Vonhurst Days by
Peter Lawlor
Click on the Photos for a closer
lookThere was once a gentle man who was not only a minister but also a carpenter. It is not Jesus that I am speaking of but my grandfather, Mr. Fredrick H. Von der Sump.
In
the early to mid 1900's my grandfather built a cottage-type camp for adults
and families along the shores of Lake Kanasatka and called it Vonhurst.
Vonhurst had around 3,800 feet of private waterfront with sixty acres of
forested land. For $40.00 a week guests could stay in one of the
fifteen private cottages along the lakeshore. There were a variety of activities,
from ping pong, pool, badminton, deck tennis, volleyball, horseshoes and,
of course, archery, which was taught by my mother. Owned and operated by
my grandparents, Mr. And Mrs. F. H. Von der Sump and my mother, Miss Mildred
E. Von der Sump, the memory of Vonhurst lives on in the photo albums they
left me and the memory of their spirit lives in me forever.
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Postcards advertising Vonhurst in the 1950s. A Camp for Adults and their Families Central Lodge, Cottages, 40 Acre Forest, Beach, Fishing, Swimming, Hiking. Clearing the beach at Vonhurst in 1933. The fellow standing next to the oxen is named Diagneau. Many years before the NH Shoreland Protection Act was a twinl\kle in anyone's eye, Mr. Daigneau and his oxen worked mighty hard to clear what is now Vonhurst beach.
The beach of Vonhurst.
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Relaxing on the Deck.
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The Von der Sumps
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Camp Deerhill View from Vonhurst circa. 1950
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The same scene 50 years later. A rainbow view from McCrae's in December
2000 several days after ice in.
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 Peter Lawlor
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