THE MYSTERY OF THE CHICKEN FARMER

A recent newspaper article in the VALLEY NEWS prompted me to list this topic here....The 'CHICKEN FARMER' MYSTERY is not a ghost story or a murder mystery but more of a haunting, intriguing LOVE STORY....that has fascinated most people who travel through Newbury,New Hampshire, along the road from the Interstate and the Capital of Concord.... On the side of the road on some rocks cut out of the banks along the road, is the statement or declaration that says,'CHICKEN FARMER I STILL LOVE YOU' although originally, as the article points out, it once read simply,'CHICKEN FARMER I LOVE YOU' and the story of the change in wordings will be discussed later but can clear up why for those who saw, as I once did, why the word 'still' is not on the saying, which has been a bit controversial at times. Although the 'graffiti' has been there since the 1970's, I seem to think it really belongs to an earlier era.....and the identity of the persons : the one who wrote the words and the one who is the object of affections remains, for teh most part, a local mystery, although some claim to know the persons' identities and others speculate..... There was a chicken farmer, who lived in the area back in perhaps the 30's or so and others in the area, including a young lady, raised chickens also nearby the rocks.... But I wish to call attention to the term 'chicken farmer' which was once considered a most lowly and poor occupation for many, even contemptible, since
hen manure' etc. is not a very pleasant by-product of hens and chickens,etc.... Yet, eggs are and seem to have always been, an important part of the 'American Diet' and food chain as well as important in baking,etc......leaving that topic aside, there was the famous novel: THE EGG & I which was made into a movie starring Fred Macmurray and Claudette Colbert, which also introduced the characters of MA & PA KETTLE played by Majorie Main and Percy Kilbride.........and the spinoff movies of which Pa was notoriously lazy and conniving,etc. So, if one was a lowly chicken farmer, the girl or man, whoever it was, loved loved the farmer....the mystery is whether the farmer was a girl or a man and vice versa for the lover......many assume the it is a man while others tend to favor a woman who, perhaps, realized too late that she loved him,etc.....

THE GHOST AT INDIAN SHUTTERS

THE HIDDEN ROOM

The old CHASE HOUSE on the Claremont/Cornish Road, along the Connecticut River, is reputed to have somewhere in it, and I wonder if the present owners know of it, a 'hidden room'. My mother's cousin, Dorothy S. once owned the house and then sold it and lived somewhat nearby until she died. She told my mother that there was a 'hidden' room there but had not been able to locate it. More on all this another time.

UFOS IN CLAREMONT & THE TWIN STATE VALLEY

Like so many in the 50's the UFO craze interested me as I began to read nearlly all the books coming out on the subject, some of which I still have, and,of course, I had read all the science fiction books in the Stevens High School Library as well as other books on the subject, and eventually read a lot of the 'classic' science fiction. I also went to nearly every movie on space travel and planetary life,etc. and listened to such radio programs, like 2000+, Dimension X, etc. as well as The Adventures of BUCK ROGERS. Eventually I met persons who had become involved in the search for UFO's.

THE IRON MINES OF GREEN MOUNTAIN

Green Mountain is a prominent mountain that overlooks Claremont and it has many interesting things about it. When I was in high school, I found out from reading the histories about old mines located there and with some friends, one of whom knew about the shafts there, had planned to explore them but it never materialized, at least for me, because my Grandmother did not want me or the others going there,etc. I was living on Pine Grove Street at the time, if I recall. Other tales of Green Mountain will be told later.

THE WHITE CROW OF CLAREMONT

Someone, perhaps Mark Twain, said, that if you come across a White crow, then you will know that not all crows are black, which is what most people assume! When the Fiske Free Library was housing the varous historical collections in the basement area that was a display area for a lot of things, including a number of birds, books, magazines, and other items, that eventually were shunted about the town of Claremont until they have found what might be their final home at the Historical Society Museum. What I vividly remember was,when our class in high school went to the library for a tour,etc. the librarian telling us about the White Crow and showing us the bird,of which only another had been found, which was in the Smithsonian Institute at the time. HOWEVER, she said, and this is important, the one in the Smithsonian had one black spot somewhere on it, while Claremont's had absolutely none! I, at one time, tried to track down where this collection went and kept insisting that Claremont had a White Crow, the only completely White one in the US!. Of course, there is more I can say about the library and its past and have on CLAREMONT CAPERS.

TORY'S HOLE

TORY'S HOLE is not a tourist feature anymore because the owner's of the land where it is located disliked people traipsing up to see the place and so forth. At one time a sign indicated the area to go to to locate it but it was removed so that cars and tourists going by will not know any such place exists. The name comes from the early days of the American Revolution when Tories, those loyal to England and King George, apparently plotted against the rebels and revolutionaries,etc. The area was was secluded and made a somewhat good hiding purpose for meetings and storing weapons and so forth and later was discovered and a sort of fight may have broken out. I shall have to search the history for this. At any rate, going there might well chill your bones if you can get permission to go there. Who knows what archeological things might be found there under the soil?