Becoming Mary Baker Eddy - A Conversation with Evelyn Auger
In her 89 years Evelyn Auger has served her state - she worked for Health and Human Services for many years; Served her family, raising five children and served her community with more than 40 years as a planning board member and a few terms as a Selectperson in her hometown of Sanbornton, New Hampshire. You might think that with all this she wouldn't have time for anything else but you'd be wrong. Evelyn has spent much of her life bringing historic women to life in words and dress
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| Evelyn Auger at Home |
It all began when she did a solo performance for her local historical society about Sanbornton native "Mother" Gilman" whose fictionalized correspondence with her son Moses, from the various battlefronts of the Civil War she created from historic records of his time and regiment. In that first performance, Evelyn read both letters from Mother Gilman to Moses and from Moses to her. When the Historical society asked her to come back for a repeat performance she recruited her grandson to play the role of Moses. With this first performance, dressed in everyday clothes, Evelyn was bitten by the acting bug; but something was still missing and it was right up her alley . . . period clothing. Evelyn loved both history and clothes so the wedding of historic fashion and historic figures was born.
Her next venture was Hannah Dustin in period clothing. Evelyn would immerse herself, first with the research into the history and fashions of the time and then convey the history by coming as her character.
Her longest-running and most requested appearance was as the famed Mary Baker Eddy.
In addition to her historic characters, she created a living documentary of "Mourning fashion and practices" over the years in which she and her neighbor Linda Salatiello would explain and model mourning mores and fashions.
Evelyn is also the author of numerous books created from historic documentation and - from time to time - her active imagination.
I sat down with Evelyn at her home in Sanbornton and interviewed her for this episode of New Hampshire Secrets, Legends & Lore.
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| As Mary Baker Eddy |
Joining us for the visit and lending their voices to the discussion from time to time you will hear the voices of her daughter Carol Barbour, friend and neighbor Janice Leighton Boudreau, and William Hockensmith, Janice's husband.
NEW HAMPSHIRE SECRETS, LEGENDS, AND LORE
PODCAST EPISODE 87
FEBRUARY 6, 2023
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
CONVERSATION WITH EVELYN AUGER
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
CONDUCTED BY: Wayne D. King
PARTICIPANTS: Evelyn Auger
Carol Barbour
Janice Leighton Boudreau
William Hockensmith
TRANSCRIBED BY: Celeste A. Quimby
Northfield, NH
(Music.)
MR. KING: Welcome to the New Hampshire
Secrets, Legends, and Lore Podcast, where twice a
month we explore the world of New Hampshire that
lies outside of the hard news.
I'm your host, Wayne King, and I invite
you to join us for an adventure that will take us
on a journey together to explore those things that
are unlikely to make the pages of your newspaper,
the waves of your radio station, or the bits and
bytes of your favorite news website. Yet for many
of us, these stories will reveal what makes life
here in the Granite State truly worth living.
Together we'll uncover some secrets,
speculate on a few rumors and legends, and we'll
meet the people, and a critter or two, both living
and long departed, who weave together the colorful
tapestry of New Hampshire's past, as well as some
who are helping to build our future.
We'll explore places, known and unknown,
that you will want to add to your bucket list.
We'll laugh together, gasp together, and maybe
even shed a tear or two.
* * *
(Excerpted clip.)
"MS. AUGER: I've been a selectman. I've
been in just about all the things that they have
had. The regular ones, I was at least a few years
or so on each of those, most every one. And then
every time a new one for, yes, whatever they were
working on in a specific year, I'd always -- would
get on those and...
MS. BARBOUR: Committees.
MS. BOUDREAU: She was on the planning
board forever.
MS. BARBOUR: Committees.
MR. KING: So you were on the planning
board as well for the town?
MS. AUGER: Only up to for -- I was on it
only up -- for about almost 40 years."
(End of excerpt.)
* * *
MR. KING: That's the voice of Evelyn
Auger of Sanbornton, New Hampshire, who has played
many parts in her own hometown community over the
years. Selectman. Or woman.
On the town planning board for 40 years,
although she says, "only 40 years."
But she's also played some other very
interesting parts in her life, parts that she has
shared with communities from Madison to Nashua.
And that's really what I came to talk
with her about. Most famous of all is her
depiction in period clothing of New Hampshire's
own Mary Baker Eddy.
So I sat down with Evelyn at her home in
Sanbornton, and here's our conversation.
* * *
MR. KING: I was remembering that very
nice conversation. So tell me a little bit
about -- did you grow up here in Sanbornton?
MS. AUGER: No. I was across the river
in Hill.
MR. KING: In Hill. Oh, that's why
Janice has mentioned that you have this thing
about Hill being flooded.
So you grew up there, and how was it that
you came to Sanbornton?
MS. AUGER: Because who I married had
lived in Sanbornton all his life.
MR. KING: Okay.
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MR. KING: And what was his name?
MS. AUGER: Jean, J-e-a-n. French.
MR. KING: And you -- you -- Janice tells
me that you do a lot with the Historic Society.
MS. AUGER: Mm-hmm.
MR. KING: And how did you get started
doing that?
MS. AUGER: I've always liked history.
I've always read a lot. Joined the Historical
Society, and a lot of times I would be doing --
searching for stuff at home, going over this,
doing that, and then suddenly they started saying,
"Oh, why don't you do a program, share it." So I
did.
MR. KING: And then you started to come
as the character, dressed in character?
MS. AUGER: Yes.
MR. KING: How did that begin?
MS. AUGER: That began because I was way
into the -- I wanted to be a character from
Sanbornton. I wanted him to be in the Civil War.
I'll be his mother, and we'll send letters back
and forth, but there'll be true information in
them.
So I took her husband -- her son, the
woman I had picked to be. I can't remember her
first name right now.
But anyway, I did it so well, writing the
true, if her husband -- if her son was in
such-and-such a battle, I put that in there and
whatever name. And the men at night, their hair
would freeze in the -- in the ice and snow, and
their hair would be frozen into the thing.
Things like that. Little things you
wouldn't think about.
MS. BARBOUR: But I think her interest
came from she loved history, but she also loves
fashion, and so --
MS. AUGER: Yeah, costume.
MS. BARBOUR: -- she wanted to be able to
dress up --
MS. BOUDREAU: Yeah.
MS. AUGER: Yes.
MS. BARBOUR: -- in this fashionable way
while sharing her knowledge of history, and it was
a nice blend of the two.
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MR. KING: Ah.
MS. BARBOUR: Yeah, that was what got you
started.
MR. KING: So the first character that
you did was this mother?
MS. AUGER: Mrs. Gilman. Mother Gilman.
MR. KING: Mother Gilman.
MS. AUGER: And my son Moses. And I had
four sons, and they were all in the Civil War.
MR. KING: And were -- did you have a
diary or something of -- like, of Moses Gilman or
something to go by, or you just pieced together
all these facts?
MS. AUGER: He was in the 12th Unit.
MR. KING: Okay.
MS. AUGER: So if it says that they went
to -- their hair froze in the thing.
MR. KING: Yeah.
MS. AUGER: That's where he was. That's
what they were doing.
MR. KING: Right. So you --
MS. AUGER: So your chances are that he
was doing...
I was very proud of that one, I have to
say. After I had finished that night and I was
going out to get something to drink, and a man,
all excited, stopped me, and he said, "That was
wonderful." But then he went on and said, "I am
making a movie out west, and I'd like to use these
in them. Would you be interested in selling them
or something?"
I said, "No. They're not real letters
that he sent. These are showing the things that
happened to who's in the 12th."
MS. BARBOUR: The information you got
from the 12th Regiment book --
MS. BOUDREAU: Yeah.
MS. AUGER: Yes. Yes.
MS. BARBOUR: -- and other research. You
expanded your research into other sources.
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MS. BARBOUR: And that's where you got
all the information.
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MR. KING: So the research part was
actually much more difficult than if you had had a
diary.
MS. AUGER: Oh, yes. I'd love to get
one.
MR. KING: Yeah.
MS. AUGER: But if I got one, I -- if I
saw one, I'm sure I couldn't afford it.
MR. KING: Right. So you pieced it
together -- you pieced together a fictional,
but -- but based on -- based on known facts, --
MS. AUGER: History, yes. Yes.
MR. KING: -- narrative.
MS. AUGER: That's what was happening.
MR. KING: And from that, you just read
the audience the letters or --
MS. AUGER: Yes.
MR. KING: -- how did you --
MS. AUGER: The first time I did it, I
just read for both -- I would read my own letters,
and I would read my son's to -- in the program.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: A few years after that, my
grandson went with me, and we -- and her brother
was with us that time.
MS. BOUDREAU: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: We'd put on the program
again. By that time, I had a big collection of
everything he'd been carrying. So I had a lot of
stuff to look at besides, and -- but in the -- and
in writing the letters, I'd read one that I had
read, and then he would read one of his, where he
had answered.
MR. KING: Oh, okay.
MS. AUGER: And so that...
MR. KING: So it became sort of a family
affair.
MS. AUGER: Yeah. Yes.
(Laughter.)
MR. KING: And from there, you went on to
other historic characters or...
MS. AUGER: Yes. Yes.
MR. KING: And what were some of the
historic characters that you've done over the
years?
MS. AUGER: Hannah Duston. Yeah. The
man who, when I finished, jumped up and said, "I'm
a cousin of Hannah Duston."
And I looked at him and I said, "Hi,
Cousin, because I am too."
(Laughter.)
MR. KING: You are too.
MS. AUGER: So, yeah, that was kind of
funny.
MS. BARBOUR: Mary Baker Eddy.
MS. AUGER: Right now, my big one that
I'm still going out and doing is Mary Baker Eddy.
Not for the -- not for the religion part.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: She was a woman that -- she
had a very hard life, and when she started doing
her -- what she was doing, putting books together
of her beliefs and stuff. And she was rich. She
moved around well. She did things. She did
things people didn't know, and she was a woman
from New Hampshire.
And I thought she earned being -- not
just because she did such a beautiful job with her
things that she did. Because I'm not part of her
church or anything. I was looking at a woman who
was doing things that were -- most people wouldn't
think she would be doing these sorts of things.
And she was very rich. She was very --
she was smart. And she had had a horrible life,
up until then.
MR. KING: Well, tell me about some of
the things that Mary Baker Eddy experienced in her
life.
MS. AUGER: Three husbands, if you want
to call that...
She had a son, and she was very ill back
then. She would have spells when she couldn't get
around, she couldn't move, she couldn't do things.
Someone had to take care of her.
And so after she had her baby, someone
else was taking care of him. And as he grew up,
she was still living with her parents, because her
first husband died of a disease. He never got to
see his child.
And some of the things that happened to
him -- you'd have to hear the whole story, because
piece by piece by piece, you can see how hard it
was for her to get to where she wanted to be.
* * *
MS. AUGER: We did one on Victorian
mourning, when people died and what the rules
were, and we did that also in costume. I do
everything in costume. If I become the person,
that's the first thing I do is become the person.
And for Mary Baker Eddy, and the first
time I put it on, my test tube was always the
Sanbornton one, because they'd come in and clap
anyway.
(Laughter.)
MS. BOUDREAU: We will.
MS. AUGER: Yeah. And so when -- I lost
my -- just lost my...
MS. BARBOUR: Mary Baker Eddy.
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MS. BARBOUR: And...
MS. AUGER: I -- when I go off on
something else --
MR. KING: That's okay.
MS. AUGER: -- I can't remember to get
back.
Anyway, in doing all this with her, I had
my first ready to go, and so I did it in
Sanbornton. And, yeah, it was good enough that I
could do it somewhere else.
And -- but it was funny. There were
the -- this little corner, and there were four
women, young women, mid -- young to me. And I
looked and I said, "They must be from Franklin or
something." Something I must have heard them say.
And so many times later, I was doing it
again in Concord. And a woman came up to me, and
we were talking, and I said something about -- she
hadn't told me, but I said, "I think they must
have been in Concord to check and see what it was
like."
She said, no, that group that night was
from the whole thing of Mary Baker Eddy --
MS. BARBOUR: Interesting.
MS. AUGER: -- in Concord or wherever
they had.
MR. KING: Oh, okay.
MS. AUGER: They were here, and if I had
done anything wrong or said anything against it,
they wouldn't be very pleased, and I...
MR. KING: I see. So the church --
MS. AUGER: So the church --
MR. KING: The church actually --
MS. AUGER: The church doesn't mind.
MR. KING: -- sent a group of people.
MS. AUGER: They have -- they have read
it. They have looked at it. They even helped me
by -- I called the place in -- that they have in
Massachusetts now.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: I even got information from
them. They were very, very nice about sharing. I
shared with them. They said something about they
didn't have a picture at that time, I guess, but
it had to do with something -- Mary Baker lived a
lot with her sister, and her sister's husband
was -- owned one of the big mills in Tilton, and
the house was in Tilton. And it was torn out in
the forties.
And they didn't have some sort of a -- so
I came home, and I have got tons of pictures of
the area and the people. I beg people to give me
-- I don't go down on my knees, but I do beg them
for their -- their thing.
(Laughter.)
MS. AUGER: Anyway, I was going through
some stuff one night, and there's a picture, and
it's not my writing. It's what was written on the
picture. It says So-and-so's house and -- was
taken down the next day or burned down the next
day, after the picture was taken.
So I sent them down a copy.
MR. KING: Wow.
MS. BOUDREAU: Wow.
MS. AUGER: So...
MR. KING: So it was a home of -- in
Tilton of Mary Baker Eddy?
MS. AUGER: Of her sister.
MR. KING: Her sister.
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MS. BOUDREAU: Where she stayed.
MS. AUGER: And her father built a house
on one place. It was moved, but it's still up in
-- down there.
MR. KING: Well, there are Mary Baker
Eddy --
MS. AUGER: All over.
MR. KING: -- houses all over the place.
MS. AUGER: Yes. Yes.
MR. KING: And I'm supposedly related to
her, but I've never been able to find anyone in
the family who's actually done the genealogical
research, so I don't -- I don't claim anything
about that.
MS. AUGER: Mm-hmm.
MS. BARBOUR: Yeah.
MR. KING: You know, then again, my
mother always told me that I was related to a
bunch of women who were hung as witches in Salem,
so -- and I don't have any evidence of that
either. But that's far more interesting.
(Laughter.)
MR. KING: So --
MS. AUGER: I'm related to some of them.
MR. KING: Yeah?
MS. AUGER: Not the ones who were hung, I
don't think.
MR. KING: Yeah.
MS. BARBOUR: You do your mourning
program. You just mentioned that a little bit,
but that's interesting.
MR. KING: Yeah, the mourning program.
MS. AUGER: Oh, yeah, the mourning.
MR. KING: With the props and...
MS. AUGER: That's the one that lasted
the longest. Do you know, we did that for way
over 10 or 12 or 14 --
MS. BOUDREAU: Yeah.
MS. AUGER: I don't know how many years.
I'm going to have to go back and look to try and
find how many years. We went as far north as to
the Town of Madison.
MR. KING: Wow.
MS. AUGER: They called us, so we
don't -- we never knew -- we didn't advertise
to --
MS. BOUDREAU: It was all word of mouth.
MS. AUGER: -- "why don't you do this."
We'd advertise when we had something booked to go,
or usually they would, because we were going to
somebody's towns. Well, they'd do that part.
But anyway, it lasted very, very long.
And it's coming up again. There's no date on it
now. But it is coming up again, because there's
someone who wants it.
I never liked that part of it. I wanted
to do the costuming, and I would do the costuming.
I would do the research. I'd put together what I
was reading and what we're going to use.
We did it a little different. Linda
Salatiello and I did it. It's the first time I
had had any that I was working with somebody and
not just myself and family.
And anyway, she and I, we split the time
that we would have for the thing. She put
together her half of what she wanted to do. I did
the half that I wanted to do, and I did it on
clothing. I did it on the jewelry that goes along
with it, and the pictures and all that sort of
thing.
And it just flew. I mean, there was
nothing out there like it.
MR. KING: Right.
MS. AUGER: And there still is much -- I
don't know. I think I've seen somewhere, someone
has something similar.
But everybody told us, "Oh, it won't
work. Nobody wants that. That's too" --
MS. BARBOUR: Morbid.
MS. AUGER: -- "grim and..."
MS. BARBOUR: Yeah.
MR. KING: Yeah. And morbid, yeah.
MS. AUGER: And it wasn't. We weren't
doing it for that. It was trying to tell you,
there was a lot of death back then. They didn't
know a lot of things that now people don't die
with.
And it was an era where -- a lot of
things. You could put one on the other end that's
what you use for silverware to put on a table,
because there are, I guess, 2- or 300 pieces, if
you want a full set. And there's that --
MR. KING: Right.
MS. AUGER: I mean, so I don't know why
anyone thought that it wasn't something that was
odd. It was different. There were a few things
that we still do that they did then.
MS. BARBOUR: You talked a lot about,
like, the symbolism and the representation --
MS. AUGER: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
MS. BARBOUR: -- with the hairpin and how
you could flip jewelry and --
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MS. BARBOUR: -- one side was one, and
the other side --
MS. AUGER: Yup.
MR. KING: Oh, is that right?
MS. AUGER: Yup.
MS. BARBOUR: -- with rubies, a necklace.
MS. AUGER: There was a lot of stuff.
There's a saying on a lot of rings or pins. I
didn't know what it was. It didn't bother me a
lot. I'd think of it, but I never felt that it
was important enough to put it in, or read it or
put it in.
Finally, one day I ran across something
that told me what it said, and it had to do with
-- I don't remember the wording, but it's that you
and I will meet again somewhere type thing. And
it's -- that's what it means. That wear the ring
so that we can -- someday we'll see each other
again in heaven type thing.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: And so I finally worked it
in.
MR. KING: Now, when you worked with
Linda to do this, did she do the acting then?
MS. AUGER: No, we both did.
MR. KING: Oh, you both did the acting.
MS. AUGER: We took turns.
MR. KING: So you still dressed up and --
MS. AUGER: We'd split it --
MS. BOUDREAU: Widows.
MS. AUGER: When we got it written, we'd
split it into four pieces. She did one first
little piece, and then I went in and I did the
clothing. Then she did a little piece. Then I
went in and did the jewelry.
MR. KING: You know, I -- I don't know
whether you're just making me think it, but I am
pretty sure that I attended one with you and
Linda, either in Bristol or Plymouth --
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MR. KING: -- years ago.
MS. AUGER: We did. We did.
MR. KING: On this very thing.
MS. AUGER: Yes.
MR. KING: I'll be darned.
MS. AUGER: Yes.
MS. BARBOUR: Was there a little baby
casket, little small --
MR. KING: Yup. Yup.
MS. AUGER: Oh, yeah.
MS. BOUDREAU: And the jewelry and --
MS. AUGER: Yeah. One of my things was
I'd say, "Do you know the difference between a
coffin and," you know --
MS. BARBOUR: Casket.
MS. AUGER: We had one. We had two. We
had the smaller one and the big one sitting there.
MR. KING: Huh.
MS. AUGER: And we carried a big hair
picture. It's about this big. And the woven
hair. That you had hair from the whole family,
but it was put together so that it was like
embroidery almost --
MR. KING: Huh.
MS. BARBOUR: It's just --
MS. AUGER: -- in the thing. There'd be
blond hair and then white hair, black hair.
MS. BARBOUR: Could be a wreath.
MS. AUGER: The family.
MS. BARBOUR: Usually it's done in a
wreath behind glass.
MS. AUGER: Yup.
MS. BARBOUR: And you would collect --
MS. AUGER: Yup.
MR. KING: Hair from...
MS. BOUDREAU: I remember there was a
thing on the black too, on the colors you wore.
MS. BARBOUR: Yeah.
MS. BOUDREAU: If you were -- lost your
husband, you wore black a certain long -- there
was a time period for each -- wear mourning black.
I remember something about that, the clothing.
MS. AUGER: Mm-hmm.
MS. BOUDREAU: I remember you talking
about that and...
MS. AUGER: There were a lot -- there was
a lot in that. We put a lot into things.
MR. KING: How did you get started, to
the point where you were -- where all of a sudden
people were asking you to do these presentations
for them? I mean, you clearly started with your
local group.
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MR. KING: But somehow word got out. How
did word get out that you did these?
MS. AUGER: Somebody from another town or
something would be there and see one. Or somebody
would talk about it, and they'd call and ask for
it.
I wouldn't handle the calling and that
sort of stuff. I -- Linda, that was her part. I
did the costuming. She loves collecting her era,
and we did a lot of things with costuming that --
it was all costuming. I'd never do it again, and
I don't know why I was stupid enough to do it the
first time.
We put on a huge thing, but we don't just
put antique clothes on a dummy and stand it in the
corner. We got some of those two, because we had
a lot of decent clothing. Because she collects
it. I collect it.
And so anyway, we decided that we'd do
little things with --
MS. BARBOUR: Do it as a fashion show --
MS. AUGER: Yeah, it was like a fashion
show, each era, but we'd have them doing
something. The first one is going out to find
chickens, pick up the chicks in the morning. And
we'd tell them to stop, start telling you about
the clothing.
Somebody would be doing the clothing,
telling about it. The other person is dressed up
in it.
And the thing that -- one of the things
that really was nice, Jean -- my husband Jean, his
mother's wedding dress she made herself. And this
was in Canada in the 18- -- oh, way back, what?
She was married. I don't remember their dates or
anything. But anyway, she has the dress now.
But anyway, we had that wedding dress.
And so I told Pepé, Jean's father, and his wife
that they should come and see it.
And so there was Pepé sitting on the edge
of the middle row. And when his first wife who
died started up the alley -- you know, on a
relative, that we had her wear it because she was
a good fit. And when she got up there, she
stopped a minute, thinking he might want to look.
He stood up, gave her a big hug and a
kiss on the cheek.
And that's one of the things and one of
the programs. It was an awful lot of work.
We did it again ten years later, not the
same thing. Same program type thing, but not --
none of the same anything.
MS. BARBOUR: She had -- she provided the
clothing and the narration, she and Linda, and
they got enough people in the town to model all of
the dresses from, like, whatever, 17-, 1800s --
MS. AUGER: Right.
MS. BARBOUR: -- all the way up to
present day, and you -- like at one point, I was
the mother-in-law -- no, mother of the bride. And
my niece was the bride. And so you'd go out, and
I had the ensemble of the mother of the bride. My
niece was all dressed in bridal clothing. But all
different occasions.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. BARBOUR: And all these clothing.
1950s. Somebody -- it was very cool. Somebody
models a dress that she had made that she wore,
and it was -- it was just so much fun. Because
this young girl, because she was very thin and --
not petite but "thin" thin, and came out with that
outfit that she had worn when she was, you know,
in her 20s.
MS. AUGER: Yeah, and one of the older
people in this town, --
MS. BARBOUR: Yeah.
MS. AUGER: -- we had a wedding dress,
bright red, and it was worn out under the arms.
And they said, "Well, you can use -- you probably
can't use it because of that."
I sat down. By hand, I found some cloth
that -- as much like what that was, and sat and
did little kinds of things so it wouldn't show.
Put the two -- fixed the two arms, and we did put
it on, and she came in -- she could see them come
in with it. I don't remember if -- I think she
was dead by that time, but --
MS. BARBOUR: I don't know.
MS. AUGER: Had died.
MS. BARBOUR: But it was fun, because a
lot of people in town participated.
MS. AUGER: Oh, yeah.
MS. BARBOUR: There was outfits from
people of the town that donated and...
MS. AUGER: But it was almost the death
of me, I'll tell you.
(Laughter.)
MS. AUGER: It was so much -- I put in so
much work. A couple of nights before, I'm still
ironing pieces.
Linda used to sell Avon, and she had the
Avon boxes. I'd get the whole out -- because I'd
get them the jewelry to go on it. I'd get them
the shoes that would go on it. I'd get the
dresses, the -- everything they needed, and put
anything that we could fold in the box, and there
was a thing on it, what year, and this is what...
And each person -- like, Linda would
dress up in one of them, and she was a -- when
they were trying to get votes for women. And
they'd stand there, wave the bag, "Votes for
women," you know, really doing it.
So we made them very actively. I
loved -- that was my part. Getting the clothes
together. I had too many parts in that one.
MR. KING: So it was mostly word of mouth
that --
MS. BARBOUR: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MR. KING: -- got you more and more
opportunities.
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MR. KING: Were there any state agencies
involved, like the Historic Society, or I guess
that's not --
MS. AUGER: No, the --
MR. KING: That's a poor -- it's a
nonprofit organization, but it's not a state
agency.
MS. AUGER: Yeah. No, it's -- it was
small towns.
MR. KING: Spreading the word.
MS. AUGER: Yeah. Yeah.
MR. KING: I'll be darned. And you went
up as far as Madison. How -- where did you go in
the southern part of the state? Anywhere?
MS. AUGER: Out to the Isle of Shoals.
MR. KING: The Isle -- you did -- you did
a presentation --
MS. AUGER: Yes.
MR. KING -- at the Isle of Shoals.
MS. AUGER: Yes.
MR. KING: Now, who organized that?
That's a -- I mean, that's a hefty boat ride to
get out there.
MS. AUGER: They paid for our boat going
out. We stayed overnight the night before, to be
ready and put everything together the next day.
MR. KING: Wow. So it was like the
organization that's -- that runs the Isle of
Shoals?
MS. AUGER: They put it on, yeah
MR. KING: Got you to come out.
MS. AUGER: They hire different things, I
guess. You know, little things like that.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm. And was that your --
the mourning -- the mourning attire, or was it
something else?
MS. AUGER: Mourning.
MR. KING: Yeah.
MS. AUGER: Yup.
MR. KING: And did you do -- did you do
any events in Concord or Manchester that you
remember?
MS. AUGER: No. No.
MS. BARBOUR: Mary Baker Eddy you did
where --
MS. AUGER: Mary Baker Eddy I've done
and --
MS. BOUDREAU: At her home or
something --
MS. AUGER: Yeah, where she lived, where
Mary Baker used to live.
MR. KING: In Concord?
MS. AUGER: Yeah, is now that -- you
know, the old home.
MR. KING: Yeah.
MS. AUGER: I have done, let's see, one,
two, three, four -- four different programs for
them.
MR. KING: For them?
MS. AUGER: Yup.
MR. KING: For...
MS. AUGER: But they called.
MR. KING: Yeah.
MS. AUGER: The first one I did, it was
for Rev. War, because once I got reenacting, I was
-- I -- Civil War got put away, and I was now Rev.
War, and I did a program for them on that.
And when they saw my name, that I was
doing a different one -- I don't remember the next
one I did with theirs. But when it came, both
times -- the first time I went, I got ready to
leave. And the woman who puts these things
together for them, orders them for there, she
works for them, and she said to me, "Don't you
have anything on World War I?"
I said, "No." I didn't say, "To me,
that's not one of my favorite wars and I don't --
I don't have much interest." Different things in
it I might have.
And the second time she came, "I should
think you would do one on the World War I. My
father was in that."
I came home that night, and I said, "I
guess it wouldn't kill me to put something
together."
MR. KING: Oh, my gosh.
MS. AUGER: The hardest thing was gonna
be to get clothing. It's just...
Anyway, I put something together. And
when she called me the next time, I had it almost
all done. And I did that thing on World War I.
I put it away. That was not my thing.
It was just -- now, this is my audience now when I
say, one day I get a call. "Evelyn, the guy who
had the program for tomorrow night, he can't make
it. Can you help? You got something you could
come and do and talk about?" World War I.
(Laughter.)
MS. AUGER: And I went in, and she'll
tell you I did it, and they loved it.
MR. KING: That's good.
MS. BOUDREAU: The Red Baron.
MR. KING: The Red Baron.
MS. AUGER: Which I talked about The Red
Baron.
MR. KING: Oh, yeah.
MS. AUGER: When he died, they stopped
fighting for a period of time and did stuff...
Yeah. I found enough things to put in.
It's just --
MS. BOUDREAU: You had a day to produce
it. I'll never forget that.
MS. AUGER: Yeah. Everybody thought I
put it together in a day. I didn't. I took --
MS. BOUDREAU: Yeah.
MS. AUGER: I had to sort of call -- read
through it once.
MS. BOUDREAU: Yeah.
MS. AUGER: So...
MR. KING: Now, do you have some
photographs of you in costume?
MS. AUGER: Yeah. Would you like --
MR. KING: Something that --
MS. AUGER: Carol, in the basket, there's
one of me, Mary Baker Eddy, standing right up.
You can see it.
MS. BARBOUR: Behind your chair?
MS. AUGER: Yes, right beside my chair in
the basket.
MR. KING: Yeah, if I could borrow a
photograph.
MS. AUGER: Right on top you'll -- in
fact, you could -- there's some -- more than one.
MR. HOCKENSMITH: Who was the lady -- I'm
not from here. I'm -- just recently. Who's the
lady that the Indians...
MS. BOUDREAU: Oh, that was Hannah
Duston.
MR. HOCKENSMITH: Oh, that's -- she had
took me to see that one, and --
MS. AUGER: Hannah Duston.
MR. HOCKENSMITH: -- that was something
else to me, you know.
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MR. KING: Yeah, my people were on the
other side of that battle.
MR. HOCKENSMITH: Oh, yeah?
(Laughter.)
MR. KING: Yeah. I'm Abenaki and
Iroquois.
MR. HOCKENSMITH: Mm-hmm.
MR. KING: It was the Abenaki.
May I keep this, or do you need to get it
back?
MS. AUGER: No, you can keep it.
MR. KING: Okay. Wow. It looks like she
was in mourning, or did she always wear black?
MS. AUGER: No, she didn't always, but
when you got up to that age, a lot of them did.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: But they weren't wearing it.
It was for best and...
MR. KING: Did you stay away from
religion with Mary Baker Eddy because her religion
was so controversial that it would, I guess, take
away from all of the other interesting parts of
her life?
MS. AUGER: I -- I stayed away from
the -- putting any -- a lot of stuff in there.
There's stuff in there that -- a little that tells
it, but not pushing it, just saying this is part
of what she was doing.
MR. KING: Okay. Yeah.
MS. AUGER: For me, I didn't want people
to stay away, thinking, "I'm not interested in
that." That's not what I'm talking about with
her.
MR. KING: Right.
MS. AUGER: And one of the things that I
like in saying -- her son, there's a whole story
to back this. I'm just going to tell you the fun
part.
When he was in the Civil War -- Linda,
she has very little part of any of it. I wrote it
all. She's come as -- from a newspaper, to write
up a thing about me. And so I've got it written
down, and I'm telling her the story of me. And at
one point -- she only every now and then will ask
a question. That's her job.
So she said something about the Civil War
and him in the Civil War. And I said I didn't
know until after the war that he was in the -- he
served in the war, and that -- I said, "But I was
very pleased they told me that he carried the
little Bible that I gave him all through the war."
And then I kind of cutely tell them, "and he also
had a picture of me in it."
MR. KING: Mm-hmm. Huh.
MS. AUGER: So...
MR. KING: Now, how did you develop your
interest in history?
MS. AUGER: I read a lot. I was an only
child. My parents divorced. I -- there was a
while that we were living -- my mother and I were
living in a -- just a one-bedroom place in the --
up above a cleaning thing down below in Laconia.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: And we had nothing. No
kitchenette or anything, just a bedroom.
And it was in the middle of the war, and
we -- no places to stay and whatever.
I would get up in the morning. I would
get dressed. I'd go up to the Crystal Cafe. I
would have breakfast there. I was just -- I was
still in school. And they'd fix me up a brown-bag
lunch thing. And I'd go to lunch.
And at night, my mother and I would go
together down there and have supper. And at the
end of the week, she'd pay for our week's --
MR. KING: I'll be darned.
MS. AUGER: -- thing.
MR. KING: So --
MS. AUGER: And so I read a lot.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: I'd go down with my father to
spend a week with him in Connecticut, and I'd stay
with him a week, usually, in the summer.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: And he had to work just the
same. He lived in one bedroom with -- these two
old ladies rented a couple of their rooms in their
house.
But I got a kick out of it; that at that
time there was a book that Boston started. The --
this book that had come out, they weren't -- it
was -- I can't think of what they wanted to do,
but, "No, it's an awful book. It's sexy. It's,
oh, no, no, no."
(Laughter.)
MS. AUGER: You know. So anyway, I --
there was this book going on.
My father took me over to -- took me up
to show me where I was going to sleep in the old
ladies' house.
But I had to stay there all day. So I'm
walking past their book thing, and I thought, "Oh,
I won't even have to go to the library. She's got
books from here to here," in a big thing of them.
So the first morning, he went off to
work. The old ladies gave me breakfast. I went
up to get a book and sit down up in my room and
read. And on their shelves, there was Forever
Amber.
MR. KING: Uh-huh.
MS. AUGER: That was the book, the name
of the book.
MR. KING: Oh.
MS. AUGER: Forever Amber.
MR. KING: Hmm.
MS. BARBOUR: Want a piece of bread?
MR. KING: Sure. Huh.
MS. AUGER: So I got to read it. And I
felt real big deal because I was, what, maybe 12,
13, and I was reading it.
MR. KING: You've written books.
MS. AUGER: Mm-hmm. I just had one
printed. It's for younger people. But you can
get it. It's -- everything in it is true. It's
like the letters I wrote. Everything in it is
true. There really was a Hannah Lane. And it's
what she's doing and...
But the first chapter, she was taken up
to see the hermit. So I write all about the
hermit, in her eyes being there, having him speak
to her and so forth. And then I have her go --
her sisters went away on the coach, the Concord
Coach, and so I wrote --
MS. BARBOUR: I'll get one so he can see
it.
MS. BOUDREAU: Yeah, that would be awesome.
MS. AUGER: Hmm?
MS. BARBOUR: I'll get it so he can look at it.
MS. AUGER: Okay. I had an awful time
finding anybody to illustrate it for me.
MR. KING: Oh.
MS. AUGER: And I finally found a woman
who lives in Sanbornton, so it's a Sanbornton book
all around.
MR. KING: Oh, I'll be darned.
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MS. BOUDREAU: And the artist was
somebody that taught art in Winnisquam.
MS. AUGER: Mm-hmm.
MS. BOUDREAU: Yeah. My cousin.
MR. KING: Oh.
MS. BOUDREAU: And she had taught art to
everybody, and a lot of people saw the name when
they've seen the book, and they go, "Oh, my gosh.
That's Marie," you know.
And I'm so glad she did it. That worked
out nice.
MS. AUGER: I am. I'm glad she did it
too.
MR. KING: So is it available? I mean,
can you --
MS. AUGER: Yes, she's gone to get --
MS. BOUDREAU: Yeah. She's going to get
you --
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MR. KING: No, but I mean, if people have
an interest in it, can they find it and --
MS. AUGER: Well, they aren't out
anywhere. They have to call me.
MR. KING: I see. Okay.
MS. AUGER: I thought about -- if I was
feeling better and up and around and so forth, I
would have gone to the papers and tried to have
them put a thing in. But I don't -- I'm not up to
it, so...
MR. KING: Mm-hmm. So it says Hannah
Lane was a real little girl who lived in
Sanbornton.
MS. AUGER: Mm-hmm, in the Tavern.
MR. KING: And all the people in this
book were real.
MS. AUGER: Mm-hmm.
MS. BOUDREAU: And so were the places.
MR. KING: Uh-huh.
MS. BOUDREAU: And, you know, Aaron got a
kick out of it. She starts off and says something
about she lived in the square, but she never knew
why she -- they called it the square.
And Aaron was reading it and he goes, "I
never did either," he said.
(Laughter.)
MS. BOUDREAU: "I never could figure out
why they called it the square." Because they
still call it that. And he says -- and she said,
"Because it really isn't square at all."
MR. KING: So what's the story of the
hermit about? Hannah meets the hermit.
MS. AUGER: Oh, everybody knows a little
bit about him. And I just -- I put a lot in, and
I wanted to know, when he died, how much of
anything -- what did he have. And I knew how to
get it, out to see it, not -- but to see a list of
it, not the actual things.
Back at that time, if you died and you
didn't have a will, they sent -- I think it's
three men from the town, three honest men, had to
go in and write down everything they owned, right
down to the kettles that they cooked in, list them
and give a price of what you think they were
worth.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: The bedding off, the clothes,
everything. And so that is registered over in his
non-will that was put in, over in the --
MR. KING: At the county seat --
MS. AUGER: Hmm?
MR. KING: -- you mean?
MS. BOUDREAU: Probate court.
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MS. BOUDREAU: Yeah.
MR. KING: Okay.
MS. AUGER: And --
MS. BARBOUR: But tell him who the hermit
was. He was a hermit for Sanbornton.
MS. AUGER: Oh, fine. I think probably
every town, little town around, has one somewhere
around them, but ours was in Sanbornton. Always.
He was born in Sanbornton.
And he was a very strange one. Because
people from up at the -- at that time New Hampton,
that was -- I don't remember which -- it was for
some group, church. I don't remember what it was.
But anyway, they -- the kids that went to
school for that church used to love to go up and
just visit and talk with him.
And what I -- where I found it, they said
he could talk as good as any of them. He knew as
much as the guys up there did about the Bible.
So -- and he had a thing in his porch --
not on his porch, on his front yard, that the
girls would sit on for a penny, and he'd tell them
what they weighed. Little funny things. Odd
things.
My favorite thing that he had was he had
a box, and the box -- well, give me the book.
It's better that I can go one thing from the
other.
MS. BOUDREAU: He lived up on Hermit
Woods Road, yeah.
MS. BARBOUR: Do you know where that is?
MR. KING: Yes. Yeah.
MS. BARBOUR: Because that's where it got
its name, Hermit Woods Road. And his house got
moved, and now you wouldn't recognize it, because
the people who bought it added on, so it's not a
hermit house anymore.
MR. KING: I see.
MS. BOUDREAU: It was just one of those
novelties of Sanbornton, wasn't it?
MS. BARBOUR: Yeah. Yeah.
MS. BOUDREAU: I mean, I know that we
always were interested in supposedly he had hidden
treasures out there.
MS. BARBOUR: Yeah.
MS. BOUDREAU: Nobody ever found them,
you know.
MS. AUGER: Okay.
(Reading): It was a small covered box
that he took off his workbench. He held it before
him and shook it. Then he turned it over and
opened it. In the center of the cover, he had
marked a spot. Resting in the cover as he opened
it were two kernels of a different color corn.
Pointing to the kernel nearest the spot, he said,
"This color one says 'do it,' if it's closest to
the closest spot. This here one," he said,
pointing to the darker kernel of corn furthest
from the spot, "means don't. Seeing as how the
'do' kernel is closest on the spot, it says, I
will do it." He looked at Pa and smiled.
MS. BOUDREAU: So how did -- was that
something you learned about him, that he had that?
MS. AUGER: It's -- huh?
MS. BOUDREAU: Is that something you
learned that he had?
MS. AUGER: Oh, I found little chips of
this stuff --
MS. BOUDREAU: Those things, yeah.
MS. AUGER: -- all over the place.
MR. KING: Uh-huh. So -- but you visited
him --
MS. AUGER: No.
MR. KING: -- yourself?
MS. AUGER: I was a little girl.
MR. KING: You just knew about this,
yeah.
MS. AUGER: It's way back when.
MS. BARBOUR: It's in the 1800s.
MR. KING: Oh, okay. So the hermit was
in the 1800s.
MS. BARBOUR: Right.
MS. BOUDREAU: Right. He's -- it was
something -- one of those town legend things.
MR. KING: Right. Right. Yeah.
MS. BARBOUR: But he did exist.
MR. KING: Sure. Well, Hermit Woods
Road, you can't --
MS. BARBOUR: Yeah. Yeah. And the table
over there, the two boards on the top -- we were
talking about it just the other day. That table
is built from wood from his house?
MS. AUGER: First house that burned --
MS. BARBOUR: His first house.
MS. AUGER: -- flooded.
MR. KING: So that table, we call it the
hermit table.
MR. KING: Oh, really?
MS. BARBOUR: Because, yeah, it was made
from boards from his house, so...
MR. KING: Wow. How do you know that?
MS. BARBOUR: The man who bought his
house, actual house he was living in --
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: -- the last time he was
living in it, he was a very rich man from New
York, and he had a summer home up there, and he
took the boards and had it -- built it himself
into a thing. But he bought all the lumber that
had been --
MR. KING: Yeah.
MS. AUGER: -- in the...
MR. KING: It's like the --
* * *
MR. KING: Yeah.
MS. AUGER: I've been writing for years.
The title is Roads, Bridges, and Small Politics.
MS. BARBOUR: Small Town Politics.
MS. AUGER: Mm-hmm?
MS. BARBOUR: Small Town Politics
MS. AUGER: Yeah, Small Town Politics.
It's not ready to print yet.
MR. KING: This is a book you're working on?
MS. AUGER: Yes.
MR. KING: Roads, Bridges, and Small-Time
Politics.
MS. AUGER: Yes.
MR. KING: Small Town Politics.
MS. AUGER: Yes. I've been a selectman.
I've been in just about all the things that they
have had. The regular ones, I was at least a few
years or so on each of those, most every one. And
then every time a new one for, yes, whatever they
were working on in a specific year, I'd always --
would get on those and....
MS. BARBOUR: Committees.
MS. BOUDREAU: She was on the planning
board forever.
MS. BARBOUR: Committees.
MR. KING: So you were on the planning
board as well for the town?
MS. AUGER: Only up to for -- I was on it
only up -- for about almost 40 years.
(Laughter.)
MS. BOUDREAU: Only.
MR. KING: Only. Only 40 years.
MS. AUGER: I should have finished out
the 40 years.
MR. KING: Is that how -- I mean, did
you -- was running for selectman, was that one of
your ambitions, or did you just fall into it?
MS. AUGER: I always wanted to be, but I
couldn't, because Jean was the road agent. I -- I
mean, no law says you can't be.
MR. KING: Right.
MS. AUGER: But it would hurt him in
terms of getting people to vote. Some people
would say, "Oh, his wife is on the board. She's
going to do something."
And so I stayed off. And one night we
had just finished supper, and I got a phone call.
Somebody at -- one of the selectmen had just quit,
and he told them as he was quitting that they
ought to call me. He thought that I'd like to be
on.
So I went on. And Jean was off because
he -- I think that was after he had retired.
MS. BARBOUR: No.
MS. AUGER: No?
MS. BARBOUR: No.
MS. AUGER: He went back, you know.
MS. BARBOUR: He went back. Yes, I know.
MS. AUGER: Okay. Well, that part I
don't remember.
I do remember I went in. He was coming
up to retire, if he hadn't, because I know he was
off and had to -- we had to get him to come back
on.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: And I didn't get him, because
I didn't want him to do it. But I wasn't going to
tell him. That was his job. And so I didn't tell
him. And he did get back on. But anyway, that's
another whole thing.
But it was a battle with a woman named
Anne Cioffi, and she and I just didn't get along,
and she didn't mind lying.
MR. KING: Oh.
MS. AUGER: And I kind of think, when
you're going to write something or tell people
something, it should be the truth.
So we had a battle on -- in the offices
for meetings and at home on the newspaper.
So I spent a few happy hours of making
sure that I put out the stuff that was different.
But we don't --
MR. KING: Well --
MS. AUGER: We don't talk about much like
that as --
(Laughter.)
MS. AUGER: -- she's gone. She died.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: And her husband thanked me
every year. We were on the planning board for a
while, together, and he always -- every year he
thanked me at least two times or apologized.
So...
MR. KING: For beating her, you mean?
"Thank you for beating her"?
MS. AUGER: He was right along with her
until after she died.
MR. KING: Yeah. Yeah.
MS. AUGER: Then he started throwing out
all this -- and he wasn't really straight with
her.
MR. KING: So he was --
MS. BARBOUR: Anne didn't run for
selectman. She got that wholeheartedly.
Anne was, like, on Right-to-Know --
MS. BOUDREAU: Yeah.
MS. BARBOUR: -- and "the selectmen are
doing something crooked" and --
MR. KING: Oh.
MS. BARBOUR: -- "what are they doing
now?"
MR. KING: Okay. Yeah, yeah.
MS. BOUDREAU: Yeah.
MS. BARBOUR: And, "They're raising taxes
on our side of town, and they're doing it for
retaliation," and it was -- it became a war --
MS. BOUDREAU: Very anti.
MS. BARBOUR: -- between over there in
Sanbornton and over here in Sanbornton.
MS. BOUDREAU: Right.
MR. KING: Uh-huh.
MS. BARBOUR: And she was referring to
the letters to the editor.
MS. BOUDREAU: Yeah.
MS. BARBOUR: She would have -- she would crank off letters to the editor --
MS. BOUDREAU: They both did, back and
forth.
MS. BARBOUR: -- all the time. All the
time. All the time.
MR. KING: Yeah. Yeah.
MS. BARBOUR: And it just would escalate,
and there was a lawsuit and...
MS. AUGER: Well, we both knew. And I'd
tell somebody, "It isn't going to end until one of
us drops."
MR. KING: Right.
MS. BOUDREAU: It was Anne.
MR. KING: Uh-huh.
MS. AUGER: She had nothing to do up
here. One of the letters I remember said, "She
should get a hobby or a dog."
MS. BOUDREAU: One of the books you wrote
too was -- The 465 Days, that was actually a
diary, wasn't it?
MS. AUGER: Mm-hmm.
MS. BOUDREAU: It was a real diary that you --
MS. AUGER: It was a real diary.
MS. BARBOUR: 365 Todays.
MS. BOUDREAU: 365 Todays.
MS. BARBOUR: Todays, yeah.
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MR. KING: And what was --
MS. BOUDREAU: And that was published.
MR. KING: That was published?
MS. BOUDREAU: That one's out in hard
or --
MS. BARBOUR: Yup.
MS. BOUDREAU: But I remember it was
somebody's diary, wasn't it?
MS. AUGER: Yup. Yup.
MS. BOUDREAU: That you found, and you
explained some of the terminology that they used
back then.
MS. AUGER: And I told them if -- he'd
say, "John and Joe stopped by this morning." I'd
tell you underneath who Joe -- if they're related,
who they were.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: And I kept them numbered. So
that from the back, I listed everybody that was in
his diary, so that anybody could pick the book up
and say, "That was my great-grandfather."
MR. KING: Huh.
MS. BOUDREAU: So you had to research who
he was talking about all through that.
MR. KING: Wow.
MS. AUGER: I did it, the whole thing.
MR. KING: Huh.
MS. AUGER: Oh, I got it. Wait a minute.
I know --
MS. BARBOUR: You had the Rev. War one.
MS. BOUDREAU: Revolutionary War.
MS. BARBOUR: You had the Revolutionary
War that's around the library.
MS. AUGER: Yeah. I've got eight or ten
different things that -- no big things. I did
Alphonse, my husband's father, and...
MR. KING: You wrote about him, you mean?
MS. BOUDREAU: Yes.
MS. AUGER: I wrote his life, yeah. And
he was still alive, telling me the stories.
MR. KING: Wow.
MS. AUGER: And I knew it was right
because I'd type it at night, what he had told me
the night before. The next night, we went back
and forth again.
MR. KING: Now, I assume that this is --
that a copy of this is in the local Historic
Society and --
MS. AUGER: I don't know if it is or not.
MR. KING: Well.
MS. AUGER: It should be, probably.
MR. KING: Yes, it should be.
* * *
MR. KING: Now, at this point Evelyn
brought out the final book that she was going to
talk with me about. She's written quite a few.
It was about the flooding of the Town of Hill, for
flood control purposes, and moving the town up
onto the higher ground.
* * *
MS. AUGER: This is one of my favorites.
This started as a program, and I had just the
stuff written out, because it was not one you
could dress up for.
So I read the -- or tell it -- talk and
tell them, following what I had.
And when I got done, I'd had it stuck on
the shelf for a long time. I was doing something
else, and I picked up something and I said, "Oh, I
did it when I was doing the planning."
So I decided, put a cover on it, make it
a book. And I got to tell you, one of my favorite
things in the book -- and this is true, real life.
This is true. This is talk about they're going to
build the dam.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: And one of the types of
earth needed was found on the Clarence, called
Bumblebee, Rayno property.
(Reading): The mound held sufficient
clay to meet the entire need of the dam. The
government's first offer was $200, but haggling
did get them up to a thousand.
MR. KING: Whoa.
MS. AUGER: (Reading): Bumblebee held
out for 2,000. The feds took the claim to federal
court on condemnation proceedings. A three-man
commission appointed by the judge awarded him
2,300. The unhappy flood control agents demanded
a jury trial. The jury warned him -- awarded him
$7,250.
(Laughter.)
MS. BOUDREAU: Should have quit at 2,000.
MR. KING: Yeah. Oh, that's great.
MS. AUGER: Yeah.
MR. KING: So that's all -- this is all
about --
MS. AUGER: The dam.
MR. KING: -- the dam.
MS. AUGER: Building the dam, the --
MR. KING: Building the dam.
MS. AUGER: And the flooding first.
MR. KING: Mm-hmm.
MS. AUGER: That starts with the
flooding.
MR. KING: Yeah.
MS. AUGER: And goes through the dam --
building the dam.
MR. KING: Wow. Isn't that interesting.
(Music.)
MR. KING: Well, Evelyn, thank you for
all that you've done, for New Hampshire really,
for this community and for the State of New
Hampshire, and thanks for taking the time to speak
with me today. It's really --
MS. AUGER: Oh, I enjoyed it.
MR. KING: It's really great.
MS. AUGER: As you can tell, I enjoy it.
Thank you for having me.
* * *
(Music continues.)
MR. KING: So my grateful thanks to
Evelyn Auger, who all these years has been keeping
alive some of New Hampshire's most interesting
historic figures, as well as fashions and mores.
I also want to just say a quick thanks to
her daughter, Carol Barbour, who was one of the
voices that you hear in the background; and her
neighbor, Janice Leighton Boudreau, and her
husband, William Hockensmith, who was there as
well, but -- and served to fill in some places
where I wasn't asking the right questions or -- it
was helpful. So thanks. Thanks to the three of
them for their participation as well.
I think that one of the wonderful things
about local efforts like this is that it's a
humble undertaking for any of us to write and
explore history with our neighbors, and it's very
special when other people recognize the value of
that and then invite you elsewhere.
Certainly, Evelyn's experience with the
representatives from the Christian Science church,
when they showed up at one of her presentations to
make sure that she wasn't defaming the name of
Mary Baker Eddy, was one of the more interesting
aspects of that.
The show notes for this podcast can be
found at nhsecrets.blogspot.com, where you'll see
a picture of Evelyn in her Mary Baker Eddy
costume, as well as seated in her house more
comfortably on the day that I went and visited
with her.
Thanks for joining us on New Hampshire
Secrets, Legends, and Lore, and we'll see you on
the next episode.
* * *
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