Hopefully everyone had a nice Memorial Day. The weather was not very cooperative. The rain on Sunday continued into Monday morning, but mid-day the weather cleared. Of course, by then, area celebrations were moved inside.
Not much to write about this week. Evidently, the neighbors are just enjoying some of the beautiful days or they are just keeping to themselves.
The Gilead Fire Department has been called out this past week with a couple of accidents on Rt. 113. Bethel Rescue responded to both scenes. They transported a couple of patients to the hospital from one of them.
Gilead Historical Society
The GHS opened up the buildings last Saturday, May 23rd, for the summer. They will be open on Saturdays from noon to 3pm. There were nine people (from Maine—Rumford Point and Bethel, from NH—Nashua and Shelburne), who stopped by to check out the buildings. There is coffee available and usually a snack, such as brownies.
Christopher Stewart, a Peabody descendent, stopped by a couple of weeks ago and dropped off some items for the GHS collections. He had a couple of school desks and some chairs. The chairs, which were made in the early 1800s, have been handed down through the Peabody family through the years. He said that they were made at the Peabody Tavern in the wintertime when the people had more time on their hands and could be more creative. During the summer, they were much busier with farming and maintaining the homestead.
On one wall of the schoolhouse, there is a Peabody Family display with photos of the family and the “Old Red House” throughout the years. There used to be a big barn and some other outbuildings.
There is also an original painting by John Francis Richardson, a member of the Peabody family who resided in Gilead from 1838-1849. John was the eldest son of Henry and Eunice “Thurston” Richardson. Henry was the Congregational minister for both Gilead and Shelburne, NH. It was donated to the GHS in 2007 from Robert and Joanne “Peabody” Stewart.
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