He Kept New Hampshire Beds Warm: Concord’s Louis F. Gillette (1857-1937)

Posted on 12 January, 2017 by Janice Brown

Sketch included in Patent US 991844 A: Therapeutic bottle, by L.F. Gillett of Concord, NH.

In the early twentieth century most New Hampshire homes did not have central heating, and warming pans were in common use. These devices warmed up the sheets, and also kept the bed warm at least for a few hours, especially if you didn’t have a sleeping companion.

At first heated brick and hot stones were used. Later a warming pan would hold embers from the fire place. Eventually this device evolved into a closed metal container that held hot water. It was this latter sort of device that was produced by Louis F. Gillette in Concord, New Hampshire.

In 1910 L.F. Gillette submitted a patent for a “Therapeutic” bottle made of metal with a removable stopper. His improvement was making it not only a water bottle but “secondly, for use as a reservoir for a fountain syringe.” Continue reading →

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Faces of the BEAN Family of Brentwood, Deerfield and Derry New Hampshire

Posted on 8 January, 2017 by Janice Brown

Sketch of “J.W. Bean’s Residence, Derry Depot” from Willey’s Book of Nutfield. (This is Joseph Warren Bean who is mentioned in this story).

The BEAN family arrived early in the colony of New Hampshire. They came from Scotland and made Exeter their home. This story is not an attempt to trace all of the Bean progeny, just that of one John Lyford Bean who lived most of his life in New Hampshire. I purchased tiny gem-sized photographs of his family that I would like to share with you.

My story focuses on John L. & Mary (Evans) Bean, and their children who were born in the small town of Brentwood New Hampshire. This is a timely story, as the town of Brentwood is celebrating its 275th anniversary this year (in 2017).

In the year 1848, while some of the children were still young, John L. Bean and his family moved to a farm in Derry, New Hampshire where some of their descendants remain today.  The town of Derry is gearing up to celebrate its 300th anniversary in 2019.

Continue reading →

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Concord New Hampshire’s Famed Spiritualist, Medium and Clairvoyant: Sophia (Bradley) Woods Craddock (1837-1909)

Posted on 4 January, 2017 by Janice Brown

Photograph of a woman, taken at the M.S. Lamprey studio in Fisherville, N.H. between 1881-1909. Probably photograph of Mrs. Sophia B. Craddock, a noted spiritualist and test medium of the city.

This story about Mrs. Sophia (Bradley) Craddock (or her preferred “S.B. Craddock”) started with my purchase of a photograph. Shown here to the left, it was taken in Maurice S. Lamprey’s Washington Square studio in Fisherville, New Hampshire.

I can’t be 100% certain that this unmarked photograph is of Mrs. Craddock. However, Sophia Craddock was the most famous spiritualist, “trance speaker” and “test medium” in the Concord area where she  resided between the years of 1880 and 1906. Spiritualism, which was the belief that the dead communicated with the living (usually through an individual called a ‘medium’) was most popular between the 1840s and 1920s.

As early as 1876 New Hampshire Spiritualists were numerous enough to hold a state convention.  Reportedly “by 1897, spiritualism was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe.”

Continue reading →

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2017 — New Hampshire’s Hourglass Has Turned

Posted on 31 December, 2016 by Janice Brown

From the Boston Globe newspaper, January 1, 1917, one hundred years ago.

The hourglass has turned; the last few sands
That marked the Old Year now have slipped away,
And in his outstretched hand the New Year holds
The future of a twelvemonth’s span.

Then hail New Year! We bid thee welcome. Thy gifts are many, but not yet disclosed.
With thee may come joy or sorrow, pain or loss, failure or success, hope deferred or dreams realized.
We bid thee welcome and will try to cherish and improve thy gift of time.
We greet thee with a cheer as we undertake our journey in thy care.
“Life must march forward in a column of days.”
—Samuel Gardiner Ayres

Continue reading →

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The Farm Boy Who Built New Hampshire’s Only Silver Industry: Concord’s William Butler Durgin (1833-1905)

Posted on 28 December, 2016 by Janice Brown

Fairfax pattern silverware advertisement by William B. Durgin Co.

William B. Durgin’s silver flatware and serving pieces are today still very much collectible and in demand. During the company’s heyday his Fairfax silver pattern was the leading one in the entire United States.

But William Butler Durgin was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.  Though I give credit in the story title to Concord, where he gained his greatest economic success, he was a native of Campton, in Grafton County, New Hampshire. Continue reading →

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