by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, August 30, 2024.

Three centuries ago, Exeter used a teaching plan called a “moving” school, sharing one teacher between three schools. At the 1727 town meeting, it was “voted that school be kept five months in the (town) schoolhouse and four months at Pickpocket, and three months at Ass Brook.” Within a decade of this vote, the town seems to have stopped the moving school plan and established separate schools, each with its own teacher. The school building on Hampton Road (near “Ass Brook,” which is today called “Ashbrook” due to 20th century sensibilities), was enlarged in 1765 to accommodate all the students in that part of town.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, August 13, 2024.

In the years following World War II, Exeter, like most towns in the United States, found housing to be one of the challenges facing the community. The war stopped nearly all construction of new homes, making it difficult for returning veterans to find places to live. By the 1950s, with no zoning regulations in place, Exeter realized that a new form of housing had begun to expand in town – the mobile home.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, July 23, 2024.

Junius Jackson was no ordinary barber. In a town that had ten barbershops in 1911, Junius Jackson stood out. For one thing, he was the town’s only Black barber. Nationwide, this would have seemed unusual even in a very white society like Exeter. Cutting hair and blacking boots were the realm of many independent Black businessmen in large part because they were barred from other occupations simply because of their race. The African American population of Exeter had been shrinking from its height in 1790 of 4.8% of the population to just a few families by 1900.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, July 2, 2024.

The summer of 1924 was hot and dry. The month of June had been cool enough, but by July 4th the Exeter News-Letterreported the first of many “protracted hot wave” weeks that would plague the months of July and August. Only a few showers – mostly in the form of thunderstorms – brought any relief. On July 11th, the Congregational Church steeple was struck. “During the severe thunder shower of Thursday afternoon, lightening struck the top of the spire of the Congregational Church, setting it on fire. The pinnacle, on which was the weathervane, burned freely and not until a stream from the steamer put out the fire was anxiety for the safety of the building dispelled. The loss is likely to be considerable.” It took the remainder of the summer to repair the damage.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, June 21, 2024.

Nothing seemed amiss at the wedding. At least, as far as anyone could tell. Mary Rust Hardy, married Henry H. Folsom, on a beautiful September day in 1898. Henry was a lawyer with family ties to Newmarket. Mary grew up in Dover, graduated from Smith College just two years prior to their marriage and it seemed like their’s would be a happy pairing. They set up housekeeping in Somerville, Massachusetts where Henry had a reputation as a solid citizen. His legal practice was doing well.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, June 4, 2024 (originally prublished May 9, 2014)

In the early years of the twentieth-century, New England was invaded and towns like Exeter scrambled to fight back. The invaders were two types of invasive moths – and their caterpillars – that had been accidentally introduced into the region. Both the spongy moth, then called gypsy moth and the brown-tailed moth were capable of stripping trees season after season resulting in the death of the tree.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, May 14, 2024.

When asked about the collections in the archives of the Exeter Historical Society – whether they are comprised of papers, images or objects – our best answer is “mixed.” There are things we’d love to have, like diaries of every early town resident, that simply don’t exist. We’d love to have a firsthand account of Abraham Lincoln’s visit to town, but we don’t. It would be wonderful to have a copy of the Declaration of Independence printed in Exeter in 1776 (these exist, but regularly sell far outside of our ability to bid). We own the press that printed the declaration, but not the document itself. Most of our collections have been donated by generous people who no longer have space for them. We appreciate these gifts.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday,  April 5, 2024.

In August of 1932, three 17-year-olds gathered in the cemetery field off Linden Street to watch the highly anticipated solar eclipse. The boys were well equipped with at least one pair of eclipse glasses from the Harvey & Lewis Company, an optical firm founded in Hartford, Connecticut in 1890.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday,  March 15, 2024.

In 1915, it was proposed that Exeter’s Robinson Female Seminary offer a ‘commercial’ course of study. The Seminary offered a general course, college preparatory course and, (for a time) a teacher training course. The addition of courses in bookkeeping, stenography and typewriting would allow the students better access to the growing fields in business. The following year, the town approved spending of $585.60 to equip the school with the necessary tools including state of the art typewriters.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, March 1, 2024.

A year before passage of the 19th amendment opened voting to women, suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt proposed the creation of a women’s organization to help facilitate and educate voters. Speaking before the National American Woman Suffrage Association in St. Louis, she suggested a “League of Women Voters” should the new amendment pass. The members didn’t wait, and the League of Women Voters was organized in February of 1920, months before women’s suffrage was settled in the U.S. Constitution.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, February 16, 2024.

Of the dozen or so history writers of Exeter, Benjamin Franklin Swasey is probably the least known or cited. It’s a shame, because his writing is filled with delightful tidbits not generally found in most historical works.

Benjamin Swasey was born in Exeter in 1837 and, except for only a few years, lived his life in town. Swasey grew up on his father’s farm on the west side of the Squamscott River. One of five surviving children, his most notable sibling was his younger brother, Ambrose Swasey, who is known for his generous gifts to the town (the Swasey Pavilion and Swasey Parkway). Swasey wrote of his father, “he was a great reader of ancient history and of the standard works on astronomy. He took much interest in the affairs of his native town and was elected on the Board of Selectmen in 1847-48.” In a period when a great deal of civic life included passing around the rum jug, Nathaniel Swasey refused to partake.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, February 2, 2024.

In the early 1960s, Exeter’s once thriving shoe industry was waning. The two shoe factories – Wise Shoes on Front Street and Alrose Shoes on Rockingham Street – were both finding it hard to compete in a growing international market. It surprised everyone when a new shoe company set up shop in Exeter on Court Street.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, January 19, 2024.

At one time, in the mid-nineteenth century, Exeter had 14 public school buildings. You won’t be able to find most of them today, but it’s an interesting exercise tracking down where they once stood. Charles Bell, author of “The History of the Town of Exeter, New Hampshire,” tells us that there were a few early schoolteachers in town as early as the mid-1600s, although there are no clear records as to where the classes were held. “The records of the town contain no information in regard to the earliest schools, as they were probably maintained, not at the public charge, but by the parents of the children who attended them.” A schoolhouse was erected opposite the meeting house around 1707. Children who lived on the outskirts of town were too far away to attend classes. They would learn basic reading and arithmetic at a dame school near where they lived – generally run by someone’s busy mother.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, January 5, 2024.

Exeter began 1923 with a new schoolhouse on the appropriately named School Street. The town had voted to remove two rickety old wooden schools from the same location the previous year. The new school building (which still exists as part of SAU 16), was the most modern school erected in years. It was sleek – brick and stucco – with central heating, indoor plumbing with restrooms conveniently located in the basement, large windows that provided both light and ventilation and electric lighting for those cloudier days when natural light caused the students to squint in the dim gloom. The public was invited to view the school prior to the beginning of the new term.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, Dec. 22, 2023.

The problem of Christmas troubled Exeter’s townsfolk in the early 1800s. The Puritan roots of New England steadfastly objected to the papist celebration of what they considered a false holiday. The actual date of the birth of Christ isn’t revealed biblically, and Christmas celebrations in the old country were seen as riotous drunken bacchanalias. Yet, there still seemed to be need of marking the close of the year. What to do? Celebrate Christmas or perhaps make note of the New Year?

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, December 8, 2023.

In the late Spring of 1875, the First Unitarian Society of Exeter proposed to the other churches in town a fund-raising spelling match. Spelling had become a popular form of entertainment in recent years, so much so that the Exeter News-Letter correspondent from Danville wrote, “The spelling mania arrived in town on the 22nd and has spread fearfully.” Most often these competitions (only rarely referred to as a ‘bee’) were used to raise funds for charitable and fraternal organizations or local church groups. The proposed match in Exeter would raise money for the prize winners and eight participating churches.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, November 24, 2023.

Emory Eldredge wasn’t born in Exeter. His family arrived in town from Taunton, Massachusetts about 1896 when Emory was eight years old. His father worked at the Exeter Machine Works as a machinist. Young Emory must have shown promise, as he was admitted to Phillips Exeter Academy at the age of 14 and graduated with the class of 1906.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, November 10, 2023.

In the mid-1880s, the direst issue in the town of Exeter was water. “Those whose business it is to understand this matter have told us that the water in the wells throughout our village is more or less contaminated with impurities and unfit and unsafe for drinking purposes,” commented a writer to the Exeter News-Letter. Indeed, 1886 proved to be a year rife with water-borne diseases. Eight people in town, mostly infants, died of cholera infantum, diarrhea, and typhoid fever. The drinking water system was piecemeal. The business district, clustered around Water Street, still used an old system of hollowed out wooden logs that connected taps with lead pipes. Most homes had wells that were dug perilously close to the family outhouse. Sure, it was possible to survive these water sources, a point made by the letter writer. “Because persons have drunk questionable water and still live is no sign that they would not have lived better on pure water. How much poison is taken into the system from impure water it is difficult to say, but it is certain that experience and science again and again have traced sickness and death to this source.”

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, October 27, 2023.

On a chilly September night in 1893, a young shoe shop worker named Maud Robinson was attacked on Oak Street while trying to make her way home. The Exeter Gazette reported, “her assailant grabbed her by the throat, threw her violently to the ground and excitedly and hurriedly tore portions of her clothing from her limbs. She succeeded in loosening the grasp from her throat and yelled for help, which frightened the miscreant, and he ran away.” The man was described as young, wearing a light suit and a mask. In the weeks that followed, more attacks occurred in Exeter, frightening a town that was otherwise considered to be quite safe.

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, July 22, 2023.

“You talk about reunions and old home weeks, but say, wouldn’t it be a treat to get that old crowd together once more for one of those old-time picnics up stream?” asked J.I. Weston in the Exeter News-Letter in 1903. Hundred-year-old nostalgia can seem a bit quaint, but he was addressing the problem of needed improvements to Gilman Park, particularly a launch for small boats. But let’s look at his memory of picnics.