2008 Central School Hike through History

The Counting House Museum was a stop on the 2008 Central School Hike through History.  This year the theme was Native Americans and 17th Century South Berwick.  Click for text

South Berwick Central School teacher Pam Mulcahey, organizer of the Hike through History, leads her students past the Counting House.

Teacher Tracy Lapoint taught dozens of Marshwood High School students information on local history gathered by the Old Berwick Historical Society, and prepared the youths to explain facts to the elementary school students at stops along the hike throughout the day.

Caleb Demers and Serene Potter of Marshwood High School represented Humphrey and Lucy Chadbourne, some of the first settlers to today's South Berwick.

Martin Lambert played the role of Dr. Emerson "Tad" Baker, the archaeologist who has uncovered the 1600s Humphrey and Lucy Chadbourne home site with the Old Berwick Historical Society and the Chadbourne Family Association.

Kevin Kareckas and other students presented a "Native American village" at Counting House Park on Liberty Street.  Historians believe that before the arrival of Europeans, Indians actually did camp and fish at that spot.

Marshwood High School students Alison Jardine, Emily Watt, Kendra O'Malley, Hannah Waldron and Emma Rudolph arrived at Leigh's Mill Pond to present information about South Berwick's earliest history to Central School pupils on their hike.

Nate Sinden and Tom Drake of Marshwood High School were stationed on the banks of the Salmon Falls River, to help the young children imagine how the river helped Indians survive by providing food and transportation.

Pupils on the hike learned about one of South Berwick's oldest homes, the Judge Chadbourne House, built in 1770, now a private home still owned by a descendant of the family.

Cynthia Gagnon, Mary Vaughn, Ariel Todd, Stacia Oparowski, and Justin Dubravsky prepared to meet students at the Counting House and tell them how Indians used natural materials like birch bark.

Mallory Nadeau and Molly Ferguson of South Berwick Central School recited a poem about early days in South Berwick.

The Old Berwick Historical Society's exhibit at South Berwick Town Hall explained the town's origins as one of the earliest water-powered mills in the early 1600s.  The Hike through History students visited this board, which had been set up by Norma Keim, and it remains on display for all to enjoy.