13 KYES LANE (Seven Keys)

Letter from Kenneth and Esther Warren, September 2005:

After being discharged from World War II we returned to Bennington.  First worked in the paper mill over there, then somehow got work in Peterborough.

During my work here I met Mrs. Jackson.  She is one of the Ramsey family.  She advised me of Ruth Kirsch of New Boston who was the executive of her mother’s estate.  She had the Sunset Lake camp for sale.

We drove to New Boston and she set the price.  We agreed to buy the camp.  So we bought our first property.  ​

Then in 1951 we built in Peterborough.  While building we lived at the camp on Sunset Lake.  We stayed until it became very cold.  A neighbor down the road with a winterized camp invited us to use their home for the rest of the winter.

One day Judge Marshall(?) Derby of Hillsboro left us a deed of 50 ft. strip of land across the road.

We stayed every summer at our camp.  Now working as a warden for the New Hampshire Fish and Game, we were allowed to live at the camp as long as we had a telephone.

After many years of enjoying Sunset Lake we bought a camp on Nubanusit Lake in Hancock.  Our camp on the Sunset property was sold shortly afterward.

Essay by Ronald Sullivan, Summer 2008

In 1986, Ronald Sullivan purchased the cabin on Sunset Lake referred to as the Seven Keys.  I hired Cutter Construction to update the look of the cabin.  My first project was to remove all of the shingles from the outside of the house.  When that was done, I put up cedar clap boards.  Inside extensive remodeling was needed.  I replaced the small bedrooms upstairs and made a full dormer instead.  The stairwell was completely replaced and new carpeting was put down.  I also added two outside decks that increased the floor space for barbecues and family outings.  When that was done, I realized that the bathroom needed work, so I had that sheet rocked as well.  Lastly, I added a new dock so that all of my relatives could enjoy the lake.  As people came and went, we began to furnish and stock it with small finishing touches.

With such a large family, there were always people coming and going in that cabin.  Neighbors Jack and Libby Farrell, Jo Wheeler and Sylvia Robbins were all wonderful and always made us feel welcome.

After not being able to utilize it because of my business commitments, I decided to sell it to Sammy Proctor who still owns it today.  Whenever I drive by Sunset Lake, it puts a smile on my face.  It was a great spot to get away while I owned it.

Essay by Walter Kirsch, September 2008

1930 was the year my grandmother (Nellie Ramsey) bought the Sunset Lake camp, naming it “Seven Keys,” as each of her seven children was provided with a key.

Her three sons, John, Bill, and George, and four daughters, Marguerite, Mary, Vernie, and Ruth, being her family at that time.

She spent summers there, many times staying in the fall until Thanksgiving.

I can remember family members, at Thanksgiving, walking in from the main road because of snow making the road impassable.

We obtained drinking water from a spring on the hillside at the end of the road. 

My cousins and I spent portions of the summers at the lake.

I often would meet Dick, Ruth, and Shirley Fellows (Mary’s children), who would bike from Grasmere, and travel with them through Francestown, to Greenfield, to Sunset Lake.  Aunt Rita’s children, Betty, Bob, and Norma Clark, also did the same, coming from Peterborough.  Norma would spend the entire summer at the camp.

The best beach on the lake was in front of the camp, where we spent a great deal of our time swimming and fishing.  (Children’s “needs” were not so great in those times — 1940s.)

An ice-box-refrigerator, wood stove, and “across the street outhouse” are among my memories.

After my grandmother’s passing, in the late forties, the camp was sold; the daughters wanting to keep it, and the sons wanting to sell it.  To keep peace in the family, it was put on the market.

On September 1st, 2007, I made my first visit to Sunset Lake since the 1940s, meeting with a Mrs. Miller and Anne (Dr. Kyes’s granddaughter), both of whom told me to contact Sylvia at Robbins’ camp, telling me she’s a history-buff on Sunset Lake.

In September, 2008, I made contact with Sylvia, the result being this — my memoirs on Sunset Lake