Public Records

The Declaration of Independence contains a list of “facts" proving the tyranny of "the present King of Great Britain" (George III), justifying the bold actions of the American colonies. Among them is this one:

He has called together Legislative Bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

Ready access to public records was considered an essential element of fair and open government. It remains so today. In that spirit, the New London Town Archives has embarked on a project to identify all of the municipal records in its custody, fill gaps in coverage and content, and work more closely with town departments, boards, and committees to ensure the proper retention and disposition of municipal records—written, printed, and electronic.

New Hampshire's RSA 33-A establishes in each town a municipal records committee responsible for the systematic retention of various records (over 170 different types are specified). The committee must designate where records are kept for the duration of their mandated (minimum) retention periods. The Town Archives holds the most historically important records, to be retained “permanently,” but it also holds many others, more ephemeral and long past their normal retention dates.

We suspect that few small towns in the state have formed a municipal records committee. Despite the creation of our town archives, a rarity among New Hampshire towns, such a records committee has not met here in the last decade, or more. With the accumulated turnover on the town's boards and committees, we also suspect that many individuals now serving may be unaware of their obligations to preserve, document, and provide access to their own records and meeting minutes.

New London’s 2014 annual report lists over thirty entities that create records in the course of normal town business; the Archives holds materials (often with large chronological gaps) related to about twenty of those departments, boards, and committees. The missing records may themselves be scattered "at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant.” By convening a Municipal Records Committee, we hope to improve the preservation and availability of our public records and will post project milestones here.

Whipple Hall

Amos H. Whipple

In 1916 the town of New London did not want a new public library. It wanted a new town hall. So when the conditional bequest of Boston hotelier Amos H. Whipple (1856–1916) offered land and $15,000 for a library, the selectmen asked its executor to alter the terms, and Whipple Memorial Library became Whipple Memorial Town Hall—named for Amos's parents, both deceased.

Sherman L. Whipple (1862–1930) was executor of his older brother's estate. Sherman was by then an eminent Boston trial lawyer, having earned in a single case the extraordinary fee of $225,000. An alumnus and longtime trustee of Colby Academy, he maintained ties to New London, where he was born and raised. The new town hall, he knew, would benefit not only the townspeople, as his brother wished, but also Colby Academy students, who used the performance stage and auditorium regularly over the next 40 years. Sherman chose a Boston architectural firm, Strickland & Law, newly formed in 1916. It may have been Sidney Strickland's first public commission, but he was prepared.

Whipple Hall lantern

Sidney T. Strickland (1880–1954) graduated from MIT's architecture program, completed a three-year course of study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, and then worked as a draftsman for the respected Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, three assistants of Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). When Strickland's father-in-law, Charles Rutan, died in 1915, that collaborative dissolved, and Strickland was on his own.

Strickland's undergraduate thesis of 1905 was entitled "Design for a City Hall...". He considered the special requirements of civic spaces and developed guiding principles that he could apply even to a much smaller project like New London's town hall. We also know that Strickland studied Colby Academy's nearby Colgate Hall, which in 1912 replaced the ruins of an earlier building, burned in 1892.

Whipple Memorial Hall included a jail cell, selectmen's office, records archive, kitchen and dining area, performance stage and auditorium, and a moving picture projection booth in the gallery. It had electric lights and two wood furnaces for steam heat. Unanticipated later uses included municipal court offices and courtroom, a basketball arena, a civil defense and ham radio installation, a police station, and now a recreation department.

Despite all of those activities, the building remains intact in most respects. Two additions were made at the rear (in 1985 and 1999), but the front facade remains intact, even if its formal entrance is disused and overgrown. Above it all is the cupola, or properly "lantern" because of its large, arched windows. Last overhauled in 1957, the character-defining feature once again requires a preservation effort—repairing windows, replacing lost trim, and painting the exterior. The restoration of its original weathervane, last seen in photographs from the 1960s, might also be included in such a project.

We hope to list the building on the State Register of Historic Places for its significance as an example of Classical Revival architecture, for its reflection of the town's development during the 20th century, and for its association with the family of Dr. Solomon and Henrietta Whipple, whose accomplished boys left the state for greater opportunities but cherished their New Hampshire roots, even to their dying days.

View of Sargent Common and Bandstand from Whipple Memorial Hall

Qualified Voters

Campaign flyers (2012)

Grouped semi-alphabetically, the list stretches across three glued-up pages. There are over two hundred names. All are men. The mylar envelope in which they are preserved is labeled simply “Voter List, early 1800s.”

The impending elections loom large here in New Hampshire. Post office boxes overflow with campaign flyers launched from left, right and center. At the same time, the phase-in of new voter eligibility/identification laws may discourage some eligible voters and disenfranchise others.

At one time only property-owning, white males were permitted to vote. In 1792 New Hampshire became the first state to eliminate the property requirement. In order to monitor eligible voters, selectmen created a master list of “qualified inhabitants.” The list's existence here in New London was first noted in an 1831 entry made by the town clerk. The same entry is repeated, almost verbatim, at least once more, but it may have been a practice more common than the records suggest. In the 1870s, the official position of “Supervisor of the Check List” was filled, as it has been ever since.

By comparing our “Voter List, early 1800s” with cemetery records, we learned precisely when this collection of eligible voters lived. Furthermore, the clerk’s records confirm that such a list was compiled, publicly posted, and used to qualify voters for the 1844 presidential election.

Town of New London voter check list (1844)

Campaign issues included slavery, the annexation of Texas, and expansion into the Oregon Territory. On the ninth ballot, the Democratic Party finally nominated pro-expansion candidate James K. Polk. The Whig Party chose Henry Clay in one ballot despite his earlier failed presidential bids.

Among the third party candidates was Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saints and publisher of the Book of Mormon. Smith's candidacy ended on June 27th when he was killed by a mob that stormed the Illinois jailhouse where he had been detained. The party-less presidential incumbent, democrat John Tyler, had many supporters but withdrew from the race on August 24th rather than risk splitting the vote. Representing the anti-slavery Liberty Party, James Birney was an alternative choice for anti-slavery Whigs, while some voters were enticed to vote for Polk by his pledge to serve only one term. (He kept that pledge and died of cholera a few months after his term ended.)

The “inhabitants of the town of New London... qualified to vote” were “notified & warned” to meet at one o’clock in the afternoon, on Monday, November 4, 1844, in order to choose six electors for president of the United States. On this day, the slate of electors led by William Badger received 78 votes, while Joseph Low’s garnered 68 and Jesse Woodbury’s trailed with 55. None was identified by party affiliation but they represented the Democratic, Whig and Liberty parties respectively. After recording the tally, the town clerk included the following notation in his book:

“And the Moderator caused each voter’s name to be checked on a list for that purpose at the time his vote was received... “

There were two other items considered that day: 55 voted in favor of abolishing capital punishment with 106 opposed, and just 20 voted in favor of altering the state constitution with 86 opposed.

In New London the total number of votes cast for presidential electors was 201, for a participation rate of 95%; the nationwide turnout was 79%, which nearly matches the percentage of registered voters participating in our last (2008) presidential election. 

Although James Polk won the national contest, within New England he carried only New Hampshire and Maine. He also had the distinction of losing both his birth-state of North Carolina and Tennessee, where he had served as governor. In fact, Polk won the popular majority by just 1.4% in November, but he took 62% of the votes cast by presidential electors on December 4, 1844.

New London's 2012 checklist has been prepared for next Tuesday’s election, so make sure you can either prove your identity or sign a “challenged voter affidavit” — perhaps a relic for some future archivist to explore.

Resources:

• Presidential Campaigns  & Elections Reference: An American History Resource
• Voting Rights Timeline
• Town Clerk's Book, New London, New Hampshire