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��THE CITY OF NASHUA.
��shade trees. The chief growth of the city is westward, where there are still many fine building lots. In the suburbs of the city are some excellent farms, easy of cultivation, and producing annually abundant crops.
No city in New England is so magnifi- cently watered. On the east, flows the Merrimack, the peerless stream of song and industry. From the west comes the Nashua, furnishing the admirable water power which drives the cotton mills and receives into its waters the sewerage of the city. On the south, the beautiful Salmon brook joins the Merrimack, after supplying still another water power and a splendid sheet of water before it flows into the Merrimack. On the north, is Pennichuck Brook, a limpid stream, from which is derived the supply of the city waterworks. All these streams of pure running water not only insure the clean- liness but the health of the city as well. In earlier days, the untutored sons of the forest made their headquarters here in great numbers, attracted by the natural beauty of the location and the finny treasures winch were always to be found in the streams. The name of the city itself was borne by the "Nashaways," a tribe of Indians that formerly lived on its banks. Nature might have done more to provide a beautiful site for a city, but it may be doubted if she ever did.
In 1800, the population of Dunstable was 862. The village which is now a city, was then known as Indian Head, but in 1803, it was called Nashua Village, and in that year, the pioneer canal boat was lauehed with much ceremony on the 4th of July. There were two other vil- lages in town, one at the Harbor, so called, and another, and the largest, half a mile farther south. Nashua Village had a one story dwelling house on the site of the Indian Head House, which was then used as a tavern, a store and two dwelling houses. The only high- ways were the Amherst and Concord roads, which united and formed one road, from Nashua River to the Harbor, and a road down the northern bank of the Nashua to the boating house and ferries. At the Harbor, the dwelling house of
��Gen. Noah Lovewell, lately occupied by Col. George Bowers, with two other small houses on the south side of Salmon Brook, were the only buildings. Half a mile south, was the third and largest vil- lage, consisting of a tavern, store, shops, dwellings and meeting house. Between Salmon Brook and Nashua River there was a "broad, unfenced, desolate, white- pine forest," unbroken by a single habi- tation. Such was Nashua at the begin- ning of the present century.
A post office was established at the Harbor in 1803, and Gen. Noah Lovewell was appointed postmaster. In 1804, the Middlesex canal was opened and gave a decided impetus to the growth of Nashua Village, as it opened direct commucation with Boston. Hitherto, the principal markets of this region had been Haver- hill and Newburyport. A new meeting house was erected in 1812, and in 1817 a dam was constructed on the Nashua, a few rods above Main street. At one end, a grist mill was erected, and at the other end, a saw mill. A few years af- terwards, the present dam of the Jackson Company was constructed, and a new saw mill erected. Nashua Village had now about fifteen houses, and the whole town, a population of 1,142. Within the town, by the census of 1820, there were nine school houses, one meeting house, six taverns, five stores, three grist mills, one clothing mill, one carding machine, five bark mills, and three tanneries. Be- tween 1820 and 1830, the establishment of cotton manufacturing by the Nashua and Jackson Companies gave a marked impulse to the growth of Nashua Village. In 1830, the village had a population of 1,500, and the entire town 2,417. The growth in population was now very rapid. In 1836 the population had increased to 5,065, of which four thousand were in Nashua Village. "January 1st, 1837," says Mr. Fox, in his excellent history from which many of the facts of the early history of Nashua are taken, "the town- ship laid aside its ancient name of Dun- stable, which it had worn from its infan- cy, through good and ill fortune a hun- dred and sixty years, under which it had witnessed two revolutions and formed a portion of a Colony, a Province and a
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