Those Celebrating Birthdays are: February 13, Lorrie Corwell, Jesse
Giordano; February 14, Russ Courtemanche; February 15, Lenny Deane,
Peggy Chagnon; February 16, Margaret Snedeker; February 17, Jim
Schroth, Sue Derosier, Craig Paggi;
February 18, Ray Lammott, Barbara Clark, Arthur Harndon, Patty
Houle; February 19, Carl Anderson, Ronald Vien.
A Very Happy Birthday To One and All!
Ash Wednesday Service
The First Congregational Church, 24 Main Street, Pittsfield,
observes the beginning of Lent with an Ash Wednesday Service,
February 13, at 7 p.m. As part of the service, there will be a time
of prayer and reflection and the imposition of ashes. The Rev. David
Stasiak will lead the service with the addition of special music by
the Chancel Choir and JuBellation Handbell Choir. Everyone is
welcome to attend.
Reminder, the Infant Toddler Diaper Pantry will be open on Tuesday
from 9-11 am at the Congregational Church, Pittsfield. Please use
the Chestnut Street entrance.
The Pittsfield Youth Baseball Association (PYBA) Board of Directors,
in accordance with its Charter, hereby notifies the public that it
is recommending various changes to the organization’s Charter and
By-Laws which will be discussed and voted on at the March 19th
membership meeting. The meeting will be held at the Pittsfield
Community Center at 6:30 PM. The public is welcome to attend.
School Lunch Menus
February 18 - February 22, 2013
PES
Monday
Hot Diggity Dog
Hot dog on a roll, baked tater tots, baked beans, mixed fruit
Tuesday
Wok for Life
Chicken Parmesan, pasta marinara, fresh green salad, pears
Wednesday
North End Fav
Ham and cheese sandwich, veggie sticks, fresh fruit, carnival cookie
Thursday
Brunch for Lunch
French toast, baked ham, home fries, applesauce
Friday
Fresh Picks Pizza
French bread pizza, carrot coins, fresh fruit
PMHS
Monday
Comfort Food
Hot dog, baked tater tots, baked beans, mixed fruit
Tuesday
Wok for Life
Orange chicken stir fry, steamed broccoli, sesame noodles, pineapple
Wednesday
North End Fav
Chicken Parmesan, pasta marinara, fresh green salad, pears
Thursday
Brunch for Lunch
French toast, baked ham, home fries, applesauce
Friday
Hot New Item!
Fresh picks flatbreads, garden salad, fresh fruit
Winterfest Luncheon At The Senior Center
The Winterfest luncheon will be held February 27th and will include
a musical performance by Nick Turillo at 11:00 am. The Pittsfield
Parks and Recreation committee sponsors the luncheon so that seniors
can enjoy the meal for free. At noon, Victory Workers 4H will serve
the meal, including providing a delicious variety of homemade pies!
Please sign up for the Winterfest luncheon by February 19th.
When you come to Winterfest ask about the group of players planning
to have regular cribbage sessions at the Senior Center. The group
would like to know which day of the week to schedule their sessions.
So if you like cribbage, join in on the fun!
Following Winterfest, during March the Senior Center will be hosting
two special events. On March 20th we will host a NH Humanities
Council program NH’s One Room Schoolhouses presented by NH’s former
Commissioner of Agriculture, Steve Taylor. Then on March 27th the
American Automobile Association will conduct their four hour program
for Mature Operators (of automobiles). Participating in the Mature
Operators program often earns you a reduction on your car insurance!
Announcements For Josiah Carpenter Library
The Josiah Carpenter Library will close one-half hour earlier, at
6:30 pm, on Wednesday, February 13, 2013. We apologize for the
inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.
The Josiah Carpenter Library will be closed for the holiday weekend,
Saturday, February 16th through Monday, February 18th, in
recognition of President’s Day. Normal business hours resume on
Tuesday.
The Josiah Carpenter Library Board of Trustees will hold a Public
Hearing at the February 19th monthly meeting, in accordance with RSA
202-A:4-ciii to put before the public the action to be taken on all
unanticipated money from the state, federal or other governmental
unit or any private source that has become available during the 2012
calendar year.
The Josiah Carpenter Library Board of Trustees meets at 7:00 pm on
the third Tuesday of each month, unless otherwise posted.
There will be no Bucket List Writers this month. The Bucket List
Writers meet at the Josiah Carpenter Library, at 7:00 pm on the
third Thursday of each month, unless otherwise posted.
Read-Meet-Talk Book Group will meet this month on the third
Thursday, February 21, 2013. Read-Meet-Talk Book Club for the
Grown-ups meets at the Josiah Carpenter Library, at 7:00 pm on the
fourth Thursday of each month, unless otherwise posted.
Scenic Theatre Busy With Rehearsals For Kids’ Theater Workshop
Presentation Of Bugsy Malone, Jr.
Show Business Star Lena Marelli, played by Meghan Smith, and her
director Oscar Da Velt, played by A.J. Robidas, appear in the
Pittsfield Players’ upcoming Kids’ Theater Workshop production of
Bugsy Malone, Jr.
The Pittsfield Players’ Kids’ Theater Workshop will present Bugsy
Malone, Jr. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, February 21, 22, and
23 at the Scenic Theatre, 6 Depot St., Pittsfield at 7:30 pm each
evening. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for kids under age 13.
You can reserve seats by calling 435-8852.
Bugsy Malone, Jr. brings audiences back to the days of flapper
girls, gangsters, the Charleston, and speakeasies, along with some
really odd weapons called splurgers, which shoot shaving cream, as
well as the old standby, cream pies. The show has some great music
and dancing. The kids are having a great time rehearsing this show
and can’t wait to perform it for you.
Bugsy Malone, Jr. is part of Music Theater Internationals’ Broadway
Jr. series, which takes popular musicals from the Broadway stage and
adapts them for young performers. This show was written by Alan
Parker, who first produced the movie, Bugsy Malone, using young
actors including Scott Baio and Jodie Foster. The music was composed
by Paul Williams, an accomplished musician and performer in his own
right who scored films such as the remake of A Star Is Born and The
Muppet Movie, and who wrote many classic songs such as “We’ve Only
Just Begun,” “Just and Old Fashioned Love Song,” and Barbra
Streisand’s phenomenal hit “Evergreen.”
The Pittsfield Players’ Kids’ Theater Workshop is a program by kids,
for kids, from ages 8 to 18, designed to introduce theater arts to
both the participants and their peers who come to see the show. The
show will also run two afternoons, on Tuesday and Wednesday,
February 21 and 22, for local schools and home school groups.
Special reservations are required for those shows by calling
736-9563.
Providing For Pittsfield’s Needy: The Vendue System
And The Poor
Farm - Part 1
Pittsfield has provided for its needy and poor citizens from the
earliest of times. Neighbors helped neighbors and churches regularly
helped the less fortunate. Town government used a system known as
vendue to help parentless children, the ill, old, and infirm without
means to support themselves. These individuals were placed in the
care of local residents after a bidding process, similar to an
auction, took place. The individual who bid the lowest was paid that
amount by the town to care for the unfortunate person for a specific
period of time. Often, bidders were not altruistically motivated.
Rather, they bid to acquire a good laborer for their farm, business
or home, or simply to acquire the money that the town would pay
them, hoping to make a profit. Thus, there were low bids for good
workers but relatively high ones for the elderly or infirm.
The Case Of The Widow Kesiah Sargent
One of the earliest examples involving an indigent person was the
widow Kesiah Sargent. In 1785, probably after the death or desertion
of her husband, she was apparently destitute. On July 2 the
following notice of vendue was posted in Pittsfield:
"To be Set up at Publick vandue at the dweling house of John Cram,
Esqu., inholder of Pittsfield, at three of the clock in the
afternoon of Said Day, the widow Kesiah Sargent and one child which
have thrown themselves upon the town of Pittsfield and there to go
one cow and also a Bed and some Bedding towards their Support and the
Lowest Bidder is Deemed the purchaser of Said persons and is to Bid
off for two months. Whoever Bids off Said woman and child and
Refuses to keep Them Shall Pay the cost of vendue and Shall be Set
up again by us.”
As indicated, the length of the vendue was to be two months. Who the
successful bidder was is not recorded.
On September 8 of that year similar articles of vendue were posted
once again. This time the vendue period was for three months. John
Cram was the successful low bidder for Mrs. Sargent. He bid three
pounds, six shillings plus the cost of advertising. What happened to
the child and cow is not reported.
In December a vendue for the woman, child and cow was once again
held. What happened to Mrs. Sargent is not recorded but it is
reported that the child was bid off to Simon Green for three months
for one pound, nine shillings, with the town providing clothes for
the child. Josiah White purchased the cow for two pounds, nineteen
shillings.
The Case Of Warren Chase
Not only were the poor, infirm and indigent subjected to this
practice, but orphaned children were as well. One notable case
involved Warren Chase, born on January 5, 1813 to the unmarried
Susanna Durgin. For her actions, having given birth out of wedlock,
she was much maligned by the community, thrown out of the church and
had a very difficult time providing for herself and her son.
Warren’s father, Simon Chase, who was married to Huldah Peaslee,
was killed at Plattsburgh during the War of 1812, a little over a
year and one-half after Warren’s birth.
At a young age, Warren was sent to live with a Quaker family on
Catamount Mountain. His mother died when he was about five years old
and the Selectmen, as Overseers of the Poor, became responsible for
him. David Fogg, who had tried to acquire the boy before his mother
passed away, was the successful bidder at the vendue. The bond
required that Mr. Fogg care for the boy until he was 21 years old.
It also required that he see to the boy’s schooling during the
winters. Young Warren was to be provided with two suits and $100
dollars when he reached the age of majority, which was 21.
According to Mr. Chase, his time with the David Fogg family was a
horrendous experience. Even Mr. Fogg’s children were taught to
manifest superiority over him. There was no sympathy or love,
nothing but hard work and deprivation. He was beaten, suffered
frost bite and the effects of extreme exposure. There was no time
for school or play. In Warren’s words, “There was no ‘under-ground
railroad’ to take him to freedom; and no freedom for him to be taken
into, except in the far-distant, and to him mystic, number
twenty-one.”
At about age 10, Warren moved with the Fogg Family to the shores of
the Lamprey River in the vicinity of Durham. The harsh treatment
continued. At the age of 14, penniless, with no education and unable
to read or write he ran away to his grandmother’s house on Catamount
Mountain in Pittsfield. There he was warmed and fed. Women neighbors
were called in to help and they decided to take the boy to the
selectmen and “plea for his release from bondage.” They were aware
of the cruel treatment by David Fogg and that Warren had not been
educated as required by the bond. They also claimed that it was
unlikely that Mr. Fogg could provide the two suits of clothes and
$100 when Warren turned 21. The Selectmen agreed and protected
Warren from Fogg when he came to claim him.
Nathaniel Chase, of the Berry Pond Area, cared for the young man
temporarily. Warren was treated with kindness. After a few months he
moved into the former home of Nathaniel’s wife on Jenness Hill where
her two bachelor brothers cared for him. He was sent to school
during the winters and gradually became relatively educated. After
two years he was moved to the home of the well-known Norris Family
where he remained until his 21st birthday. He was then given his
freedom, the two suits of clothes and $100 as required by the bond.
Parenthetically it might be added that Mr. Chase
went on to do great things. After an unbelievable
struggle to lift himself out of abject poverty, he
became very prominent in the history of Wisconsin.
He helped work on statehood, was one of the writers
of its constitution, a founder of the Republication
Party, and a friend of Abraham Lincoln. He supported
abolition before the Civil War as well as women’s
rights, including the rights to education, suffrage
and holding property.
The End Of The Vendue System
The practice of vendue as a means of providing for the poor
continued for decades after the cases noted above. Some likened the
system to only one step above slavery. There were many children like
Warren Chase who were treated terribly, and were scarcely provided
with clothes and food for their sustenance. Often they worked from
morning until night, usually six and one-half days a week.
As time wore on, many people came to believe the “bidding off” of
poor, destitute and needy persons as well as orphaned children was
inhumane, much as slavery was inhumane. As a result, in 1834 the
town voted to allow the selectmen to make arrangements for the care
of needy individuals rather than vendue them.
Perhaps the new approach did not work out satisfactorily because the
next year the town voted to return to the vendue system. Those who
despised it, however, would not rest and in 1836 the town voted to
buy and support a town farm for the poor.
Snowshoe Hike
All are invited to join the Women’s Fellowship of the Congregational
Church of North Barnstead for a midwinter Snowshoe Hike on Saturday,
February 16, beginning at 10 am (snow date: February 17 at 12:00).
We will meet at the Barraford home at 1080 North Barnstead Road (go
to the very end of the road) and will hike along the Blue Job
Mountain Road towards Strafford for 60-90 minutes, ending back at
the Barrafords’ for a potluck lunch (soup, drinks, desserts
provided).
RSVP to Cate 776-5522 or
[email protected]. In
the event that the ground is bare, we will enjoy a winter hike on
foot!
Letter
To the citizens of Pittsfield:
My name is Bea Douglas and I am asking for your support as a
candidate for the Pittsfield School Board.
I was born and raised in Pittsfield and other than a few years that
I spent living in the Southwest and in area communities, I have
spent most of my life here with my family.
This is my home, where I was raised, went to school, where one of my
children and grandchildren live, this is “my hometown.” I reside
here with my husband Al Douglas and our 3 dogs.
I am a teacher at Chichester Central School, and I have a Master’s
degree in Education, Curriculum Development.
Why am I running? I am running because I want to see the children of
Pittsfield receive the best possible education within the confines
of a reasonable budget that does not put undue burden upon the
taxpayer.
Our school administration, present board and community members have
been working diligently to provide an education for the students of
Pittsfield that will prepare them for the fast and ever changing
technological world. I believe I have the experience, education, and
understanding of our community to help our schools continue to move
forward.
I ask for your support on Election Day.
Bea Douglas
Obituaries
Calvin Wayne Case
10-2-1938 To 2-4-2013
Cdr. Calvin Wayne Case USN retired, son of Calvin and Mildred Case
also of Haverhill, died in his home after a long illness.
Born in Haverhill, MA, Wayne attended Haverhill schools and
graduated High School in 1956. He Graduated from Columbia University
on an NROTC scholarship in 1960. Wayne then served in the Navy for
22 years and retired in August of 1982.
Upon retiring, Wayne and his wife Susan moved to Pittsfield, NH to
be closer to their aging parents. They became active members of the
First Congregational Church of Pittsfield where they made many good
friends.
Wayne worked at several places after retiring from the Navy
including the Federal Building in Concord, Northeast Electronics,
Citizens Bank, D&R Products, and Poirier Tools.
Wayne enjoyed his horse, his dog “Cuppie,” sailing, camping, and
most of all his children and his grandchildren who delighted in
riding in the trailer Wayne pulled behind his lawn mower.
Wayne leaves behind his sister, Helen Chase of Haverhill MA and her
daughter and son-in-law Heidi and Kevin Dean of Kensington NH; his
nephew Tim Jackson; his brother and sister-in-law, Ted and Maureen
Case; their daughter, Cailene of Walpole MA; his nephew and wife,
Michael and Rene Case and their children, Devon and Jillian of
Kingston MA; his nephew and wife, Brian and Graceann Case of
Plymouth MA; his wife of 53 years, Susan (Wahtera) and their
children; daughter and son-in-law, Heather and Todd Thauer, and
their children, Andrew, Deborah, Hannah, Miriam and Zechariah of
Scarborough ME; daughter Karin and her daughters, Ginger and Chelsea
of Wasilla AK; and son and daughter-in-law, John and Charlene Case
of Pittsfield NH; John’s daughter and son-in-law, Ashley and Stephen
Malcolm and their new son Wyatt, of Tilton NH; John’s daughter and
son-in-law, Courtney and Marcus Morrison and their new son Mason, of
Texas; and John’s son Samuel Case, of Pittsfield NH.
Memorial Services will be held at the First Congregational Church,
24 Main Street, Pittsfield, NH 03263 at 11 am on Saturday, February
16th, 2013.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Pittsfield Food
Pantry, 85 Main Street, Pittsfield, NH 03263 or the Salvation Army
at 58 Clinton Street, Concord, NH 03301.
Ruth M. Purtell
Ruth M. Purtell, 89, formerly of the Pittsfield and Barnstead area,
died Feb 5th at the Merrimack County Home, where she had resided for
the past several years.
She was born in Laconia, the daughter of Walter and Glenna (Adair)
Purtell. She retired after working for many years at the Globe
Manufacturing Co. in Pittsfield. She was the widow of Arnold J.
Purtell and is survived by 2 sons, Walter B. Purtell and Michael J.
Purtell both of Barnstead and a daughter Glenna K. Riel of
Northwood; 7 grandchildren; 10 great grandchildren and a niece Kathy
Locke.
An urn interment will be held in the spring at the NH Veterans
Cemetery, Boscawen. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the
Merrimack County Nursing Home, 325 Daniel Webster Highway, Boscawen,
NH 03303
To sign an online guest book, log on to
perkinsandpollard.com.
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