With THS’s regrading and re-grassing of the Hall-Dyer House front lawn, completed last October, Tamworth Village gains a Village Green. THS hopes to share this outdoor gathering place with other community groups. A set of guidelines and affordable fees for use are being developed. The Green should be usable by some point this summer. Think yard sales, craft demos, ice cream socials, band concerts, auctions, and croquet matches!

Board member John Wacker envisioned this potential, and coordinated the project, which was made possible by a generous matching grant from the Gibson-Woodbury Charitable Foundation of North Conway. Thank you to Mark Butterfield and the Foundation board.

Tamworth contractors Paul Power, David Halpin, and Vincent Cook worked hard preparing the site. Wayne Lloyd and his crew excavated, prepped, and filled the site with speed and efficiency. The Maine Turf Company rolled out the sod and trimmed it in half a day. All of these contractors generously donated a portion of their time and materials. 

We hope that the Town’s adjoining Remick Park can be used in conjunction with the Green. Details need to be worked out, but we’re pleased that our selectmen have expressed conditional approval of the idea.

Tamworth Historical SocietyN E W S L E T T E R

Spring 2015

Planning a Tamworth History Center

Members of THS’s Renovation Committee discuss renovation plans at the Hall-Dyer House. L to R: George Plender, Dannie Wasson, and Barbara Nordeen. John Wacker holds plans. Barbara and John are co-chairs. Other members: Nate Hughes, Bob McLean, and Bruce Robinson. Members of BEAM Construction are kindly providing us with pro bono consulting. We are working toward hiring a contractor.

Middle-school students from Cornerstone Christian Academy in Wolfeboro joined us on an October community volunteer day. They helped Ron Remick tack plastic around the house for winter and, with Dannie Wasson, built and erected this sign. THS is most grateful to all involved. (Photo by Kim Wasson.)

Laying sod at the Hall-Dyer House.

A Village Green!

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Recent Donations to the Collection

Jim Welch Letters. While cleaning out her attic in Freedom, Lee Fritz found an envelope postmarked January, 1948. It contained two letters, a hand-drawn map and a contract sent to her father-in-law by then-Carroll County Sheriff Jim Welch of Tamworth. Welch was contracting with Mr. Fritz to carry out a logging operation on land burned over by the big Brownfield fire of the summer of ’47. Lee kindly brought these wonderful snippets of history to us in person, so we could chat over lunch.

A framed poster from Tamworth’s 1966 Town Bicentennial. Donated by Greg Titherington, this fine item had been in David Hayford’s shop. It is especially timely as we approach our Town 250th celebration.

Ralph Smith paintings:

Bill Watson of Kittery, ME, found a little primitive painting in a local second-hand store. It depicted the North Conway RR Station and was signed ‘Ralph Smith’. Bill tracked it down to Tamworth, and kindly donated it to THS. It is another gem by this prolific Tamworth painter.

Liz Rowe, Margaret Cleveland and family generously donated a wonderful little Ralph Smith painting of the Ayer House, which had hung there through all the ownerships from the Ayers to Marion Cohen.

A framed photograph of Frances Folsom Cleveland, taken at the foot of Cleveland Hill Road. Kindly given to us by Tom and Elaine Cleveland.

A decorative fan. Kindly donated by Ginny Damon, from her collection. It belonged originally to Frances Folsom Cleveland’s mother, Emma Harmon Folsom. It is in a frame was made by Steve Damon.

Old Edgell family Bible and photo album. Malcolm Avery of Campton, whose grandmother was Emma Child Edgell, sought out THS to receive these. The family moved from Tamworth to Campton about 1899. We’ll be doing some genealogy digging.

Our gratitude to all of these thoughtful donors!

Tamworth Mills, Old & New

Don’t miss the wonderful Mills of Greater Tamworth book compiled and edited by former THS board member Ann Albrecht, THS’s History Committee, and other volunteers! Twenty-one local writers chronicled 17 mills, old and new, around town. Liberally illustrated with photos, maps and plans, copies of this fascinating and informative collection are available at both our town Libraries. We hope to produce a more portable edition for sale.

Tamworth’s 250th Celebration

Tamworth celebrates its 250th Anniversary in 2016! The 250th Anniversary Steering Committee (chair: John Wacker, vice-chair: Bruno Siniscalchi) has announced a year-long celebration: October 14, 2015 to October 14, 2016. Interested in joining the committee? Have ideas for the celebration? Contact John at jwack@tiac.net

THS has a number of 250th projects in mind. We want to collaborate with the Cook Library to expand our oral history collection capacities and capture individual recollections for all to enjoy. We will mount mini-displays and post mini-histories around town, and do local history projects with Tamworth schoolchildren. It’s our goal to have a t lea s t two rooms at the Hal l-Dyer House History Center open to the publ ic by some point in 2016.

Tamworth Historical Society Newsletter 3

History Happens Every Day

Changes takes place around us constantly. Some we recognize at the time, some not till later. The old Tamworth Inn site is now home to a state-of-the-art distillery, set to open this year. Two hundred acres of a steep, wooded mountainside in Whittier are becoming a motorsports club. As part of a Village traffic-calming project, a longtime store and post office site in Chocorua has been transformed into a park. And a number of acres of Tamworth land have been protected with conservation easements in recent years, safeguarding north-south wildlife passages to help ensure genetic diversity. How will we understand these changes in ten years? In twenty?

THS Curatorship

At this year’s annual meeting, Bobbi Carleton passed the Curator’s torch to Bob McLean. We thank Bobbi for her many years of service to THS, tending the collection. Happily, she will continue on the Archive Committee, as will Joan Casarotto. Our congrats to Bob. We look forward to working with him.

Annual Meeting & Potluck Supper, 2014 & 2015

The event, last November 9th at Runnells Hall, was a big success, with record attendance, great food, the premiere of a video on THS by Big Foot Productions, a mini-exhibit of our collection items, and some memorable story-telling over coffee and dessert.

For our Annual Meeting near Veterans’ Day 2015, THS would like to host a gathering with stories told or read by Tamworth veterans, or families of veterans, of all wars. If interested, please contact us.

Ham Foundation Grant

THS is grateful to have received, in October 2014, a $10,000 grant from The Kendall C. and Anna Ham Charitable Foundation of North Conway, toward our renovation project. We will use it carefully as we embark on the project.

Tamworth Civil War Anniversary

November 28, 2014, was the 150th anniversary of the death of Tamworth’s Ira Blake, Union soldier, Company G, 2nd Regiment, Berdan’s Sharpshooters, Army of the Potomac. Ira died on that date in 1864, in an Army hospital in Alexandria, VA, from a wound sustained in battle the previous June. His wife, Lucy, had travelled down from Tamworth to nurse him and other soldiers. Ira, Lucy, and their son Harry are all buried in the Town cemetery near Ordination Rock.

Many will recall the dramatic reading of Lucy Blake’s eloquent letters the Cook Library put on in 2013, performed by Peggy Johnson and Patrick Griffin, with Chris Clyne as narrator. In commemoration of Ira’s 150th, Peggy has made a booklet of those letters, which is available at the Library. Highly recommended.

First Grade Visits

In late September, THS had the pleasure of a visit from the K.A. Brett School’s first grade, on their field trip to Tamworth Village. Here THS board member Bob McLean shares some old-fashioned toys with the group.

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The Tamworth Historical SocietyP.O Box 13 / 25 Great Hill RoadTamworth NH 03886For info call 323-2911Email: tamworthhistorical@gmail.comWebsite: www.tamworthhistoricalsociety.orgHistory Happens Every Day!

Programs 2015

This year’s programs so far have been well-received: Mike Cline on 250 Years of Tamworth Natural History, Doug McVicar on The Writings of Marjorie Gane Harkness, Steve Taylor on Poorhouses and Town

Farms (with Cook Library and NHHC) and Edie Clark on Baked Beans and Fried Clams (NHHC).

Join us for the rest of our 2015 programs!

(NHHC denotes a program of the New Hampshire Humanities Council.)

May 13: NHHC: Songs of Old New Hampshire: Jeff Warner—at Remick Museum

June 10: The USS Constitution, with Brad Wolff—at and with CML

July: Croquet Party Costume Picnic: Hall-Dyer Village Green

August: Bob Cottrell: Tamworth Barns: Talk and Tour

Sept: Painted Stage Curtains, with Christine Hadsel—at Union Hall also Excursion to Willowbrook Farm Museum, ME

Oct: England 250 Years Ago, with Richard Posner. Location tbd

Nov: Annual Meeting: Recollections of Tamworth Veterans and their Families

Dec: Annual Tree Lighting and Caroling

AND . . . Tamworth Memories, provided by . . . YOU! Keep an eye out for more. . . .

Newsletter: Editors: Kate Thompson, Donna Whipple. Contributors: Betty Wasson, Ann McGarity, Bob McLean. Layout & Design: Mark Eddy Smith.

The Hall-Dyer House at 25 Great Hill Road

2015 Tamworth Historical Society Membership Application

PLEASE JOIN US! Your membership will help the support the work of the Society.

It is tax deductible. Additional donations, also tax deductible, are most welcome and appreciated, especially for the Hall-Dyer House renovation.

2015 Membership Dues:

___ Individual. . . . . . . . . . . . .$10

___ Two Person . . . . . . . . . . .$15

___ Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25

___ Supporter/Business . . . . $50

___ Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$150

___ Additional donation . . . . $_________

Total: $_________

______Ms. ______Mrs. ______ Mr. _____ Mr. & Mrs.

Name __________________________________________

Address ________________________________________

Town ___________________________________________

State ___________________________ Zip____________

Please contact me about volunteering with THS. Please contact me about serving on the board or a board committee.

Telephone __________________ Email ______________________________

Please list any ideas for future programs here:

Please make checks payable to: Tamworth Historical Society and mail to: PO Box 13, Tamworth NH 03886