By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

Carol Martel spent 24 years researching Allenstown’s past, and the result was this book, “The History of East Allenstown, New Hampshire, and Bear Brook State Park.” (The Hooksett Banner/Nicholas Brown)

They may be curmudgeonly, aloof, obsessive or abstracted, but local historians have a gift: to illuminate those pieces of the past that give meaning to the present.

Yet their job may be increasingly difficult.

One isn’t likely to find a detailed history of Suncook on his or her iPod. Nor are anecdotes from 18th century life in Candia a popular topic in Internet chat groups.

And local history may be of less import to people living in area towns that have become largely identified as bedroom communities.

“A lot of people may see their town as just a place to live, and not a place that is filled with history,” said Candia Historical Society President Ed Fowler.

Said Hooksett Heritage Commission Chairman Kathleen Northrup, “As new people come in, it’s always a challenge to get them vested in their town in any way.”

Another challenge to local historians may be a broader shift in cultural interests, and a declining population of young people interested in the lives and events that came before them.

“I think we’ve raised a generation that has much less appreciation for history, and a little more interest in satisfying themselves,” said Phil Yeaton, a career teacher and member of the Epsom Historical Association.

Current efforts

Despite such obstacles, the battle of penning and preserving local history is being fought, and book sales and library visits indicate that local history isn’t altogether bygone.

After 24 years of research, Allenstown’s Carol Martel published “The History of East Allenstown, New Hampshire, and Bear Brook State Park” in 2003.

The book has sold hundreds of copies, and Martel is considering writing another local history book.

Several years earlier in Allenstown, Harriet Bean published the anecdotal “As We Witness: A Collection of Memories from Allenstown, New Hampshire.”

Dot Purington’s collection of anecdotes and historical materials, “A Candia Collection: Stories of Candia from the Years 1763-2000,” was published last year. The local author’s book has sold more than 400 copies since.

Historical organizations similarly have been working to document historical elements specific to their towns.

The Hooksett Heritage Commission has several ongoing projects, including an oral history project in which 44 residents and counting have been interviewed on camera to share stories of their lives and town. Northrup said the group hopes to transcribe the interviews soon.

A member of the group, James Walter, has also worked on three historical films focused on Hooksett’s history.

In Epsom, Yeaton has compiled five volumes, consisting of hundreds of pages, of historical documents and biographical information.

The Epsom Historical Association has been quick to embrace cutting edge methods of documentation, and has an extensive web site filled with things like biographies, historical photos, a genealogy database, written histories and cemetery information.

Who’s reading?

Many of the historians and authors interviewed said the intention behind compiling local histories was to provide a classroom resource for young students, to engage them in their hometowns and strengthen their sense of belonging to a community.

“History is an incredible teaching tool,” said Martel, who’s book is often used in Allenstown classrooms. “If you don’t have a written history to rely on, you never will understand what’s happened before you.”

Yet the sport of chasing history seems most often relegated to those students of life more advanced in age.

“Our youngest members in the historical society are 60,” said Fowler. “Young people can be caught up in raising families, and history doesn’t become important to them until they pass the mid-century point.”

Northrup described the local historian demographic as, “sort of a problem everywhere.”

“There are so many choices for young families these days,” she said. “They are drawn an a lot of directions.”

Yet Northrup said a crucial element of history is its inexorable tie to the present.

She used 50-year-old photographs hanging on the walls of the historic Robie’s Country Store as an example.

“Think of the foresight when someone took those pictures 50 years ago,” she said. “We think of what we do now as not being important, but it will be someday.”

Epsom Historical Association President Harvey Harkness said he’s not concerned that many of the people he knows with interests in local history are older, but suggested an appreciation for historical materials is essential for self-understanding.

“The structures, the letters, the artifacts, and whatever type of material we inherit from those who came before us, define who we are,” he said. “What do we want to teach our children and our grandchildren ­ that everything is now?”