Date of Award

5-23-1999

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS)

Department

Liberal Studies

First Advisor

Mary Lynn

Second Advisor

Deborah Cadman

Abstract

In the late nineteenth century, the growth of industry, western competition, costs, and poor soil caused some New Hampshire farmers to quit the farm, leaving the buildings uninhabited. New Hampshire state officials were not interested in rescuing those farms, but were interested in stemming the negative publicity about abandoned farms. The state legislature passed an act to encourage immigration into the deserted farms, and Nahum Bachelder, secretary of the state board of agriculture, advertised the farms as summer homes for well-heeled urbanites. He eventually received criticism for pursuing self-serving interests and for neglecting official agricultural duties, specifically to the struggling New Hampshire farmer Bachelder was forced to resign from the grange and was ousted from the board of agriculture, but not until the summer recreation business had penetrated the rural New Hampshire landscape permanently.

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