Walpole Historical Society

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From the Portsmouth HERALD, September 8, 1923

This time we're back with more news of the Wellington family, as recounted by descendant Bill Reed. 

“A part of the furniture in the first story of the house was saved, but everything else was destroyed.”
- Brattleboro REFORMER, September 6, 1923

Insult to injury:  The fire was evidently set by a disgruntled farm hand.

Here is further press coverage.

This house at the end of County Road in Christian Hollow, Walpole, was the home of Lucius and Grace Wellington. He was a farmer and school committee member.  They raised four kids there, one of them my grandmother.   (You may recognize the house from an earlier Walpole Historical Society newsletter.)

The expression on their faces tells it all.


 Here are two more “after” photos.

Grace (Royce) Wellington and her husband, Lucius

Living alone in the house with their children gone – my grandmother was in Chicago, the others in Walpole, Keene and Vermont -  the couple’s lives were upended on September 5, 1923

From the Brattleboro REFORMER, September 6, 1923, the day after the fire.