“Granite State Sacrifice during the American Civil War” at the Leach Library

On Thursday, September 9 at 7:00 p.m., the Londonderry Leach Library will host the program “Granite State Sacrifice during the American Civil War” presented by Steven Closs. The program is being sponsored by the Londonderry Historical Society.

Steven Closs is a New Hampshire Civil War historian and author who has studied the American Civil War for the past twenty years. He has written two books on the subject, Granite State Sacrifice for Union: 1861-1865 and Willing Sacrifice: Granite State Valor during the American Civil War, both forthcoming. He is currently traveling around the state presenting locally tailored versions of his program on the topic.

In this program, Mr. Closs will discuss the soldiers of New Hampshire who made the ultimate sacrifice during the American Civil War. Through his research, he has compiled sketches and profiles of the Granite State soldiers who died, and he will pay particular attention to the twelve fallen soldiers from Londonderry at this event.

The event is being sponsored by the Londonderry Historical Society. Founded in 1956, the Londonderry Historical Society is dedicated to collecting and preserving materials of local historic value and to educating the community about its heritage, from its art and architecture to its local history and oral remembrances.

The program is free and open to the public and will be held in the library’s lower-level meeting room. Light refreshments will be served.

Researching the History of your Home

In addition to its agricultural heritage, another way to understand the history of Londonderry is through its architecture. Londonderry is replete with old homes that tell stories of bygone times. For a list of homes in Londonderry over 100 years old, take a look at the report produced by the Londonderry Historic Properties Preservation Task Force available online at http://bit.ly/dcdlT7.

Are you interested in researching the history of your home? Here are a few books that might help you get started:

690.837 GAR
Garvin, James L. A building history of northern New England. Hanover: University Press of New England, [2001].

728.37 GRE
Green, Betsy. Discovering the history of your house and your neighborhood
Santa Monica, CA: Santa Monica Press, [2002].

HIS REF 728 SUR
Survey of selected historic properties, Londonderry, New Hampshire: including a Londonderry town-wide area forum (Area BL) and 4 individual inventory forms. [1996].

If you would like to go beyond these books, here are some New Hampshire institutions that might be useful in your research:

New Hampshire State Library – Genealogy and NH History
http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/services/public/genealogy.html

New Hampshire State Archives
http://www.sos.nh.gov/archives/

New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources
http://www.nh.gov/nhdhr/

New Hampshire Historical Society
http://www.nhhistory.org/

Rockingham County Registry of Deeds
http://www.nhdeeds.com/rockingham/RoHome.html

Leach Library to Host “Annie Londonderry” with Peter Zheutlin

On Thursday, May 17 at 7 p.m., the Leach Library will present “Annie Londonderry: A Presentation of Cycling, History, and Victorian Adventure.” This lively and richly illustrated PowerPoint presentation will recount the life and experiences of Annie Londonderry. The Londonderry Historical Society will be co-hosting the event.

Peter Zheutlin has spent years compiling the information in this presentation on his great-grandaunt, Annie Londonderry. Born Annie Kopchovsky, this notable nineteenth-century woman made history by attempting to be the first woman to ride a bicycle around the world. Her travels were sponsored by the Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company, hence her change of last name. Using old newspaper accounts, long lost letters, scrapbooks and photographs, Mr. Zheutlin has put together an engaging PowerPoint presentation to chronicle the story of Annie Londonderry’s cross-country, and worldwide, adventures. This presentation tells not only the tale of the woman herself, but of the turn-of-the-century cycling craze and the women’s suffrage movement, and the search for meaning in tracing the story of one’s ancestors. More information can be found at www.annielondonderry.com.

Please join us for this wonderfully illustrated program. The event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be served.

Rockingham County Map of 1857 Purchased on CD

The Library has recently purchased on CD the Rockingham County map of 1857, which provides a wonderful snapshot of life in Londonderry in the 1850s. This highly detailed map is an outstanding resource for anyone interested in local genealogy and history. Names of local residents and locations of roads, rail lines, schools, and businesses are just some of the features included on this map. The image quality is quite good as the files are very large and can be magnified to view small details. Anyone interested in using this resource should ask for it at the reference desk.

"History of Londonderry" Available Online

The full text of “The History of Londonderry” by Rev. Edward L. Parker is now available through Google Book Search. By visiting http://books.google.com anyone can learn about the early history of Londonderry. Google Book Search allows researchers to perform keyword searches within a book. This feature will greatly enhance access to the information contained in Rev. Parker’s book, which was published in 1851 without an index of any kind. Other books of potential local interest available through Google book search include “History of the Old Township of Dunstable (Nashua)” and “Supplement to the History of Windham, New Hampshire: A Scotch Settlement”. Google Book Search is a partnership between Google and some of the great research libraries of the world including Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, Michigan, and Stanford.