2020 Articles
December 2020
Notes On Those Who Served In WWII
by Bob Corrette
William Ricker enlisted in the Amphibious branch of the US Navy on Nov. 18, 1941 and was sent to Newport, RI for basic training, then to the USS Wyoming for advanced training, then to the USS transport ship Hugh Scott. On Nov. 12, 1942, the Hugh Scott was torpedoed off the coast of Casablanca. The torpedo struck mid-ship and the ship sank within 30 minutes.
Fireman second class Ricker jumped into the water with his life jacket on. He was not in the water long before lifeboats from other ships nearby picked him and others up. Seaman Ricker said at the time of the attack the ship was about ready to return to the US and that he lost everything except the clothes he had on. He returned to duty and served throughout WWII.
November 2020
Carriages and Sleighs
by Bob Corrette
In “The Keene Sentinel” a few years ago, there was an article on Mr. Knowlton’s restoration of aa sleigh made by J. & F. French of Keene, NH. The article reminded me of some old notes I had on E. & C. Carter, makers of carriges and sleighs here in Fitzwilliam. I found the following which might be of interest as to the cost of carriages and sleighs in this bygone era.
Josiah E. and Charles C. Carter started their carriage business about 1830 in shop located on what was then known as Powder House Hill Road, then later called High Street. Today the road is called Upper Troy Road, and their business was located just below where Saul Olyan lives today (#24).
By the 1850’s records show that the Carters produced some forty carriages and sleighs each year. The brothers employed four men who each earned $7 per week. The cost of a carriage might run about $100 and a sleigh about $45. By 1870 they employed only three men, and their annual product value totaled $10,000.
During the same period, J. & F. French of Keene employed some twenty-six men with a weekly wage of $5 per man. Their annual production was some seventy-five carriages and three hundred sleighs.
In 1870 an Express Wagon sold for $225, a delivery wagon for $350 and a buggy for $200. This was a price increase from 1850’s prices
By 1890 Josiah E. and Charles C. Carter retired from their business due to old age, and their carriage business passed into history.
During the early 1900’s you could order from Sears, Roebuck & Company a sleigh for $20, and a buggy or wagon for between $50 and $100. Quite a drop in price from 1870’s prices!
Horse drawn vehicles were used well into the 1920’s and 1930’s until gasoline powered trucks and cars became widely available to the general public.
Annual Meeting Presentation
October 9, 2020
Fitzwilliam in the Grip of the "Spanish Flu" 1918-1919
by Bob Corrette
Fitzwilliam in September of 1918 had a population of some 950 people. The country was involved in a World War. Fitzwilliam sent 43 men and 2 women to the war effort. A number of these men were sent to Camp Devens in Ayer, MA, some 45 miles away, to join the New 74th Regiment of the 12th Division. The camp had some 40,000 military personnel stationed there.
In Europe, the US had 324,000 troops sick with the flu. Some troops returned to Camp Devens and brought the flu with them, which soon spread like a wildfire. By the end of September, there were some 14,000 cases. The hospital only had capacity for 2000 patients, and only 200 nurses and 10 doctors. Soldiers were asked to volunteer to help; barracks were converted to hospital wards. Over 800 died. Graduate nurses were offered $4/day, experienced nurses $15/day and doctors $38/day. The US soldier made $7.50 per week at that time.
As the Flu spread, it became known as the “purple death”. Healthy young men went to the hospital complaining of sore throats and fevers. Within hours they had suffocated, their skin taking on a terrible purplish hue.
What was taking place in Fitzwilliam in 1918: It was the first year we had a high school (next to Massin Insurance building). Everyone was asked to conserve food, grow gardens, not drive on Sundays, and save nut shells and peach stones to make carbon for gas masks. At Miller’s Red Garage gas sold for 17 cents a gallon. People complained to him about flat tires from too many horseshoe nails on the roads as a new tire cost $60.
In September of 1918, a soldier home on leaved from Camp Devens had the flu, which spread through the Troy Mills. Troy had a population of around 1200. Dr. Stone had 5 patients die in one day on Mill Street. Schools were closed, meetings cancelled, people were asked to stay home. Sugar and flour were rationed. Dr. Emerson was busy day and night helping Dr. Stone in Troy and going to Richmond. There were only a few telephones in town; one was at the railroad station, which could be used to call Dr. Emerson’s house.
Fitzwilliam had 23 people who died in 1918 of which 8 were flu related. Winchendon, MA had a population of 2000, with 500 cases and 26 deaths. Keene had a population of 12,000 and had 900 cases with 156 deaths.
To prevent Influenza people were advised to keep your mouth and teeth clean, cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing, don’t worry – which caused fear and fatigue, stay home if you have a cold, get fresh air and sunshine and if sick, wear a mask.
Margaret Daley recalled, “you could stand at Bull Run Bridge and watch railroad trains headed for Boston, with flat cars loaded with coffins.”
In WWI 15 million died from the conflict. The Flu took 30 million lives. In WWI the US military lost 53,500 in combat, 45,000 from the flu. The flu took 675,000 lives in the US. It only lasted a few months. It came back in 1920 for a short period of time.
Note: funeral costs tripled; in some places cemetery workers refused to dig graves, some required the family members to dig the grave.
Why the name “Spanish Flu”: In May of 1918, in Spain some 8000 people died of a flu. A coverup took place in Europe out of fear and panic.
October 2020
Monadnock Trout Ponds
by Bob Corrette
Troy, New Hampshire has been the home of several uncommon businesses over the years. One of those was George Starkey’s Monadnock Trout Ponds. Starkey was a native of Troy, born there in 1852. He was active on local school committees and operated a successful meat market.
In the late 1870s, when George was about twenty-five years old, he opened a business called Monadnock Trout Ponds. The purpose of this business was to breed and sell brook trout. He built two fish buildings, as they were known locally, in the village of Troy. The hatching of the trout was done in a building 20 x 36 feet in size, while his twenty-six feeding vats were located in an adjacent building 20 feet wide by 180 feet long. The buildings were valued at $400 in 1880.
The records of the company have been lost and it is not clear where Starkey sold his trout. Private fish and game clubs were very popular in the late 1800s, however, and were probably his major customers. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department was in its infancy at that time and would not have been supplying many fish.
Starkey’s Trout Ponds were very successful. By the mid-1880s he was hatching 1,000,000 trout each year, and by the early 1890s he was one of largest taxpayers in Troy. George Starkey’s Monadnock Trout Ponds remained in operation for at least twenty years, until about 1900, when he devoted more attention to his meat market and cattle dealership.
This article is from Alan Rumrill of the Historical Society of Cheshire County.
Bob Corrette’s note: I believe that Mr. Cushing stocked his “Cushing’s Trout Pond” with trout from Starkey’s hatchery in Troy.
August 2020
Wild Blueberries and Fitzwilliam
by Bob Corrette
From the time the Indians first lived in the area with the town’s first settlers, the blueberry became a part of the family meals, to be used in puddings, cakes, breads and even used in seasoning of soups and stews. The early settlers stored berries in crocks and covered them with molasses for preservation.
It was noted in the 1860s that in a fruitful year, a good blueberry picker could pick a ten-quart pail in two to three hours. Berry-picking became a way to make extra income.
Ervin W. Flagg recalls blueberry picking circa 1905. “All us kids had to go and pick berries, a crate a day. That was 32 quarts. Mother went through them to make sure they were clean, no twigs, leaves, insects. We brought the crate down to the railroad station by horse and buggy, and sent them on the train to Gerrish Bros. in Boston, and they would send us a check. We would get maybe from 30 cents down to 5 cents a quart depending on the berries.”
“I recall once when my brothers Harry and Walter and I (around the year 1905) we wanted to go play baseball. Well, we had to do our share of blueberry picking first. Harry suggested ‘If we fill the pails with 2/3 ferns and we pick blueberries and put them on top, we can say we got our share done.’ So we did that, and of course when we got home we had some good-looking pails of blueberries. We beat off to play ball. Well, when we got home, boy, we were the ones that were fooled! We didn’t play ball for a while.”
Howard Holman recalls: “My Grandfather William Holman built the store about 1912, which he rented to my Uncle Edgar Holman, and which A.J. Plante later ran and R. Webber still operates today. Edgar would hire berry pickers to pick berries. Each picker would usually get 10 cents a quart and he would ship them to markets in Vermont. He might make 5 to 8 cents profit. From 1925 to 1935 I carried on the berry business. The season lasted about 6 weeks. I had from 15 to 30 pickers. We would ship 10 to 12 crates a day. Sometimes I loaded by ’32 Plymouth car with 10 crates, and I’d drive down to Faneuil Hall Market in Boston and sell them to Adams & Chapman Produce Dealers.”
“I know there were a lot of blueberries shipped from Fitzwilliam. It was once called ‘The Blueberry Capital of the World’.”
Sources: Ervin Flagg/ Howard Holman
June 2020
Country Stores in Fitzwilliam from the 1850's
by Bob Corrette
The general store has taken its place in tradition and folklore. It was a place where folks congregated. In the winter, the store was heated by a large wood stove around which regulars gathered, talked, debated and often where folklore took shape. In the summer, a group might be found outside bartering, swapping stores, or exchanging chaws of tobacco.
Inside the smell of different products might be distinguished by the odor of coffee, herbs, dried apples, New England rum, and kerosene. The floor might be impregnated with whale oil, molasses drippings and brine from pork barrels.
Women might be found looking over spools of thread, or clothes, or just maybe a new comb or bonnet.
All in all, the store merchant was a patient, resilient, versatile fellow, who had to know how to buy and sell produce he took in exchange, enough law to frighten a debtor and enough medicine to prescribe for a touch of rheumatism.
The Howe & Co store was located at Laurel Lake near the Howe Mills (where Camp Fleur de Lis is today). In the Village the stores were D. Whittemore, Chaplin & Streeter, the Union store, P. S. Batcheller and J. Whittemore. Two drug stores were also located there. S. Cummings was at Gages Hotel, and at State Line was a store operated by John Richardson.
The store formerly operated by Mr. Roland Roy was built by Amos A. Parker in 1859, which he conducted until 1865. On his return from the Civil War his son John M. Parker took over the business with P. S. and S. Batcheller as Parker & Co., which they continued until 1887. J. M. retired, Daniel Firmin came into the firm with the Batchellers, changing the name to D. W. Firmin & Co. In 1890 J. M. Parker came back into the business with Julius Firmin and Charles Haskell, changing the name back to J. M. Parker and Co. In 1905 J. M Parker’s son Francis came into the firm.
In 1908 the Parker Co. built a modern grain elevator on Creamery Road at the Depot, and a few years later added a store to sell general merchandise. Some may recall Charles Sturtevant, Harry Flagg and Bill Davis working there. J. M. also employed a pair of ferrets to help keep down the rodent population.
In 1938 Horace Firmin took over the stores until 1941, when he sold the Village store to Lennox Barnes and the grain elevator and store was sold to Signal Engineering. Mr. Barnes carried on until 1950 when he sold to Mr. Roland Roy, the last operator. The Village store has changed hands a few times since Mr. Roy sold it. It is now Chef Allan’s and Covey House.
Prices of various items at Parker’s Store in 1919 (100 years ago!) include the following:
½ lb. Salada tea $0.30
Large can of tuna 0.30
8 oz. Peanut Butter 0.17
Pkg. Corn Flakes 0.12
8 oz. Campbell’s Soup 0.09
½ lb. coffee 0.30
Ketchup 0.22
Prince Albert pipe tobacco 0.12
1lb. Baker’s Cocoa 0.36
May 2020
A Fitzwilliam Heroine - Hannah Adams
by Bob Corrette
Throughout our nation’s history, women have risen to the height of every emergency. During the American Civil War women came forth to help, even taking part in battles; women enlisted, putting on the uniforms (as the physical examinations were often very lax). Annie Etheridge joined the 3rd Michigan and took part in every battle the 3rd was in and served for 3 years. Bridget Devens, known as “Michigan Bridget” of the First Michigan Cavalry, went with her husband and fought at his side. Kady Brownell served as a color bearer for the 5th R.I. Infantry beside her husband.
Charles Hale of Co. C 5th N.H. wrote that at the Battle of Antietam Sept 17, 1862, he saw “Irish Molly” of the 88th N.Y. Volunteers who served as a washer woman in the Regt. She marched with the men into battle, cheering and swinging her bonnet. “The sight of her made me stand a little taller.”
Over four hundred women were said to have served in the ranks as soldiers. But other women took part in other war efforts by helping in relief societies, the Sanitary Commission, and, most importantly, in hospitals and as nurses.
Hannah Adams of Fitzwilliam went to St. Louis in 1860 where she had relatives and became a teacher. When the war started in 1861, she helped form the Union Ladies Aid Society. In the autumn of 1863 her only brother, John Adams of the 16th N.H., also from Fitzwilliam, died at the hospital there in St. Louis. Hannah Adams’ interest then became intensified to help the soldiers in the hospitals.
In the winter of ’63-64 she went to Nashville and set up special diet kitchens, and often had to overcome the prejudice of Army surgeons! By the War’s end, Hannah Adams’ name became widely known throughout Nashville as the woman who made suffering a little easier for the soldiers to endure.
These devoted women proved what has again and again been demonstrated, that what the women of a country resolve shall be done, will and must be done.
Hannah Adams lived in the brick house south of the town hall, across the street from the church; Don Moulton and Gretchen Wittenborg’s place today.
April 2020
Fitzwilliam's First Ordained Pastor - A Short History
by Allen Cates
The first public worship in Fitzwilliam began in 1768. There was no Meeting House so people met in their homes. In 1770, a Meeting House was built 100 yards north of the present Emerson School, near the Fitzwilliam Village cemetery.
The first ordained pastor of the new Meeting House was the Reverend Benjamin Brigham, a 1764 graduate of Harvard. In 1771 he was ordained at the Inn of James Reed, as the Meeting House was not yet finished. He built a dwelling a short distance from the Meeting House cemetery, now the Village cemetery.
Reverend Brigham served for 29 years and died in 1799, at age 58. He was very well thought of, an esteemed and beloved man, righteous and truthful.
Next year, 2021, will mark the 250th anniversary of Reverend Brigham’s ordination.
Reverend Brigham is buried in the Fitzwilliam Village cemetery and his first wife Lucy is buried beside him. Below are photographs of their gravestones.
