John Robie Eastman, photograph from the Naval Oceanography Portal, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, United States Navy
There are so many interesting people from New Hampshire who are relatively unknown to most current natives–John Robie Eastman is one. The son of Royal F. & Sophronia (Mayo) Eastman, he was born 29 July 1836 in Andover, Merrimack Co. NH and d. 26 Sep 1913 in Franklin, Merrimack Co. NH, at a private hospital. Continue reading
Since 2006 I’ve been sharing tidbits relating to Halloween and New Hampshire. During that time I’ve written some pretty bad poetry, and shared some pretty good prose. You may have read my stories about New Hampshire’s many ghosts, real or imagined, that haunt this fair state. You don’t have to believe them for the stories to be true. Continue reading
Photograph from “New Hampshire Women: A collection of portraits and biological sketches,” by New Hampshire Publishing Co.; 1895
Susan Hale Hussey was born on a farm in Barrington, Strafford County, New Hampshire to Dea. Thomas & Susan (Hale) Hussey. She, like many women of her time, attended the local schools in her town, but she went on to study at the New Hampshire Conference Seminary, and the Gilmanton Academy. She then graduated in July 1855 from the State Normal School at Framingham MA, now called Framingham University. It was the first state-supported school dedicated to training teachers. Continue reading
“All houses wherein men have lived and died
Are haunted houses. Through the open doors
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,
With feet that make no sound upon the floors.”
“Marley’s Ghost,” from page 22 of The Forester (1911), Lake Forest University – from the Internet Archive
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned these words by 1867 when the New Hampshire Sentinel newspaper of Keene, New Hampshire shared them in print. I go one step further and state that all PLACES wherein men and women have died are haunted. If you peer through the notices of New Hampshire’s past you soon come to realize that if you feel cold fingers running up your spine you might be walking in a spot that is perhaps less hospitable to the living and more auspicious to the spectre. Continue reading
Photograph courtesy of the UC Riverside California Museum of Photography, “Harvesting Potatoes in Field. Reeds Ferry, N.H., Gifford M. Mast, Keystone-Mast Collection, date unknown
Even the United States Potato Board agrees that Londonderry New Hampshire played a leading role in the growth of the potato as a foodstuff in the American colonies. Though not the first location on this continent where it became known (Bermuda and Jamestown were first), “the first permanent potato patches in North America were established in 1719, most likely near Londonderry (Derry), NH, by Scots-Irish immigrants. From there, the crop spread across the country.” Continue reading
