1873-1890: How New Hampshire’s Weather Was Foretold

Posted on 8 July, 2013 by Janice Brown

We take many things for granted, including weather forecasts.  With the quickly changing elements in New Hampshire, there have been

The Signal Station in Winter, by W.F. Halsall, from "Mount Washington: A Handbook for Travelers. page 32.

Summit House, Mt. Washington, White Mountains, circa 1900-1906; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Photograph Collection; http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/det.4a08155

times I’ve felt badly for our local meteorologists. How can they possibly predict conditions that change from minute to minute.   And why the heck do they call them that anyway–meteorologists? Is it because they particularly good at predicting when large objects “impact” our state?  (Just a little weather humor here!)
Continue reading →

Posted in History, Oddities, Accidents and Crazy Weather | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New Hampshire’s 4th of July: Freedom to those who have virtue to defend it

Posted on 3 July, 2013 by Janice Brown

AP004“Freedom to those who have virtue to defend it.”

— one of the toasts offered by the Provincial Congress to his Excellency General Washington, and his suite, the General and Staff Officers, and the Commanding Officer, of different regiments in & near the City of New York, on June 19, 1776.

[from: Freeman’s Journal, Published as the New-Hampshire Gazette, dated July 20, 1776, Vol. I, Issue 9.]
Continue reading →

Posted in History, Holidays, Military of New Hampshire, Personal History, Really Old News | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

New Hampshire’s 250 Year Old Towns

Posted on 30 June, 2013 by Janice Brown
Benning Wentworth

Likeness of Benning Wentworth from “History of New Hampshire,” by Everett S. Stackpole, Volume II, The American Historical Society, New York; 1916, page 46a

Happy Sestercentennial, Semiquincentennial, or Quarter-millennial to you!  In 1763 thirteen towns in New Hampshire were considered official by proclamation of then Provincial Governor Benning Wentworth.  In that year New Hampshire was a rough and dangerous place to live. Within a decade it was about to become more so,  as the American Revolution would break out.  In 1763 charters for these towns were granted: New Boston, Haverhill, Croydon, Cornish, Thornton, Warren, Plymouth, Lancaster, Alstead, Peeling [now Woodstock], Sandwich, Candia, and Gilsum. Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, History, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ancestry.com: Why Did A Good Idea Go the Way of the Flash Mob?

Posted on 27 June, 2013 by Janice Brown

It’s close to midnight
Some sap is dripping from my family tree
Under computer screen light
You see search results that make you want to flee
You try to shriek
But a zillion family hits just blur your vision
You scroll through pages you don’t need
As the NEW search engine stares you in the eyes
You’re keyword-ized.

‘Cause this is filler
Filler all right
And only G2G can save you
From the hits about to spike
You know its filler
Filler all right
You’re wishing hard for your old search engine
Inside a filler
Filler tonight. Yeah!

Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, History | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Immigrant to New Hampshire: Cora Alvina Parnell (1868-1913)

Posted on 25 June, 2013 by Janice Brown

Cora ParnellThe lovely face of Cora Alvina Parnell stared back at me from the computer screen. She was probably not a relative, I thought, at least based on her surname.  But for whatever reason, I clicked “buy” and spontaneously purchased her photograph. Continue reading →

Posted in History, New Hampshire Women | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments