New Hampshire Mills

New Hampshire's political leaders were now bank officers, mill and railroad executives, and lawyers. Affiliations between these professions were the norm, not the exception. The two principal political parties, Democrats and Republicans, were the new American elites. In response, labor unrest grew, both on the farm and in the mills. New Hampshire governors, men such as Onslow Stearns (governor 1869/70, 1870/1), were concerned with financial statements and with corporate prosperity; and after the Civil War they were determined to reduce the war debts carried in New Hampshire towns. Stearns reduced the state's war debts by nearly one third, and individual and community debt by nearly one half, during his years in office. The contemporary historian Stackpole, writing about this period in the 1880s, noted approvingly that Stearns had saved the state almost $10,000 a year by canceling the annual encampments of Civil War regiments. Patriotic extravagances were sacrificed in the name of fisca ... [Read More]

The Town of Milford, NH
The Town of Milford has a rich history.  Separated from Amherst and established as an independent town in 1794, Milford was a prime stop on the Underground Railroad.  Located in southern New Hampshire on the banks of the Souhegan River, the town is named after  the River's shallow Mill Ford, so called after the many mills at this location in the eighteenth century.  Milford is still a favorable spot for business.  Made famous by the thriving granite industry and known as ... [Read More]

New Hampshire's Towns and
Dover was settled in 1623 and is known as the first permanent settlement in New Hampshire. Today Dover's historic brick mills house high-tech companies, manufacturers, retail outlets and other businesses. ... [Read More]

New Hampshire History in Brief - (NHHM)
By the end of the First World War, however, New Hampshire's old textile mills were proving to be as uncompetitive as the old hill farms. Newer cotton mills in the South spelled decline and eventual doom for New Hampshire's mills. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, New Hampshire's mill towns were as economically depressed as its farm towns, and the growth of the state's population slowed markedly. Manufacturing centers responded by attracting new industries, in particular the manufacture of shoes and electronics, while rural towns took advantage of the growing popularity of the automobile to attract larger numbers of tourists and summer home buyers. The growing national interest in antiques and handcrafts meant that Americans increasingly wanted to buy a piece of the Granite State and take it home to Boston, New York, or Philadelphia. Starting in the 1930s, other visitors came to New Hampshire slopes each winter in a demonstration of America's fascination with Alpine skiing. ... [Read More]

1820's History - Guide to Likeness of New Hampshire Officials and Governors
Southern New Hampshire developed rapidly as an agricultural center during the decade, with potatoes and potato starch important products. By 1817 more than 159,000 sheep were pastured in the state, with wool production for an increasing number of textile mills. Major textile mills included the Newmarket Manufacturing Company (founded 1822; capitalization $600,000); Cocheco Manufacturing Company (at Dover), also founded 1822, and capitalized at $1.5 million; and Great Falls Manufacturing, (Somersworth, NH), founded 1824, capitalized at $1 million. Southern states shipped cotton to many other New Hampshire cotton mills which produced such items as hosiery; the largest of these cotton mills was Amoskeag, at Manchester, NH, founded in 1826 with capitalization of $200,000. [Reorganized in 1831 and recapitalized with $1.6 million, Amoskeag grew to be the largest textile complex in the world with 750,000 spindles humming in buildings which stretched along both sides of the Merrimack River. Th ... [Read More]