# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/New Hampshire

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​NEW HAMPSHIRE, a North Atlantic state of the United States, one of the New England group, and one of the Original Thirteen, lying between latitudes 42° 40′ and 45° 18′ 23″ N., and between longitudes 70° 37′ and 72° 37′ W. It is bounded N. by the Canadian province of Quebec; E. by Maine, by the Salmon Falls river, which separates it in part from Maine, and by the Atlantic Ocean; S.E. and S. by Massachusetts; W. and N.W. by Vermont (from which it is separated by the Connecticut river—low water mark on the W. bank of the Connecticut is New Hampshire’s W. boundary), and by Halls Stream which separates it from Quebec. The state has an area of 9341 sq. m., of which 310 sq. m. are water surface.
Physical Features.—The delightful scenery of mountains, lakes, streams and woodlands gives to the greater part of New Hampshire, which is in the New England physiographic province, the appearance of a vast and beautiful park; and the state is a favourite summer resort. In the N. central portion, the White Mountains, a continuation of the Appalachian system, rise very abruptly in several short ranges and in outlying mountain masses from a base level of 700-1500 ft. to generally rounded summits, the heights of several of which are nowhere exceeded in the eastern part of the United States except in the Black and the Unaka mountains of North Carolina; seventy-four rise more than 3000 ft. above the sea, twelve more than 5000 ft., and the highest, Mount Washington, attains an elevation of 6293 ft.
The principal ranges, the Presidential, the Franconia and the Carter-Moriah, have a north-eastern and south-western trend. The Presidential, in the north-eastern part of the region, is separated from the Franconia on the south-west by the Crawford, or White Mountain Notch, about 2000 ft. in depth, in which the Ammonoosuc and Saco rivers find a passage, and from the Carter-Moriah, parallel to it on the east, by the Glen-Ellis and Peabody rivers, the former noted for its beautiful falls. On the Presidential range, which is about 20 m. in length, are Mount Washington and nine other peaks exceeding 5000 ft. in height: Mount Adams, 5805 ft.; Mount Jefferson, 5725 ft.; Mount Sam Adams, 5585 ft.; Mount Clay, 5554 ft.; Boot Spur, 5520 ft.; Mount Monroe, 5390 ft.; J. Q. Adams Peak, 5384 ft.; Mount Madison, 5380 ft.; and Mount Franklin, 5028 ft. On the Franconia, a much shorter range, are Mount Lafayette, 5269 ft.; Mount Lincoln, 5098 ft.; and four others exceeding 4000 ft. The highest peak on the Carter-Moriah range is Carter Dome, 4860 ft., but seven others exceed 4000 ft. Loftiest of the isolated mountains is Moosilanke noted for its magnificent view-point 4810 ft. above the sea. Separating Franconia and Pemigewasset ranges is the romantic Franconia Notch, overlooking ​ which from the upper cliffs of Profile Mountain is a remarkable human profile, The Great Stone Face, immortalized by Nathaniel Hawthorne; here, too, is the Franconia Flume, a narrow upright fissure, 60 ft. in height, with beautiful waterfalls.
The whole White Mountain region abounds in deep narrow valleys, romantic glens, ravines, flumes, waterfalls, brooks and lakes. The part of the state which lies N. of the White Mountains is occupied by ridges and wide rolling valleys, the ridges rising occasionally to heights of 2000 ft. or more. South of the mountains a plateau-like surface—a part of the New England Uplands—broken by residual mountains, or “monadnocks” (a term derived from Mount Monadnock, 3186 ft. high, near the S.W. corner of the state) and lenticular hills, or drumlins, but having a general S.E. slope toward the sea, extends from the intervales of the Connecticut river to the E. border of the Merrimac Valley. Between the Merrimac Valley and the sea is the only low surface in the state; a considerable portion of this region is less than 500 ft. above the sea, but even here are numerous ridges 1000 ft. in height or more, and small drumlins. The seashore, about 18 m. in length, is for the most part a low sandy beach; here and there, however, especially to the northward, it is somewhat rocky, and to the southward are two bluffs. The only harbour is at Portsmouth near the mouth of the Piscataqua. About 9 m. from the shore are the bleak and nearly barren Isles of Shoals, nine in number, a part of which belong to New Hampshire and a part to Maine.
Extending from Mount Monadnock in Cheshire, the S.W. corner county, to the headwaters of the Connecticut river in the N.E. corner is a water-parting, W. of which the state is drained southward into Long Island Sound by the Connecticut and its tributaries and E. of which it is drained south-eastward into the Atlantic Ocean principally by the Merrimac in the S., the Saco and the headwaters of the Merrimac in the White Mountain region, and the Androscoggin in the N. The Piscataqua is a tidal estuary fed chiefly by the Salmon Falls, Lamprey and Exeter rivers. The headwaters of the rivers are for the most part mountain streams or elevated lakes; farther on their swift and winding currents—flowing sometimes between wide intervales, sometimes between rocky banks—are marked by numerous falls and fed by lakes.
The lakes and ponds, numbering several hundred, were formed by glacial action and the scenery of many of them is scarcely less attractive than that of the mountains. The largest and most widely known is Lake Winnepesaukee on the S. border of the White Mountain region; this is about 20 m. long and from 1 to 8 m. wide, is dotted by 274 islands, mostly verdant, and has clear water and a rather level shore, back of which hills or mountains rise on all sides. Among the more prominent of many others that are admired for their beauty are Squam, New Found, Sunapee and Ossipee, all within a radius of a few miles from Winnepesaukee; Massabesic farther S.; and Diamond Ponds, Umbagog and Connecticut lakes, N. of the White Mountains. The rivers with their numerous falls and the lakes with their high altitudes furnish a vast amount of water power for manufacturing, the Merrimac, in particular, into which many of the larger lakes, including Winnepesaukee, find an outlet, is one of the greatest power-yielding streams of the world.
Flora.—Except on the summits of the higher mountains New Hampshire was originally an unbroken forest of which the principal trees were the white pine, hemlock, sugar maple, yellow birch, beech, red oak, and white oak in the S., red spruce, balsam, and white birch on the upper mountain slopes, and red spruce, white pine, sugar maple, white spruce and white cedar in the other parts of the N. The primeval forests have nearly disappeared, but much of the N. third of the state and many abandoned farms in the S. have become reforested with much the same trees, except that on the lower levels in the N. yellow birch, sugar maple and beech have to a considerable extent supplanted spruce, white pine and hemlock, and that wherever forest fires have occurred there is much bird cherry, yellow birch and aspen. The butternut, hickory and chestnut are common nut-bearing trees in the S. Among indigenous fruit-bearing trees, shrubs and vines the state has the bird cherry, black cherry, blueberry, cranberry, raspberry, blackberry, gooseberry, strawberry, grape and black currant; and conspicuous among a very great variety of shrubs and flowering plants are the rose, dogwood, laurel, sumac, holly, winterberry, trilliums, anemones, arbutuses, violets, azaleas, eglantine, clematis, blue gentians, orange lilies, orchids, asters and golden rod. The summits of some of the mountains are too high for trees and above belts of dwarf spruce, balsam and birch they are clothed chiefly with sandworts, diapensia, cassiope, rushes, sedges and lichens.
Fauna.—The N. section of the state was originally a favourite hunting-ground of the Indians, for here in abundance were the moose, caribou, deer, wolf, bear, lynx, otter, beaver, fox, sable, mink, musk-rat, porcupine, wood-chuck, ruffed grouse and pigeon. These were rapidly reduced in number by the white man, the wild pigeons are extinct, and the moose, caribou, bear, wolf, lynx and beaver have become rare, but, under the protection of laws enacted during the latter part of the 19th century, deer and ruffed grouse are again quite plentiful. Rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, woodcock and quail are also common game. Many of the lakes and rivers have been stocked with trout and salmon or bass; some, with smelt; the fresh waters of the state also contain pickerel, perch, pouts, eels, suckers, dace, sunfish and shiners. In the S. half of New Hampshire are many song birds belonging to the Alleghany faunal area; in the N. part many others belonging to the Canadian faunal area. The hermit thrush, veery, song sparrow, red-eyed vireo, bunting, warbler and wren are among the song birds of the forests.
Climate.—The winters are usually long and severe, and the summers cool and salubrious, but the diversity of surface together with unequal distances from the sea cause marked variations for the different regions. The mean annual temperature ranges from about 42° F. at only moderate elevations in the White Mountain region and farther N. to 47° F. at low altitudes in the S.E. The greatest extremes of temperature occur in the deep mountain valleys where it sometimes rises to 102° F. or above, in summer, and falls to −38°F. or below in winter; higher up on the mountains it is never so warm and along the sea-coast both extremes are considerably less. The highest recorded winter mean is 25° F., at Nashua in the lower valley of the Merrimac, and at Durham near the sea-coast; the lowest recorded winter mean is 18° F., at Bethlehem 1470 ft. above the sea in the White Mountain region; the highest recorded summer mean is 69° F. at Nashua, and the lowest recorded summer mean is 64° F. at Bethlehem. The mean annual precipitation for the entire state is about 40 in.; it is 43 in. at Nashua, 45·3 in. at Durham, and perhaps still more on the E. slopes of the mountain ranges, but it is only 37·7 in. at Bethlehem in the N.W. part of the mountain region and only 35·5 in. at Stratford in the upper valley of the Connecticut. The distribution is quite even throughout the year, but summer and autumn are slightly more wet than winter and spring. Among the mountains and in the N. part of the state the annual fall of snow is from 7 to 8 ft., but in the S.E. corner it is little more than one-half that amount. The prevailing winds are generally N.W., but in the vicinity of the sea they are S.E. during summer.
Agriculture.—Fertile soil in New Hampshire is confined largely to the bottom-lands of the Merrimac and Connecticut rivers, where on deposits of glacial drift, which are generally quite deep in the southern half of the state, there is considerable alluvium. In the south-eastern section is also a moderately productive soil derived largely from the disintegration of slate. Elsewhere south of the mountains the surface soil is mostly hard pan or till, this being deepest on the drumlins. In the mountain region the soil is mostly a sandy loam composed of disintegrated granitic gneiss and organic matter; on the lower and more gentle slopes as well as in the valleys this is generally deep enough for a luxuriant vegetable growth but on the upper and more precipitous slopes it is thin, or the rocks are entirely bare.
Farms in the more sterile parts of New Hampshire were abandoned when the depleted soil and the old methods of agriculture made it impossible for owners or tenants to compete with western farmers. This abandonment led in 1889 to the adoption by the state Board of Agriculture of measures which promoted the development of the state, especially the central and northern parts, as a summer resort. Abandoned farms were advertised as suitable for country homes, and within fifteen years about two thousand were bought; and the carriage roads were improved, game preserved and the interests of visitors studied. Agriculture on the farms still operated was now greatly modified, and the production of vegetables, fruits, dairy products, poultry and eggs was largely substituted for the production of cereals. The total acreage of all land included in farms increased from 3,459,018 acres in 1890 to 3,609,784 acres in 1900, or from 60% to 62·6% of the total land area of the state, but the improved portion of this decreased during the decade from 1,727,387 acres to 1,076,879 acres, or from 49·9% to 29·8%; in no other state east of the Mississippi river was so small a proportion of the farm land improved at the close of the decade, although in Florida it was only a trifle larger. The total number of farms increased from 29,151 in 1890 to 29,324 in 1900, and the average size increased from 119 acres to 123·1 acres, but as a result of the more intensive form of agriculture, farms containing less than 50 acres increased from 8188 in 1890 to 8764 in 1900, and those containing 50 acres or more decreased during this decade from 20,963 to 20,560. Of the total number of farms in 1900, 26,344, or 89·8%, were operated by owners or part owners, 1639 by cash tenants and 546 by share tenants.
Hay is the principal crop; in 1909 the acreage was 640,000 acres and the yield was 621,000 tons. The total acreage of cereals decreased from 88,559 acres in 1879 to 61,498 acres in 1889, and to 42,335 acres in 1899; during the latter decade that of Indian corn ​ increased from 23,746 acres to 25,694 acres (30,000 acres in 1909), but that of oats decreased from 26,618 acres to 12,589 acres (14,000 acres in 1909), that of wheat decreased from 2027 acres to 271 acres (none reported in 1909), that of barley decreased from 4934 acres to 1596 acres (2000 acres in 1909), that of buckwheat decreased from 3117 acres to 1835 acres (2000 acres in 1909), and that of rye decreased from 1056 acres to 350 acres (none reported in 1909). With the exception of dairy cows and horses there was likewise a corresponding decrease in the number of livestock during these years: the number of hogs decreased from 58,585 in 1890 to 56,970 in 1900 (51,000 in 1910); of sheep, from 211,825 in 1880 to 105,702 in 1900 (74,000 in 1910); and of neat cattle other than dairy cows, from 141,841 in 1880 to 116,835 in 1900 (93,000 in 1910); but the number of horses increased from 52,458 in 1890 to 77,233 in 1900 (59,000 in 1910), and the number of dairy cows from 90,564 in 1890 to 115,036 in 1900 (122,000 in 1910). The value of the poultry and egg product of 1899 was $1,824,399, which was more than twice that of the cereals and nearly one-third of that of the hay and forage. The potato crop of the same year was grown on 19,422 acres and amounted to 2,420,668 bushels valued at $1,090,495; in 1909 the acreage was 21,000, and the crop was 2,730,000 bushels, valued at $1,747,000. The acreage of other vegetables in 1899 was 26,780 and the value of the market garden produce, including small fruits, which was sold, increased from $187,049 in 1889 to $394,283 in 1899 or 110·8%. Although the crop of orchard fruits was no greater in 1899 than in 1889 the number of apple trees increased during the decade from 1,744,779 to 2,034,398, the number of peach trees from 19,057 to 48,819 and the number of plum trees from 10,151 to 18,137; in the number of pear trees and of cherry trees there was a slight decrease. The fruit crop of 1899 included 1,978,797 bushels of apples, 19,341 bushels of pears, 6054 bushels of peaches, 4942 bushels of plums, 1183 bushels of cherries, 487,500 ℔ of grapes, 568,640 qts. of strawberries, 124,760 qts. of raspberries and 105,290 qts. of blackberries and dewberries. The valley of the Merrimac is the leading section for the production of hay, small fruits and dairy products. In the bottom lands of the Merrimac and of the Connecticut, south of the White Mountains, a large part of the Indian corn and vegetables is grown. Potatoes, however, are grown in large quantities north and west of the White Mountains; and this district leads in the number of cattle and sheep, and in the production of all the cereals except Indian corn. Apples, pears and grapes are successfully grown throughout the central and southern sections, but peaches and cherries chiefly south of Lake Winnepesaukee. Hillsboro and Rockingham counties, in the south-east, lead in the production of poultry and eggs.
Forests.—The White Mountain region and Coos county to the north of it, embracing in all nearly one-third of the total area of the state, is essentially a forest country. In 1903, however, only about 12% of this was still occupied by a virgin merchantable forest and 69·8% was cut-over or culled land. In the southern part of the state there is in the aggregate nearly as large an area of young forests on lands, most of which were until about 1850 used for agricultural purposes. The principal merchantable timber of the state is red spruce, and this is found chiefly in the virgin forests which remain in the north, especially in those on the steep mountain slopes between elevations of 1800 ft. and 3500 ft. All except a few scattered trees of the white pine, which was once abundant in all parts of the state below 1500 ft. in elevation, has been cut; but some of the second growth in the south is already merchantable. The most common hardwood trees are sugar maple, yellow birch, white birch and beech; these are widely distributed throughout the state, but are for the most part too young to be cut for lumber. White cedar is almost wholly confined to the swamps of the north, and white oak is found chiefly on the more fertile lands of the south. Most of the virgin forests of the northern section were cut in the latter half of the 19th century, while abandoned farms in the south were becoming reforested, and the value of the state’s lumber and timber products increased from $1,099,492 in 1850 to $4,286,142 in 1870, and to $9,218,310 in 1900 and then decreased to $7,519,431 in 1905; since 1890 large quantities of wood, chiefly spruce, have also been used in the manufacture of paper and wood pulp. In 1909 a forestry commission was established.
Fisheries.—Although the trout and salmon of the fresh waters in the interior are a great attraction to sportsmen, the commercial fisheries, which are confined to Rockingham county, on the coast, are of small and declining importance. The take of 1898 consisted chiefly of cod, haddock, lobsters, mackerel, alewives, pollock and hake, but was valued at only $48,987, which was a decrease of 67% from that of 1889; in 1905 the total take was valued at $51,944, of which $32,575 was the value of lobsters and $8166 was the value of fresh cod—the only other items valued at more than $1000 were soft clams ($2770), Irish moss ($2400), alewives, fresh and salted ($1220), and haddock ($1048).
Minerals.—The most important of the mineral products of New Hampshire, which has long been known as “the Granite State,” is granite, which is quarried in the southern part of the state in the area of “Lake Winnepesaukee gneiss,” near Concord, Merrimack county, near Milford, Hillsboro county, and E. of Manchester in Rockingham county; in Sullivan county, near Sunapee; and in the east central part of the state in Carroll county, near Conway and Madison. In 1908 there were 8 quarries at Concord, all on Rattlesnake Hill, and all within 2 m. of the state house in Concord. The Concord granite is a medium bluish-grey coloured muscovite-biotite granite, with mica plates so abundant as to effect the durability of the polish of the stone; it is used for building—the outer walls of the Library of Congress at Washington, D.C., are made of this stone—to a less degree for monuments, for which the output of one quarry is used exclusively, and for paving blocks. The output of the Milford quarries, which numbered in 1908 fifteen—twelve south and south-west and three north-west of Milford—consists of fine and mostly even-grained, quartz monzonites (i.e. granites with an unusually large proportion of soda-lime feldspar), of various grey shades, sometimes tinged with blue, pink or buff, and always marked with black mica; the finer varieties take a high polish and are used for monuments, and the coarser grades are used for construction, especially of railway bridges, and for paving and curbing. The output of the Auburn quarry, 7 m. E. of Manchester, is a deep pink quartz monzonite, marked with fine black dots, which has a fine texture, takes a good polish and is used for monuments. The Conway quarries, four in number in 1908, are on either side of the Saco river, south-east and south-west of North Conway; their output is coarse constructional stones, all biotite or biotite-hornblende, but varying in colour, pinkish (“red”) and dark-yellow greenish-grey (“green”) varieties being found remarkably near each other at Redstone, on the east side of the Saco valley. About 21/2 m. E. of Sunapee are quarried two kinds of monumental stone: the “light Sunapee,” a light bluish-grey biotite-muscovite, finer than the Concord granite, and capable of a good polish and of fine carving; and the “black pearl” or “dark Sunapee,” a dark bluish-grey quartz-diorite, which seems black mottled with white when polished, and which is coarser than the “light Sunapee.” New Hampshire granites were used for building as early as 1623. The value of granite quarried in the state increased from $195,000 in 1887 to $1,147,097 in 1902, when building stone was valued at $619,916, monumental stone at $346,735 and paving stone at $101,548. In that year New Hampshire ranked fourth among the states in output of granite, with 6·3% of the total value of granite quarried in the entire country; in 1908 the value of granite ($867,028) was exceeded by that of each of seven other states but was more than one-half of the total value of all mineral products of the state. Of this total the only other large items were clay and clay products (valued at $371,640), and mineral waters ($259,520; of which $150,512 was the value of table waters) from nine springs, four in Rockingham, three in Hillsboro county and one each in Coos and Carrol counties—and other mineral waters were used in the manufacture of soft drinks. Mica, first mined at Grafton, Grafton county, in 1803, found also in the northern part of Merrimack county and in the north-western corner of Cheshire county in such quantities that for sixty years New Hampshire was the largest producer of mica in the United States, is no longer an important product: in 1907 its value ($7227) was less than that of the mica produced in South Dakota, Alabama, North Carolina or Colorado. A quartz schist, suitable for making whetstones and oilstones, was discovered in 1823 by Isaac Pike at Pike Station, Grafton county, and the Pike Manufacturing Company now owns and operates quarries outside this state also; in 1907 New Hampshire was the principal producer of scythe-stones in the United States, and the total value of whetstones made in 1907 (including the value of precious stones) was $59,870.
Manufactures.—The heavy precipitation on the elevated central and northern parts, and the hundreds of lakes and ponds which serve as reservoirs, give to the lower southern part of the state on the Merrimac and other rivers such an abundant and constant water-power that southern New Hampshire has become an important manufacturing district, and manufacturing has become the leading industry of the state. During the last two decades of the 19th century the number of inhabitants engaged in agricultural pursuits decreased from 45,122 to 38,782; and the number engaged in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits increased from 57,283 to 75,945. Many farmers abandoned their sterile farms and made new homes in the West, where soil yielded larger returns for labour, and a foreign-born population, consisting largely of French Canadians, came to the cities in response to the demand for labour in the mills and factories.
From 1850 to 1860 the value of the manufactured products increased 62·3%; in the decade of the Civil War they further increased in value 89%; from 1890 to 1900 the increase was from $85,770,549 to $118,709,308, or 38·4%; and from 1900 to 1905 the value of the factory products increased from $107,590,803 to $123,610,904, or 14·9%. Textiles, and boots and shoes represented ​ in 1905 more than one-half the total value. Cotton goods, the manufacture of which was introduced in 1804, increased in value only slightly during the last decade of the 19th century, from $21,958,002 to $22,998,249, but from 1900 to 1905 their value increased 28·4%, or to $29,540,770; except in 1900 the manufacture of cotton goods had long ranked first, measured by the value of the product, among the state’s manufacturing industries. Factory-made boots and shoes increased in value from $11,986,003 in 1890 to $23,405,558 in 1900, or 95·3%, the industry ranking first in 1900; but in 1905 there was a decrease to $22,425,700, the industry then ranking second; in 1900 the value of boots and shoes was 21·8% and in 1905 it was 18·1% of the total value of all factory products, and in no other state was the degree of specialization in this industry so great as in New Hampshire. Woollen goods, third in rank, decreased in value from $10,963,250 in 1890 to $10,381,056 in 1900, but the factory product increased in value from $7,624,062 in 1900 to $11,013,982, in 1905, or 44·5%. Paper and wood pulp, for the manufacture of which the spruce forests of the state are so largely used, increased in value from $1,282,022 in 1890 to $7,244,733 in 1900, or 465·1%, and to $8,930,291 in 1905; and this industry rose from ninth in rank in 1890 to fifth in 1900 and to fourth in 1905. The manufacture of lumber and timber products, one of the oldest industries of the state, ranked fifth in 1905; these products had increased in value from $5,641,445 in 1890 to $9,218,310 in 1900, or 63·4%, but decreased to $7,519,431 in 1905, the decrease being in large measure due to the great demand for spruce at the paper and pulp mills. Foundry and machine shop products, hosiery and knit goods, wooden boxes, flour and grist mill products, and malt liquors are other important manufactures; the value of wooden boxes increased from $979,758 in 1900 to $2,565,612 in 1905, or 161·9%, and the value of hosiery and knit goods increased during the same period from $2,592,829 to $3,974,290, or 53·3%. As compared with other states of the Union, New Hampshire in 1905 ranked fifth in the manufacture of factory-made boots and shoes, and in woollen goods, sixth in cotton goods, and seventh in paper and wood pulp, in hosiery and knit goods, and in the dyeing and finishing of textiles. In 1905 the value of the products in the eight cities of Manchester, Nashua, Concord, Dover, Rochester, Laconia, Keene, and Portsmouth, all of which are south of Lake Winnepesaukee, was 59·5% of that for the entire state. Nearly one-half the cotton goods were manufactured in Manchester. Boots and shoes were manufactured chiefly in cities near the southern border. Dover led in the manufacture of woollens; Laconia in the manufacture of hosiery and knit goods; and Berlin, the chief manufacturing centre north of the White Mountains, in the manufacture of paper and wood pulp.
Transportation.—With the exception of a Grand Trunk line in the northern part of the state the several steam railways are owned or leased by the Boston & Maine. Up the steep slope of Mount Washington runs a cog railway. The first steps in railway building were taken in 1835, when the Boston & Maine, the Concord, and the Nashua & Lowell railways were incorporated. The Boston & Maine was opened from Boston, Mass., to Dover, N.H., in 1842. In 1850 there were in operation 467 m.; this mileage had increased to 1015 in 1880 and to 1167·14 on the 1st of January 1909. Portsmouth, the only port of entry, has a very small foreign trade, but there is a considerable traffic in coal and building materials here and on the Cocheco, which is navigable to Dover.
Population.—The population of the state was 141,885 in 1790; 183,858 in 1800; 214,460 in 1810; 244,161 in 1820; 269,328 in 1830; 284,574 in 1840; 317,976 in 1850; 326,073 in 1860; 318,300 in 1870; 346,991 in 1880; 376,530 in 1890; 411,588 in 1900; and 430,572 in 1910; the per cent of increase was 9·3 from 1890 to 1900 and 4·6 from 1900 to 1910. Of the total in 1900, 88,107 were foreign-born; 58,967, or 66·9%, were natives of Canada (44,420 French and 14,547 English), 13,547 of Ireland, 5100 of England, 2019 of Scotland, 2006 of Germany, and 2032 of Sweden. Of the 323,481 native-born, 80,435, or 24·8%, were natives of other states than New Hampshire; 56,210 of these were natives of other New England states, however, and 7502 were natives of New York. At the same time there were 124,561 natives of New Hampshire numbered among the inhabitants of other states, principally Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, New York, Illinois, California, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Kansas and Nebraska, and to induce these to return for a holiday season to their native state the “Old Home Week” festival, now held throughout New England, was planned in 1899 by Frank West Rollins (b. 1860), who was then governor of New Hampshire. The Roman Catholic Church in 1906 had more members than any other religious denomination (119,863 out of 190,298 communicants of all denominations); in the same year there were 19,070 Congregationalists, 15,974 Baptists, 12,529 Methodist Episcopalians (North) and 4892 Protestant Episcopalians. Of the total population in 1890 the rural constituted 67·4% and the urban 37·6%, but in 1900 the rural constituted only 53·3% of the total and the urban 46·7%. The eleven cities having a population in 1900 of 5000 or more were: Manchester (56,987); Nashua (23,898); Concord (19,632); Dover (13,207); Portsmouth (10,637); Keene (9165); Berlin (8886); Rochester (8466); Laconia (8042); Somersworth (7023), and Franklin (5846).
Administration.—New Hampshire was the first of the original thirteen states to establish a government wholly independent of Great Britain. This was designed to be only temporary, but was in operation from the 5th of January 1776 to the 2nd of June 1784. The constitution which then went into effect provided for a General Court consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives and made the Council a body advisory to the state president; the 1784 instrument was much amended in 1792, when the title of president was changed to governor, but with the amendments adopted in that year it is in large measure the constitution of to-day. For sixty years there was no change whatever, and only three amendments, those of 1852 (removing the property qualifications of representatives, senators and the governor), were adopted until 1877, when twelve amendments were adopted,—the most important being those providing for biennial (instead of annual) state elections in November (instead of March), and those doing away with the previous requirement that representatives, senators and the governor “be of the Protestant religion.” Five amendments were ratified in 1889 and four in 1902. New Hampshire is the only state in the Union in which amendments to the constitution may be proposed only by a constitutional convention, and once in seven years at the general election a popular vote is taken on the necessity of a revision of the constitution. A radical revision of the constitution is rendered especially difficult by a provision that no amendment proposed by a convention shall be adopted without the approval of two-thirds of the electors who vote on the subject when it is referred to them. Prior to 1902 every male inhabitant of a town who was twenty-one years of age or over, a citizen of the United States, and not a pauper or excused from paying taxes at his own request, had a right to vote, but an amendment adopted in this year made ability to read English and to write additional qualifications, except in the case of those physically unable to read or to write, of those then having the franchise, and of persons 60 years of age or more on the 1st of January 1904. Various other amendments have been proposed from time to time, but have been defeated at the polls. By an act approved on the 9th of April 1909 provision was made for direct nominations of candidates at primaries conducted by regular election officers.
There is a governor’s council of five members, one from each councillor district, which has advisory duties and shares with the governor most of his powers. There is no lieutenant-governor. The governor and the councillors are elected for a term of two years, and a majority of the votes cast is necessary to a choice. Where no candidate receives such a majority the Senate and the House of Representatives by joint ballot choose one of the two having the greatest number. No person is eligible for either office who shall not at the time of his election be at least thirty years of age and have been an inhabitant of the state for the seven years next preceding; a councillor must be an inhabitant of the district from which he is chosen. The governor and council appoint all judicial ​ officers, the attorney-general, auditor, important administrative boards, coroners and certain naval and military officers; they have power to pardon offences; and they may exercise some control over expenditure through the constitutional requirement of the governor’s warrant for drawing money from the treasury. The governor may veto within five days, besides Sunday, after it has been presented to him, any bill or resolution of which he disapproves, and a two-thirds vote of the members of both houses is required to pass over his veto.
A Senate and a House of Representatives, which together constitute the General Court, meet at Concord on the first Wednesday in January of every odd-numbered year, and at such other times as the governor may appoint for a special session, principally for the making of laws and for the election of the secretary of state, the state treasurer, and the commissary-general. The Senate is composed of 24 members, one from each senatorial district, and these districts are formed so as to be approximately equal with respect to the amount of direct taxes paid in each; representation in this body is therefore apportioned on the basis of property. In the House of Representatives, which has the large membership of 390, representation is on the basis of population, but is so arranged as to favour the rural districts; thus every town or ward of a city having 600 inhabitants is allowed one representative, but, although for every additional representative 1200 additional inhabitants are required, any town having less than 600 inhabitants is allowed a representative for such proportionate part of the time the legislature is in session as the number of its inhabitants bears to 600. Senators and representatives are elected for a term of two years. A representative must have been an inhabitant of the state for at least two years next preceding his election, and must be an inhabitant of the town, parish or ward he is chosen to represent; a senator must be at least thirty years of age, must have been an inhabitant of the state for at least seven years next preceding his election, and must be an inhabitant of the district by which he is chosen. The constitution of New Hampshire places scarcely any restrictions on the powers of the legislature. By an amendment of 1877, however, it is forbidden to authorize any town to lend money or give credit for the benefit of any corporation whose object is profit. Although money bills may originate only in the House of Representatives the Senate may propose amendments. In 1909 the office of state auditor was created.
For the administration of justice the state has a supreme court and a superior court, each county has a probate court, and some towns as well as the cities have a police court. The supreme court and the superior court consist each of one justice and four associate justices. The supreme court holds one general term each year at Concord and on the first Tuesday of every month except July and August sits to hear arguments, make orders and render decisions; the superior court holds one or two sessions a year in every county. Both of these courts have extensive jurisdiction. Each probate court, consisting of a single judge, has jurisdiction within its county of the probate of wills, of the granting of administration, in insolvency proceedings, and in relation to the adoption of children; it may appoint and remove guardians of minors, insane persons and spendthrifts, and, upon application, may change a person’s name. The court of a justice of the peace has jurisdiction in criminal cases only where the punishment is by fine not exceeding twenty dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or by both, and in civil cases only where the title to real estate is not involved and the damage demanded does not exceed thirteen dollars and thirty-three cents. A police court has the same jurisdiction as that of a justice of the peace, and, in addition, concurrent jurisdiction with the superior court in certain cases where the title to real estate is not involved and the damage demanded does not exceed one hundred dollars. Judges and justices are appointed by the governor and council, and with the exception of justices of the peace they hold office during good behaviour or until they have attained the age of seventy years; justices of the peace are appointed for a term of five years only, but they may be reappointed.
Local affairs are administered by counties, towns (townships), village districts and cities. In each county a convention, composed of representatives from the towns, meets every two years to levy taxes and to authorize expenditures for grounds and buildings whenever more than one thousand dollars are required. For the discharge of other county functions the qualified electors of each county elect every two years three commissioners, a sheriff, a solicitor, a treasurer, a register of deeds and a register of probate; two auditors also are appointed annually by the supreme court. The county commissioners have the care of county buildings, consisting chiefly of a court house, gaol and house of correction, but are not allowed to expend more than one thousand dollars for repairs, new buildings or grounds, without authority from the county convention; the commissioners have the care also of all other county property, as well as of county paupers; and once every four years they are required to visit each town of their county, inspect the taxable property therein, determine whether it is incorrectly assessed and report to the state board of equalization. In each town a regular annual meeting of the qualified electors is called on the second Tuesday in March for the transaction of miscellaneous business and the election of town officers. These officers always include three selectmen, a clerk, a treasurer and one or more auditors, and they may include any or all of the following: assessors, who together with the selectmen constitute a board for the assessment of taxes, one or more collectors of taxes, overseers of the poor, constables, surveyors of highways, fence-viewers, sealers of weights and measures, measurers of wood and bark, surveyors of lumber, cullers of staves, a chief fireward or engineer and one or more assistants, a clerk of the market and a pound keeper. The moderator of the town meeting is elected at the general election in November for a term of two years, and a board of health, consisting of three members, is appointed by the selectmen, one member each year. The general business of the town, other than that which comes before the town meeting, is managed by the selectmen, and they are specially intrusted with the regulation of the highways, sidewalks and commons. A village district is a portion of a town, including a village, which is set apart and organized for protection from fire, for lighting or sprinkling the streets, for providing a water-supply, for the construction and maintenance of sewers, and for police protection; to serve these interests three commissioners, a moderator, a clerk, a treasurer and such other officers as the voters of the district may deem necessary are chosen, each for a term of one year. The government of cities is in part determined by general laws and in part by individual charters. In accordance with the general laws each city elects a mayor, a board of aldermen, and a common council in whom is vested the administration of its “fiscal, prudential and municipal affairs”; the mayor presides at the meetings of the board of aldermen, and has a veto on any measure of this body, and no measure can be passed over his veto except by an affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of all the aldermen; each ward elects three selectmen, a moderator and a clerk in whom is vested the charge of elections; the city marshal and assistant marshals are appointed by the mayor and aldermen, but the city clerk and city treasurer are elected by the aldermen and common council in joint session.
Under the laws of New Hampshire the property rights of husband and wife are nearly equal. The wife may hold, acquire and manage property the same as if she were single; she is also subject to the same liabilities in relation to her property as a single woman except that no contract or conveyance by her as surety or guarantor for her husband is binding. Rights of dower and courtesy both obtain. Where there is no will or its provisions are waived, the right of a widow, in addition to her dower and homestead rights, in the personal estate of a deceased husband is the same as that of a widower, in addition to his estate by courtesy and homestead right, in the personal estate of a deceased wife, i.e. one-half if there is no surviving issue and one-third if there is such issue. By releasing his or her right of dower or courtesy together with the homestead right, if any, the surviving widower or widow is also entitled, in fee, to one-half the real estate, if said deceased leaves no issue surviving; if the husband leaves issue by the widow surviving, she is entitled in fee to one-third of his real estate; if the wife leaves issue by him surviving, the husband also is entitled in fee to one-third of her estate; but if the wife leaves issue not by him, he is entitled only to a life interest in one-third of her real estate. Among the grounds for a divorce are adultery, impotency, extreme cruelty, conviction of a crime punishable in the state with imprisonment for more than a year and actual imprisonment under such conviction, treatment seriously injuring the health or endangering the reason, wilful desertion for three years, or joining a religious sect or society which professes to believe the relation of husband and wife unlawful, and conduct in accordance therewith for six months.
The homestead law of New Hampshire exempts from seizure for debt five hundred dollars’ worth of any person’s homestead except for the enforcement of a mortgage upon it, for the collection of debts incurred in making repairs or improvements, or for the collection of taxes. The law also provides that except where a mortgage is given to secure payment of the purchase money, the homestead right of a married person shall not be encumbered without the consent of both husband and wife. The surviving wife or husband and the minor children, if any, may occupy the homestead right during the minority of the children, and the surviving wife or husband is entitled to the right during the remainder of her or his lifetime.
From 1855 to 1903 the liquor law was essentially prohibitory, but in the latter year an act licensing the traffic was passed. However, some option still remains with each town and city. Once every four years in cities and once in two years in towns the question of licence or no-licence must be submitted to a vote of the electorate, and in a no-licence town or city no bar-room or saloon is to be permitted; in such a town or city, however, malt liquor, cider and light wines may be sold at a railway restaurant and an inn-keeper may serve liquors to his bona-fide registered guests.
Capital punishment for murder in the first degree is inflicted only upon the request of a jury.
The general supervision of railways is vested in a board of three commissioners appointed by the governor and council for a term of three years, one each year. The board is specially directed to prescribe the manner in which the railway corporations shall keep their accounts, to examine these accounts from time to time, to examine the railways at least once a year, to investigate the cause of ​ all accidents and upon the petition of an interested party to fix rates for the transportation of persons and freight. In 1909 an anti-pass law was enacted.
Education.—New Hampshire formed a part of Massachusetts when, in 1647, the General Court of that province passed the famous act requiring every town in which there were fifty householders to maintain a school for teaching reading and writing, and every town in which there were one hundred householders to maintain a grammar school with an instructor capable of preparing young men for college. Although not much enforced, this, with some slight changes, continued to be the school law until the close of the colonial era. The beginning of the new era was marked by the founding of Phillips Exeter Academy (1781), and later several other similar schools were opened. Their excellence aroused a much greater interest in the common school system, and throughout the 19th century various experiments for improving it were tried; among them were the division of towns into districts, the appointment of county school commissioners, and the establishment of a state board of education. These, however, have been abandoned, and the system is now administered chiefly by towns and a few special districts under the general supervision of a state superintendent.
Each town is constituted a school district, and some special districts are organized under special acts of the legislature. Some of the business relating to the schools is transacted at the annual district school meeting in which women as well as men have a vote, but the schools of each district are managed very largely by a school board elected at this meeting, one-third each year; in districts without a high school the board has only three members, but in districts having a high school the board may have three, six or nine members. The superintendent of public instruction is appointed by the governor and council for a term of two years, and it is his duty to prescribe the form of register to be kept in the schools, to investigate the condition of the schools, to make suggestions and recommendations for improving them, to lecture upon educational subjects in the towns and cities, to hold at least one teachers’ institute each year in each of the counties, and to designate the times and places for holding examinations of those who wish to teach. The free school system now provides free high schools for all children within the state; for an act of 1903 requires any town not maintaining a high school, or school of corresponding grade, or not uniting with adjoining towns in maintaining one, to pay the tuition of any of its children who attend a high school or academy within the state. Evening schools for the instruction of persons over fourteen years of age must be established in any city or town of more than 5000 inhabitants if 5% of its legal voters petition for them. Any town upon application, and by contracting to appropriate annually a certain fixed sum for its maintenance, may receive state aid for establishing a library, and in 1904 libraries had been established by this means in 146 towns. Every district is required to keep its schools open at least twenty weeks each year.
All children between the ages of eight and fourteen and those between the ages of fourteen and sixteen who cannot read and write English are required to attend either a public or an approved private school for the full term unless excused by the school board on account of physical or mental infirmity. The schools are maintained chiefly out of the proceeds of a district school tax, which must not be less in any district than seven hundred and fifty dollars for every dollar of public taxes apportioned to the town or district, a proportion which has gradually increased from five to one in 1789 and from ninety to one in 1817. To this is added a “Literary Fund” (designed originally for founding a college) which is derived from the proceeds of a state tax on the deposits, stock, &c. of savings banks, trust companies, loan and trust companies, building and loan associations and other similar corporations not residing in the state, and a portion of the proceeds of a dog tax, both of which are distributed among the several districts in proportion to the number of pupils not less than five years of age who have attended school at least two weeks. The state also makes appropriations for the payment of a portion of the tuition in high schools and academies distributing it among the districts in proportion to the rate of school tax in each, appropriations for paying a portion of the salary of school superintendents where two or more districts unite to form a supervising district, and appropriations for general school purposes to be distributed among the districts according to the number of teachers trained in normal schools and to average school attendance.
The plan of 1821 to use the Literary Fund for founding and maintaining a state college for instruction in the higher branches of science and literature was abandoned in 1828 and the only state institutions of learning are the Plymouth Normal School (1870) at Plymouth, the Keene Normal School (1909) at Keene, and the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, organized as a department of Dartmouth College in 1866, but removed to Durham, Strafford county, as a separate institution in 1891. The normal schools are managed by a board of trustees consisting of the governor, the superintendent of public instruction and five other members appointed by the governor and council for a term of five years, one each year, and they are maintained out of annual state appropriations. The College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts is managed by a board of trustees consisting of the governor, the president of the college, one member chosen by the alumni, and ten members appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the council for a term of four years, and it is maintained out of the proceeds of grants by the United States government, annual state appropriations and a private endowment. The principal institutions of higher learning in the state are Dartmouth College (non-sectarian, opened in 1769), at Hanover, and Saint Anselm’s College (Roman Catholic, opened in 1893), at Manchester. Dartmouth College receives some aid from the state.
The state charitable and correctional institutions consist of the New Hampshire School for Feeble-minded Children, at Laconia; the New Hampshire Soldiers’ Home, at Tilton; the New Hampshire Industrial School, at Manchester; the New Hampshire Hospital for the Insane, and the State Prison, at Concord; and the New Hampshire Sanatorium for consumptives (1909) near Warren Summit, about 75 m. north of Concord. The state also makes annual appropriations for the care and education of blind and deaf and dumb persons in institutions outside of the state. Each county has an almshouse and house of correction. Here, too, many of the insane of the state were formerly confined; but by an act of 1903 the counties were entirely relieved of this care, and the insane were removed to the state hospital. Within the state are also sixteen orphan asylums, and though these are private institutions, in all but one of them children are boarded at county or city expense. Each of the state institutions is under the management of an officer or board of trustees appointed by the governor and council. In 1895 the legislature established a State Board of Charities and Correction. This consists of five members appointed by the governor and council for a term of five years, one each year, and its duties are chiefly advisory and supervisory. It is required to inspect both state and county charitable and correctional institutions, except the state prison and the state hospital, to recommend such changes to the state government as may seem desirable, and to have a special care for dependent children whether in institutions or placed in permanent homes.
Finance.—The income of the state, counties and towns is derived mainly from taxes levied on real estate, on male polls between the ages of twenty-one and seventy, on stock in public funds, on stock in corporations that pay a dividend and are not subject to some special form of tax, on surplus capital in banks, on stock in trade, on live-stock, on railways, on telegraph and telephone lines, on savings banks and on the stock of fire insurance companies. Except in the case of railways, telegraph and telephone lines, savings banks, building and loan associations and fire insurance companies, the taxes are assessed and collected by town officers, but every fourth year the county commissioners are required to inspect the taxable property in the towns and report any misappraisal to the state board of equalization whose duty it is to equalize the valuation of property in the several towns. This board, which is composed of five members appointed by the supreme court for a term of two years, also assesses the taxes on the railways, and on telegraph and telephone lines; for railways the average rate of taxation is assessed on the estimated actual value of the road beds, rolling stock and equipment, and for the telegraph and telephone lines this rate is assessed on the estimated actual value of the poles, wires, instruments, apparatus, office furniture and fixtures. Savings banks pay to the state treasurer a tax of three-fourths of 1% upon the amount of deposits on which they pay interest; building and loan associations pay to him a tax of three-fourths of 1% upon the whole amount of their capital stock paid in or shares in force, less the value of their real estate and loans secured by mortgages on real estate situated within the state and bearing interest not exceeding 5%; and fire insurance companies pay to the same officer a tax of 1% upon the amount of their paid-up capital. The railway tax is distributed as follows: one-fourth is paid to the towns through which the railways pass; such a portion of the remainder is paid to any town as is equal to the portion of stock owned in that town; and what is left is reserved as a part of the state tax. Such a portion of 75% of the tax on fire insurance companies is distributed among the several towns, in proportion to the amount of stock owned in each, as the amount of stock owned within the state bears to the whole amount of stock, and the remainder is reserved as a part of the state tax. All taxes on savings banks are distributed to the towns in which the depositors reside, the tax on non-resident depositors constituting a Literary Fund which is distributed to the towns on the basis of the number of pupils in each. The whole tax received by the state treasurer from each building and loan association is paid by him to the treasurer of the town in which it is located. The state also derives an income from fees charged for chartering banks, railways, insurance companies and other corporations. The financial condition at the close of the War of Independence was alarming, and in September 1785 a mob at Exeter demanded relief through the issue of more paper currency. This was refused them ​ however, and by the beginning of the Civil War the state was almost free of debt. During that war the state incurred an indebtedness of about $4,236,000; this it reduced to $2,205,695 in 1872, and then assumed the war debt of the towns and cities, making its total indebtedness again $4,138,124. On the 1st of September 1908 the funded debt of the state was $706,700.
History.—Martin Pring was at the mouth of the Piscataqua in 1603 and, returning to England in the same year, gave an account of the New England coast from Casco Bay to Cape Cod Bay. Samuel de Champlain discovered the Isles of Shoals and sailed along the New Hampshire coast in 1605, and much more information concerning this part of the New World was gathered in 1614 by Captain John Smith, who in his Description of New England refers to the convenient harbour at the mouth of the Piscataqua and praises the country back from the rocky shore. Under the leadership of Sir Ferdinando Gorges there was formed in 1620 the Council for New England, which procured from King James I. a grant of all the country from sea to sea between 40° and 48° N. latitude, and which made the following grants bearing upon the history of New Hampshire by their inducement to settlement, by determining the boundaries or by causing strife through their conflicts with one another: to John Mason, who has been called “the founder of New Hampshire,” on the 9th of March 1622, a grant of the region between the Salem and Merrimac rivers, under the name of Mariana; to John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges jointly, on the 10th of August 1622, a grant of the region between the Merrimac and Kennebec rivers for 60 m. inland, under the name of the Province of Maine; to David Thomson and associates, in 1622, a grant of six thousand acres near the mouth of the Piscataqua; to Sir Henry Roswell and associates, on the 19th of March 1628, a grant of the region from 3 m. south of the Charles river, “or to the southward of any and every part thereof” to 3 m. N. of the Merrimac river, “or to the northward of any and every part thereof,” and extending west to the South Sea or Pacific Ocean, under the name of Massachusetts; to John Mason alone, on the 7th of November 1629, a grant of that portion of the “Province of Maine” which lay between the Merrimac and the Piscataqua, under the name of New Hampshire; to the Laconia Company, consisting of Gorges, Mason and associates, on the 17th of November 1629, a grant of an extensive territory (which was called Laconia) around the Lake of the Iroquois (Lake Champlain) together with one thousand acres at some place to be selected along the sea coast; to Edward Hilton, on the 12th of March 1630, the grant of a tract on and about the lower part of Dover Neck; to the Laconia Company, in November 1631, a grant of a tract on both sides of the Piscataqua river near its mouth, known as the Pescataway grant; and finally to John Mason, on the 22nd of April 1635, a short time before the Council surrendered its charter, a grant of the region between the Salem river on the south and the Piscataqua and Salmon Falls rivers on the north-east and extending 60 m. inland, under the name of New Hampshire. Mason died in December of this year, and New Hampshire, unlike the other colonies from which the United States originated, New Jersey and Delaware excepted, never received a royal charter.
The first settlement of which there is indisputable evidence was established in 1623 by David Thomson at Little Harbor, now in the town of Rye. Thomson was the head of a company which was organized for fishing and trading and whose entire stock was to be held jointly for five years. He built a house on Odiorne’s Point overlooking Little Harbor, and, although he removed to an island in Boston Harbor in 1626, he may have continued to superintend the business of the company until the expiration of the five-year term. At least there was a settlement here which was assessed in 1628, and it may not have been completely abandoned when colonists sent over by the Laconia Company arrived in 1630. The Laconia Company received its first grant under the erroneous impression that the Piscataqua river had its source in or near Lake Champlain, and its principal object was to establish an extensive fur trade with the Iroquois Indians. Although Lake Champlain could not be reached by boat up the Piscataqua, and although the enterprise was ultimately a failure, the company sent over colonists who occupied the house left standing by Thomson, and, not far away, built “Mason Hall” or the “Great House” in what is now Portsmouth, a name (for the entire settlement) that replaced “Strawberry Banke” in 1653. Edward Hilton with a few associates appears to have established a settlement on Dover Point about the time of Thomson’s arrival at Little Harbor, and in the Hilton grant of 1630 it is stated that he had already built houses and planted there; as early as 1639 this settlement was named Dover. In 1638 the Rev. John Wheelwright, an Antinomian leader who had been banished from Massachusetts, founded Exeter on land claimed to have been bought by him from the Indians. In the same year Massachusetts encouraged friendly Puritans to settle Hampton on the same purchase, and about a year later this colony organized Hampton as a town with the right to send a deputy to the General Court. Serious dissensions had already arisen between Puritan and Anglican factions in Dover, and Captain John Underhill, another Antinomian, became for a time a leader of the Puritan faction. Puritan Massachusetts was naturally hostile to the Antinomians at Exeter as well as to the Anglicans at Strawberry Banke. Although Exeter, in 1639, Dover, in 1640, and Strawberry Banke, not later than 1640, adopted a plantation covenant, these settlements were especially weak from lack of a superior tribunal, and appeals had been made to Massachusetts as early as 1633. Moreover, the grants of Massachusetts and Mariana were clearly in conflict. Under these conditions Massachusetts discovered a new claim for its northern boundary. The charter of that colony was drafted under the impression that the Merrimac flowed east for its entire course, but now an investigation was in progress which was to show that its source in Lake Winnepesaukee was several miles north of any of the four settlements in New Hampshire. Accordingly, Massachusetts resolved to make the most of the clause in the charter which described the northern boundary as three English miles north of the Merrimac river, “or to the northward of any and every part thereof,” to ignore the conflicting grants to Mason and to extend its jurisdiction over the offending settlements. Dover submitted in 1641, Strawberry Banke (Portsmouth) soon afterwards and Exeter in 1643.
The heirs of Mason protested, but little was done about the matter during the period of Puritan ascendancy in the mother country. Immediately after the resignation of Richard Cromwell, however, Robert Tufton Mason (a grandson of the original proprietor), who had become sole heir in 1655, began petitioning first parliament and later the king, for relief. The attorney-general, to whom the petition to the king was referred, reported that the petitioner had a “good and legal right and title to the lands.” The commission appointed by the king in 1664 to hear and determine complaints in New England decided that Mason’s lands were not within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and made an attempt to set up a government under which his claims could be tried, but this was a failure. In 1674 Mason offered to surrender his rights to the Crown in return for one-third of the customs, rents, fines, and other profits derived therefrom, but although the offer was at first favourably considered it was finally declined. Mason then petitioned again, and this time Massachusetts was requested to send agents to England to answer his complaints. They arrived in December 1676, and the case was tried before the Lords Chief Justices of the King’s Bench and Common Pleas in April 1677. Mason presented no claim to the right of government, and as to the title to the lands claimed by him the court decided that this was a question between him and the several tenants to be determined by the local court having jurisdiction in such matters. Thereupon Mason, in January 1679, petitioned the king to appoint a governor who should have jurisdiction over all the lands which he claimed, and on the 18th of September of this year New Hampshire was constituted a separate province with a government vested in a president and council appointed by the king and an assembly chosen by the people. This was the principal outcome of Mason’s persistent efforts to establish his rights to ​ the land; for although he succeeded in procuring the appointment of officers who supported his claims, and although decrees were issued in his favour, the tenants, who contended that they had profited nothing from what his grandfather had done or that they were on lands which Wheelwright had bought from the Indians, resisted the enforcement of those decrees. The contest, however, especially for the waste lands, was continued by Mason, his heirs and assigns until near the close of the 18th century.
From 1686 to 1689 New Hampshire formed a part of the Dominion of New England, which, after the first few months, was under Sir Edmund Andros as governor-general. There being no provincial authority in New Hampshire at the close of this period, a convention of the leading citizens of its four towns attempted to establish one. Upon the failure of this attempt, a temporary nominal union with Massachusetts was formed, but in 1692 Samuel Allen, the assign of Mason, caused a royal government to be established with his son-in-law, John Usher, as lieutenant-governor, and during the remainder of the colonial era New Hampshire was separate from Massachusetts except that from 1699 to 1741 the two had the same governor. The boundary between the two provinces was yet to be determined. Massachusetts proposed to confine New Hampshire to less than one-fourth its present area; that is, on the west to a line drawn 3 m. east of the south course of the Merrimac and on the north-east to a line drawn north-west from the source of the Salmon Falls river. New Hampshire claimed for its southern boundary a line drawn west from a point 3 m. north of the mouth of the Merrimac and for its upper eastern boundary a line running north by slightly west from the source of the Salmon Falls river. Both provinces granted townships within the disputed territory; Massachusetts arrested men there who refused to pay taxes to its officers, and sought to defer the settlement of the dispute. New Hampshire, being on the more friendly terms with the home government, finally petitioned the king to decide the matter, and in 1737 a royal order referred it to a commission to be composed of councillors from New York, Nova Scotia and Rhode Island. This body agreed upon the present eastern boundary but evaded deciding the southern one. Both parties then appealed to the king, and in 1741 the king in council confirmed the decision of the commission in regard to the eastern boundary and decided that the southern boundary should be a line corresponding to the course of the Merrimac from 3 m. north of its mouth to 3 m. north of Pawtucket Falls, at its most southerly bend, and thence due west to the next English province. This gave New Hampshire much more territory on the south than it had claimed. But the western boundary was not yet defined, and as early as 1749 a controversy over that arose with New York. New Hampshire asked for the territory west to within 20 m. of the Hudson river, or as far as the western boundaries of Massachusetts and Connecticut, while New York claimed east to the Connecticut river. Within a few years the governor of New Hampshire granted in the disputed territory 138 townships which were rapidly settled by those whom it was the duty of the province to protect. But there was a reluctance to incur the expense of a contest with so powerful a neighbour as New York, and in 1764 that province procured from the king in council a royal order declaring the western boundary of New Hampshire to be the western bank of the Connecticut river. The controversy, however, continued for some years thereafter (see Vermont).
From 1676 to 1759 New Hampshire suffered greatly from the Indians, and the fear of them, together with the boundary disputes and Mason’s claims, retarded settlement. But where these troubles were removed the population increased rapidly, and at the outbreak of the War of Independence the province had about 80,000 inhabitants, the great majority of whom were with the patriot or Whig party during that struggle. By June 1775 the once popular governor, Sir John Wentworth, was a refugee; on the 5th of January 1776 the fifth Provincial Congress established a provisional government; on the 15th of the following June the first Assembly elected under that government declared for independence; and on the 16th of August 1777 the important victory at Bennington was won by New Hampshire and Vermont troops under the command of General John Stark, who had a commission from New Hampshire. Six states had ratified the Federal constitution when the New Hampshire convention met at Exeter on the 13th of February 1788, to accept or reject that instrument, and so great was the opposition to it among the delegates from the central part of the state that after a discussion of ten days the leaders in favour of ratification dared not risk a decisive vote, but procured an adjournment in order that certain delegates who had been instructed to vote against it might consult their constituents. Eight states had ratified when the convention reassembled at Concord on the 17th of June, and four days later, when a motion to ratify was carried by a vote of 57 to 47, adoption by the necessary nine states was assured. The War of Independence left the state heavily burdened with debt and many of its citizens threatened with a debtor’s prison. As a means of relief a number of citizens demanded of the legislature the issue of paper money equal in amount to the state’s debt, and as this was refused, an armed mob numbering about 200 surrounded the meeting-house in Exeter in which the legislature was in session, towards evening on the 20th of September 1786. But General John Sullivan (1740–1795) was at that time president of the state, and on the next day he, with 2000 or more militia and volunteers, captured 39 of the leaders and suppressed the revolt without bloodshed.
National elections in New Hampshire were carried by the Federalists until 1816, except in 1804 when President Thomas Jefferson won by a small majority; but within this period of Federalist supremacy in national politics the Democrat-Republicans elected the governor from 1805 to 1812 inclusive except in 1809. In 1816 the Democrats won both state and national elections; and out of the transition from Federalist to Democratic control, which was effected under the leadership of William Plumer (1759–1850), a prominent politician in New Hampshire for half a century, a United States senator from 1802 to 1807 and governor of the state in 1812–1813 and 1816–1819, arose the famous Dartmouth College Case. As the trustees of this institution were Federalists with the right to fill vacancies in their number, the Democrats attempted to gain control by converting it into a state university and increasing the number of trustees, but when the case reached the Supreme Court of the United States that body pronounced (1819) the charter a contract which the Federal constitution forbade the state to violate. Heretofore the Federalist régime had taxed the people to support the Congregational Church, but now the Baptists, Methodists and Universalists joined the Democrats, and in 1819 this state support was abolished by the “Toleration Act.” Because of Daniel Webster’s arguments in the Dartmouth College Case, and because his party had favoured the support of the Congregational Church by public taxation, he became very unpopular in this his native state. Accordingly, his denunciation of President Andrew Jackson’s bank policy added strength to the Jacksonian Democracy, and, later, his Whig connexions were the greatest source of the Whig party’s weakness in New Hampshire. John Quincy Adams was an intimate friend of William Plumer, the Democratic leader, and carried the state both in 1824 and 1828, but a Jackson man was elected governor in 1827, 1829, 1830 and 1831. The Whigs never won a national or state election, and often their vote was only about one-half that of the Democrats. But the Democrats broke into two factions in 1846 over the question of slavery (see Hale, John Parker); the American or “Know-Nothing” party elected a governor in 1855 and 1856; and then control of the state passed to the Republican party which has held it to the present. After 1890 the railway corporations were charged with a corrupt domination of the legislature and the courts, and in 1906 a “Lincoln Republican” movement was organized under the leadership of the well-known novelist Winston Churchill (b. 1871), with the object of freeing the state from this influence.
The governors or presidents of the province and state have been:
Province. :
| John Cutt, president | | 1679–1681 |
| Richard Waldron, president | | 1681–1682 |
| Edward Cranfield, lieutenant-governor | | 1682–1685 |
| Walter Barefoot, deputy-governor | | 1685–1686 |
| Joseph Dudley, president of Council for New England | | 1686–1687 |
| Edmund Andros, governor-general of New England | | 1687–1689 |
| Without a government | | 1689–1690 |
| Nominally united with Massachusetts | | 1690–1692 |
| Samuel Allen, governor | | 1692–1698 |
| Richard Coote, earl of Bellamont, governor | | 1699–1701 |
| Joseph Dudley, governor | | 1702–1715 |
| Samuel Shute, governor | | 1716–1723 |
| John Wentworth, lieutenant-governor | | 1723–1728 |
| William Burnett, governor | | 1729–1730 |
| Jonathan Belcher, governor | | 1730–1741 |
| Benning Wentworth, governor | | 1741–1767 |
| John Wentworth, governor | | 1767–1775 |
| Transition from Province to State. |||
| Matthew Thornton, president of the Provincial Convention | Matthew Thornton, president of the Provincial Convention | 1775 |
| State Presidents. |||
| Mesheck Weare | | 1776–1785 |
| John Langdon | | 1785–1786 |
| John Sullivan | | 1786–1787 |
| John Langdon | | 1788–1789 |
| John Sullivan | | 1780–1790 |
| Josiah Bartlett | | 1790–1792 |
| State Governors. |||
| Josiah Bartlett | 1792–1794 | Federalist |
| John Taylor Gilman | 1794–1805 | ,, |
| John Langdon | 1805–1809 | Dem.-Repub. |
| Jeremiah Smith | 1809–1810 | Federalist |
| John Langdon | 1810–1812 | Dem.-Repub. |
| William Plumer | 1812–1813 | ,, |
| John Taylor Gilman | 1813–1816 | Federalist |
| William Plumer | 1816–1819 | Dem.-Repub. |
| Samuel Bell | 1819–1823 | ,, |
| Levi Woodbury | 1823–1824 | ,, |
| David Lawrence Morril | 1824–1827 | “Adams Man” |
| Benjamin Pierce | 1827–1828 | “Jackson Man” |
| John Bell | 1828–1829 | “Adams Man” |
| Benjamin Pierce | 1829–1830 | “Jackson Man” |
| Matthew Harvey | 1830–1831 | ,, |
| Joseph Merrill Harper (acting) | 1831 | ,, |
| Samuel Dinsmoor | 1831–1834 | ,, |
| William Badger | 1834–1836 | Democrat |
| Isaac Hill | 1836–1839 | ,, |
| John Page | 1839–1842 | ,, |
| Henry Hubbard | 1842–1844 | ,, |
| John Hardy Steele | 1844–1846 | ,, |
| Anthony Colby | 1846–1847 | ,, |
| Jared Warner Williams | 1847–1849 | ,, |
| Samuel Dinsmoor | 1849–1852 | ,, |
| Noah Martin | 1852–1854 | ,, |
| Nathaniel Bradley Baker | 1854–1855 | ,, |
| Ralph Metcalf | 1855–1857 | Know-Nothing |
| William Haile | 1857–1859 | Republican |
| Ichabod Goodwin | 1859–1861 | ,, |
| Nathaniel Springer Berry | 1861–1863 | ,, |
| Joseph Albree Gilmore | 1863–1865 | ,, |
| Frederick Smyth | 1865–1867 | ,, |
| Walter Harriman | 1867–1869 | ,, |
| Onslow Stearns | 1869–1871 | ,, |
| James Adams Weston | 1871–1872 | Democrat |
| Ezekiel Albert Straw | 1872–1874 | Republican |
| James Adams Weston | 1874–1875 | Democrat |
| Person Colby Cheney | 1875–1877 | Republican |
| Benjamin Franklin Prescott | 1877–1879 | ,, |
| Natt Head | 1879–1881 | ,, |
| Charles Henry Bell | 1881–1883 | ,, |
| Samuel Whitney Hale | 1883–1885 | ,, |
| Moody Currier | 1885–1887 | ,, |
| Charles Henry Sawyer | 1887–1889 | ,, |
| David Harvey Goodell | 1889–1891 | ,, |
| Hiram Americus Tuttle | 1891–1893 | ,, |
| John Butler Smith | 1893–1895 | ,, |
| Charles Albert Busiel | 1895–1897 | ,, |
| George Allen Ramsdell | 1897–1899 | ,, |
| Frank West Rollins | 1899–1901 | ,, |
| Chester Bradley Jordan | 1901–1903 | ,, |
| Nahum Josiah Bachelder | 1903–1905 | ,, |
| John McLane | 1905–1907 | ,, |
| Charles M. Floyd | 1907–1909 | ,, |
| Henry B. Quinby | 1909–1911 | ,, |
| Robert P. Bass | 1911– | ,, |
Bibliography.—C. H. Hitchcock, Geology of New Hampshire (Concord, 1874–1878); New Hampshire Annual Reports (1871). especially those of the Forestry Commission, Fish and Game Commission, Board of Agriculture and Board of Charities and Correction; J. F. Colby, Manual of the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire (Concord, 1902), containing an historical sketch of the constitutions of the state; F. A. Ward, “The New Hampshire Constitution,” in The New England Magazine, N.S., vol. 29 (September 1903); Laws of New Hampshire, including Public and Private Acts and Resolves and the Royal Commissions and Instructions. with Historical and Descriptive Notes, edited by A. S. Batchellor (Manchester, 1904); Captain John Mason, the Founder of New Hampshire, including his tract on Newfoundland, the American charters in which he was a grantee, with letters and other historical documents, together with a memoir by C. W. Tuttle (Boston, 1887), edited by J. W. Deane; New Hampshire Provincial Papers; documents and records relating to the province from the earliest period of its settlement (Concord, 1867–1873); J. Belknap, The History of New Hampshire (Philadelphia, 1784); Life of William Plumer (Boston, 1857), by his son William Plumer, Jr.; G. Barstow, The History of New Hampshire from its discovery, in 1614, to the passage of the toleration act, in 1819 (New York, 1853); E. A. Charlton, New Hampshire as it is (Claremont, 1857); J. N. McClintock, History of New Hampshire (Boston, 1889); F. B. Sanborn, New Hampshire, an Epitome of Popular Government (Boston, 1904) in the “American Commonwealths Series”; and W. H. Fry, New Hampshire as a Royal Province (New York, 1908).
* ↑ Gems are not sought for systematically in New Hampshire. Topaz occurs on Baldface Mountain, near North Chatham.
* ↑ The constitution of 1776 provided that the Congress which framed it “assume the name, power and authority of a House of Representatives”; that said house choose twelve persons to be “a distinct and separate branch of the legislature by the name of a Council”; that the Council appoint a president; that civil officers for the colony and for each county (except clerks of court, county treasurers and recorders) should be appointed by the two houses; and that “if the present unhappy dispute with Great Britain should continue longer than this present year, and the Continental Congress give no instruction or direction to the contrary, the Council be chosen by the people of each respective county in such manner as the Council and House of Representatives shall order.” A constitution framed by a Convention which met in Concord on the 10th of June 1778 was rejected by the people in 1779.
* Emery Walker sc.