New Hampshire Trivia & Tidbits

Looking for New Hampshire trivia? Try our list New Hampshire little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

In 1908, the first credit union in the United States was founded in Manchester as the La Caisse Populaire, Ste-Marie. The financial institution was incorporated in 1909 as St. Mary's Cooperative Credit Association and today is St. Mary's Bank.

first appeared: 11/1/2009

Jaffrey (pop. 5,476) is home to one of New England's most famous unsolved murders-the death of Dr. William Dean in 1918. Well known in the community, Dean was killed in his barn around midnight and found in the cistern the next day. Some speculated the crime was connected to German spies, although that theory never was proved.

first appeared: 10/18/2009

Howard Crossett, a resident of Bradford (pop. 1,454), was a member of the U.S. four-man bobsled team that won a silver medal at the 1952 Olympics in Oslo, Norway.

first appeared: 10/4/2009

Don Macek, born in Manchester in 1954, debuted in the National Football League in 1976 as a starting center for the San Diego Chargers. A graduate of Boston College, Macek spent his entire 14-year career with the California team and was inducted into the Chargers Hall of Fame in 2004.

first appeared: 9/20/2009

The Bement Bridge, spanning the west branch of the Warner River in Bradford (pop. 1,454), was built of hemlock in 1854 at a cost of $500.

first appeared: 9/6/2009

Established in 1727, Barnstead (pop. 3,886) attracted residents from Barnstable in Massachusetts and Hampstead in New York and was named for the two towns.

first appeared: 8/23/2009

Noted food scientist Robert Decareau (1926-2009) helped to invent the processes necessary to develop the microwave oven. A longtime resident of Amherst (pop. 10,769), Decareau began his career in 1953 as a research and development scientist for Raytheon Corp. in neighboring Massachusetts, where he developed methods to cook food with microwave energy.

first appeared: 8/9/2009

Born in Manchester in 1933, William "Billy" Pappas was a three-sport standout-lettering in football, basketball and baseball-in high school and at the University of New Hampshire. His achievements continued beyond school when he was named to the All-U.S. Air Force football team. He's a member of the Wildcat Athletics Council Hall of Fame.

first appeared: 7/26/2009

—Dinosaur Discovery in Unity (pop. 1,530) makes and sells life-size dinosaur "fossil" skeletons, jigsaw puzzles and fact sheets that help teachers instruct children about the extinct creatures. The skeletons and guides show children how a paleontologist would extract and reassemble real fossils to study a particular dinosaur.

first appeared: 7/12/2009

—Alstead (pop. 1,944) was one of the towns that wavered in its allegiance after the Revolutionary War. Town leaders decided to join Vermont in 1781, but returned to New Hampshire authority early the next year.

first appeared: 6/28/2009

—Aerosmith, considered one of America's top rock groups, has ties to New Hampshire. Band members Steven Tyler and Joe Perry spent their childhood summers in Sunapee, where another band member, Tom Hamilton, lived year-round and attended nearby New London (pop. 4,116) High School.

first appeared: 6/14/2009

—Initially named Emerys-town after settler Dr. Anthony Emery, Andover (pop. 2,109) was later named New Breton for the troops that fought the French at Cape Breton Island in Canada, in 1745. Andover gained its current name in 1779.

first appeared: 5/31/2009

—On Sept. 15, 1907, Canaan (pop. 3,320) was the site of a tragic head-on collision between a Boston and Maine freight train and a passenger-filled Quebec-to-Boston express train. Twenty-five people lost their lives and many more were injured.

first appeared: 5/17/2009

—New Hampshire's first paper mill was founded in 1793 by Ephraim and Elisha Kingsbury on Cold River in Alstead (pop. 1,944). Although it was fundamentally an agricultural community, the town featured a variety of small mills on its streams and ponds. A turbine water mill in East Alstead is thought to be the last of its type in the region.

first appeared: 5/3/2009

–Catcher Mike LaValliere, who attended Trinity High School in Manchester, won the Rawlings Gold Glove Award for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1987. His batting average in 1989 was .316, and he averaged .268 during his 12–year career.

first appeared: 4/19/2009

—Reminisce about your camping days at the Museum of Family Camping and Hall of Fame, which opened in 1993 in Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown (pop. 4,843). The museum features a video about camping in the early days, plus vintage trailers and more than 1,500 camping artifacts, including an 1895 sleeping bag.

first appeared: 4/5/2009

—The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel of sin and love set in 17th century Puritan New England, might never have made it to novel form had it not been for friend and publisher James Fields of Portsmouth (pop. 20,784). Fields convinced Hawthorne to expand the short story into a book, which was published in 1850.

first appeared: 3/22/2009

—D.D. Bean & Sons, a Jaffrey (pop. 5,476) business fixture since 1938, is among the largest manufacturers of paper book matches in North America. Its “commodity” book matches are both sold and given away at thousands of retail outlets.

first appeared: 3/8/2009

—Baseball pitcher Chris Carpenter, who graduated from Trinity High School in Manchester where he was named Athlete of the Year his senior year, went on to play for the Toronto Blue Jays and the St. Louis Cardinals. He received the National League Cy Young Award in 2005.

first appeared: 2/22/2009

—The Yankee Siege in Greenfield (pop. 1,657) is a working catapult designed to throw rocks weighing 250 to 300 pounds, as in medieval times. Today, the trebuchet is used primarily to chuck pumpkins, and on fall weekends, weather permitting, pumpkin chuckers gather to break previous launching records.

first appeared: 2/8/2009

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