Jonathan Longfellow, Nottingham, New Hampshire cm1193

Oriental Rug Review/Asian Trade is pleased to offer an original article from Granite State Magazine, New Hampshire: "Hon. Jonathan Longfellow, A Pioneer of Early New Hampshire", by John Scales. This is an original article from Granite State Magazine, Vol. I, No. 3, March, 1906, 11 pp. (loose), 3 1/2" x 6 1/2" (image area).

About The Magazine:

Granite Monthly, A New Hampshire Magazine, Granite State Magazine (1906), An Illustrated Monthly Devoted to the History, Stories, Scenery, Industry, and Interests of New Hampshire. George Waldo Browne, Managing Editor. The earliest # in our collection is Vol. IV, No. 3, December, 1880, the latest is Vol. 61, No. 10, October, 1929. In 1906 the name of the magazine was changed to "Granite State Magazine." This was likely a relaunch. Editor Browne had a close relationship with the author/artist J. Warren Thyng (see below)

George Waldo Browne, novelist, poet, historian, lecturer, and public speaker, was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, October 8, 1851. He was the oldest son of John C. and Martha L. Browne, and was raised on a farm near Deerfield, where he received his education in the grammar and high schools. He began to write when he was sixteen, and sold his first story when he was twenty-one. His first long story for Beadle was written in 1877, and for it he received fifty dollars. For a time he taught school in Deerfield, and later was superintendent of schools at that place, but in 1881 he removed to Manchester, New Hampshire, where he purchased Girls and Boys of New Hampshire and published it as a monthly until January 1, 1883, when he bought the American Young Folks, of Topeka, Kansas. He consolidated the two under the latter name and published it as a semimonthly for three years. Being very successful in writing, he disposed of the magazine to the Youth's Companion in 1886, and devoted all of his time to literature. He wrote over 100 serials and books, and more than 1000 short stories and articles, which were published in the Saturday Journal, the Banner Weekly, Golden Days, Argosy, Good News, Golden Hours, Young People, and elsewhere. He also contributed thirteen stories to the Nickel Library. About 1900 he began writing historical and descriptive works, for here lay Mr. Browne's choice. Among the more important are "The Far East and the New America," in six volumes; "The History of Hillsborough, N. H., 1735 to 1921" (1921), "Early Records of Londonderry, Windham and Derry, N. H." in three volumes (1908-14), "Green Mountain Pioneers" (1927), "Indian Nights" (1927), "Japan, the Place and the People" (1904), and "The St. Lawrence River" (1905). In 1906 he edited Granite State MagazineHe was married to Nellie M. Barber, of Townsend, Massachusetts, January 8, 1891, who, with a daughter and a son, survived him. He died August 13, 1930, at Manchester, New Hampshire.

J. Warren Thyng. Prof. J. Warren Thyng was a native of Lakeport (NH), and an artist with the pen as well as with the pencil.

Professor Thyng had a major role in the naming of features of Lake Winnpesaukee. Lake Paugus, the northerly water boundary of Lakeport, is four miles long and one mile wide. Anciently, and until about 1871, it was known only as Long Bay, but at that time it was renamed by Martin A. Haynes, pulblisher of a local newspaper/ magazine. He and Prof. J. Warren Thyng, in one of their frequent sanctum smoke- talks, decided that "Long Bay" and "Round Bay" were not worthy names for such beautiful sheets of water, and they proceeded to rechristen them, each choosing a name. Haynes selected Paugus as a suitable substitute for Long Bay, in honor of the old Indian Chieftain who once ranged this region and the country to the north of it. In the local newspaper, thereafter, these lakes were always alluded to as Paugus and Opeeche, and the names met popular approval and have become firmly established. 0peeche is a smaller body of water than Paugus, and its old designation of Round Bay was manifestly suggested by its shape. But why an independent lake, both fed and emptied by a rapid stream, should be designated as a "bay" is hard to tell. Relative to the name Opeeche, Prof. Thyng once wrote, "The robins used to be very numerous in the vicinity of the bay, and knowing the meaning of the word 'opeeche' was 'the robin' in Longfellow's 'Hiawatha,' I thought it would be an appropriate name for that little body of water."