Each month, at least during those warmer months, the Pierce Manse hosts the Brigade Lecture Series.
This month, the lecture Thursday at 7 p.m. will be on “Robert Rogers of the Rangers.” It will be presented by George Morrison of Bow, a New Hampshire Humanities presenter, historian, motorcyclist and photographer.
Rogers was a frontiersman in colonial America and served in the British army during the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars. He trained his famous Rangers for raiding and close combat behind enemy lines.
When asked what the condensed version of Rogers’s story was, Morrison said, in an email: “Local man gains international fame, dies alone.
“Scoundrel. Hero. He is one of the most colorful, influential, and unconventional warriors in our pre-Revolutionary history, gaining what Washington sought but never achieved.”
Rogers led a group of some 600 frontiersmen who had adapted Native American techniques to their fighting. The Rangers emphasized self-sufficiency, courage, stealth and methods of camouflage.
“I was interested in early North America from childhood, reading William O. Steele’s series in third grade,” Morrison said. “My father recommended Kenneth Roberts’ novel, which led me to Rogers’ journals, still in print since 1765, (John) Cuneo’s biography, and (Burt) Loescher’s multi-volume work.”
As a University of New Hampshire graduate with a degree in history and researcher of unpublished primary sources, Morrison said he knew how to “fish” for information on Rogers after becoming interested in him.
“Besides books, there are scholarly journals, collections of letters, court documents – those tend to get saved, artifacts. The Computer Age – since the late 1970s – has enabled access to documents rare and obscure, via pdf.”
Rogers was also of interest to Morrison because Rogers’s family settled not far away in Dunbarton.
“(Rogers’s) burned-down-in-1748 family homestead is just down the road; the Champlain Valley, not far away,” Morrison said.
Morrison said his programs are image-driven with audience engagement. There’s no podium or notes to shuffle, he said, but he will provide notes and reading suggestions for those who want to dig into the history even more.
In addition to teaching about Rogers for the humanities program, he also presents “Vanished Veterans: N.H.’s Civil War Monuments and Memorials” and “Benedict Arnold: Patriot and Traitor?” He’s been a lecturer for the program since 2013.
“I’d developed several (presentations) and was musing about a third program, my mother interjected, ‘I always thought you’d do something about Robert Rogers,’ ” Morrison said. “And everyone knows you should listen to your mother.”
If you can’t make it to the Thursday evening lecture, next month will feature “Exemplary Country Estates of New Hampshire” with Christina Ashjian on May 24 and on June 22, the lecture will be “The White Family of Concord” with Sarah Galligan.
The Brigade Lecture Series is held monthly on Thursdays at 7 p.m. at the Pierce Manse, 14 Horseshoe Pond Lane. Presentations are free and open to the public; seating is limited. For more information, visit piercemanse.org.