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Showing posts from October, 2017

Who gets married on Halloween? Answer: Fred Merrill and Mary Fitzgerald.

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Amongst my collection of old photographs are pictures of my grandparents when they were in high school in Franklin, New Hampshire.  Fred and Mary played on the basketball teams for Franklin High School [Fred is the rightmost young man in the middle row, and Mary is the leftmost young woman in the front row.] Franklin High School, Class of 1902 [Fred is the rightmost person in the middle row.] Pup, officially known as Frederic Carroll Merrill, was born in Franklin on 10 December 1884, the fourth of eight children born to Gilbert Samuel Merrill, a Yankee who at the time, was a foreman at the Winnipesaukee Paper Mill, and his wife Maggie Carroll. Maggie was only 14 years old when she immigrated to Franklin in 1875. Some of Maggie’s aunts, uncles, and cousins had already arrived in Franklin. This included the Cunningham, Cushing, and Sullivan families of Franklin. Maggie's parents and siblings started arriving in Franklin years later, but not long after Fred's bi...