The New Hampshire Account Book Collection creaters made their living through a variety of rural professions, mostly farmers, blacksmiths, doctors, town officials, tanners, cobblers, and other mixed income streams. The account books are organized by town within New Hampshire, Maine, Massachussetts, and one from Tennessee.
The Adams family resided at Adams Point in Durham, New Hampshire from 1835 until 1960. The principal figures of the family are: “Reformation” John Adams (1791-1851), Methodist minister and founder of the Adams Point branch of the family, his son Enoch George Adams (1829-1900)– Union officer, poet and newspaper editor–and Edward Hamlin Adams (1860-1951), gundalow builder. The Adams Family papers consist of…
Albert Demeritt (Durham NH, 1851-1913) was the youngest son of Hon. Stephen Demeritt and Nancy Perkins Chesley. Elizabeth Thompson (1864-1932) was the youngest child of Deacon John E. Thompson and Mary J. Pickering. Elizabeth and Albert had three children. The Albert and Elizabeth Demeritt collection consists of correspondence pretaining to Albert Demeritt’s desire to win Elizabeth Thompson affections (1884-1885),…
The Balch family first came to the United States in 1623 and resided in northern Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The best known member of the family was the author Elizabeth Arabella Balch (1851-1934), daughter of Wesley P. (1794-1856) and Elizabeth Balch (1815-1892). E.A. Balch wrote Glimpses of Old English Homes (1890), and two other works are attributed to her: Mustard Leaves, or Glimpse of London Society …
Henry C. Beecher and C. F. Newell, potentially of northern New Hampshire, were at the least close friends and possibly lovers during the 1830s. Nothing more is known about either of them. A 3 page handwritten "Brotherhood Contract" lays out five articles by which both men agree to abide, including regular contact, sharing of life, and defense of each other's reputation. It is signed "Mt. Pleasant", which may refer…
The Browne family of Boston, MA consisted of Civil War veteran George Browne (1840-1912); Mountaineer/artist/author Belmore Browne (1880-1954) the youngest son of George and Nellie Browne; outdoor educator Evelyn Browne (1916-1994) the oldest child of Belmore and Agnes Browne; and outdoorsman George Browne (1918-1958). The bulk of the manuscript collection (Boxes 1-7) consists of correspondence from members of the…
John Bucknam (of Medford, Massachusetts) and Susan Ann Warren (of Concord, New Hampshire) married in the spring of 1830 in Massachusetts. They had 3 sons, of whom 2 survived. In the fall of 1838, Susan and sons Warren and George moved – without John – from Brighton to Concord, New Hampshire, where they lived as boarders in the home of John Brown. In the fall of 1860, Warren married Susan Emma Parkhurst of Chelmsford…
The Johnson family of Newport NH consisted of three generations who conversed extensively by letter during World War II. The family correspondence consists of two boxes of letters between Charles and Ruth, one box of letters from other members of the family to them, a box of material from friends and the US Army, and several stories and a novel written by Charles. Lastly one box of photographs documents Charles and…
The Christian Family Collection contains papers from three generations of the Christian, Roberts, Bartlett, and Sanborn families of Raymond and Deerfield, NH. Significant topics include Emma Tucker Bartlett (first woman NH congressional representitive, 1918-1919) and Glencliff NH State Tuberculosis Sanatorium. Material types include extensive correspondence and diaries as well as vital records, poetry, and emphemera.
Cora Watson Lewis was born in Concord, N.H. on November 26, 1858. At age 20, on the death of her mother, she joined her father in Washington, D.C., where he was doing work for former N.H. Governor N.G. Ordway, and took up teaching primary school in the house of the family she boarded with. After two years teaching privately, she moved to Fort Collins in Colorado, where she became the first kindergarten teacher west of the Missouri. Her first job was in a one-room schoolhouse ten miles outside…
The Cunningham family of Peterboro N.H. and Rockville Ill. was an important early settler family in both towns, migrating west by wagon in 1860 with the Mandville family. The two families later intermarried. Each family contained numerous Revolutionary, War of 1812, and Civil War veterans. Family history was extensively documented by Jane Cunningham who lived to be 103. This small but richly detailed collection…
Daniel Hood (1792-16 October 1866) was a retired sea captain from Portland, Maine. He married Susanna Peasly Sargent. Two letters written by Daniel Hood to Reverend Jacob Hood of Nottingham, N.H., providing the latter with knowledge of the Hood family’s history. The remarks include not only genealogical information, but also descriptions of family members.
Named after Molly Woodburn Reid, the wife of General George Reid (commander of the First New Hampshire Regiment), the chapter was the second of its kind founded in the state of New Hampshire, and was organized on October 27, 1894. The Molly Reid DAR Collection consists of five boxes of various manuscript and visual materials relating the Chapter itself the National Chapter. A small amount of genealogical information…
Jennie M. Demeritt was born on June 2, 1863, graduated in 1882 from Robinson Seminary in Exeter, New Hampshire and from 1892 until 1901 was employed as an assistant librarian in the Boston Athenaeum Library. Jennie M. Demeritt was the author of several historical works including “The Story of the Old House,” a work on the Powder Major’s House in Madbury, NH. This collection consists of manuscript material collected by Jennie Mabelle Demeritt (1863-1936). In addition to her own correspondence …
The Dowst family lived in Allenstown, near Manchester, New Hampshire. They included various generations of men named Henry Dowst (beginning in 1784) and Frank Dowst (-1905). Contents of this collection were kept by the men of the family. The collection includes 37 pocket diaries and one larger dairy for the calendar years 1839-1866 (except for 1853 and 1863), 1870-1875, and then 1877, 1890, 1896 and 1902-03.
The Drake-Aldrich Family Papers are from Frank James Drake (Pittsfield NH 1842-1891) and family, as well as Frank’s brother, Nathaniel Seavey Drake (1851-1936) and his family. Charles Spaulding Adrich married Frank's daughter Helen ca. 1898, and their daughter was named Adeline. Frank was a local and state politician and superintendent of the C.B. Lancaster Shoe Company factories located in Pittsfield and Barnstead,…
Elwin Eugene Muzzey (1923-?, UNH Class of 1946) was a native of New Hampshire who served in WWII before going on to study business and work in retail for many years. He lives in Ohio. The Elwin E. Muzzey collection consists primarily of letters written during the years 1943-1946 while Muzzey was stationed in the U.S. and briefly in China.
Little is known about the Farley family beyond the fact that they resided in Ipswich, Massachusetts. A Michael Farley built a textile mill in the town in 1830, but his relationship to the Farleys of these letters is unclear. James Farley moved to Boston, from where his letters to his mother and sister in Ipswich are written. The Farley Family collection consists of 37 letters written between 1796 and 1860, thirty…
Fort Constitution was built in 1632 on the island of New Castle, New Hampshire. Through several centuries, the post served as a trading port, a target of warfare, and a training ground for the military. It was a center of rebellion several months before the battles of Lexington and Concord ushered in the American Revolution. In 1961, the state of New Hampshire regained custody of the site, and in 1973, Fort…
Joseph Foster was a colonial MA ship captain who served in the American Revolution. Lyman Spauling was a doctor in Portsmouth around the same time. Their families (including Elizabeth Coues, Adelade Spaulding, and Joseph Foster III) intermarried over several generations. Both families went to sea. The Foster-Spalding Family Papers consist primarily of the correspondence to and from Elizabeth Parkhurst Spalding,…
George Robert Laderbush was born June 26, 1923 in Greenland, NH, the eighth of eleven children born to Albert and Stella Laderbush. This collection contains a mix of correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, and documents relating to George Laderbush's death and the sinking of the USS Flier in 1944.
George H. Lang was born June 6, 1827 in Rye, N.H. He served in the 17th regiment of Massachusetts, Company D. He was a farmer. He died July 12, 1901. The George H. Lang Diary consists of copies of the diary spanning the years 1871-1901 when he was a farmer, as well as copies of transcriptions prepared by Louise Tallman, member of the Rye Historical Society.
In April 1861, George Naylor Julian enlisted as a private in the Second Battery (Nims) of Massachusetts Light Artillery, later becomming Captain of a newly-formed company of the 13th Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers in 1862. The company fought at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, as well as the battles of Providence Church Road, Proctor’s and Kingsland Creeks, Drury’s Bluff, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and…
The Hanson Family Association was organized in Dover, N.H. on Sept. 7, 1911 at a meeting in Central Park, Dover at which the by-laws of the association were adopted and officers elected from the thirty-two descendants of Thomas Hanson present. Thomas Hanson had settled in Dover as early as 1657. Annual reunions were planned and carried out and the association was incorporated in New Hampshire on Oct. 14, 1914. The…
The Hardy family of Nelson, New Hampshire, was a well-to-do group of farmers, schoolteachers, and ministers in nineteenth-century New England. The Hardy Family papers are almost entirely composed of the family's internal correspondence, dated 1862-1962, as well as a section of the sermons and writings of EN Hardy.
Harriet Sophia Coe (1840-1916) was born in Lubec, Maine, married Joseph William Coe on December 2, 1861 and resided in Durham, New Hampshire. The collection consists of 17 diaries written between 1897 and 1916 by Harriet Sophia (Churchill) Coe. These diaries contain accounts of domestic activities and the day-to-day life of a Durham NH family. Included in the collection are two scrapbooks and a number of photographs…
Harrison D. Robertson (ca. 1807 Hopkinton-9 June 1862 Warner) was a postmaster as well as "wood + lumber denter" according to the 1860 Census. His personal estate was valued at $30,000 at that time with extensive real estate holdings; most of the money seems to have been made logging, milling, and supplying 'sleepers' (ties) and other wooden goods to the railroad industry. He married Sarah Evans (?-1856, dau. of…
Harry David Dufresne, Jr. was born on April 23, 1919 in Dover, New Hampshire. He married Anna F. Laderbush in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1938. He died in September 1965. The Harry Dufresne papers are mostly made up of correspondence and military records. The bulk of the correspondence is between Harry and his wife Anna between April and August of 1944 when he was station in Sampson, New York at the…
Henry Brewer Quinby was Governor of New Hampshire from 1909-1910. Henry Cole Quinby, Henry Brewer’s son, was born in Lakeport, New Hampshire, on July 9, 1872. The Quinby papers are a small but varied collection of personal and public memorabilia – college essays, an honorary dinner program, photographs, and a manuscript of a memoir, publicity sheets, reviews, and correspondence concerning a published book. A copy of…
The Sally Towle Hersey Church Application is a one page handwritten document requesting formal admission to the Congregational Church at Epsom, N.H. It consists of Sally (Towle) Hersey's story of conversion at a revival given by a Rev. Mr. Curtis, her continuing spiritual struggles, and her finding peace in the church. No other family or community members are listed by name. Sally Towle or Towler (b. ca. 1802)…
Papers of the Howell, Beatty, and Grier families are included. The Howell family consisted of Presbyterian missionary to Brazil John Beatty Howell (1847-1924), wife and author Elizabeth Hibler Day (b. 1850), doctor/author Archibald Alexander Howell II (d. 1918), WWI veteran Lawrence Day Howell (?-?), and poet Isabell Howell Thatcher (?-?). The Beatty family included missionary Charles Clinton Beatty (1715-1772),…
The Hutchins Family Correspondence consists of letters between Joseph Herbert Hutchins (1852-1908) and his wife Mary Bell (Cate) Hutchins (1863-?), the daughter of Nathaniel Cate and Olive Adelaide Tuttle of Northwood Ridge, NH. “Herbert” and Mary were married at Northwood 29th Aug. 1883. There are also letters from their son Roger D. Hutchins of Northwood (1897-?) who married Ruby E. (__?) Hutchins at Northwood in…
John W. F. Locke was born on October 13, 1838 in Barnstead, New Hampshire to Eliphalet and Sally Locke. When the Civil War began he was unable to join the New Hampshire Volunteers because he suffered from asthma. According to his diary entries, he spent his time “fixing accounts,” surveying land, “tending store” and “fixing pension papers.” He was also active in local government, serving as town selectman of…
John B. Swasey was born in Meredith, New Hampshire in 1782. He married Alice Ladd of Windham, New Hampshire in 1809. The couple had five children and lived in Meredith. Swasey owned and ran a store from which he sold goods like foodstuffs, kettles and dishes, and tools and knives. Swasey died in 1828 at the age of 45. This manuscript is of an inventory completed on the estate of John B. Swasey after Swasey died in…
Jonathan Chesley (1721-1765) was born in Dover NH and died in Durham NH. He was the son of Jonathan Chesley (1695-1785) and Mary Weekes (1710-1755), and married Mary Smith (?-?) bef. 1736. A single document probating Chesley's will, dated 3 July 1765 at Portsmouth. The Justice of the Peace was Richard Wibind, and exectutors were Benjamin Chadbowrne and Mary (?).
Joseph Haven was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1757 to Samuel Haven, Jr. and Abigail Marshall. He became a preacher, and died in 1829. The six manuscript letters, written to niece Elizabeth H. Wardrobe, often contain advice, in particular on her health and her faith in God. One of the letters was written not by Joseph, but by Sarah Greenleaf Haven, his second wife. They also include information about mutual…
Drs. Lorus and Margery Milne were an eminent husband-and-wife team, who worked together as biologists, teachers, writers, lecturers, and experts on ecology. This collection has been roughly sorted by subject.
This 50 page journal, primarily covering the years 1843-1844, contains entries on women’s rights and the works of the poet John Keats. In the back are genealogies of Eli Demerit(t) (1696) and Nathaniel Young (1794), suggesting that perhaps the author was a member of one of these families.
Martin V. B. Tewkesbury (1834-1900) of Danville, New Hampshire was primarily a farmer who grew potatoes, corn, and wheat, and also raised sheep and pigs. He supplemented his income by means of a saw and cider mill which were constantly in use depending on the season. He hauled huge quantities of wood and cider to neighboring villages and towns by horse-drawn wagon. He also owned a shingle machine for the production…
This book was kept by Mary Merrill (Weeks) Cleasby (1815, Warren NH - 12 May 1886, Wentworth NH). Other prominent family names in the text include Merrill (her mother’s surname at birth) and Kezer (her sister Hannah’s married name). Cleasby’s single notebook is filled with poems commemorating deceased family members and neighbors. Three pages in the middle of the book list the Civil War draft roll for the towns of…
Maurice E. Bowes (b. 1923) was born in Greenfield, N.H. He enlisted in January 1943 and served with distinction in World War II as a first engineer and top turret gunner on a B24 bomber, being awarded a Purple Heart, two oak leaf clusters and an air medal. He was shot down over Rumania and held as a prisoner-of-war in Bucharest until the Rumanians capitulated a month later. The Maurice E. Bowes papers consist of…
James McQueston (1794-1853) was the father of Jonathan Young McQueston (1821-1901), both of Manchester, N.H. The McQueston Family Papers consist of two land deeds for tracts purchased by James McQueston in 1818 and 1828, a receipt for a tooth extraction for his son Jonathan, three Manchester tax bills dated 1850-1852, and Jonathan McQueston's commission to the Manchester police department in 1858.
Morris Cotton (1827-1921) was the son of Jonathan Cotton and Abigail C. Hobbs of North Hampton, NH. His occupation is listed as farm laborer in younger life, and later as "own income". The Cotton notebook contains extensive genealogy information on the Leavitt and Cotton familes between 1753-1908, Roberts family births 1838-1908, and a mixture of book citations (mostly musical), addresses, and misc. other…
Resident of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The initials "P.F." do not match current documentation of residents of Portsmouth at that time. Four letters to Mrs. P. F. Harrington, Middle Street, Portsmouth, NH, one from her daughter Ethel and one from her daughter [-in-law?] Helen Nelthropp Harrington, both written from New York City on the 18th of February 1902 to reach their mother on her birthday the following day, and two letters from her son Samuel Milby Harrington, written from Phillips Exeter…
Amanda Elizabeth Homiston (Mrs. E.E.) Thompson was born in 1864 and married Elmer Ellsworth Thompson in 1885 and they had two children, a daughter, Ethel Elizabeth, in 1886 and a son, Sereno Wright, in 1889. In 1896 they adopted another daughter, Ina. By 1921 they were in Durham, New Hampshire at Highland House. This collection consists of correspondence from the Thompson family, photographs, financials of Highland…
The New Hampshire Old Graveyard Association was organized on April 10, 1976. It was incorporated as a voluntary association with the New Hampshire Secretary of State on April 12, 1977. The Association’s mission is “to discover, restore, maintain, map and record inscriptions in the old burial places before they become completely lost.” The collection consists of documents concerned with the …
The Northam Colonists, named for the original town of Dover, was the historical society of Dover, New Hampshire from 1900 until the organization disbanded in 2008. The mission of the Society was to collect, preserve and exhibit artifacts, information, and documents that shed light on Dover’s local history, provide interesting and educational services to the local community and the public at large, and advance the…
The Page family was a relatively well-off family from Gilmanton Ironworks, NH. Members consisted of Moses Page (1791-1862) and his son John Sherburne Page (1825-1891). Others included Moses's wife Dorothy Sanborn (1790-1872), John Page's wife Sarah T. Smith (1828-1893), their son Frank Charles/Charles Frank Page (1857-1953), and other relatives. The Page family's papers consist of correspondence, promisory notes,…
The Pages and Southards were old families in Haverhill, New Hampshire. John Page (1787-1865) was one of Haverhill’s most honored and respected citizens, serving as town clerk, selectman (fourteen times), representative to the General Court (three times), U.S. Senator (1836-1837), and finally Governor of New Hampshire (1839-1842). Page married Hannah Merrill (1779-1855) in 1812 and they had nine children. John and…
The Parsons family of Rye, New Hampshire consisted of the descendants of Dr. Joseph Parsons, including his son John Wilkes Parsons (1778-1849) and John's wife Abigail Garland, John's son Col. Thomas Jefferson Parsons (1804-1890), Charles Parsons (1808-1844), Major John Parsons (1816-1888), Warren Parsons (1818-1902), Julia Gove, and Abby Semira Parsons (1820-1911). Members of the family were prominant in state…
