Jessica Palmer, a resident of Chichester, was among nearly 500
students from Champlain College who received undergraduate and
graduate degrees from Champlain College President David F.
Finney during the College’s 132nd Commencement held May 8, in
Burlington, Vt. Palmer received a BS degree in Applied
Psychology.
Congratulations, Jessica!
Get your Pittsfield Town-Wide Yard Sale maps at St.
Stephen’s Church and get the first look at our great yard sale
items. We’ll also be offering baked goods, Joe’s famous hot
dogs, George’s now-famous pulled pork sandwiches, and chili.
Begin at 8 a.m. on Saturday, June 5th, at the Church at 50 Main
Street. See you there.
Can you give an hour or less of your time to remember our
fallen soldiers? On Sunday, May 30, at 2 p.m. Chichester Grange
will hold a brief observance of Memorial Day at the Veteran’s
Memorial next to the Town Hall. Jim Towle of the Historical
Society will share information about a Civil War Veteran from
Chichester. Cub Scouts will lead the Pledge of Allegiance and
place a wreath in front of the Veteran’s Memorial. The
observance will be held rain or shine.
Please contact Jaan Luikmil at 798-4987 if you want to
reserve a space at Carpenter Park on Old Home Day, August 21,
for informational or vending purposes. By June 19th, he would
like to have a firm idea of whom to expect.
The theme for this year’s Old Home Day is “Halloween in
August,” Have your costumes ready for the parade and a costume
judging at Carpenter Park as well.
Again this year there will be a Yard Sale under the tent at
Old Home Day to help defray expenses of future Old Home Days. As
you hold your own yard sales or clean out your barn and attic,
set aside some clean, usable items to donate. Contact Stacy
Luikmil at 798-4987 to drop off items or pick-ups can be
arranged.
Chichester Grange will meet on Wednesday, June 2, upstairs
in the Grange Hall. A supper at 6 p.m. will precede the meeting.
Chichester Town Library News
On Friday night, May 7th, the Chichester Town Library had an
artists reception for the children in town who are displaying
their art during the month of May. The children participated in
an art program at their school hosted by the Currier Museum of
Art. The title of the program was Art From Art. This is a
creative arts program consisting of four weeks of multi-media
art lessons focusing on the Currier Museum of art’s
collection, taught by our own local artist Krysti Nyhan. The
children copied works from Winslow Homer, George Rodrique, Pablo
Picaso, Paul Klee and others.
But the highlight of the evening was our favorite clown,
Rebos, who showed up to entertained us by making animals and
object with his balloons. Everyone had a wonderful time. Rebos
was very funny.
This is one of the best shows we have had at the library.
Please drop in and see it, notice the originality of the
students work, even though they were focusing on the same
painting.
Book Group
The Chichester Town Library is starting a Book Group.
The first book we are reading is Matterhorn, a novel about the
Vietnam War, by Karl Marlantes. It has been called a
masterpiece by Newsweek magazine. Author Doug Stanton
calls it, “Masterful and thrilling. Marlantes conjures grace out
of suffering, honour from despair, sense out of nonsense.
The men and women of this story have long deserved a homecoming
and we needed to hear their true story. Marlantes has
written a timeless work of literary fiction."
We
are looking for Vietnam or other veterans who would like to tell
their stories. We would also like to invite anyone to
attend and join in the discussion. It is not necessary to read
or finish the book. You may come and join the discussion or read
another book on the Vietnam War and come and share your
insights.
Local resident Jim Pappas, who himself is a Vietnam vet,
will be leading the discussion. The meeting will be at the
Chichester Town Library on Thursday, July 15th at 7:00. The
library is able to purchase the book for you at a discounted
price of about $15. Please call to sign up, to request a copy,
or if you have any questions at 798-5613.
Out of Your Attic Thrift Shop News
Submitted
by Carol Hendee
With the Yard Sale season upon us, just a few reminders
regarding the Attic. We will gladly accept donations from items
left over from yard sales. However, they must be brought to the
Attic when it is open. We cannot have bags left outside when we
are closed. They could be damaged by rain or wind and we do not
have permission to have items outside the building. New items
are put out every time we are open and the yard sale items will
boost the ever-changing inventory. The sooner you come in and
buy, the sooner we have room for new items on the shelves. You
may want to stop by the week of June 8th and see what has come
in! We are open Tues., Wed. & Thurs. 8-4 and Sat. 10-4 at 345
Suncook Valley Hgwy, Chichester. Or call 435-9339 for any info
you may want regarding store policy.
Chichester Grange
Chichester Grange met at the Grange Hall on Wednesday, May
19, for Family and Community Night. Norma Neary of the State
Grange Family and Community Committee was present for the
evening. Kevin Belval was the winner in the baking contest.
Wildlife sightings included several woodchucks. One was seen
in a yard on Route 4 near Chuckster’s. Do you suppose it could
have been Chuckster himself?
The West/Boisvert/Belval group spread mulch at Memorial
Park. Thank you to the Chichester Road Agent who provided mulch
from roadside chipping and delivered it in piles for easier
spreading. The flower tubs will soon be planted by Barbara
Frangione.
Mary West presented the Family & Community Night program.
Since this year’s baking contest was fruit squares, the theme of
the program was “Squares.” Members learned about the
mathematical definition of a square, Times Square, and pocket
squares. Members sang a song about squares to the tune of “You
Are My Sunshine,” and played a game of living tic tac toe. The
program ended with a humorous skit about the uses of a
bandana/banana by Anne Boisvert and Kevin Belval.
After the meeting members sampled the fruit squares made for
the baking contest.
The next meeting will be June 3. The evening will begin with
a supper at six p.m.
Chichester History
Vanishing Breed of Town
Officials
By Walter Sanborn
The next couple of articles will be about the vanishing town
officials and their positions once required by law.
By the late 1700’s land was cleared and domestic animals
were acquired by the farms being established on the land.
A typical farm was divided by fences into fields for growing
crops and hay, pasture for livestock, often an apple orchard and
wood lots. Neighboring farms were similarly separated by
fences and stonewalls.
In 1791 the New Hampshire General Court passed “An Act
relative to common fields and regulating fences”. This act
required all towns in the State to elect a Fence Viewer at their
annual town meetings. The Fence Viewer was more of a judge
than a policeman. His job was to settle disputes between
owners of adjoining fields as to locating property boundaries,
to allocate costs for building and maintaining fences and to
determine that each fence served the purpose for which it was
built. Boundary lines were not always clearly delineated
in deeds and markers could have disappeared either by natural
causes or human acts.
Who should pay the greater share of building and maintaining
the fence; the man who wanted to keep the other fellow’s cattle
out of his fields, or the owner of the cattle? What if one
owner wanted a rail fence and the other a stonewall? The
Fence Viewer earned four shillings a day and later a dollar in
arriving at his decision.
In 1794 Chichester elected Lieutenant John Hilyard and
Jonathan Leavitt as Fence Viewers for the town. There are
records in the clerk’s minutes of where the Fence Viewers
settled differences between neighboring owners.
One of Robert Frost’s line of poetry states, “Good fences
make good neighbors.”
The next town official I want to list now vanished is the
Hog Reeve. Four months after the act regulating fences was
passed, it was followed by “An Act regulating swine.” This
act required all towns to elect one or more Hog Reeves at every
town meeting. The pig or hog was the basic supply of meat
and cooking fat for the home and no part of the hog was wasted.
The pig today is a cute animal, rather docile and lazy. In
the early days he was considered as much a villain as a source
of meat.
Hogs are notorious forages and are no respecter of boundary
lines of fences. They thrive on forest beechnuts, acorns as well
as in cultivated grain fields and vegetable gardens and root
around for food. The law demanded that all pigs not
securely enclosed be ringed and yoked at all times. The
ring in the nose was to prevent rooting and the yoke to deter
escape under the fence.
The law also prohibited hogs from traveling by public
highway from one source of food to another during the growing
season, April 1 to October 31. It was the Hog Reeve’s job
to impound all straying hogs during these months; also, he had
to ring and yoke those found at any time without these
encumbrances. He received a fee for every hog impounded
and for each ring and yoke applied. He was paid by the
owner, if known, or from sale of the hog by the pound keeper.
According to town records Nathaniel Punaras was elected as
the Hog Reeves for the town of Chichester in 1794 and others in
following years.
To be continued.
Pembroke Academy Senior Receives LGC Scholarship
Pembroke Academy senior Katherine Stiles has been awarded
a $750 scholarship from New Hampshire Local Government Center
(LGC) as part of its annual John B. Andrews Scholarship Program.
She the daughter of Pamela Stiles, principal at Chichester
Central School.
The LGC scholarships are funded with proceeds from LGC’s
Annual Fall Classic Golf Tournament and specifically benefit
qualifying children of New Hampshire municipal, school, county
or village district employees and officials of local government
units that are participants in LGC services.
Seventy-nine scholarship applications, representing 47 New
Hampshire high schools, were received this past winter for
review by LGC board members who represent schools and
municipalities throughout the state. Applicants were judged on
academic achievement, extracurricular school activities,
community service and letters of reference along with and a
two-page essay titled How the Economy has Impacted the Budget
and Services of My Community or School District.
“The accomplishments of this year’s talented scholarship
awardees are extremely impressive,” said LGC’s Interim Executive
Director Maura Carroll. “The Local Government Center’s employees
and board members are proud that future generations of local
leaders can benefit from higher education with assistance from
our scholarship program,” she added.
More than $48,000 in higher education awards has been given
to high school seniors by LGC’s scholarship program since its
inception in 2005.