Auburn Historical Association

06/05/2026

Here is a story written by Dan Carpenter for the June/July Auburn Village Crier:

The Auburn Village School - Now and Then

It’s always nice when others, outsiders recognize, appreciate, and value the things that happen right in our community. In case you missed it, the Auburn Village School was recently honored as NH elementary school of the year for its “collaborative professional culture, thoughtful use of data and strong community partnerships .” AVS was credited with “clear learning targets, differentiated
instruction and meaningful student engagement.” Sounds pretty good!

On a personal level, 8th grader Scott Merrow used a 3D printer to make himself a video game controller. What started out as a class project is now entered in Invention Convention’s National competition held in Dearborn, Michigan. Congratulations to Scott, Principal Collins, the teachers, staff, and entire student body at AVS.

Francis Wayland Parker (1837-1902) would have been very excited about these accomplishments. He grew up on a farm in West Manchester. After teaching for a year in Boscawen, NH, 16-year-old Parker was hired to teach at Auburn Village Schoolhouse No 3 (that was once on the land opposite of AVS on Eaton Hill Rd). He was paid $18 a month and he boarded around town (student families provided him room and meals). Parker was an enthusiastic, hands-on educator who believed that every student could succeed and that busy engaged students would not require corporal discipline.

After Auburn, Parker worked briefly in Manchester and then accepted a school principal job in Illinois. When Civil War hostilities broke out in 1861, he returned to NH and joined the 4th Regiment of NH volunteers. He served all through the war and suffered a neck wound that affected his voice. He was captured and imprisoned for a year.

After the war, Parker returned to Auburn in 1867 and held a private school in the basement of the Longmeadow Church. 15 of the 53 scholars went on to become teachers themselves. Using inherited money, Parker spent 2 years studying in Berlin, Germany with some of the leading European educators.

Returning to America in 1874, he became the Superintendent of Schools in Quincy, Mass. Working with his teachers, Parker developed the ‘Quincy Movement’. Rote memorization was abandoned for critical thinking. As Parker’s reputation grew worldwide, thousands of teachers traveled to Quincy to observe and learn these new techniques.

Francis Parker went on to head up the Boston and Chicago school systems. He meet and worked with John Dewey, the American educator and philosopher. Dewey called his friend, Francis Parker, the ‘Father of Modern Education’. And to think that he started out in the Longmeadow Church basement.

05/30/2026

05/25/2026

Hello everyone,

We are excited to announce that this week, the old Auburn Grange curtain is being restored at the Auburn Historical Association! The photo is of the Grange curtain in 2024 before it was safely stored. We can't wait to see how it will look on Friday!

The Town of Auburn received a 2026 Moose Plate Grant from the Department of Natural & Cultural Resources, State Council on the Arts. Once the restoration is completed the curtain will be displayed in the downstairs meeting room at the Auburn Historical Association.

Two restoration specialists from Curtains Without Borders in Vermont will be arriving on Wednesday (May 27th) in the afternoon. The work will be completed by Friday (May 29th) afternoon, and Chris Hadsel, the director of Curtains Without Borders, will give a talk on grange curtains at 7:00pm on Friday night. All are welcome to attend.

If you are interested in volunteering to help with the restoration process, please email us at [email protected]. We have spots open on Thursday and Friday. We need a few people and will have shifts for volunteers. Volunteers should be able to stand for periods of time (even though much of the work can be done sitting), see well and have a steady hand. The curtain work will include cleaning, mending, in-painting, attaching the curtain to the existing roller, preparing everything to hang the curtain and packing up before Friday night's talk.

We look forward to seeing many of you on Friday night at 7:00 for the talk!

05/09/2026

Thank you to all who purchased hanging plants to support the Auburn Historical Association's fundraiser! Also, a thumbs up for the amazing volunteers who helped deliver them on Friday!

05/02/2026

Here is a story written by Dan Carpenter for the May 2026 Auburn Village Crier.

The Underhill Homestead

In the 1700’s, the first Chester farmers were living on a frontier, striving to make a living on isolated farms surrounded by deep woods. The Hezekiah Underhill (1727-1800) family purchased a 100-acre lot just west of Chester Street (Chester) and started to clear the land. Turning virgin woodland into ariable fields was arduous work. The trees were cut, brush stacked and burned. The wood ash created became fertilizer. Stumps were pulled and surface rock removed to fence in new fields. Hezekiah’s son, Josiah, built the Underhill house in 1785.

For most frontier families, the first dwellings were log cabins. As they became established and sawmills prevalent, many replaced the log cabins with Cape Cod style homes, 3 rooms with a loft overhead . In 1785, Hezekiah, age 58, and his son, Josiah, age 27, cut out heavy timbers with an axe and adz. They framed up a large two-story colonial style house. It was put together on the ground and neighbors helped stand up the sections. The cellar timbers are composed of various type trees, only squared on the top side, and some still retain their bark. There are interior twin chimneys on opposite ends of the house. The chimneys act as heat sumps. They put heat back into the house and at the same time, reduce the danger of creosote. As wood smoke cools, it creates creosote which is highly flammable and prone to chimney fires. A warm chimney is less likely to produce creosote below the roof line. This is a big house and getting up on the roof to access the chimneys, especially in the winter, would be difficult. They solved this problem but putting a trap door in the peak of the roof. It could be accessed by a ladder in the attic.

The first floor is divided into four equal rooms with a center hall and stairway. Each room has a fireplace. The second floor is much the same but only one fireplace still exists. The Underhill homestead is now 240 years old. Over the decades, generations, and owners, it has undergone many changes and renovations. At the end of the 1700’s, Count Rumford published his findings on the proper measurements of fireplaces based on scientific experiments. The Underhills probably made these improvements in the early 1800’s. The first wood stoves appeared in Chester in the 1830’s.

There are other clues that date this house. Coming up the cellar stairs, wide pine boards cut on an up-and -down sawmill are still visible. Some door latches date back to the early 1800’s. They were cut out by hand and driven into the door frame. The pounding peened over the end of the soft steel available at that time.

A barn was built flanking Chester Rd and backed up to the stonewall property line. The gable end faced Chester Village. It disappeared in the 1970’s.

Hezekiah Underhill purchased land in Chester, NH to support his family. Four generations later, the family relied on the edge tool blacksmithing industry for sustenance. They had also outgrown the neighborhood. They manufactured tools in Manchester, Nashua, and Boston and sold them around the world. In 1848, the decision was made to sell the Chester farm. Since then, there have been many owners and stewards of the Underhill homestead. The latest, Diane and Mark Ramming, are up to the challenge of maintaining this charming colonial home.

Thank you to Diane and Mark for showing us around their beautiful historic home!

04/24/2026

On April 23, the Auburn Village School's 5th grade class visited the Auburn Historical Association. They all went on a bus tour around the town to see historic landmarks and also got to visit the museum, the Dockham Store and the barn. It was a pleasure to spend time with this great group of students and teachers!

Thank you to those who volunteered to help at this event: Pat Clement and Cindy Berling - Dockham Store; Dan Carpenter - Bus Trip; Gary Domurad - Assistant on bus trip, Joe Mancini - Barn; Deb Mancini - photos; Rick Davis - retired Auburnite and Deb Asquith - retired pre-school teacher who both assisted inside the museum. We appreciate you all!

04/13/2026

Thank you to everyone who came to the Auburn Historical Association last Thursday to listen to speaker Stephen Taylor talk about New Hampshire's one room rural schools. The event was well attended and Mr. Taylor told some great stories!

04/02/2026

Here is a story written by Dan Carpenter for the April 2026 Auburn Village Crier:

Back Roads

The Dirt Road - As long as the countryside was dominated by farmers who depended on animal power and had little reason to go anywhere, there was little demand for paved roads. The State of NH started paving roads and they pressured Auburn into purchasing its first snowplow in 1927. It looked like a small road grader. Until then, all roads were rolled. Oxen or horses pulled a six-foot diameter roller that compacted the snow for horse drawn sleighs. By Spring, this frozen mass would be feet thick and as it melted made mud season unbearable. Farmers who maintained their road frontage could write off part or all of their real estate taxes. They often took rocks off their own stone walls to fill potholes. When Spring planting arrived, they knew that a new crop of rock would repair the damaged wall.

The Naming of Pond View and Lilak Drive - Harold Towne and a partner built this development in the 1980’s. Take a ride around the loop and it becomes obvious how Pond View got its name. Lilak is a little tougher to figure out. LILAC is the NH state flower. But in this case, Lilak was Harold’s partner’s name spelled backwards- Kalil.

Manchester Rd - Chester Rd - I met a man who stuck out his hand and said, “ODA Motors, 32 Manchester Rd.” He spoke with great confidence, but I stared at him blankly, thinking “In Auburn?” “Where is Manchester Rd?” And then I remembered. They renamed the section of Chester Rd from St Peter’s Church to the 4 corners in downtown Auburn. That was done in 1990- 35 years ago. Back then, the unofficial name for that road was “Crooked Rd” or “Snake Rd” which sometimes got confused with Rattlesnake Rd. My brain could process those old nicknames quicker than the official name which was probably done before Mr. ODA was born.

2. David Griffin, who grew up in Auburn Village, was stationed in England during World War II. In a letter, he said the English roads reminded him of home, of “Snake Rd”. (Watching British drama on PBS, roads in England haven’t changed much.)

3. In the 1950’s, 60’s, automobiles were not aeronautical. They had high centers of gravity, small tires, and weak suspension. Kids would drive the “Crooked Rd” too fast just because…. Carol Peterson remembered that at the last bend coming into Auburn Village (across from Trombly’s) Sherman the rock lay dead ahead. It was a boulder that was flat on top and looked like a Sherman tank. No one wanted to kiss Sherman. A few years ago, NHDOT blasted Sherman ruining his tank-like appearance. Be careful, they left enough so he can still mess you up.

Road Sign Wars - For ever and ever, kids have taken road signs to decorate their bedroom walls. Back in the 1980’s, Road Agent Joe Stacy had problems keeping “Lover’s Lane” signs. He solved the problem by painting an old board and then used the loader to put the sign 15 feet up in a tree. The sign stayed put for years but provided little help for folks who never thought to look that high.

2. At the Hill Haven- Rattlesnake bus stop, bored teenagers pulled the Stop Sign out of the ground. Road Agent Mike Dross put it back up. The kids took it down… The Road Agent greased the pole. End of problem. How do you explain that grease smear to your mother?

White-Out Short Cut - James Drive is a cul-de-sac off Maple Farm Rd. Maple Farm Rd goes up a hill and then plateaus off. When the wind blows, drifting snow can create white out conditions. Stacy plowing for the Town got caught in one of these storms and ended up losing himself. He plowed right across the middle of the loop. Soon after, the paper lady came along and took the new short cut right over both ditch lines. Did she ever find the paper boxes?

A Short Cut to Raymond - If by chance you were at the 4 Corners in Auburn Village and a passerby asked for the quickest route to Raymond…. Send them down the dirt Raymond Rd to the Stone Mileage Marker at Dearborn Rd. Go right to Buttonwood, when it dead ends, go left on Birch Rd into Chester. Cross Candia Road and down Shatagee to the Raymond Townline - under 20 minutes. Of course, this is part of Raymond never seen before. About as far from civilization as one can get in Southern New Hampshire.

The Stone Mileage Stone at Dearborn-Raymond Rd. - Chester set up a dozen or so mileage stones in the 1790’s. But it wasn’t until the 1840’s that Auburn, Chester, and Raymond agreed to construct Raymond Rd. This was pretty much all woods and wilderness in the 1790’s. Was locating the stone here a mistake? It would seem to make more sense if the stone was on Candia Road in Chester. Right to Candia – Left to downtown Chester. Whatever – We’re keeping it.