Oldest cottage on the Lake

[Pineedles]

I wanted to start this thread in another category and not hijack the Avatar thread but I didn't do it fast enough. mneck1814 beat me to it and claimed the title for the oldest cottage owned by the same family on the lake. He/she may want to post his claim here but I'll paste the post and let mneck1814 post more if desired.

I as well as others would love to see any pictures that could be posted by mneck1814. The year the cottage was built coincides with another special occasion. 1814 - Joseph Nicephore Niepce achieves first photographic image with camera obscura. However, the image required 8 hours of light exposure and later faded." as per Wikipedia.

I must give credit to APS for getting me thinking about this thread and I perhaps infringed on his Avatar message by copying the 53 years on the lake message with my own 117 years message. No matter, mneck1814 now holds the title with 195 years. Who will depose this leader next? Even if you can't beat mneck1814's record, post your years here. The alternate record could be the newest cottage on the lake, and that is a title that hopefully will change hands frequently. When it happens on a daily basis, we'll know our economy is coming back.

195 years and going strong! Built in 1814 and passed down on my Mom's side.

[mneck1814]

Pineedles, thanks for starting a new thread!
I too would like to hear how long peoples camps have been in their family even if it hasn't been since before 1814!

I have a couple pictures I would be happy to post, but I didn't know how to insert them in the post???

[kaj]

We've been vacationing at the lake for a mere 40 years. Only purchased 22 years ago (recently compared to you guys )

[Pineedles]

mneck1814,

Don (webmaster) said there was a problem embedding a video recently. I don't know if this will work right now or not, but try right clicking on the "opened" picture, saving it, and then pasting it in the reply you open on the forum. It should embed it into the text of your message/reply. If not, scroll down in the reply section and insert the picture through the browse function and then attach the picture.

Kaj and all,

Thank you for your post and your 22 years on the lake, we all have to strart somewhere and hopefully your son or daughter's ancestor will be saying some day, "Yeah I'm related to Kaj, my great, great, geat, great, grandparent.

I have received a fantastic PM from mneck1814 regarding his family's heritage on the lake. It is awesome! Anybody got an island named after their ancestor here on the forum? Did any of your family members come to the lake around the time of a man named Moulton?

I'll say no more, and let this new forum member tell of his family what he feels comfortable telling. It's a give and take thing folks, per his message of wanting to hear about "our" history as well.

Originally Posted by mneck1814

Pineedles, thanks for starting a new thread!
I too would like to hear how long peoples camps have been in their family even if it hasn't been since before 1814!

I have a couple pictures I would be happy to post, but I didn't know how to insert them in the post???

[mneck1814]

Pineedles,
Thanks for the opportunity to share my story, my family and I are truly flattered by the interest you have taken in our heritage! As I said before I would really enjoy reading others stories of how they have ended up at the lake!

So here goes my story:

My mom and her siblings are the 7th generation of Dow's to own our camp in Moultonborough. The house was the primary home on the Dow Farm from 1814 until the '60s when our family began just using it seasonally. My mom’s Great Aunt Hattie Dow was the last Dow to occupy the house fulltime. However, there was a house on the land prior to 1814 that burned in 1813, and then the current house was built. The Dow's were of the first settlers to Moultonborough and specifically the Neck Road. They moved from Hampton, NH at or about the same time as the Moulton's moved from Hampton to what is now Moultonborough.

I haven't been able to upload any pictures so this link will have to suffice. The link is to a "Then and Now" slide show by the Moultonborough Historical Society. The David Dow Homestead is our house, however, only the "then" picture is actually our house, the "Now" picture is a house up the street from ours. If anyone on here is a member of the historical society I would be glad to email you a correct "Now" picture! Also, the Benjamin Dow Homestead also in the slide show was a part of the original Dow Farm, if memory serves me correctly Benjamin was David's son.


http://www.moultonboroughhistory.org/mboro/mboro.htm

My family was very excited to stumble upon this slide show as we have the same phote hanging in the living room at the camp. Also this summer we were excited to find a passage about or family and a photo of the house included in a small book about Moultonborough History that was printed in the 60s or 70s, another great find from the Moultonborough Country Store!

Ok now it's your turn!!

[Chickie]

mneck1814:

I was doing research on the Dow family of Laconia about a year ago. The family member I was interested in finding was a Benjamin Dow. When searching Bayside Cemetery for his grave, I came across the monument of a Benjamin R. Dow. I copied down the information, but later found it was not the Benjamin I was looking for, as I learned Benjamin R. lived in Moultonborough. The one I was interested in was Benjamin F. Dow, who was the brother of John H. Dow, the founder of the Dow Oil Company. The Dows who settled in Laconia were from Kensington, NH. Wonder if the two families were related somehow?

When reading your post this morning, I wondered about it and found the notes I had written at Bayside. Benjamin R. was born 1/2/1867 and died 2/28/1924; his wife was Eva E. (12/9/1872 – 3/15/1956). There are other family members buried in the lot, as well. Is this your ancestor? Interesting.

[mneck1814]

Chickie,
Off the top of my head I can't be certain. I will have to ask my mom, and I know my aunt has the family genealogy book. Our family has about a 1/4 of the Lower Neck Cemetery that they share with other early families but again off the top of my head I can't remember exactly who is buried there. Due to the close proximity of Kensington and Hampton I would guess there is a strong possibility, however, I know that Dow was a fairly common name in the area. I will definitely look into it! Thanks for your interest!

[salukigirl]

Our property itself has been in the family since 1820, but I don't believe Gypsy Camp itself was built until after the Civil War. My forefathers had other property around the lakes area though, that I know still stand. Every time at Camp, I think how lucky I am to have such a magical place handed down so many generations!

[Redwing]

Marvelous thread, and I hope there will be more postings!

Although we have only been at the lake since 1952, the main section of our cottage dates to the 1870s.

Shortly after my parents purchased our lake property, our 1870s garage in Connecticut was to be destroyed in order to make way for an addition to our home. Not ones to waste anything, my parents (both “children” of the depression) hired a carpenter who took the garage down, piece- by- labeled piece, which he then transported to our newly purchased lake property in Moultonborough. The entire cost for such was a whopping $66.00 (including break-down and delivery)! The same carpenter then proceeded to re-assemble the labeled garage pieces at our lake property, and voila – the 1870s “garage” became our new “cottage”, with a large picture window replacing the area that had previously been a garage door.

We have since added-on rooms to our cottage over the years, but the main cottage (garage) remains intact and is as solid as a rock.

[Sunset Bob]

Originally Posted by Redwing

Marvelous thread, and I hope there will be more postings!

Although we have only been at the lake since 1952, the main section of our cottage dates to the 1870s.

Shortly after my parents purchased our lake property, our 1870s garage in Connecticut was to be destroyed in order to make way for an addition to our home. Not ones to waste anything, my parents (both “children” of the depression) hired a carpenter who took the garage down, piece- by- labeled piece, which he then transported to our newly purchased lake property in Moultonborough. The entire cost for such was a whopping $66.00 (including break-down and delivery)! The same carpenter then proceeded to re-assemble the labeled garage pieces at our lake property, and voila – the 1870s “garage” became our new “cottage”, with a large picture window replacing the area that had previously been a garage door.

We have since added-on rooms to our cottage over the years, but the main cottage (garage) remains intact and is as solid as a rock.

My father also built our camp with used lumber.I n 1936 he bought the piece of lakefront for 150 dollars (I have the original deed)
So for 150 dollars and some used lumber I have my little piece of heaven.
And if my mother hadn't met my father while he was building the camp (she borrowed his canoe) I wouldn't be here.

[Grady223]

I understand from a friend whose family was the first to settle on Kenniston Island, that they did so in the 1880's. They were railroad employees and commuted to the island from Wolfeboro by rowboat. They rowed out all materials to build the cottages (still there) - imagine the effort? Once built, they would leave their families out on the island while they went to work for the week - no electricity, no boat, stuck until the hubby rowed out Friday night. Real pioneers - or nuts!

I would think that those are among the oldest island residences still in existence.

[Pineedles]

This is what I love to read about! Stories of what happened in the past with the settlement of this area! Thank you Grady223.

Come on people, think. You must have stories of how you came to this place and settled into your cottage on the lake. All stories accepted from teh early 1600's to the 2008's.

[WinnDixie]

This is a little aside from the main jist here, but I have always enjoyed looking at your avatar. I've never had a cottage on the lake, but it reminds me of what we'd see "back when"...and I am certainly from "back when"!! It has that old charm. It's nice you've respected this, and kept it that way. I'm just wondering if you would be able to post a few bigger pictures of it, so we could get a better look.

[Lakewinn1]

I love the older "cottages"... they have character.... The new 'trophy' homes are no match on the character scale!

[jerseyonbear]

Several years ago while hiking the shore line on bear had the opportunity to speak with home owners who were building a major addition onto an existing shack (for lack of a better word) that they said was an old railroad shack brought over on the ice many years ago and still had the old initials and dates carved in the wood. They were saving these old parts and using them in the new structure. This was located on the north island and on the east side between nickomas girls camp and the last bend before the post office.Maybe someone from the island can offer more info very old and interesting.

[Steveo]

My camp probably is not the oldest but I thought I'd share the story of its history:

20 years ago we bought our camp on the lake. It was a shack but had lots of history. The story is the "shack" was originally the boathouse for the house that was there at the time. It was originally a drive-in boathouse, probably built in the late 19th century. No way to know the age but all timber used were true dimensions - 2X4's were actually 2 inches by 4 inches. In the early 20th century the boathouse was moved on top of a crib dock. In the 50's the main house on the property burned down. The property was left as is for 15 - 20 years. Eventually the town got after the owner and stated that unless something was built on the property soon it would viewed as an unbuildable lot (only 1/4 acre) and nothing would be able to be built. So the next winter the owner moved the boathouse over the ice and placed it on cinder blocks on the property (as a result we got a great crib dock that I was able to restore). He installed a outhouse and it stayed that way until we bought it.

When we bought it the town would not let us tear down the structure so we had to work with it. Over the last 20 years we transformed the building while trying to keep the charm of the original boathouse. For example, the overhead timbers that were used to lift the boat for winter storage are still there.

We first made it into a one bedroom but when the kids got sick of sleeping in the same bedroom as Mom and Dad we had to expand. I did all the work myself and loved every moment of it. I would be on business trips on a plane and would be drawing up plans for the camp that I was planning for the upcoming weekend. Then that weekend I would work for a few hours and then take a break to go fishing or swimming with the kids - what a blast. Now that the camp is complete I really miss those days.

I have tried to get the history on the property with some success but it is hard to find anything that far back.

[Argie's Wife]

If you want to research your property deeds you can do it all online:

http://www.nhdeeds.com/belknap/BeDisclaimer.html

1. Click on "Accept Registry Disclaimer"
2. After the window for the database loads, you can enter your search criteria starting for 1955 - Present just by entering the name of the Grantor or Grantee or Plans or a combo of the Grantor/Grantee.
3. For pre-1955, under the heading of "Select Index", click on the drop down menu and select "Old Index Books" and you can go back to about 1841, although many deeds will contain historic information about the property, such as the year a stonewall was built or repairs were made to the house.

The old deeds are a trip to read - and they are handwritten.

Enjoy!

[Just Sold]

This home on Rt. 11D close to Mt. Major was told to me to have been built in the late 1800's. It is the Old Boulder Lodge. It has been restored with some tastefull additions that look as if they were always there. There are 8 guest cottages that have also been restored including one that appeared to be very old and overhangs the lake by the docks and in front of the main house. I would stay in that one anytime.

I researched the deeds and there was reserved a 66' wide strip through the land to the Lake Shore Railroad 12/18/1888 by Eleazer D. Barker. But I have not verified the date of the homes original construction. If somone goes to the Alton Town Hall they can view the tax card and should find the original construction date.

The current owner is recorded as Timothy J. Sullivan, Trustee of the Woodhaven Trust. The actual owner through the trust is a member of the Walgreen family. I had the privilege to visit with Mr Walgreens wife and had a tour of the property in Aug of 2005. They paid 2.5 million for the property.

http://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums/...uote=1&p=90241

[jmen24]

These are great stories that you all have shared and thank you all for that. It is always nice to see and hear of preservation of family treasures.

[Argie's Wife]

Just Sold: What you are looking for is in Book #6, Page #58 and is dated 1844.

[Just Sold]

Argies Wife:
I was not able to get back to book 6 page 58 in the Belknap County registry of deeds. Close, 1893, but not that far back. Even with that knowledge of the land sale in 1844 does not establish the actual construction of the home. Town records are not perfect either but should be close on the date.

[Argie's Wife]

The old deeds aren't great record for anything - some have too little information and base boundaries on trees or other "re-movable" things - while others have too much information and go into a narrative of the history.

I hope that you can find the latter of the two. I absolutely love that house and would love to hear your findings on it!

[Chickie]

Just Sold,

In order to view Book 6 Page 58 at the Registry of Deeds website, you have to type in Book: 8006 Page: 58. When setting up the website, they devised the plan to use the 800 number in order to differentiate between the old deed books and the special collector's lien books which had the same numbers.

[mcdude]

Originally Posted by Chickie

mneck1814: I was doing research on the Dow family of Laconia about a year ago.

Apparently Dow was a popular name. On photopost we find a postcard of the Dow estate in Alton


and in Meredith



from photopost

The sepia-toned photo of my great-great-grandfather, Orin Frank Dow, was taken in the late 1800's in Meredith, New Hampshire. After the death of his wife, Orin Frank built this camp, "Dow's Rest" in the woods behind his son's home. He wanted to be close to his family, but not live with them. He had many visitors, and kept a guest book with over 2,000 names in it.

http://www.robinhopper.com/pio.html

[Argie's Wife]

Originally Posted by Chickie

Just Sold,

In order to view Book 6 Page 58 at the Registry of Deeds website, you have to type in Book: 8006 Page: 58. When setting up the website, they devised the plan to use the 800 number in order to differentiate between the old deed books and the special collector's lien books which had the same numbers.

If I'm reading that deed right, there is mention of a "homestead" where the seller's father "now resides" - which would pre-date that house to 1844!

Oh, and it sold for $38.19!

[Chickie]

Attention: mneck1814

Please check your private messages inbox. Sorry for the delay in responding to your note.
Chickie

[Just Sold]

This cottage in Alton Bay just south of Peggy's Cove was built in 1929 by Walter Piper. He purchased the land which is about 2 acres after a fire at the Alton Bay Christian Campground destroyed his previous cottage. He built the cottage with some of his students from his high school woodworking shop class. He taught in Lynn, MA. It is still owned by the same family. The fireplace is stone and the stones across the top of the hearth are from Swampscott Beach in MA. In 1967 Walter died sitting on the edge of the cement abutment that the original dock was attached to. He was looking out across the lake he so dearly loved according to his wife. I have visited with the family from time to time over the years and they love this place as much as Walter did. My family leased the cottage year round in the 60's.

[mneck1814]

mcdude,
Great pictures! Yes, Dow was a very common name in the Lakes Region.

Pineedles,
Thanks for starting the thread! By me posting my story here I was able to make some very interesting connections with Chickie about my branch of the Dow Family.

Thank you also to everyone who has posted their stories, and I hope that there will be more to come!
Adam

[Kerk]

I am amember of the Dow family of Hampstead/Atkinsonn N.H. and Haverhill, Ma. Always interested in family history. kc

[weim2]

My parents were one of the first to built in Young's Cove,off now Woodlands Road. No road then, had to park at "B" Rock and walk in.

[Lucky1]

For anyone who hasn't read this thread.................it is a wonderful experience!! I learned a lot of history and the photos were out of this world. What a nice was to start Mother's Day 2010! Thanks for this gift from all of you.

[StevenGilford]

I found this very interesting old thread, thought some others would like to see!