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Holderness 250th Celebration!
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Written by Larry Spencer   
Monday, 27 June 2011 20:36

As you can see from the listings below, our celebration is mostly over.  In the month of September, students at the Holderness Central will be putting on plays about the history of Holderness. If you are interested in a future celebration, come back in 50 years for our 300th anniversary.  Until then, just keep truckin!!!

 

TOWN OF HOLDERNESS

SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

Celebrating 250 years of community!

Event Schedule

Friday August 5th 2011

1:00 – 2:00PM Steve Schuch Free Concert – Kirkwood Gardens @ Squam Lakes Science Center

1:00 - 6:00PM Holderness Historical Society will be open - Curry Place

 

7:00- 10:00PM Street Dance with Postage Due – Little Church Theater

Food options will be available as well from 6:00PM!

 

Saturday August 6th 2011

Sat. 9-6 Abenaki artist demonstrations and sales, Barry Higgins, White Crow Flutes www.whitecrowflutes.com , Bill and Sherry Gould, Western Abenaki Baskets www.westernabenakibaskets.com, Darryl Peasley, beaded top hats and leather pouches, Debbie Dostie, Silver Wolf Creations beadwork http://www.silverwolfcreations.net/default.html, and her apprentice Vicki Blanchard. – Curry Place

9:00 - 6:00PM  Holderness Historical Society will be open - Curry Place

 

10:00AM-4:00PM The Market at Curry Place – Crafters and Food Vendors

9:30 AM Mattatuck Fife and Drum Band parades by boat from Cotton Cove to Squam Boat Livery

 

9:30AM – 4:30PM Squam Lakes Natural Science Center (FREE admission for Holderness residents)

 

10:00 AM Grand Street Parade Route 3 @ Shepard Hill Rd to the Science Center on Route 113.

 

10:45AM Vintage Boat Flotilla – from Cotton Cove to Perkins Cabiins on Little Squam for Public Viewing (boats should meet in Cove at 10:15 Am)

 

1:00 PM Changes in NH's Wildlife in the last 250 Years - Science Center

 

3:00 PM Famous Holderness Authors with Sid Lovett @ Library

6:00 PM A talk by Prof. David Stewart-Smith (formerly Norwich University) on "Abenaki native life in these parts before the European settlers arrived". (Sponsored by the NH InterTrival native American Council - lower level of the Holderness Historical Society). Talk will be follow by refreshments. Professor Stweart-Smith is a recognized national authority and author of many books on this subject.

 

7:30 – 10:30PM Barn Dance in the Fisher Family Activity Barn at SLA

Sunday August 7th 2011


8:00AM Remembrance Church Service with Sid Lovett giving thanks for community – Community Church (across from fire station)

 

7:30 -10:30AM Pancake Breakfast – Holderness Fire Station (The Bridge School, across the street from the firehouse, will be offering tours during the pancake breakfast)

9-6 Abenaki artist demonstrations and sales-Curry Place

 

9:30AM– 4:40 PM  Squam Lakes Natural Science Center (Free admission for Holderness residents only)

11:00 Native American flute performance by White Crow-Curry Place

12:00 - 6:00 PM Holderness Historical Society will be open - Curry Place

 

2:00 PM John Brooks, a Huron descendant, will conduct a trail walk for "Feast at Your Feet" and "The Thee Sister Survival Vegetables" starting at the Historical Society

 

3:30PM Reading of the Town Charter @ Livermore Common Holderness School

 

4:00PM Vespers @ Trinity Cemetery Chapel followed by reading of King George's charter creating New Holderness and a tour of the Cemetery pointing out prominant Holderness families of then past..

 

Monday August 8th 2011

 

9:00 AM - 6:00 PM Holderness Historical Society will be open - Curry Place

 

6:00 PM Longhaul Farm-- Dinner and "I remember when discussion" tales of fond memories of community in Holderness over the years. A special dinner menu will be available.

Saturday August 13th 2011

 

10:00 AM--Hike to the old Town Farm Property with members of the Holderness Conservation Commission. Meet at the Pilote Forest trailhead on Beede Road at 9:45. Parking is available up the road at the Town Forest parking lot. This will be a short hike (about 3 miles) through the Pilote Forest and returning via Town Farm Road. Rain date will be Sunday, the 14th at noon.

 

 

 
Last Updated on Tuesday, 20 September 2011 16:22
 
Holderness250 Press Release PDF Print E-mail
Written by Malcolm (Tink) Taylor   
Wednesday, 02 March 2011 11:43

HOLDERNESS, N.H. TO CELEBRATE ITS 250th BIRTHDAY

 

 

HOLDERNESS – In celebrating the 250th anniversary of its very founding, this town is reaching back into its past – its British and European roots and beyond, to those who were here long before the white settlers. This celebration will take place mainly over the August 5-8, 2011 weekend but with other activities occurring elsewhere.

From King George III of Great Britain on October 24, 1761, through his appointed Gov. Benning Wentworth in Portsmouth, came the Royal Charter establishing the new township. It was the second attempt at promoting settlement a prior charter having been forfeited ten years earlier for lack of mandated land improvements. But this region had already been populated by retreating indigenous Abenaki Indians.

New Holderness was laid out by the King's surveyor Samuel Lane starting in 1751 beginning at "The Great [Livermore] Falls…on the Pemigewasset River, coursing 6 miles due east, then south for the same distance and back west to the river…" This thirty-six square-mile plot included today's town of Ashland split off 107 years later over who would pay for village improvements. For this reason Ashland has joined in the Holderness celebration.

The town became a reality through grants in land to 61 "proprietors" – including only one woman – some of whom moved here from around Durham, others who never came to see what they had been granted. These land grants (later ranges) were then broken up into three-acre "Lotts" mainly along the Pemigewasset River. Most prominent among the first proprietors was Samuel Livermore, prominent jurist and, as delegate to the Constitutional Convention, the maker of a motion to adopt the draft document making New Hampshire the ninth and deciding state thus adopting the 'Law of the Land." Squire Livermore is buried behind Trinity Chapel in Holderness, built in 1797 in observance of the Church of England (Anglican) faith but today New Hampshire's oldest surviving Episcopal church.

Planned in conjunction with the Holderness celebration are an Indian living history encampment and powwow, grand street parade, vintage boat flotilla, band concerts, a street dance, native crafts, folk music, a contra dance, special church services, cook-outs and much, much more.

Word of congratulations will be forthcoming from the Rt. Hon. Graham Stuart, a member of the British Parliament for Holderness, England, for whom the town was named.
 

Early planning thusfar includes:

  • Reading of the Charter granting the Town of Holderness as issued by King George III including a complete listing of the original grantees.
  • Various Historic Re-enactments: the first Town Meeting, hewing and sawing timbers, cooking, cabin building, Rogers' Rangers muster, Abenaki Natives
  • Vintage Boat Parade followed by Grand Street Parade
  • Band Concert
  • Street Dance /Bar-B-Que / Pancake Breakfast
  • Special Church Services
  • Representatives of Abenaki Nation
  • Famous Holderness Authors
  • An "I can remember when" night
  • Period Costumes to be worn
  • Competition over mid-18th century recipes
  • Archeological dig to find the town's first settlers
  • Tour of historic sites in Ashland & Holderness (remember, they were the same town then)


Contributions (tax deductible) are needed:  c/o Holderness Historical Society  | Post Office Box 319  | Holderness, N.H. 03245  |  Note: "Holderness 250"