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    New Hampshire Old Home Celebrations
    New Hampshire Old Home Celebrations
    New Hampshire Old Home Celebrations
    Ebook188 pages54 minutes

    New Hampshire Old Home Celebrations

    By Gary Crooker

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    In 1899, when many New Hampshire residents were moving to cities and other parts of the nation, Frank Rollins, soon to become governor of New Hampshire, delivered a proposal to hold an annual event he dubbed Old Home Week. Similar in form to many of the family and town picnics already a tradition throughout New Hampshire, Old Home Week was designed as an open invitation to all the former residents of the Granite State to return to the homes of their youth. In addition to the ballgames, picnics, parades, and bonfires that were held during the third week of August, the celebrations resulted in municipal improvements across the state. Old homesteads were refurbished as summer homes, and libraries and monuments sprung up throughout the region as residents returned, creating a movement toward a renewed pride in the community.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439637494
    New Hampshire Old Home Celebrations
    Author

    Gary Crooker

    Gary Crooker is a freelance writer and bookseller living in Wilton. The photographs in New Hampshire Old Home Celebrations were provided through the cooperation of historical societies throughout the state, as well as the Granite Collection of Sam Allen of St. Anselm College and the author�s private collection.

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      Book preview

      New Hampshire Old Home Celebrations - Gary Crooker

      finished."

      INTRODUCTION

      If anyone were sailing around the area of Monterey Bay, California, in the late summer of 1899, they might have witnessed a sight that would have left them understandably baffled. In full view of those August mariners was a group of revelers celebrating the virtues of the Granite State of New Hampshire, some 3,000 miles to the west. Described in a letter back to New Hampshire from Pacific Grove, California, the transplanted celebration consisted of a group of expatriate New Hampshire natives answering a call to honor their erstwhile home. There were picnic lunches, poems, speeches, and a banner inscribed, the Granite State’s Old Home Week from Atlantic to Pacific.

      The scenes that seemed so strange to seagoing passersby were simply faraway reflections of dozens of similar celebrations that were taking place in New Hampshire at the same time. They were the brainchild of one-term New Hampshire governor Frank Rollins. Over 100 years later, Rollins’s idea is still going strong, as communities in all sections of the Granite State turn out to welcome home wayward sons and daughters. The sincere flattery of the old cliché comes from imitation of all of the other New England states as well as much of the East Coast and northern tier of United States, as the tradition has spread, and old home celebrations welcome home wandering natives.

      Rollins came from a prominent New Hampshire political family. He first proposed his idea for a statewide homecoming celebration while speaking before a Sons of New Hampshire gathering. From the start, it was Rollins’s plan to rejuvenate both the spirit and the economy of his home state by building upon the already long-established idea of town and family picnics that were in vogue throughout the Victorian era. Towns such as Hancock and Cornish along with many others had traditions of gatherings that were long established.

      At the end of the 19th century, New Hampshire appeared, at least outwardly, to be in economic decline from years of emigration by native residents. While urban manufacturing was keeping the mills of Manchester humming, much of rural New Hampshire was acquiring a shabby look from the increasing number of abandoned farms and homesteads. Rollins saw an opportunity to capitalize on his idea for a statewide homecoming celebration while at the same time encouraging visitors and natives alike to rehabilitate aging farms and communities by way of investment. Many rundown farms became summer homes and main streets received face-lifts in the way of municipal additions such as monuments and public buildings.

      The governor’s plan was a success in stimulating the economy as well as revitalizing the spirit of his home state. New Hampshire old home celebrations gave residents a chance to spruce up the old community and show it off to visitors and returning natives. The idea of reunions and picnics on a large scale was already a fixture in history-conscious New Hampshire. Family reunions in a small town almost took on the nature of a town-wide event. The same was true of town picnics in villages where everyone knew their neighbors. Much of that same spirit is what Granite State towns try to preserve or recapture today in their old home festivities.

      In 1899, when the governor sent out his first call for old home week, the response was what might be expected from a state already in tune with the idea of getting together for fairs and celebrations during particular times of the year. Although more towns may have formed committees, 44 actually responded to the call by preparing reports and sending them in to the state to record their activities during that initial celebration.

      On board with reports in 1899 were Andover, Antrim, Bethlehem, Boscawen, Bristol, Carroll, Chesterfield, Concord, Dunbarton, Epsom, Freedom, Gilsum, Greenland, Hancock, Hanover, Henniker, Hopkinton, Kensington, Lempster, Litchfield, Londonderry, Marlborough, Marlow, Merrimack, Milan, Mont Vernon, New Hampton, Newington, Newport, Pembroke, Penacook, Plainfield, Rochester, Rollinsford, Salem, Sandwich, South Hampton, Springfield, Stoddard, Surry, Temple, Walpole, Webster, and Westmoreland.

      Several of those towns still celebrate today. In 1899, they celebrated with bands and bonfires, parades and poetry, dances and dinners, and statesmen and speeches. Today the bonfires have given way to fireworks in many communities, and the speeches have mercifully grown markedly shorter. The spirit of camaraderie and community, however, has remained a constant.

      In the early years of the old home movement in New Hampshire, operations were run from the top down. The state decreed the date for each year’s festivities, and a report was issued annually with towns giving their version of events that took place. In time and in typical New Hampshire fashion, old home celebrations took on individual, local flavor, reflecting the plans laid out in Concord less and less. Originally New Hampshire Old Home Week was held during the final week of August. Today communities can be found celebrating anywhere on the calendar from June through October. Originally old home week was indeed one week in duration. Today it is more likely to be an old home day or weekend. Initially observances were held every year, but some towns now celebrate sporadically or every two, three, or even five years. The inclination of New Hampshire folks to do it their own way has held sway over time.

      Of course, the important thing is that whenever or however they do it, New Hampshire residents still celebrate their beginnings and their future through old home days. It has been over 100 years since Rollins first issued his call for the New Hampshire born to return to the scenes of their youth. This book includes a representative sampling of how communities throughout

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