The maple sugaring season is upon us and March 28 and 29 is Maple Weekend,
when many of the maple sugar operators in
New Hampshire
hold open house. Maple Weekend is a time to visit one or more sugar houses
and see how maple syrup is made. It is also your chance to buy maple syrup
and other products such as maple candy or maple cream directly from the
producer. A visit to a sugar house on Maple Weekend makes a fine family
outing. You won’t need to drive any farther than
Pittsfield
or Loudon.
Look for this book at the Chichester Town Library. Tales from Rhapsody Home
or, Reporting Live from our Last Resort by John Gould.
A staunch observer of the human condition for more than four decades, Down
East Yankee John Gould has turned his perceptively critical lens toward life
in an assisted-living community in
Maine.
John Gould tells the disagreeable truth about
life in Rhapsody Home, from the chef who quit because he couldn’t stand the
food to the apartment windows that were designed never to open.
Captivatingly charming, sarcastic, erudite, and altogether wonderful, this
is a skilled report of what it’s like to live in an assisted-living facility
and a much-needed look at the way we provide for our elders.
Chichester Grange will meet on April 1st at 7 p.m. upstairs in the Grange
Hall.
Anne Boisvert will present an April Fool’s Day
program and plans will be made for the youth night supper. Millie
Becker
is in charge of refreshments.
On Tuesday, April 2, at 7 p.m. in the Chichester Town Library there will be
a program on Understanding the Movies. Understanding how film creates and
delivers ideas and how it shapes and reflects popular attitudes adds to our
appreciation of the cinematic experience. Increase your film vocabulary and
have fun discussing movies together.
Chichester Grange held its Family and Community Night on March
18. Guests were Jane Heath, co-chair of the
NH State Grange Family and Community Committee, and Christopher Heath,
NH State Grange Youth Team Leader. The Baking Contest - Hermit
Cookies - was judged by Alice
Hilliard,
Chris Heath,
and Millie Becker. Winners were: Hannah West - first, Mary West - second, and Anne
Boisvert
- third. The winner will need to bake again for the Pomona Grange
contest later this year.
Amanda Cavanaugh,
daughter of Frank and Darlene
Cavanaugh
of Chichester, has been accepted to
the 3 Yearr Honors program at Southern New Hampshire University. Amanda will major in Business and is member of the
Pembroke Academy Class of 2009.
Chichester
Town Meeting
Moderator
Doug
Hall
opened the March 14th Town Meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and his
customary reading of the names of those residents who had passed away in
2008. He then introduced Sally
Kelly,
one of Chichester’s
representatives to the NH State Legislature for a presentation. She read a
proclamation from the NH House of Representatives recognizing the Chichester
Fire Department for their actions during the December ice storm. Members of
the Fire Department went door to door to inform residents without power that
they were welcome to visit the Safety
Building
to take showers and warm up.
Chief Gilbert
Vien
accepted the proclamation on behalf of the Fire Department.
Richard
Moore of the
Capital Improvements Committee reported on the work done by that committee
since it was formed after last year’s Town Meeting. A printed report of the
committee’s deliberations and suggestions was available to residents and
makes very interesting reading. Concerned citizens, who were unable to
attend the Town Meeting, might like to request a copy from the Selectmen’s
office.
Most of this
year’s budget requests were level funded or reduced from last year in
keeping with the financial climate of the nation. One exception was the
Police Department to which has been added the cost of replacing a police
cruiser annually on a four-year rotation. Formerly this cost had been
handled by a separate warrant article or a deposit into a capital
improvement fund. There was some discussion over whether having a new road
agent would make changes in the highway department salary line. The
Selectmen have an established policy for that issue. The Old Home Day budget
line was increased to $4,000. It was successfully argued by Jaan Luikmil and
other members of the Old Home Day Committee that if the town budget could
bear the cost of fireworks for Old Home Day, fundraising could cover the
additional five or six thousand dollars that it costs to put on a modern Old
Home Day celebration.
Judy
Kenneally, a
former Assistant to the Selectmen and participator in the budget process,
raised a question about why the amount of last year expenditures did not
equal the amount disbursed by the treasurer to the Selectmen. The current
officials will get together with her and explore this perceived problem.
After the
operating budget passed at a total of $1,672,435.00 there was a short break
for lunch. The Chichester Cub Scouts provided a fine selection of food as a
fund raiser/service project.
Article 12 was amended to include
Hilliard Road
and
Swiggey Brook Road in the
engineering study for Perry Brook Road.
It seems that
Perry
Brook
annually washes out culverts on all three roads and the article was intended
to cover the engineering for all three culverts.
The articles for major roadwork on
Canterbury Road
and Deer
Meadow Road both failed.
The residents of these roads were not in favor of improvements. It was also
felt that both roads would require more extensive work than that called for
in the articles.
Under the additional business article attendees gave a vote of thanks to
outgoing Road Agent David Kenneally. The meeting adjourned about 2
p.m.
The
Chichester
Library Announces
Grant
Award
LOCL (Lover of Chichester Library) has received a
grant from the New Hampshire Humanities Council to sponsor a fun and
entertaining public program titled Understanding the Movies: The Art of
Film.
The film program will be presented on Thursday, April 2nd at 7pm at the
library. Free and open to the public, we will feature an informal talk by
Patrick
Anderson.
Mr.
Anderson
is a Professor of Humanities at
Colby-Sawyer
College.
His publications include essays on Northwest native cultures, myths and
realities of the west and
Hollywood culture. He welcomes the
opportunity to promote this special interest beyond the classroom walls.
Professor
Anderson will
explore how film creates and delivers ideas and how it shapes and reflects
popular attitudes. Increase your film vocabulary, and add to your
appreciation of the cinematic experience by joining us on the 2nd of April.
Presentations of movie clips will accompany this lively discussion.
For more information about this presentation, feel free to call Chichester
Library at
798-5613.
Understanding the Movies is one of over 250 programs and exhibits available
to organizations statewide through the Humanities to Go! catalog. For more
information about how you can sponsor a program, contact the New Hampshire
Humanities Council in
Concord at
224-4071 or on the web at
www.nhhc.org.
Chichester
Historical Society
Bear Hill - Part III
By
Walter
Sanborn
In the last article on
Bear Hill Road
I named and described the first three roads that run off of
Bear Hill Road
at right angles. The last one described the Ferrin Road
that goes to the right at the bottom of Bear Hill.
As we travel up
Bear Hill Road
about three quarters of a mile almost at the top of the hill leading to the
right is
Durgin Road.
This road is also about three quarters of a mile long and is a dead end
road. At the end of the road is a farm owned by the Pike family.
The road has changed names every time the farm has changed hands. The
first owned was
F.
E.
Towle
and the road was call the
F. E. Towle Road.
The second owner was named Durgin and the road was called
Durgin Road.
The next owner was Ferrin and it was called the
Ferrin Road.
The last and present owner was
Earl
Pike
and is still owned by the Pike family. Later is was called the Pike Road
but when all road names in the town were officially named in 1955 it became
the Durgin Road.
About one half mile in, another road
connects to this Durgin Road
and is an extension of the Ferrin Road
which I previously mentioned in the last article.
Although the
Durgin Road
is a dead end road there is an early map that shows this road connecting
with the
Clifford Road
extending off of
Pleasant Street
which I have previously described.
This road was never a town road but
only a path used by the early settlers as a short cut connecting
Bear Hill Road
to
Pleasant Street. This
area was called Stickey Meadow and today is flooded with beaver dams on
Perry Road. A few hundred feet up
Bear Hill Road,
extending beyond
Durgin Road,
is the crest of Bear Hill and was once bare and open with no trees,
therefore, named Bare Hill and later called Bear Hill.
Chichester
town history mentions that in observance of Old Home Day in 1903 bonfires
were set off atop Brown, Bear, Drake and Garvin Hills. Also in 1927 at
the celebration of Chichester 200th
anniversary a large bonfire was set off in the pasture of
Walter
Batchelder
on Bear Hill.
It states that
barrels for the bonfire were hauled there by truck. I expect the
committee had a fire permit and approval of the Environmental Protection
Service from the State for the bonfire.
As you travel beyond the top of Bear
Hill a few hundred yards you come to a road on the left and the
Chichester and Loudon town
line. At this junction
Bear Hill Road
extends about one half mile into Loudon to a dead end.
The road to the
left is named
East Ricker Road.
The Chichester
and Loudon town line extends South down he center of this road. As you
travel down this road it bears left down a steep hill where the road lays in
the Town of
Chichester. About a mile
down this road the road bears right and the remainder of the road is in the
Town of
Loudon and exits at
Chichester Road.
This is one of several roads that are partly in
Chichester and another
town.
Before this road was named
East Ricker Road
it was call the Batchelder Road.
In the early 1900’s this was called the
New Dover Road
and the old schoolhouse at the corner of
Canterbury Road
and King
Road was called the
New
Dover
School. Where the name New Dover originated is unknown today. The next article
will continue on the history of other roads in
Chichester.
Obituaries
Harold
W. Ames
Jr.
Chichester
- Skip
Ames,
67, passed quietly at home surrounded by family Friday, March 13,
2009. He was a man dedicated to God and
family. He loved summer vacations with his wife and granddaughter.
Born in
Concord, he was
the son of
Harold
W.
Ames Sr.
and Jane
Czerwienska. He grew
up in Northwood.
Skip
worked as a parts counterman for CarParts of Epsom. Prior to that, he was
employed as a tooling and manufacturing engineer at New Hampshire Ball
Bearing in Laconia, methods and equipment design engineer 1 at Sprague
Electric Co., machine designer and group leader at International Packings
Corp. (IPC), and at Humphrey’s Corp., TAFA division, where he worked on the
Gas Core Nuclear Engine Program for NASA.
He was a member of Chichester Congregational Church.
He was predeceased by his father,
Harold
W.
Ames Sr., and two
brothers, Michael
E.
Ames and
Anthony
Richard
Ames.
Survivors include his wife of 46 years, Joan (Babineau)
Ames of Chichester; two sons, Jeffrey H. Ames of Northwood and Timothy M.
Ames of Chichester; his mother, Jane C. Bell of Northwood; granddaughter,
Christian M. Ames of Franklin; nieces and nephews,
A Celebration of his life was held
Sunday, March 22, 2009,
at Chichester Congregational Church,
Chichester.
Memorial donations may be made to Chichester
Congregational Church, 153 Main
Street,
Chichester
03258;
or Norris
Cotton
Cancer
Center, Office of
Development, Attn:
Michelle
Clark,
1 Medical Center Drive,
Lebanon
03756.
The Cremation Society of New Hampshire assisted with
arrangements.
Edward
S. Edmunds
Edward
Scott
Edmunds,
97, of Concord
died Thursday,
March 12, 2009, at
Pleasant View
Center in
Concord.
Born
Oct. 1, 1911, in
Chichester, he was the son
of Edward and
Mary (Skinner)
Edmunds. He was a resident of
Chichester until
seven years ago, when he and his wife moved to Penacook.
Scott
was a graduate of Concord
High School,
Class of 1929. He was a veteran of World War II, having served in the U.S.
Army.
A member of the
Chichester Grange for 80 years, he had served as master of that
organization. He was a charter and life member of the Chichester Volunteer
Fire Department. He served as director of the Chichester Telephone Co. for
several years.
His places of
employment included Merrimack Farmers’ Exchange and Grappone Industrial,
where he handled
John
Deere equipment. He
retired in 1994.
With their camper, he and his wife traveled throughout the
U.S. and
Canada,
staying at national parks and private camp grounds. He also enjoyed several
cruises and river journeys.
He is survived by his wife,
Olive (Ames)
Edmunds,
with whom he celebrated 70 years of marriage in June 2008. His survivors
also include two daughters,
Linda Sawyer and her husband,
Robert,
of Epsom, and Eileen
Owen
and her husband, John,
of Winthrop,
Wash.;
a grandson,
Jason
Sawyer
and his wife, Melissa of Somerville, Mass.; and several cousins.
He was predeceased by his grandson,
Matthew
Sawyer of Boulder, Colo.
A memorial service will be held Sunday, March 29, 2009, at 2 p.m. at Bennett Funeral
Home, 209 N. Main Street,
Concord.
Private burial will be
held in the spring.
Memorial donations may be made to the New Hampshire
Association of the Blind, 25 Walker Street,
Concord
03301.
Bennett
Funeral Home of Concord
is in charge of arrangements.
