New Hampshire WWI Military: Heroes of Chesterfield

Posted on 24 September, 2018 by Janice Brown

Chesterfield New Hampshire’s Soldier’s Monument that includes both Civil War and WWI names. Photograph courtesy of Richard S. Marsh.

Chesterfield, New Hampshire is located in Cheshire County and contains the villages of West Chesterfield, Chesterfield Factory and Spofford. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, the town of Chesterfield, New Hampshire had about 750 residents. Of these twenty of the town’s young men would be called into military service, and there would be at least one fatality in wartime.

On 20 August 1924 the town had a Soldier’s monument installed by the Town Hall on Route 63. Currently this includes series of 5 plaques honoring Civil War, WWI and those who died in “the other wars” (probably meant to reference the American Revolution, War of 1812 and the Spanish-American Wars at the time). Continue reading →

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The Hermit of Mont Vernon New Hampshire: Jarvis Smith (1850-1925)

Posted on 22 September, 2018 by Janice Brown

Jarvis Smith and his stilt home on Beech Hill in Mont Vernon NH. From the 1917 Boston Post.

I’d heard the old tales of a hermit that lived in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire but until recently I had not known his name. The story of this solitary man came to light in a series of newspaper posts published during the World War I era. The earliest article is quite interesting (as follows).

From a 1916 Boston Post article entitled “HOW A HERMIT PASSES HIS TIME,” by Joe Toye, the following story was gleaned.
Did you ever go calling on a hermit? And particularly a hermit who shaves himself with fire? There are hermits and hermits, and the one of which I am to write was the most hermitty hermit I ever hermitted with. He is a regular hermit, such as you read about in the books. He lives all alone in the middle of the woods, with the caterpillers [sic] and creepy things for company. Continue reading →

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New Hampshire WWI Military: Heroes of Stratford

Posted on 20 September, 2018 by Janice Brown

Post-WWI postcard showing the Stratford NH Soldiers’ Monument at Post Office Square.

My first grateful acknowledgement for the contents of this story needs to go to Jeannette R. Thompson who wrote “History of the Town of Stratford, New Hampshire, 1773-1925,” that was published by the vote of the town in 1925. Without Jeannette Thompson’s compilation of World War I soldiers from Stratford, this WWI history story would have been so much more difficult to research.   According to that town history, seventy-five enlisted men and women were sent into military service, being 9-3/8% of the entire population. Only one other location in New Hampshire sent as many of its young people to war. Continue reading →

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Portsmouth NH Executive Secretary and Named Bridge Honoree: Sarah Mildred Long (1916-2004)

Posted on 18 September, 2018 by Janice Brown

S. Mildred Long . Photograph from book, “The Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, A History …” by Woodard D. Openo, page vi, , published by Peter E. Randall, Portsmouth NH. Used with permission.

Three of the state’s largest bridges span the Piscataqua River between Portsmouth and Kittery, Maine. The second longest bridge is the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge that connects Portsmouth NH with Kittery Maine via the U.S. Route 1 Bypass. (The longest is the Memorial Bridge | Route 1)

The Sarah Mildred Long Bridge was recently rebuilt and opened in March of 2018. The former bridge of the same name, completed in 1940, is the 2,000-foot steel truss that originally honored Mildred Long, though the updated bridge continues to bear her name. Continue reading →

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New Hampshire WWI Military: Heroes of Plymouth and Rumney

Posted on 16 September, 2018 by Janice Brown

The Grafton County towns of Plymouth and Rumney are adjacent to each other, Rumney being the northernmost of the two. Throughout their history they have shared citizens as many were born in one town and removed to the other. It does not belittle the service of their people to combine the two into one story that recognizes their war dead. The U.S. Army Transport Service Passenger Lists provide us with a partial compilation of those who served in Europe during World War I. Continue reading →

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