Monadnock Moment No. 112

Multi Era 4 - 8: 1849 to 1934

The Frugal Yankee

Ed Shedd was well known as the most frugal yankee farmer in his hometown of Stoddard, New Hampshire. Born in Stoddard in 1849, he lived on the family farm the rest of his life.

Ed owned a good deal of property and was quite well off, but you would not have known it by looking at him. He did not spend money unless he had to, including money for new clothes. Whenever he had business to transact, he would walk to Keene, Milford or wherever he had to go. He saw no reason to spend a dollar on a train or stagecoach ride when he could walk.

One time Ed walked into Keene to deposit $3,000, but by the time he got there the bank was closed. Rather than renting a room, he sat on a park bench in Keene's Central Square with his hand in his pocket wrapped around his roll of money until the bank opened the next morning.

Ed once walked to California to see more of the world. He put $100 in each sock to cover expenses. When he got home the next spring he had $200 in each sock! On another occasion he hiked into Keene to deposit another $1,500 in the bank. The story is that two highwaymen heard of this and laid in wait for him just outside the city. When Ed trudged into sight, they thought he was a tramp and let him pass unmolested. The two robbers soon stopped a well dressed fellow who came along and got the 15¢ he was carrying.

Ed suffered a broken leg in his later years and spent some time in the Keene hospital. He enjoyed the care and attention of the nurses so much that he soon moved into the hospital permanently and spent the final four years of his life there. He insisted on paying his hospital bill every day. When he passed away at age 85 in 1934, Ed Shedd of Stoddard left his entire estate, nearly $55,000 to the Elliot Community Hospital of Keene.