From The King's Plantation
To Home Town Heritage

Boscawen and Webster, New Hampshire
by Walter Theo Silver and Linnea Stadig Silver

OUT OF PRINT

Walter Theo Silver was a native to these towns and descended from settlers in the area from over 250 years ago. He built up 89 years of memories before he died in 1995. This book is his life's work. Theo was a surveyor, historian, archaeologist, wildlife biologist, and a character. By asking some common sense questions about history, Theo came up with some surprising answers. As a boy he listened carefully to the stories his grandfather told him about the town proprietors, the founding fathers of the King's Plantation of Contoocook going back to 1732. Theo became heir to lots of the oral history of the area, because he bothered to ask questions and had the patience to listen to the elders tell their tales.

With the help of his wife, Linnea Stadig Silver, Theo started to write down his recollections of the history of his two home towns. Linnea (Staples), is remembered as one of the leading feature writers and journalists in New Hampshire. She was one of the first - if not the first - full time female journalists in the state. In this book two talented authors, a great historian in partnership with a great journalist, tell the stories of these towns in a most readable way.

Points of Interest:

• The first ever maps of the Proprietor's Lots for Webster and Boscawen drawn from the 1733 survey.
• The history of the Fourth New Hampshire turnpike and the course of the Province Road.
• The boundary dispute between New Hampshire and Massachusetts and how the Merrimack River changed history and some notions about the land.
• The case for having only one Mt. Kearsarge in New Hampshire.
• Indians on Courser Hill and Fowler's Plain and some Indian lore.
• Over 130 photographs taken over the past 100 years of Boscawen and Webster. 10 maps.

368 pages, clothbound, illustrated, three foldout maps ISBN 0914339-62-1...$35