You are cordially invited to be part of a historic moment on May 4, 2024
BLACK HERITAGE PROJECT/S TIMELINE
aka all the background work behind this ceremony!
2017 – Attend Richard Haynes art mural/racial discussion workshop via Racial Unity Team
2017 – Conduct research at Exeter Historical Society with staff.
2018 – Create report featuring Hall and Paul families. Discuss with Russell Weatherspoon. Send to 50 people asking for help to bring stories mainstream
2018 – Search for local professionals to write a book or thesis about Jude Hall. Sarah Pruitt of History Channel blog writes an article in Jan 2019.
2019 – Create Wikipedia page for Jude Hall (Jan.- finally accepted in May). Feature James Monroe Whitfield poem “America” reading (author Michael C. Ward) and poster at annual Exeter LitFest in April.
2019 – Approach Phillips Exeter facility director, Mark Leighton, to inform of possible home site of Jude Hall on PEA woods property near Jude’s Pond trail.
2020 – Research and write “Incident at Exeter Tavern” featuring Jude Hall. Beginning of COVID cancels March book launch. Exeter Newsletter run article on front page instead. Water Street Bookstore (Dan Chartrand) agrees to stock these self-published books. All profits donated to Black heritage projects in Exeter.
2020- Create plaque honoring entrepreneur John G Cutler with building owner Sandy Martin. Affix on 127 Water St and send press release. Create Cutler Wikipedia page.
2020- Launch second book in series in July “Incident at Ioka” featuring poet James Monroe Whitfield, and includes vision for “Poet’s Grove” at former home site.
2020 – Approach Exeter Select Board to ask for permission to form a committee to research a Black Heritage Pocket Park. Both people who were invited and those who volunteered made the cmte of: Barbara Rimkunas/Exeter Historical Society, Emma Bray/American Independence Museum, Maura Fay/Heritage Commission, David Weber/researcher & writer, David Short/Swasey Parkway Trustee, Jennifer Martel/Landscape Architect, Pat Yosha/ Racial Unity Team, and Daryl Brown/Select Board rep.
2021 – Launch third book in series in January “Incident at Exeter Depot” featuring John G. Cutler, Water St. business man, and later Hampton Beach hotelier.
2021- Host a public info-session on Zoom “The Future of Exeter’s Black History” in Feb. with a handful of cmte members, and Lisa Carter, marketing professional. Filmed by Exeter TV.
2021 – Create a pop-up pocket park on Swasey Parkway during TEAM’s Juneteenth festival. Gather public comments in notebooks with Pat Yosha. (This project then suffers a years-long delay due to unrelated closure/non-closure town debate re Swasey Parkway.)
2021 – Purchase (with profits) small graveyard stone, from book profits, for Rebecca Walker (divorced mother of six children one of whom was blind, all in unmarked graves at Exeter Cemetery). Worked with Randy Daley, cemetery manager. Placed on Mother’s Day at small ceremony with wise-women elders Pat Yosha and Joanna Pellerin.
2021 – Paint “Jude Hall at the Powder House” in acrylic and gift to American Independence Museum. Accepted in Sept. for their teaching collection.
2021 – Travel to Belfast, Maine to located the missing grave of Rhoda Hall. Find and report record error to Belfast Historical Society director, Megan Pinette. Upload photos and location to Find A Grave.com
2021 – Commission Jude Hall and Rhoda (Paul) Hall family trees from professional genealogist, Gayle Garda. Snail-mail letter to select living descendants, with copy of tree. Create “Jude and Rhoda Hall Genealogical Society” on Facebook and upload privatized tree. Online people (including Aimee Taylor of TX and Barb Bartizal of CA) began speaking re; Jude Hall acceptance into the DAR database. Paper trail tricky.
2022 – Reach out to JerriAnne Boggis of Black Heritage Trail of NH to partner on pocket-park proposal.
2022 – Host 200th bday event for poet JM Whitfield at Exeter LitFest, reading by poet Willie Perdomo, speech by BHTNH President, Dwight Davis. Special thanks to Courtney Marshall 😊
2022- Meet local archeologist, Hunter Stetz, at alleged Jude Hall house cellar on 70-ish Drinkwater Rd. location accepted as an official registered NH archeological site. Sent letter to UNH History Dept. requesting scholarship/thesis work on Jude Hall.
2022 – Launch final book (#4) in mystery series “Yuletide at Exeter” featuring wealthy businesswoman Harriet Cutler-Harris, wife of Water St. merchant/financier George Harris.
2023- Purchase (with profits) an engraved step in the American Independence Museum’s memorial staircase on Water St. “Pvt. Jude Hall 1775-1783”. Fund ceremony, co-created with Program Director, Alena Shellenbean, that included Piscataqua Rangers Jr. Drum & Fife Corps, First NH Regiment musket fire, and speech by US Senator, Maggie Hassan. Event was filmed by Exeter TV and can be seen on their YouTube channel: “Gratitude in Granite.”
2023 – Addressed Exeter Select Board (chair: Niko Papkonstantis, Town Mgr: Russ Dean) to propose new location for pocket park, just outside Swasey Parkway entrance on town property. Was accepted. Later, choose 10-foot antique granite slab with Maura Fay and worked with pocket-park cmte, author Glenn Knoblock (“Strong & Brave Fellows”) and Barbara Ward of BHTNH on cast bronze marker text. 150 words.
2023- Addressed fall conference of the NH Daughters of the American Revolution in Manchester, at the invitation of NH State Regent, Kay Sternenberg. Spoke on Jude Hall’s story, and the attempts by two women (TX and CA) to get Jude Hall accepted in the national DAR records as a recognized “patriot ancestor.” The NSDAR President General, Pamela Rouse Wright, was in attendance. Ancestor number # 217131 was assigned to Jude Hall on Oct 31, and a story ran the March/April DAR “American Spirit” magazine.
2024 – Met onsite with landscape architect, Jen Martel, to create site schematic/sketch according to site restrictions. DPW (Jeff Beck) will install stone near current flagpole, Exeter Monument (Lisa Alexandropoulos) will affix plaque. Stone, work, and unveiling ceremony to be funded from book profits in partnership split with BHTNH.
2024 – “Exeter’s Black Heritage Pocket Park”, (which celebrates the entire historical Black community) is the first BHTNH marker in Exeter, to be unveiled on May 4th, 10am
My involvement in this project has almost concluded. Please feel free to continue building upon the work. It is now time for me to take a break.
~ RM Allen, March 2024
I’m incredibly grateful to the individuals listed here, and countless others not mentioned, for their valuable contributions to this commemorative initiative. It’s through our collective efforts that we have not only preserved, but also enriched, a significant 200-year period of history that was previously overlooked. Gratitude also to my husband, Lew, for his love and support all these years.
RM-Allen.com 