Ruth Hammen and Fred Shaw are tied together, making sure their beloved hometown of Chichester is never forgotten.
You see it in towns across the Granite State, the lovers and discoverers and guardians of local history, searching through newspapers and photos and documents and diaries, all decades old or older, all with a story to tell.
In this case, Hammen and Shaw have known each other for 60 years. They’ve dedicated their retirements to strengthening the Chichester Historical Society, which turned 50 this year.
Once, exhibits were displayed informally, in a town office or a private residence. Since 1995, though, the society has had its own home, in the old fire station, and, since these two joined forces 15 years ago, the organization has never been stronger.
“Chichester is wonderful,” Hammen said. “A great place to live.”
She and Shaw made sure to mention Barbara Frangione, who died last year at the age of 94, but not before helping to form a three-pronged effort to keep the past alive, organized and ready for anyone to look at.
They painstakingly read original documents, faded and written in script, deciphering and transcribing them into a database that can be accessed at the museum or at home.
They were the right people for the job, each born in Chichester. Hammen has lived there all her life. Shaw left for a while, for school and his teaching career, but returned in 2005, and they’ve formed the backbone of the Chichester Historical Society ever since.
“We have a good relationship,” Hammen said. “I joke and pick on him and we always laugh, because I tell him that he can do one thing at a time and I can do six at a time.”
She’s 80, he’s 73. But in 1950s small-town USA, that didn’t seem to matter. They attended a one-room schoolhouse. They saw each other at church and Sunday school. They rode bikes together and played Kick the Can.
Shaw’s father bought a farm in Chichester in 1936. Shaw has since inherited land and now lives 300 feet from the home in which he grew up during the 1940s.
In between, he moved to Concord and taught math at Rundlett Junior and Concord High schools. He retired after 35 years and came back to Chichester.
Hammel and Shaw rekindled their friendship at a Historical Society meeting.
“They met Tuesdays from 9 to 12,” Shaw said. “My brain says, ‘I am retired, what am I going to do now?’ ”
He was a perfect fit. He had more than merely the passion and intellectual capability of piecing together the town’s path.
“They didn’t know about computers, so I became their computer person,” Shaw said.
They found old papers in desk draws and a brick vault in the library basement, untouched for years. They documented all 19 of the town’s public cemeteries, recording names and dates from all tombstones in a task that took years.
Frangione was part of the Three Musketeers, patient and focused on transcribing old, faded writings. “I could then dictate that into my computer,” Shaw said.
He, Hammen and Frangione represent the typical characteristics featured in these groups around the state. The ones who believe that respect for the past and what it might teach us is important. They are retirees, some comfortable with today’s technology, like Shaw, but most, like Frangione and Hammen, not.
But Shaw was quick to call himself the vice president of information. “Ruthie,” he said, “is the president.”
She lives and breathes Chichester. She was born there, on a 200-acre farm, and settled there. Her father lit the woodstove at the one-room schoolhouse and mowed the lawn at one of the local cemeteries.
She was an adventurer, quitting her job and traveling with her husband, Peter, on a Norwegian freighter to Europe, where she visited 13 countries in three months.
Then she came back to her hometown. She worked in banking for 35 years. She gave land to one of her two boys, who lives next door.
She was the superintendent of the Sunday school and president of the women’s club. And she’s been with the Historical Society in some capacity from the start, 50 years ago. That anniversary was celebrated on Nov. 15.
Her husband, Peter, suffering from Parkinson’s, died a few years ago. Her son and daughter-in-law walk over from next door on Fridays for game night.
Meanwhile, the Historical Society and its cemetery project remain a part of her family as well. Those legislative memos and town declarations, written 200 years ago, mean a lot to her. So do the historical artifacts, like flags and 19th century furniture.
Hammen and Shaw are keeping these things alive. They worry others won’t in the future, and say that’s a shame.
“It’s very special to me,” Hammen said. “It’s changed today because people don’t have the same roots, but I try to keep involved in things. I feel like I was brought up by this village.”