Food for thought from a sign-eating tree

If your travels take you to the intersection of Purgatory and William Reynolds roads,  you'll come upon this tree. At our last meeting, several of us were discussing how fascinating it is to watch how nature tries to slowly erase our footprints - and the "sign-eating tree" is the very embodiment of this. We are reminded that all of our historical treasures here in Exeter - roads, farms, schools, cemeteries - will be hidden by nature without our deliberate efforts!

And that's what the Exeter Historical Association is all about.

Many thanks to EHA board member Gary Boden for both the picture and the thoughts!

The Smithsonian in Exeter

Our little hamlet may be getting some national attention in the coming months! Earlier this Fall, a writer for the Smithsonian Magazine named Abby Tucker contacted EHA President Sheila Reynolds Boothroyd. Abby was looking for information about poor Mercy Brown, who, as many of us know, was cast as a vampire after her death from tuberculosis in 1892. Abby recently travelled to Exeter to conduct first-hand research on Mercy, and to  meet with Sheila. They are pictured below, in the lobby of the Radisson Hotel near the Providence airport.

With Sheila's assistance, Abby has been busy doing primary-source research on Mercy and her family, pouring over census records and newspaper articles from the the 1890's. While we don't yet know when the article will be published, we're sure it will be quite interesting! Stay tuned!

You can learn a lot from a cemetery - adopt one today!

Here in Exeter, we are lucky to have time capsules of history located literally right in our own yards. There are dozens and dozens of small cemetery plots scattered all over town, and each one has amazing stories.

The Peckham Holocaust mass grave is located in the
northeast corner of Cemetery #25 (foreground, left side).

For example, did you know that Cemetery #25, at the intersection of William Reynolds and Purgatory Rds, is the location of a mass grave from a horrible fire that claimed the lives of eight people and made national news in 1839? The Peckham Holocaust was a result of arson at the home of Mr. and Mrs  Timothy Peckham, who ran a boarding house as the town "Poor Farm". The story about the fire originally ran in the Providence Journal and the Rhode Island Republican (a Newport paper) on April 17 of that year. Within one week of its publication, it was picked up by 9 other newspapers, from Alexandria VA to Brattleboro VT.

Do you have a cemetery on your land, or near your house, that you'd like to know more about? The Exeter Historical Association is starting an "Adopt-a-Cemetery" program. We'll be posting more information about this program in the coming months, but if you'd like to get started in caring for a cemetery on or near your property, contact us at exeterhistory@yahoo.com

Official Opening of Woody Hill School! Sat Sep 10

"Irene" has come and gone, 
and we have a new date for this event!

The members of the Exeter Town Council 

cordially invite you to attend an

Open House 

at the newly restored 

Woody Hill One-Room Schoolhouse

Woody Hill Rd, Exeter RI

Please join us on

Saturday, September 10, 2011

from 1:00 to 3:00 pm

Ceremony will begin at 1:30

Refreshments will be served!

- restroom facilities will not be available-

A cool new way to view a cool old building - 3D video of Exeter Old Town Hall

A core group of EHA members have started working on a plan to move Exeter's old Town Hall from its current location over to the property where the Library is located. This move would not only bring the building to a spot where more people would see it, but would also allow us to use it to house the many known and as-yet-unknown treasures from Exeter's vibrant past.

EHA member Gary Boden took a bunch of pictures of old Town Hall, and used a great new 3D video site called PhotoFly to make this super-cool mini movie: