Front Page
Dave's Collected History of Bartlett, N.H.
and other topics
My name is Dave Eliason. I lived in Bartlett, NH for the best part of the past 75 years.
In the early 1990's local history became an interesting topic for me. I'd often wonder what was here before me? Who lived where I lived? What was here 10,000 years ago? I had lots of questions.
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Over many years I slowly collected the stories of past people, where they lived, what they did and what it might have been like to live here in previous times. About 30 years ago this internet thing was being created. That seemed like a great way to save my findings. Back then all my friends assured me I was wasting my time..."This internet thing will be forgotten in a year or two".
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It has been an enlightening experience to find all the various topics and you might enjoy reading what I found or simply looking at the pictures and visualizing how the things you see everyday came to be...or didn't.
This site is having a horrible time adapting to mobile communication devices. Maybe it will show ok on your device - maybe not. There is no nice way to make big pictures fit on a tiny screen. Much better results will be found on a real computer or tablet.
September 2026:
What Inspired this website, BartlettNHHeritage.Org?
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Dave Eliason, was the website editor for the Bartlett Historical Society from 2009 to 20026. In the 1990's I acquired an interest in history, mostly local topics. I began researching and collecting articles and stories.
To keep it all organized I learned how to make my own website. As a result, in 2009, when Norman Head, of the Bartlett Historical Society, asked me to create a website for the Organization, I already had a good start for material. Nearly all of the current Historical Society website content was researched and compiled by me, beginning long before my affiliation with the Historical Society.
As life moved along, In 2022 Dave left Bartlett and moved 500 miles to the south where he was still able to keep the website updated from afar.
In 2025 Phil Franklin, the BHS President, suggested that perhaps I should pass the torch of the website job to someone who lives in the Bartlett area. I thought that was a good idea too. The Bartlett Historical Society Directors also wanted the website to have a "new look", with their "Past Perfect" data base incorporated into the new look as a primary feature.
It took them a while to find the new website person (who wants to remain anonymous) to take on the website job and during 2026 it was hoped that the new website would be ready to launch in early September 2026, As of this writing (Sept 2026) they are in the process of making the desired changes to BartlettHistory.ORG.
When the new Historical Society website gets re-designed Dave wants to be sure his data doesn't disappear. Therefore, Dave is saving his efforts by moving the historical content that he collected from the Historical Society website to this website, BartlettNHheritage.org and, in the short term, rebranding his existing material at Bartletthistory.NET​​
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This is mostly for Dave's own entertainment and the continuation of a long project. This new site may also be of interest to other folks who like specific details of Bartlett's past in a searchable and indexed format. What you will eventually see at this endeavor are the prior contents of the Historical Society website, (BartlettHistory.NET) stripped of any reference to the Bartlett Historical Society so there will be no confusion as to who is who.
I would encourage a look at the new Historic Society website when it's ready at https://bartletthistory.org Their new site will have information that I don't as well as their museum information and contact information. At the current time (Sept 2026) the Historical Society website is still at https://bartletthistory.NET and is still edited by Dave Eliason.
An exact timeline for their new website launch is not known but when the switch is made you will find it at BartlettHistory.Org We will see their progress together as it develops.
Here are a few things I recently added,
This site is having a horrible time adapting to mobile communication devices. Maybe it will show ok on your device - maybe not. There is no nice way to make big pictures fit on a tiny screen. Much better results will be found on a real computer or tablet.
Passaconaway's final days: From the Granite Monthly, 1926
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The 1976 Auction Catalogue from the Crawford House Hotel
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The Dundee Section of Bartlett
Dave supports The Bartlett Historical Society and Museum
This website is a work in progress. It has no particular schedule and I add things as time, interest and mood permits. Some web creators might be aghast that I would publish a "work in progress" but since the study of history is never "finished", I don't foresee a time when this site will be "complete or finished".
Sometimes other "off topic" things catch my attention
​ Trivia Question
What is Tartaria??
Historically, “Tartaria” was a European term for a vast region of Central Asia and Siberia, but today it is widely associated with a modern pseudohistorical conspiracy theory claiming a lost advanced civilization.
There are the ideas that all the great fires of the 1800's that destroyed cities across America were used to cover up the existence of the supposed Tartarian empire.
A vast, technologically advanced “Tartarian” empire, emanating from north-central Asia or thereabouts, either influenced or built vast cities and infrastructure all over the world. (Tartaria, or Tartary, though never a coherent empire, was indeed a general term for north-central Asia.) Either via a sudden cataclysm or a steady antagonistic decline — and perhaps as recently as 100 years ago — Tartaria fell. Its great buildings were buried, and its history was erased. After this “great reset,” the few surviving examples of Tartarian architecture were falsely recast as the work of contemporary builders who could never have executed buildings of such grace and beauty, and subjected them to clumsy alterations.
This is just a few fun schizo tiktok conspiracy and reddit posts I've found to be an interesting rabbit hole. I doubt there is any truth to it, but it is fun.
