Nashua is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, USA. As of the 2000 census, Nashua had a total population of 86,605[1], making it the second largest city in the state after Manchester. As of 2005, the population is estimated to be 87,986.[2]
Built around the now-departed textile industry, in recent decades it has been swept up in southern New Hampshire's economic expansion as part of the Boston region. Nashua was twice named "Best Place to Live in America" in annual surveys by Money magazine.[3] It is the only city to get the No. 1 ranking two times?in 1987 and 1997. Nashua is currently ranked #87, as of summer 2006.[4] In 2007, the Morgan Quitno Press ranked Nashua as the 27th safest city in the country.
The area was part of a 200-square-mile tract of land in Massachusetts called Dunstable, which had been awarded to Edward Tyng of Dunstable, England. Nashua lies approximately in the center of the original 1673 grant. When New Hampshire separated from Massachusetts in 1741, the state line between them was redrawn. As a consequence, the township of Dunstable was divided in two. Tyngsboro and some of Dunstable remained in Massachusetts, while Dunstable, New Hampshire was incorporated in 1746 from the northern section of the town.
Located at the confluence of the Nashua with the Merrimack River, Dunstable was first settled about 1655 as a fur trading town. But like many 19th century riverfront New England communities, it would be developed during the Industrial Revolution with textile mills operated from water power. By 1836, the Nashua Manufacturing Company had built three cotton mills which produced 9.3 million yards of cloth annually on 710 looms. On December 31st, 1836, Dunstable was renamed Nashua after the Nashua River by a declaration of the New Hampshire legislature. The Nashua River was named by the Nashuway Indians, and in the Penacook language it means "beautiful stream with a pebbly bottom."[5] The town split in two for eleven years following a tax dispute in 1842 between the area north of the Nashua River, where most of the wealthy lived, and the area south of the river. During that time the northern area called itself Nashville, while the southern part kept the name Nashua. They would eventually reconcile and join together to charter the city of Nashua in 1853. Six railroad lines crossed the mill town, with 56 trains entering and departing daily before the American Civil War.
Like the rival Amoskeag Manufacturing Company upriver in Manchester, the Nashua Manufacturing Company prospered until about World War I, after which it began a slow decline. Water power was replaced with newer forms of energy to run factories. Cotton could be manufactured into fabric where it grew, saving transportation costs. The textile business started moving to the South during the Great Depression, with the last mill closing in 1949. Many citizens were left unemployed. But then Sanders Associates, a newly created defense firm that is now part of BAE Systems, moved into one of the closed mills and launched the city's rebirth. The arrival of Digital Equipment Corp. (now part of Hewlett-Packard) in the 1970s made the city part of the Boston-area high-tech corridor.
Keene is a city in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, USA. The population was 22,955 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Cheshire CountyGR6.
Keene is is home to Keene State College, Antioch University New England, and the annual Pumpkin Fest.
The community was granted as Upper Ashuelot in 1735 by Colonial Governor Jonathan Belcher to soldiers who had fought in the war against Canada. Settled after 1736, it was intended to be a fort town protecting the Province of Massachusetts Bay during the French and Indian Wars. When New Hampshire separated from Massachusetts in 1741, the border between the two shifted south, and Upper Ashuelot became part of New Hampshire.
During King George's War, the village was attacked and burned by Indians. Colonists fled to safety, but would return to rebuild in the early 1750s. It was regranted to its inhabitants in 1753 by Governor Benning Wentworth, who renamed it Keene after Sir Benjamin Keene, English minister to Spain and a West Indies trader. Located at the center of Cheshire County, it became county seat in 1769. Land was set off for Sullivan and Roxbury, although Keene would annex 154 acres from Swanzey (formerly Lower Ashuelot).
Timothy Dwight, the Yale president who chronicled his travels, called the town "...one of the prettiest in New England." Situated on an ancient lake bed surrounded by hills, the valley with fertile meadows was excellent for farming. The Ashuelot River provided water power for sawmills, gristmills and tanneries. After the railroad arrived in 1848, numerous other industries were established. Keene became a manufacturing center for wooden-ware, pails, chairs, sash, shutters, doors, pottery, glass, soap, woolen textiles, shoes, saddles, mowing machines, carriages and sleighs. It also had a brickyard and foundry. Keene was incorporated as a city in 1874, and by 1880 had a population of 6,784.
New England manufacturing declined in the 20th century, however, particularly during the Great Depression. Keene is today a center for insurance, education and tourism. The city nevertheless retains a considerable inventory of fine Victorian architecture from its flush mill town era. An example is the Keene Public Library, which occupies a Second Empire mansion built about 1869 by manufacturer Henry Colony.
