Merrimack Historical Society

WALTER KITTREDGE

Walter Kittredge, The Minstrel of Merrimack, was born on Bedford Road in the part of Merrimack known as Reed's Ferry on October 8, 1834. He was the tenth of eleven children of Eri and Lucretia (Woods) Kittredge.

Walter Kittredge was a self taught musician, playing the violin, seraphine, and the meloden. He made many of his instruments from things he found growing in the fields near his home. 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 NH. Many of their engagements were held at the Merrimack Hotel, also known as the McConihe Tavern. The hotel was located where the Library is today. It was moved across the street when the library was built and became a private residence.

In 1860, he married Annie Fairfield of New Boston, NH and built his unusual home on Bedford Road only a mile from where he grew up. It was here that he farmed between musical engagements. Walter and Annie had three children, Clara S., Walter E., and Annie.

It was about this time that he was struck with Rheumatic Fever, the results of this illness 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 the South during the war.

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 30th anniversary meeting of the Grange that he sang his last song.

Walter Kittredge died at his home on Bedford Road, July 8, 1905. He was seventy years of age. He is buried in Last Rest Cemetery on Baboosic Lake Road in Merrimack. A bronze marker graces the lobby of the State House in Concord in his memory.

TENTING TONIGHT ON THE OLD CAMP GROUND

We're tenting tonight

On the old campground,

Give us a song to cheer

Our weary hearts, a song of home,

And friends we love so dear.

Chorus:

Many are the hearts

That are weary tonight,

Wishing for the war to cease,

Many are the hearts,

Looking for the right,

To see the dawn of peace.

Tenting tonight, tenting tonight,

Tenting on the old campground.

We've been tenting tonight

On the old campground,

Thinking of days gone by;

Of the loved ones at home that gave us the hand,

And the tear that said "goodbye!"

Chorus:

We've been fighting today

On the old campground,

Many are lying near,

Some are dead and some are dying,

Many are in tears.

Chorus

(Click on the sheet music above to hear the music)