Forest Notes, Fall 2021

A boulder at the Forest Society’s Welch Family Farm and Forest in Hancock marks the site of what was once home to the Welch family. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, long before the Welch family lived here, the place was home to the Due family, who were identified in early U.S. censuses as “free colored persons.” A new marker from the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire now commemorates the Due family and their friend Jack, a once-enslaved African man. On the other side of the rock is a plaque dedicated to the Welch family, placed there when the Welches donated the land to the Forest Society in 2000.

6 | FOREST NOTES Autumn 2021