The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Nashua

NASHUA, a city and one of the shire towns of Hillsborough co., New Hampshire, at the junction of the Merrimack and Nashua rivers, 35 m. S. of Concord, and 40 m. N. N. W. of Boston; pop. in 1870, 10,543. The streets are broad, well lighted, and lined with trees, and many of the churches and residences are handsome. Its prosperity depends upon its railroad facilities and its manufactures. The railroads meeting here are the Boston, Lowell, and Nashua; the Concord; the Nashua, Acton, and Boston; the Worcester and Nashua; the Wilton; and the Nashua and Rochester. Water power is obtained from the Mine falls in the Nashua river, from which a canal has been cut, 3 m. long, 60 ft. wide, and 8 ft. deep, with a head and fall of 36 ft. The Jackson company, with 766 looms and 22,000 spindles, produces sheetings and shirtings; the Nashua manufacturing company, with 1,800 looms and 75,000 spindles, manufactures sheetings, shirtings, prints, and flannels; and the Vale Mills manufacturing company, with 4,684 spindles, produces shirtings. There are also extensive iron works, with the largest steam hammer in the United States, soapstone works, and manufactories of bedsteads, carpets, bobbins, spools, and shuttles, cards and glazed paper, edge tools, locks, shoes, marble-working tools and implements, sash, doors, and blinds, &c. The city has two national banks and three savings banks. There are a high school and several grammar, middle, and primary schools, with an average attendance of 1,790; a city library, with about 6,000 volumes; two daily and two weekly newspapers; and 11 churches, viz.: 1 Baptist, 3 Congregational, 1 Episcopal, 2 Methodist, 2 Roman Catholic, 1 Unitarian, and 1 Universalist. Nashua owes its origin to the organization of the Nashua manufacturing company in 1823. It was incorporated as a city in 1853.