Welcome to the New Market Historical Society

Our goal is to tell Newmarket’s story, preserve its local artifacts, and sponsor historical events and educational opportunities.  Please consult our program of events for exact dates, times, and locations for our meetings and events as they have recently changed. 

The public is always welcome to attend our educational meetings, which are free except for select special events.

Donations are always welcomed and greatly appreciated!

ANNOUNCEMENT:

The Stone School Museum is open Sundays 

 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

in conjuction with the Stone Church Sunday Brunch.

For more information on the Sunday Brunch at the Stone Church, please check their website

https://stonechurchrocks.com/

——

We wish to thank  Proulx Oil and Propane,  and  Chinburg Builders   both whom generously donated funds

for our efforts to acquire new artifacts and preserve those manuscripts, diaries, letters, and articles already in our collection.  

——

On a special display for next few weeks 

  Two Women’s Wardrobes – Martha Julia Eliott and Maude Wallis Doe

The story of two women, Martha Julia Eliott and Maude Wallis Doe told through their surviving clothing—from wedding trousseaus, and special dresses from the 1900s and 1920s, to a shirtwaist, shoes, and a corset and stockings.

Martha Elliott was born July 26, 1899, in Yonkers, NY and died in Exeter, N.H. on October 22, 1982. Growing up in Yonkers and Ithaca in New York State, “Marty” was the editor of The Tattler, a high school publication and subsequently wrote a volume of verse, published by the Cayuga Press shortly after she graduated from high school in 1917. She graduated from Cornell in 1922 with a degree in the Arts and Sciences.

Martha spent her summers here in Newmarket, returning to Washington D.C. in the fall, where she worked as a retail buyer. During WW II, she worked for the Red Cross and after the war she was employed at the Prevention of Blindness in Washington D.C.

Late in life, Martha was cared for by Dixon &  Kay Smith until her death in 1982. The Smiths generously donated many of her garments to the Historical Society, several which will be on view.

Maude Wallis was from a poor farming family in Sanborton, N.H..   After high school she attended  Plymouth Normal School and graduated in 1907 when she wore the white graduation dress on display.  She taught in Yuma, Arizona and at the Four Corners School in Newmarket, until she met Fred Doe.  Maude was boarding at the Pendexter farm on Grant Road (today’s Dodds farm) while teaching at Four Corners. She had won a contest which sent her to France where she purchased the lace for her “future wedding gown”. When Fred proposed, she had the material ready and said yes.  As was the rule, once married, female teachers had to leave the classroom.  Maude turned in her chalk for chicken feed and moved to the Dow farm and returning to the hard farmwork she knew as a young girl.

—

 Maude married Fred in 1911 and moved to the Doe farm.

(photo: Maude in 1915 at the Doe Farm)

She lived in Newmarket for decades until her death  at age 89 in 1973. 

She was a 50-year member and Treasurer for the Piscassic Grange in Newfields,

as well as past president of the Newmarket Women’s Club. 

Her granddaughter, Rebecca Marden donated Maude’s French lace wedding dress to the museum.

——————————————————-

—————————

(Family photo Rose and John amid their famous poinsettias getting ready for Christmas)

John Carpenter passed away in 2008 at age 88.  His son Johnny tells me Rose is 101 years old and doing fine, relaxing since her final retirement in 2013 after working the counter at age 93, as the business sold its last plant.  She will be 102 in October, 2021 and we wish her well.  Read their story of Ye Olde Yankee Greenhouse in our History/Biography section of the website.

Coming Next on :