Historical Sites

Minik the Eskimo Boy lived and died in Pittsburg , New Hampshire

The story of Minik is difficult, poignant and unforgetta-ble. Minik Wallace, a young Inuit, was brought with his father and four other members of his Northern Greenland band by Robert Peary in 1897. to the Museum of Natural History in New York . 20,000 people paid Peary 25 cents to see the Eskimos, who were still in their Arctic furs. Later they were taken to the museum, where visitors were also allowed to view them. The Eskimos, who commonly refer to themselves as Inuit today, had no resistance to the germs in New York. Four, including Qisuk, Minik’s father, died of tuberculosis and another was returned to the Arctic, leaving only Minik. To console the grieving boy, a staged funeral for his father was performed in the garden of the museum on Central Park West. It was a mock ceremony, with a log wrapped in furs to simulate a body. In fact the Eskimos’ bodies had been sent to Bellevue Hospital for dissection.

After his father's death, Minik was put in the care of William Wallace, the museum's su-perintendent of buildings. Under Wallace's care, Minik learned English and attended a Bronx high school, excelled at baseball. and then .went on to college. In 1907 Minik dis-covered that his father had never been buried and that his bones were in the museum. For the rest of his life, Minik begged the museum for the return of his father's body but was always ignored. In 1909 Peary, apparently afraid that Minik might reveal that Peary, a married man, had fathered two children with an Eskimo woman, allowed Minik, then about 18, to travel back with him to the Arctic. Once there, Minik grew homesick for the United States and in 1916 he returned. For some time he was unable to find work, but eventually he became a lumberjack in Pittsburg, N.H. His employer, Afton Hall, took him under his wing, and invited him to live with his family. It was perhaps the happiest period of his life. But in 1918 the Spanish flu swept the camp, and Minik died on October 29th. Minik is buried in the Indian Stream Cemetery on Tabor Notch Road in Pittsburg, New Hamp-shire. He was believed to be 27 or 28 years old.

If you would like to learn more of the story of Minik, read the book ''Give Me My Father's Body,'' by Kenn Harper published by Steerforth Press.

Fletcher’s Mills

Sawmill and gristmill.
Built by Ebenezer Fletcher of Charlestown, NH, it was
located at the falls on the Connecticut River, just above the Bacon Covered bridge.
He began building the mill in 1811 and completed it in 1815.
This was the first mill in the town of Pittsburg, known then as Indian Stream. The sawmill provided the lumber the early settlers needed to build their homes The gristmill ground the settlers wheat and corn harvest into flour. One of the mill stones is located at a private residence on Back Lake. It is inscribed with E. F. 1825.

Peter Barnes also built a mill at the outlet of First Connecticut Lake, then called Lake Connecticut.

Baldwin’s Mill was located just south of the Route 145 bridge in the center of Pittsburg village built by the Baldwin Family. There are still remnants of the wood structure in the Connecticut River and on the river bank. The Baldwin’s also owned two businesses in Pittsburg, Camp Otter and Baldwin’s General Store, which is now called the General Store, located on Main Street Frank Baldwin is known for his pet deer. There are photos in the General Store of Mr. Baldwin feeding his deer.

The first school building, called the Center School house was a log structure located on the corner of Route 3 and Hill Road . A larger building was built in 1828 and is still present today. The Center School House was used as a town hall, courthouse and a church.