Deerfield Parade
by Gregg B.
|
My project tells
the history of the Parade in the town of
Deerfield. My class chose to do
research on Joseph T. Brown a doctor who lived on the Deerfield Parade(
now
known as Parade road). The Parade has
certainly changed through the years since the early 1800s.
I hope you enjoy my work and the time I put
in this, as I too enjoyed the research and learning the history of the
Parade,
I hope you do too for it is a popular site in Deerfield.
|
Deerfield Parade
|
The Parade
was called the Parade because during
the Revolutionary and Civil War the soilders would train and parade on
the
village common.
|
The Parade
was very busy, with horse drawn
carriages, newcomers, and people who just preferred to walk. It had the same old well already implanted
in the ground in the center of the common. This
was where the school children would drink from during
the day. The soil was rich because of how
people
would sow the land lavishly, gathered crops and cut grain abundantly
this gave
the Parade the agricultural atmosphere.
|
People still remember the Parade
of
a place of joy,
beautiful homesteads, and honorable patriots.
|
The main roads of the Parade led
to
Portsmouth and then
into Concord. The eastern road led on
to Vermont.
|
It was and is a peaceful place,
but
for the taverns, they
were well known for their bad reputation. There
were two taverns to be exact. Dr. Stephen
Brown (Joseph T. Brown's father) owned a
tavern where now
Ellsie Brown lives now. The Prescott’s
tavern lay on the other side of the common, opposite from Dr. Stephen’s
tavern
(the two taverns were in competition with each other)
|
One night a
drunk from the Prescott’s tavern
wondered out into street and started being a nusaince to the tired and
weary
people of the Parade. Soon Joesph T.
Brown marched outside and knocked on the Prescott’s door.
The barkeeper anwsered and Joesph T. Brown
ordered to have the drunk put back in the tavern, the barkeeper then
did so.
|
Another incident would also
ocassionally happen at the Prescott’s tavern. A
drunk would end up spending the night in the horse stables.
In the morning the owners of the stables would go down to
feed the horses and to find a drunk sleeping in a stable, and would
have to shoo the drunk out.
|
The shops
that were on the Parade came as a
variety. As you already know there were
two taverns which had inns on the next floor above the pub. There were two country stores.
One country store that was called Archey’s
country store was next door to Stephen Brown's tavern.
The store sold items like: rubber boots, a
few provisions, canned goods, bread, etc.... Within
the country store on the second floor was where
meetings, plays,
and dances were held. The second store
was owned by George Danforth the owners lived upstairs.
|
At the end of
Parade road was a blacksmith, this
is where they made tin cups, horse shoes, rims for wagon wheels, etc.... The blacksmith shop was owned by Everett
Emerson. The shop fell down from old
age.
|
There was
also a cooper store, it existed in
Bill O’Neil’s barn.
|
The Parade was used as a
tradingpost if you will. The most common
items that were coming in
great quanities were boards, shingles, staves (the wooden panels for a
barrel),
hoop-poles (metal bindings to hold a barrel together).
Newcomers would trade with the nearby
country stores.
|
There were
sixteen total schools builtin the
town of Deerfield and two of them were settled on Parade.
No. 7 was one of them, it eventually became
a private house for Miss Jane Graham. It
was refered to as the Parade school and a grammer
school. After that school had deminished
the
students attended to George B. White.
|
The second
school was called the academy also
known as a high school. The academy
started in 1798 and burned down in 1951. The
building was located on the land of Joseph Mills. A
man named Benjamin Butler was born in 1818
in the academy. The only subject that
was not teached was the languages. Once
the kids completed 7th grade they had to attend the high school on
Candia road.
|
|
The Parade school life was like
this:
- First the children would start school at 8:00 (just like
Deerfield Community School)
- They would salute the flag
- Class could sometimes be taught outside or to eat lunch on
a nice day
- On Memorial Days, students picked lilacs and would place
them by nearby graves
- Around 3:00, the children would be dismissed to go home
- The children were sent to bed around 8:00, once they were
done with their chores.
The
majority of the students tended to walk to school
than riding in a horse and buggy.
|
I hope you
liked what I have told of the history
of the Parade and what life was like for the people who lived there. It was very fascinating for me, for I live
on Parade road and was amazed by the
pictures
of what it must of been like back then and looked like as well. The trees in front of Dr. Stephen’s tavern
for example were rather quite bazzare. Seeing
the changes in buildings and houses over the years
change and
comparing the difference. What they
used for transportation and what they did for a daily life style. I always enjoy learning and discovering new
things in history. This was Gregg
Burklund with the history of the Parade.
|
|
Bibliography
1.
History
of Nottingham, Deerfield and Northwood
Elliot
C. Cogswell
1972
by New Hampshire Publishing Company
2.
Bicentenial
Celebration 1766-1966
Publishing
by: Bicentenial Committee
3.
Biographical Review
By:
Leading Citizens Rockingham County, N.H.
Boston,
Biographical Review Publishing Company in 1896
4.
Brown
Ancestors And Kinsfolk
By:
Thomas S. Brown and published by the author in June,
1940
5. http://www.nh.gov/markers/me145.html
|