If given the choice this holiday, order some Parker House rolls instead of any other type.  The Parker House roll - with its dense pull-apart goodness - has a connection to a lonely grave in the Phillips Exeter Academy woods and a house on Cass Street.

Anyone who has ever hiked, jogged or skied through the woody paths owned by Phillips Exeter Academy has probably come across the gravesite of Suzannah Holman Brown.  Given the number of inquiries that make it to the Exeter Historical Society, there is quite a lot of interest in the site.

Suzannah died at the tender age of 27 while giving birth.  Her infant daughter became part of the tragic, but all too common, story and died with her.  Her husband, Joseph, sadly buried his wife and daughter on his own property, marking the site with a stone.  A later descendant searched for the site and had a proper marker erected.

Few people ask about what happened after Suzannah's death.  She left Joseph with  two other daughters.  The family moved around for a while, at one point living in Massachusetts.  Joseph re-married. His eldest daughter, named Suzannah for her mother, married William Bickford and moved into a grand house on Cass Street in 1835.  Bickford was a dealer and manufacturer in boots and shoes, which he sold in his store in downtown Exeter.

Bickford had purchased the house at 25 Cass Street from Joanna Strong.  During Strong's ownership, the house was the scene of an attempted murder/suicide when, in 1831, a despondent Charles Tash tried to kill his girlfriend and himself.  He was unsuccessful on both attempts; both he and Sally Moore survived.  He faced charges but was acquitted seemingly because everyone in town thought he was just a nice guy having a bad day.  The incident didn't seem to have alarmed the Bickfords.  They happily raised a family in the big house.

It was at this house that Joseph and Suzannah's other daughter, Julia, married well-known hotelier Harvey D. Parker on Thanksgiving Day, 1839.   Parker, a native of Maine, had moved to Boston as a young man and quickly worked his way up in the hotel business until he was able to buy out his boss.  Renaming the hotel "The Parker House", he revolutionized the way the hotel and attached restaurant was run.  He allowed customers to choose from a variety of manu items instead of just a single choice, as had been customary at that time.

He paid his chef a king's ransom for his services and, although he was soundly criticized for this in the business, his gamble paid off.  The chef created inspired dishes and the Parker House is credited with the invention of Boston Cream Pie - a delicious concoction that is not exactly pie but not exactly cake.  It was Parker who invented the term "scrod" - a fish associated specifically with New England.  It took a while before people began to wonder what type of fish scrod actually was.  Try asking to see one at the New England Aquarium sometime.  Scrod, of course, are mostly cod, but might also be halibut or any other young whitefish that appear on the dock in the morning.

Julia is sometimes credited as the creator of the Parker House Roll.  She certainly took an administrative role in running the Parker House, but it's not entirely clear whether she was doing any baking.  Nevertheless, she and her husband built up the business that made the Parker House roll a staple today.  Her life ties together Exeter and Boston; a grave in the woods, a stately house on Cass Street and your holiday table.