Buxton 250th Anniversary in 2022
by Brenton Hill
In the Hollis 1998 Bicentennial book (which we sell) there are many interesting stories by the older generation remembering their parents and grandparents stories of the town. In his 1872 address, Mark Dunnell had similar memories in his Buxton Centennial address. By 1972 in the Buxton Bicentennial address, Lester Smith also spoke of his parents and grandparents. His father was Hurlin Smith of Groveville who died at 102 years in early 1972. We are now planning on the Buxton 250 celebration and are open to your ideas of how we can address our history. Here are some excerpts from the Lester Smith address.
Grandmother Sarah Smith: “Sarah was a hard working Christian woman. She not only cooked and fed her family, but spun wool for their clothes. Each farm had a flock of sheep for wool and mutton. She toiled long hours daily without a single convenience that we have today. During the winter she worked at a coat shop at Buxton Center owned by Samuel D. Hanson. Workers in the coat shop got to work at 7 A.M. and worked until 6 P.M. They drove the six miles with a horse and wagon, pung or sleigh.” “It was not uncommon for Sarah Smith to bake 35 pies at a time and store them down cellar. Many of the pies were mince because Buxton people always ate hot mince pie for breakfast. Mince pie on top of oatmeal, baked beans or fried potatoes for breakfast was what a man needed to hoe corn, mow hay, cut wood, saw logs, cut ice, break roads (pack it for sleighs) or press hay (for storage).” “The pies were baked in a brick oven which was part of a giant 5 foot fireplace which is intact today (1972) in the Carl and Lorraine Estes house (on Waterman Road).
“Chopping timber was always winter work. My father would milk five or six cows morning and night, carry water to them in pails, feed them hay and cottonseed meal and clean the manure from the gutters with a shovel in order to be in the woods at sunlight and work until sunset. Often he walked two or three miles each way to the timber lot.” “Many a night I have seen my father come home from pressing hay or cutting timber and then saw wood with a bucksaw for our three wood stoves. Now I know why he went to bed at 8 P.M. because that Big Ben alarm went off at 4 A.M. sharp.”
In the Hollis 1998 Bicentennial book (which we sell) there are many interesting stories by the older generation remembering their parents and grandparents stories of the town. In his 1872 address, Mark Dunnell had similar memories in his Buxton Centennial address. By 1972 in the Buxton Bicentennial address, Lester Smith also spoke of his parents and grandparents. His father was Hurlin Smith of Groveville who died at 102 years in early 1972. We are now planning on the Buxton 250 celebration and are open to your ideas of how we can address our history. Here are some excerpts from the Lester Smith address.
Grandmother Sarah Smith: “Sarah was a hard working Christian woman. She not only cooked and fed her family, but spun wool for their clothes. Each farm had a flock of sheep for wool and mutton. She toiled long hours daily without a single convenience that we have today. During the winter she worked at a coat shop at Buxton Center owned by Samuel D. Hanson. Workers in the coat shop got to work at 7 A.M. and worked until 6 P.M. They drove the six miles with a horse and wagon, pung or sleigh.” “It was not uncommon for Sarah Smith to bake 35 pies at a time and store them down cellar. Many of the pies were mince because Buxton people always ate hot mince pie for breakfast. Mince pie on top of oatmeal, baked beans or fried potatoes for breakfast was what a man needed to hoe corn, mow hay, cut wood, saw logs, cut ice, break roads (pack it for sleighs) or press hay (for storage).” “The pies were baked in a brick oven which was part of a giant 5 foot fireplace which is intact today (1972) in the Carl and Lorraine Estes house (on Waterman Road).
“Chopping timber was always winter work. My father would milk five or six cows morning and night, carry water to them in pails, feed them hay and cottonseed meal and clean the manure from the gutters with a shovel in order to be in the woods at sunlight and work until sunset. Often he walked two or three miles each way to the timber lot.” “Many a night I have seen my father come home from pressing hay or cutting timber and then saw wood with a bucksaw for our three wood stoves. Now I know why he went to bed at 8 P.M. because that Big Ben alarm went off at 4 A.M. sharp.”