Belmont NH WWI monument. Photograph courtesy of Eileen Gilbert, Belmont Library.
For a small town Belmont New Hampshire’s veteran organization, the Charles Kilborn Post #58 American Legion, is amazingly active and continually vigilant to local veterans, and patriotic causes. To honor the local veterans, for many years the members of this American Legion Post has traditionally placed “both a flag and a floral tribute on the grave of every Belmont veteran on Memorial Day.” Continue reading
Photograph of B. Loraine Webster taken in 1909 for her Vassar College yearbook.
A miniaturist artist is known as a “painter in little.” This style of painting began to thrive in France and Italy during the Renaissance. Later miniature portraits of the saints were hand-painted in missals, and the tiny portraits of the popes or royalty of Europe were popular. The Court of Henry VII appointed a miniaturist painter, and succeeding monarchs also sought their talents. In the United States, Edward G. Malbone and Edward Miles were early famous miniature painters.
Ivory was often used as the base on which to paint. A sketch was made first, lightly applied with a hard pencil. The miniaturist generally painted from life, in oil, watercolor or enamel, but mainly in watercolor. Bertha Loraine (Webster) Starr was one such artist. Continue reading
Enfield World War I Honor Roll, Veterans Park, Rourte 4.
The Town of Enfield holds an annual Memorial Day Parade. This year (2018) there was also a short ceremony and laying of a wreath at the Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery following by a special ceremony at Oak Grove Cemetery by Tim Jennings, Lt (jg) USN who commemorated the 100th anniversary of World War I. There were two volleys and a presentation of TAPS by the MVRHS Band.
One hundred years ago the town had about 1500 citizens. Of these Enfield sent its full quota of young men and women to military service. Forty-seven names appear on the plaque, though I believe the number should be closer to sixty-two. Three soldiers did not return home. When the war ended the Town of Enfield had a plaque made and laid in granite, placed in a square of land on Route 4 now called Veterans Memorial Park. The transcription of that plaque follows, the stars indicating that the soldier died in service. Continue reading
Watercolor of the SS Leviathan at the National Archives.
On the 29th of September 1918, the transport ship Leviathan left the docks of Hoboken New Jersey on its voyage to Brest, France carrying troops and medical personnel. The problem started even before the ship departed, the passengers became victims of the dreaded influenza. This vivid story found in Vermont newspapers is a well-documented first-hand account of how quickly and ruthlessly the “Spanish flu” took the lives of previously healthy soldiers during WWI. Continue reading
Westmoreland NH WWI Honor Roll. Photograph by Richard S. Marsh, used with permission.
When the United States entered the World War (now called WWI), the town of Westmoreland, in Cheshire County, New Hampshire had between 600 and 750 residents. The town sent its full complement of men to service in the military, with 15 of them recognized on a World War I monument located on the town common near the library and across from the town hall. There were an additional two who claimed a connection with the town. Out of these seventeen, two would make the ultimate sacrifice–Arthur Louis Sheldon and Ralph Whitten Wheeler. Westmoreland NH’s WWI memorial is engraved as follows: Continue reading
