One-Stop Shop for Meredith History

By Thomas P. Caldwell

The completion of a $50,000 renovation project and the creation of a timeline of the town’s history have made the Meredith Historical Society a must-see location for those wanting to learn about the people and buildings that contributed to the community one sees today in what is known as the “Latchkey to the White Mountains.”

The society’s museum at 45 Main Street has two floors of historical displays as well as a research library with archives that include material from the town’s past and genealogical files for those looking for information on their ancestors.

The museum has both ongoing displays and revolving exhibits of the artifacts people have donated through the years. Current displays include examples of 1920s women’s clothing and accessories associated with the era of the Women’s Progress Club.

From pre-European-settlement information on the Native Americans who originally populated the area, and continuing through Meredith’s being named by Travel and Leisure magazine as one of the top 10 small towns on the East Coast to visit, the timeline offers a decade-by-decade account of the highlights, beginning with the 1750s when the township proprietors named their land grant “Salem.” It was renamed New Salem in 1752, and Meredith in 1768.

Among Meredith’s most famous residents from the early years was Dudley Leavitt, for whom Leavitt Park is named. He moved to town in 1806, publishing his New England Almanac and opening a private school. This summer, Leavitt’s descendants from around the country will be holding a reunion in the area, with plans to visit the museum, which has a portrait of Dudley Leavitt and a display of some of the tools he used. The display also includes a figure depicting Leavitt, created by acclaimed dollmaker Gwen Flather of Meredith.

The building housing the Meredith Historical Society’s Main Street Museum dates to 1812, when Abel Kimball built it as a home and saddle shop. Through the years, the building has served as a post office (with a safe that remains in the building), a bank (with its own safe still there), a needlework shop, and a toy store. The Meredith Public Library had been located on one floor of the building until the current library building was erected, and White Mountain Power Company, a predecessor to the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative, also had its headquarters there at one time.

The Meredith Historical Society dates back to 1950, when a group of residents that included Ruth and Carl Colby formed the society. A collection of historical artifacts donated by Charlie Roberts, who had operated Pinnacle Park Zoo until it was washed out in the hurricane of 1938, made up the core display at the museum.

Harold and Esther Wyatt got involved with the historical society a couple of decades later, and their daughters remain active in the organization today.

The group first operated out of the Pottle Meeting House, a former First Free Will Baptist church situated on Winona Road. When the Main Street building became available in 1994, the historical society acquired it and converted it into a museum. The Pottle Meeting House became the society’s farm museum, displaying farm tools and other artifacts from its collection.

Transforming The Town

As the timeline indicates, Meredith was largely built around mills, with its ample supply of waterpower. By 1842, there were 11 mills, 10 stores, and three taverns in town. Voters in 1845 voted to invest $10,000 in the newly incorporated Boston, Concord, and Montreal Railroad, and tracks reached Meredith Village in 1849. That also was the year the Winnipisseogee Steamboat Company launched the Lady of the Lakes, ushering in the new “vacation era.”

Other major events in the town’s history included the loss of the Meredith Bridge section of town, which included Lake Village and The Weirs, to the newly created town of Laconia in 1855. That section represented about 45 percent of the town’s population and much of its commercial base.

Then came the Civil War, with Meredith men comprising the majority of recruits for Company 1 of the 12th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry. The regiment would experience severe losses at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.

The Boston & Maine Railroad launched the steamboat SS Mount Washington in 1872, the same year workmen discovered what has become known as the Meredith Mystery Stone while digging near the outlet of the village canal.

The S.S Mount Washington is not the same ship that now plies the waters of Lake Winnipesaukee. It was a wooden side-wheeler, 178 feet in length, and it was destroyed when a fire broke out in the railroad station in December 1939, spreading down the ramp to the dock where the S.S. Mount Washington was berthed for the winter.

Captain Leander Lavallee announced that he would replace the vessel, and he located the Chateauguay, a 203-foot-long iron ship, on Lake Champlain in Vermont. He brought it to the Big Lake and renamed it the SS Mount Washington II, and it operated under that name until 1946, when the steam engines were replaced with diesel engines, and it was rechristened the M/V Mount Washington. In 1982, the ship was cut down the center in order to add 25 feet to its length, and it was reclassified as the M/S Mount Washington.

The Mystery Stone was another story. Seneca Ladd, a founder of Meredith Village Savings Bank in 1869, had men digging on the outlet of Lake Waukewan in 1872 when they unearthed an engraved egg-shaped stone, encased in mud.

Rudy VanVeghten, a member of the Meredith Historical Society, said similar rocks — oval with holes drilled in each end — were used by Woodlands Indians to weigh down their fishing nets.

“But they didn’t have carvings on them,” he said. “So what’s going on?”

Architects who have examined the rock — now on display at the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord — have questioned its authenticity, but VanVeghten says, “I don’t think Seneca Ladd would have forged it himself, and who would have planted it there in the mud?”

Twentieth Century and Beyond

Meredith residents, saying, “The fear of meeting automobiles has deterred many people … owing to the fact that numerous runaways and broken wagons were the result of the encounters with the ‘red devils,’” established a speed limit of 5 mph in 1903, according to the society’s timeline.

Babe Ruth, whose wife, Helen, had lived in Meredith, began winter visits in 1916, where he is said have enjoyed sleigh riding.

The year 1955 was an important one for the town, as Annalee and Chip Thorndike established Annalee Dolls, which became a worldwide enterprise, and Hart’s Turkey Farm Restaurant opened for business. Hart’s remains a popular place for its turkey dinners and catering service. (The Historical Society Museum has a display of Annalee Dolls, along with those of Gwen Flather; and Annalee’s daughter-in-law, Karen Thorndike, serves as president of the historical society.)

Bob Montana of Archie comic book fame moved to Meredith and incorporated some of the town’s residents and locations into the series. He also took part in community theater productions and was active in other community events. The Historical Society Museum has a display of original Archie drawings, among other artifacts, and also in downtown Meredith, a statue of Archie on a park bench occupies Community Park, across from the building Montana used to occupy.

With the mill era having ended by that time, Edward “Rusty” McLear developed the Mill Falls Inn and Marketplace around the old mill buildings in 1984, leading the town’s transformation into a modern tourist destination. In 1993, his company purchased the building at One Bay Point and renovated it into Lago Restaurant and the Inn at Bay Point. In 2003, they acquired the St. Charles Church property to create a resort hotel named Church Landing.

Karen Thorndike said the timeline has inspired teachers of third-grade students in the Inter-Lakes School District to encourage the children to write their own personal timelines, and the Meredith Farm Museum sends old farm clothing and tools to fourth-grade students as part of their studies.

Heart and Hands Thrift Shop donated $1,500 to have the timeline printed in a booklet that could go out to the third- and fourth graders.

John Hopper, who did the bulk of the writing for the timeline, also takes part in the Meredith Historical Society Speakers Series, having recently given a talk on Meredith’s Page Pond Community Forest. VanVeghten will be releasing his new booklet on Native American history, “Clash of Cultures: The Story of the Penacooks, the Winnipesaukees, and Chiefs Passaconaway, Wonalancet and Kancamagus,” during a talk at the Meredith Community Center on Tuesday, July 5. The full schedule of talks appears at https://meredithhistoricalsocietynh.org/2022-calendar/.

The historical society has partnered with the New Hampshire Boat Museum of Wolfeboro for some lake-related exhibits, including water skis.

The Meredith Historical Society’s extensive family files are due to the work of John McFarland, a former teacher who had a background in history and an interest in genealogy when he joined the historical society.

“I’m building a genealogy of the early families of Meredith, which is an unending task for us,” McFarland said. “It’s building to close to 6,000 individuals.”

Rita Polhemus serves as the society’s database manager, and Judy Dever staffs the museum, which is open six days a week from Memorial Day through Columbus Day, then once a week “through Thanksgiving or Christmas, or as long as we can keep people coming in,” said VanVeghten.

For those unable to visit in person, the society’s website at www.meredithhistoricalsocietynh.org offers a great deal of information on Meredith, with links to other sources.