New Hampshire WWI Military: Heroes of Alton

Posted on 15 December, 2017 by Janice Brown

Photograph circa 1906-1930.
Alton New Hampshire train station; Eastern
Illustrating & Publishing Co., W.P. Emerson,
W.C. Hunton. Property of NH Historical
Society.  Used with permission.
Soldiers during WWI would have departed
for training camps from this location.

The picturesque town of Alton, New Hampshire has always had a small population. Even today it contains around 5,320 residents, though that number expands a bit in the summer tourist season. In 1910 the census was a mere 1,348.  By 1920 when the war had ended, this number had dropped by 9.4% to 1,221 people.

Alton sent its full complement to war. Thanks to historian Herbert E. Morrell, the town’s WWI records were carefully recorded in the annual town report.  His careful declaration includes totals from various branches of the service. Of the 45 men listed as entering service from Alton NH: 1 was killed in action, 1 died in camp in France (of disease), 1 died in camp in the United States (also of disease), and 2 were wounded in action. The majority entered service in the U.S. Army, followed by 13 in the Navy, 2 in naval aviation, 2 in Aviation, 3 in S.A.T.C., 1 in the Medical Corps and 1 in the Canadian army. Seven were sent overseas to fight in France, and one was sent to Scotland. Continue reading →

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New Hampshire Cow Stories: A Backward Cow Ride

Posted on 11 December, 2017 by Janice Brown

Consider this story a little “cow blip” on your screen. From time to time I include a brief cow-related story, so that I don’t disappoint those who visit this blog thinking it is about bovine creatures.  This is the last one for this year.

The Tuesday, August 21, 1866 edition of the Weekly Union (Manchester, New Hampshire) newspaper on page 2 offered this cow story, entitled, “A Backward Cow Ride.”  The story begins: “During the revolutionary war, when a corps of the American army was encamped near the borough of Elizabethtown, N.J., an officer, who, by the way, was more of a devotee of Venus than of Mars, paid his addresses to a lady of distinction, whom he was in the habit of visiting nightly, in the cultivation of the kindly feelings which love so cordially inspires. On a discovery of the repeated absence of the officer, and of the place where interviews with his dulcinea were had, some waggish friends resolved to play off a handsome trick at his expense which should deter him from a repetition of his amorous visits.” Continue reading →

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New Hampshire WWI Military: Private Allan McEwen Walker of The Royal Scots

Posted on 8 December, 2017 by Janice Brown

Badge, headdress, British, Royal Scots (The
Royal Regiment) (INS 5249) cap badge
Badge in light bronze-coloured plastic in
the form of the Star of the Order of the
Thistle. In the voided oval centre St Andrew
and his saltire Cross with red
cloth backing insert, below which
is a scroll bearing the title
‘THE ROYAL SCOTS’. Copyright: © IWM.
Original Source.

Once again my WWI research necessitates a side trip. This time I happened across a newspaper article as follows: In the Portsmouth Herald newspaper of 14 Aug 1917, Tuesday, page 4: “Former Concord Man killed in action. Concord Aug 14.–Alan Walker, 23, who until quite recently was employed at the New Hampshire State hospital, was killed in action last May according to a list of casualties published in a newspaper in Scotland. Walker’s brother, Leonard has won the military medal.”

Allen McEwen Walker was not the easiest person to track down. The newspaper spelled his name incorrectly, though they did get the other details right. Allen M. Walker, like others who fought during World War I in non-U.S. Regiments, were usually not recognized on local and state memorials. As is this case for Allen, as he does NOT appear on the Concord NH WWI monument, nor in the NH State House Honor Roll. Continue reading →

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New Hampshire WWI Military: Heroes of Lebanon

Posted on 1 December, 2017 by Janice Brown

Photograph of World War I memorial at
Colburn Park in downtown Lebanon NH.
By Artaxerxes (Own work).
  [CC BY-SA 4.0 , via
Wikimedia Commons“]

Lebanon New Hampshire sent more than its share of men and women to serve during World War I. Afterward most of those young people returned, though several did not.  Lebanon built a fitting memorial to all in Colburn Park (Lebanon Green) on Park Street. The header of the plaque on that monument reads:

DEDICATED BY THE TOWN OF LEBANON TO THE HONOR OF HER
SONS AND DAUGHTERS WHO SERVED IN THE ARMED FORCES OF
THE UNITED STATES DURING THE WORLD WAR 1917-1918.

The names of all those connected with Lebanon New Hampshire who participated are inscribed upon this tablet.  Those who paid the ultimate sacrifice (who died during war time) are marked with a star.  My thanks to Ed Ashey, curator of the Lebanon Historical Society for taking the time to speak with me about several of these soldiers, and for providing an obituary and other documentation on several.

Continue reading →

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100 Years Ago: Food Conservation–Meatless and Wheatless Recipes

Posted on 24 November, 2017 by Janice Brown

Sketch: Breads from page 425 of “The Boston
Cooking School magazine of culinary science
and domestic economics, by Janet McKenzie
Hill (1896) at the Internet Archive.

I recently wrote an article about the Hoover Pledge, a voluntary commitment for Americans to conserve during World War I.  A writer-friend Elizabeth Gauffreau commented that she was curious about conservation food. This article offers a variety of both wheat-less and meatless recipes as presented in newspapers between 1917-1919.

The book, A History of the United States by Henry Eldridge Bourne, in the chapter The United States in the world War there is a concise explanation of food conservation as follows: “Raising Food For All. — The soldiers at the front or in the camps were only part of the great army America was organizing to help win the war. The workmen in the mills and the farmers in the fields were equally needed. America was asked to send food to the Allies, for so many of the English, French, and Italian farmers had fallen in battle or were still fighting that food was scarce. To decide how much should be sent abroad and to see that the rest should be fairly distributed at home, the Government appointed Herbert C. Hoover as Food Administrator. He had already been very successful in distributing food among the suffering Belgians. Continue reading →

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