Untitled Document

Madison Historical Society

Newsletter

PO BOX 505, MADISON, NH 03849

Spring 2005
PRESIDENT’S LETTER

We welcome spring and the start of many old and new projects. Becky Knowles has been very busy getting our Museum library together with help from Priscilla Ward, Olive Clayton, Ellen Evitts, Isabel Knowles, and others. We have new filing cabinets and new bookshelves to boot!
Madison Pound was cleaned up back in 1999 as a small group effort and earlier back in 1978 when the timbers were last replaced. Since 1999 Roger Clayton has been keeping it cleaned out yearly. Roger noted that the top timber boards are rotting and need to be replaced. It was Roger’s hope that the local Boy Scouts would take on the project. Recently, the Boy Scouts did do work on the Pound and even got as far as setting up a logger to help erect the timbers into position. However, the cost of the timbers stopped their efforts. The problem is the need for long sawn timbers, twelve feet in length, though Roger feels we can work with eight-foot lengths. Roger will get the information back to us and to anyone interested in saving the Town Pound. Any help and/or donations of sawn timber would be appreciated.
Please contact Roger if you can help.
Have you ever seen our article on the Town Pound on our web site? Check it out at:

http://ci.madison.nh.us/historical/index.html

Our web site is sponsored and taken care of by Rob Guptill with Hedgehog Hill Group. Many thanks to Rob and Jim Deaderick of Hedgehog Hill Group for all the work they have done to keep our web site out there for others to use.
I receive queries from many who are researching their families and ancestors from Madison. Last fall I received several photos by e-mail from Tracy L. Botting. These photos show many faces from Town including Tracy’s maternal family members, the Twomblys and Tylers. So, please come to
the museum this summer to view these wonderful old photos.
We have just recently lost our secretary, Mary Meier, who has been with the Board for the last several years. Mary is very active, and busy with many projects including being a Trustee at our Madison Library. Mary regretfully had to resign from our Board due to her many other commitments. We thank you Mary for your work with the Historical Society and know you will continue as an active member.
We are now including our Museum Wish List in our newsletters. We will report when we receive a wish and by whom in each newsletter.
Donations toward our wishes will always be happily accepted.
Mary K.W. Lucy

MUSEUM CLEAN-UP

I just want to thank all those that came out on that rainy cold Saturday, May 7th, to do some Museum cleaning. Thank you to Cliff Wells, Mary Meier, Lynn Slanetz, and of course Becky Knowles for spending that rainy morning dusting and vacuuming the Museum. It sparkles, at least as much as it can! Cliff, you are now the vacuum king! Becky continues to organize and archive our files and photos, which is a never-ending process. Lynn and Mary dusted and were sure to be careful around the delicate displays and artifacts. Well, museums are what they are and we should be proud of ours!
Also, a thank you to Bill Parks who has been cleaning up the outside of the museum, and to Roger Clayton who continues to keep the basement clean amongst many other needed projects!
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NHOGA
NHOGA stands for New Hampshire Old Graveyard Association, which is a small, but dedicated group of people who are trying to inform and educate others about the preservation of our old state graveyards.
My husband Mark and I attended their program next door in Effingham on the 14th of May. We had a great time! This was my first visit to the Effingham Historical

Society Museum and it is a lovely museum. They have many exhibits well placed
throughout the building which include three floors. I believe they are only open one Saturday a month during the summer and I cannot remember if it is the first or third. I’ll find out and get back with that information.
The guest speaker was Mr. Eric Potter who is the sixth or so generation of his family in Effingham. He was delightful with his readings of his ancestors’ memories from the past. Memories are what teach us about the history and the people before us. It reminds me that we all should write down our memories so others will have an understanding of what once was.
After Mr. Potter gave his presentation we went on an excursion to 5 or 6 old graveyards in Effingham with the President of the Effingham Historical Society as our guide. I was amazed to see so many familiar names, Kennett, Meloon, Knowles, and others.
President Wayne (I forgot his last name) took us to a beautiful small graveyard on his property where there is one huge gravestone with many Drakes. The graveyard was one large mound enclosed by lovely granite with an arched granite opening and vines that flower in the summer encrusting the granite walls. It just amazes me the hard work people did in earlier times. Wayne cuts the grass and takes care of this graveyard with noticeably loving care.
I have purchased a couple of copies of the newer version of the NHOGA Handbook for information on gravestone preservation. I will be donating one to our Madison Town Library and one will be available at the Museum library. We have a copy or two of the old handbook, and if you read the old one ignore the cleaning instructions that include bleach. Please do not clean gravestones with bleach. Bleach will eat away the stone!
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WISH LIST
1. Executive Board Secretary
2. Program Coordinator
3. Vice President
4. Sunday Docents (from 2-
4pm through the summer).
5. Lap Top Computer
6. Donations toward new
displays.
7. Donations of rough sawn
timber for the Pound or
funds toward the efforts.
8. Donations towards
expanding our Tool Shed
for more exhibit space.
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Executive Board 2005
Mary K.W. Lucy, President
Becky Knowles, Treasurer and Curator
Lisa Olszewski, Publicity
Olive Clayton, Mailings
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UPCOMING PROGRAMS
June 16 Jane Kitchen and others
“History of Allegro Pines”
At the old Camp Allegro Dining Hall
July 21 Russ Petrie & the Madison Church Singers
“Gospel Songs From Yesterday”
Madison Church
August 18 Lee Middlekauff and
Roger Clayton
The sequel to:
“Photographic Perspectives of Madison, Past and Present”
Madison Elementary School – Noyes Hall
September 15 Raymond Stineford
“Old Houses”
Madison Historical Museum
October 20 “Snow Village Chronicles”
Preformed Live to the radio programs written by
William Manley, from 1930s-40s, by a volunteer cast.
Madison Corner Schoolhouse

Other events to note:
Old Home Week:
August 7 (Sunday) 6 – 7 PM
Blueberry Fest
August 9 Tues. 2-4
Museum Open House
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BLAST FROM THE PAST
From Madison Historical Society meeting minutes Jan. 21, 1981:
Richard Hocking said a representative of the Office of Historical Preservation in Concord phoned today that the Town and School Library has been listed in the National Registry of Historical Buildings. Arrangements for commemoration will be completed at a later date.

A Picnic Party from the Churchill House at Goe Hill. Will Kennett is driving the oxen, “Bob” Kellock is the boy with the panama hat and flauntroy tie. (As written on the back– no year given.)
EXTRACT FROM THE MADISON HISTORICAL SOCIETY MEETING MINUTES
FEBRUARY 16, 1977
The meeting was held at the home of the Alexander’s in Silver Lake. Kay Eglit presided with about 23 members present.
Briefly, Nathaniel Churchill was born in Newmarket, 1771-1772. He was left with a 1 year old boy on the death of his first wife. He then married Mary Jackson, went to Brookfield, and may have come to this area in 1815 to a farm at the corner of Colby Hill Road and the Conway Road. He was listed as Highway Surveyor in 1817. He was also listed in the 1830 census, and thought to have been re-married at this time to Anna, who came from Vermont and was his third wife. In 1830 Nathaniel, Jr. married a March uniting the two families. Most of the family died in this period from Typhoid fever. John March went to Camden, Georgia and built a mill staying there about four years. The last record of John March was the 1853 census. It is believed that he bought a boat, went to Cuba, and died in a storm.
Nathaniel Churchill, Jr. bought the present Churchill House in 1865 and was married to Elizabeth Goldthwaite. The Jackson family, the Colby’s and Churchill’s intermarried. It is known that the present Meeker place belonged to Nathaniel Churchill, Sr.
Lacking the ability to take shorthand, this is the best your Secretary could do with a very detailed talk.
The next meeting will be at Cliff and Alice Ward’s home with William Fennell as speaker.
Resp. Submitted. Percy Blake. Secy.