Elm Farm was a popular boarding house operated by Mary E. Call. Today it is a business center on the corner of Lowell and Cobbett’s Pond Road. Of course, the beautiful elms, for which it was named are long gone. The house was built by the Rev. Calvin Cutler in 1839. A previous house on the property once housed Williams Academy.
This is a very familiar scene to those of us who enjoy the Windham rail trail with the exception of the water tower and the railroad tracks…And the train!
The mill at West Windham housed many businesses over the years. In this photograph, part of the building is being used for a Adriance Farm Machinery dealership
The close relationship of the Dinsmore and Davidson families can easily be seen in the genealogies contained in the back of Morison’s History of Windham. Many a Dinsmore married a Davidson and vice versa. A few months back I purchased some old papers related to Windham, not really realizing what they were about. Come to find out they are various receipts and releases of bonds for William Anderson.
Deacon Robert Dinsmoor, the Rustic Bard, married his beloved Mary Park when he was twenty-five. They had twelve children together, but tragically she died while delivering a child. This left Robert Dinsmore alone with 12 young children to raise. His second marriage, by all appearances was one of mutual convenience. He married the widowed Mary (Davidson) Anderson. They had no children together. Morrison says, “On Dec. 31, 1801, he married for his second wife, Mary, daughter of John Davidson and the widow of Samuel Anderson, of Londonderry. She occupied the trying place of step-mother to a large family with singular good judgement and won the affection of the children and grandchildren of her husband. To all the girls and boys of the neighborhood she was known by the endearing name of “aunt Molly.” She survived her husband and died January 19, 1838.
Mary Anderson’s first husband, Samuel, died in 1796, five years previous to her marriage to Robert Dinsmoor. She had six children with Samuel Anderson, including a son William, who as we will see, was placed under the guardianship of Mary’s brother, Deacon William Davidson. William had eight young children of his own at the time. In addition to William Anderson, there were two older sisters and a brother and two younger sisters. So the mystery is this. Robert Dinsmoor already had twelve young children and adding six more would have made 18 children under one roof. Was it decided that it would be better for some of Mary’s children to live with her brother? Apparently this was the case. Mary’s oldest three children were married by 1804 but that still left the upbringing of the youngest three. It appears in the receipts that Mary (Anderson) Dinsmoor still owned or had rights to her husband’s property and estate, because she received rent for in the form of crops from William Davidson.
Morrison says of Mary’s brother William that, “Deacon William Davidson was born in Windham, October 15, 1761 and married December 14, 1790, Jane, the daughter of John Barnet, of Londonderry…He owned the farm adjoining his brother James, and now owned by Benjamin Blanchard. The house stood back from the present one on a hill, a few rods from the main highway. In his personal appearance Mr. Davidson was pleasant and affable; kind and courteous in his bearing towards others. He was popular in town; became a deacon in the church previous to 1826; was Selectman in 1806, 10, 11,13,16,17. He died March 14, 1839.”
There are thirty odd receipts and releases in the group.
Windham, January 17th 1805: Received of William Davidson, Guardian for William Anderson Ten Bushels of Indian corn and Tens Bushels of Rye in full for said William Anderson part of the Rent of my Wife’s third in his Estate for said year per me Robert Dinsmoor.
Windham November 11th 1805. Then received of William Davidson Guardian to William Anderson Twenty Nine Dollars and Eighty four cents Being Due to my Wife of her late husband’s personal estate (viz.) for wearing apparel, notes of hand and other accounts per me Robert Dinsmoor.
Received of William Davidson My Guardian seven Dollars and forty cents being in full of all Notes bonds Due Debts and Demands of whatsoever name or nature respecting his Guardianship for me I say Paid per me. Windham March 9, day 1811. William Anderson. Tests James Davidson.
This view shows Policy Street at the Windham, Salem town line looking into Salem.
This is an early view of Searles Castle in Windham. I believe it is taken just below Indian Rock Road, running through the photograph, which can be can be detected by the stone walls just above the wood piles. With most of the land in open fields the view from the castle towards Cobbett’s Pond were just spectacular. Of course, this scene today has been totally obliterated by the interstate 93 and Route 111 which tears through this location.
This view shows the shoreline along Cobbett’s Pond which was owned for hundreds of years by the Armstrong family. If you look to the far left you can seen the wooden changing rooms at Armstrong Beach.
In the Eastern Illustrating Collection of photographs are several of Canobie Lake. They are interesting because they are taken from West Shore Road, looking toward where Woodvue Road is today. You can seen in the photographs all the new growth trees on the opposite shore. It is hard to imaging that long length of water frontage with no development.
This photograph from the Eastern Illustrating Company s looking up Policy Street to the Windham line. These three cottages were located in Windham. The picket fence marks the Windham/Salem line.
This photograph for Eastern Illustrating Company shows the pristine shores of Canobie Lake. The view is looking from West Shore Road toward where Woodvue Road is today.
The two cottages at the center of the view are still standing on Cobbett’s Pond in Windham NH.
The shoreline along Cobbett’s Pond Road with Horne Road in the distance. The Kimball’s owned the cottage on the hill which offered panoramic views of the pond
There was once a wonderful gathering place in Windham, where the townspeople met to discuss politics and all of the interesting goings on in town. Back then, in the 1970s, Windham was still, a genuine, “rural oasis” and the morning meeting of the town notables was presided over by the venerable Ray Barlow, who often cut to the quick, with his wry wit and conversational abilities. I recently came across this article, from the Lawrence Eagle Tribune, August 9, 1979 announcing Ray’s retirement and sale of the store.
“WINDHAM, NH.— Ray and Grace Barlow are the Windham Country Store. But come the morning of Sept. 5, the familiar faces of the couple who have owned and operated one of Windham’s favorite spots for the past 7 1/2 years will be replaced by those of the Thomas Klemm family.”
“ ‘When I bought the store I said to Gracie ‘8 years and we’ll get out,’ Ray Barlow 55 stated. ‘It’s 7 1/2 years later and we’re selling out.’ ” But in those 7 1/2 years the Barlows have built a business that caters to 2,500 customers daily, seven days a week. Eleven hundred of those are regular customers, and all told, from 5 a.m. when the Country Store opens its doors until 9:30 p.m. when the Barlows finally head home, 30 dozen doughnuts and 600 cups of coffee plus a variety of grocery goods, cigarettes, newspapers and magazines, wine, shiners (over 6,700 dozen were sold to fishermen last winter) and worms are sold to patrons.”
“Originally, the Windham Country Store was a house that was converted into a small store in the 1950s. It catered to the summer trade and was closed during the winter.”
The Barlows, thanks to what Ray refers to as simple ‘Yankee ingenuity,’ took that small store, expanded it at least four times the original size, bought milk trucks and converted them into cooler compartments, took the garage and made it into a storage room, and took the sheep shed and made it into a coffee-klatch room.”
“ ‘People who come in every morning now have a place to sit without having to get dressed up,’ Barlow said. ‘We’ve got construction workers, businessmen and housewives who come in for a cup of coffee and chat.’ The conversation covers a wide variety of topics
‘We fired Nixon three weeks before he had the brains to resign,’ Barlow recalled. ‘This is not a gossip shop. It’s above that. The people that come in here have a wider spectrum than just Windham.’ ”
“The Barlows run the Country Store as a family business. Ray puts in 84 hours each week and Grace works 77 hours. The Barlows’ son-in-law Gary Carpenter, sic. (Carbonneau) helps to run the store, and their daughter Nancy Guilfoyle, runs the food stand just to the side.”
“ ‘We’ve only been on four two-week vacations together since we came here,’ Barlow said. ‘It never was a second home. It’s all been fun— every day has been enjoyable — because it’s always been different.’ ” Barlow has had five different and distinct careers since World War II. After his discharge he worked for H.P. Hood as a bottle washer, working his way up to head foreman. Then he had a lumber hauling business. After that he became an administrative supervisor for Sanders Associates in Nashua. He developed Windham Estates, building 100 homes. Certain things stick in Barlow’s mind.”
“ ‘Rosalynn Carter came in here back in 1976 and told Gracie it was too cold to use the pay phone outside and wanted to use the store phone,’ Barlow recalled. ‘Gracie told her no one used the store phone, kicked her out and told her to go outside and use the booth. Mrs. Carter told Grace her husband was running for president, but that didn’t make any difference to Grace. When she saw Mrs. Carter on TV later as the president’s wife, she nearly died.’ ”
Barlow continued, ‘Then one day Bob Newhart came in and had coffee with us. We had a heck of a time.’ He was staying at Cobbett’s Pond for a week.”
Ray is a collector of and lecturer on Sandwich Glass. After the store is sold he will devote full time to writing six volumes on that subject.” Karen Breehey, Granite State Reporter. And Ray did go on to write his Magnum Opus on Sandwich Glass.
Windham NH History 