One Stone On A Stone: Walls of New Hampshire

We arrived here as missionaries at the beginning of June,

and at full summer, could not see into the forest's interior.

Seasons changed; a historic stone wall was discovered there.

I had already been collecting images of walls we passed near.

This wall just yards away consolidated my "study". 

But first, a "Happenings" report.

Each week an arbor du jour takes the stage to dazzle.

This flowering tree delighted me on a recent walk.

Likewise this flurry (fleur-y?) of tiny weed flowers covered

a yard near the paved walkway along St. Anselm Drive,

and immediately brought to mind . . .

. . . a previous early autumn day when I walked the same path

in the hour before dawn, and saw this fairy haze.

On May 20th, we celebrated the one year anniversary of

our mission start date, when we began training at

the Provo Missionary Training Center in 2019.

At the end of that training, our MTC tour overlapped briefly 

the training of our "flight group" of 10 young missionaries who

would follow us, to arrive in New Hampshire later.

Their start date falls at the end of this week, so we

celebrated by sending them cards with "credit" for treats.

 Tuesday and Wednesday of this week we welcomed

a small and then a larger group of new NH missionaries.

Usual procedures were modified to have them stagger

arrivals, stay outside, come for reassignments and

depart within minutes. Here I show the parking lot at

Manchester chapel mission office where a certain amount of

cheery greeting couldn't be suppressed. 
It felt so good to see faces!

 Over a week ago, something happened that Elder Warner

does NOT want me to report - so I won't [sort of].

Here he is with compression-wrapped and elevated leg as

he nurses a strained muscle (and caters to his lunch appetite).

I'll just note that he will be a little more careful -- in a few weeks

when he feels well enough to play tennis again --

NOT to chase that drop shot with quite as much gusto!

On Thursday night, we had to say goodbyes to the three

outstanding young Elders who have completed their service:

Elder Crum, Elder Davis, Elder Beckstrand.

(The two on the ends were APs for a long time, so we

got to see and interact with them in the office a good deal.)

Our adieus were expressed via a Zoom conference call,

where Pres. Beck also recognized the concluding service

of other office seniors Sister Hoke (Mission Medical) and

Elder Hoke, Sister and Elder Matkin.

Through early summer, we will be the ONLY office seniors.

(Office duties will be carried out by three Special Assignment

young Elders, while the new nurse works from Utah home.)

* * * * *

Now for this interesting topic: Stone Walls of NH and neighbors.

The first image I offer is of a wall at the former residence of

NH native Robert Frost in Derry, who penned 

the familiar "Mending Wall" poem from which the blog post 

title is lifted. In his verse we become acquainted with

the summer/winter cycle that pushes stone walls over.

And from there, the ageless phrase from his neighbor:

"Good fences make good neighbors."

(Listen to Robert Frost reading "Mending Wall" HERE,

scroll about half way down the page.)

 Never need much of an excuse to buy a book.

This is the one I chose to educate me on this topic.

Some of the images included here, and much of

the information, comes from William Hubbell's pages.

Newcomers to New England often share our same wonder:

who would build stone walls in the MIDDLE of the woods?

Hubbell asked the same question to his father, who he says,

"patiently explained that what is woods today was once

pasture land." This image allows walls to show through

the foliage-less tree growth. (Hubbell)

 This lidar imaging study by Johnson and Ouimet reveals

farm roads and fences hidden by new growth forest.

The story of the stone walls goes way back to the age of

glaciers, when boulders of wide size range were carried along

as if in a stream for long distances. Then, when the glaciers

retreated, the stones were deposited where they thaw-dropped.

Left-behinds are called "erratics", and most were small enough

to become buried. But NOT this immense one in Madison, NH.

One famous erratic is seen in Acadia Natl Park in Maine,

known as Bubble Rock. (Hubbell)

 Here, a cut-away view of a gravel pit in Maine gives us some idea

of the degree of stone concentration hidden below the surface.

(Hubbell)

Early settlers staking their claim may not have known what

challenges to farming lay underground at plow blade depth.

Eons of freezing and thawing forced the stones upward - 

and the movement still goes on today.

Even the cutting down of the early forests for heating fuel,

building materials and to clear the land changed temps

to encourage the upward movement of rocks.

There is a saying that if the US had been settled from 

West to East, instead of from East to West, 

that New England would STILL belong to the Indians.

(Photo by Hubbell)

As visitors to New England for the first time over 30 years ago,

we immediately made memories of the stone walls

that were part of the visual landscape. As temp residents now, 

we see them everywhere, in the woods, and along the roadways.

This one, below, runs to the side of Mission home property

in Bedford, NH. No mystery about why the stones

are organized into fences, once we understand how 

ever-present they are. Besides clearing timber, settlers needed

to clear the land of stones, so they were "tumbled" to

the edges of field boundaries, informally or by design.

 Below is a historic and well-laid wall that

can still be enjoyed at the Canterbury Shaker village.

This size stone was called "one-hander" which a waller can lift

with one hand. These evidently were selected and fit together

with practicality to withstand the seasonal heaves and

thaws, one of the destructive forces at work against walls.

At the ends, or where breaks needed to be

left for passage of livestock or humans, extra care was

given, adding heavy stones as bookends to withstand

the pressure from the rest of the wall.

Nature does NOT like a "void", and gravity does pull.

 This wall, below, was photographed on our early hikes

in hills around Goffstown. 
An entire vocabulary surrounds stone wall building: 
this example is a TOSSED wall,

which has a little more planned form than a DUMPED wall.

There are SINGLE walls, DOUBLE walls (two larger stone

rows close together, with smaller rubble filling in between),

LAID walls (flatter stones in a stack), DRYSTONE (without

mortar to hold stones in place) and WET walls (with cement).

 This wall, below, near another beautiful barn structure at

Woodstock, VT, is a single stack wall at field edge,

sometimes called a farmer's wall.

Over time, single stacks sometimes became double stacks as

farmers continued to clear stones from fields and pastures.

Where the land was not good for planting, stone walls

often were simply boundary walls defining property.

 This neat wall that we photographed in September

last year is on Mountain Base Road, near my favorite

local red barn. Can't beat this color combination.

Attraction to stone walls by many is often explained

this way: they are just "peaceful".

 Near the Old North Bridge that we view in Concord, MA

is this single stacked wall. If a good quantity of smaller stones

was interspersed with these medium and larger, leaving

spaces, this would qualify as a "lace" wall style.

 On a hillside farm near Weare, NH, we saw this dumped

fieldstone wall, clearly resulting from pasture clearing,

requiring lots of labor nonetheless. Most New England walls

are only as tall as an average man's thigh, determined

by the ergonomics of lifting the stones. If the farm was subject

to incorporated township laws, the farm wall might need to

measure 1.2 to 1.5 meters high. A wooden fence often was

added to the top of stone if it would be used to pen in animals.

 One estimate is that more than 380,00 kilometers of

stone walls were built by the end of the 19th century in NE.

Other structures that were part of early American rural life

qualify as stone walls. Retaining walls helped hold hillsides.
Foundations were walls upon which homesteads stood.

Dam walls provided water control.

Bridges were specialty walls engineered to assist

continuation of trails and turnpikes.

Below is a containment stone wall known as a "pound",

often built near a town center so that a wandering

animal could be taken to the "lock up" until claimed,

with minimal inconvenience to all.

Living near these ubiquitous monuments to New England

independence, self-reliance and resilience, we no doubt

will feel their absence from the western landscape we return to.

They are simply one more element of our experience here

that fills our lamps with no outlay or effort.

Apart from walls and trees, many things continue to

fill our lamps and offer their own strength and comfort.

Continuing the theme of "stones", I recall the hymn lyrics

Come Thou Fount

by Robert Robinson in 1758 who wrote of the biblical

stone of praise offered to mark success on the journey:

Here I raise my Ebenezer,

Hither by Thy help I've come.

And I hope by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.

We feel the blessings and watchful care of our God,

and we acknowledge the Gospel "fences" that guard us,

and that guide us toward Heaven.