Longtime seasonal resident donates to Hawthorne effort

PHOTO: Steven Kelsey Hazen (in checkered shirt) presents a check for $10,000 to members of the Hawthorne Community Association. (Hawthorne Community Association photo)

RAYMOND — Steven Kelsey Hazen of California, a long-time seasonal resident of the Casco-Raymond area, donated $10,000 to the Phase 2 fundraising campaign of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Boyhood Home.
The fund is raising money to fully repair and restore the historic home. Haven also donated $11,000 to Phase 1 of the fundraising effort, including $10,000 in memory of Clyde Stanley Murch (a founding member of the Hawthorne Community Association) and his wife, Edna Pearl Ames Murch. His more recent donation is in memory of his mother and father, Prudence Eleanor (Kelsey) Hazen and Franklin Graham Hazen, both of whom were ardent supporters of the Hawthorne Community Association.
Clyde Murch and Hazen both trace their ancestry to Sally (Dingley) Murch, whose sister Susan (Dingley) Manning was married to Richard Manning, who build the Hawthorne House for his sister, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s mother, Elizabeth Clarke Manning. The association was formed in 1922 and oversees care of the building.
“In offering this gift, I wish to congratulate the residents of the Casco/Raymond area for their wonderful support for this fundraising effort, and to convey my sincere hope that others with ties to the region and/or to the Hawthorne House will be able to fund the remaining portion of the restoration project, so it can be completed in 2023,” Hazen said.
For information on the fundraising campaign, visit www.hawthorneassoc.com.