John Wheelwright, a man too pure for the Puritans, founded Exeter in 1638. Resourceful, notorious and just plain unusual characters have populated the town ever since. Thinking inside the box, Albert and Lucy Tyler tried to ship themselves home to Exeter in a piano box after they ran out of funds on the West Coast. Albertus T. Dudley saved the town's founding document from the hands of William Randolph Hearst. Exeter has a paradoxical streak—it is an inland town with a working seaport, and it was both adamantly anti-abolition and home to the Free-Soil Party. Exeter Historical Society curator Barbara Rimkunas uncovers the lesser-known tidbits and gems hidden in the town's history.