To the editor:

A major part of the mission of the Portsmouth Historical Society is promoting our local history. Last Friday morning at the middle school’s end-of-year assembly, I had the pleasure of presenting a trophy plaque to the winners of our March 9 School Portsmouth History Trivia Night contest.

Back in February, we had invited teams from the high school and middle school to participate in this contest, held at the Gulfstream Bar & Grille in Melville. Five teams from the high school and two from the middle school participated in this event. Society President and Town Historian Jim Garman had prepared over 100 questions for this event. We used 30 for this contest. Our excellent MC for the evening, Dave Rogers, did a great job at keeping everything on track, assisted by a crack team of scorekeepers and assistants.

At the end of the evening, the middle school “Tumbleweeds,” comprised of Ana Wheeler, Daisy Fernandez, Jarrett Reeves, Brandon Joaquin and Aquinnah Thayer, took the first prize, and it is their names that are engraved on the trophy plaque. Two high school teams tied for second place but all the players deserve our congratulations.

The winning team members each received a framed copy of the 1638 Portsmouth Compact from the Society, and several gift certificates from local vendors. Second- and third-place teams also received local gift certificates. All participants received a copy of Society President Jim Garman’s book, “Historic Tales of Newport County,” courtesy of the author himself.

We plan to make this an annual contest, with the school whose team wins the contest having bragging rights and the right to display the updated plaque for the year.

We were assisted in this contest by several people, including middle school Principal Joao Arruda, who attended the contest; Reada Evans, the manager of Gulfstream who was our gracious host for the event; Society board member and high school social science teacher Tim Ryan; and many others. I thank them for their support and participation.

I especially want to thank the students from both schools who joined in our contest. The winning team, the middle school “Tumbleweeds,” will all be moving to the high school next year, so we will start next year’s trivia contest with some experienced players.

Our Historical Society is located at the corner of Union Street and East Main Road. We are open for visitors on Sundays from 2-4 p.m. Come down to visit our historic buildings and museum and learn about Portsmouth history.

Doug Smith

Vice president, Portsmouth Historical Society

58 Heritage Drive

Portsmouth