September 23
REMEMBENRS SUBMARINE LANDING
I read the Albacore story with interest. I wasn't there that day, but I was there for several hours the night before as the crews struggled mightily to move the sub with huge earthmoving vehicles and pumps struggling to raise the water level in the trench. I stayed until they gave up for the night. It was getting cold outside. I think that it might have been close to midnight when they gave up. I didn't have a jacket with me but always keep an old army blanket in my truck which I wrapped around my shoulders to keep warm. It was quite a spectacle with huge flood lights on the scene. As in the version you printed, there was spoken fear of the cables snapping as they drew tighter and tighter. The diesel engines roared but still couldn't budge the sub from the muck.
Ryan Thomson

September 21
KUDOS TO OUR NEWSLETTER 
This note to you is long overdue. I need to thank you for putting out such a fine newsletter each month. I have not lived in NH for 14 years now, but it is still home. Your monthly updates bring me right back. The topics are fascinating and the writing is refreshing in tone. I keep a list of places to see when I visit NH, based on your articles. Thank you for all your hard work.
Dennis Barrett 

September 20
ROBINSON SPEECH TO FOUNDRY OWNERS
Hi Dennis -- You spoke to our group, American Foundry Society this past week at the Wentworth Hotel. I rated you as the best speaker of the entire event! I wish we could have had another hour with you! It is rare to hear history that is factual and at the same time entertaining and fun. Thanks again for helping us really enjoy our stay in New Hampshire!
Bill Sorensen, FEF Executive Director

September 19
HAS CELIA THAXTER VASE
I have a vase which has Celia Thaxter's name and the date 1887. It is painted with marigolds . It also has two lines by Keats. I wonder if I could have an original or would it be a fake? Annette
Annette B 

EDITOR’S REPLY: We’ll be happy to post a photo if you send one along and share it with those who know Celia’s artwork. It seems unlikely that there are CT forgeries out there, since Celi’as ceramic work – items she painted on manufactured "blanks" and had fired on the mainland – have only just begun to gain value. The book "One Woman’s Work" published in 2002 was the first significant study of Celia’s painting. 

September 18
NEW BEDFORD WAS HOMETOWN
What a surprise to see an article about my home town. I was born there 55 years ago, and I still have family living there, and in Mattapoisett, MA. I came to NH when I was 19 and have never left. I have always compared New Bedford with Portsmouth, the ports, the history, and where Portsmouth took off with tourism, New Bedford has had a hard time doing the same.

I would tell people to spend more time in New Bedford, which used to have one of the largest fishing fleets on the East Coast. See how the old homes were built with their widow watches, a tall window filled structure on the top of the whalers home to see if their husbands were returning from their whale hunts. And don't forget, Moby Dick had some scenes filmed there, and the book itself talks about the ship living New Bedford. Thanks for the pictures and the story. Go back and see more of that wonderful city!
Karen Davidson

September 18
FASCINATED BY BOOTH ESSAY
I am an 8th grade history teacher in California. As I was researching John Wilkes Booth I came upon a fascinating column you wrote April 20, 1998 regarding the "new" dying words of John Wilkes Booth. For what its worth, your presentation of the facts and your conclusion make much sense. What follow-up, controversy, or collaboration did that column inspire?
Lonnie Eskridge, Burton Middle School, Porterville, California

EDITOR’S REPLY: Thanks for the note. No new data. The article was really an attempt to tell the story of the little known "engagement" between Booth and Lucy Hale who hails from a town in this region. Her father was an outgoing senator and very effectively hushed up the newspapers and managed to prevent his daughter from being interviewed by law enforcement. Rumor has it that she was traumatized, not by the death of Lincoln, but by the loss of her fiancée, not a good position for a US Senator from NH to be in. The extrapolation to the dying words is, admittedly, over the top (from "useless" to "Lucy"), but the more I write about history, the more I find how little we actually know. Eye witness observation is often wrong (or in this case ear-witness). The lesson for kids is that you have to check, not just your sources, but your sources' sources – then question those sources too. History writers tend too easily to take unsupported data instead of doing the hard research, and this is true of history teachers and professors as well. My job on a weekly basis up here is to toss local stories into the spotlight and see what shakes up. It is called "revisionist" history, but I tend to think the revisionist portion (read MAYFLOWER by Nathaniel Philbrick for an unwrapping of the Plymouth myth) is the history in our textbooks. If you've not read LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME, get a copy asap. Keep on keeping on

September 17
NEW BEDFORD WAILS BACK 
Good job with the Joomla programming on SeacoastNH.com. Your site looks great... However.... If I see one more fluff piece on New Bedford I swear I'm going to puke. Cobblestones maybe cute, but they are a disaster on your suspension. Not that New Bedford's paved roads are any better. Ask the city how many lawsuits it has for blown ires and blown struts.

No one here except the 200 people who "love" the whaling museum or own a biz in the dead downtown gives a rats patootey about whaling. This city kills every attempt to speak of Hetty Green, William Rotch, Duff and "Da Family". New Bedford only gives pleasant notice to Fredrick Douglass. The only time Herman Melville was in New Bedford was to take ship out of the states to escape being thrown into debtors jail. That is fluffed over by saying he visited James Arnold's estate while here. No, he hid at Arnold's estate until the ship was leaving. We even gave the last whaleship to Mystic Ct. Look what they have accomplished being nothing more than a local fishing village historically.

Our fishing industry is way larger than Glousters, but theirs is better organized. Our downtown is essentially dead beyond a few wannabe artists, a taco stand, a hot dog stand, two coffee shops and Freestones. The college students are housed in Dartmouth and only come downtown for class. Downtown on Sunday's is like an old Sprint commercial. "You can hear a pin drop" Downtown Glouster has a mile long retail strip that is always crowded in warm weather.

Sure the rangers are nice, that's their job. They recite facts and information that has been thoroughly cleaned and white washed. None of the fun stuff. Yea, we were attacked and overrun by the British. Yea New Bedford provided the engineering and skill to build the USS Constitution in Boston. Hell we don't even acknowlege in a public way that Buttonwood park was designed by Olmstead. Speaking of Olmstead, it was New Bedford's James Arnold that first funded the project that became the Arnold Arboretum..... THis and much more is not talked of often because the Grant sucking blackhole Whaling Museum doesn't want to.

New Bedfords may have at one point in history been an intersting place. But today it has become a Section 8 dumping ground and developers are wharehousing the government funded senior crowd at a record pace. Corruption is still rampant, stupidity is chronic and civic participation is moribund. 95% of the money to educate the children of the prolific welfare and illegal mothers comes from the state. We can't support ourselves because there are no good jobs and almost no industrial base. There is a reason why there are so many vacant buildings.

Oh my... I have ranted... I'll leave on a good note. We're not as bad as Holyoke...Dave Gould, Editor, Whalingcity.info

September 16
RELATED TO JOHN PAUL JONES
I know that many people claim a blood relationship to John Paul (Jones) but I suggest my claim may be stronger than most. My late father, Edward Robinson (1909-1985), was born and brought up in Kirkcudbright, Scotland, with the story that he was somehow related to JPJ. My investigation of the official records (birth, census and death) shows that his g g grandmother was Jean MURCHIE (ms PAUL) who was born in Galloway, Scotland between 1772 and 1776 (per the 1841 census) and died after 1841 but before 1851. I am not in any doubt that the blood relationship must be real, given the surname, geography and the likeness of my father to JPJ (judge for yourself as per the attachment-my father was 5ft 4", therefore also similar in height to JPJ). An intriguing thought, though perhaps stretching the point too far, is that the likeliest mother of Jean MURCHIE (PAUL) is a Nicolas Murray which name is not a million miles from Countess Murray de Nicholson (Delia).
Kind regards,
Tom Robinson. UK

EDITOR RESPONSE: I'm no genealogist Tom, but it certainly makes sense you may be descended from the family that produced John Paul. Others have claims to being related to the family through JP's sister. It's only the great number of people who claim to be descended from JPJ himself that we must continually squash. Thanks for your great note and the great photo of your father, a JPJ look-alike.

September 15
STATEHOUSE UP YET?
Has the NH Old State House been reconstructed? It's such a shame to see that so many historic sites are lost either by natural disaster or simply through neglect and apathy of people who can't see the value in preserving the past.
Robert English 

EDITOR’S REPLY: A few 18^th century timbers once part of Portsmouth’s Old Statehouse remain in a trailer in Concord, NH at this writing. A federally funded study ($250,000) will determine what will become of the timbers. Unlike many historic sites, the statehouse was not a modern loss, but was torn down or carted away in 1830 from the middle of Market Square. A portion of the surviving building was moved to Court Street, then to Strawbery Banke, then to Concord after numerous failed attempts to reconstruct the entire building from the surviving one-third of the structure that remained.

September 13
DESCENDENTS OF JOHN PAUL JONES SAY THANKS
On behalf of myself and my family, I wanted to express my thanks for your dedication to the history and memory of our ancestor, John Paul Jones. I've been wanting to do this for some time... for several years, in fact, and for one reason or another have neglected to do so.

I discovered your site over 7 years ago, and very much enjoy it. I am planning a visit to Portsmouth late next spring, and look forward to spending time there. Thank you again for your passion and dedication to the accurate preservation of history. This is a great gift to our children and to future generations.
Kind regards,
Timothy James Paul

September 12
MORE KUDOS TO KEN
Just want Ken to know how much I've appreciated years worth of weather reports. Best wishes, Ken -- and thank you.
Dale

September 10
GOOGLING IN GLEBELAND
I recently did a search on Google for "glebe portsmouth" and came across one of your web pages. I created an article on the Wikipedia called "William Berry (pioneer)" (who is a many times great grandfather of mine.) In that article I reference the "Glebe Conveyance" where William Berry's name is mentioned.
Greg Berry

September 9
JOHN HANCOCK HISTORY BOOKLET
I bought this John Hancock Constitution booklet at an estate sale here in Pittsburgh, PA a few years ago. I found your web site when I was trying to research when this brochure was printed?
Loran J. Skinkis

EDITOR’S REPLY: Sine posting our article on the history pamphlets years ago I've received scores of these booklets in the mail. This JOHN HANCOCK INSURANCE promotional campaign ran mostly in the 1930s and 1940s. They were printed in many editions over time, often revised and reprinted, and mostly without copyright or publication date. It was a great idea at the time for establishing the company as a solid organization by trading on the name of a Revolutionary War hero, as other companies have done using the names Revere, Washington, Franklin, etc – even thought there are no real connections. Companies no longer tend to focus their advertising on patriotic topics from the Colonial Revival, but it was once a popular advertising gimmick. The booklet are not very old or valuable and huge numbers were printed. Technically the copyright belongs to the company, but they seem to have no interest in them currently. Patriotism and history do not sell insurance these days. Based on eBay prices, they are worth about 25 cents to a dollar each on the marketplace.

September 6
FIRST TRIP TO POTSMOUTH SINCE 1962
Hi JDR... Thought I would let you know that I was able to eat clams and Maine shrimp at Bob's Clam Hut in Kittery in July, along with clam cakes at the Lobster Shack in Cape Elizabeth and those fabulous Belgian Fries at Duckfat in Portland, ME. Thanks for the information....

By the way, Portsmouth, NH looked foreign to me. I used to stay at an old hotel which may have been across the river in Kittery, but I don't recall its name. The last time I was there was in 1962. I was working on the SSN Thresher at the navy yard and it was getting ready to go out for more sea trials.....
Doug Noble

September 5
FAN OF DAN
Very much enjoyed "Daniel Webster Lost in Portsmouth."
Tessie Dubois

September 3
JENNY LIND PORTRAIT
I represent someone who has an original painting of Jenny Lind. It is believed to have been commissioned in the 1850s, possibly early 1860s. It is in its original frame and, but for a few scratches, it is in excellent shape. I am assisting in locating a collector and/or enthusiast who might be interested in purchasing this piece and after reading J. Dennis Robinson's article I thought I would contact you. Any information regarding who I might speak with would be most helpful. 
K. Jenkins 

September 2
SEEING AERIAL INFO 
Skybus has flights to Portsmouth N.H. and I believe it is at seacoast airport. I would like to rent a car there but I cannot get priceline.com or anyone else to recognize the airport at Portsmouth N.H.. Can you help me.
Adolfo G

EDITOR’S REPLY: Portsmouth International Airport - code is: PCM. Area car rental companies are: Alamo . 603-431-3058, Avis / Budget . 603-964-1690, National . 603-431-4707. Click here for more info 

September 1
SEEKING ISAAC HULL  
I don't know if you know much about the history of Commander Isaac Hull. I have a local newspaper from 1933 that shows my Great great grandmother was invited to come aboard the uss constitution when it docked in Portland,Oregon. She was named in the article as Isaac's great grandaughter. We are trying to make the connection between him and our family but cannot find anything that talks about his family history. In some of the articles we read it says that he and his wife did not have children. Do you know if he did or did not have children? Thank you, Keri 
Keri George  

EDITOR’S REPLY – There are lots of biographies and much available info about Isaac Hull that you can find on Amazon.com or Bookfinder.com. We recommend "The Captain from Connecticut: The Life and Naval Times of Isaac Hull" by Linda M. Maloney and "Isaac Hull: A Forgotten American Hero" by by Helen Richmond, Leslie J. Anderson, and James Scherer -- and there are others. We write about him now and then, not just for his link to Old Ironsides, but because he was the first major commander of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

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