50 Years of Research Unearths the Town’s Untold Origins

CA, UNITED STATES, November 7, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Esteemed executive, educator, author, and historian Patrick O. Connelly is honored to announce the release of his long-awaited two-volume series, Rochester, N.H., Territory to Township, 1620-1799, Series Volume I and Volume II, In Their Own Words, Transcription and Research of the Original Records of Colonial Rochester, New Hampshire, 1722-1799. Volume I, both in hardcover and softcover, was published in September 2024, while Volume II debuted in hardcover in May 2023, with its softcover edition released this September. These meticulously researched volumes offer an unprecedented glimpse into the soul and early history of Rochester, N.H., a once remote frontier township, and the ancestral territory of the Indigenous Abenaki people.

With over fifty years of painstaking research, Mr. Connelly brings forward a richly detailed history of Rochester’s early development. The series explores the significant roles of both the Indigenous Abenaki culture and the English settlers in shaping the town during its formative years. Critical content has never before been accessible for research or public consumption. Volume II features complete transcriptions of original town records, supplemented by original manuscript pages never inscribed into the town book. Entitled In Their Own Words…, Volume II offers a rare glimpse into the voices of Rochester’s early inhabitants, thus providing historians, students, and enthusiasts invaluable insights.

Rochester, N.H., Territory to Township (Volume I) contextualizes the Indigenous and colonial dynamics that shaped the town, highlighting the confusion, conflicts, challenges, and occasionally collaboration experienced by these two distinct cultures as they responded to each other. The proprietors and settlers identified, selected, and developed the 64,000-acre site on the New Hampshire frontier.

“Much of the content included in these volumes was previously unavailable or inaccessible to the public,” says Connelly. “The books shed light on the critical periods of the town's formation and offer answers to longstanding questions about how and why both Indigenous and colonial communities selected and settled the area.”

Connelly's lifelong connection to Rochester runs deep. Born in Berlin, N.H., and raised in Rochester from the age of five, he has devoted much of his life to exploring the region’s historical roots. A retired global trade risk executive, Connelly began researching Rochester’s history as an honors student at the University of Texas at Austin in 1972. His continuing research has culminated in this definitive series, which he hopes will encourage further exploration into Rochester’s early history.

In addition to his historical work, Connelly is also the author of Trade Credit Risk Management, Fundamentals of the Craft in Theory and Practice (now in its fourth edition) and Rethinking Human Capital, From Job to GIG – A Competency-Based Tool (2021), co-authored with Stefania Dinklage and Brad Mueller. He has frequently contributed to professional periodicals and introduced and supported professional certification courses and credentials worldwide.







Why These Books Matter:

Despite many coffee-table books covering Rochester’s 19th and 20th-century history, detailed accounts of the town’s formative years remained largely unexplored—until now. Connelly's volumes present a comprehensive compilation of available documentation from Rochester’s settlers, providing students, teachers, historians, and interested readers with crucial insights into the town’s earliest days.

The primary message readers may take away from this series is one of survival, adaptation, and progress. By examining the decisions, actions, and outcomes faced by early settlers and Indigenous peoples, readers may find inspiration in overcoming the challenges of their own daily lives. Without a doubt, those who fail to heed the lessons of history are doomed to repeat the worst decisions that led to the worst outcomes.



About the Author:

Patrick O. Connelly was born in Berlin, N.H., and raised in Gonic, a part of the City of Rochester. After an eight-year military career, including two years in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, Connelly pursued double majors in History and French at the University of Texas at Austin. His career spanned five decades, largely in global trade and risk management. Fortunately, in 1973 as a young history student, the mayor of Rochester took an interest in the project and entrusted Connelly with Rochester's original town records. Over time these were transcribed and in 2016 returned, conserved originals and bound transcription of the first 125 pages of the town book. Connelly earned acclaim and recognition at the time for his work. That opportunity, coupled with a dogged commitment to completing the historical research, has resulted in this significant two-volume series.

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