The area around Keene, New Hampshire was originally known to the Abenaki Indian people as Ashuelot, roughly translated as "land between place," referring to the flat land between the surrounding mountains, criss-crossed with trails leading to other familiar places.

Popular histories of Abenaki Indians typically focus on events from the long-distant past. Many town historical societies have small assemblages of Native artifacts and memories that include: lithic implements; tidbits of Indian folklore; placenames with forgotten meanings; and stories of violent encounters during the French and Indian Wars.

Very few memories of 19th century Abenaki people have been preserved in New Hampshire's town histories, leading many to imagine that the Indians mostly disappeared. When white New Englanders encountered Native people during that time, they often regarded them with suspicion:

On first hearing the Keene Abenaki oral tradition recounted, one might think the arrival of this family was almost accidental. Mali Mason Keating recalled an incident around 1886, when Israel M'Sadoques and Mary Watso M'Sadoques were camped on the Connecticut River at Bellows Falls in Vermont:

The family did move to Keene, and stayed there through the 20th century. They changed the family name from M'Sadoques to Sadoques for easier pronunciation. Mary was a master basketmaker. Israel, who had hunted and trapped for the Hudson Bay Company, started a tannery and furnished ash splints to the Keene Chair Company. His business ad in the Keene city directory used a standard woodcut of a fox that, on first glance, simply adds some outdoor flavor. But that same totem animal can also be found on some much earlier documents.

Israel Sadoques business ad in the 1899-1900 Keene City Directory

In 1666, a deed for the Quaboag region of Massachusetts, now Brookfield, was signed by a Native man named Shattoockquis. In the 1670s, his entire tribal family band moved to Schaghticoke, in western New York. Native surnames endured frequent misspellings through the vagaries of English and French pronunciation. In New York, the family name shifted to Sadochques. When they moved north to Saint Francis/Odanak in Canada, it shifted again, when an Abenaki named Mesadoques signed his name with a fox totem on French documents. During the 19th century, the name evolved into Mesatogwes and M'Sadoques in Canada, and Sadoques in New England.

The Sadoques daughters, known to present generations as the "Aunts," became repositories of the family's oral histories. One daughter ran a milliners' shop on Main Street. One married a photographer. One became a Benedictine nun. One became a registered nurse. One daughter, Elizabeth Sadoques, was invited to Deerfield, Massachusetts in 1922 to offer a historical talk on the family history. She recounted her family's frequent visits to Deerfield and to Northampton, Massachusetts, where, in 1838, her ancestors were described by the Northampton Courier so disdainfully and inaccurately, as "a wretched remnant of a race of noble and proud Red men."

The members of this Abenaki family, like so many others, employed a myriad of strategies to adapt after the arrival of Europeans. For generations, they used their old familiarity with a broad range of territory and resources to survive. Their deep attachment to Ndakinna, meaning "our homeland," was poorly understood by most white Americans. Even the rough translation of the Sadoques family name, "big-river person," helps to explain their constant return to rivers where Native people had long lived. Whether as large as the Connecticut, or as small as the Ashuelot, these rivers always felt like home.

Marge Bruchac, Abenaki Indian, teacher, historical consultant, and performer, and Lynn Keating Murphy, Abenaki Indian, master educator, and granddaughter of Elizabeth Sadoques of Keene, will shed some light on this supposed "dark age" in New Hampshire's history at our membership meeting on Monday September 25th starting at 7:30 p.m. Their talk will reveal how, and why, Abenaki people could literally "hide in plain sight." Historians have only recently begun exposing the degree to which white town historians adopted stereotypical, racialized narratives of "vanishing Indians" that distorted the historical record. Some people imagine that many of the Abenakis in New Hampshire today are imports from Maine or Canada. Surviving documents and oral traditions have a far more complex story to tell as seen by tracing just one extended Abenaki family before they settled in Keene during the 1880s.

Trustees:
Ernest L. Bell, Kim Bergeron, William Faulkner, Joslin Kimball Frank, Verne Greene, John W. Harris, Gregory Knouff, Michael Matros, Sean O'Mara, David Proper, Jane Reynolds, Stillman Rogers, Philip Taaffe, Jim Talbert, Christine Weeks

The Trustees of the Historical Society have decided to alter the hours that the Society is open to the public. Beginning in October 2006 the Society's headquarters, 246 Main Street in Keene, will be closed to the public on Sunday and Monday. HSCC had previously been open Monday through Saturday. The change will mean that the Society will be open 36 hours each week for research, exhibitions, and other activities. The new schedule will be Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Wednesday 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.

This change is being made to allow the staff, which will still be hard at work on Mondays, more time to complete necessary in-house activities. It is essential that staff and volunteers complete important technical activities such as cataloguing, conservation, website maintenance, and storage upgrades to insure the appropriate preservation and availability of all the items in the collections. This change will allow the organization to better carry out its mission to collect, preserve, and share the history of Cheshire County. Thank you for your understanding, and please call the office if you have questions about the change of hours.

The Wilkins and Kingsbury toys feature exhibit will conclude with a gallery walk and talk by Jim O'Neil on Saturday September 9 at 10:00 a.m. O'Neil will discuss the history of the toys and the Kingsbury Company as a fascinating conclusion to this popular exhibit. O'Neil is a Kingsbury toy collector, longtime former Kingsbury employee, and a member of the board of trustees of the Kingsbury Fund, which donated the toys to the Historical Society. He was also featured in a recent "New Hampshire Chronicle" program on the toys (DVD available at HSCC).

This final exhibit program on these beloved and historic toys is free and open to the public and sponsored by the Kingsbury Fund, Douglas Toy Company, Mill Toy Works, Toy City, Whitney Bros. Co., and The Keene Sentinel. For further information, please contact HSCC at 352-1895.

Catherine Behrens is a valuable volunteer to the staff of the Historical Society. She assists in a variety of ways, from greeting visitors at the front desk, answering the telephone, and preparing mailings to inputting data into the computer and assisting with the membership database. No task is too large or small for Catherine as she is always willing to take on whatever the staff asks of her.

We greatly appreciate the time and dedication Catherine has given to the Society. Such volunteers make the Society the successful organization it is, while making the staff's job easier and more enjoyable.

If you are interested in volunteering at HSCC, please contact our volunteer coordinator Gail Currier at 352-1895 or bizmgr@hsccnh.org.

The success of our July genealogy bus trip to Boston has encouraged us to repeat the trip. Our fall trip will be on Friday October 27, leaving HSCC at 7:00 a.m. The bus will make two stops as before. The first at the National Archives Northeast Region office in Waltham, and the second in front of the New England Historic and Genealogical Society where folks can also visit the Boston Public Library or explore the downtown city area. On the return trip we will leave the downtown area at 4:45 p.m., stop in Waltham, and continue home, arriving at about 7:30 p.m.

The cost for this trip to Boston is $25 for HSCC members and $30 for nonmembers. Please contact HSCC to sign up for this great research opportunity or fun day in Boston at 352-1895 or hscc@hsccnh.org. Please let us know which facilities you wish to visit. To make this trip possible, we need at least 40 people participating. Please let your friends know about this great opportunity.

HSCC has prepared a series of color note cards featuring eight Kingsbury toys from the 1890s to the 1930s. They include a locomotive, sprinkling wagon, hay rake, fire engine, airplane, racecar, and two automobiles. The photos were taken by author & photographer Stillman Rogers. These attractive note cards would make wonderful gifts or holiday greetings. There are 16 cards per package (2 views of 8 different toys) for $10.00, and they are available at the Historical Society.

HSCC's 10th annual benefit auction will be held at the Society, 246 Main Street in Keene, on Saturday September 30, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. Many quality antiques and collectibles have already been received for this fundraising event, including furniture, paintings, prints, Staffordshire, early maps, historical glass and pottery, postcards, ephemera, and a wide variety of other antiques and collectibles. The Gallery at Knotty Pine Auction Service has once again generously donated its time to manage the sale, with Knotty Pine's John Pappas serving as auctioneer.

The auction has become one of the Society's most important annual fundraising events. Donations and consignments will be accepted until September 19th. We encourage everyone to attend and to bring your friends as you will surely find something to treasure while supporting HSCC. More details will arrive in your mailbox soon.

The fall Monadnock Historical Societies Forum meeting will be held on Thursday October 19 at Pisgah State Park in Winchester starting at 9:30 a.m. This Roundtable meeting will gather at the Park's visitor center, and after our brown bag lunch we will tour the Park's newly restored barn and museum. For further information, please contact Tom Haynes at 352-1895 or dired@hsccnh.org.

The fall feature exhibit at HSCC will be a collaborative effort by the Monadnock Historical Societies Forum. The exhibit will focus on historic meetinghouses and churches in the Monadnock region and will examine the role, architecture, and history of these important structures and how their role changed due to issues of taxation, an increase in different faith practices, and the separation between church and state resulting from the Toleration Act of 1819.

HSCC will offer a 6-week introductory class through the Keene State College Continuing Education program on Doing Genealogy Research, taught by HSCC's Tom Haynes and master genealogist Verne Greene. Each session will examine different aspects of the genealogy research process, including how to get started, using local history resources, museums, libraries, internet, cemeteries, deeds, and probate records. Through lectures, demonstrations, hands-on activities, and field trips the class will offer the basic skills and tools to start you on the path toward uncovering your family heritage. Classes will be held at HSCC on Wednesday evening from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. starting September 20th and continuing to October 25th. To Register, contact the KSC Continuing Education office at 358-2290 or on line at www. keene.edu/conted and link to their registration form.

The Wyman Tavern will end its summer hours on Saturday September 2. The Tavern will be open through the fall by appointment until November 10th.

HSCC's Alan Rumrill and Tom Haynes will offer the final 2006 lecture in our Wyman Tavern Lecture Series on Early American Life in Cheshire County on Thursday September 21st at 7:30 p.m. This year's theme is on The Lives of African Americans. Alan and Tom will present a program on "Cheshire County's African American History: Colonial Period through Abolition." The lecture is free and open to the public. For further information, please contact HSCC at 352-1895 or hscc@hsccnh.org.

In partnership with the Horatio Colony House Museum, the Wyman Tavern Museum will once again open its doors for an evening candlelight open house on Friday October 6th between 7:00 and 8:30 p.m. Please come experience the warmth of the candlelit Tavern as it might have been in the late 1700s and stroll down Main Street to view the charm of the Horatio Colony House Museum, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary. The Wyman Tavern is located at 339 Main Street and the Horatio Colony House Museum is at 199 Main Street. For further information, please contact HSCC at 352-1895 or the Horatio Colony House Museum at 352-0460.

The 106th Annual Meeting of the Francis Wyman Association will be held at the Wyman Tavern and HSCC on Saturday September 23rd between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. For further information, please contact Ginny Mucciaccio at ginny.mucc@ verizon.net or visit www.wyman.org.

We want to thank all our 2006 sponsors. They help provide support so we can continue to offer many of our educational events and activities. For this wonderful support, thank you.

Ashuelot Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution - June teacher workshop on the American Revolution.

Douglas Cuddle Toys, Inc. of Keene - Spring/ Summer Kingsbury Toy Exhibit.

Dublin Historical Society - February Membership Meeting on the Dublin Art Colony.

Fairfields Pontiac-Cadillac-Buick of Keene - Transportation Fund.

Fenton Family Dealerships of Keene - Transportation Fund.

The Keene Sentinel - April Annual Membership Meeting on the Marlow-Stoddard Fire of 1941; Spring/Summer Kingsbury Toy Exhibit; and June teacher workshop on the American Revolution.

Keene Lions Club - Transportation Fund.

Kingsbury Fund - Spring/Summer Kingsbury Toy Exhibit.

James & Joy Koontz of Keene - Spring/ Summer Kingsbury Toy Exhibit.

Marlow Historical Society - April Annual Membership Meeting on the Marlow-Stoddard Fire of 1941.

Mill Toy Works of Keene - Spring/Summer Kingsbury Toy Exhibit.

New Hampshire Humanities Council - June teacher workshop on the American Revolution.

PC Connection, Inc. of Merrimack, NH - April Annual Membership Meeting on the Marlow-Stoddard Fire of 1941.

Kim Temple of Keene - April Peter Forbes program.

Toy City of Keene - Spring/Summer Kingsbury Toy Exhibit.

Whitney Bros. Company of Keene - Spring/ Summer Kingsbury Toy Exhibit.

WKNE - Monadnock Radio Group of Keene - April Annual Membership Meeting on the Marlow-Stoddard Fire of 1941.

If you would like to become a sponsor of any of our educational programs, please contact Tom Haynes at 352-1895.

Saturday - September 2
Wyman Tavern summer hours end. Fall tours by appointment only. Call 352-1895.

Monday - September 4
Closed for Labor Day Holiday.

Saturday - September 9
Kingsbury Exhibit Gallery Talk. 10:00 a.m. at HSCC (see related article).

Wednesday-September 20 - October 25
Genealogy Class. 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at HSCC (see related article).

Thursday - September 21
Wyman Tavern Lecture. 7:30 p.m. at Wyman Tavern (see related article).

Monday - September 25
Membership Meeting. 7:30 p.m. at HSCC (see lead article).

Wednesday - September 27
HSCC Trustee David Proper to talk about Keene in 1806 at the Horatio Colony House Museum at 7:00 p.m. Reservation required. Call 352-0460.

Saturday - September 30
Antique Auction Fundraiser. 10:00 a.m. at HSCC (see related article).

Beginning Monday - October 2
HSCC will be closed on Mondays (see related article).

Friday - October 6
Wyman Tavern Open House. 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. (see related article).

Thursday - October 19
Roundtable Forum Meeting. 9:30 a.m. Pisgah State Park (see related article).

Friday - October 27
Genealogy Research Trip to Boston. Bus leaves HSCC at 7:00 a.m. (see related article).