph showing outside of Diary of Henry H. Wadleigh of Lyme NH.

Photograph showing outside of Diary of Henry H. Wadleigh of Lyme NH, dated 1872.

1872 was an important year for George Henry Wadleigh. He lost his father mid way, and he married at the end of the same year.

According to his diary, he “went to meeting on Sundays (most of the time anyway), split wood, went “down to the village” on errands, out to the mill, hayed the fields, blueberry picked, plowing and sowing grain, “paid my taxes,” and all the other endless mundane tasks of a farmer of that time. I know this because he kept a diary, and wrote in a very careful script, sometimes with ink and other times with pencil, for at least the years 1872 and 1874.

George H. Wadleigh had been born in 1851 in the small town of Lyme, New Hampshire, to Benjamin & Mary (Cushman) Wadleigh, ten years before the start of the Civil War. His life and his celebrations were intricately woven into the air and earth of Grafton County, and the tiny town in which he lived. In 1850 the town of Lyme had 1,618 people. Ten years later the population would drop to 1,572, followed by another drop in 1870 to 1,358.  In 2010 the census had only risen to 1,716 people. Continue reading →

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Thanksgiving in New Hampshire 2015

Posted on 26 November, 2015 by Janice Brown

victorian turkey postcardOver the years I have posted many stories about Thanksgiving on this blog.  I’ve kept the tone light, included lots of delicious or ancient recipes. I have attempted to draw my readers into the past, in order to experience how the day was spent years ago. This year I’m taking a different tact.

I think that everyone needs to think of at least three things that bless their lives, before they complain about one thing that does not.  We live in an uncertain world, but honestly the past was not better, just different.  We make today what it is–full of amazing miracles, or full of evil and bad events.  It is all a matter of perspective. Continue reading →

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Celebrating a 1939 Thanksgiving Day in New Hampshire

Posted on 22 November, 2015 by Janice Brown

thanksgivingIn 1939 I was not even a twinkle in my parent’s eyes.  Certainly they may have met by then, but they were not even dating. The world was full of uncertainty.  In 1939 Nazi Germany had attacked Poland (September 1st).  France, Australia and the United Kingdom had declared war on Germany. The United States remains neutral but begins rearming for war.

The average cost of a new house was $3,800.00. Average wages per year were $1,730.00. Gasoline cost 10 cents/gallon, a loaf of bread was 8 cents. The average price for a new car was $700.00. Continue reading →

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