The Friendship Train, the United States The Friendship Train, the United States unmatchable humanitarian gift to Europe after World War II, was the brain child of Drew Pearson. The goal was to deliver food to the distraught people in France and Italy. Every state in the United States contributed to the Train. The contributions from the the beautiful state of New Hampshire were forthcoming a bit late. The New Hampshire State Library and the New Hampshire Historical Society have no information on the Train in their holdings. One would expect these two institutions, which are foremost in recording a state’s history, to have at least a reference to the Friendship Train in their collections, but such was not the case.

In addition to searching the state’s documents, I searched the historical societies of the two largest towns, Manchester and Nashua, to no avail. Knowing that a small town might have taken note of a nation-wide event, especially if the event occurred near the town, I searched 12 historical societies in four areas of the Granite State’s smaller towns. Similar, to previous searches, there was no mention of the Train.
However, subsequent to the writing of this article, I found in a Drew Pearson “Merry-Go-Round” essay in a column in the Idaho Post-Register November 29, 1947, a statement from radio station WFEA sparked the loading of two boxcars which at that time were being rushed to New York, thus clearly declaring that New Hampshire did contribute. Why the state’s residents were not aware of the Friendship Train’s existence earlier than November 1947 is indeterminable. However, New Hampshire was a part of the national movement.

The author welcomes any corrections or additional information which would add to this state's history.  Her email address is draetrain@gmail.com.

The Friendship Train was the genesis for the French Merci Train. Website www.mercitrain.org has information about that train. Copies of Mr. Bennett's Book The Merci Train, A Big Thank You From the French Merci Train is available at ebennett89@yahoo.com. The price is $25.00 per copy, including postage.

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