My dear friend fM’s favorite holiday tradition (she says) is Blog Caroling. I suspect that her ritual of dressing up in flannel jammies with hot toddy in hand are as important as the musical production.
Last year I presented a truly local song. But with New Hampshire-specific Christmas songs being rarer than chestnut trees, I settled, quite happily, for one I like that has little to do with my locale. Continue reading
New London’s main street circa 1900. From an old postcard.
We have to start with the father in order to know the sons. Jonathan-5 Everett came from a long and well-traced line that I have included in the genealogy below. Jonathan moved from Attleboro, Massachusetts to New London NH before 1789 (according to the New London NH town’s history). He lived in a log cabin, and later in a frame house. He was an influential citizen. He married Mary Messinger/Messenger and produced eight children.
In a previous story I wrote about this same Jonathan & Mary (Messinger) Everett’s daughter Mary, who married the Honorable Anthony Colby, a governor of New Hampshire. In this story I will show photographs of Mary’s brothers, David and Daniel Everett, along with their wives, and their family trees. Continue reading
Many of my stories originate from photographs, and this one is no different. I purchased two of the Furber family of Londonderry, New Hampshire. Both are tin type photos in a paper jacket, probably taken around the time of the Civil War, in the mid to late 1860s. The boys pictured are both sons of John S. Furber, a prominent manufacturer of water pumps.
The first photograph is of John W. Furber. Sadly he died in 1885 at the age of 39. His younger brother, Elbridge W., died in 1881, aged 18. Both of these men died from consumption (tuberculosis), a common killer of both young and old in those days. Continue reading
Zora Drown, later Zora Dodge of Sheffield VT and Piermont NH. The photograph is dated to the years of the Civil War.
She was born Zora Drown in the village of Sheffield in Caledonia County Vermont, the 8th of 12 children born to Amos & Olive (Crouch) Drown. She married George Dodge, a farmer, and moved with him to Piermont in Grafton County, New Hampshire.
Even today that town has a small population, only 790 residents. During the summer, and also during the autumn tourist season, the population swells a bit.
Zora would have lived in Piermont before New Hampshire really even had a tourist season. In 1850 the town had 948 people, a drop of 10% from the year before. By 1860 the town had only gained one person to 949. By 1870 numbers dipped again to 1792 and the census continued its downward trend to 1970 when it saw 475 people. Continue reading
Photograph of a young Vesta Coward (later Vesta Roy) from her high school yearbook.
She was born Vesta Maurine Coward on 26 March 1925 in Detroit, Michigan, the only daughter of Percy A. & Mildred J. (Paterson) Coward. She had three siblings, Thomas, Richard, and James. In 1940 her father was an inspector in an automobile factory (per U.S. census). She attended school in Dearborn, Michigan, including graduating from Fordson High School where she was a member of both the student council and the girl’s field hockey team.
Vesta attended Wayne State University (Biographies differ, one stating she graduated, and a second stating she left college prior to completion to serve in the military during WWII, the latter probably being accurate). When the United States military deemed her too young, she became a radio operator with the Royal Canadian Air Force (from 1943 to 1945). Continue reading
