Boscawen Historical Society, (BHS) a 501-C-3 not-for-profit organization that operates entirely by volunteer participation, cannot rely on donations alone to cover normal operating expenses. Please vote in favor of the petitioned Warrant Article 10 for support of BHS at the Town Meeting and Election.

Gifts are intermittent and most are restricted for specific conservation purposes. Our calendar sales provide some funds (a few 2021 calendars with historic photos are available at $15). We rely on partial outside funding for basic operations, so that we can maintain the knowledge of the town’s extensive past for present and future public access to our town’s history, as required by the BHS by-laws.

Assets include quitclaimed ownership of two National Register of Historic Places buildings on King Street. We are responsible for their upkeep and repairs, insurance, heat, electricity, security, and internet access for our Website and Facebook presence. When BHS formed in 1967 many early town records in the town’s safe at the 1913 Library were permanently moved to the 1827 Academy building. Other town records came when the Library moved to the Municipal Building 15 years ago. The founding documentation of the Society indicates that should the town not be able to operate the premises in the same manner upon dissolution of the Society, all assets would be transferred to the New Hampshire Historical Society. These include service organization and club minutes, memorabilia, church and school records, extensive cemetery and burial records (recently documented on our website), vital statistics, extensive family history information, photographic documentation, news clippings, artifacts, ephemera, antiques, and historical artifacts on display in the museum.

Behind the scenes operations include research, report writing, conservation, preservation, and documentation pertinent to the town and its environs. Historical information and new discoveries are shared in the Newsvine and on our Facebook page. Cemetery records and town histories are available on the www.boscawenhistoricalsociety.org website, with several of the cemeteries linked with photographs to Find-a-Grave. We open the Museum to the public on Sunday afternoons from 2 to 4 from Memorial Day to October, and other times by chance or arrangement throughout the year. Numerous requests for information about property ownership and genealogical/ family information are answered from local and on-line requests.

We conduct visitor tours of historic sites in the town and make public presentations including Hidden Roadways, Hannah Dustin, and The Flood of 1896. Public programs got curtailed by the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, so presentations about Gerrish and the Commercial Street Mill yard for the central NH MUSE railway program were postponed. We are fiscal agents for the current Moose Plate Grant for restoration of the 1795 Town Pound on North Water Street by Brown Dog Stoneworks.

We serve the NH Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Bureau of Historic Sites on the Hannah Duston Advisory Committee, and the Gerrish Depot/Gerrish Station Restoration Project. With the recent Friends of the Northern Rail Trail acquisition to continue the rail trail to the Hannah Dustin site, more research and involvement is anticipated for the interpretation of the Mill Yard on Commercial Street.

We hope to continue to provide the current level of service for the benefit of all residents, to preserve the knowledge and upkeep of Boscawen’s history. We want to thank the Town of Boscawen voters for support of the Boscawen Historical Society in the past. We hope you will support Warrant Article 10 at voting for the Boscawen Historical Society at Town Meeting, and we hope you will consider becoming a volunteer with our organization. Please come for a visit electronically or in person.