Old Woman of the Mountains?

by Cliopatria

I’m a native of the Granite State (Live Free or Die, baby! – Greatest. Motto. Ever.) which means I grew up living a life of political frustration. As a lefty liberal, growing up in the state of John Sununu and Judd Gregg and Dick Swett (insert your own joke here) and Bob Smith was, to say the least, a toughening experience. But while conservative, New Hampshire is also flinty and independent and stubborn and tough and, well, have I pointed out that our state motto is “Live Free or Die”? I like the idea of a 94 year old woman challenging Gregg for his Senate seat. The old saw about snowballs in hell comes to mind, but this just seems so quintessentially New Hampshire.

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Richard Henry Morgan - 6/18/2004

That's one of things I like about New Hampshire -- the lack of a state sales tax (regressive), and the substitution of property taxes (keeps the rich from lording their wealth, in terms of real property, too much over those less fortunate -- it's socially destructive to have castles competing with lean-to's.

I'm reading up on that local scoundrel, Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. Fascinating guy. Rumored to be the homosexual lover of his boss, Lord George Germain, and to be a member of the La Motte naval spy ring, passing secrets from Thompson to the French -- seems there was nobody this guy wouldn't sell out, and we once offered him the leadership of the US Military Academy!!!

In any case, there's this classic little bit of New Hampshire/Massachusetts lore in Sanborn Brown's biography of Thompson.

Massachusetts got a charter in 1628. The next year Captain Mason obtained a patent for what was to be New Hampshire. Then, in 1725, Massachusetts decided to sell a part of the land again (apparently, or so New Hampshire types believe), when it granted to the plantation of Penacook land it claimed was now within Massachusetts. Two years later, New Hampshire granted the same land to the town of Bow. In 1733 Massachusetts incorporated the Penacook plantation into the township of Rumford. In 1740 the King set the border in such a way that Rumford was now in Massachusetts. New Hampshire refused to recognize this, and the citizens of Rumford refused to pay taxes to the town of Bow, New Hampshire. This was all finally resolved by the King's Council in 1762, putting Rumford in New Hampshire and, with a prayer, papering over the local animosities by caling it Concord.

You probably already know all this stuff. I love it. It's just so classically New Hampshire -- is there anything more New Hampshire than a land dispute? Can't wait to spend another summer up there. The winters, though ...

Derek Charles Catsam - 6/18/2004

Richard --
We've been calling the flatlanders Massholes for decades. Less because they are trying to make us more like them (it's a myth that tax burdens are worse in Massachusetts. Anyone who has had to deal with property tax bills knows this. I do love the lack of sales tax, but it is time for an income tax in some form) and more because they can't drive right on our roads and they represent all sorts of things that many of the good folks of NH could do without.
I grew up not far from Henniker, up in Newport (which is neither new -- etsblished 1761-- nor is it really a port, unless somehow the unnavigable but lovely Sugar River counts.) Lovely country. Anytime Dartmouth wants to come calling, I'll listen. . . .
dc

Richard Henry Morgan - 6/18/2004

Spent a few summers in Henniker, tubing down the river. Love those flinty bastards, including the story of one guy from an old family in the Henniker area. Maybe 15 years back, or more, some guy (sheriff?) showed up at the guy's property to tell him he couldn't cut down his trees. The owner excused himself for a moment, retiring into the house, and returning with a shotgun, whereupon he explained that his family had been there 300 years and he'd be goddamned if any pissant government type would tell him what he could do with his property. End of discussion. End of problem.

BTW, do you know what they call those Massachusetts types who come over to low-tax New Hampshire and try to remake it in the image of Taxachusetts? Massholes.