LIKES ARTICLES ON UNH
I'd like to thank you for all the good local history stuff you publish in the Portsmouth Herald and SeacoastNH.com. The recent memoir of the Chicago Seven brouhaha at UNH interested me particularly, as I was an instructor in the English Dept. at that time in that place. Hard to believe it was so many years ago. I also enjoyed your remarks about Max Maynard, who was every bit as prickly and difficult as he was intelligent and articulate. Not to mention last week's lovely little snippet about the one and ony Agnes Huntington. Please keep it coming.
Cordially, Bruce Allen, Kittery

SIX DEGRESS OF SEPARATION
(BTW, I ALWAYS USE CAPS.) I JUST READ YOUR NOTE ON CLAM CHOWDER AND FRIED CLAMS, TO WHICH I SAY "AMEN". IT IS QUITE REFRESHING TO READ SOMEONE WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. I TOO AM SO TIRED OF THIS THICK CRAP EVERYONE TRIES TO PASS OFF AS CHOWDAH. MY PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER (NANA) AND MY MOM WOULD MAKE CLAM OR FISH CHOWDAH WHENEVER WE WENT ON VACATION (IN A LITTLE COTTAGE A FEW HUNDRED YARDS BEHIND THE RED ROOF) THAT I BELIEVE IS VERY CLOSE TO YOUR FAMILY'S RECIPE. I'M THINKING THEY MAY HAVE ADDED SOME BUTTER OR SOMETHING LIKE IT DUE TO THE STUFF THAT FLOATED ON THE TOP AROUND THE EDGE OF THE POT. COULD IT HAVE BEEN SALT PORK? I WISH I HAD THEIR EXACT RECIPE, BUT LIKE MANY I THINK IT WAS JUST IN THEIR HEADS AND IT NEVER GOT WRITTEN DOWN. BTW, WHEN IN TEXAS BE SURE TO ORDER BEEF.  

THE MAIN REASON I AM WRITING IS THAT WE HAVE BEEN IN MANY OF THE SAME PLACES. AS A CHILD WE WOULD ALWAYS VACATION AT RYE BEACH. BTW, PETEY'S USED TO BE MARSHALLS (WELL KNOWN FOR LOBSTER) BACK IN THE DAY. BACK IN THE DAY RAYS DOWN THE STREET FROM PETEY'S HAD THE BEST FRIED CLAMS. HOWEVER, I GOT SOME THERE LAST AUGUST AND WAS REALLY DISAPPOINTED. I DID ENJOY SPENDING A FEW DAYS IN RYE, ESPECIALLY ON THAT SUNDAY WHEN THE HURRICANE WAS OFF THE COAST AND THE SURF WAS THE BIGGEST I'VE EVER SEEN WITH MY NAKED EYES. I WATCHED IT FOR HOURS FROM 5 DIFFERENT SPOTS BETWEEN JENNESS BEACH AND NORTH RYE. I LUCKED OUT!!!!!!!!!!!! TO TOP IT OFF, I HAD JUST ENOUGH TIME THAT DAY TO GO TO MY BROTHER AND SISTER IN LAWS IN MARLBORO TO ENJOY LOBSTAH, STEAK AND BUDDAH SUGAH CORN JUST PRIOR TO CATCHING MY FLIGHT AT LOGAN.  

THE ONE TIME WE DIDN'T GO TO RYE, WE WENT TO POCASSET. I WAS 10 YEARS OLD (WE LANDED ON THE MOON THAT WEEK) AND FOUND THE CLAMING GEAR IN THE COTTAGE OR MAYBE A SHED OR SOMETHING. MY DAD TOLD ME WHAT TO DO, SO I SPENT AROUND 4 HOURS DIGGING CLAMS ACROSS THE STREET FOR 1 REASON, I LOVED FRIED CLAMS. SO I DRUG CLOSE TO A BUSHEL UP TO THE COTTAGE AND MY FATHER YELLED FOR MY MOM TO START STEAMING SOME WATER. I SAID I WANTED FRIED CLAMS AND WAS SEVERELY DISAPPOINTED WHEN MY MOM TOLD ME WE DIDN'T HAVE WHAT WE NEEDED TO FRY THE CLAMS, PLUS SHE HAD NEVER FRIED THEM BEFORE. SO THE OLD FOLKS HAD A BALL WITH ALL THOSE STEAMAHS.  

I GREW UP IN NATICK BUT SPENT MOST OF MY ADULT YEARS IN UPTON JUST OFF MENDON ST. NEXT TO WEST RIVER UNTIL I MOVED TO THE DALLAS AREA AT AGE 32. UPTON IS A GREAT LITTLE TOWN AND WE LOVED KELLY'S FARM STANDS EVEN THOUGH WE HAD OUR OWN GOOD SIZE GARDEN. I REALLY ENJOY VISITING THE RYE AREA AND HOPE TO RETIRE THERE.
HAVE A GREAT DAY,
John Irvine, Rowlett, Tx

ADVENTURES OF TAMSEN HAM
I recall reading about Tamsen some time ago, but I can't find the connection here. I thought it was somewhere in Brewster's Rambles. She was said to be a distant relative and from what I've read she was quite a character! Can you give me any help?
Janice Palumbo ( a Spinney/Muchemore descendent.)

EDITOR SENDS A FEW NOTES ON TAMSEN HAM.

Thank you for the quick reply. That's either "our" Tamsen, a daughter or her mother. I recall reading that a Tamsen Ham had been found guilty of forgery (conterfeit money) or something of that nature. Also, that she (or another Tamsen) had been scalped while with the Indians and had later given birth to 11 children. I'll check Judi Phillips website for the Spinney family. A few years ago I acquired a beautiful oil painting of the chapel on Star Island, Isles of Shoals. My great-grandmother, Georgie Muchemore Spinney had played the piano in the chapel. It was painted by Grant Hacking who is my neighbor. Georgie had a sister named Flora, who was the grandmother of Lee Remick, a very talented actress. Kind of an interesting family! Someplace back in time is Cap Spinney who was also a bit of a character. Thanks again for your help.

PULPIT TOWER
I came across your site while I was trying to learn a bit more about the history of the Isles of Shoals and quickly became a frequent reader. My family has a summer cottage at Hampton Beach so I spent all my childhood summers there. We’ve always wondered about the history of what looks like an old light house on Boar’s Head. We’ve heard that it was part of the defense system during WW II along with Pulpit Rock Tower, but I haven’t been able to find any documentation on this. Do you know if this is the case? Thanks for your help and keep the great content coming.
 -- Joe

EDITOR’S REPLY: I know little about Pulpit Rock. Your best sources are Peter Payette who knows about the entire coastal defense system. Jeremy d'Entrmont who knows all the lighthouse/coastal history around here. The Rye Historical Society is another good source and check with Rye Reflections, the online local magazine. We’ll send those links along to you.

A REAL SEACOAST NAVAL HERO
John Barry and John Paul Jones be damned when you only have to look to Dover for a real Naval hero named Richard O'Kane. You must have come across this man's bio at some point. I'm just now reading his book about his own account of his WW II submarine patrols in the USS Tang (SS-306) in which as the CO he sunk 33 japanese vessels making him the most successfull sub skipper of all time. Unlike Jones or Barry he did achieve the rank of Rear Admiral and the highest military award our country can bestow, all in just 22 years of active Naval service.

Amazingly he spent the last ten months of the war in a Japanese POW camp after the TANG was sunk when he and only four other of the crew survived. He died in 1994 and is burried at Arlington National Cemetary.
Jack Goterch, Derry

KUDOS
Just wanted to say how much I enjoy your columns in the Herald - about the only good read they publish! Thanks for the good writing and research.
Joyce Volk

USS WADLEIGH REUNION
As a past crew member and reunion coordinator, I am planning the 2011 reunion for crew members of the USS Wadleigh, DD689, that will be held at Portsmouth, NH, in the fall of 2011. Since the USS Wadleigh was named to honor Rear Admiral George Wadleigh, a native of Dover, NH, I would like to include a tour of Dover, along with a short handout describing the Admiral's career and family.

While searching the internet for information regarding Admiral Wadleigh, I came across an article by Mr. J. Dennis Robinson who rued the final days of the Dover, NH Historical Society and mentioned the Wadleighs were early settlers of Dover. While tracking my family genealogy in the pre-revolutionary period I have seen the Wadleigh name (John and others) listed several times on rosters for colonial Scouts and Rangers employed by the British, and thought a family connection to this era would be interesting information to include on the handout. I would appreciate any information regarding Admiral Wadleigh and/or his family history, or a hint as to where I could go to find these facts.
Eugene Carter, Pelham, NH

COPYING FAMILY JOURNAL
Hello Dennis, I like your articles I have read in the paper. I figured you may be able to help me with this. I recently got several handwritten diaries my Grandmothers started in 1915 and about 25 letters. Also I have 2 books of histories of other ancestors published in 1923. They lived mostly in Missouri.

Can you give me any advice on the best way to copy these so I can return them to my Aunt in Kansas. Are there any copy businesses you would recommend who specialize in this type of archival stuff or any computer programs I can use?
Many Thanks, Jill Hunter

ROBINSON REPLIES: Thanks for your note. I'm not aware of any specialized services for archival copying. From what I've seen, even history libraries just jam the original into a Xerox machine or scanner. Or you could have the pages photographed with a digital camera perhaps through a glass plate to flatten the pages. That would likely be costly.. I'm guessing you're not a big computer user?

I say that because SCANNERS have become so cheap and so powerful that they are the most common tools for making copies these days. You can get a great scanner for about $100 (my first one was $2,000) at any store -- Staples, Best Buy, etc). Scanners now have all sorts of settings for copying documents at very high resolution. If you use the PDF format, you simply scan the book page by page in order and when you are done, the computer program will assemble the pages together into one document or PDF file. Then when you view it on your computer, it is just like looking at the book itself. And you can print copies of individual pages or the entire book any time you want or email the PDF file to anyone in seconds. This is pretty much the standard used now for copying books. Google Books includes 10,000,000 books that you can look at online right now. They use a more sophisticated scanner that turns the pages automatically, but it is basically the same process.

(You might even find that Google has already copied the geneaology books about your ancestors if they were published before 1927 and have an ISBN number at the Library of Congress. Check the above link before you do all that work. You might also want to check on Amazon.com to see if anyone has digitized them already onto the Kindle. If so you can download them to your PC using Kindle for PC.)

You will probably just scan the pages at 100% of their original size, but if the journal is small, you can increase the size so that your copy can be expanded and printed larger for more careful study. I always sugges that people scan small photos larger (200%) and at a higher resolution (150 or 300 pixels). This way you can look for tiny details in a picture or isolate and crop smaller areas to print out.

I suppose you could go to a copy shop. Staples or any place that makes copies will do this for you, but you might pay more for the copying process than for the scanner itself. Of course you need to hook the scanner into a good modern computer for it to work, but if your computer was made within the last few years it should be fine with most scanners. A standard HP scanner is usually good and it comes with all sorts of instructions (usually very simple) that will walk you through the steps.

The books, once scanned, can also be searched, since the scanner will recognize words and with OCR scanning (built into most scanners) the digital files can be convereted into text. It is even possible, in some cases that computer programs can read handwritten pages, although that depends on the quality of the penmanship. Once you have scanned the letters and journals, you might test them in certain programs. Web sites like EVERNOTE.com have software that may be able to read the handwriting, saving you the trouble of making a transcript – but you wouldneed to read through carefully and make corrections. The programs are not perfect. I find that making the transcript of writing by hands can be interesting since you come to know the writer in a more personal way. Just about everyone has a scanner these days, the newer the better. Hope that helps – JDR

MORE ON BABY THAT ELEPHANT
Hi Dennis. That elephant was so cute. I was working down stairs at Associated Buyers when the elephant was being photographed. The floors were not sealed and that cute baby did what babies do and peed. Several 50 pound bags of grain were ruined, all was taken care of and no big deal, just an addition to your story.
Rachel Leah