Windham NH HIstory

A DAY OF FISHING AT COBBETT'S POND

6/24/2017

One days' catch of the Pelham Fishing Club on "Corbett's Pond" in 1907.

On February 28, 1907, the men of the Pelham Fishing Club made their way to Cobbett’s Pond with hopes of a bountiful catch. Without a record of the weather in Windham in February of 1907, it is difficult to say whether the pond was frozen over on that day. The most primitive ice fishing techniques had been developed by the American Indians centuries earlier, and it is possible the Pawtuckets, who lived along the shores of Cobbett's Pond had ice fished. Regardless of the weather conditions, the Pelham Fishing Club had a good turnout of members that day. In attendance that day were club members:

Frank M. Woodbury
Harry Atwood
William Atwood
Charles H. Coleman
E. L. Overlock
William Marsh
Avery M. Jones
John Cochran
Ed Smith
Ed Simpson
Moses Raymond

With the regular club members were two guests: Frank Woodman and Joshua T. Day. When their day of fishing had concluded, the club members had caught more than a dozen photo worthy fish. After the strung fish were hung up, an amateur photographer, likely one of the men in the club, took a photographer, forever preserving the memories of the day.

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A TRIP TO BUTTERFIELD'S BOULDER

6/10/2017

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W.S. Beekman, his wife, and a young son of Professor Edmund Angell, at Butterfield's Boulder.

When W. S. Beekman, his wife, and a son of Professor Edmund Angell made the trip from Derry to Butterfield’s Boulder in Windham, they did so in search of a geological oddity that had fascinated so many other tourists and locals. In the late nineteenth century it would not have been uncommon for a . When the Beekmans and their young companion finished inspecting the glacial erratic, the photographer that accompanied them to take their photograph, possibly Professor Edmund Angell himself, positioned his camera on the ground in an attempt to show the underside of the boulder. According to the photographer’s notes, he wanted to show the ledge wall that appeared to him as though it was slanting upwards. However, he noted that “it is quite difficult to see when looking directly at rock.” As well as recording his brief physical observations, the photographer wrote a few lines as to the scientific nature of the boulder. He noted Butterfield’s Boulder is “granite with garnets” and measures approximately twenty feet by eighteen feet by fifteen feet.
Incidentally, according to Nutfield Rambles, Professor Edmund Angell of Derry was an inventor, chemist, photographer, and served as headmaster at Pinkerton Academy. Angell and his wife had two sons, Everett and Ralph; Everett was the eldest son. In March of 1890, young Everett became very ill, and a local doctor diagnosed the boy’s ailment as tonsillitis. Soon after the diagnosis, Everett passed away at the age of nine, and the family doctor noticed black spots on the boy’s arms, which indicated scarlet fever, and not tonsillitis. Ralph Everett was just five years old at the time of his brother’s passing. It is unknown if the Beekmans’ young companion for their trip to Butterfield’s Boulder was Everett or Ralph. As Professor Angell was a noted photographer in the area, it is possible he went along for the trip to Windham to photograph his son with Beekmans. Given his scientific background it is likely he would have had the interest to record a brief scientific description of the boulder, as well as notes on how the boulder was best photographer.

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A DAY OF FISHING AT COBBETT'S POND

A TRIP TO BUTTERFIELD'S BOULDER

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