You Don't Know Jack ...

... English Jack that is!

English Jack, the Hermit of the White Mountains

Postcard showing the gap of the White Mountains in Crawford Notch

While he was referred to as a "hermit" his house was actually close to a large hotel and he was visited often by tourists. There is a great article written about him on the whitemountainhistory.org. website. 

Detail showing sign

He referred to his ramshackle abode as his "ship." 

Interior of English Jack's house

Notice the canes hanging on either side of the doorway. 

Example of cane made by English Jack from the collection of the New Hampshire Historical Society

 

English Jack, the Hermit of the White Mountains was part of a long tradition dating back at least to ancient times of specially costumed characters whose job it was to entertain visitors with their "rustic" behavior. English Jack was known to tell outrageous stories and amaze tourists by eating frogs and snakes.

There was also a dramatic tourist attraction type character over in Franconia Notch known as the "Philosopher of the Pool."

For more information "comment" us or visit us at the Henney History Room of the Conway Public Library.

 

 

Just for fun, Here are a couple other English Jacks!

God Save the Queen

Eleven, Eleven, Eleven: Remembering our Veterans

Today we continue an old tradition and start a new one.

For all of my life, we have displayed a red poppy to honor Veterans. The wearing of poppies in honor of America's Veterans takes its origin from the poem In Flanders Fields, written in 1915 by John McCrae.

Tonight we start a new tradition by displaying a green light. http://www.greenlightavet.com/. America’s veterans are some of our nation’s bravest, hardest-working men and women. However, it’s hard to show them the appreciation they deserve when, back home and out of uniform, they’re more camouflaged than ever. Greenlight A Vet is a campaign to establish visible national support for our veterans by changing one light to green.

Green is the color of hope, renewal and well-being. “Greenlight” is also a term commonly used to activate forward movement. The simple action of changing one light to green is intended to spark a national conversation regarding the recognition of veterans, and "greenlight" them forward as valued members of our communities.

The Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress is a modern, digital way to honor their stories. http://www.loc.gov/vets/.

There are a number of Veteran memorials in Conway’s villages. Hounsell’s Conway, New Hampshire 1765-1997, lists a number and surveys their history including Center Conway triangle, Conway Public Library, East Conway, Kearsarge, Memorial Hospital, Redstone, North Conway (at the foot of Bowling Alley Hill) and Schouler Park North Conway.  

In 1943 a large painted plywood Veterans Honor Roll stood in Conway Village in Railroad Park in front of the Conway train station about where the current Conway Chamber of Commerce information booth is now. It has a golden eagle at the top.  

In 1991 a committee was started to create a more complete Veterans Memorial to replace the wooden honor roll with a carved stone one. This is now located in the front lawn of Kennett Middle School.  

November... all the leaves are brown … A season for hunting historic vistas

As I write this, I am watching a gentle breeze blowing the leaves off the trees … and the sky is a hazy shade of winter, signaling the beginning of a time during which views of hidden past landscapes will be revealed, allowing an opportunity for following in the footsteps of nineteenth century White Mountain artists.  

Smillie Print

You can see an enlargement of this historic print on the stairway down to the Henney History Room. The view is from Sunset Hill, now the site of the Red Jacket. It was a popular spot for artists and photographers for many years.

Kensett Painting

The print at the library was based on this painting Mount Washington from the Valley of Conway by John Frederick Kensett, 1851.  It is now in the collection of the Wellesley College Museum. The painting was purchased by the American Art Union and made into an engraving by James Smillie, and distributed to 13,000 Art Union subscribers throughout the country.

Today, you can’t see this view most of the year due to the trees that have grown up since the days when this was a farming landscape and the fields were more open.  While the scene vanishes from view for most of the year, as Simon and Garfunkel sang, “Seasons change with the scenery” (or actually the scenery changes with the seasons) and for a brief time this will be a good time for peaking (hills and mountains) and for peeking a little into the past, allowing us to unweave time like in a tapestry at least until the lime green leaves of spring return.

Currier and Ives published their version of the painting around 1860. Later their image was used as inspiration for wall decoration in the Currier and Ives room at the Eastern Slope Inn.  

Currier and Ives Print

For more on these images, contact the Curator at the Conway Public Library’s Henney History Room.

With apologies to The Mamas & the Papas “California Dreaming” and Simon and Garfunkel, "A Hazy Shade Of Winter"

Relief Maps

Frances Richardson recently donated a remarkable series of relief maps from the 1930s along with a complete set of molds used to make them and archival papers documenting their history.

Her father, Rodney Woodard invented the process. He made these small "Pocket" size maps for Mount Washington (Pinkham Notch), Crawford Notch and Franconia Notch. He also made a wide variety of related flat maps, photo maps, map post cards and so on. 

Plaster forms used to make metal dies. 

Metal dies to mold the plastic sheets into relief maps. 

Print blocks to print labels and map features onto the plastic. 

As always, if you would like more information on this subject let us know through a comment or contact us at the Conway Public Library's Henney History Room. 

Back to the Future Again

No, this is not a sketch of a space ship for the upcoming Star Wars movie. 

These drawings are actually over one hundred years old. They date back to the middle of the 19th century. They are from a file labeled "inventions" in the Samuel Bemis papers at the Henney History Room of the Conway Public Library.

If you have a guess as to what they might be about, please drop us a comment!

They certainly are mysterious and intriguing. 

Some insight as to their intentions may be surmised by learning about the life and times of Samuel Bemis. While they look like they might be for ray guns, spy satellites, hover board motors, or flying cars, they are probably more likely related to the work he did with watches, cameras and dental tools. 

 

Tomorrow is “Back to the Future” day. It’s a time to celebrate and reflect upon what we had imagined would have come to pass by now. For more on this event and other bits of "the history of the future" send us a comment or call us at the Henney History Room of the Conway Public Library at 603-447-5552.

 

Conway Water Cures All

Without the watchful eye of the FDA, advertisers in the past could promote their products any way they wanted. In an earlier post we mentioned the Conway Mineral Spring as an early tourist attraction. Actually there were several mineral springs in the area. The one at Pine Hill seen in this advertisement card was the largest. (click on the image of the card to see it better).

You can see they made outrageous health claims for this water. The water came packaged in specially sealed barrels with a ready to use keg tap. On the back of this card under directions, it reads "As a curative, in most cases, use two goblets on retiring and two on rising, and one with each meal. If the stomach is weak, warm it at meal time." So now you have it, warm bottled water with a meal. Just in time for flu season!

Spirits of Meeting House Hill

Opening ceremony Founders Park, October 1, 2015

Last week Conway officially opened its newest “old” place to visit; Founders Park in the Redstone area. Ushered in by dignitaries at a great ceremonial event that included a wonderful birthday cake and the unveiling of a 250th souvenir history booklet, the new park offers some interesting insights into local history.

In the spirit of the season, as we approach Halloween, I wanted to share with you some stories about the ghost town on Meeting House Hill. A certain “spirit” pervades the area. By “spirit” I mean several different things. First there are the ghostly spirits that are said to linger there due to old graves buried under the road. Then there is the spirit of the past and the history of the original Meeting House and burned bridges. There was the dream of a town center or “green” and other plans that did not come to pass here. Finally, there is a new “spirited” educational program designed to teach about the meaning of the pioneering spirit of our early settlers and the lessons we can learn from their experience of building a town and creating a community.

Let’s start with the historic landscape. The new Founders Park is located at 35 East Conway Road. Some people consider it to be a scary place just because of its location next to the Conway Police Station and NH Circuit Court. It is in kind of a sketchy neighborhood. It’s not the most scenic part of town. Approaching it from Route 16, one drives past an abandoned granite quarry that was recently looted and vandalized, rusting railroad tracks, warehouses, industrial buildings, and oil and propane storage tanks.

Nearing our destination you pass an extensive junk yard on the left and high tension power lines draping through thickly wooded wetlands on the right. In contrast to this blight, an early map shows that this was once intended to be Conway’s center piece. There are actually three versions of this map at the Conway Public Library - on paper, parchment and linen.

Plan of Conway on linen, Conway Public Library

A detailed study of these maps reveals this unrealized, discontinued dream. Comparing these maps with a variety of topographical and relief maps help explain why this was at first settled as the center of town and why it later became bypassed by history. Even a quick cursory view shows that Conway was originally conceived of as a square with sides of six miles each. Natural features on this map include the Saco River, Conway Lake and the open area north of the center represents the location of Green Mountains. A detail of the center section shows lots laid out for the the “Centre Square,” or Town Green and the Meeting House, our first Church.

Detail Plan of Conway, on linen, Conway Public Library

The new commemorative sign at the park tells the history of the Meeting House. A portrait of the first long time preacher, who started service in 1778, Dr. Nathaniel Porter is hanging at the Conway Public Library. Some say he looks stern and spooky with kind but sad and haunting eyes.

Dr. Nathaniel Porter, Conway Public Library

Near the Meeting House was the “resting place” of the early settlers of Conway. Tradition says that some of the remains were not reburied, but just paved over, when the new road was put in.

The new Founders Park is also the beginning of a short trail that leads to another Conway Park that reveals more of the story. Both ends (start and finish) of this short trail are anchored by distinctive sentinel or story trees. One a pine, the other a maple.

You can see the large branches of the so-called “wolf” or “pasture” pine on the left side of the photo of the opening ceremony above. Notice the contrast between the tall straight “mast” type trees on the right, that were specifically preserved in the charter for the King’s Royal Navy with the

massive white pine “wolf” tree on the left.

If you know how to “read” the landscape these wolf pines tell you that they were originally born in a sunny open field or pasture and that they were twisted into a scary shape when a pine weevil nibbled on its terminal bud over and over again. A sunny field like this can be seen just around the corner as you make your way down Meeting House Hill Road.

Green field Meeting House Hill Road

A field like this represented the hopes, plans, dreams of the early settlers. For farmers making their way past fields like this for church services, open fields like this were practical emblems of worldly bounty and prosperity in this life and symbolic of a spiritual resurrection from death and eternal life seen both in the green grass and the trees tinged with Autumn colors.  

Maple tree, Smith-Eastman Park

At the end of the road on a spot overlooking the Saco River is a massive gnarled and twisted maple tree. It is a sentinel tree, proclaiming, hundreds of years of service, annually providing sweet sap for settlers to boil to make maple sugar and syrup. Nature was the grocery store for our early settlers.

Nature also provided challenges. While the Saco helped restore the fertility of fields with periodic flooding, it also needed to be crossed for civic and commercial travel. The Smith-Eastman Bridge seen in the painting below once stood at this location.

Smith-Eastman bridge, painted by Ernest Brown, on display at the Salyards Museum, Conway Historical Society. On loan from Margaret and Sut Marshall.

It was burned in the 1970s. 

Burned remains of Smith-Eastman bridge (Bob Duncan photo)

Today only blocks of cut stone are left as evidence to testify to its important historical role.

Remains bridge support

To help explore more about the history of Conway and to understand the skills and knowledge required to build a town and create a community, the Conway Public Library's Henney History Room is offering a series of free educational programs that will offer hands on, interdisciplinary lessons that will cover a wide range of topics.

To learn about the pioneering spirit program or for more history on this or other White Mountain topics contact the Curator at the Conway Public Library’s Henney History room.