Windham NH HIstory

FAIRVIEW COTTAGE - FEEDING A FRIENDLY CHIPMUNK

11/10/2017

Young woman feeds friendly chipmunk on the porch of Fairview Cottage

In 1895, William Calvin Harris constructed Fairview Cottage on the north shore of Cobbett's Pond, marking the beginning of a growing colony of camps on the pond. It was in the 1890s that cottages began to spring up all around the pond, and Cobbett's popularity began to grow among tourists and summer vacationers from the cities and towns of the Greater Boston area. William Calvin Harris' son, William Samuel Harris, wrote of Cobbett's Pond in 1898:

"There are and always will be multitudes of people to whom no spot is so dear in summer and so conducive to rest and recuperation of body and mind tired with the hustle of city life and the rush and worry of business cares, as the quiet nook on the shore of some of New Hampshire's numerous lakes and ponds, or the breezy hilltop overlooking these gems of landscape."

Around 1904, one family, whose name has been unfortunately lost to history, found themselves taken by exactly what Harris had described, and rented the Fairview Cottage. The family, with their several children, spent beautiful summer days relaxing on the front porch of the cottage, with a great view of the pond. On one such day, a chipmunk was friendly enough to find it's way into the laps, and hearts, of the vacationers, who eagerly fed the animal.

CAPTAIN ROBERT J. ADAMS' CANOBIE LAKE STEAMBOAT

10/28/2017

Ca. 1904 colorized photograph of Adam's steamboat and launch on Canobie Lake

When Canobie Lake Park opened on the Salem shore of Canobie Lake in 1902, summer camps had begun to spring up on the Windham and Salem sides of Canobie Lake. At the turn of the century, summer vacationers still had the choice of either Granite State Grove on the Windham shore, or the newly built trolley park across the lake. To make their way around the 1.5 mile long lake, summer campers would often have to make the trek on foot, save for the few who may have had an automobile during that early period. While not a particularly daunting journey, a trip around the lake would have been a bit more than a short walk for many, and in the heat of the summer probably not an enjoyable one. That all changed in 1904 when an enterprising man from Lawrence, MA opened his own steamboat launch on Canobie Lake. Captain Robert J. Adams was a 73 year old Irish immigrant who lived with his wife on Stevens Court in Lawrence. Adams had emigrated from Ireland in 1868; his wife Mary left Ireland for America just two years later. Mr. Adams may have been striving to achieve his own version of the American dream as early census records list his occupation as "own income." This designation among pages of neighbors employed in the trades was certainly not very common.
In 1904, Adams' entrepreneurial spirit drove him to build and operate his own steam launch on Canobie Lake. Adams likely saw the opening of the new Canobie Lake Park and the scores of new summer camps being built on the shores of the lake as an opening for a business venture never attempted before on the lake. That year Adams brought the first steamboat to the lake, a small boat capable of carrying a dozen or so passengers. During the summer Adams would pilot his boat around the lake, picking up and dropping off passengers wherever they needed to stop. Not only did his service drastically cut down on the time required to get around the lake, but it also offered a scenic boat ride. It's likely this was the first steamboat seen by many of the summer vacationers and residents of Windham and Salem. Unfortunately, Adams' steamboat service may not have been a great success as he did not operate for long. However, thanks to a summer vacationer eager to document his vacation in photographs, we are fortunate to have the photograph shown above as a reminder of an entrepreneurial Irish immigrant and summers at Canobie Lake at the turn of the twentieth century.

FROM THE LIBRARY OF EDWARD FRANCIS SEARLES

10/20/2017

The bookplate of Edward Francis Searles

Edward Searles' 1871 copy of "Poems by Bret Harte"

Edward Francis Searles, castle builder and eccentric millionaire, maintained a well stocked library at his Great Barrington, MA home, "Kellogg Terrace." By 1897, his collection of books had grown so extensive that he published a catalog containing a listing for each book. Among the books recorded as being part of this collection is an 1871 edition of "Poems by Bret Harte," which is shown above. The book, like all others in his collection, contains his personal bookplate, as well as a corresponding number. While the numbers are not used in the published catalog of his library, it is possible that the numbers were used to indicate accession order.
Bret Harte was noted for his short fiction stories about life during the California Gold Rush. A book by Harte would have been an interesting choice for the library of Edward Searles, as the fortune of his wife, Mary, had been built by Mark Hopkins Jr., who began his career selling supplies to miners during the Gold Rush. "Poems by Bret Harte," the only book by Harte in Searles' Kellogg Terrace Library, included poems such as "San Francisco, From the Sea", as well as "What the Engines Said." The latter poem is a fictional account of the "Opening of the Pacific Railroad." Incidentally, this presents another connection between the book and Mark Hopkins Jr., as the fortune of Hopkins', and later his widow, was built primarily on the success of the Central Pacific Railroad. Although we may never know if Searles read the poem, or any others from Harte's book, the full version of "What the Engines Said", as Searles may have read it, can be found below:

What the Engines Said
Opening of the Pacific Railroad
What was it the Engines said,
Pilots touching,—head to head
Facing on the single track,
Half a world behind each back?
This is what the Engines said,
Unreported and unread.

With a prefatory screech,
In a florid Western speech,
Said the engine from the West,
“I am from Sierra’s crest;
And, if altitude’s a test,
Why, I reckon, it’s confessed,
That I’ve done my level best.”

Said the Engine from the East,
“They who work best talk the least.
S’pose you whistle down your brakes;
What you’ve done is no great shakes,--
Pretty fair,—but let our meeting
Be a different kind of greeting.
Let these folks with champagne stuffing,
Not their Engines, do the puffing.

“Listen! Where Atlantic beats
Shores of snow and summer heats;
Where the Indian autumn skies
Paint the woods with wampum dies,--
I have chased the flying sun,
Seeing all he looked upon,
Blessing all that he has blest,
Nursing in my iron breast
All his vivifying heat,
All his clouds about my crest;
And before my flying feet
Every shadow must retreat.”

Said the Western Engine, “Phew!”
And a long, low whistle blew.
“Come, now, really that’s the oddest
Talk for one so very modest.
You brag of your East. You do?
Why, I bring the East to you!
All the Orient, all Cathay,
Find through me the shortest way;
And the sun you follow here
Rises in my hemisphere.
Really,—if one must be rude,--
Length, my friend, ain’t longitude.”

Said the Union: “Don’t reflect, or
I’ll run over some Director.”
Said the Central: “I’m Pacific;
But, when riled, I’m quite terrific.
Yet to-day we shall not quarrel,
Just to show these folks this moral,
How two Engines—in their vision--
Once have met without collision.”

That is what the Engines said,
Unreported and unread;
Spoken slightly through the nose,
With a whistle at the close.

LIFE IN WINDHAM - 1869

10/7/2017

Letter written by Philena Dinsmore Harris in 1869

Philena Dinsmore Harris of Auburn, NH entered the annals of Windham's history when she married William Calvin Harris in 1853. However, Philena had ancestral connections to Windham through her great-grandfather David Dinsmoor, nephew of John Dinsmoor, the ancestor of all of the Dinsmoors in Windham. Philena and William began their family in 1857 with the birth of their first child, Albert-Miles. In 1861, the couple welcomed their second son, William Samuel Harris, into the world; William would go on to document the genealogy of the Harris family as well as preserve Windham's history in his numerous newspaper articles and publications. The couple's third, and last, child, Mary-Ella, was born in 1866. Just three years after the birth of Mary-Ella, Philena penned a letter to her friend Nellie, unknowingly documenting every day life in Windham during the 1860s for future generations.
Philena begins the letter by thanking Nellie for sending her "checked shirts" for Albert, and noted that he was already wearing the shirts. She then describes what a typical day would be for a housewife and mother in Windham in the era. She had "plenty to do, sewing, knitting, mending mittens, stockings & pants." Her letter was written in January, hence the need to mend mittens for her children. In one week, Philena had also "washed, ironed, cut & made my calico dress, made 21 pies, 15 loaves of bread (including biscuit, cake & c), mended mittens, stockings, put some ears on the boys caps, put sleeves on Ella's waist and finished a stocking for E, besides all the other daily routine of work." Although she wishes she "could accomplish as much every week," she writes that she does not plan on doing so.
Interestingly, Philena mentions a "big Festival" that was held at the Town Hall, which raised "$242.00 clear." The object of the festival was to "pay the Parsonage debt." The festival included a "prize tree, fish pool, post office, candy table, & tables of articles to sell." Not only did the affair draw residents of Windham, "the upper hall was well filled, people from Salem, Derry." There were also "5 long tables in the lower hall filled twice & the waiters eat at the 3rd table." After the dinner had concluded there were "so many pies & things left that with the addition of some oysters we had another supper the next night. The second supper drew a crowd of over one hundred people and raised a whopping $28.
Philena also wrote that "there is but little snow here, but has been first rate sleighing for some time." Her husband William had "been very busy getting logs to mill," and her two sons were attending school. In fact, Albert was also attending a singing school twice a week. She also writes of her relatives, relating that "Mr. Coult & Sally came down here last Monday" and that "Grandma has been nicely this winter so I have had an opportunity to go out evenings much as I please - so far." In addition to visits from family, Philena expected a friend of hers to move to Windham soon and was quite pleased with the idea: "Mr. & Mrs. Bond (Ann Plummer) are going to move to our village next spring, he has bought Milan Anderson's house, won't that be nice?"
Philena then concludes her letter by writing of the various Christmas presents received by herself and her family. Her husband received a pair of suspenders, she received a comb, "G" (possibly "Grandma") received a tippet (a shawl worn by women), William received a picture book, and Mary-Ella received a "little earthen dog." Curiously, she does not mention what, if anything, Albert received for Christmas. However, she does tell her friend Nellie that "[o]ur Christmas presents were rather small in comparison with yours."

WINDHAM'S DOG TAX

9/22/2017

Spot was featured on an early postcard view of Windham

The dogs kept by Windham's earliest settlers would have been much different in appearance from modern pet dogs. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, dogs served a practical purpose in the households of Windham. Many farmers with livestock would have kept dogs as herding or guardian dogs; the job of the latter being to protect livestock from predators such as wolves or bears. Dogs also would have proved useful when hunting in the woods of Windham. Unfortunately, despite the importance of dogs, incidents and anecdotes involving dogs are almost nonexistent in the written histories of Windham.

1952 Windham, NH dog tag license for a dog collar

By the mid-19th century, dogs were no longer considered just practical animals, but were instead regarded as companions. This shift in attitude was due in part to the portrayal of dogs in the literature of the period. Dogs appeared as faithful companions in books and magazine articles. It is during this era that pet dogs would have first been introduced to Windham. It appears that by the mid-1860s the population of dogs in Windham had become significant enough where roaming dogs began to cause problems with farmers' livestock. This problem was a common one throughout the nation, and the typical solution to the probably was the "dog tax."
The purpose of a dog tax was to create a fund that could be used by the town to reimburse citizens for any damage done to their livestock by dogs. Such a tax was first implemented in Windham in 1866. In 1888, the dog tax raised $69.00; it seems that none of this tax money was paid out for its intended purpose. When there was leftover dog tax money in the town treasury, the remaining money was used to fund education in the schools of Windham. Eventually this dog tax was phased out and replaced with the more modern dog license. Unlike the dog tax, the purpose of the dog license was more to accurately assess the number of dogs in Windham's households, and provide a way to locate the owner of lost dogs. These licenses have, and are today, issued as tag to be placed on a dog collars; note the 1950s dog license tag shown above.

Sources:
http://www.thedogtrainingsecret.com/blog/history-dogs-america/
https://www.genealogytoday.com/articles/reader.mv?ID=974

1866 Windham tax bill showing the newly introduced "Dog Tax"

SUMMER ON ROCK POND

9/9/2017

Family enjoying a summer day on Rock Pond, with their own bowling set for entertainment

At thirty acres in area, Rock Pond never rivaled the approximately three hundred acre Cobbett's Pond as a summer destination for families in the greater Boston area. However, Rock Pond was at one time home to several dozen summer camps, and was considered a peaceful, quiet alternative to Cobbett's Pond. Originally named, Goldings Pond, the name was likely changed to Rock Pond near the turn of the twentieth century. While the reason for the name change is likely lost to history, it has been theorized that the nearby Deer's Leap may have given the pond its current name. The earliest camps on the pond were constructed in the early twentieth century and were much cruder than some of their Cobbett's Pond counterparts. According to Rural Oasis, some of the names of the early camps included: "The Only House on the Beach," "Recreation," and "Peace-haven." By the mid-1970s, there were almost five dozen seasonal summer camps on the shore of Rock Pond. Due to its relatively small size, much of the fishing and travel done on the pond was via canoe and rowboat as opposed to the motorboats that were commonplace on Cobbett's Pond by the mid-twentieth century. However, like Cobbett's Pond, summer tourism at Windham's ponds eventually diminished, leaving only memories and photos as reminders of the heyday of Rock Pond.

Fallen tree leaning against a summer camp on Rock Pond

"MYSTERY AIRPLANE LANDS AT WINDHAM"

8/26/2017

Stinson Air Cab Service airplane, likely similar to the plane that landed in Windham (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

On March 26, 1935, a large cabin airplane began to descend over Windham, eventually landing on George Butterfield's farm. At 9:45 that Tuesday night, Paul Myers, the 17-year-old neighbor of George Butterfield, heard the sound of a plane "buzzing" not far overhead. Concerned that the plane may strike Myers' home, the quick-thinking teenager turned on all of the lights in order to alert the pilot to the possible obstruction. With the house lit up, Myers jumped in his car and drove over to the field on the Butterfield farm where the mysterious plane had landed. Upon arriving, he observed that the plane was adorned with the words "Stenson Taxi Service" of New York; it is very likely The Portsmouth Herald misspelled the name of the air taxi service, the company actually being "Stinson."

1935 advertisement for the Stinson Air Cab Service (Courtesty of www.ninety-nines.org)

Once at the scene of the landing, Myers approached the four occupants of the plane who had begun to make their way to two awaiting automobiles. The only detail Myers could later recall of his interaction with the four occupants, were that two were elderly. Although his attempts to ascertain where they had come from were fruitless, the group did ask to use Myers' phone. Myers agreed to their request, and proceeded back to his car so he could lead the way to his home. He had expected the group to follow him back in their two cars, but instead he noticed that they began to load their baggage into their cars before driving away and abandoning the aircraft. Myers noticed that the four cases unloaded from the plane appeared to be heavy.
When Myers arrived back at his home, he alerted the police to the suspicious airplane landing, and the Windham and Derry police sent officers to investigate. Windham Chief of Police, William Brown, and Motor Vehicle Inspector Henry Parent were selected to lead the investigation. Inside the cabin of the plane, the officers recovered two pistols. The flares that had been dropped by the plane started several small fires after landing in the field, and the Derry fire department was called to extinguish the flames. A potentially dangerous fire had been started near the Butterfield home, with other fires burning on the nearby properties of Carl Albrecht and Herbert Russell.
The Butterfield family and Paul Myers assisted the police in the recreation of the night's activity, from which the police were led to believe the landing was prearranged. Following onsite investigative work and the reconstruction, the police were led to the conclusion that the plane likely flew up from the south, and circled the area of Butterfield's farm several times before dropping flares. The Manchester Airport, being the nearest airport, was contacted, but officials reported that no planes were expected that night and no planes had taken off from the airport that night. As a flight at that time of night would've been unusual for the 1930s, investigators were unable to determine exactly where the plane may have came from.
Further investigative work revealed that the plane had been registered to a Harry Clayford of Willoughby, Ohio. Despite the recollections of Myers, the reconstruction by the Butterfields, and the investigative efforts by the Windham and Derry police departments, many questions remain about the incident, even eighty-two years later. The occupants of the airplane were never identified, nor were drivers of the two automobiles that were waiting in the field. Where the plane originated from, why the occupants chose to land in Windham, and the final destination of the group of four remains unknown to this day.

1936 - MAN NARROWLY ESCAPES DEATH AT COBBETT'S POND

8/5/2017

By the mid-1930s, Cobbett's Pond had become summer destination for those living in nearby cities, especially the Greater Boston area. It was also during that period that motorboats became more commonplace on the pond, a result of increased affordability. James Hallett, a native of Malden, MA, was just one of many summer camp owners at Cobbett's to be the proud captain of his own motorboat during the summer of 1936. Possibly after a summer of constant operation, Hallett spent an October Tuesday repairing his motorboat at his camp. While making the necessary repairs, Hallett fell into the water, and began to drown. Fortunately, his wife witnessed the accident and began to cry for help. Hearing the cries of Hallett's wife, men from nearby cottages ran to rescue Hallett, and were able to pull him from the water. As Hallett was in need of medical treatment, the Methuen Fire Department was called to send an ambulance to transport Hallett to Lawrence General Hospital. At Lawrence General, Hallett was treated for immersion, and likely released shortly after. The accident and heroic effort on the part of Hallett's neighbors were covered by The Portsmouth Herald just a day later.

THE GREAT EXPLOSION OF 1849

7/22/2017

Map showing the Manchester and Lawrence Railroad line as it crosses Windham

Construction on the Manchester & Lawrence Railroad, Windham's first railroad, began in 1848 and lasted until 1849 when the project was finally completed. Much of the building was done by Irish laborers, who were notorious in the area for their countless shanties. Leonard Morrison wrote that "the workmen and their teams swarmed as thick as bees near the place of construction." The workmen lived in temporary structures built in pastures and fields along the railway track, evidence of which still remained nearly forty years later. With an abundance of granite, primitive blasting techniques were employed to clear the way for the railroad track.
On Tuesday, April 17, 1849, two Irish laborers were fired from the railway construction crew for a now unknown reason. Feeling that they had been wronged by their former employer, the two men concocted a scheme to seek revenge. They planned to blow up a large quantity of blasting powder that was stored in a building near the construction site. In total, there were forty-six wooden kegs of powder being stored in the building on that day. Despite the obvious danger, the men decided all they needed to do to safely execute their plan was to light the powder with a match. According to the Lowell Courier, the men must have supposed they could light the powder in such a manner "with perfect impunity and safety to themselves." Unfortunately, this was not the case. The Lowell Courier reported that "the explosion was terrific, having been felt like the sound of an earthquake, in the neighboring towns. One of the Irishmen, probably the one who applied the match, was blown sky high to atoms." The other disgruntled railway worker fared much better as he was "farther from the scene of operations, escaped without much injury, except a good singing and blacking. When found, he was screaming, murther, in terrible fright." As one might have assumed, the building where the blasting powder was stored was blown to pieces.

A LOOK AT WINDHAM IN THE 1950S

7/8/2017

The advertising shown, above and below, dates from the mid-1950s. The Ames House conveniently added a small map to their ad, in order to show their close proximity to nearby attractions such as the Windham Playhouse and Cobbett's Pond. Joe's Pizza attempted to capitalize on the crowds drawn by the Windham Playhouse, by serving up meat pies and pizza to eager customers both before and after shows. If neither Joe's Pizza nor The Ames House appealed to Cobbett's Pond vacationers or summer theater-goers, there was also Gurry's, situated right along the Windham town line.