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 on...

During his career as an actor, William Gillette portrayed world-renowned character Sherlock Holmes in more than 1,300 performances.His career as a playwright and actor afforded him the opportunity to purchase a 184-acre estate, where he also built a twenty-four-room medieval-style castle. Overlooking the Connecticut River, Gillette's castle was complete with spy mirrors, sliding furniture, hidden rooms and a three-mile quarter-scale railroad. Since becoming a state...

While working at the Gulf Coast and experiencing the oil spill for himself, Dwayne witnessed all the wrong that took place and decided to write a book about the lies and really show America the truth on the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.Any questions that were unanswered to the public shall be answered in this book.Here are a couple of quotes from the author to his readers:Word to the wise; Everyone who breathes life is only granted one life, one environment in ...

These stories of vampire legends and gruesome nineteenth-century practices is "a major contribution to the study of New England folk beliefs" ( The Boston Globe).For nineteenth-century New Englanders, "vampires" lurked behind tuberculosis. To try to rid their houses and communities from the scourge of the wasting disease, families sometimes relied on folk practices, including exhuming and consuming the bodies of the deceased. Folklorist Michael E. Bell spen...

As it ravaged the world, the influenza epidemic of 1918 devastated Boston's congested North End and left hundreds of orphans in its wake. Touched by this crisis, a Roman Catholic priest and a group of Italian Americans founded the first home for Italian children in Massachusetts. Franciscan Sisters devoted 24 hours a day to providing the children with a safe, loving, and spiritual environment. In addition, the home provided educational support for its residents. Over time, the changing nee...

First settled in 1634, and incorporated in 1640, the Town of Braintree has a long and distinguished history. �Old Braintree,� which originally encompassed what is now Braintree, Quincy, Randolph, and Holbrook, was the birthplace of John Adams, John Hancock, John Quincy Adams, and Sylvanus Thayer. Primarily a farming community for almost three centuries, Braintree was also home to a number of water-powered mills and businesses, which prospered along the banks of the Monatiquot River. With t...

From hidden valleys in the Berkshire Hills to the North Shore, 275 documented highway and railroad covered bridges have been constructed in Massachusetts from the early 19th century onward, a figure that often comes as a surprise to those who traditionally associate these unique structures with northern New England. All but a small handful of these are long gone, lost to modern replacements, fires, wear, and the region�s notorious weather, especially the devastating storms of the late 1930...

Many believe that support for the abolition of slavery was universally accepted in Vermont, but it was actually a fiercely divisive issue that rocked the Green Mountain State. In the midst of turbulence and violence, though, some brave Vermonters helped fight for the freedom of their enslaved Southern brethren. Thaddeus Stevens--one of abolition's most outspoken advocates--was a Vermont native. Delia Webster, the first woman arrested for aiding a fugitive slave, was also a Vermonter. The R...

Discover the most fearsome and fascinating women to ever live in the Ocean State in this collection of wild historical profiles.In Witches, Wenches & Wild Women of Rhode Island, local historian M.E. Reilly-McGreen reveals true tales of women who caused scandals in their day. It's a compendium of rebellious deeds, outlandish gossip, and superstition run amok.Mercy Brown was a nineteen-year-old consumption victim thought to be a vampire. Locals were ...

Long before Maine became known as Vacationland in the 1890s, Wells beckoned promoters and guests from the inland cities of New England. During the 1850s and 1870s two grand hotels, complete with entertainment centers, accommodated these visitors. By 1885 the hotels had been destroyed by fires, but they were replaced with smaller boarding houses and private cottages. Beginning with the wealthy mill owners and industrialists and then expanding to include the working class, Wells� tourist ind...

Located within the boundaries of the towns of Allenstown and Pembroke, Suncook, first granted as a township in 1728, has developed a rich history all its own. Railroad transportation was instrumental to the establishment and growth of three large textile mills. The first railroad system, the Concord and Portsmouth line, began in 1852. A second line, the Suncook Valley Railroad, followed in 1869. Drawn by advertisements in Canadian newspapers, French Canadian workers began migrating from Qu...

Upsetting the Apple Cart surveys the history of black-Latino coalitions in New York City from 1959 to 1989. In those years, African American and Latino Progressives organized, mobilized, and transformed neighborhoods, workplaces, university campuses, and representative government in the nation's urban capital.Upsetting the Apple Cart makes new contributions to our understanding of protest movements and strikes in the 1960s and 1970s and reveals the little-known ro...