07/30/2025
Moultonborough 1957
By Marian Goodwin
CHAPTER I
The Community
1. Geographical Location
Nestled among hills on the north shore of Lake Winnipesaukee lies the township of Moultonboro, in Carroll County, New Hampshire. Its land area of 58 square miles includes the wooded areas of Red Hill (2029') on which a Fire Lookout and the southwest side of the Ossipee Mountain Range with Mount Shaw (2973") its highest peak.
The water area of the 15.3 square miles includes a northeasterly portion of Lake Winnipesaukee, Lake Kanasatka (at one time called Long Pond), Lees Pond, Berry Pond, and a small part of Squam Lake. A recent publicity booklet mentions Moultonboro’ s 68 miles of Lake shorefront. Shannon Brook and the Half-way Brook have been a delight to fishermen. The Red Hill River was, in the nineteenth century, a source of waterpower for Moultonborough (as it was originally called) was among the earlier developed resort towns of New Hampshire. On Long Island, three miles long and one mile wide, connected to the mainland by a bridge, were several large boardinghouses in the 1880's. A steamboat stopped their daily on its regular trip on Lake Winnipesaukee from Alton Bay to Center Harbor and the Weirs. The island had its own post office and schoolhouse.
The Ossipee Mountains offered other scenic beauty. Although a few homes were already located well up on the mountain, Mason tells us that:
"In 1879 B.F. Shaw, Esq., purchased a tract of land...on which he erected a beautiful residence, where, with his family and friends, he passes a part of the summer months. He has made a first-class road up the mountain to his house, comfortable paths to the cascade falls 70' high and twelve rustic bridges over the brook above and through groves and has given his possessions the name of Ossipee Park. This has become a widely known resort for pleasure seekers, and thousands come thither every season. The walk around the cascade and forest is weird and wild and commands the admiration of the visitor. "
Melvin Peak was renamed Mount Shaw at the annual town meeting in 1882 "in honor of B.F. Shaw of Lowell, Mass., who had done much to improve, beautify, and make known the scenic attractions of this section."
2. Settlement and Growth
The town was settled in 1763 by families, mostly of English stock, from southern New Hampshire, and was incorporated on November 24, 1777. Table I shows the change in population from 1775 to 1950 while Figure 1 represents its graphically. It increased from 272 in 1775 to 1752 in 1840. After 1850, as the West was drawing more settlers, it decreased rather rapidly to 1448 in 1860, then more slowly to 709 in 1930.
TABLE 1.
This decrease in population in the late nineteenth century has also been attributed to the fact that no railroad runs through the town. They were built ten miles to the west and thirteen miles to the east of Moultonboro Corner. Previously the town had been on the thoroughfare to the White Mountains with five or six coaches loaded with passengers passing by daily.
By 1950 the population had risen to 880. The density of population then became 15.2 persons per square mile.
The annual town reports for 1950-1956, inclusive, list 101 births and 169 deaths of persons who claimed residence in Moultonboro. However, because of a gradual immigration into the town, it would seem that the 1960 census will probably show a net increase in the population over the 1950 figure. A selectman has estimated that it will be about 8 percent.
During the summer the town is swarming with visitors. Besides the transients who stay for a night or a week, families who come to their privately owned cottages bring about 2500 people and the 14 boys' and girls’ camps (averaging 200 in each) another 2800. Each year the number of cottages built or purchased by non-residents increases the total.
3. The People and Their Work
As already mentioned, the early settlers were mostly of English stock. Later some French-Canadians immigrated into the community for work in the woods. At present only a very few residents are of foreign birth, probably not more than five — one is a Word War I war bride from France whose husband has retired to this town from teaching, another is an Italian, a retired contractor.
No factories or industries employing many people have ever developed in Moultonboro. The time of its greatest industrial development may have been in 1820 when there were towns:
"One meeting-house, nine schoolhouses, two taverns, one store, five sawmills, five grain mills, one clothmill, one bark mill, one carding-machine, and one tannery.”
Or later when Moultonborough Falls was the center of trade:
"With three stores, two hotels, a tannery, curriers shop, a blacksmith, a gristmill, sawmill, carding and fulling mill, a sleigh and carriage maker, a saddle and harness maker, a printing-office, and shoe shops. "
Many have earned their living catering to the tourist trade. A survey of today's business places would include hotels, inns, cabins, restaurants, filling stations and garages, grocery and general stores, boat building and servicing, an antique shop, and a beauty shop (located in a home off the main roads). In addition, men are building contractors, carpenters, masons, real estate and insurance agents, road builders and patrolmen, service attendants at the camps for boys and girls, and at the Bald Peak Country Club, a private non-resident club. A few are employed in Laconia at Scott & William Knitting Machinery Company, while two or three are vegetable truck farmers, one of whom has also an apple orchard.
Economically, most of the residents would be in the middle or lower class status.
4. Religious Development
The first meetinghouse was built in East Moultonborough in 1773, blown down in a gale in 1819, but another was erected in its place. In the early building a Congregational Church was formed in 1777.
By 1840 services were being held at Moultonboro Corner in the town house. After a meetinghouse was built in that part of town, services alternated between the two churches. Since the center of population remained at the Corner, the older church was disbanded as the people of that part of town died or moved away.
The meetinghouse at East Moultonborough was finally sold to Adventists and removed to Melvin Village. The one at the Corner became a Methodist Church and remains that to the present day.
In the early 1800's there was also a Free Will Baptist Church at the head of the Moultonborough Neck Road. Schoolhouses in town were used for services for the Christian Baptists and for Adventists.
Now about 80 per cent of the residents are Protestants and the Methodist Church serves as a community church. The nearest Roman Catholic Church which is open the year round is in Meredith, ten miles away. The pastor of the Moultonborough church serves also the Congregational Church in Center Harbor and lives in the parsonage there.
Juvenile delinquency has been no problem. The morals of adults appear to be no worse than those in any small New Hampshire town — they are probably above those in many.
5. Government and Politics
In the early days, town meetings decided not only religious affairs, such as the building of a meeting house and the amount of tax to be levied on the support of a minister but also the prices of articles for sale in the without regard to the supply and demand.
Times have changed in that religious and economic matters of that nature are no longer decided at town meetings. Although I do remember that, about 25 years ago [1932] when the church was having difficulty in raising funds to support its minister, the townspeople voted $500 or so for the church. However, I think the vote was later declared illegal and the church did not receive the money.
Politically the voters are 90-95% Republicans. The government of the town is in the hands of three selectmen who are usually capable and civic-minded citizens. The selectmen, the trustees of the church, and leaders in the Moultonborough Development Association appear to be assuming responsibility for public welfare. About fifteen people are active leaders.
6. Economic and Social Aspects.
State Park. — Recently the State of New Hampshire purchased about 300 acres on the shore of Lake
Winnipesaukee for a state park. However, the legislature did not during its 1957 session make an appropriation for its development.
Moultonborough Development Association. — In order to understand the new vitality which has permeated the economic and social life of the town during the last ten years, one needs to know of the many activities of the Moultonborough Development Association — an organization primarily of business men and women of the town but also welcoming those nonresidents who own homes in Moultonborough and who have an interest in it.
Although concerned mainly with publicizing the town to bring more business into it, this Association has taken the lead in many projects to make the town a more attractive place in which to live. For instance, it was instrumental, in 1951, in procuring a resident doctor. Later when he moved to the West Coast, it worked to find another young man to take his place.
This year [1957] 5,000 copies of its annual booklet have been published for distribution.
The lack of a sidewalk on the bridge to Long Island was a hazard to fishermen because of the heavy automobile traffic over it. Through the efforts of the president of the Association who was also the town's representative to the state legislature, the state has reinforced the bridge and built sidewalks for it.
Negotiations to have the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company build its new central office for the dial system in Moultonborough were not successful.
The tables, placed in roadside picnic areas, are now number nine. Trees have been planted along the main street of the village to replace some cut down a few years ago. In the winter a private pond in the village has been cleared of snow or flooded to make better skating.
For five years or so [since 1952], the Moultonborough Development Association has sponsored a Christmas Decoration Contest with prizes to encourage more attractive displays. It also plans for a community Christmas Party in the school auditorium and arranges for a Halloween Costume Party for the children.
In the summer for two or three years [abt. 1954], the Steamer Mount Washington has been chartered for a moonlight sail for the townspeople. A few times buses have been obtained to take groups to baseball games in Boston.
The Association started the recreational and swimming program (at Long Island Beach) which has since been taken over as a project financed by the town. Future plans are to have a Little League Baseball Team by next summer [1958] and to develop a slope for skiing.
Fraternal and other organizations. — The Grange, the Knights of Pythias, Pythian Sisters, Woman's Club, and the Women's Society of Christian Service of the church add to the social life of the community.
Members of the Masons and of the Eastern Star are in lodges in the next town (Sandwich).
Church suppers every Saturday night in the summer and four outdoor concerts on the lawn of the Moultonborough Library are enjoyed regularly by many.
7. Health Values
Health problems are not of particular concern to most of the residents. Very few take advantage of the free chest x-rays when the state's mobile unit is in this area.
Sewerage from some of the cottages on the lake fronts is not adequately taken care of. Although the matter had been discussed at meetings of the Moultonborough Development Association, as yet not enough sentiment has been aroused to pass any town ordnances regarding the pollution of the lakes. Control of the situation is left with the State Department of Health.
CHAPTER Il
The School System
1. School Enrollment and Buildings
As compared to the nine schoolhouses in the town in 1820, by 1935 the number had decreased to three oneroom and one two-room schools. As the school population became even smaller, one and then another of the schools were closed until, in the fall of 1945, the Greene's Corner School had 17 pupils while the two-room school at Moultonborough Corner took care of the other 54.
Because of the peculiar location of the town line between Moultonborough and Center Harbor, more than half of the people living in Center Harbor Village are in the township of Moultonborough. For many years the children of these persons attended the Center Harbor Village School and Moultonborough paid tuition for them rather than to transport them to a school in Moultonborough. In 1945 the number of such pupils attending the Center Harbor elementary school was 15. This made a total of 86 Moultonborough children in elementary schools.
But it wasn't long before the increase in the town's population began to show up in the schools, particularly after the policy was adopted of transporting the 7th and 8th grade pupils, including those in the Center Harbor end of town, to a central classroom. One year the teachers of these two grades held classes in the dining room of the Grange Hall.
However, the townspeople were cognizant of the need for additional facilities and voted for the money for a new central school building. So, in 1949, the two-room school (built less than twenty-five years previously) was abandoned for the brick building containing four classrooms, a teachers room, principal's office, and an auditorium-gymnasium, with lunch room and kitchen (added later) downstairs. Enrollment has ranged from 122 in the school year 1949-50 to 107 in 1956-57.
2. Curriculum Changes
The superintendent and principal's report of 1951 stated that a manual training period for the upper grades (5-8) had been added,
The gymnasium also gave an opportunity for regular periods of physical education for these grades. Both boys’ and girls’ basketball teams have been formed. The boys played games with teams in five other towns. The girls also played out-of-town games when their team is of sufficient quality. Parents assist in transporting players to games.
In April 1955, the seventh-grade pupils were scheduled for a one week's experience in outdoor education at Camp Sergent in Peterborough, N.H.
Folk dancing classes, open to pupils in all grades, and directed by an instructor from Laconia, have been held once a month on Friday evenings. The parents cooperate in bring the children.
Outdoor equipment includes swings, a slide, merry-go-round, jungle gym and a basketball court.
The director of the music program who visits the school once a week, besides group work in singing, gives some individual instrumental lessons. In addition, a woman of many years' experience comes to the school one day a week to give piano instruction. These are individual lessons paid for by the parents.
Workshops for the teachers have been held in the last four years [since 1953] in the areas of physical education and health, on moral and spiritual values, in the field of art, and on audiovisual materials. Doubtless many ideas from these have been incorporated into the classrooms. In his 1956 report, the superintendent recommended that an art supervisor be procured on a Union wide basis to assist the teachers.
3. Promotions and Reporting to Parents
The school superintendent’s report of 1951 explained the method of reporting pupils' progress to parents which was being put into effect that year for grades 1-4. There were to be teacher-parent conferences to discuss each child's work and his potential rather than the traditional plan of school marks with the emphasis on the comparison of one child with another. ([in 1957] Reporting to parents of children in grades 5-8 was continued as done previously)
The teacher of the third and fourth grades told the writer that she thought this was a very satisfactory arrangement. At this same time another plan was put into effect whereby she and the teacher of grades one and two were to encourage each pupil to work at his own rate during his first four years in school — taking account of the slower maturation rate of some of the children. Then at the end of the fourth year, based on the reading achievement tests, a decision was to be made as to whether the child was to go into the fifth-grade room or stay another year with the fourth-grade teacher.
This teacher said that, out of the five who were "below grade" at the beginning of their second year in school, only two were below at the end of the fourth year. She also stated that, by the time the child had reached that age in school, he could usually realize himself that he needed further help before continuing into fifth grade.
However, when a new superintendent came two years ago [1955], this method of working with the children in the first four grades was changed. He also developed plans "for a more uniform system of reporting pupils' progress to parents." This meant that the teachers were to go back to issuing report cards.
4. Criticism of the School
Because of the dissatisfaction of the parents after this method of reporting was put into effect, the School Board and the school superintendent held an open meeting to which parents were invited to discuss the matter. Two of the teachers were also present. The main trouble, as reported by them, seemed to be lack of understanding on the part of parents that competitive ranks were involved. At present [19571 both a letter grade and a numerical mark are used on the report cards to indicate the achievement and the "effort" of the child.
Dissatisfaction has been voiced by some parents (as elsewhere) regarding the poor performance of their children in the tool subjects. Some think that the "frills" added to the curriculum have taken too much time from these basic subjects.
A school board member who is also a parent told of the results of an essay contest sponsored by the local Grange. He was one of the judges and was disturbed by the poor handwriting, grammar, spelling and punctuation which appeared in the essays written by eighth grade pupils.
The 1956 report of the principal stated:
"Although there has been some criticism of the educational set-up in Moultonborough Central School, a survey of the pupils who have entered the high schools of this area shows that they have a good knowledge of the basic fundamentals taught all through elementary school and have compared favorably with children who have come from other schools in this locality. Parents and townspeople are always welcome to visit the school or classes at any time they wish, and well-founded criticism is always welcome."
At the annual town meeting in March 1956, the school board secured approval for funds for an extra teacher for the school, presumably for remedial work with the slow learners but instead "she was given a grade to teach." This situation was clarified for the townspeople by the principal as follows:
"Mrs. R became the teacher of the third grade for the morning session. We felt that a helping teacher would relieve the crowded situation that was present in the third and fourth grade combination of 38 pupils, and by having smaller classes the teachers of these grades could do a better job of teaching the "tool subjects", reading, arithmetic, social studies and spelling. In placing the extra teacher in the third grade, we feel that we can help more children than would be possible if a teacher were used for the same time working with individual children throughout the school."
5. Guidance Program
A guidance director who has been employed for the past two years for the entire Supervisory Union:
"Has developed a permanent record folder that will carry valuable information on each pupil to be used in counseling and a standard testing program for the Union has been set in operation for grades 1, 3 and 6 and, through the use of the University of New Hampshire Testing Service, batteries of tests for grades 8 and 11 have been administered."
His work was well received but felt that he did not have sufficient time to become well acquainted with the large number of pupils in six towns. He talked with parents as he found time and paid particular attention to those eighth-grade pupils. Now he has accepted a position elsewhere and, since his work was a "pilot program" partially financed by a federal appropriation, it is expected that it will not be continued immediately.
One bright spot on the horizon, however, is the fact that all the teachers at Moultonborough School took, under him, a one semester course in the "Principles of Guidance" ao that they are somewhat better equipped to work with their pupils in this area.
6. Spiritual Vales
Bible reading is a part of the "opening exercises" of the school day. For several years, the Gideon's have given to each child in grades 5-8 a New Testament.
Only one of the teachers is active in the church. For the past eight years or so, the three young men who have been in the position of principal have been conspicuous by their lack of interest in church work or attendance.
In the summer the school building has been used as the meeting place for the two weeks Bible Vacation School of the church. This summer [19571 73 children were registered and 37 had perfect attendance.
7. High School Attendance
The Town of Moultonborough, not maintaining a high school of its own, pays the tuition of each pupil to the secondary school of his choice. Ten years ago [1947], the majority attended Meredith High School or Quimby School at Center Sandwich with an occasional student going to Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro or to Laconia High School. However, in recent years the number attending school in Laconia has increased.
About twenty years ago [1937] the town began to pay $1.50 per week towards the cost of transportation of students to high schools. As it became more difficult for parents to provide automobiles for the transportation of their children, the town took over the entire cost of transportation of the students to the Meredith and Quinby schools by running buses to them. In March 1955, the School District voted to pay for the full transportation for pupils attending Laconia High School also.
During the years 1949 through 1956 the average number of eighth grade students who entered high school was 80 percent as compared with the New Hampshire average, from 1950 to 1953, of approximately 91 per
CHAPTER Ill
Problems and Conclusions
The proportion of "state children" who live in foster homes in Moultonborough is larger in relation to the other children in the school than is the case in nearby towns. They are usually emotionally less stable; some are mentally low; and one has a serious physical handicap. When a teacher has them in her room, she often must spend extra time with them, which she can ill afford to do when handling the work of teaching two grades.
Two additional classrooms are needed to provide space for the extra teacher already at the school who is using the auditorium as a classroom and to allow the music instructors to give lessons in a place other than in the school corridor.
The educational objectives are determined to a large degree by the school superintendent and the teachers. The school board members have cooperated with them in helping to get more funds to take care of the increased costs of education.
The PTA has only a small attendance at meetings (about 10-12). Lack of interest may be due to apathy, or it may be that a formal organization of this kind is not needed in a small town. Last year [1956] the PTA purchased a second-hand set for the school, and it plans to buy some "library" books this year [1 9571.
A guidance director with a smaller area to cover than formerly would be a definite asset and an art supervisor for the union is desirable.
The high schools to which the students go appear to be fulfilling their needs by offering a diversified program. Quimby School specializes in home economics and agricultural courses. Frequently graduates go on to the University of New Hampshire or a teacher’s college. The larger high schools offer both vocational and college preparatory courses.
Moultonborough voted against going in with other towns for a regional high school which is nearly completed at Meredith. The writer was told that "there was a split in the town's leadership" on this question. However, students from the town will, as tuition pupils, attend this new high school.
Many of the parents in Moultonborough feel their responsibility to provide a recreational program of swimming, baseball and skiing for the children rather than expecting the school to assume the entire burden in these matters.
With more opportunity to talk with parents, teachers, and the school superintendent, the writer would undoubtedly have obtained a clearer idea of how well the school is filling the needs and desires of the community.
