What’s been happening at the Farmington Historical Society and the Museum of Farmington History?

We had many people stop by the Museum of Farmington History for the Farmington Community Festival! Lots of people talking about the about the Uncle Sam sled, “the world’s longest sled.” It was on display at the Congregational Church side yard, on loan from the NH Farm Museum. The Uncle Same sled is 77 feet long, 1510 Pounds, and goes between 60-90 mph, at top speed, depending on who you believe. Many people were surprised to see the Lone Star sled, a much smaller version of the Uncle Sam sled, in the Museum of Farmington History when they visited.

I’ll be doing a post about the sleds this month so look for that on the website of the Farmington Historical Society. Other notable items of interest to people that day were the 1903 blueprint we had out of the Farmington aqueduct system, our building photos, along with the history of those old town blocks, and the ring fashioned from the felled bell of the Congregational Church, created after the fire of 1875 tore through many buildings on Central and Main streets close to those two street’s meeting place.

We had a lovely time seeing everyone who visited!

Recent, notable donations to the Museum of Farmington History:

• Two digital photos of news articles about fires downtown. The Richard’s Block Fire from Oct 1974 and the 1971 Twin Mills blaze which involved the downtown Central and Cloutman Blocks. Both came from the Rochester NH Fire Department History page.

• A large donation of various Farmington school items. Among the documents, minutes, and flyers were graduation commencement exercise sheets from the 1960’s through the present. Though we have some of these years, this puts us in a position to have a complete set for that period, with duplicates, which is always good from a historical preservation perspective.

• A black and white photo of Farmington Policemen from 1959 or 1960. Left to Right Carl Worcester, Joe Vachon, unknown officer, unknown officer, Kenneth Furbush, Lloyd Davis. Do you know who the middle officers are? Let us know!

• A Farmington autograph album from the 1890’s, with signatures, short thoughts and poems, from 1897 to 1901.


Kyle Leach, Curator
Farmington Historical Society
Museum of Farmington History
http://farmingtonnhhistory.omeka.net