Marshall Hudson

3 weeks ago | nhmagazine.com | Marshall Hudson

I’m holding an unusual walking stick created by a White Mountain hermit who led an adventurous, yet tragic, life. The walking stick has many long curly tendrils interlaced around the hilt, and it has me wondering, how did he do that? The year 1900 is carved into the handle, so unless the carver was playing a trick on someone, this cane is 125 years old and would have some tales to tell, if it could talk.

2 months ago | nhmagazine.com | Elisa Verdi |Marshall Hudson

I’m reading the surveyor’s field notes from the 1915 official town line perambulation for the town of Winchester. It reads as though the perambulators were having quite an adventure, and I’m wishing I had been there with them. The participating towns were taking turns providing lunch for the crew, and on the final day, it was Winchester’s turn.

Jan 1, 2025 | nhmagazine.com | Marshall Hudson

Precocious little Emmy and her mom stopped in at our farm recently, and I asked her if she was learning to read. Emmy told me about her favorite book and said I could borrow it if I promised to bring it back. The name of the book was “Sarah Whitcher’s Story” by Elizabeth Yates. It is an old children’s story first published in 1905 but republished in 1994.

Nov 12, 2024 | nhmagazine.com | Elisa Verdi |Marshall Hudson

The rattlesnakes are now long gone, but their legacy remains. I’m exploring the woods on the southwest side of Rattlesnake Mountain in Redstone, NH. Rattlesnakes were once hunted here and sold for their venom, which was valued for medicinal properties. This practice stopped about 1870, when a forest fire raged over the mountain, killing off the snake population, but leaving the dangerous-sounding name behind.

Oct 17, 2024 | nhmagazine.com | Marshall Hudson

A few lines of an old church hymn are stuck in my head in a never-ending refrain. “Bringing in the sheaves. Bringing in the sheaves. We will come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves.” Before today I had only a vague concept of what a “sheave” was and had never heard the word used in conversation. A “sheave” is a bundle of grain stems bound together after reaping. Typically, a sheave is the bundle after harvest but before the grain and straw have been separated.