Nashua, New Hampshire

History

Like many New England cities, Nashua grew because of textile mills using water power. The city was originally part of the Dunstable grant in Massachusetts and lies approximately in the center of the original 1673 grant. When the state line was re-drawn in 1741, the town of Dunstable, Massachusetts was divided in two. Dunstable, New Hampshire was incorporated from the northern part of the town.

Related Topics:
New England - Textile - Massachusetts - 1673 - 1741 - Dunstable, Massachusetts - Dunstable, New Hampshire

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By 1836, Nashua Corporation had built three cotton mills and was producing 9.3 million yards of cotton cloth annually on 710 looms and the town of Dunstable was renamed "Nashua." The legislature declared that it was now named for the Nashua River. Six railroad lines crossed the city with 56 trains entering and departing daily before the Civil War.

Related Topics:
1836 - Nashua Corporation - Nashua River

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What is now Nashua broke in two for a while, following a tax dispute between the town of Nashville north of the Nashua River, where most of the wealthier people lived, and town of Nashua south of the river. The two joined together and chartered the city in 1853.

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The textile business started moving to the South during the Great Depression, with the last mill closing in 1949. 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) nearby in Merrimack in the 1970s made the city part of the Boston-area high-tech corridor.

Related Topics:
Great Depression - 1949 - Sanders Associates - BAE Systems - Digital Equipment Corp. - Hewlett-Packard - Merrimack - 1970s - Boston

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