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| READ OUR MAIL May 2003 Mailbag (c) SeacoastNH.com |
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May 29 THIS OLD SHED COMING ONLINE My apologies for not getting back to a whole lot of people quickly this last month. It's been hectic here in the past few weeks with carpetners and electricians coming and going. Everything we need seemes to be inthe other office as the new World Headquarters is coming online at last. We've got the Comcast line hooked up, but the phone company seemst ohave accidentally shut us down for days. The new desk, heater, work shelf and office area are about 90% operational. But there's been little time to get to the email and phone calls that are accumulating. Another week and all should be under control and more content will be appearing online. Your Humble Editor http://www.seacoastnh.com/dct/shed2.html May 25 BED & BONE Please let me know if there are any hotels on the Beach that would allow us to bring our dog. He is a quite wire hair fox terrier, 20 lbs. We are looking for accommodations right on the beach. I'm told Orchard Beach is beautiful. We would be interested in August. For four days. Jack N EDITORS REPLY: You wouldn’t believe how many letters we get like this. Someone should come up with a pet friendly listing for the region. We’ve not found one. Some of the chambers list pet friendly accommodations if you call and there are not many. Other chambers do not and no one we’ve found has checked out the hundreds of places along the coast. We can only offer the web site of our favorite Maine chamber in York and our listing site where readers can check individual locations for their policy. Since every town has different animal restrictions and since the beaches get super crowded in the summer, we suggest leaving bowser home. For those who travel with pooch, we recommend – sight unseen -- Dog-Friendly New England: A Traveler's Companion by Trisha Blanceht. http://seacoastlodging.com/ http://www.gatewaytomaine.org/ May 20 KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH OLD YORK I love keeping in touch with SeacoastNH.com. My parents and both sides of the family come from and many still live in the Yorks. It was the place to be for me as a teen. My parents, as young lovers, used to go to the Nubble to "watch the lighthouse light turn green" .. I have a lovely watercolor of the Nubble in my living room and have always felt it part of my roots even though I grew up in Rochester, N. H. My Dad moved from York to Rochester to take a job. My Grandfather was a sign painter and owned the school bus system in York for years. Most of the Earles still live in the area. I enjoy reading your columns and history of the littlest coast. Thanks. Hope one day to win a tee shirt. Gerie Spencer of Edgewater, Florida May 20 ESCORTING JOHN PAUL JONES My great uncle, William Moffitt, was one of just a few sailors assigned to go to Paris and escort back John Paul Jones' remains. Where can I find information on this? Doug Noble EDITOR’S REPLY: Good question. I assume the best info is at Annapolis where JPJ’s body was taken after the trip from Paris. The body was escorted by 11 ships, as I recall, in a massive ceremony. There is info on the proceedings in the Commemoration book published at taxpayer expense by Teddy Roosevelt. You can find it often on eBay for under $50. But start by contacting the curator at Annapolis for more info. The dedication ceremony there was April 24. 1906. http://seacoastnh.com/jpj/burial.html May 20 LOST THAT PUDDLE I am trying to get some info on Puddle Dock NH. Seems my gr. gr. gr. grandfather lived there . i beleive it was in the mid 1800"s. can you point me in the right direction or do you have any information? His name was Nathaniel Parsons and he had several children, one of whom was Samuel who married a Wardsworth. Thank you for any info. you can furnish. Sincerely, Irene EDITOR’S REPLY: We don’t do genealogy, but we know where Puddledock used to be. It is now the South End of Portsmouth and Puddledock neighborhood is split between what is now Prescott Park and Strawbery Bank Museum. You can find both on GOseacoast.com to locate their web sites. The museum has a large collection of photos and genealogical info is available at the Portsmouth Public Library and the Portsmouth Athenaeum. The puddle is filled in and is now a field. See the old pictures below. http://www.seacoastnh.com/arts/meserve2.html May 18 A JPJ SONG FOR EVAN THOMAS Dear Mr. Thomas: In your NPR interview May 16, you said that school children today are not taught anything about John Paul Jones. That may be true today but it was not true in Boston when I went to school there in the 1920s. Boston, being a naval town, taught us a lot about Jones, and in school we even sang a song about him whose words I still remember.
"John Paul Jones set out to sea, /
"On his mast there flew, / May 12 JUST CHECK THE 6PM NEWS UNDER “HOTEL” Hi, How would I get information about the newly renovated Wentworth by the Sea hotel? When will it reopen, prices/reservations etc. Thank you, Jean Jacques EDITOR’S REPLY: Wow, you guys must be from out of town. The media has inundated New England with news of the renovated hotel. We recently did TV interviews for Chronicle, Channel 9, Channel 8, the Boston Globe, NH Public Radio and a dozen newspapers and magazines – and there is no end in site. For our continuous “downdates” on the past history of the hotel, visit our Wentworth history homepage. For info on the new hotel, visit their web site Wentworth.com which is also liked to our page. http://seacoastnh.com/wentbysea/index.html May 06 COLLECTING THOSE PRIZES I was able to pick up the Toddler Activity Center at the KINDERWORKS office. Thank you so much for this great prize! I appreciate it and all the work you do to keep SeacoastNH.com the great site that it is. Matt Scruton May 05 FORGETTING THE FARAGUT For years I used what appeared to be an abandoned hotel or conference center on Route 1A in Rye as a landmark. This weekend I drove by and saw no trace of the building; the ground on which it stood was completely level. Can you tell me what the building was, how long it was unoccupied, and what happened to it? Brian T. O'Brien EDITOR’S REPLY: That was the Farragut Hotel, one of Rye, NH’s finest. It fell prey to the demise of old wooden resort hotels after WW2, was rebuilt for a time, then demolished. We don’t have a clue what happened and thre three people we called didn’t either. There is a great article from Peter Randall’s Hampton History on the rise and fall of the hotel era on the Land Library web site (search their web for “Farragut”) or contact the Rye Historical Society for much more info at 603964-4079. Harry Beckwith, an owner of the Wentworth by the Sea hotel also owned the Farragut for awhile. http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us May 05 GOOD-BYE OLD MAN Hard to believe the Old Man of the Mountains is gone. My grandparents would take me at least every other year to visit him and I took my two girls there in the summer of 2001. So glad we made that trip before coming to spend our vacation at Rye, they were able to see it at least once. They loved how the face "disappeared" and "appeared" depending on the angle! Katie Infantino May 01 HOW MANY WOODBURY LANGDONS? Hello Expert! You could be a huge help to me if you can tell me whether the Woodbury Langdon I read about on your site had a son, or grandson, of the exact same name--who died c 1850. This is very important in connection with reason I'm doing about James Fenimore Cooper. Cooper says that someone of that name died c 1850--and I want to ascertain if he is telling the truth about this. I truly hope you can help me with this one! Cynthia Cirile, Tenth House Press, Chatsworth, CA FROM NICOLE CLOUTIER at Portsmouth Library: I have been searching for a second Woodbury Langdon. In our resources here I find no really good information of a Woodbury, son of Woodbury, except for a mention of a son named Woodbury in a list of Woodbury and Sarah's (Sherburne) children in Vol. 1 of Brewster's Rambles, pg.364. In addition, I find the following 4 entries in our Vital Records Database (index of published obituaries--a work in progress). Langdon, Woodbury March 10, 1900 (age 64) Portsmouth Journal; Langdon, Woodbury October 12, 1822 Portsmouth Journal ; Langdon, Woodbury December 31, 1842 (age 41) Portsmouth Journal ; Langdon, Woodbury October 24, 1921 (sixth generation of Judge ;Woodbury Langdon) Portsmouth Herald.
I printed the 1842 obit to find that the gentleman in question died at sea aboard the Wm. Badger on Dec. 11.
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