Meredith Chronicles: Passing Time on Lake Winnipesaukee

by Daniel Heyduk

Overview

Ancient beginnings only hinted at the great things to come in the story of Meredith. The earliest residents hunted mammoth and caribou and created the first birch-bark canoe to traverse Lake Winnipesaukee and the network of waterways. Centuries later, Meredith's Dudley Leavitt wrote Leavitt's Farmers Almanack for more than fifty years. The local woods were the solitary home of Joseph Plumer, who was perhaps New Hampshire's most financially successful hermit. Motorcycles, cars and horses once raced on the winter ice of Lake Winnipesaukee. Together, these stories weave the distinctive fabric of Meredith history. Dan Heyduk's town history goes beyond documents and dates, illustrating the unique character of a multifaceted community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625852892
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	03/16/2015
Series:	American Chronicles
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Daniel Heyduk, PhD, lived with and studied Nahuatl-speaking people in Mexico and Quechua-speaking people in Bolivia. He did archaeological work on prehistoric hunters in Ecuador and was a college professor of anthropology and prehistory in Maine. Dan now lives in Meredith, in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, where he is researching and writing about local history. His history column "Passing Time" appears in the Meredith News.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 9

Introduction 11

1 Ancient Beginnings 13

2 The Empty Land and the New Town 20

3 Early Roads, Taverns and the Mail 27

4 Dudley Leavitt and His Farmer's Almanack 33

5 The Cider and Other Taxes 40

6 When Women Were Invisible 44

7 Page Pond and Forest: The Settlers, the Quarry and the Mill 49

8 Water Power, Mills and Villages in Growing Meredith 55

9 Painting the Glory of Lakes and Mountains 63

10 The Great Sheep Boom and After 67

11 The Boston, Concord & Montreal and the Boston & Maine Railroads 73

12 Meredith Life in the 1800s 79

13 Meredith's Early Bands 90

14 Sol Lovejoy and the Bear Island House 94

15 From Livery Stable to library 99

16 Rural Free Delivery on Land and Water 104

17 Farm Life in the 1920s 109

18 Farms for Summer Homes and Old Home Week 115

19 Meredith for Children: Camps Kuwiyan, Waldron and Andover 119

20 Meredith in the News: George Fellows, the Keysers and the Winter Carnival 124

21 The Great Hurricane of 1938 131

22 Meredith Life in the Early 1900s 135

Afterword 145

Notes 147

Bibliography 153

About the Author 157