Today I’ve added a new category to my list of topics for this blog, namely “New Hampshire Historical Markers.”
Some of the topics on New Hampshire’s historical markers have already
been addressed in blog articles already published (such as Indian Stream Republic, that is N.H. marker #1). I’ll be adding more for your reading pleasure.
Janice
*Additional Reading*
–New Hampshire Historical Markers–
–What You Need To Know To Request A New Hampshire State Highway
Historical Marker–
New Hampshire has its very own breed of poultry, called New Hampshire Reds.
Somewhere around 1915, a few New Hampshire farmers took Rhode Island Reds, and began developing them to improve their body size for meat production. There does not appear to have been any introduction of any other breed. Birds that were observed to have quick growth, fast feathering and early maturity were used for breeding stock.
In 1919, at least one name stands out as a breeder of New Hampshire ‘Reds.’ Rev. Ora Wilfred Craig of Ashland, Laconia and Manchester NH (b. 2 Jan 1879), had hens as his hobby. A member of the American Poultry Association, Rose Comb Rhode Island Reds being his choice, imported to NH (before 1890). [Granite Monthly, Jan-Dec. 1928] . By 1935 there were at least 40 breeders in the state.
If you compare the New Hampshire and the Rhode Island Red side by side, you can see that the New Hampshire version has a deeper, broader body. Both birds produce brown eggs. The New Hampshire Red may end up a bird of the past. In 2003 there were fewer than 5000 breeding birds left with ten or fewer breeding flocks.
Folks haven’t stopped trying to create new types of poultry. The Delaware breed, according to “The Complete Guide to Raising Chickens,” by Tara L. Williams, is a breed developed in the 1940s, called first “Indian Rivers,” a cross between barred Plymouth Rock roosters and New Hampshire red hens.
Janice
*Additional Reading*
–Old Poultry Breeds-
My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.
Jonathan Myrick Daniels was born in 1939 in Keene, New Hampshire, son of Dr. Philip B. Daniels and his wife Constance. Jon’s father was a practicing physician in Keene from about 1933 to 1951. Dr. Daniels died in December of 1959. His widow Constance continued to live in Keene until January 1984 when she died. Jonathan had a younger sister named Emily.
Jon grew up in Keene, graduating from Keene High School. In 1961 he graduated from the Virginia Military Institute (his father died during his sophomore year there). In his valedictorian speech he said, “I have three wishes for you. I wish you the joy of a purposeful life. I wish you new worlds and the vision to see them. I wish you the decency and nobility of which you are capable.” Continue reading
Selectmen, or assessors are the elected officials of a town. This term evolved from the term “ten men” (c1634) to “select townsmen” (c1643), eventually becoming “select(ed) men.” Those holding this position were originally “selected” at “town meeting” held once a year. The selectmen managed the affairs of the town in accordance with the policies and laws set forth by the voters.
Despite their responsibility as municipal executives, selectmen can only exercise those powers set forth by state law. Early responsibilities might include hiring preachers, marking out roads, granting licenses to run taverns or sell “spiritous” liquors, submitting documents and fulfilling the town’s share (payment) of taxes required by higher-level government.
New Hampshire’s first woman town selectman was Miss Lenna Gwendolen Wilson of Sharon, who served two House terms. She first became a selectman in 1928, following service in the 1927 Legislature, and was re-elected for three additional three-year terms. She served as board chairman throughout that 12-year tenure, by annual vote of her male associates.
Janice
