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Nashua

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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a city and one of the county seats of Hillsboro county, New Hampshire, U.S.A., at the confluence of the Nashua and Merrimac rivers, 35 m. S.S.E. of Concord and 40 m. N.W. of Boston by rail. Pop. (1890) 19,311; (1900) 23,898, of whom 8093 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 26,005. Nashua is served by the Boston & Maine railroad, whose several divisions centring here give the city commercial importance, and by electric lines to Hudson, Litchfield, Pelham, Dracut and Tyngsboro. The area of the city in 1906 was 30.7r sq. m. To the N.,W. and S.W. of the city there are beautiful hills and mountains. The church of Saint Francis Xavier and the First Congregational church are architecturally noteworthy. The city has a soldiers' monument, a public library, a court house and two hospitals. There is a United States fish hatchery here, and until after the close of the 18th century fishing was the principal industry of the place, as manufacturing is now. Water-power is furnished by the Nashua river and by Salmon Brook, and the city is extensively engaged in manufactures, notably cotton goods, boots, shoes, and foundry and machine-shop products. The value of the city's factory products increased from $10,096,064 in 1900 to $12,858,382 in 1905, or 27.4%, and in 1905 Nashua ranked second among the manufacturing cities of the state. Nashua is one of the oldest interior settlements of the state. The first settlement here was established about 1665; and in 1673 the township of Dunstable was incorporated by the General Court of Massachusetts. In 1741, when the boundary between Massachusetts and New Hampshire was settled, the jurisdiction of this portion of Dunstable was transferred to New Hampshire; five years later it was incorporated under the laws of that state; and in 1803 the settlement, originally known as Indian Head, was incorporated as a village under the name of Nashua, and in 1836 the township of Dunstable also received the name Nashua. The town of Nashville was set apart from the town of Nashua in 1842, but the two towns were united under a city charter obtained in 1853. In 1795 the first stage coach was run through here from Boston to Amherst, and at about the same time a canal was built around Pawtucket Falls on the Merrimac at Lowell. In 1822 a manufacturing company was formed, which at once began to develop the water-power and in 1825 erected the first cotton mill. Thirteen years later the Nashua & Lowell railroad (now leased to the Boston & Maine) first reached Nashua.

See The History of the City of Nashua, edited by E. E. Parker (Nashua, 1897).