Pictures on the Wall: An Old Home Day Message
The following message was delivered at the Dana Meeting House for New Hampton's Old Home Day Service on August 11th, 2024, by Tom Smith, founder of the Dana Meeting House Association:
Historical Sketch of Dana Meeting House
The early 1800’s must have been busy years in this community. New homes were being built, new fields cleared, stone walls laid, and roads constructed. Many of the early dwellings were probably being replaced with more substantial houses and the virgin pine forests were being cut down to provide the lumber. Sawmills, shingle mills and grist mills lined even the smaller streams of the town.
Dana Meeting House History- Prepared by Thomas R. Smith
In the year 1780, under the leadership of Elder Benjamin Randall, the Freewill Baptist movement spread through New England. In 1779 Elder Winthrop Young came to the New Hampton, New Hampshire area and held revivals in homes and schoolhouses.
Granite State Monthly Article – November 1900
Remote from the village, in the town of New Hampton, stands the Dana Meeting-house which reaches the one hundredth year of age this fall, and which is truly a relic of by-gone days. It is located in a wild and romantic place, surrounded by the ancient homesteads of its builders, and where even the roadside and forests seem to impress one with a sense of the antiquity of the place.