Alan Rumrill

Keene is, first and foremost, a city of reinvention. Since its founding in 1736, it has prospered as an agricultural community, an industrial and transportation center, the home of a major state college, and, most recently, a hub for culture and the arts. Throughout all these changes, it has remained resilient, and many of the older buildings are still there, repurposed to new businesses. This volume traces those changes and shows how the past is still inextricably intertwined with the present.

What do Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau have in common with the inventors of barbed wire, margarine and the washing machine? They were all deeply moved by their time spent in the beautiful Monadnock region of southwest New Hampshire. Inspired by beloved local storyteller Fritz Wetherbee, Historical Society of Cheshire County director Alan F. Rumrill collected their stories in his series, Monadnock Moments, broadcast on Keene radio station WKNE from 1985 to 2005. Here he has gathered one hundred of his most interesting vignettes and paired them with historic images, chronicling the lives of successful businessmen, politicians and soldiers, and spinning tales of disaster, murder and adventure that all had their roots in towns like Keene, Stoddard, Walpole and Jaffrey. Entertaining, informative and often surprising, these snippets of history capture the essence of southwest New Hampshire."