The State of New Hampshire's State House and the Shakers

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

September 7, 2022

We've been in New Hampshire for three days, so it must be time to make the trip to find the state of their State House. We made the 23-mile trip into Concord. We've already found New Hampshire's Liberty Bell, in the front yard of the State House. We had called earlier about scheduling a tour, because we always learn more if we have a guide. But on the phone we were told they no longer have tours.

To get to the state house, we must walk beneath Concord's veteran's arch--dedicated to her soldiers and sailors. Once inside the building, we stopped in at the visitor center and the volunteer asked where we were from. The director of the visitor center suddenly got very interested in us when she found out we had roots in Weatherford, Oklahoma. We discovered that we know the director's cousin, whose children grew up with our children in Weatherford. It's a small world! Suddenly we had a tour of the New Hampshire State House.

Our tour guide took us into the New Hampshire House of Representatives, which looked more like a school auditorium than a legislative hall. This tiny state has 400 elected representatives, the most in the United States. That's a world record of one representative for every 3,400 citizens. Our tour guide added that they really get to know their representatives in this state. The front of the House is decorated with portraits of famous people with ties to New Hampshire. That would include Franklin Pierce, the 14th U.S. president, and the only president from this state. Also pictured is Daniel Webster, a congressman, U.S. senator, and U.S. Secretary of State. Mr. Webster's nickname was "The defender of the Constitution."

The representatives don't have individual desks--just a book rack and buttons to push to vote. These representatives get a salary of $200 per year, and have to run every two years to keep their seat in this crowded House.

In contrast to the auditorium-like House of Representatives, the Senate has fewer members. While they have the most representatives, they have the fourth smallest senate in the U.S. The claim to fame of the New Hampshire State House is that they have "the oldest continuously used legislative chambers in America." That means that both the house and the senate have been doing business in these exact rooms every since the state house was built in 1819.

The front of the Senate chambers is decorated with large pictures that tell important stories from New Hampshire's history.

One is a picture of young Daniel Webster, memorizing the U.S. constitution. New Hampshire sure likes Mr. Webster.

Another panel is of John Stark preparing for battle during the Revolutionary War. He would become a general, and would give New Hampshire their state motto, "Live Free or Die!"

Another unique thing about the state of New Hampshire is that they are home to the first presidential primary in the country. Through these doors of the Secretary of State's office will walk everyone that wants to be the next president of the United States. New Hampshire calls this the first step to the White House. It's an expensive step, as each candidate must pay $1,000 to get on that first ballot.

While they are whittled down to a handful by the time we have a ballot in Texas, they will see over twenty candidates vying for the top job in the country here in New Hampshire. The Secretary of State's office collects photos and memorabilia from the early candidates that cross that threshold. Many of the names and faces we did not recognize.

We stopped in at the governor's office and our tour guide intended to introduce us to him. Our unplanned tour certainly turned into a VIP tour. But the governor was in a meeting with the executive committee. New Hampshire's Governor has little power, as anything over $25,000 must be approved by this five member council. Our last stop inside the state house was this giant painting of the third day of Gettysburg during the Civil War entitled, "Pickett's Charge."

New Hampshire is proud of its gold dome. That's the real stuff--made of 23.75 karat gold since 1939. That's 2,000 square feet of gold, so it cost a pretty penny when it was re-coated with gold in 2016.

As we left our very interesting state house tour, Mark posed beside yet another reminder that Daniel Webster seems to be New Hampshire's favorite son.

We did a little touring around Concord on this cloudy day. We found that this is where Mary Baker Eddy founded and discovered the First Church of Christian Scientist.

We also discovered Pierce Manse--the only home owned and lived in by President Franklin Pierce. If you look closely in the left-hand corner on the picture below, you will see that the train tracks came very close to the 14th president's house.

We do a lot of driving in our pickup while we are out touring. It was time for an oil change, and it's always a hassle to find a place to get that done. So we were glad to find Prompto--home of the 10-minute oil change. We can check that chore off the list of things to do. Not everything is glamorous about living on the road. We still have to wash clothes, get haircuts, and get vehicle oil changes.

We made the drive out of Concord to visit the Silk Farm Wildlife Sanctuary. We took the 1.2-mile Great Turkey Pond Loop. Once again, we didn't see any moose, or even turkeys today at Turkey Pond.

But we did find some handsome barred owls in the enclosures behind the visitor center.

As we drove back towards our campground, we made an interesting stop at the Canterbury Shaker Village. Established here in 1792, it was free for us to roam around the 32 buildings that are still standing at their original location. We also watched the film at the visitor center, which taught us about the shakers. They lived a communal lifestyle, where everyone had a job and contributed their work and wages to the group. They all lived celibate lives, and the building below was one of the women's living quarters. The women live, eat, and work completely separate from the men.

While the worship hall was shared, they entered from two different doorways and sat on opposite sides of the church. When we saw pictures of children in the archives we wondered where they came from. The film explained that they raised orphaned children here at the shaker village. The last man died here in 1939, but the women stayed around for many years. The last woman at the Canterbury Village died in 1992.

The Shakers are most known for their simple, but fine quality furniture. On the second floor of the visitor center were examples of the furniture built here.

In true shaker wording, visitors were asked to "Deny thy temptation--we kindly ask you not to touch objects in this exhibit."

Surely we couldn't make a drive along New Hampshire's back roads without stopping at least once at a covered bridge. 

This one is in Belmont, New Hampshire, and is named "The Slippery Rock Crossing."

We took a nice 0.6-mile hike through the woods to find its twin covered bridge sister. 

We've enjoyed another day of wandering, and learning about the state of  New Hampshire's State House and the Shakers. To keep us fueled with snacks, Denisa cut up two of our orchard-fresh apples. We were surprised that the Zestar came in ahead of the Honey Crisp in the blind taste test today. It was the first time we have seen fresh Honey Crisp apples, and perhaps they need to stay on the tree a little longer to sweeten. Stay tuned for more exciting apple taste tests, as we continue to explore more of New Hampshire.