THE NINETEENTH ANNUAL MEETING
The 19th annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the John Clough Genealogical Society, Inc., is called at the home of the President, Doris E. Dixon on July 26, 1958 at 11 A. M. Signed, Clara Clough Bent, Executive Secretary
Another Reunion is calling to the hundreds of descendants of John Clough of Salisbury, Massachusetts, to meet either face to face or in spirit for the 19th session of our Society, at Manchester, New Hampshire.
The past eighteen meetings have similar characteristics as well as divergent happenings. Since variety is claimed to be the spice of life, every annual meeting requires something new to provide zest, especially to attract young people.
Formerly we have assembled at historical localities where branches of the family established settlements as at Salisbury, Mass., and Kennebunkport, Me. We have enjoyed picnics at the Cluff Farm in Salem, N. H., and Haverhill, N. H., and Haverhill, Mass. Or, we have driven to locations of Clough industries as at Goodwin’s Mills in Maine and last year to Clough Pond in Hopkinton, N. H.
For 1958, our alert President is introducing a program that should provide pleasure for both older and younger members. President Doris has a home on Stark Lane in Manchester, N. H. The famous Revolutionary General John Stark was born in Derry, of which, today, the City of Manchester is a section of that grant to the Scotch Irish in 1719. Stark Lane leads to the bank of the Merrimack River where a neighbor of President Doris has developed his grounds for a recreation center which he opens to groups such as our family gathering. Here we shall find a swimming pool, shuffle board, shelter and facilities for out-of-door cooking. Come with your swimming suit or bats and balls for a sports program.
As always, on Saturday afternoon, July 26th, the annual business meeting will convene at the Historical Rooms on Amherst Street at two o’clock. There we shall register and discuss the affairs of our Society. We shall adjourn across the park to Concord Street at the dining room of the Y. W. C. A. for our annual Family Dinner at $2.00 per person, followed by a program that the President intends to be an especial family affair. The commodious rooms of the Y. W. C. A. will provide every desired accommodation.
On Sunday morning we may attend church, as we did last year, or drive to Weare, or gather at Stark Lane for visiting together until noon when we shall enjoy a cookout luncheon provided by an experienced chef assisted by our recent President Phineas, who has a reputation for this culinary art and who has offered his services to President Doris.
OVER NIGHT on Saturday may be at the Queen City Motel, recently built with every modern equipment, situated near the Queen City Bridge, on Route 3, over the Merrimack River toward Boston. Also at the Carpenter Hotel (see also Hotel Carpenter- 1950), where we have assembled for two former reunions, we know are excellent accommodations in the center of the city. Individual reservations may be made with the management of either stopping place.
All descendants of our ancestor John are welcome. Kindly extend this invitation to the scores of Cloughs, Cluffs, Clows who live in the vicinity of Manchester, in Bow, Concord, Contoocook, Hopkinton, Canterbury and to the cousins from all of New England and beyond to the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Coast. If you will write to Mrs. Guy E. Speare, Plymouth, N. H., she will provide you with extra Clough Bulletins for the purpose of extending this invitation far and wide.
THE WEARE BRANCH
Many of the members of our Society in Manchester belong to the Weare Branch from Daniel5 who came from Haverhill, Mass., before the Revolution and built his home which still remains standing in East Weare. (See page 112 of the Clough Book).
Daniel returned to Haverhill in his old age, but his son Daniel remained in Weare and brought up a family of twelve children, among them three sons: Daniel, Cyrus and Gilman Clough.
Daniel7 had three sons, John, Henry and Albion.
John spent his boyhood on the farm in Weare, then went to Boston to be employed at the Boston Consolidated Gas Company. He was an expert mathematician. He became famous as a tenor singer in the churches of Boston, among them at King’s Chapel. He was an accomplished guitar player. After 38 years with the gas company, he was retired on a pension in 1917. In his native New Hampshire he was well known by his gift to the state of his homestead in Weare and 329 acres for a state park called The Clough Reservation where Scouts and tourists enjoy summer camping and picnics. He died in 1937 at the age of ninety one.
Henry went to Saco, Maine, where he was employed by the Boston and Maine Railroad. He was surprised to be awarded a medal when he was 63 years of age by the Carnegie Hero Fund for saving the life of a woman who stepped in front of a Portland Express train and was pulled to safety by Mr. Clough at the risk of his own life.
Albion was the hermit of York Harbor and Cape Neddick, an artist and a fine tenor singer. Some of us recall how he stole the program at the Kenmore when President John brought him, as his guest, to the reunion, with his guitar.
President Doris is the grand-daughter of Cyrus. Her father, George Frank, married Lucie E. Eaton and Cousin Doris attends the reunions of the Eaton Family frequently.
Mrs. Bernice C. Rogers is the granddaughter of Gilman Clough, a man who established lucrative lumber operations before Manchester was a city, and developed an extensive real estate business at the time that Elm Street was still farming country.
Today in East Weare the two story home of that generation may be found, threatened by destruction should the State of New Hampshire permit a dam to be built on the Piscataquog River for a reservoir to control floods in the Merrimack Basin. Much of East Weare will be under water including the Clough Reservation. A drive along Route 13 and an unnumbered highway from Dunbarton of about fifteen miles will permit a visit to these Clough localities.
Cousin Doris has been secretary in the office of the Water Department of the City of Manchester for the past 24 years. Before the reunion, she plans a trip to California, the Canadian Rockies and the Yellowstone.