New Hampshire in WWI: The Phelan Sisters of Milford

Posted on 6 September, 2018 by Janice Brown

Upper Row, Left to Right — Maurice Phelan, John Phelan, William Phelan, All in the United States Navy. Below–Katherine Phelan and Mrs. Alice Keefe.

 

This is a short story about the Phelan Family of Cambridge MA who spent summers on their Milford, New Hampshire farm.  The men mentioned served from Cambridge MA not Milford NH.  One of the women in the story, Katherine Phelan, married a Milford man, Leo D. Flanagan and lived in the town for many years.  My interest started with this newspaper story and photograph demonstrating how women often had the “men’s tasks” during wartime.

Boston Sunday Globe 22 September 1918, page 140
THREE SONS IN SERVICE / TWO SISTERS RUN FARM Continue reading →

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New Hampshire Slanguage: Beach Wagon

Posted on 4 September, 2018 by Janice Brown

1960s Boston newspaper advertising for rebuilding of “Beach Wagon” vehicles.

I was looking at some 1960-ish photographs today, a few showing my family’s pale yellow beach wagon parked in the driveway. BEACH WAGON was the local (New England) term for what most people then called a “Station Wagon” (or a “Woody” if you lived in California). It was the stalwart and utilitarian motorized family vehicle of the 1960s larger-sized family (there were 5 kids and 2 adults in mine). Continue reading →

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New Hampshire in World War I: U.S. Coast Guard Surfman George Henry Stenstream of Hampton and Rye

Posted on 2 September, 2018 by Janice Brown

Photograph of Wallis Sands Life-Saving Crew wearing “storm suits” with cork life vests, no date. From U.S. Coast Guard Historian’s Office, U.S. Coast Guard Museum.

World War I was a war that most people wanted to forget. It was a terrible time both for the brave men and women in service, but also for those who remained at home. No one was safe from the influenza scourge that took so many young lives.

Not all heroic service was performed across the sea on the battlefields of Belgium and France. The job of protecting the local seas was an important priority. George Henry Stenstream was a man who is today mostly forgotten. He was born on 27 March 1884 in Gloucester MA, son of Capt. Charles & Hulda A. (Hanson) Stenstream. He was only 6 years old when his father, Capt. Charles Stenstream was lost at sea. These losses were something the sea-faring families of the Northeast coast understood. Continue reading →

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New Hampshire Glossary: Neat Stock

Posted on 1 September, 2018 by Janice Brown

Neat stock is a livestock term that may have originated in New England, and was used as early as 1674 in New Hampshire and 1782 in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Neat stock was often used as payment and barter.

According to Mark E. Dixon (see comments) of one of his ancestors, John Cass, of Hampton, Rockingham, NH, in his will dated 4 Mar 1674… “Item. I Give unto my Daughter Elizabeth twenty pounds to be paid by my two sons Joseph and Samuell in Corne & neat Cattle ten pounds to be paid within one yeare after they enter upon their Lands and the other ten pounds the Next year after to be payd in the same specie.”

28 December 1782. Providence Rhode Island, Providence Gazette. To be SOLD.
FOUR Lots of Land, containing 100 Acres each, lying in the Town of Windsor, in Berkshire County, State of Massachusetts….Cash, neat Stock, or West-India Goods, will be received in Payment….GIDEON FRANKLIN. Windsor, Dec. 25, 1782. Continue reading →

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New Hampshire WWI Military: Heroes of Francestown

Posted on 30 August, 2018 by Janice Brown

Old postcard showing the Francestown WWI
monument. Property of J.W. Brown.

Francestown was, and still is, a rural community southwest of Manchester, New Hampshire.  In 1910 before the World War the town’s population was 602. Just a few years after the war in 1920 the census had drastically dropped to 363, followed by 342 a decade later. Then slowly the population began to grow to its estimated 1600 people today.

There were many in the town, men and women who though not in the military, still served their town and country through supportive activities.  Victory gardens, Red Cross work, philanthropic efforts were all important pieces of Francestown’s community World War promotion.

When the Armistice was announced, the town was determined not to forget not only the soldiers who did not come home, but all of the men that went to war.  Francestown arranged for a monument that was dedicated in 1920.  This beautiful plaque was created by the famed woman sculptor, Theo Alice R. Kitson, and cost the town $400.  Today the monument still sits where it was installed, at 35 Main Street beside the Old Meeting House, between two flag poles (USA and NH flags). Continue reading →

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