Teresa Blanche Duffy

We recently had a couple ask for a list of war memorials in the area. We gave them a copy of a map and listing from the newspaper from a number of years ago. Ironically, one missing from the map was one of the earliest and closest. In fact it was from World War One and on the lawn of the Conway Public Library. For more info on the memorial see this link.

Let’s now follow up on one the names on the monument. Teresa Blanche Duffy seems to be the only women on the monument (the gender of some names are hard to tell and further research is needed). To follow her story we used the super powered library edition of Ancestry plus and found her marriage record, indicating she was a nurse.

That gave us the date we needed to check our microfilm collection for the wedding coverage from the local newspaper.

In turn we were able to track them through census records. This in turn gave us more information so we could follow up on where they lived and where she is buried and so on.

So through this process we can get a fuller picture of her life and be able to more properly honor her service to our country. If you are interested in more of the story and especially if you would like to volunteer to help track down more of the names in this and other veteran memorials in the area, please comment us or contact us at the Conway Public Library’s Henney History Room.

Reading Redstone

 

 

Over the past two weeks, we have had several outreach programs with the Kennett Middle School summer program. It involved three days of special tours and included a visit to the Conway Public Library,  a walking tour of Conway village, and a field trip to the Redstone Quarry.  

 

These tours are part of a larger and ongoing project to understand, research, document and understand Conway’s historical landscape. We are building on programs we did with the Pine Tree School, the UNH Cooperative Extension spirals program and other groups. We are happy to do them for other schools and groups, just contact us.

For this blog, we will focus on the theme of Conway’s granite history. On display in the Ham Community Room at the Conway Public Library is a fantastic painting by artist Ernest O. Brown.

 

It is one of the many landscapes in the “Shades of Spring” art exhibit on display now through August 31, 2016. The acrylic painting entitled “Spring: Chaos and Time Travel,” features an enigmatic hand split fence. Nearly photorealistic yet still painterly it shows incredible detail, amazing perspective and his signature dramatic shadows and composition.

Upstairs in the main reading room of the Conway Public Library the group learned about the now lost tourist attraction, the Washington Boulder, from which the foundation stones of the library were cut and quarried. See this link.  

 

 

At the Conway Historical Society’s Salyards Center we saw tools used to cut and dress stone by hand and dioramas and poster board displays on the quarry’s history done by school students in 2015 for the town’s 250th anniversary.

 

During the walking tour, we studied the cellar hole of the Conway House Hotel at the four corners near the library as well as the World War One Memorial on the library grounds. (now also known as a site for Pokémon Go).

 

To learn more about Conway’s larger, industrial scale granite history we took a bus tour to the Redstone quarry. It was only a short way into the trail before the intrepid explorers discovered a large pilaster with a high glossy finish.

We studied the curious "tool marks" on the usually hidden top and bottom faces of the pilaster.

 

We were then able to match the tool marks to the actual tools (just down the trail) used to hold and shape and finish and move the pilaster.

 

The Conway Public Library's Henney History Room has a wealth of information about this and many other sites in the area. Please contact us if you would like more details. Click on the pictures to enlarge any of these images.

After exploring the village of Redstone, we were back on the bus on time and ready for our next adventure.

After 40 years photos find their way home

This year we celebrate 40 years of the Conway Public Library's Nella Braddy Henney History Room. Recently, a friend and neighbor of the Henneys donated 64 photographs and over 100 slides taken by Keith Henney. The donor pointed out that Mr. Henney certainly knew how to capture a characteristic moment of time. Bert Heath was said to be able to fix anything. He put his jalopy together from bits and pieces of scrounged materials and always had a cigarette in his mouth. Comfort was key, style was secondary.

Many of the pictures show the affection, appreciation, and understanding folks had of their animals. It's a love the Henneys shared. Above is Lucille Thompson in front of the Isaac Bean House. Notice the nice white socks on the mare. Below a pair of bald-faced Hereford steers bring home the hay under the goad of Herbert Thompson.  You can see the pride they had in a well built rick.

This is how Yankees celebrate the acquisition of a new generator for the town. You can see how excited they are and Mr. Henney was there to document the moment.

Many of the photos share the composition, lighting and other artistic flourishes seen in WPA photos of the period and the aesthetics of Norman Rockwell.  They also show the Henney's interest in history and love of their neighbors and friends. 

For more on the Henney History Room click here.

Confirmation

We had confirmation recently that this portrait on display at the Conway Public Library was by a deaf itinerant artist John Brewster. See this link.

For a unique perspective on it see our previous post. 

To follow another connection to the deaf community follow the threads in another recent post, and look into the author of the poem about the universe, Henry Baker.

New Donation

Recently, we had a surprise walk in donation of a bound 1902 map of the White Mountains. We love these kinds of surprises! We already have a wall mounted version of this map that originally sold for $2.50. This one is a bound and folded cloth mounted version that originally sold for $1.50. It is interesting to compare the two versions. It is also fun to look at bits of the lost historic landscape such as the post office in Green Hill and the “village” of Conway Street.

Enjoy!

Questions, just ask!

Sam'l Bemis his Book

Last week we focused on the context, the physical aspects of this little memo book. We explored the paper, the laid lines, and the watermark.  

 

Now we will look at the content found within the booklet itself. As you can see, the text reads “Cambridge June 11th 1776

Saml Bemis his Book

 

This use of use of speaking in the “third person” is a common historical phrase.  

 

Then it reads, "Doctor Bentlet wrote a preface to Milton. It probably should read Dr. Bentley who wrote a preface to an edition of Milton's poetry. There are many references to poetry throughout the memo book.

 

There are also many references to more practical, technical subjects.

These pages below show a carefully delineated illustration of watch parts. This Samuel Bemis like his son Samuel A. Bemis was a watch maker. The text on the left page reads in part,

 

For a moon clock

The moon wheel must be 7 ¾ inches

In diameter it hath 118 teeth

Day of the month wheel 3 inches diameter

It hath 62 teeth

 

 

You can also find

“Rule for making Semet” Perhaps "Cement" for tooth fillings?

Rule for making silver soder, Rule for making gold soder

and many other practical notations.

Peppered throughout the text there are many references to classical poetry, the bible and Shakespeare. While these references may have been familiar to people of the late 18th and 19th century, they are not in as common use today. With the help of the internet we are able to track down some leads.

The quotation below for example,

Come forth, O Man, yon azure Round survey,

And view those Lamps which yield eternal Day.

Bring forth thy Glasses: clear thy wond'ring Eyes:

Millions beyond the former Millions rise:

Look farther:--Millions more blaze from remoter Skies.

 

A poem intituled (phonetic spelling) The Universe

 

 

 

 

We can find more about this fascinating poem and its author here.
See if you can track down more of these poems and please contact me through the comment section below.

 

  

 

For One's Country

There is an interesting secret hidden within this new discovery found in the Samuel Bemis papers. This memo book is from the first Samuel Bemis, the father of the now famous dentist and photographer.

Let's examine it. It is made of 12 sheets of paper folded and sewn together into a booklet.
Each sheet of paper measures 6x8 inches so when folded and sewn together, the booklet is 4x6 inches, small enough to fit in a coat pocket of the time period.

Here you can see the threading pattern used to bind the booklet.

When placed on a light table, you can see the distinctive pattern known as "laid" paper that helps to identify its age.

What you are seeing are the impressions made by the wire screen used to make the paper. A watermark or company logo was also embossed on each sheet of paper. These watermarks also help to when and where the paper was made. However, as the original fairly large sheet of paper was often cut into various smaller sizes for different size booklets, it took us a number of pages to puzzle out the watermark. Here we can see a part of the overall design and the word "Pro."

Another part of the design can be found on a different page and it includes the second part of the main phrase, the word "Patria" 

So now we have the complete phrase, Pro Patria, translated from Latin it traditionally means "For One's Country" part of a larger famous phrase from Horace's Odes poetry,  

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori is a line translated as: "It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country."

 

Can you see another component of the logo, what seems to be the head of a person? wearing some kind of helmet?

 

Revealed by light, the pieces fall into place, 



However, not all of the watermark can be found in the booklet, so have to check references, in this the case the internet

We can find ...

 

Without looking it up, this upside down part of the watermark would never have made sense to me, however, with the complete image, I can then see this is the bottom right section of the watermark.

I could not find the bottom left section of the watermark anywhere in the booklet. But here is what is would look like.

Now look back up at the photographs and you can see the hand of the lion holding a curved sward, Brittanica with her helmet holding a staff, etc.

This is the kind of stuff we do for fun in the cellar of the Conway Public Library where the Henney History Room is located. If you want to join in the fun, become a volunteer! To learn more about anything in this blog comment us or contact us at the Conway Public Library.