Now that it seems Fall is here, I've been thinking back over some summer visitors to town who came because they were interested in local history with specific questions they wanted to try to answer.
For example, this past Spring I was asked about helping a woman originally from the area to look into some of her family tree. She was planning an early summer trip back, and wanted to visit the Damon Tavern in particular. With the aid of the North Reading Historical and Antiquarian Society I was able to say yes. I knew we had some Damon information in the Local History room, as well as information about the Tavern, and I started looking into it.
As is often the case, it turned out that the question wasn't as simple as it looked at first but we did make some progress. The woman was looking to see where her Damon family connects with the Ebenezer Damon who built the Tavern in the early 1810s, it is said for his brother a Captain David Damon who was a Revolutionary War veteran. We didn't find the connection - as is often true in genealogical research (TV shows to the contrary) it isn't a slam-dunk - but we were able to get a special tour of the Damon Tavern guided by one of the men who knows most about it all, Chris Hayden. He very kindly agreed to meet up with us on a weekend morning, and took us all over the Tavern telling stories as we went. What a treat!
There is a variety of information about the Tavern and the Damon family in the Local History room at the Library. If you have any interest in either feel free to come search, or to email me with questions.
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