Letters to the Editor
Your letters from the December 2012 issue
Letters to the Editor
Send letters to the Editor, New Hampshire Magazine, 150 Dow St., Manchester, NH 03101 or editor@nh.com.
What's with the Ads?
A very nice read with coffee in the morning, but there's always a "but." Why must magazines always start out with five to seven pages of ads? Can't for once the first five to seven pages be a good article? Do it for your readers. I've given up a few magazines because you have to work through the ads just trying to find the substance. I know ads are important, but the first seven pages, please!
On Shin
Grafton
Rightly Proud
I just received an e-mail from your magazine with highlights of upcoming articles on the NH Legislature. Unfortunately, your [online] article on pioneering NH women legislators contains an error. There were indeed two women elected to the NH House in 1920, Mary Farnum of Boscawen and Jessie Doe of Rollinsford. Not only did Jessie Doe serve in the 1921-22 Legislature, she served with her brother Haven Doe, D-Somersworth (Jessie was elected as a Republican). Rollinsford is rightly proud of her and what her election meant to the cause of women's rights. As a resident of Rollinsford and a six-term member of the NH House representing Rollinsford, I feel compelled to ask you to fix this error before you embarrass our town, and Ms. Doe's memory.
Michael Rollo
Rollinsford
Editor's Note: Thanks for the correction. We did seek out documentation on the 1921-22 Legislature and had to piece the records together from documents scanned online. Jessie Doe was a serious omission since she was also an important figure in the struggle for women's rights. However, according to the voting records from that year, a third woman also served in that legislature: Republican Bernice C. Banfill of Stewartstown in Coos County, who beat Democrat John Ray Keysar, 162 to 119. She's not pictured in the photo we posted online and, as far as we can tell, not mentioned in other writings about the first NH Legislature after Suffrage. We invite your assistance or that of any state historians out there to explain why she's been overlooked, lost or removed from the records. *Update – upon further research, and with the help of reader Janice Webster Brown, we discovered that the identity of Bernice Banfill is even more complicated than we thought, but, in fact there were only two women in the 1921 NH House of Representatives because Bernice C. Banfill was a man. Click here for more information.
Son Served
We enjoyed reading about our NH State Legislature [November 2012] as our oldest son was a legislator for two terms as a student at St. Anselm College from 1985-1989.
Carl & Sharon Anderson
Exeter
One of Two
Keep up the good work with your magazine; it's one of two magazines that I enjoy enough that I subscribe to.
George Kimball
Epping
Cover to Cover
As always I read NH Magazine from cover to cover – really enjoyed the questions ["Really?" November 2012] about Mt. Washington. The Premium Outlets always have very pretty girls for their ads.
Mary Franklin
Cromwell, Conn.
Given as a Gift
We thoroughly enjoy your magazine, the subscription to which is a continuing Christmas present from my sister who lives in Hanover.
Keith Sweatland
Cumming, Ga.
Nice Job
Very nice job on the new restaurant issue. I look forward to NH's and Boston magazine's best new restaurant issues all year long!
Jeff Paige, Chef/Owner Cotton
Manchester
