Moultonborough History in the Library
Welcome to the Local History section of the Moultonborough Public Library website. This resource includes pictures, documents, and links to other resources for researching the history of Moultonborough and the surrounding area.
Moultonborough History Resources in the Library
Click here to see a synopsis of Moultonborough history books, maps, videos, and CD-ROMs available at the library.
Click here for a synopsis of the Moultonborough History materials in our "vertical file" (library term for a file cabinet). This collection includes pamphlets, manuscripts and photocopies that are not in book form.
Red Hill Logbook 1833-1854
Click here to read a transcript of a logbook kept by the Cook Family of Red Hill from 1833-1854. Jonathan Cook and his wife, Charlotte, lived in the "saddle" of Red Hill, between the two higher summits, where their cellar holes may still be seen. They kept a visitor's book of many early tourists who ascended Red Hill, including Franklin Pierce, Daniel Webster, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and many others from far and wide. Click here for an introduction to the transcript.
Local historian Rev. Frank E. Greene wrote an essay on the Cook Family history on Red Hill. Click here to view.
Below is a page from the original logbook showing the Cook house as it existed in 1851.
Although it is not currently being updated, the Moultonborough Historical Society Facebook page, formerly curated by Norman Atkinson, includes hundreds of pictures of Moultonborough from years past. Click here to visit the page and check out all the great images of historical Moultonborough and the Lakes Region.
Mason the Moose Teaches New Hampshire History
"Moose on the Loose" is a new social studies curriculum for children in New Hampshire, created by the New Hampshire Historical Society. Click on the logo below to learn more. New Hampshire history-it's not just for kids!
New Hampshire Provincial and State Papers
The New Hampshire State Papers consist of a set of 40 volumes of early state records, including some items pertaining to Moultonborough. Click here for a link to the Secretary of State's office, where a digitized copy of the State Papers, including a general index to all 40 volumes, may be found.
Moultonborough's Revolutionary War Soldiers
Thanks to research for our local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) we have come up with a list of the Revolutionary War veterans who are buried in Moultonborough. There may be others from town who served in the war and were buried elsewhere, or whose graves are marked only with a fieldstone in one of our older cemeteries. Click here for a list of the Revolutionary War burials that are known at this time.
Carroll County Map 1860
Click here to view a map of Carroll County in 1860. You can zoom in to see details of Moultonborough.
Old Topo Maps of Moultonborough
Click here to view this 1909 map of Moultonborough. The tiny black dots are houses. How many do you see in your neighborhood? The USGS quadrangle maps do not follow town lines, so more than one quadrangle is needed to view all of Moultonborough, and each quadrangle has been scanned in four sections.This is the NE corner of the Winnipesaukee quadrangle. The Mt. Chocorua quadrangles were surveyed in 1931, so the information is a bit more recent than the 1909 Winnipesaukee maps. Click below for other parts of town, or go online to view other town and states.
Winnipesaukee Quadrangle, NW Corner
Winnipesaukee Quarangle, SW Corner
Winnipesaukee Quadrangle, SE Corner
Mt. Chocorua Quadrangle, SW Corner
Mt. Chocorua SE Corner
Town and City Atlas of New Hampshire 1892: Moultonborough
Click here to see the Moultonborough map from the Hurd Town and City Atlas, published in 1892. You can download the Moultonborough map as a jpeg image and zoom in to see your neighborhood. Schools, post offices and cemeteries are also shown on the map. Know of a cellar hole in your neighborhood? If it was occupied in 1892, the Atlas will show you who lived there. The library also has an original copy of the Atlas. Thanks to UNH for digitialization.
What Happened to the "Old Man of the Mountain"
May 3, 2003 was the day that the "Old Man of the Mountain" or the "Great Stone Face" in Franconia Notch, collapsed into a pile of boulders at the foot of the cliff from where his profile once gazed. Click here to see geologist Brian Fowler describe the history of the Old Man in a lecture at the N.H. Historical Society.
Moultonborough Memorial Day and July 4 Parades - Video!
Memorial Day Parade 2011
Memorial Day Parade 2012
Memorial Day Parade 2013
Memorial Day Parade 2014
Memorial Day Parade 2015
Memorial Day Parade 2018
July 4 Parade 2011
July 4 Parade 2012
July 4 Parade 2013
July 4 Parade 2015
July 4 Parade 2018
July 4 Parade 2019
"I Love to Tell a Story" of Moultonborough History-Video!
Old Moultonborough Town House history by Norman Atkinson.
Victor Hamke Meeting Room, by Norman Atkinson
Middle Neck School, by Norman Atkinson, and Middle Neck School Bullet Hole, by Norman Atkinson
Click here for a link to the "Cow Hampshire" blog featuring an article about Moultonborough's World War I soldiers. Five soldiers from Moultonborough gave their lives while in the armed forces during the United States involvement in the First World War. One was killed in action, one died of wounds, and three died of disease, in addition to one whose details are unknown.
The Folliard Years at the Lamprey Museum
Click here to watch a video of Joel Folliard describing his family's years living in what is now the "Lamprey Houe Museum." Don't forget that there are many other videos of Historical Society programs and short clips of historical happenings around town on the Moultonborough Historical Society Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/MoultonboroughHS/
Moultonborough Historical Society
To complement our collection of documents pertaining to town history, the Moultonborough Historical Society has an extensive collection of artifacts, ranging from sleighs to tools, textiles, and images. Click here to link to their web site.
The Historical Society Facebook page is also a rich source of local history, especially images of people and places of Moultonborough past and present. https://www.facebook.com/MoultonboroughHS
Click here to view a Youtube video of Chief Richard Plaisted's presentation on the history of the Fire Department at the Historical Society meeting on October 9, 2012.
Click here to view a Youtube video of a presentation by Judy Ryerson on the story of James French, 1845-1919. French served the town in many elective offices and was a benefactor of the library, as well as one of the first trustees.
Click here to view part one of a video presentation about the history of Camp Inwood at Lee's Mills and other early history of the Lee's Mills Area. Click here for part two.
Click here to view a Youtube video of Ed Person of Ledgewood Farms talking about the history of farming in Moultonborough.
Click here for a link to a Youtube video of Dick Wakefield's presentation to the Historical Society about his extensive collection of views of historic Moultonborough.
Click here to view part one of a presentation on Moultonborough's historic homes by Judy Ryerson. Click here for part two, and here for part three and here for part four.
Click here to view a panel discussion featuring Mary Lamprey Bare, Matthew Blood, Richard Young Jr., Richard Wakefield, and Nat King discussing what it has been like to grow up in Moultonborough at various times.
Click here to view a Youtube video presentation by former Historical Society president Bruce Garry on the origins of the town of Moultonborough.
Click here to view a Youtube video of Jack Cook's presentation to the Historical Society about the history of the ice racing club, which races on Berry Pond and Lee's Pond every winter.
Click here to link to a Youtube video of Historical Society member Jordan Prouty discussing the history of the Winchester rifle.
Click here to view part one of a presentation by Art Lively on the Brown Sisters of Homestead
Farm, Moultonborough, NH. Click here for part two.
Click here to link to a Youtube video of John Oliver's Historical Society presentation on old tools.
Click below to view the Historical Society presentation on the history of the Red Hill Outing Club. There are four parts.
Part Four
Ossipee Mountains - Top to Bottom by Norman & Meca Atkinson A look at the Volcano in our back yard. Starting at around 100 million years ago to the present. Produced for the Moultonborough Historical Society by Meca & Norman Atkinson. August 14th, 2017
Camps of Moultonborough: Kathy Garry talks about the different camps in Moultonborough from the boys and girl camps to what we call our many types of camps on the lake. Recorded here at the Lamprey House Museum by Norman and Meca Atkinson.
History of the Moultonborough Lions Club: Presented by Mark Cotrupi and John Menken, filmed by Meca and Norman Atkinson for the Moultonborough Historical Society, June 13, 2016, on location at the Old Moultonborough Town House.
"Geneva Point - Past, Present, & Future" By Peter Clay Pool , Executive Director. Presented at the Moultonborough Historical Society June 12, 2015
Talk about Ice Harvesting Tools by Josh Bartlett, June, 11, 2012
History of Moultonborough Falls Program by Marie Samaha, David and John Oliver, and Norman and Meca Atkinson, August 13, 2018
Click here for a link to a Weirs Times article on the history of Windermere, the home of Dr. J.A. Greene and a National Historic Register property.
Click here to learn more about the history of Kona Farm. Kona was the summer estate of Herbert Dumaresq, part owner of the Jordan Marsh department store in the 1800s. The "Swallow" boathouse, now on the National Register of Historic Places, was built for the steam yacht that he used on the lake.
Click here for the history of the Langdon Cove area of Moultonborough.
Click here to read about the history of Geneva Point Center.
Click here to read about the history of the Far Echoes summer colony on Moultonborough Neck.
Moultonborough Biographies
General Jonathan Moulton
A marker (not a gravestone) commemorating
General Moulton in the Pine Grove Cemetery
He was actually buried on his own property,
although no one today knows exactly where.
There are lots of Moulton links in the Hampton, NH Genealogy Database.
Many of Moultonborough's first settlers came from Hampton.
Benjamin Franklin Shaw, inventor of the seamless stocking, was the builder of Ossipee Mountain Park, on the property where Castle in the Clouds is now located. Click here to read a memoir of his life at Internet Archive. There is more Ossipee Mountain Park history in the local history files at the library, including "In the Glens of the Ossipees," by Lucy Larcom, published in 1892; the story of Robert Frost's visit, and the Fourth of July celebration of 1882, following the vote at town meeting that year to name Mount Shaw after Benjamin Franklin Shaw.
Thomas Plant, manufacturer of the Queen Quality Shoe, was the builder of the home and estate now known as Castle in the Clouds. The library has several files on the history of the Castle and Thomas Plant. Articles include information on architect J. Williams Beal, a facsimile of a brochure about the estate produced in 1925, Queen Quality shoe advertisements, magazine and newspaper articles, information about the Plant Home, a retirement home in Bath, Maine, which was endowed by Thomas Plant, notes about his two wives, Caroline Griggs Plant and Olive Dewey Plant, trail guides to the Castle trail system, notes about the Tobey and Robie families who owned the property after Plant's death in 1941, and more. Click here for a link to a brief Wikipedia article, or here for a link to the Plant family website, including family photos, or visit the library to learn more
Claude Rains, a movie star and one of Moultonborough's most famous "residents," had a summer home in Sandwich, but is buried in the Red Hill Cemetery on Bean Road in Moultonborough. See additional information about Rains' time spent in the Lakes Region in the library's local history files.
Covered Bridges in New Hampshire
NH Division of Historical Resources site with listings for each bridge.
Moultonborough Library History
In 1997 the library celebrated one hundred years of service to the community. To document the history of our first century, assistant librarian Jane Rice compiled a history of the library, which is available to read at the library. The photo above depicts the library building shortly after its construction in 1929. Click here to read a brief version of the library's history.
History of Carroll County New Hampshire
The History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, by Georgia Drew Merrill, published in 1889, includes a chapter on the history of Moultonborough up to that time. Click here to access and search the full text at Internet Archive.
Moultonborough in the Civil War
The majority of men from Moultonborough who participated in the Civil War enlisted in Company G of the 12th New Hampshire Volunteers. Click here to access the full text of the regiment's history at Internet Archive.
Map of historic locations in Moultonborough Cemeteries, historic sites, and more
Click here to view a Google map of historic locations in Moultonborough
Moultonborough Town Reports
Moultonborough Town Reports available in digital format through Internet Archive include:
1926, 1927, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1946, 1947, 1950, 1953, 1956, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980-89, 1990-99, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010.
Moultonborough Town Reports available in digital format through the UNH Scholars Repository.
1888, 1920, 1921, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 ,1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.
Other town reports from 1888 to the present are available in hard copy at the library.
Moultonborough Cemetery Records and Moulton Genealogy
Moultonborough Cemetery Records, compiled by the Moultonborough Historical Society, updated through 2003, are available in the local history room of the library.
Click here for a link to the Moulton Annals at Internet Archive