04/23/2023
Todayโs Historical Perspective: Great Men and Women of Lee
Bartholomew Van Dame; the Strange Little Foreigner
โAt peace with God โ I trust with all mankind.
Jehovah never made but one Van Dame
For teaching school, an honest fame.โ
This is an excerpt from an epitaph on the tombstone of Bartholomew Van Dame, a prominent Lee educator, preacher, philosopher, and person of great intellect, including learning five foreign languages. Van Dame wrote his epitaph and planned his funeral, which took place at the Union Meetinghouse in Lee in 1872.
He wrote: โBeneath this turf reposes one who was a stranger in a strange land; but who was surrounded by friends who were cherished in his affections as with a deathless remembrance.โ
Van Dame, the stranger in a strange land, was born in Holland June 21, 1807, but he said his spiritual birth was in Lee, New Hampshire. He was orphaned at a very young age, then illiterate, and eventually indentured but went on to rise well above his sad and difficult past to achieve true greatness. He was a small man a withered right hand and arm due to an accident in early youth. This did not prevent him from becoming a prolific writer with his left hand right up until the time of his death in 1872.
You can learn more about Bartholomew Van Dame in Phyllis Shenefiel Whiteโs wonderful book: โStudents Should Not Miss a Day, The Proud History of Education in Lee, New Hampshire.โ You can purchase a copy at the Lee Historical Society museum shop, on Mast Road next to the Lee Library. The newly expanded museum is open from 9 to 12 each Saturday until the end of October.
