portsmouth peace treaty day
Since the 100th Treaty anniversary in 2005, New Hampshire has celebrated the importance of citizen diplomacy by: enacting unanimous legislation making September 5th "Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day" by Governor's Proclamation; planting cherry trees throughout the state as a Portsmouth Peace Treaty Living Memorial; and hosting programs (through the NH Humanities Council) that perpetuate the history of the Treaty and its example that every person matters.
portsmouth peace treaty day legislation
The New Hampshire House and the New Hampshire Senate voted unanimously to pass SB379, “An Act proclaiming September 5 as Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day” and Governor John Lynch signed the bill on August 17, 2010 (above).
Proposed by Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum chairman Charles B. Doleac and introduced by NH Senator Martha Fuller Clark, the bill was cosponsored by State Representative Robin Read, NH Senator Maggie Hassan (Exeter), Rep. Jacqueline Cali-Pitts (Portsmouth), Rep. David Watters (Durham), Rep. Laura Pantelakos (Portsmouth), Rep. Jim Splaine (Portsmouth) and Senators Robert Odell (Lempster) and Jack Barnes, Jr. (Raymond). The bill is intended to recognize The Portsmouth Peace Treaty as “a permanent and important chapter in New Hampshire history that should be recognized and appropriately commemorated for generations to come.”
The bill amended RSA4:13 “the Powers of Governor and Council: Observances Proclaimed by Governor” by adding the following new paragraph:
Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day. The governor shall annually issue a proclamation calling for the proper observance of September 5 as Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day and shall call on the citizens of New Hampshire to observe the day with appropriate ceremonies and activities commemorating this important day in New Hampshire history.
The intent of Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day is to commemorate New Hampshire’s role as the host President Theodore Roosevelt designated for the peace conference that ended the Russo-Japanese War, and to recognize the part played by New Hampshire citizens in the multi-track diplomacy of the successful international negotiations between the Japanese and Russian diplomats in Portsmouth that resulted in the Portsmouth Peace Treaty on September 5, 1905.
1. Russo-Japanese War ends at Portsmouth: On September 5, 1905 the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard ended the war fought between Russia and Japan over control of Korea and Manchuria. The Russo-Japanese War is now known as “World War Zero” for the modern weapons employed, huge armies and navies engaged its destabilizing effect on both the worldwide balance of power and the European colonial empires.
2. Roosevelt’s Choice of New Hampshire: In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt convinced the Russians and Japanese to enter into direct negotiations to end the war, meeting in the United States; and chose Portsmouth, New Hampshire as the negotiating site, with its secure U.S. Naval Shipyard, eager state and local government officials and welcoming community. Roosevelt never came to Portsmouth, but used back-channel diplomacy with Japan, Russia and European powers to influence the negotiations while relying upon the US Assistant Secretary of State, the US Navy and the government and citizens of New Hampshire to facilitate the formal and informal negotiations between the Japanese and Russian diplomats in and around Portsmouth that lasted nearly 30 days.
3. New Hampshire’s Citizen Diplomacy: Citizen diplomacy – the effect of the New Hampshire hosts on the diplomats -- significantly contributed to the successful negotiations that resulted in the Portsmouth Peace Treaty that earned President Roosevelt the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. This unique example of multi-track citizen diplomacy shows that ordinary people can make a difference in international affairs.
Many elected and community officials spoke in favor of the bill at the Senate and House committee hearings, including the bill sponsors Senator Clark and Representative Read, Senator Barnes and Representative Cali-Pitts, the Secretary of State, Portsmouth Mayor Tom Ferrini, Charles Doleac (president), Judge Sawako Gardner and Stephanie Seacord of the Japan-America Society of NH, Steve Upton of the Russia Society of NH Board and Don Alusic, an independent producer of a documentary about the Portsmouth Peace Treaty.
“We greatly appreciate the support of all of the sponsors of the bill to make September 5, Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day and to cement its importance in the historical annals of the state of New Hampshire,” said Mr. Doleac in announcing the passage of the bill. “Secretary of State Bill Gardner helped us enormously as the bill made its way through the legislative process by personally advocating for it to the Committees. Mayor Ferrini prepared a letter that was presented to the House Committee by Assistant Mayor Nancy Clayburgh. Thanks to all of their efforts, the bill passed both House and Senate, unanimously.”
Each year on September 5th at 3:47 pm – the exact moment the Treaty was signed -- Portsmouth commemorates its history by recreating what happened in 1905. The Shipyard blows the Shipyard whistle. In response, the bells of Portsmouth ring for three minutes. In 1905 they rang for an hour in celebration. People in Market Square can hear church bells all over the city and other seacoast churches and locations around the state participate in the bell-ringing, as does the Sister School and Mayor in Nichinan. Each year, starting in 2010, the Governor of New Hampshire presents a proclamation commemorating the day throughout the State.
Proposed by Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum chairman Charles B. Doleac and introduced by NH Senator Martha Fuller Clark, the bill was cosponsored by State Representative Robin Read, NH Senator Maggie Hassan (Exeter), Rep. Jacqueline Cali-Pitts (Portsmouth), Rep. David Watters (Durham), Rep. Laura Pantelakos (Portsmouth), Rep. Jim Splaine (Portsmouth) and Senators Robert Odell (Lempster) and Jack Barnes, Jr. (Raymond). The bill is intended to recognize The Portsmouth Peace Treaty as “a permanent and important chapter in New Hampshire history that should be recognized and appropriately commemorated for generations to come.”
The bill amended RSA4:13 “the Powers of Governor and Council: Observances Proclaimed by Governor” by adding the following new paragraph:
Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day. The governor shall annually issue a proclamation calling for the proper observance of September 5 as Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day and shall call on the citizens of New Hampshire to observe the day with appropriate ceremonies and activities commemorating this important day in New Hampshire history.
The intent of Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day is to commemorate New Hampshire’s role as the host President Theodore Roosevelt designated for the peace conference that ended the Russo-Japanese War, and to recognize the part played by New Hampshire citizens in the multi-track diplomacy of the successful international negotiations between the Japanese and Russian diplomats in Portsmouth that resulted in the Portsmouth Peace Treaty on September 5, 1905.
1. Russo-Japanese War ends at Portsmouth: On September 5, 1905 the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard ended the war fought between Russia and Japan over control of Korea and Manchuria. The Russo-Japanese War is now known as “World War Zero” for the modern weapons employed, huge armies and navies engaged its destabilizing effect on both the worldwide balance of power and the European colonial empires.
2. Roosevelt’s Choice of New Hampshire: In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt convinced the Russians and Japanese to enter into direct negotiations to end the war, meeting in the United States; and chose Portsmouth, New Hampshire as the negotiating site, with its secure U.S. Naval Shipyard, eager state and local government officials and welcoming community. Roosevelt never came to Portsmouth, but used back-channel diplomacy with Japan, Russia and European powers to influence the negotiations while relying upon the US Assistant Secretary of State, the US Navy and the government and citizens of New Hampshire to facilitate the formal and informal negotiations between the Japanese and Russian diplomats in and around Portsmouth that lasted nearly 30 days.
3. New Hampshire’s Citizen Diplomacy: Citizen diplomacy – the effect of the New Hampshire hosts on the diplomats -- significantly contributed to the successful negotiations that resulted in the Portsmouth Peace Treaty that earned President Roosevelt the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. This unique example of multi-track citizen diplomacy shows that ordinary people can make a difference in international affairs.
Many elected and community officials spoke in favor of the bill at the Senate and House committee hearings, including the bill sponsors Senator Clark and Representative Read, Senator Barnes and Representative Cali-Pitts, the Secretary of State, Portsmouth Mayor Tom Ferrini, Charles Doleac (president), Judge Sawako Gardner and Stephanie Seacord of the Japan-America Society of NH, Steve Upton of the Russia Society of NH Board and Don Alusic, an independent producer of a documentary about the Portsmouth Peace Treaty.
“We greatly appreciate the support of all of the sponsors of the bill to make September 5, Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day and to cement its importance in the historical annals of the state of New Hampshire,” said Mr. Doleac in announcing the passage of the bill. “Secretary of State Bill Gardner helped us enormously as the bill made its way through the legislative process by personally advocating for it to the Committees. Mayor Ferrini prepared a letter that was presented to the House Committee by Assistant Mayor Nancy Clayburgh. Thanks to all of their efforts, the bill passed both House and Senate, unanimously.”
Each year on September 5th at 3:47 pm – the exact moment the Treaty was signed -- Portsmouth commemorates its history by recreating what happened in 1905. The Shipyard blows the Shipyard whistle. In response, the bells of Portsmouth ring for three minutes. In 1905 they rang for an hour in celebration. People in Market Square can hear church bells all over the city and other seacoast churches and locations around the state participate in the bell-ringing, as does the Sister School and Mayor in Nichinan. Each year, starting in 2010, the Governor of New Hampshire presents a proclamation commemorating the day throughout the State.
OP=ED: “PORTSMOUTH PEACE TREATY DAY” LEGISLATION HONORS CITIZEN DIPLOMACY
We are pleased to announce that the New Hampshire House and Senate have voted unanimously to pass a bill designating September 5th of each year as “Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day.” The bill amends RSA4:13 “the Powers of Governor and Council: Observances Proclaimed by Governor” by adding the following new paragraph:
Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day. The governor shall annually issue a proclamation calling for the proper observance of September 5 as Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day and shall call on the citizens of New Hampshire to observe the day with appropriate ceremonies and activities commemorating this important day in New Hampshire history.
Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day commemorates New Hampshire’s role as the host President Theodore Roosevelt designated for the peace conference that ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. It recognizes the part played by New Hampshire citizens in the multi-track diplomacy Roosevelt used in the international negotiations between the Japanese and Russian diplomats in Portsmouth. President Roosevelt trusted the New Hampshire Governor, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and people of New Hampshire to be impartial and appropriate hosts to the international delegates.
Research during the 100th Anniversary Commemoration in 2005 made clear that the New Hampshire Governor and the people of Portsmouth’s citizen diplomacy significantly contributed to the success of the negotiations by providing a supportive and encouraging atmosphere for the negotiations. These efforts earned President Roosevelt the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. During the Treaty’s 100th anniversary celebrations in 2005, New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner encouraged the efforts of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Committee to raise awareness of the 1905 citizen diplomacy as an important event in New Hampshire history. Secretary Gardner compared the 1905 citizen diplomacy in Portsmouth to the New Hampshire Primary where every citizen’s vote makes a difference. At the Legislative Committee Hearing on this bill, Secretary Gardner also observed that making Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day one of the official “Observances Proclaimed by the Governor” recognizes New Hampshire’s role as the host of the international peace conference that ended the world’s then largest war earning President Roosevelt the Nobel Peace Prize.
No other state can claim such an honor and no other state can recognize, as this all does, that our citizen’s diplomatic efforts contributed to a Nobel Peace Prize for an international treaty. In 2005, The Portsmouth Peace Treaty Anniversary Committee, and its 45 partner organizations and thousands of participants in the 100th anniversary events, recognized something that the author of Japanese Society at War, a 2009 book on the Russo-Japanese War and the Treaty, observed, “The importance of the peace treaty for the American city of Portsmouth was about ‘how ordinary citizens can – and did – make a difference’ in August and September 1905 as the host city for the peace conference.” The Committee also saw that what the Governor, the Navy and National Guard and ordinary citizens did in 1905 mattered to them in their public roles today.
For the US Navy and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, their 1905 role in providing security and protocol for the negotiations matters to the Navy as diplomats across the world today. For the New Hampshire National Guard participating in the welcoming parade in 2005, as they did in welcoming the delegates in 1905, matters to how they serve in New Hampshire’s name today. For the Governor and Executive Council, hosting and presiding over many events in 2005, as they did in the State’s official host role in 1905, matters to how New Hampshire handles its special role in events during the Presidential Primary season where ordinary citizens make such a critical difference in the vetting of candidates and with their early vote. For the citizens of New Hampshire, the 2005 commemorative celebration recognized that the citizen diplomacy of 1905 resonates with an engaged New Hampshire citizenry, who participate at a rate higher than any other state in the legislature and in our local community affairs, who vote in the New Hampshire Primary and who engage in that citizen diplomacy both here and abroad.
We take this opportunity to thank the bill’s co-sponsors Senator Martha Fuller Clark and Representative Robin Read as well as Senators Maggie Hassan, Robert Odell and Jack Barnes, Jr. and Representatives Jacqueline Cali-Pitts, Laura Pantelakos, Jim Splaine and David Watters.
We also thank all of the members of the original Portsmouth Peace Treaty Anniversary Committee for their efforts going back before 2005 to document the history and impact of the Treaty and make the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of 1905 something worth noting. This bill makes citizen diplomacy part of the permanent definition of how New Hampshire presents itself to the rest of the world. No other state recognizes the role of its citizens in this way.
By establishing September 5th as “Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day” throughout the state, we document for posterity that, in New Hampshire, ordinary people played a part in earning a Nobel Peace Prize. In designating September 5th as an officially designated day of observance throughout the state we ensure that this historic example of 1905 New Hampshire’s citizen diplomacy is recognized and appropriately commemorated for generations to come as a moment when what ordinary people did mattered. As New Hampshire voters show in the first in the nation primary and as this official observance declares in New Hampshire, everyone can make a difference, and at the nation’s and world’s critical moments, we do“
We are pleased to announce that the New Hampshire House and Senate have voted unanimously to pass a bill designating September 5th of each year as “Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day.” The bill amends RSA4:13 “the Powers of Governor and Council: Observances Proclaimed by Governor” by adding the following new paragraph:
Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day. The governor shall annually issue a proclamation calling for the proper observance of September 5 as Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day and shall call on the citizens of New Hampshire to observe the day with appropriate ceremonies and activities commemorating this important day in New Hampshire history.
Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day commemorates New Hampshire’s role as the host President Theodore Roosevelt designated for the peace conference that ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. It recognizes the part played by New Hampshire citizens in the multi-track diplomacy Roosevelt used in the international negotiations between the Japanese and Russian diplomats in Portsmouth. President Roosevelt trusted the New Hampshire Governor, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and people of New Hampshire to be impartial and appropriate hosts to the international delegates.
Research during the 100th Anniversary Commemoration in 2005 made clear that the New Hampshire Governor and the people of Portsmouth’s citizen diplomacy significantly contributed to the success of the negotiations by providing a supportive and encouraging atmosphere for the negotiations. These efforts earned President Roosevelt the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. During the Treaty’s 100th anniversary celebrations in 2005, New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner encouraged the efforts of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Committee to raise awareness of the 1905 citizen diplomacy as an important event in New Hampshire history. Secretary Gardner compared the 1905 citizen diplomacy in Portsmouth to the New Hampshire Primary where every citizen’s vote makes a difference. At the Legislative Committee Hearing on this bill, Secretary Gardner also observed that making Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day one of the official “Observances Proclaimed by the Governor” recognizes New Hampshire’s role as the host of the international peace conference that ended the world’s then largest war earning President Roosevelt the Nobel Peace Prize.
No other state can claim such an honor and no other state can recognize, as this all does, that our citizen’s diplomatic efforts contributed to a Nobel Peace Prize for an international treaty. In 2005, The Portsmouth Peace Treaty Anniversary Committee, and its 45 partner organizations and thousands of participants in the 100th anniversary events, recognized something that the author of Japanese Society at War, a 2009 book on the Russo-Japanese War and the Treaty, observed, “The importance of the peace treaty for the American city of Portsmouth was about ‘how ordinary citizens can – and did – make a difference’ in August and September 1905 as the host city for the peace conference.” The Committee also saw that what the Governor, the Navy and National Guard and ordinary citizens did in 1905 mattered to them in their public roles today.
For the US Navy and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, their 1905 role in providing security and protocol for the negotiations matters to the Navy as diplomats across the world today. For the New Hampshire National Guard participating in the welcoming parade in 2005, as they did in welcoming the delegates in 1905, matters to how they serve in New Hampshire’s name today. For the Governor and Executive Council, hosting and presiding over many events in 2005, as they did in the State’s official host role in 1905, matters to how New Hampshire handles its special role in events during the Presidential Primary season where ordinary citizens make such a critical difference in the vetting of candidates and with their early vote. For the citizens of New Hampshire, the 2005 commemorative celebration recognized that the citizen diplomacy of 1905 resonates with an engaged New Hampshire citizenry, who participate at a rate higher than any other state in the legislature and in our local community affairs, who vote in the New Hampshire Primary and who engage in that citizen diplomacy both here and abroad.
We take this opportunity to thank the bill’s co-sponsors Senator Martha Fuller Clark and Representative Robin Read as well as Senators Maggie Hassan, Robert Odell and Jack Barnes, Jr. and Representatives Jacqueline Cali-Pitts, Laura Pantelakos, Jim Splaine and David Watters.
We also thank all of the members of the original Portsmouth Peace Treaty Anniversary Committee for their efforts going back before 2005 to document the history and impact of the Treaty and make the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of 1905 something worth noting. This bill makes citizen diplomacy part of the permanent definition of how New Hampshire presents itself to the rest of the world. No other state recognizes the role of its citizens in this way.
By establishing September 5th as “Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day” throughout the state, we document for posterity that, in New Hampshire, ordinary people played a part in earning a Nobel Peace Prize. In designating September 5th as an officially designated day of observance throughout the state we ensure that this historic example of 1905 New Hampshire’s citizen diplomacy is recognized and appropriately commemorated for generations to come as a moment when what ordinary people did mattered. As New Hampshire voters show in the first in the nation primary and as this official observance declares in New Hampshire, everyone can make a difference, and at the nation’s and world’s critical moments, we do“
bellringing ceremonies
The tradition of commemorating the day of the Treaty signing with bellringing began in 1906 when the city celebrated the dedication of a plaque on Building 86 at the Shipyard (above, the site of the formal negotiations), with church bells ringing for a half hour at morning, noon and night.
That bellringing is re-enacted each year for Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day, a statewide observance declared in an annual Governor’s Proclamation in celebration of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty anniversary and the role local citizens had in making a difference to the proceedings in 1905.
At 3:47 pm, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard sounds a memorial salute at the exact moment the Treaty was signed in 1905 and, on that cue, the bells of Portsmouth ring. The public is welcome to participate in the bellringing ceremony at the Treaty historic marker outside the Piscataqua Savings Bank and Judge Calvin Page memorial (15 Pleasant Street).
Participating in the bell-ringing are:
Portsmouth's Sister City of Nichinan, Japan (birthplace of Baron Komura, lead Japanese negotiator) will conduct a bell-ringing with their Mayor Sakita and the Nichinan Gakuen Jr-Sr High School sister school. Portsmouth Peace Treaty Living Memorial cherry tree sites in Dublin, Hanover, Lancaster, Meredith, Manchester and Milford NH also traditionally participate in the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day commemoration.
St. John's Episcopal Church, Portsmouth NH
While a 1905 postcard suggests that North Church had a bell cast by Paul Revere, possibly confusing Portsmouth’s with Old North Church in Boston, a 1732 Revere bell does hang in the steeple of St. John’s Church, on Chapel Street in Portsmouth. St. John’s participates in the annual Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day bell-ringing commemoration on September 5th.
North Church, Portsmouth NH
In 1904 Americans began a charity to support Japanese widows and orphans of the war. Its chief officer was Portsmouth native Edward Warren Clark, a retired Episcopalian priest and pastor’s son whose brother had been pastor of St. John’s in Portsmouth. Rev. Clark had met the young Komura and Takahira in 1871 when he taught western science at Kai Sei Gakko in Tokyo. Rev. Clark, now an adult and retired from the clergy, had returned to his native city in 1904 where he spoke at North Parish Congregational Church using glass slides about Japan and the Asian crisis to raise charitable funds for the support of widows and orphans created by the war. The North Church bell rings each year for Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day.
Christ Church Episcopal, Portsmouth NH
The bell (below) in Christ Episcopal Church (1035 Lafayette Road) in Portsmouth was rescued from the old Christ Church in downtown Portsmouth when the Church burned. A crane was brought in to lift the entire steeple with bell to the ground. The inscription on the bell puts its maker as the McShane Bell Foundry of Baltimore in 1887. Christ Church figured significantly during the Treaty summer and on September 5, 1905 was the site of a Service of Thanksgiving officiated by members of the Russian Orthodox Church in New York, including Father Alexander Hotovitsky, who was later martyred following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and canonized in the Orthodox church. In 2005, NH’s Episcopal Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, presided over a re-enactment of that Service of Thanksgiving and reconsecrated the memorial tablet from the original Christ Church.
That bellringing is re-enacted each year for Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day, a statewide observance declared in an annual Governor’s Proclamation in celebration of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty anniversary and the role local citizens had in making a difference to the proceedings in 1905.
At 3:47 pm, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard sounds a memorial salute at the exact moment the Treaty was signed in 1905 and, on that cue, the bells of Portsmouth ring. The public is welcome to participate in the bellringing ceremony at the Treaty historic marker outside the Piscataqua Savings Bank and Judge Calvin Page memorial (15 Pleasant Street).
Participating in the bell-ringing are:
- Middle Street Baptist Church, Portsmouth
- Christ Episcopal Church, Portsmouth
- North Congregational Church, Portsmouth
- First Congregational Church, Portsmouth
- Second Christian United Church, Kittery
- St. John’s Episcopal Church, Portsmouth
- Unitarian Universalist (South) Church, Portsmouth
- First United Methodist Church, Portsmouth
- Temple Israel, Portsmouth (sounding the shofar and displaying a peace flag)
- New Castle Congregational Church
- Portsmouth School Department
- Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion, Portsmouth
- Little Harbor Chapel, Portsmouth
- Wentworth By the Sea Hotel, New Castle (where the Russian and Japanese diplomats stayed)
- Portsmouth Historical Society John Paul Jones House (Portsmouth Peace Treaty exhibit)
Portsmouth's Sister City of Nichinan, Japan (birthplace of Baron Komura, lead Japanese negotiator) will conduct a bell-ringing with their Mayor Sakita and the Nichinan Gakuen Jr-Sr High School sister school. Portsmouth Peace Treaty Living Memorial cherry tree sites in Dublin, Hanover, Lancaster, Meredith, Manchester and Milford NH also traditionally participate in the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day commemoration.
St. John's Episcopal Church, Portsmouth NH
While a 1905 postcard suggests that North Church had a bell cast by Paul Revere, possibly confusing Portsmouth’s with Old North Church in Boston, a 1732 Revere bell does hang in the steeple of St. John’s Church, on Chapel Street in Portsmouth. St. John’s participates in the annual Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day bell-ringing commemoration on September 5th.
North Church, Portsmouth NH
In 1904 Americans began a charity to support Japanese widows and orphans of the war. Its chief officer was Portsmouth native Edward Warren Clark, a retired Episcopalian priest and pastor’s son whose brother had been pastor of St. John’s in Portsmouth. Rev. Clark had met the young Komura and Takahira in 1871 when he taught western science at Kai Sei Gakko in Tokyo. Rev. Clark, now an adult and retired from the clergy, had returned to his native city in 1904 where he spoke at North Parish Congregational Church using glass slides about Japan and the Asian crisis to raise charitable funds for the support of widows and orphans created by the war. The North Church bell rings each year for Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day.
Christ Church Episcopal, Portsmouth NH
The bell (below) in Christ Episcopal Church (1035 Lafayette Road) in Portsmouth was rescued from the old Christ Church in downtown Portsmouth when the Church burned. A crane was brought in to lift the entire steeple with bell to the ground. The inscription on the bell puts its maker as the McShane Bell Foundry of Baltimore in 1887. Christ Church figured significantly during the Treaty summer and on September 5, 1905 was the site of a Service of Thanksgiving officiated by members of the Russian Orthodox Church in New York, including Father Alexander Hotovitsky, who was later martyred following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and canonized in the Orthodox church. In 2005, NH’s Episcopal Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, presided over a re-enactment of that Service of Thanksgiving and reconsecrated the memorial tablet from the original Christ Church.