August 22, 2019
Looking for articles about my grandfather in GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives, I was surprised to see this clipping that said he was the best man at the Sanborn-Austin wedding in 1926. He was only 28. I guess I don’t think of him as being “young.”
The article reports:
“The home of Mr. and Mrs. John F. Austin of 28 Woodland Avenue was the scene of a pretty home wedding…”
So – the wedding was held at the Austin family home. It is still standing in Laconia, New Hampshire.
Thanks to Google Maps we can easily see it and start to feel more about the scene of the wedding.
I also see from this article that the groom’s family lived at 46 Province Street in Laconia.
Wait, that was just a few houses down from my grandfather’s boyhood home at 66 Province Street.
Looking deeper, I see that the groom, Hobart Sanborn, was born on 1 June 1898 in Laconia and my grandfather was born on 7 June 1898 in Laconia.
Small world.
They were born just days apart and lived just a few houses away from each other.
Here they are in the 1920 census.
Notice that the first column of the census gives the name of the street: Province Street.
The next column gives their home number. There is the Sanborn family at number 46 – and looking down the page, there is the Huse family living at number 66 Province Street on the corner of Edwards Street.
I grew up just a block from there and have walked by these homes thousands of times.
But wait, there’s more.
Hobart Sanborn’s family has posted photographs from his childhood on FamilySearch and Ancestry.com
One of these photos is his 5th Grade Class photograph taken at the Batchelder Street School in Laconia.
I easily spotted Hobart Sanborn, the 4th boy from the right in the 4th row.
So, my grandfather must also be in this photograph.
Here is a photograph of him as a young man.
Do you see him in this 5th Grade Class photo?
If so – which boy do you think he is?
I loved your research. Hobart Sanborn is my grandfather. He and his wife Erma settled on Baldwin Street where they had four sons. I always find it fascinating the family stories you can find when you aren’t looking. Thanks for posting.
My Grandfather, Hobart Sanborn, wrote about the wedding and their “escape”, assisted by your Grandfather, Walter Huse:
Mr. & Mrs. Archie Sanborn came to the wedding in their new Cleveland car. Friends of Erma assumed that this was to be the get-away car. They accordingly blocked Woodland Avenue to all traffic in both directions. Unknown to these pranksters, Walter Huse had parked his car on Lyman Street. When all was ready, Erma and Hobart climbed through the Austin bedroom window onto the back piazza and ran through the woods to Lyman Street followed by Walter. Someone shouted “There they go,” but Woodland Avenue was so thoroughly blocked that chase was not possible. Walter drove the newlyweds to Edwards Street where Erma’s Willys-Knight car, all packed had been parked. They drove north to the Mose Hall in Sandwich Notch, which had been borrowed for a week from the Huse family. Erma and Hobart laughed many times rejoicing that they had so easily escaped the pranksters.