Author: Rose

Images: Mills School

1891 Mills School, Students and Teacher

1890 or 1891 Mills School, Students and Teacher

According to Paul S. Shaw, MD in his book Salisbury Lost, Mill’s School 1890:

Front Row: Walter E. Dunlap, John A. Huntoon, Wm. E. Dunlap, Lewis C. Shaw, Abbie F. Shaw, May Prince (back of May with hood) Sadie Sanborn, (front on ground) Lizzie Sanborn, Linnie De Merritt, Teacher, Fred Prince, Ned Prince, Leon Prince, George Sanborn

Second Row: (behind Abbie Shaw) Sarah Prince, James S. Shaw, Ned C. Rogers, Laura Prince, Kate Sanborn, Fred A. Dunlap, John R. Prince.

In front of John Prince, Gladys Sargent.

Standing in doorway: George Dunlap, Steve Sanborn.

Mills School

Mills School ca 1890

 

Images: Smith’s Corner School

 

1887 Smith's Corner School

1887 Smith’s Corner School

According to Paul S. Shaw, MD in his book Salisbury Lost this photo was taken in 1887 and include the following people:

Front Row l to r: Henry Stevens, Charles Hutchins, Charles Mitchell, Stella Ham, Bessie Keniston, Jennie Mitchell, Myrtie Ham, John Mitchell

Back Row  l to r: Roy Gookin, Nelson Cook, Ann Mitchell, Clara Mitchell, Jesse McAlister, Everett Keniston,        Teacher James Shaw

Submitted by Roger Heath

Aunty* Aunty's Salisbury Class

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teacher Eleanor Morrill above with her class and in an image to the right.

She was “Aunty” to local resident Roger Heath and a sister to Bernice mentioned below.

“She was very much a Victorian or at least an Edwardian and spoke in an Eleanor Roosevelt kind of way. She taught all of her life in many different venues. She often visited with us at vacation time and brought copies of coloring pages to celebrate the holiday: Angels and trees at Christmas, Easter bunnies and eggs at Easter and so on which we colored. She once told me one of her earliest memories of watching Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.”-Roger Heath

The image below shows Teacher Bernice Morrill who taught at the Smith’s Corner School and is Roger Heath’s grandmother and sister to Eleanor above. Bernice is in the doorway of the school house with students.

Dated Jan 23, 1914

Smith's Corner School

 

 

 

 

 

The Union Meeting House

Union church 1913 Salisbury

Postcard dated 1913

 

Commentary-Rose Cravens

THE UNION MEETING HOUSE

According to John Dearborn in the History of Salisbury New Hampshire:

The building of the Union Meeting House at Smith’s Corner was proposed in 1832 and a meeting to take action to build the church occurred Feb 26, 1834. Forty two people voted to contribute to the building and to continue to support it financially until it was built.

Paul Shaw in the book Salisbury Lost  copyright 1993 Revised 2003, has the building date as 1834. It served as a forum of the Universalists, Congregational, Christian and Methodist denominations. Ministers of various faiths preached on a rotational basis and deacon filled in when ministers were unavailable.

“For several years after the church services were discontinued, the building was used for reunions of the Bean family, a very prominent family in this part of town.  In 1929 it was bought by Mrs. Storrow of Boston. She had it taken down and removed to Springfield, Massachusetts where it is a part of Storrowton, on the grounds of the Eastern States Exposition.

The land was taken by the U.S. Government in 1941 for the Blackwater Dam Basin, being tract #87 on the Army Engineers map.”

 

The Amazing Story of  the Moving and Reconstructing of The Union Meeting House

Robert Pearson Union Meeting House

1929 Union Meeting House being taken down by Robert Pearson. from Salisbury Lost by Paul S. Shaw

Please note that the reconstructed church is indeed the Union Meeting House with a new facade. Explained further on.

Helen Storrow-

Helen Osborn Storrow

From the website:

http://www.thebige.com/ese/about/history/

“Another unique feature of Eastern States Exposition is Storrowton Village Museum, an Early American village of the 1700s and 1800s. In 1926, Boston philanthropist and Exposition trustee Helen Osborne Storrow began her search for an early New England building to house her Home Department at the Exposition.

“Storrowton’s Meeting House was originally located in Salisbury, New Hampshire, where it stood at Smith’s Corner and was known as the “Union Meeting House.”

Members of four religious denominations combined their efforts to build the Meeting House where each (Methodist, Christian, Congregational and Universalist) could alternately use the pulpit.

In 1929, the Meeting House was brought to Storrowton timber by timber. The paneled wainscoting, pews of unpainted pine and choir gallery were put back in place. In another New Hampshire town, a pulpit was found which now graces this building. A bell cast in 1851 was taken from an old church in Neponset, Mass., and a clock was also installed.

The Meeting House is the postcard-perfect focal point of Storrowton Village. It faces south and serves as the site of programs about 19th century life, re-enactments and a hundred weddings annually”

The Union Meeting House now at Storrowton

Excerpts from the same website on the Big E Exposition specifically on Helen Osborn Storrow.

http://www.thebige.com/sv/history-of-svm/helen-osborne-storrow/

Time frame: 1920’s

Because of her sister’s ties with Springfield, the now Mrs. James Storrow kept in touch with the happenings in the Pioneer Valley. When the Eastern States Exposition was started in 1916 it was organized as a livestock exhibition. The founders soon realized that such a show would appeal to the men on the farm but not their entire family. To correct this oversight the Trustees of the Exposition created what was then called the “Home Department.” With her experience in organizing Girl Scout training, establishing regional camps for that same group, organizing relief efforts for Belgium during World War One and funding the Saturday Evening Girls of the Boston Settlement movement for Eastern European immigrants, Helen Storrow was asked to head this new effort as chairman of that department.estock exhibition. The founders soon realized that such a show would appeal to the men on the farm but not their entire family.

In the capacity as chairman, she organized displays and exhibits which represented the old and new in the area of homemaking in the 1920s. She developed displays about the use of coal for heating and cooking, the use of natural gas which was just making its way into many people’s homes, food preservation and home canning as well as organizing demonstrations of English Country dancing and traditional needlework. Helen had a lifelong interest in dancing and handcrafts. This interest may well have been influenced by the popularity of the Arts & Crafts movement of the early 20th century.

The small, temporary buildings being used for the Home Department exhibits were adequate but unattractive.  Each year before the Fair these buildings were moved into place and members of the Home Department had to decorate and furnish them for the theme of that building’s particular exhibit.

The theme for the Exposition in 1930 was to be “Three Hundred Years of Agriculture in New England 1630 to 1930.” The idea was put forward of decorating one of the temporary buildings in an Early American style in order to present a more attractive setting for the handicrafts displays. This initial concept was translated into the even more exciting thought of moving an authentic Early American home to the grounds. In 1926 when this idea was first brought forward, no antique structure in the United States had been restored after being moved from its original site of construction.  Historically significant buildings, such as the Paul Revere Home and the Rebecca Nurse House had been restored and opened for public viewing, but those were still on their original lots. This was years before the Wells family conceived of Old Sturbridge Village or the Rockefeller’s Colonial Williamsburg or Henry Ford’s museum in Michigan.

Helen liked the idea though and shared it with her friends when they visited her home in the eastern part of the State. One person who heard the idea of the Home Department committee was Philip Gilbert who was a Trustee of the Eastern States Exposition as well as Commissioner of Agriculture for Massachusetts. He told Helen about an old farmhouse that his family owned and used as a summer house. He told her that if she was interested she could visit the building and see if it was suitable for her needs. As a result, the 1794 Gilbert House in West Brookfield was selected, disassembled, and moved to the West Springfield fairgrounds in 1927. The purchase price was $200.

The old farmstead proved so popular with the fairgoing public that she expanded the idea of moving just one building to incorporate a recreated village where youth and their families could see how people lived in the 19th century. Mrs. Storrow hired an architect and spent time locating buildings in Massachusetts and New Hampshire which had been built in the late 18th or early 19th centuries. She chose buildings that had been abandoned or were scheduled for demolition; thus, she saved some very valuable examples of building styles and made them accessible for others to learn about our New England heritage.

Finally, when the buildings had been located, she presented her proposition to the Exposition Board of Directors — she would purchase and restore the buildings if the Exposition would provide the land. From her original purchase of the Gilbert House, her final cost for all the structures that were moved totaled nearly $350,000 when the project was completed.

Helen had created what she called “The New England Village,” and in the first few years she and her friends helped to furnish the buildings through loans of period pieces. She staffed the buildings with guides comprised of Girl Scouts who annually competed to earn the privilege of staying at the Village throughout the Fair.

Storrowton_Green

The Union Meeting House is the center focal point of the Storrowton Village Green and credited to Salisbury NH

 

Researching the Union Meeting House-Rose Cravens

Union Church Meeting House

 

 

Storrowton

We have been assured that this is indeed our Union Meeting House with a big style change.

While researching Sawyers chair mill with Ed Sawyer on Jan 2, 2015, we visited George and Dolly Little of Webster. George is familiar with some of the history of Smith’s Corner. While discussing the Union Meeting House, he reminded me that it was not moved for the flood control project but rather moved earlier for Eastern States Exposition’s Storrowton Village in Springfield Massachusetts where it stands today.

Using Dr. Paul Shaws book, Salisbury Lost as my reference point for this webpage, I began to put information on this site about the Meeting House. I looked at the old postcard picture of the church and the new construction at Storrowton and was initially baffled. I knew the building was changed into a Federal style but the height of the building seemed altered. I contacted Mr. Dennis Picard, the Curator at Storrowton, and we discussed my question. It began a day long exchange of emails and he resolved the issue of the church size. He had encountered a similar odd question before concerning another structure and provided measurements and data to the questioner. They too wondered why their building looked so different. Sure enough it measured out perfectly. What seems to happen is this:

Photos and camera angles can distort proportions. The old postcard showing the Union Meeting House has no other structures nearby making a guess at size difficult. Certainly it is clear from the photo of it being taken down that it had a very large framework. The photo of the Scribner House, on the Smith’s Corner Page on this website, clearly shows the Union Meeting House down the road and it is very, very large. Though they (Salisbury Union Meeting House and reconstructed Storrowton Meeting House) look quite different in size, they are one and the same basic structure. The frontal alterations make it an elegant beauty giving it a sense of a grander scale that did not come across in the images of the Salisbury structure which was more a lovely rural gothic style and perfect for its congregation and location at the time. The interior had not been radically altered. Had it not been removed however in 1929, twelve years later it very possibly would have been destroyed as were the other structures that were removed during the Blackwater Dam Project.

The other mystery tackled were the box pews.

Box pews

In his book Salisbury Lost published in 1995, Dr. Shaw shows the above image of the box pews in the Union Meeting House.

Not being an architectural historian I didn’t think much of it until I sent the image to Dennis Picard of Storrowton who insisted that it was not a photo of the interior of the Union Meeting House. His reason was that the use of box pews was an earlier style of architecture and a style no longer in vogue at the time the meeting house was built in 1834. When I inquired if they could have used recycled materials to save costs (the Congregational Church of Salisbury had at that time recently removed their box pews for more in line ‘modern ones’)  he thought it possible but very unlikely.

The issue:

1) Did Dr. Paul Shaw make an error by attributing the above image to the Union Meeting House in his book Salisbury Lost?

2) The windows in the Union Meeting House in the postcard dated 1913 are gothic but the windows in the image in the book showing the box pews are paned…12 over 12 likely, indicating a different building or a renovation. If by some chance it was originally built with box pews and paned windows then there would have a a major alteration that occurred prior to its removal at a time when the population of Salisbury was decreasing rather heavily.

3) Mr. Picard found in their records where it is stated that the Storrowton Meeting House has the original pews (straight line) received from our Union Meeting House and they were not altered. Dr. Paul Shaw states that the pew arrangement was not followed at Storrowton. The curators at Storrowton insist they were.

4) In a 2022 conversation with Dot Bartlett a Salisbury senior,  she recollected visiting Storrowton with an elderly aunt who worshiped at the Salisbury Union Meeting House and was familiar with it. She only pointed out that the pulpit was changed. A change as big as removal of box pews would have been notice during her lifetime.

Any additional information or opinion is welcomed on this topic

to help clear up this confusion.

 

Remembering the Mills

Oral Histories

Orvie Shaw

Excerpts from an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Date Oct 7, 1991

Place:  His house, North Road Salisbury

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

References to the Charles Shaw Mill

Paul Shaw-  “Wasn’t that known as the Shaw Mill Pond?”

Orvie- “Oh, that was right at the foot of Ben Rowell’s hill. Charles Shaw had a saw mill there. He owned it. I’ve been there when they were running it.  It was water powered.  He sawed all kinds of lumber for people.”

Paul Shaw- “How about clapboards and shingles?”

Orvie-  “Not that  I know of.  He never did.  He could have, but I never knew of it. ‘Course we used to have a shingle mill at home, and we’d saw out our own shingles.”

Paul Shaw-  “How was that powered?”

Orvie-  “Gasoline engine. ‘One lungers’ they used to call ’em. And the best shingles we ever made was out of willow wood. Put ’em on a roof and they’d bend up if they got wet, but boy, they would last. I best some of those shingles were on a roof 40-50 years.”

Charles Shaw- “Never did any clapboard work or shingles that I know of.”

Paul Shaw-   “There was another mill down near the present site of the dump where they made seats for chairs.  Did you ever hear of that?”

Orvie-  “Yes, there used to be a chair factory there.  I never saw it, but there was a chair factory there.”

Paul Shaw-   “Do you have any idea what they used for power?”

Orvie-  “I figured they probably used power of out of the river. There’s no dam. I always wondered how they go water.”

*Paul Shaw-  “Ed Sawyer and I talked about that, Actually what they  made was seats for chairs. They  finished the rest of the chairs down at the prison.”

*Orvie-  “Paul, speaking about the prison, they used to come around with a horse drawn-buggy, like a hayrack, full of chairs. They come up to the house several times, and you could buy those chairs for fifty cents apiece. ‘Could buy a dozen at a time. And that’s where they care from, the prison. But I didn’t know the seats came from…”

*Paul Shaw-  “That’s what Ed Sawyer said, they made the seats for those chairs. We bought some of those chairs” (when we lived in Warner)

Orvie-  “Bowback chairs they use to call them. Today them chairs are expensive. They were nice made chairs, very nice. I used to have a grain salesman come up here from Penacook, Dick Elswoth, you probably knew him. He used to work down at the prison when they were making chairs.”

*Note Jan 2 2015:  In today’s conversation with Ed Sawyer, the exact product of the Sawyer “chair mill” was clarified. They were oak stock for the backs (rungs) of chairs. In addition upon inspection of the site which sits on a bluff above the Blackwater River it was clear to Ed that using water power in a mechanical way (mechanical/water wheels) was not possible as a source of power” – Rose Cravens      See Power from Hot Water)

Norma Lovejoy

Excerpts from an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Date  Feb 5,1991

Place:  Salisbury Home of the Lovejoys

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Discussing Ray Prince Sr. and references to the Prince Sawmill, Beaverdam Brook Sawmill, Chair factory

Norma-  “He was killed in a lumber accident.”

Paul Shaw- “Logs fell off the side of a truck and crushed him. His son, Chub was killed in the Battle of the Buldge.”

Norma- “Ray, his father, died after that.  Chubby was dead before his father was killed. Bud (Ray Jr.) runs the mill and does other kind of work.

But they moved the mill. When Ray Sr. was there the mill was down on the river. Then they had to move it up with the water pollution board, stuff that they have now..”

Paul Shaw- “The mill was there in West Salisbury across from where the Chamberlains live now.  It used water power from the river.  They sawed logs into boards. I don’t think they ever did clapboards or shingles, but there was another mill on the other side of the river at one time that did make clapboards and shingles.”

Norma-  “In my family, way back, they had a shingle mill on the Dimond Farm. They had a shingle mill that ran on water power from the brook that runs down there.”

Paul Shaw-  “What brook is that?”

Norma- “I don’t know what the name of it is.  (Beaverdam Brook) It runs down back and across 127 through what used to be our land and down part of Harry Prince’s (Ida’s father) land, then down into Boscawen and then out to the Merrimack.”

Paul Shaw-  “Freddy Adams told me that there were two mills on that brook at one time, one was your father’s.”

(Note 2015: There seems to be some confusion as to the location of  the “Beaverdam Brook” mills. The Fellows mill is located on the stream running by the Fellows Graveyard and was known as Beaverdam Brook by some. There is another small stream that crosses 127 closer to Route 4, closer to the Dimond farmhouse and east of the Fellows Graveyard.)

Norma-  “It was his great uncle I think, that used to run the shingle mill. There was another mill , a chair factory, beyond where the dump is now, that the Sawyer family ran. I don’t know whether it was Al Sawyers father or his grandfather that, a chair factory. That was down off South Road just before you ge to the bridge. You turn off to the left and down in there.”

Paul Shaw-  “What did they use for power?”

Norma-  “I think they used water. It was almost down to the Blackwater River. I think its on the Blackwater if you drive out there. You can still drive out there where the mill was. Ed (Sawyer) could tell you more about it than I. He must have heard his family tell about it.”

Anna Moxley Mahoney DeAngelis

Excerpts from an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Date November  17, 1992

Place:  Her home, Chichester NH

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

References to the Prince Sawmill:

Paul Shaw- “Where was your mother  (Iva Prince) born?” Was she born in Salisbury?”

Anna-  “Yes.”

Paul Shaw- “And who were her parents?”

Anna-  “My grandmother Martha J Prince and my grandfather  Charles Prince.”

Paul Shaw-  “Was he the Charles Prince that ran the sawmill?”

Anna-  “Yes, he ran the sawmill in West Salisbury.”

Paul Shaw-  “And when did he die, before 1900?”

Anna-  “No I was a small child when he died. That would out it about 1914-1915. I just barely remember that he had one leg. he has and accident apparently at the sawmill.”

Paul Shaw- “When did his son Ray Prince (her uncle) start taking….was he running the mill then, as soon as Charles quite running the mill Ray took it over?”

Anna-  “Yes”.

——–

Paul Shaw- “Who were some of the interesting people that were living there in Salisbury at the time? Bud Prince’s father was running the mill, what did you remember about Ray?”

Anna-   “Uncle Ray,yes…I remember a very bad accident he had, it took his life, really.  I don’t know if you know anything about stacking logs, but he had this pick, pulling down some of the logs, and the whole pile came down on top of him. It wasn’t long after that the he died. He died in the Franklin Hospital.”

Paul Shaw-  “What other things do you remember about him that were more pleasant?”

Anna-   “He and Bernard Dunlap and Henry Stevens were part of the National Guard outfit that was in Franklin who were taken into the army (WW1),  and they went overseas together. I think Ray and Bernard were both machine gunners. Ray came out of it relatively intact. Bernard Dunlap was gassed, and he had chronic lung problems the rest of his life.

I stayed with Aunt Ruth and Uncle Ray quite a bit.  Of course I just about worshiped my Uncle Ray. I thought he was terrific.  We used to go fishing and he actually was the one that taught me how to swim.  But I was scared to death.”

 

Paul Shaw

Excerpts from an Interview by Paul Fenton Jr.

Date  December 1992

Place: West Salisbury, Salisbury NH

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Paul Shaw-  “Many of the Shaws lived on Raccoon Hill, which became known as Shaw Hill, and the school there was the Shaw Hill School.

Referring to the Shaw Grist Mill:

My grandfather moved off the hill when he and his brother bought the Gookin Grist Mill in West Salisbury. He lived near the mill, then in 1883, the same year he was elected to the legislature, he bought the house where Pete Merkes now lives. He lived there until he died in 1921.

The rest of the Shaws spread out over Salisbury and Andover. Most of George’s descendants now live over on North Road”.

Paul Fenton-  “What happened to the mill?”

Paul Shaw-  “The dam went out in the early twenties. The mill was empty from the early 20’s and gradually deteriorated. The roof blew off, but it was during the depression and Dad didn’t have the money or the inclination to fix it up . One night in 1935 the whole building collapsed with a noise that woke up the neighbors. The only thing I salvaged was a few wide boards for a ping pong table.

Someone stole the mill stones. I think there were three. One was an imported French stone especial for grinding flour. Someone with an auto tow car lifted them out and made off with them. Part of the foundation of the grist mill is still standing, but there is no evidence of the sawmill that was just to the right of it, upstream.

According to Brad Dorsey, wo researched the mill back to the original grant, there was a complicated agreement on the deeds of the two mills that spelled out that the grist mill had first call on the water for power and that the sawmill could only take water for power when the water level was so many inches from the top of the dam or higher.”

Daniel “Charley” Pratt

Excerpts from an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Date:  Nov 1,1988

Place:  West Salisbury

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

References to the Shaw Grist Mill in West Salisbury, Kearsarge area sawmill:

Paul Shaw- “We are sitting here in a car by the Old Grist Mill talking with Charlie Pratt, or Daniel. Which do you prefer?”

Charley-   “Daniel C., “That’s my right name”

Paul Shaw- “You remember the mill when it was here?”

Charley-  “Yes I remember when it was running, and Steve Sanborn worked in the mill for a number of  years.”

Paul Shaw- “Did he work in the mill when my father (Lewis Shaw) ran the mill?”

Charley-  “No he worked with John (Shaw), your grandfather .  He (Lewis) ran it for awhile, then he moved to Warner and then I guess he (Steve Sanborn) ran it under John.”

Paul Shaw-  “Were the farmers still bringing in grain in those days, or was it all hauled from freight cars (from the west)?”

Charley-   “They did some. They use to bring in past and whole corn and grind it and regrind it –there were three grinders in the mill and one (drive wheel) they used to run the (grain) elevator.  There was another grinder, but I never see it go. But the other one I did.  Steve used to put—-on the rim then he’d tell me to keep back away from it—-It would jump and kick and jump back-go off like lightening.”

Paul Shaw-  “Did you ever remember a saw mill that was part of this place?”

Charley-   “No I don’t.  They claim there was, and one on the other end, but I don’t know anything about that either.”

Paul Shaw- “Was the mill run right up until my grandfather died ?” (1921)

Charley-  “I thing Steve or Lewis ran it for a wile after John died. Steve Sanborn, he left and went to work down at Stratton’s down to Penacook.— He (Lewis)  ran it a while then he moved to Warner, and that ws the end of a mill being here”. (actually Lewis moved to Warner in 1912,  John Shaw died in 1921. This conversation has not settled the question of when the mill closed or who ran it at the end).”

Paul Shaw- “Is there anything in particular you remember about the mill? Did you play any games or raise any deviltry?”

Charley-  “Oh, Fred Sargent and Guy Gookin on rainy days would get up around the store (presumably Dunlap Store West Salisbury) and post office and down around the mill. Bern Dunlap—-”

Paul Shaw-  “How was the fishing around the mill?”

Charley-   “Pretty good. We’d get bass here in the deep water.”

——-

Paul Shaw-  “You’ve climbed the mountain (Kearsarge) a few times from this side?”

Charley-   “Oh, Lord.  yes. If you count since the hurricane of ’38, That one was on the east side. There were some spruce in there and it leveled it awful. I went through it and got back to —, I used to walk over to Mill Brook and follow it up, or go up over Mission Ridge and hit the toll road and follow it up.  I took you up there one time.”

Paul Shaw-  “We went by what you said was an old logging camp and that was run by a man that had some buffalo.”

Charley-  “Maybe a Morrison and he may have had a team of buffalo, I don’t know.”

Paul Shaw-  “Do you know about anybody floating logs down the river to Burbank Mills?” (located in Webster NH Historic marker #4)

Charley-    “No I don’t.  They did apparently. I know Charlie (?) worked for Charles Prince. Charles Prince was sawing and Charley dogged a log into the mill and forgot to take the chain off it. Charles stepped in he was a swearing and started after hm. He started after him across the bridge and chased him into the house and locke the door.”

Paul Shaw-  “I didn’t catch what happened. Tell me again.”

Charley-   ” It happenned pulling logs in from the river. You had to pull them in with a chain. Apparently, he didn’t unhook the chain and the chain went right in with the log”.

Paul Shaw-  “The chain hit the saw?”

Charley-  “Yes”.

Paul Shaw-   “I can see who a guy would get mad when that happened.”

Charley-   “That happens sometimes today.  They hit metal from the logs when—had a mill up on the mountain. The artillery (in the 30’s the 172nd NG field artillery from Manchester) would fire up there (on side of the mountain)and now and then they’d strike a piece of one of those shells and those (saw) teeth would go flying, and you’d have to get a whole new set of teeth.”

Post note by webmaster regarding the 172nd NG field artillery:

A notable event each summer from 1928 to 1937 was the encampment of the  172nd Field Artillery of the National Guard in Sawyers Field on  Little Hill.

Fred Adams

Excerpts from an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Date:  Feb. 1989

Place:  Fred’s House, Salisbury

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Paul Shaw- “You mentioned where dams existed on the river or some small brooks. I think you mentioned seven dam sites that you had located. Can you tell me something about it?”

Fred-  “I can’t tell you much about the one up on Mill Brook, I but I know there was one (ed; a clapboard and shingle mill run by one of the early Stevens men) up there. then Prince’s Mill and where your father had his mill.”

Paul Shaw- “These were on the Blackwater River in West Salisbury.”

Fred-  “Then there was another dam site coming down the Hensmith Road where you turn to go to Twombly’s. Its on the left side of the road (where Loverin Hill road intersects). I don’t know who was in there or anything about it.”

Paul Shaw- The foundation of that mill is still there.”

Fred-   “There are rocks for the dam still there. Then there are two on Beaver Dam Brook, or what ever you want to call it. George Fellows had a shingle mill where they made wooden shingles. And down below, I never found out what they did with the other dam, but there is a big stone dam down there. It’s just off the east side of the power line.  I would say the foundation was at least 8-10 feet across the brook. Then there’s one down by Shaw’s millpond where thy used to saw lumber and- ”

Paul Shaw- “Have they run anything there in your day?”

Fred-   “I can remember Prince’s Mill running and I can remember your father’s (grist) mill.  My grandfather used to take grain up there to have it ground. I can remember Charles Shaw running his mill (off rt 127) down there. I remember seeing the logs there.

When towns started, not just here but all over the state, one of the first things they did was to find a mill site so they could saw logs and grind grain.”

For more on the Mills:  The Power of Water

Remembering The Old School Days

Oral Histories 

Orvie Shaw

Excerpts from an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Date Oct 7, 1991

Place:  His house, North Road Salsibury

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

 Paul Shaw- “Where did you go to school?”

Orvie-  “I went to school in Salisbury, where the library is, and at Academy Hall.  And I went a part of the year to Proctor Academy and got sick and came home and never went back.”

Paul Shaw- “You never went to the school up on the hill?”

Orvie- “Yeah I did. I forgot about that. My first school was right up there on North Road. Villa and I went up there.”

Paul Shaw- “Why did you on North Road if you lived on Shaw hill?

Orvie- “I was living with my aunt top there. I had TB she brought me up took care of me. Villa Webster other words Villa Shaw.”

Paul Shaw- “So you started at the North Road School, then you went to the Shaw Hill school. How many years did you go there?”

Orvie-  “Shaw Hill School, oh probably about three or four.”

Paul Shaw- “What year did they close that school?”

Orvie- ” Hard to tell. Jimminy Christmas. If I’d be join to school there Id’ been 10 years old. That would be about 1917. I’d say that school closed about 1920.”

Paul Shaw- “How many kids did you have?”

Orvie-  “In that school?”

Paul Shaw-“Yes.”

Orvie- “Oh, probably 15-18. The biggest part of the them were Shaws and Jurtas.”

Paul Shaw- “Did you have school all year, or were there terms with breaks in them?”

Orvie- “We had school nine months just the same as they do today. We might have a weeks vacation in mud time but other than that we kept right around the nine months. And George Beauly’s mother as our teacher up there on Shaw Hill, Alice Perrreault.”

Paul Shaw- “There were some Peros in Warner that were French and they cut it down to Pero. After third grade you went down to the heights?”

Orvie- “Yea, I went where the library is. Then from there  I went to Academy Hall, and I graduated down there.”

Paul Shaw- “At Academy Hall, what year did you graduate?”

Orvie- “Lets see I was fourteen. That was about 1921.”

Paul Shaw-“How many kids were there in your class, eight grade?”

Orvie- “Buster Taylor, and Charlie Taylor, and Shirley Sanborn. There were about six of us in the graduating class Herman Ham, and I think Sturart Mitchell, who lived where young Johny Shaefer lives and myself thats six or seven.”

Paul Shaw- “How many in the overall school?”

Orvie- “Oh. probably there was thirty, thirty five. It could have been around forty.”

Paul Shaw- “How many teacher said you, have just one?”

Orvie- “Yes The first teacher I ever had was up there at North Road, and it was Ida Price’s sister Evelyn. That was the first teacher I ever had. Then I had Mrs. Perreault who taught at Shaw Hill. Then I went to Salisbury and I had a woman by the name of …hmmm… can’t remember that at all. Then Mrs Perreault taught us down at South Road. I don’t think she ever taught at the Heights.”

Paul Shaw- “So Mrs. Perrreault was your teacher in the eighth grade at Acdemy hall?”

Orvie-  “Yes.”

Paul Shaw- “What was school like, did you have any running water, or anything like that?”

Orvie- “Oh we had to carry our own water, we didn’t have any hot lunches. We didn’t walk there to school but when we went up to the Heights we walked to school, two miles. It lacked a tenth of a mile of being two miles and they wouldn’t take us. They’d go right by us in the school bus and wouldn’t pick us up.  They told the school bus driver that if he did pick us up they’d fire him so we walked. I started school when I was five, and I walked to that school.

And when my wife started teaching school in Salisbury in 1934,  I believe, in Academy Hall, she a had 48 kids in school, eight grades and she was the jainior, fire-keeper, and was the whole business and she got $650 a year salary. Norma (Lovejoy) was talking the other night.  She look back in 1935 and the teacher got $700-$750. they’d raised it a little bit and she started out at $650. She taught six months, got sick and never went back.”

Paul Shaw- “Did several kids from Salisbury go to Proctor in those days?”

Orvie- “Harley (Shaw) went to Proctor, and Marion, Dolly and Freddie went to Andover High School.”

Paul Shaw- “Did any of them go to Franklin High School?”

Orvie- “No. The one was my daughter, she went down there. That’s all of our family, my brother and sisters.”

….

Paul Shaw- ” I assume you had some chores to do on the farm before you went to school?”

Orvie-  “I guess I did! I did. When I went to Proctor Academy I worked for George Woodard who used to be the mailman. Did you every know him? I used to get up at five o’clock in the morning, do chores till nine, and walk to Proctor which wasn’t very far, come home and do chores again until nine at night. No wonder I couldn’t keep up at school. I was sick, I just couldn’t do it. I was only fourteen.”

Paul Shaw- “When you were younger and going to school in Salisbury what was you day like then?”

Orvie-  “Well, we’d clean out the barn and feed the cows and the horses, feed the sheep. If the hens needed any water, stuff we’d do that.  We had chores, all of us did.”

Liza Buzzell

Excerpts from an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD. and Joy Chamberlain

Dec 6, 1988

Place:  the New London Nursing Home

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

 Paul Shaw- ..”Where did you go to school?”

Liza- “I went to South Road and when I went into the office, I went three nights a week right to the school teacher. I took all the studies they had in school. I went for a  year, and I paid her for it. I really got as much, cause I had her alone.  And I had time enough to study”.

Joy n Chamberlin- “Do you remember who your teachers were?”.

Liza- ..”Stickney was one . She married Ned Little. That was Deacon Little’s father. He lived at home. Edith Durgin.. She was from Boscawen, I went to school with her. And I went to school with James your brother.”  (actually uncle).

Paul Shaw-  “That was at South Road”

Liza- “Yes.”

Paul Shaw- “I knew he (James Shaw) taught at Shaw’s Corner School and Smith”s Corner, that’s the first I ever knew he taught at South Road.”

Liza-  “He taught at the South Road quite awhile. We used to try and get his goat…”

Joy Chamberlin-  “Where did people to school when they went to high school?”

Liza-  “High School?  I guess some come here to Proctor (located in Andover)  and some to Franklin. Harley Shaw and some of those kids went to Proctor.”

……………………

Paul Shaw- “Where was the Greeley School?”

Liza- “Right next to Fred Greeley’s house, just down the hill as you went to Ed Sawyer’s, going to Warner. They were going to school there when I drove the mail.”

Joy Chamberlain- “There was a school at West Salisbury?”

Liza-   “Yes, and there was a school at Salisbury Heights. And every Memorial Day when I was a kid they had a band come here and they used to come down in one of those old coasters and then they went around to all the cemeteries with flags. We kids were crazy to get a ride. You had to toe the mark to get along. You had to keep still. Then they had the exercises down in the Gallinger Grove. Senator Gallinger had a lane that went from Salisbury Heights over to Leander Sawyer’s. It was quite a celebration. they used to have a band, a ball game, and a dance in the evening.”

Fred Courser Jr.

Excerpts from an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Sept 2, 1988

Place:  Warner, NH

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Regarding schools in the flood plane area and Couchtown over the border into Warner.

Paul Shaw- “Tell me about Couchtown. That was between Smith’s Corner and the Schoodac part of Warner, right?”

Fred-  “There were quite a few houses. A good many of them were Couches. There were different schools in the town of Warner that they called the Couchtown School, but they took the children from Salisbury, Webster and Warner. The Stevens boys, over by Alfred Sawyers orchard, went to school there. John Huntooon lived with grandfather, John Morgan, in Couchtown, he went to school there. Abner Mason was in Warner…”

Paul Shaw-” Was the schoolhouse by the Union Meeting House?” (in the town of Salisbury)

Fred-  “That was after. It might have been built before that, but I know that John Huntoon, one of the Stevens boys, and Abner all went to the last of the Couchtown schools in Warner, pupils from three different towns. The town report for Warner for 1866 said that the old schoolhouse, because I’ve read it, was in pretty bad shape. Each one in the district who were sending children to the school were to give the proceeds of one sheep to have a new schoolhouse, and one they could be proud of.  And they did built it 1867. The school kept going until about 1900.”

Paul Shaw- “We have a picture of the Smith”s Corner School and with a list of the pupils that were attending it. I think Jim Shaw was teaching at the time that picture was taken”

Fred-”  Vi Taylor who just died, she was 97, least week, she taught there and Mrs. Fred Downs was one of the last teachers that taught there. She was Helen Smith before she married Fred Downs.”

 Ruth Dunlap Bracey

Excerpts from  an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Aug 21, 1988

Place:  West Salisbury, NH

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Discussing her parents Frank and Abby Dunlap.

Dr. Shaw- “I have read an article about the Mills School, and I know that Fred and Abbie both went to the Mills School, and they were one of several couples that went to the school that wound up getting married. Were you aware of that?”

Ruth- “I wasn’t aware of who went to the Mills School, but I was aware that dad and mother did. I am aware of the fact that back in those days the schoolhouse was the center of all social activities that dad and mother did, probably the political activity as well. I can imagine that going to the schoolhouse for the functions was the thing that started the romance. It continued to be a very fruitful romance. I imagine that dad and mother, along with other couples found the glamor of romance in the little one room schoolhouse.

I came her with my mother when she was helping my grandmother take care of grandpa. (about 1921). My mother said, “I’ll keep you out of school for a year because I would rather you didn’t start your schooling in a one room school house”.  I never went to school until I was seven years old.

Now the school we are talking about, the Mills School, is on the Bay Road, just beyond the little bay and just below where Bud Prince’s house is today, and up the river from Pingrey Bridge, and on the side of he road away from the river. There are several picutres of this school that around that were taken in 1900.  I don’t know when the school closed.”

Norma Lovejoy

Excerpts from an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Date  Feb 5,1991

Place:  Salisbury home of the Lovejoys

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Paul Shaw-When you came here in 1938 what did you do for activities?”

Norma- “Oh, we ran the farm. We had some animals, a few animals. After I had been here, I guess a couple of years, I drove a school bus. Then people asked me to..I served on, was chairman of the school board, and I just stayed on at the school board. I was off a couple of years back in the fifties, I think it was, and then went back on again”.

Paul Shaw-  “That means you were on the school aboard long before it was consolidated, you were part of the Town of Salisbury school board.”

Norma- “Yes. There were three people on the board then.”

Paul Shaw- “What were the major problems then?”

Norma- “We didn’t have many problems then. Usually, it was muddy roads and getting the kids to school in the spring.”

Paul Shaw- “How many schools were there then?”

Norma- “Only two then, the one at the Heights and throne at South Road. When I was on the Board we put the first four grades at South Road and the upper four grades at the Heights. Originally there were eight grades in each school.”

Paul Shaw-“Do you remember any of the teachers in those early days?”

Norma- “When I came here Mrs. Keneval was on of the teachers (from Boscawen) and Maude Prince was the teacher for some years after that. She came in ’42,  it was in the war years, I know. She taught through ’53,  somewhere about that time and went to East Andover. The teachers that came in after that, I can’t remember all their names. We had teachers coming and going, and now the time has gone by and I really have forgotten. They were out of town people, most of them.”

Paul Shaw-  “Now you did a paper on the history of the schools. Do you remember how many small district schools there were at one time?”

Norma- “I can’t remember for sure, but I think that at one time there were twelve schoolhouses in Salisbury.”

Paul Shaw- -“Do you know where the Mountain School might have been?”

Norma- “No, I don’t know where that was. The only ones I can remember was the Smith’s Corner one, which was torn down then the government bought the land over there (the flood control area) and the one at West Salisbury but neither one of those was used as a school since I lived in Salisbury.

Oh yes, there was another one on Greeley Hill. That building is there but it is not (being) used as a school. Then there was the one over on North Road that somebody set on fire one day quite a few years ago when Mr. Pterson was alive.”

Paul Shaw- “When did the Merrimack valley School District get organized. Was Salisbury in that right from the start?”.

Norma- “Yes. Salisbury was in that right from the start. We worked on it for about a year and a half or two years. I can’t remember the exact time, but I think the district itself was formed in 1965, and became operative the following year in June 1966.”

Paul Shaw- “Who was on the school board at the time of the union?”

Norma- “I wasn’t on the board a the time. I was off, but I was on the study committee, and we went for it. Edna Ballam was on the board and Don Nixon. I can’t remember who was the third member. We could check by looking on the town report.”

Paul Shaw-“Was there anything else about the schools that you want to say?”

Norma- “No, I don’t think so.”

Paul Shaw- “When Salisbury went into the Merrimack Valley school district you had the two schools?”

Norma- “No. In 1959 we built the original school on Whittemore Road, then all the children were transported to that building. So we a had a central school at the time we joined the MV school district.”

Paul Shaw- “How many students did you have in salisbury at that time?”

Norma- ” I can’t remember exactly, but I would say there were between fifty to sixty kids. That was eight grades. We have five grades up here now and I think there are about ninety children in those five grades.”

Henry Stevens          b. April 25, 1890-d. 1981

Excerpts from an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Summer 1978

Place: Concord and Salisbury

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

While touring Scribner’s Corner, flood plane area and Smith’s Corners
Paul Shaw-“You had a school marked off at Smith’s Corner right opposite the church (Union).”
Henry- “Thats where your Uncle Jim (Dr. James Shaw of Franklin) taught school. I’ve got a picture of it somewhere with Jim and the kids. And the church is just diagonally across”.   (The Union Meeting House that was moved down to eastern States Exposition).”

Isabel Eaton          b. Salisbury 1907

Excerpts from an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Date November 1992

Place:  Greenville, NH

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Paul Shaw- “And how about school, where did you go to school?”

Isabel-  “Smith’s Corner. A one room school, about fifteen students. I had to walk about a mile and a quarter, carry my lunch box…”

Paul Shaw-  “Who were some of the other students?”

Isabel-  “The Baileys, Bill and Ruthie, and Ada. They lived up by the Salisbury dump, straight up the hill, towards Tucker Pond. I don’t whether that house is still standing or not.”.

Then there were the McAlisters, Cecil and Myron and Elinor.  Then the Woods, Otis Wood’s children, Royal, Francis and Jimmy.”

….

Paul Shaw-   “Tell us more about going to school at Smith’s Corner.”

Isabel-   That was quite an experience . We had…the teacher had to build a fire in the morning.”

Paul Shaw- “Who was the teacher?”

Isabel-   “Myra Little. One of our most , two or three times..”

Paul Shaw- “Were talking about 1913-1914.”

Isabel-   “Yes. I learned to read at Myra’s desk,with her arm around me and we had the book in front of us. She read to us, and that was my way of learning.”

Paul Shaw-  “How many in your class ? (grade)”

Isabel-  “Me,  just one!”

Paul Shaw-  “How many years did you go there?”

Isabel-   “I suppose… There was no such thing as grades. There was no such thing as graded classwork, and I suppose all the eight years.

But the school!  The water supply came from Louis Bassett’s house. The boys had to go and get a pail of water in the morning. They had a cooler of some sort in back of the door. We each had a cup handing on a peg so that we didn’t use anybody else’s cup. About the fire. The boys brought the word in and had to keep the fire going during the day. If it was real cold in the morning we could put our chairs around, front around the stove.  We’d put our feet on the stove and keep warm that way, right close to the fire. No lights. When we had our programs the fathers would bring lanterns, and hang the lanterns up around… so that they could sees the program.”

Paul Shaw-  “Outside toilet facility, I presume?”

Isabel-   “It was near the woodshed, beyond the hallway.”

Paul Shaw-  “How many holes?”

Isabel-  “Two! Ha! Ha!  Now what else about the school. We had good programs, too! Really!  Wonderful for what we had to do with.”

Paul Shaw-  “Such as?”

Isabel-   “Plays. All of us spoke pieces at Christmas , of course and especially at Memorial…at Memorial time we’d do our program, then we’d march down to the cemetery just beyond McAlister’s and march home again. That’s when you’d get stuff kicked in your shoes.

The boys were trying to figure something they could do to plaque the girls.”

Paul Shaw- “How long were your school days?”

Isabel-   “We’d be in session at nine and wouldn’t get out until four. And for our lunch we’d sit with our boxes at our desk and eat our lunch, started right in again and we were busy until four.”

Paul Shaw-  “At four o’clock in December it must have been…”

Isabel-  “Dark, dark, yeah!”

Marion Shaw Childs

Excerpts from an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Date July 1988

Place: Home of Paul Shaw, Salisbury NH

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Paul Shaw- ” How many years did you go to school there (Mills School)”

Marion-  “Three”.

Paul Shaw-  “And how many students were there when you were there?”

Marion- “A dozen, maybe.”

Paul Shaw-  “All eight grades there?”

Marion-  “Agnes Fenton was the teacher, I can say that.  She came from Andover.  She was a good teacher.”

Paul Shaw- “This article that’s in the Journal Tanscript about the Mills School gives a pretty complete listing of the teachers and a run-down of quite a few of the students.  It also mentions that several people met their life mates while they were there. Did you know about that?”

Marion-  “No.”

The Hurricane of 1938 in Salisbury

Fred Adams

From an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Feb 1989

Published in “They Said It In Salisbury” by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Paul Shaw-  “How about any natural disasters such as hurricanes, or anything like that.  Anything unusual happen with the telephone company?.”

Fred-  “Yes. The 1938 hurricane knocked out most of the equipment that we had outside. Those war all single wires in those days It took three weeks before we got the last telephone working, and that was working from daylight until dark..”

 

Dana Parks, Jr.

From an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Sept. 18, 1989

Published in “They Said It In Salisbury” by Paul S. Shaw, MD

On the topic of the Historical Society

Dana- “Back in 1938, the time of the hurricane, the original meeting house steeple had been toppled by the high winds resulting it its destruction and it had never been replaced. Members of the society were anxious to replace it, but no concrete plans could be made due to the overwhelming expense of the project. Happily the steeple has been replaced due to the generosity of a member’s memorial gift.”

Oral History of the Grange

 Robert (Bob) and Isabel Bartz

From an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD.

Aug. 31, 1992

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Paul Shaw- “You were telling me about”(Amos Ames)

Isabel …..”But one of the things concerning Salisbury, he used to sing. He had a beautiful tenor voice and it was a treat when he come to sing.”

Bob- “He belonged to the Grange.”

Isabel- “Yes, he was a Granger.”

Paul Shaw-  “You said his name was Ames?”

Isabel- “Yes. Amos Lorenzo Ames.”

Bob- “He was a Granger in Henniker, too.”

Isabel- “In those days his wife used to go dancing, but she had passed away long before he came this way. He is buried in the cemetery, Maplewood.”

Isabel- “At the time that we came here Academy Hall was an association, also. The neighborhood around the Academy Hall was called the Academy Hall Association.”

Paul Shaw-  “And what did they do?”

Isabel- “They…they…. The school was downstairs. I don’t really know what the transaction was…that the association owned the building and the school was downstairs, the Grange was upstairs. We had Grange Fairs. All the vegetables were displayed on the desks downstairs and there were some  beautiful vegetables that people in Salisbury raised.. Back in the 40’s that was.

I think one of the things I remember about Grange that struck me greatly was we went to he Grange Fair and there were sales going on all day long with booths around the hall. Then evening time there was a supper, and the same people that were tending the sales tables were setting up supper tables, cooking food, putting it on, waiting on people. Soon as supper was over, tables cleared away we had an entertainment: lovely, lively show, same people. They were the characters in the play, the ones doing the singing. It was just an amazing story to me, but I suppose that’s the way it is in the neighborhood, when you get things going, the people that are there are the ones who do the work.”

Bob- “At that time we had a dining room and put on supper.”

_____________________________________________________

Liza Buzzell

From an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD. and Joy Chamberlain

Dec 6, 1988

Place:  the New London Nursing Home

Published in  They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

 Paul Shaw- “Tell us about the Grange back in your day.”

Liza- “Oh, it was going then. They had a lot of members. We were having suppers and we were putting on plays. We used to put on plays for The Grange and the Red Cross., and all those….World War 1. We’d get our wigs and costumes from World’s from Boston. They used to come up on the seven-thirty train. We used to have a five -piece orchestra from Concord. We use to have really good times. They were good times. Big suppers. That old town hall used to be packed, full to the doors. Now there doesn’t (seem to be) anybody (to) go to the Grange  They’re either going somewhere or watching TV. I don’t watch TV but I watch the news.”

Paul Shaw- “What else did you belong to or what else did you do?”

Liza-  ” I belonged to the Grange, and that was about all I did belong to. That’s all there was. Then, later on, the Untiarians started the Andover Service Club. I am a honorary member of that, and I’m an honorary member of the Salisbury (Hisrtoical Society). The Grange was the big thing.”

_________________________________________________________

Claribel Brockstedt

From an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Aug. 31, 1992

Published in  They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Paul Shaw-“What activities did you get into in Salisbury?”

Claribel- “We joined the Grange. We happened to go to an entertainment they put on, and Mrs. Lovejoy, Norma Lovejoy’s mother, was sitting next to me and she said “Why don’t you and your husband join the Grange?”.  I said, “I don’t know why we shouldn’t and we did. I’ve been a Granger ever since 1946.”

_______________________________________________________________

Art and Leah Schaefer 

From an Interview by Dr. Paul S. Shaw

Sept 8, 1992

Published in They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Paul Shaw- “You mentioned being involved in the Ladies Aid, at least helping out when they had activities”.

Leah Schaefer- “They used to have a fair and a supper. this was many years ago. I guess they always had it for many years., but sometimes in the fall, after the war, a Harvest Supper and a beautiful exhibit of handwork that they had done. Displays of various interest the ladies had. And a good time was had by all. We had the supper in the dining room down at the hall and drawings for raffles.”

Paul Shaw- “When you are talking about the Hall you are talking about the Town Hall?”

Leah Schaefer- “No the Grange Hall Academy Hall, they’d have a program.”

Paul Shaw- “Now before the Academy was changed over there were a lot of community activities in the Grange Hall?”

Leah Schaefer- “There were the Grange meetings. There would be a children’s night once a year, and after the program was over that the school children put on the kids all got ice cream. It made them very happy. Made a treat. It was always followed by a social hour.

After the Grange fair there was dancing. And there was awhile when they had dances every couple of weeks. I don’t know who put them on or what happened to end them. I guess there were a few complaints from a few unhappy citizens. That ended that.”

_________________________________________________________

Orvie Shaw 

From an Interview by Paul S. Shaw, MD

transcribed Oct 14, 1991

Published in “They Said It In Salisbury” by Dr. Paul S. Shaw

Paul S. Shaw- “Any organizations yo’ve been active in town?”

Orvie- “No. I used to be a Granger a long time ago. And then, I was telling the kids down to school the other day, they used to have community plays. Maybe you can remember. I can. And they’d take, like this house this month, Bert’s house the next month, and Frazier’s house the next month. They went to lthe whole neighborhood. And they had food, they danced, they’d sing, and they’d out on a show, and they had a good time.

And I was telling the teacher, you don’t see that any more and you don’t. If you had it they wouldnt go.”

_________________________________________________________

Dot Bartlett

From an Interview by Gail Manion Henry.

Date  May 6, 2004

Location: In her Home, 54 Franklin Road, Salisbury NH

Addendum to They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Gail Henry- “I don’t see you getting bored much.”

Dot- “I’m not bored. I can’t understand how anybody can say “I’m bored”.  I don’t find the time to do what I want to do. I was on the committee for the 200th anniversary, the bicentennial of the town, in 1968. I joined the Grange when I was 16 and I’ve been a Grange member ever since.”

Gail Henry-  “Are they still active?”

Dot-  “They’re still active but not too active. You can’t get members…and I’m not a good member now. I was very active in Grange. I served as Master and I served some offices and we had a ladies’ degree team went all over doing degree work. Then I took over the Junior Grange and I was leader of the Junior Grange for 30 years.”

Gail Henry- “I remember square dancing with John Beaudoin there.”

Dot-  “That may have been the time when Ruth Parris, maybe, was the leader. She was one of the first leaders, or the first leader. She and Isabel Bartz I think were the first. Then I took it over. I was junior leader from “57 to ’87. Right up through that time we were the biggest Junior Grange in the State. Very active. This Junior Grange, up until …a couple of years before I gave it up it started to go down. Kids have so much to do now and so many places and don’t have to do anything but what they want to do that Junior Grange started to go down. Then after I gave it up a couple of people tried to keep it going but the kids weren’t interested, so between the lack of leadership and the lack of kids… We are still listed as an active Grange because I haven’t turned in the charter and I have paid the state dues ever since just to keep them listed as active. But they really aren’t active. There’s only about three or four Junior Granges in the State of New Hamphisre now compared to 15 or 20 back then.”

Gail Henry- “Is that right? Thats too bad.”

Dot-   “It is too bad. I feel bad and I’ve always said that I’d rather work with kids than adults any time. And that’s my theory. Give me the kids to work with any day but I will admit that kids are different today then they were back then I could have a meeting of 50 kids up there in the hall and I’d say  “I want to hear a ‘pin drop’ and you could hear a pin drop, but by the time I was getting through I could ask them to be quiet and you couldn’t even hear a boulder come off the Kearsarge Mountain.”

Gail Henry- ” I think you’re right about kids being different. There a a complete lack of I don’t know what …discipline.”

Dot- “Respect. But I ‘m not going to blame it all on the kids. I feel bad because I hated to see this Junior Grange fold up.  I had put so much work into it. So I sort of got burned out of Grange by being the leader for 30 years. And although I’m willing to help and do what I can for the Grange, I am not a good attendee.”

________________________________________________________

Ed and Bev Sawyer

From an Interview by Gail Manion Henry.

Date  June 3, 2004

Location: in their Home 133 Warner Rd Salisbury NH

Addendum to They Said It In Salisbury by Paul S. Shaw, MD

Gail Henry- “Were you in the Grange?”

Ed-  “I was the first Master of Bartlett Junior Grange in Salisbury. And thats when Ruth Parris and Dot Bartlett, they started Juvenile Grange and I was the First Master.”