Our Hometown
Warner | Uncovering Warner's Hidden History
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Discover Warner’s untold Black history with local historian Rebecca Courser.
Rebecca Courser, a Warner native and past director of the Warner Historical Society, shares her journey researching Black history in Warner, NH, documenting 174 people of color between 1775-1920, including Revolutionary War veteran Ichabod Twilight and other notable residents who contributed significantly to the community despite facing racial challenges.
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Our Hometown is a local public television program presented by NHPBS
Our Hometown
Warner | Uncovering Warner's Hidden History
Clip | 5m 7sVideo has Closed Captions
Rebecca Courser, a Warner native and past director of the Warner Historical Society, shares her journey researching Black history in Warner, NH, documenting 174 people of color between 1775-1920, including Revolutionary War veteran Ichabod Twilight and other notable residents who contributed significantly to the community despite facing racial challenges.
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My name is Rebecca Courser.
I'm a Warner native.
For several generations, and I'm past director of the Warner Historical Society.
And I've been a volunteer there for many, many years.
And probably about 30 years ago, I got a phone call.
A man was asking me a question about the soldiers monument, and he goes, can you tell me anything about Ichabod Twilight, who served in the American Revolution?
And I said, well, no, I can't off the top of my head.
But I went to Walter Harriman's History of Warner.
And yes, Ichabod is listed with the American Revolutionary soldiers.
He's listed in the 1775 census under the column, Negro or slave.
And since then, I can document 174, people of color living in Warner between 1775 and 1920.
That's as far as I've gotten so far.
There are three other names on the Soldiers monument.
There's William Bradish, who served in, the War of 1812.
His father was a blacksmith in Litchfield, New Hampshire.
He had a good job that allowed him to make money.
He bought land, came to Henniker and died in Henniker in 1808.
Two cousins by the name of John and James Haskell, served in the Civil War.
James served in the 54th, the famous 54th, and his cousin served in the 45th Colored Infantry.
Both of them served and came back here.
Unfortunately, James died of TB, a few years later.
And John dies, early, early 1900s.
He's fishing.
He's fishing on Tucker Pond and somehow fell out of the boat, and drowned.
And then we have Anthony Clarke, who is not on the monument because he served from Dracut, Massachusetts.
But he's important.
He's important because he had so many children that lived here and married into other families.
So he's a great story to follow.
And he was a cordwainer, a laborer.
But the most important thing was he was a fiddler.
He was probably a fiddler.
During the Revolution.
He was compatriot of Sampson Battis from Canterbury.
He marries.
We feel he married Sampson's daughter or at least a relative of Sampson by the name of Lucy, and he shows up playing the fiddle at musters.
He holds dance, lessons at taverns.
Augusta Worthen from the, Sutton town history writes about Anthony playing at the muster field farm gatherings, and he taught the children of Sutton their social graces, as she says, and Caesar Louis and Anthony would be dressed in their finest with powdered hair.
She just describes a beautiful scene there at the, ballroom at Muster Field Farm.
So he had an important part, in bringing people together.
There's also another black man that lived in Warner by the name of Prince Hastings.
I do not know if he was a war veteran, but he also, ends up at the poor farm and is buried in that cemetery.
It's unmarked, but we know it's that is listed there.
The poor farm was in existence in Warner.
The first one lasted a year because it was in such a remote area.
And then they bought a farm on Pumpkin Hill.
I want to say, 1840s till about 1880 something.
And then they sold the poor farm and people were transferred over to the county farm.
We knew at the beginning of this project there were five people buried there.
Two were black, one was British.
We did ground penetrating radar and found like 14 more people buried there than what we originally thought.
We have a cemetery down, on Poverty Plains Road, where it's unknown who's buried there.
But oral history says it was black people that were buried there.
So we've been researching deeds, people's written history of Warner to try to figure out who was buried there.
Warner | Woodworking in Warner
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Clip | 2m 10s | Jim McLaughlin shares how woodworking deepened his bond with Warner. (2m 10s)
Now PlayingWarner | Uncovering Warner's Hidden History
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Clip | 5m 7s | Discover Warner’s untold Black history with local historian Rebecca Courser. (5m 7s)
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Clip | 6m 22s | Graham Gifford shares how Warner’s telephone museum came to life—surprising all. (6m 22s)
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Clip | 2m 53s | Ian Rogers shares how travel and Warner’s community shaped his independent spirit. (2m 53s)
Warner | Raising Buffalo in Warner
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Clip | 4m 47s | Brian & Kira Farmer share why they moved to Warner and raise buffalo on their farm. (4m 47s)
Warner | Painting Warner's Landscapes and Legacy
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Clip | 7m 57s | Neil Nevens tells about their non-profit, "Main Street Warner". (7m 57s)
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Clip | 5m 56s | Jeremy reflects on the vibrant life surrounding Warner’s beloved train station. (5m 56s)
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Clip | 5m 1s | The rich history of Warner's fire department. (5m 1s)
Warner | Fall Foliage Festival
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Clip | 2m | Ray Martin reflects on decades organizing the Warner Fall Foliage Festival and service. (2m)
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Clip | 7m | Apryl Blood and Patty Anderson discussing their roles in the community. (7m)
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Clip | 4m 34s | Author David Elliott speaks about moving to Warner. (4m 34s)
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Warner | 4-H Leadership and Community Teaching
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Plymouth | Memories of Plymouth
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Clip | 3m 36s | Roland talks about working in every aspect of the paper industry, over 4+ decades. (3m 36s)
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Clip | 4m 19s | Renney tells a couple of great stories about growing up in Berlin. (4m 19s)
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Clip | 5m 37s | Berlin has a language all its own, and Rachelle decided to compile a dictionary of words. (5m 37s)
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Clip | 4m 24s | Olive speaks about growing up in Berlin, in a family that owned Bisson's Sugar House. (4m 24s)
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