Walter Kittredge, Composer, Musician, and Lecturer. Known as the minstrel of Merrimack, he was a self-taught musician playing the violin, seraphine, and the meloden.

Around 1860, he was struck with rheumatic fever, which kept him from military service during the Civil War. However he served through his music writing over five hundred songs and ballads. Many of the songs, including "The War Will Soon Be Over", "When They Come Marching Home" and the world famous "Tenting Tonight, On The Old Camp Ground" were sung by both the North and South during the Civil War.

He made many of his instruments from things growing in the fields near his home on Bedford Road. His first instrument was made from the stock of a seed onion. He traveled as a minstrel both alone and with the famous Hutchinson family of singers of Milford, New Hampshire. Many of their engagements were held at the Merrimack Hotel, also known as McConihe Tavern. The hotel was located where the library is today. It was moved across the street when the library was built. In addition to his music,

Walter Kittredge was a known temperance and abolitionist speaker famous for his precise diction and clarity of words. At home, in Reed's Ferry, he held several public offices, was an active member of the First Congregational Church and a charter member of the Thornton Grange of Merrimack. It was at the thirtieth anniversary meeting of the Grange that he sang his last song. Walter Kittredge died at his home on Bedford Road. A bronze marker graces the lobby of the State House in Concord, New Hampshire in his memory.(bio by Rhonda Holton)

Walter Kittredge, Composer, Musician, and Lecturer. Known as the minstrel of Merrimack, he was a self-taught musician playing the violin, seraphine, and the meloden.

Around 1860, he was struck with rheumatic fever, which kept him from military service during the Civil War. However he served through his music writing over five hundred songs and ballads. Many of the songs, including "The War Will Soon Be Over", "When They Come Marching Home" and the world famous "Tenting Tonight, On The Old Camp Ground" were sung by both the North and South during the Civil War.

He made many of his instruments from things growing in the fields near his home on Bedford Road. His first instrument was made from the stock of a seed onion. He traveled as a minstrel both alone and with the famous Hutchinson family of singers of Milford, New Hampshire. Many of their engagements were held at the Merrimack Hotel, also known as McConihe Tavern. The hotel was located where the library is today. It was moved across the street when the library was built. In addition to his music,

Walter Kittredge was a known temperance and abolitionist speaker famous for his precise diction and clarity of words. At home, in Reed's Ferry, he held several public offices, was an active member of the First Congregational Church and a charter member of the Thornton Grange of Merrimack. It was at the thirtieth anniversary meeting of the Grange that he sang his last song. Walter Kittredge died at his home on Bedford Road. A bronze marker graces the lobby of the State House in Concord, New Hampshire in his memory.(bio by Rhonda Holton)