Admiral David Farragut

Posted on 19 June, 2006 by Janice Brown

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New Hampshire: The First Turkey on Mount Washington

Posted on 19 June, 2006 by Janice Brown

The first and only turkey ever cooked on the summit of Mt. Washington

was taken up by the lately returned Journalistic party.

It was stuffed, roasted and eaten there with the remains of an excellent pudding which was sent up for a Christmas present by the lady of Professor Hitchcock of Dartmouth College. Mr. Cogswell of the Concord Monitor, one of the journalists, says that life on the mountain is not as monotonous as many suppose.  Cooking the meals, taking observations, making reports, writing letters, and  consulting scientific works keep all the party busy. Only two meals a day are provided.–Breakfast from eight to nine, and dinner from three to four o’clock. The bill of fare embraces corned beef, fresh beef, lamb, mutton, salt pork, pilot break, griddle cakes, corn-starch, pudding, bake beans, canned peaches and tomatoes, apple sauce, pickles and onions.

The Farmers’ Cabinet, Volume 69, Issue 32, Dated 23 February 1871

Janice

–Mount Washington–

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New Hampshire’s Donald Hall: 14th U.S. ‘Poet Laureate’

Posted on 17 June, 2006 by Janice Brown

I originally wrote this story about Donald Hall in June of 2006 when he was first appointed Poet Laureate of New Hampshire.  Today I read that Mr. Hall passed away on 23 June 2018 at the age of 89.  He lived on a farm called Eagle Pond.  How appropriate to live there as his words soared as high as that wondrous bird flies.  Rest in Peace, Donald Hall.

—- The original 2006 story —-

The newspapers and ezines are full of articles about our new Poet Laureate, Donald Hall.

My question is…. what exactly IS a “Poet Laureate?”

First, in the United States, the title is really “Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry.” (In 1985 the title was changed to this, from the former “Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress”).

 Donald Hall’s first official duties will start on September 30th in the National Mall in Washington D.C., where he is a featured speaker at the Library of Congress National Book Festival’s poetry pavilion.

His goal will be to “seek to raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry.” This position is appointed yearly by the Librarian of Congress.  The Poet Laureate serves from October to May, and receives a $35,000 annual stipend funded by a gift from Archer M. Huntington.

Each Laureate brings a different emphasis to the position. Past Poet Laureates have created poetry workshops for women, or met with elementary school students to encourage them to write.  As the newest 14th Poet Laureate, Donald Hall has not yet announced his focus.

Donald Hall is also a former Poet Laureate of New Hampshire from 1995-1999. In New Hampshire, the position of Poet Laureate was not established until 1967.  It is purely an unpaid, honorary position, that is appointed by the Governor of New Hampshire on a worthy New Hampshire resident.

Amy Kane has a great article at Area 603 where you learn more about Donald Hall himself, and visit some great links to videos of him; and Pun Salad offers insight into Donald Hall’s children’s book, “Ox-Cart Man.”

Janice

P.S.: Although not a native of New Hampshire (he was born in Connecticut in 1928), Donald Hall’s mother and grandmother were born in New Hampshire, and he has lived in Wilmot for at least 30 years. His maternal grandmother’s Keniston line hails back to before 1646 in Portsmouth and Greenland, New Hampshire.

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Donald R. Hall, 2006 "Poet Laureate" of the United States (1928-living)

Posted on 16 June, 2006 by Janice Brown

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Exeter New Hampshire, African American Poet, James Monroe Whitfield (1822-1871)

Posted on 16 June, 2006 by Janice Brown

James Monroe Whitfield was born 10 April 1822 in Exeter, New Hampshire.

Little is known about his family and education, except that he had a sister, Elizabeth P. Allen, whose daughter, Annie Pauline Pindell, was a concert singer and songwriter.  Some say he was a descendant of Ann Paul, sister of Thomas Paul, an Exeter, New Hampshire, clergyman.

He may have been educated in New York city, and he was “an avowed emigrationist.” He apparently settled in Buffalo, New York where he was employed as a barber, when he was visited by Frederick Douglass, who said of him, “the malignant arrangements of society has chained him in the barber shop.”

In May of 1853 his “America and Other Poems” was published while he was living in Buffalo, New York.

According to ProQuest, he was  “a regular contributor to abolitionist journals, whose ironic and accusatory poems such as ‘The Misanthropist’ and ‘America’ anticipate the Black nationalism of later generations.”

The 1860 U.S. Census shows, a man who I believe to be the poet, James Whitfield, living in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife and three sons.  If the ages are correct, this would place the Whitfield Family in New York State from at least 1846-1853, and in Ohio around 1854.  James Monroe Whitfield died of heart disease in San Francisco in 1871.

1860 United States Federal Census > Connecticut > New Haven > New Haven Ward 6
James Whitfield 38 M B Barber 2,000 40 [born in ] NH
Frances Whitfield 38 F B Conn
James Whitfield 6 M B Ohio [b abt 1854 Ohio]
Charles Whitfield 14 M B New York [b abt 1846 NY]
Walter Whitfield 11 M B New York [b abt 1849 NY]

His poetry scrutinizes the questions of slavery and freedom. James M. Whitfield was an important part of the first African American literary renaissance.  His stirring declarations in verse masterfully combined artistry and acrimony.

And o’er the nation’s wide domain,
Where once was heard the clanking chain,
And timorous bondmen crouched in fear,
Before the brutal overseer,
Proclaim the truth that equal laws
Can best sustain the righteous cause;
And let this nation henceforth be
In truth the country of the free.”

Janice

—ADDITIONAL READING—

Book of Poetry: “America And Other Poems” [online]

Poem: “To Cinque,” from America and Other Poems.

Poem: “Written for the Celebration of the Fourth Anniversary of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation”

Hymn: “A Hymn”, Written For The Dedication Of The Michigan Street Baptist Church, Buffalo”

Poem: “New Years Hymn”

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