The natural beauty and fertile lands of Windham drew first the Pawtucket Indians and then Scotch-Irish settlers. The town's rich history is full of intriguing stories, including Wallace Fessenden's unscrupulous baseball umpiring, the return of a native son after his burial at sea in Indonesia and the poetic life of the Rustic Bard, Robert Dinsmoor. Tourism boomed as early as the 1850s, when visitors flocked to the waterside temptations of Canobie Lake and later Cobbett's Pond, where eccentric millionaire Edward Searles built his famous castle. Local historian Derek Saffie weaves together a collection of historic stories from the settlement's roots as Nutfield to the town of Windham.
Derek Saffie has been collecting relics from Windham's past for several years and displaying them at his website www.windhamnhhistory.com. He is an alternate member of the Windham Historic Commission, a trustee of the Windham Museum and a member of the Windham Historical Society. For his work with local history, he has been featured in the Lawrence Eagle Tribune and the Manchester Union Leader. Derek is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in computer science at Merrimack College.