The New International Encyclopædia/Manchester (New Hampshire)

MANCHESTER. The largest city of New Hampshire, and one of the county-seats of Hillsboro County, 18 miles south of the State capital, Concord, and 57 miles west-northwest of Boston, Mass., on the Merrimac River, at the confluence of the Piscataquog, and on the Boston and Maine Railroad (Map: New Hampshire, H 10). It extends along both banks of the two rivers. An immense amount of water power for manufacturing is derived from the Amoskeag Falls (about 55 feet) of the Merrimac by means of a carefully projected system of canals, though steam is used also in a number of the mills. The most extensive industry is cotton cloth manufacturing, the Amoskeag, Manchester, Amory, and Stark mills operating on a vast scale, and together employing over 13,000 hands. Manchester is noted for the production of fire engines and locomotives, and there are also paper and woolen mills, shoe factories, needle and knitting-machine factories, hosiery and underwear factories, carriage and wagon works, tanneries, and manufactories of cigars, brushes, beer, lumber products, furniture, etc. These industries, which employ about 19,000 persons, represent a capital of nearly $20,000,000, and have an output valued at more than that amount.

The city is well laid out with fine, broad streets, and has a handsome United States Government building, county court-house, State industrial school, Roman Catholic cathedral, a public library of over 45,000 volumes, and several public parks, in all embracing about 155 acres; Manchester spends annually, in maintenance and operation, nearly $650,000, the principal items of expenditure being about $120,000 for schools, $85,000 for the fire department, $60,000 for municipal lighting, $40,000 for the police department, and $25,000 for the waterworks, which are owned and operated by the city, having been built in 1873 at a cost of over $1,500,000. Population, in 1870, 23,536; in 1880, 32,630; in 1890, 44,126; in 1900, 50,987, including 24,257 persons of foreign birth.

Settled by Scotch-Irish in 1722, Manchester was known as Amoskeag and Harrytown until 1751, when it was incorporated as ‘Derryfield.’ In 1810 it received its present name, and in 1846 was chartered as a city. Consult Clarke, Manchester, A Brief Record of Its Past and a Picture of Its Present (Manchester, 1875).