To the Editor:
In Vermont there is a signpost at Teagle’s Landing honoring Frank H. Teagle, Jr. It describes him as “steward of our resources, caring, dedicated, thoughtful and sensible, Frank was a humble and selfless servant of Woodstock—its people, traditions and institutions. He saw the overlooked and worked to make things better.”
America is in crisis—its resources have been squandered to benefit the few, its institutions, traditions, and the rule of law have been trashed, its government is dysfunctional, its people are sick and anxious—our country is shunned and pitied by the rest of the world. We desperately need leaders like Mr. Teagle.
We need a President who is a decent, honest, responsible adult who can unite us and model respect for science, nature and each other. Someone who will select cabinet members and appoint agency heads who are qualified experts in their fields and dedicated to serve the public good—and then listen to what they have to say. In fact, we need that kind of humble public servant in every elected office throughout the country.
Think about Mr. Teagle’s legacy when you vote in November.
Cynthia Muse
Rye, N.H.
Cynthia:
Your letter piqued our curiosity. This being the age of Google, we promptly fell into a rabbit hole. It was most rewarding—thank you. Frank H. Teagle (1914–1997) was, among many other admirable things, a member of the American Antiquarian Society (AAS). We recommend to readers the Society’s tribute to Teagle, available online here.
We have a particular interest in the AAS, since it was founded by Isaiah Thomas, any mention of whom triggers in us an irrepressible urge to recount the following story.
Thomas apprenticed to the printer’s trade in the shop of Daniel Fowle’s peculiar brother Zechariah. Thomas was working there—though only six at the time, standing on a bench so he could reach the type case—during the Monster of Monsters incident which eventually led to the founding of this newspaper.
In 1989, the editor was looking for anything that might confirm a 26-word story told to him by his father some thirty years earlier: “There was a printer in the family, way back in the olden days, and he printed something the authorities didn’t like. So they threw him in jail.” Discovering Thomas’ History of Printing in the Dimond Library at U.N.H. he looked in the index under “Fowle.” There he found the confirmation he sought.
One thing led to another. The registration of the trade name New Hampshire Gazette had inexplicably been allowed to lapse. Soon, through the writing of a $40 check to the New Hampshire Secretary of State, The Nation’s Oldest Newspaper,™ hitherto the property of Kenneth Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet and the 9th richest person in the world, was under the stewardship, such as it is, of its founder’s third cousin, five times removed.
The Editor