Suncook
Valley Pomona Grange will be holding a Yard Sale at 3 Depot Road in
Chichester on Saturday, July 23, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
There are still a few vendor spaces available for Chichester’s Old
Home Day on August 20. Call Jaan Luikmil at 545-9087. Contact Jaan
also if you want to set up an informational booth. Please do not
assume if you had space last year, you can just show up. Call Jaan
and reserve your space.
In case you were on vacation,
here is one more reminder to send in your Youth Soccer form. The
Chichester Youth Association is accepting registrations for the 2011
Soccer Season. The form is available on the website. Please
complete the form and send in ASAP. (Forms were originally requested
by July 15).
I’m pleased to report JoAnn Luikmil says
she has plenty of cookies and pasta salad promised for the Old Home
Day meal on August 20. However, she is still looking for a couple of
volunteers to help with serving the meal. Please call JoAnn at
798-5483 if you can help out.
If you have Yard Sale
items to donate, Stacey Luikmil is looking for them to put under the
Yard Sale Tent at Old Home Day on August 20. Pick-up can be
arranged. Call her at 798-4987.
The following titles
have recently been added to the Adult Fiction section of the
Chichester Town Library: On Agate Hill by Lee Smith, A Game of
Thrones by George Martin, Almost Heaven by Chris Fabry, Home Free by
Fern Michaels, A Bear in a Muddy Tutu by Cole Alpaugh, The Forever
Queen by Helen Hollick, The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley, and
Don’t Blink by James Patterson. These mysteries have also been added
to the shelves for your reading pleasure: The Body in the Belfrey by
Katherine Hall Page, Death of an Addict by M.C. Beaton, and Buried
Bones by Carolyn Haines.
Chichester Historical Society Chichester Town Hall Part
VII Submitted By Walter Sanborn
This is the final article
on changing the old Chichester Meetinghouse built in 1791 into the
former Town Hall as renovated in about 1846, which I will call the
Town Hall Phase II.
It has taken six articles to cover the period
from 1828 to 1846 when work was started to rebuild the old
Meetinghouse into the Town Hall.
After the last meeting in 1846,
I described how the timbers and lumber were moved back from the
location at the center to the present location where it now sits.
Although after 1846 several meetings were held to rescind previous
votes and continue to vote to move the hall to other locations, work
still progressed on rebuilding the Town Hall.
In 1850 the Town
Meeting was held in the old Meetinghouse, now repaired to be used as
the Town Hall. A vote was taken to permit the selectmen to fix
up the hall and move their office there. Previous to this
time, the selectmen had been meeting in a room at the Poor Farm on
Canterbury Road.
The first Town Meeting held in Chichester was in
1773 and held in the barn of Captain John Langmaid. Before
1773, town meetings were held in Hampton and the proprietors had to
travel to Hampton for their meetings. Between 1773 and the
completion of the Town Hall in 1850, town meetings were held in
someone’s barn or a local schoolhouse.
A record of all town
meetings, from the first up to 2011, are kept in the Town Clerk’s
Office and recorded in books. They were originally copied in the
various town clerk’s own handwriting. Some years there are as
many as six town meetings a year. Some of these meetings I
have referred to are petitions to the selectmen to call a special
meeting to act on some matter such as moving or building a new town
building or town road.
All of my research has been copied from
these town clerk’s records. These records list the town’s
elected officers and warrant articles as voted upon. Although
these records contain the official votes taken, they do not often
mention names of who did what and money spent on the vote so taken.
In 1848 the first town report was printed and although it contained
only two pages, it listed the revenue and expenses of the town.
Town reports are published each March and contain the list of
elected officials, town warrants and detailed receipts and expenses
of the town for the previous year. As I continue the history
of the Town Hall, I will glean information from these reports.
From 1850 on, town meetings were held annually at the Town Hall and
the selectmen met in a small room about 9 feet by 15 feet to the
right of the main entrance lobby. I will go into detail as to
the floor plan and selectmen’s office in a future article.
Chichester, like many towns, had a militia and parade grounds.
A section of the Town of Chichester on the 1858 Merrimack and
Belknap County map shows a picture of Chichester Parade in detail.
One of the first actions taken in the Town Hall was a vote at Town
Meeting March 8, 1875, to see that the town grant leave to the
Merrimack Guards, permission to finish off an armory over the
selectmen’s office and entry and also remove seats from the Town
Hall provided that said Merrimack Guards would guarantee to the
Selectmen of Chichester that it would be done free from expense to
the town.
To Be Continued...
Out Of
Your Attic Thrift Shop News
We received an interesting collection
of older truck magazines from the early 90s, some 80s.
The right collector will be thrilled at $.25 each, even if it’s just
for the photos.
Thank You to the folks bringing in water
for the volunteers. It’s a tad warm out back sorting through
the bags and lots of water is needed to stay hydrated.
We need
help for July and maybe August with dump runs. Our trash man
is on vacation and is unavailable due to a new work schedule.
It would entail taking a few garbage bags to the dump, pieces of
cardboard already broken down, plastic bottles ready for recycling,
some metal and the can of broken glass. You could pick up a bag on
your way to the recycling center or sign up to do a run a week
(which usually involves 1/2 to a full pickup truck load.)
If you can help, just speak with anyone at the desk, Mondays 8-12,
Tuesdays and Thursdays 8-4, Wednesdays 11-4, Fridays and
Saturdays 10-4, at 345 Suncook Valley Hwy, Chichester or call
247-7191.
Chichester Library News
The Chichester Town Library has invited
New England K-9 SAR to present the program “Lost Proofing” Your Kids
on Tuesday, August 2nd at 6:00 pm. They will talk to us about
how to “lost proof” ourselves and if we do get lost how to stay
safe. The dogs enjoy showing off their nosey talents!
Paula
Harper, a 14 year veteran dog handler with New England K-9
Search and Rescue uses a 12-minute video called “Lost But Found Safe
& Sound.” The video is designed to show children, ages 4-12,
what to do if they become lost in remote areas such as parks or
forests.
It follows the actions and thinking of 7-year-old
Kelly, who sets out on a long-awaited hike on a beautiful day in the
woods with her parents and brother. She runs ahead, gets separated
from the rest of the family and becomes lost.
After the video,
Paula and her Australian Shepherd Mick ask the children to review
what happened to Kelly; what she did that got her lost and how she
helped herself stay safe until searchers found her. Paula will
show us how they use their dogs to rescue lost people
There is a
handout that goes home with the children that will help parents
reinforce the learning about hiker safety and lost proofing.
This presentation includes information on the HikeSafe “There and
Back” safe hiker education program sponsored by NH Fish & Game and
the US Forest Service. For more information on this program,
go to www.HikeSafe.com
On
Wednesday, August 3rd at 6:30 we will have an arts and craft night
right at the library. Don’t miss it, we are going to
have lots of fun.
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