December, what are box pews?
Answer: Box pews were the traditional seating in early New England churches. Families or church supporters purchased these pews. They offered some draft protection on cold days, and families would huddle in them with their hand-held metal or wood/charcoal boxes brought from home.
November, what was the organization named, The Grand Army of the Republic, and what did it have to do with Salisbury?
Answer: The G.A.R. was an organization founded in 1866 to support Union veterans of the Civil War. The last national gathering occurred in 1949, and records indicate that it dissolved in New Hampshire in 1945. The post in Salisbury was named Pingree #87.
For more details, Civil War and After
October, at Storrowton Village Museum, located within Eastern States Exhibition Fairgrounds in Springfield, Massachusetts, there is a church that existed in Salisbury from 1834 to 1929. Where in Salisbury was it located, and why was it moved?
Answer: The church was the Union Meeting House. It was located at Smith’s Corners in what is now the flood plain. It was disassembled and brought to the Eastern States Exhibition in 1929, where it was reassembled as part of a collection of colonial buildings, one from each New England state, simulating a small colonial town center.
For more details, The Union Meeting House & Smith’s Corner
September, how was the Gerrish Road once important to Salisbury?
Answer: Gerrish Road, The Mills, and The Railroad
August, where in Salisbury’s graveyards can you see the influence of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome?
Answer: You will find an abundance of classical revival motifs, such as willows, urns, and obelisks, throughout our cemeteries. A pyramid top tombstone exists as well! See if you can find it.
For more details Classical Revival Influence
July, In the history of Salisbury, published in 1890 on p.23, there is mention of a useful natural material found near Wilder Pond called Tripoli. Where is Wilder Pond, and what is Tripoli?
Answer: Wilder Pond is located in the deep woods of West Salisbury. Tripoli is a natural substance used in a compound known for centuries as a good abrasive and polishing agent.
For more details, Potash, Tripoli, Flaxseed Oil & Plumbago
June, in the history of Salisbury, published in 1890, there is a mention on p.23 of a then-defunct plumbago mine in Salisbury, NH. Where was it, and what is Plumbago?
Answer: Graphite was thought to be a type of lead and consequently was called black lead or plumbago. For more details, Potash, Tripoli, Flaxseed Oil & Plumbago
May, what do small vials of toxic strychnine, digitalis leaf, mercury, and other herbal agents have to do with the Salisbury Historical Society?
Answer: In the 1800’s physicians had a range of approximately 100 medicines at their disposal. Some of these could be considered rather toxic substances. An authentic medicine kit from the 1800s is on display at the Salisbury Historical Society Hearse House Museum.
April, what do the symbols on the early tombstones mean?
Answer: From the earliest days through Victorian times, certain symbols went in and out of style. They were often religious and used extensively throughout New England. A new exhibition relating to Tombstone Symbols is being created by our curator, Linda Denoncourt, to be displayed in the Museum beside the town hall this spring.
For more details, Tombstone Symbols
March, Several prospering Potash factories existed in Salisbury during the early 1800s. What is Potash, and what was it used for?
Answer: Potash – (“black salts”). For the early settlers, this was a valued material that was a product of timber harvesting and burning, the first cash crop, and an export product. It is also named potassium chloride or lye. It was a strong base used throughout history to make soap, glass, gunpowder, bleach, etc.
For more details, Potash, Tripoli, Flaxseed Oil & Plumbago
February, nationally, is Black History Month, which might give away the answer to our question for this month. What do Salisbury, the movie Glory, and a very famous sculpture on Beacon Street near the Boston Commons have to do with each other?
Answer: The connection is James F. Haskell, an African American Civil War soldier who fought under Col. Robert Gould Shaw in the Civil War at Fort Wagner with the 54th Massachusetts Regiment.
James F. Haskell is buried at the Smith’s Corner/Bean Cemetery in Salisbury. Several researchers, including Rebecca Corser of the Warner Historical Society, have been studying the cluster of African Americans who lived in that town and have been very helpful in piecing together the African American family ties from Canterbury, Warner, and Sanbornton. James Haskell’s grandfather lived on Couchtown Road, which extends into Salisbury, not far from where the Smith’s Corner Cemetery was, before being moved to ret 4, for the Blackwater Dam project, but many questions remain.
The film is about one of the first military units of the Union Army during the American Civil War to consist largely of African-American men (except for its officers), as told from the point of view of Colonel Shaw, its white commanding officer. The regiment is known especially for its heroic actions at the brutal battle at Fort Wagner on Morris Island in South Carolina. Glory (1989 film) – Wikipedia
Joshua B. Smith, a black businessman, former slave, and former employee of the Shaw family, initiated a campaign for a monument. It wasn’t until 1883 that enough funds were raised to hire a sculptor. Renowned American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens took the job, but the process took him another decade.
For more details, Robert Gould Shaw and the Fifty-fourth Regiment Memorial | WTTW Chicago
Salisbury’s Civil War enlistmentsCivil War and After
Note: The Roster shows casualties and survivors. Survivors buried in our town are shown with the name of the cemetery; others who perished are buried where they fell in the south, except one whose body was returned. As the populations moved and shifted, we find only some of the civil war veterans buried in our town. “Substitutes” were paid soldiers who took the place of others, and their names are not common to our town and seem to have generally resided elsewhere.
January, for two weeks during the years from 1922 to 1937 (except 1935), the peace of our town and very likely nearby environs was shattered with incessant booming on the Salisbury slopes of Mt. Kearsarge (Sawyer Hill area ). What was the cause?
Answer: Artillery Practice, in the area of Smith’s corners. It’s a flat pastureland with a commanding view of the eastward-facing slopes of Mt. Kearsarge, notably Sawyer Hill. In 1922, the 172nd Field Artillery and the 197th Coast Artillery again arrived in Warner, and again from 1925-1937, except 1935, there was an annual artillery practice on the slopes of Mt Kearsarge by the 172nd Field Artillery of the National Guard.
For more details, see Smith’s Corner