LYNDEBOROUGH – A mostly forgotten piece of history arrived at the town office on Tuesday, July 18, when Dale Russell of Greenfield brought in an old-fashioned ink well with a letter from its owner.

Russell’s letter reads:

“This ink well is from a school in Lyndeborough. The story as it was told to me is as follows.

“Mr. Elwin G. Bailey was born in Lyndeborough on April 27, 1902. He went to school near Second N.H. Turnpike. I know nothing about the school or where it was located.

“When he left that school. He took the well with him. About 60 years ago he gave it to his nephew that lives in Greenfield. Mr. Bailey passed away in Greenfield on April 1, 1969. His nephew has had it in his house since it was gifted to him.

“Recently while I was there he asked if I would return it to the Lyndeborough Historical Society. The nephew is blind and asked me to handle this for him because it is not something that he would be able to do.

Dale O. Russell, Forest Road, Greenfield.”

The ink well is now in the display case in the town office.

The North School, or No. 4, was built on Schoolhouse Road around 1850 and closed in 1940. It no longer exists.

A picture of the school, taken in 1902, shows the teacher, Annie Holt, with five students, two of them named Bailey. The other three are Merrills.

After the school closed, North Lyndeborough students attended school in Francestown until the formation of the Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative School District in 1968.