Boston Post Cane Society

Keepers of the Boston Post Cane:

It started in 1909 as a gimmick to increase the circulation of the Boston Post.

There were 431 of the canes to begin with, made of African ebony with 14-carat gold heads. Some say that Edwin A. Grozier, publisher of the Boston Post, had picked them up cheap at an auction before he came up with the idea of distributing them to New England towns to be presented to each town's oldest citizen then passed along to the next oldest as each holder of the cane departed the earth.

Though intended at first only for men by 1930, women were receiving the canes.

Apparently no towns in Connecticut were included in the distribution of the canes, and only two towns in Vermont are known to have had canes.

The cane, or staff, is an ancient symbol of deference to age and reverence for ancestors.

Missing Canes in New Hampshire as of March 1983:

• Brookline
• Epping
• Milford
• Westmoreland