Tucked behind the Dublin Town Hall is a small, unassuming building. It’s where the town archives are kept. And their keeper? Nancy Campbell, a lifelong resident of Dublin, who acts both as the town archivist and assistant archivist for the town’s Historical Society.
As the organizer and keeper of the town’s records, both municipal and historical, Campbell is the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript’s Hometown Hero for the month of April.
Campbell was nominated by Dublin resident Steve Baldwin.
“This job is so important to the history and story of how Dublin was born as a settlement. She is such a wealth of knowledge that can’t be replaced,” Baldwin said of Campbell. “She always greets people with a smile and is eager to look for their request and within minutes. It’s amazing up she comes with information maps, even history of owners, town officials and residents from the days 1600 Dublin.”
Campbell herself said that her love of history was sparked in part by her family’s long history in town — her family on both sides stretches back to Dublin’s early days.
“My roots are firm in Dublin,” Campbell said.
Campbell descends from the Richardson family, who came to Dublin among its first settlers in the 1780s, and the Eaves family, who have been there since 1880.
On the Richardson side, Campbell is descended from Abijah Richardson, a Revolutionary War veteran, and on the Eaves side, from Thomas Jefferson Eaves, whose parents must have been particularly patriotic, as Thomas had a brother, George Washington Eaves.
It’s these kinds of stories that make geneology intersting, and has become a long-time interest for Campbell.
As town archivist, Campbell helps to store town records — everything from meeting minutes from various town committees, to plans approved by Planning and Zoning Boards. For the Historical Society, she helps to keep town hisotry and infomation about local families.
“It’s amazing, she comes with information maps, even history of owners, town officials and residents from the days 1600 Dublin,” said Baldwin. “She loves digging up the old past along with current times. If there was someone who is so important to Dublin history, it’s Nancy Campbell.”
It’s a job she’s been doing since 1992, under John Harris, when the archives were still stored above the post office in town.
Now, the archives are open three days a week, or by appointment, and Campbell helps people locate property records to know where their septic system is, or research the history of their family.
In her off hours, Campbell likes to grow a vegetable garden with her husband, Hank Campbell, or kayak on Dublin Lake.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.