NH Union Leader news paper article ...
A celebration straight off the farm
By KRISTI GAROFALO
Special to the Union Leader
Visitors gathering
at the Poore Family Homestead Historic Farm Museum in Stewartstown for the 18th
annual Open Barn and Celebration were treated to authentic cowboy guitar music
by Harold Boydston. The Poore Farm Homestead is a historic homestead
chronicling one family's history from the 1830s to the 1980s. (KRISTI
GAROFALO)
STEWARTSTOWN — There is a small but powerful time
warp waiting to be discovered in the Great North Woods.
At the Poore Family Homestead Historic Farm Museum
in Stewartstown, visitors are transported back to a time before electricity in
the rural northernmost region of New Hampshire.
On Sunday, the museum celebrated the 127th birthday
of J.C. Kenneth Poore, the last member of the Poore family and the founder of
the Poore Family Foundation for North Country Conservancy, with the 18th annual
Open Barn and Celebration.
Rick Johnsen, executive director of the Poore
Family Foundation, said he got caught up with the history evident in every part
of the Poore Family Homestead.
“I feel very lucky to be here,” he said, as he
welcomed visitors to the birthday party and reminded them to have a piece of
birthday cake. “It's tradition,” he told the group.
Dawn Franklin of Gray, Maine, vacations in the area
every summer. She brought her 7-year-old daughter, Sophia, and her 2-year-old
son, Evan, to the celebration.
“It's a great way for them to learn some history,”
she said, watching as the two played with a hand water pump.
Visitors explored a typical trapper camp from the
early 1800's and learned how early pioneers and trappers started campfires by
watching demonstrations from Charlie Chalk and Jimmy Gilbert of the Great North
Woods Party of American Mountain Men.
The men also demonstrated hatchet throwing and
black powder rifle shooting, complete with a boom enjoyed by the kids.
“I've been doing this for a number of years,” Chalk
said. “You really have to know and research the period, but we enjoy doing it
as a hobby and it keeps the skills alive.”
Visitors also toured the barn and outbuildings with
exhibits of the Poore family's farm equipment and household items such as
letters, camping equipment and a loom used to weave carpets for the house.
Of course, the Poore family house was the
centerpiece of the day. Built in 1825 by Moses Heath, the 100-acre farm was
sold in 1832 to Job Poore.
The five-bedroom house never had indoor plumbing or
electricity. Food was kept cool by storing it in a room built over a spring
running under the house. The small house couldn't hold many visitors at once.
While waiting in line, guests ate cake and listened to lively authentic cowboy
and western music provided by Harold Boydston.
Debby Clark of Lebanon, Maine, and her
granddaughters, Laura Fuller and Ayllana Holtby, were visiting her brother's
camp in Colebrook and came for the day.
“My brother visited the farm last year and this
year we arranged to have the whole family come up,” she said.
Andrew Zander visited the homestead earlier in the
year with his school class, but didn't tour the house.
“I really wanted to come again,” he said.
The tour of the house, led by Poore Family
Foundation Director Linda Tillotson, gave timeworn glimpses into the Poore
family's daily lives, such as the dresses worn by the women and Civil War-era
letters written by members of the family.
The Poore Family Homestead Museum is open to the
public from June through September. For more information, go to poorefamily.homestead.com
or poorefarm.org
KRISTI GAROFALO
kgarofalo@newstote.com
