Manchester New Hampshire History & Facts

Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in northern New England. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644.

Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Hampshire's most populous county, Hillsborough County. Manchester lies near the northern end of the Northeast megalopolis and straddles the banks of the Merrimack River. It was first named by the merchant and inventor Samuel Blodgett, namesake of Samuel Blodget Park and Blodget Street in the city's North End. His vision was to create a great industrial center similar to that of the original Manchester in England, which was the world's first industrialized city.

The native Pennacook people called Amoskeag Falls on the Merrimack River—the area that became the heart of Manchester—Namaoskeag, meaning "good fishing place".In 1722, John Goffe III settled beside Cohas Brook, later building a dam and sawmill at what was dubbed "Old Harry's Town". It was granted by Massachusetts in 1727 as "Tyngstown" to veterans of Queen Anne's War who served in 1703 under Captain William Tyng.But at New Hampshire's 1741 separation from Massachusetts, the grant was ruled invalid and substituted with Wilton, Maine, resulting in a 1751 rechartering by Governor Benning Wentworth as "Derryfield"—a name that lives on in Derryfield Park, Derryfield Country Club, and the private Derryfield School.

In 1807, Samuel Blodget opened a canal and lock system to allow vessels passage around the falls, part of a network developing to link the area with Boston. He envisioned a great industrial center arising, "the Manchester of America", in reference to Manchester, England, then at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution.13–18  In 1809, Benjamin Prichard and others built a water-powered cotton spinning mill on the western bank of the Merrimack. Apparently following Blodgett's suggestion, Derryfield was renamed "Manchester" in 1810, the year the mill was incorporated as the Amoskeag Cotton & Woolen Manufacturing Company. It would be purchased in 1825 by entrepreneurs from Massachusetts, expanded to three mills in 1826, and then incorporated in 1831 as the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company.

Amoskeag engineers and architects planned a model company town on the eastern bank, founded in 1838 with Elm Street as its main thoroughfare. Incorporation as a city followed for Manchester in 1846, soon home to the largest cotton mill in the world—Mill No. 11, stretching 900 feet (270 m) long by 103 feet (31 m) wide, and containing 4,000 looms. Other products made in the community included shoes, cigars, and paper. The Amoskeag foundry made rifles, sewing machines, textile machinery, fire engines, and locomotives in a division called the Amoskeag Locomotive Works (later, the Manchester Locomotive Works). The rapid growth of the mills demanded a large influx of workers, resulting in a flood of immigrants, particularly French Canadians. Many current residents descend from these workers. In 1871, the arch dam was built on the Merrimack River, enhancing the mill's water power delivery system. By 1912, the production of woven cloth in the Millyard had reached a production rate of 50 miles in length per hour.

Throughout the late 19th century and the early 20th century, the city began to expand outward, and many streetcar suburbs such as Mast Road were built. Manchester was formerly home to a streetcar network, the Manchester Street Railway. The streetcar network was replaced with a bus network in the 1940s.

Famous Peoples From Manchester New Hampshire

Henry E. Burnham

Henry Eben Burnham (November 8, 1844 – February 8, 1917) was a United States senator from New Hampshire. Born in Dunbarton, New Hampshire, he attended the public schools and Kimball Union Academy and married Hannah Elizabeth Patterson. Burnham graduated from Dartmouth College in 1865, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1868 and commenced practice in Manchester. He engaged in banking and insurance and was member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1873-1874, was treasurer of Hillsborough County from 1875 to 1877, was judge of probate for Hillsborough County from 1876 to 1879, and was a member of the State constitutional convention of 1889. He was chairman of the Republican State convention in 1888, served as a ballot-law commissioner from 1892 to 1900, and was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 1901.

Burnham was reelected to the Senate in 1907 and served from March 4, 1901, to March 3, 1913; he was not a candidate for reelection. While in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Cuban Relations (Fifty-eighth through Sixtieth Congresses) and a member of the Committee on Claims (Sixty-first Congress) and the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry (Sixty-second Congress). He resumed the practice of law and died in Manchester, 1917; interment was in Pine Grove Cemetery.

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