After 30 years and 2 generations, town's past is documented

By Chelsea DeWeese,

GREENLAND — Paul F. Hughes decided to carry on his parents' legacy by devoting much of the past 30 years to writing a history of the small town he grew up in — Greenland, N.H.

In 1968, as the Greenland Historical Society's first vice president, Hughes' father, Paul C. Hughes, began gathering historical information and documents about old houses and newspapers in the area. Hughes' mother, Anna, helped.

By 1973, the family decided to "buckle down and do it" — write a book about Greenland's history.

"We decided, 'Yeah,' there was enough material around to make it worthwhile," Hughes recalled.

After his parents passed away, Hughes felt even more committed to completing the history project they had started together. He began writing the book in December of 1996 and finished it last February.

"A Pleasant Abiding Place" is how a newspaper described Greenland in 1876, and it is the title Hughes chose for his book, which consists of nine loose-leaf volumes containing 2,600 pages of Greenland history from 1635 to 2000.

Among the piles of historical documents in Hughes' house are records of the lives and times of Greenland from 1710 to the present. Now all that's left are some finishing touches and filling in a couple of missing pieces.

"It feels awfully good to get out from under," said Hughes.

Along with dispelling myths, he said, his book will provide Greenland residents with a "fuller" understanding of their town.

As for himself, Hughes said, the process provided life lessons and a deeper understanding of the experiences that formed the foundation of the small New England town where he spent his early and, now, later years.

When Hughes was younger he attended Portsmouth High School and Phillips Exeter Academy. At that point in his life he didn't have much interest in history.

"Most young people don't," he pointed out.

After that, he studied government at Boston College and later went to work for the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C.

"So I had some training for historical work." In his spare time, he helped his father do research.

After Hughes' father retired from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard at age 60, he became completely invested in the book.

"As I am now," said Hughes, who is 67.

To help his father, Hughes gathered information from the library at the University of Maryland, the Library of Congress and the National Archives. His father, back home, dug through piles of documents.

"There (were) little tidbits all over the place," Hughes said.

The tidbits turned into heaps.

When Hughes himself retired and returned to Greenland, he faced the challenge of sorting and organizing the information he and his parents had gathered over 20 years.

"I have a house devoted to it, pretty much," he said of the chairs and bookshelves covered with documents.

Hughes joked about his "19th-century lifestyle," noting his lack of an answering machine or computer, and how he approached his book.

He picked out important facts from among the piles of documents, wrote them on 3-by-5 cards, dated them, and organized them chronologically.

Then he began typing copy on his word processor at the kitchen table.

"I didn't have a real schedule," he explained. He alternated between typing and driving up to Concord to check his facts and research.

He was consistent, however, about not typing when he was tired, for fear it would blur his understanding and interpretation of the conglomeration of newspaper articles, diary entries, letters and town records that he needed to sort through.

As he made headway on the book at home, he progressively added to a second loose-leaf copy he gave to Greenland's Weeks Public Library.

"We ... have people in here once or twice a week (to look at it)," said library director Mike Sullivan. "It gets used."

Sullivan said many people use the book to learn about their ancestors. He explained that the chronological layout serves as a reference.

"They find it amazingly easy to use," Sullivan said.

Not only can interested readers learn about their heritage through the book, they can also read about historical places and people Hughes has researched.

For instance, Hughes learned that the Weeks Brick House was really built around 1710, not in 1638 as many had thought.

He also found that Dr. Samuel Macclintock, believed to have been on Bunker Hill during the famous battle, really wasn't. It appears it was really Macclintock's predecessor, the paid chaplain at the time.

And according to his findings in Portsmouth records, the town of Greenland was incorporated in 1721, not in 1704.

And he has come to believe that one of Greenland's "rascals" was not quite the bad guy everyone thinks.

Col. Clement March, a Republican senator and friend of Franklin Pierce, turned Democrat during his one-year term.

"Of course, at that time all the papers were party papers," Hughes said, and described a full-out attack on March.

After reading 15 years of March's diary entries, Hughes gained a greater understanding of why this 19th-century figure made the decisions he did.

"He was not quite the villain that he was made out to be," Hughes said.

Ultimately, Hughes hopes to make an indexed copy of "A Pleasant Abiding Place" — complete with footnotes — available to the public.

He is also interested in having the book published, as long as it isn't edited with a "hatchet."

Even if his book doesn't get published, Hughes said he plans to keep a copy at the library, and one at the town offices as well.

Hughes estimated he and his father over the decades invested tens of thousands of dollars in time, travel and research for the book.

"But it's been fun," he said.

The two men began the project with the idea that the book probably wouldn't turn a profit, but they discovered "it was so much fun we didn't want to stop," Hughes said.

The true forces fueling his dedication to the book were a desire to finish what he and his father started and to provide his town with a great record.

"(The book will) give Greenland people a fairly accurate history of who we are and how we got where we are," he said.

He said a number of issues the town is currently facing relate directly to years past. But Hughes is wrapping up his part.

"I think I'll probably leave that to somebody 50 years from now who wants to carry on."

Besides, he has finished what he set out to do.

"(Writing the book) gave me more of an appreciation for what our ancestors did, without romanticizing them," Hughes said. "I think I've learned that most people ... do the best they can under their circumstances."

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