New Boston New Hampshire’s Famous “Frog Rock”

Posted on 31 July, 2016 by Janice Brown
frog rock mont vernon NH watermarked

And old postcard of Frog Rock, listed here as being in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire. Does it look like a frog to you?

Is the Frog Rock famous, infamous or not famous at all? How many people nowadays even know about it? Is it located in New Boston, or Mont Vernon, or both places? Does the rock even look like a frog?

Lets go back in time a bit. During the mid to late 1800s Mont Vernon (a town lying south of New Boston, New Hampshire) was a tourist destination. Several hotels, and especially one called “The Grand,” were attractive summer resorts for the ‘upper crust’ seeking cooler air and relaxing activities. Continue reading →

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North Conway New Hampshire: Hotel Randall–Before It Was Eastern Slope Inn

Posted on 28 July, 2016 by Janice Brown

Photograph of Hotel Randall, North Conway, N.H. [Between and 1910, 1900] Detroit Publishing Co., Publisher. Retrieved from the Library of Congress. (Accessed April 18, 2016.)

Photograph of Hotel Randall, North Conway, N.H. [Between 1900 and 1910] Detroit Publishing Co., Publisher. Retrieved from the Library of Congress. (Accessed April 18, 2016.)

Built prior to 1864 on the spot where Eastern Slope Inn now sits, was first a small summer boarding house of Jonathan Melvin Seavey, a Conway NH carpenter. In 1864 this structure was sold to James T. Randall. In 1888 James T. Randall passed the reins of management to his son, Henry Harrison Randall.

In 1902 the boarding house burned, and now with Henry H. Randall as full owner, he built a “three-story Colonial Revival building with a fifteen-foot-wide, wrap-around piazza and flared gambrel roofs.” (see photograph directly below). “Among the hotel’s features were a long ell and a first floor dining room with views of the Saco River and White Mountains. Continue reading →

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The Lost Faces of World War One — Part Twelve

Posted on 26 July, 2016 by Janice Brown

This is the continuation of a series of stories about men who died in World War 1, and whose photographs appeared in a publication called “Our Nation’s Roll of Honor.” The original post and explanation can be found at this link.  There will also be a complete listing of all the names researched at that same blog post.

LOST FACES OF WORLD WAR ONE: Our Nation’s Roll of Honor — Part Twelve

KACZOR Joseph Junction City WIS
Sergeant Joseph Kaczor
Junction City, Wisconsin
Died of Wounds

Joseph Kaczor was born about 1882 in Austria, of Polish descent.  He died in France May 14, 1918, of wounds received in battle, while serving in the American Army, 1st Brigade Machine Gun Battalion, 1st Division. Continue reading →

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New Hampshire Tidbits: Potato Cheesecake On The Menu

Posted on 24 July, 2016 by Janice Brown
Graphic from Common birds of town and country, National Geographic Society, 1914, Cornell University Library on Flickr

Bird sitting on a cake, from “Common birds of town and country,” National Geographic Society, 1914, Cornell University Library on Flickr.

When you see the word, cheesecake, you think of the modern sweet dessert, made from a mixture of soft, fresh cream cheese (cheese or cottage cheese), eggs, and sugar on top of a crust of crushed graham crackers or other slightly sweet mixture.

But cheesecake was not always made this way. On 5 July 1859 the Weekly Union newspaper of Manchester, New Hampshire printed a recipe for POTATO CHEESECAKE. It would seem natural to me, that someone from the state where the first potato in New England was planted, would concoct such a strange but practical cake. Oh sure, there are tons of sweet potato cheesecake recipes, but I doubt you have seen one quite like this. Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, NH Tidbits, Recipes | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Lost Faces of World War One — Part Eleven

Posted on 22 July, 2016 by Janice Brown

This is the continuation of a series of stories about men who died in World War 1, and whose photographs appeared in a publication called “Our Nation’s Roll of Honor.” The original post and explanation can be found at this link.  There will also be a complete listing of all the names researched at that same blog post.

LOST FACES OF WORLD WAR ONE: Our Nation’s Roll of Honor — Part Eleven

JOHNSON George Brookly NYPRIVATE GEORGE JOHNSON
Brooklyn NY
Killed in Action

BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE, dated 14 Aug 1918
KILLED IN ACTION
*Private George Johnson 486-A Seventeenth Street, 165th Infantry Continue reading →

Posted in History, Lost Faces of WW1 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments