The New International Encyclopædia/Nashua

NASHUA, năsh′û-ȧ. An important manufacturing city and one of the county-seats of Hillsboro County, N. H., 40 miles northwest of Boston, Mass.; on the Nashua River, near its junction with the Merrimac, and on several divisions of the Boston and Maine Railroad (Map; New Hampshire, J 10). It has a public library, a United States Fish Hatchery, and Saint Francis Xavier Church (Roman Catholic), one of the finest church edifices in the State. A canal, 3 miles long, 60 feet wide, and 8 feet deep, leading from the Nashua River, furnishes excellent water power for huge cotton mills. The manufactures include iron and steel, stationary engines, edge tools, furniture, cotton goods, cards and glazed paper, shoes, refrigerators, ice-cream freezers, registers, sash, doors, and blinds, kits and caskets, boxes, saddlery and hardware, shears and clippers, etc. The government is administered, under the original charter of incorporation (1853), by a mayor, chosen every two years, and a bicameral council, which elects the majority of municipal officers. The school board is independently elected on a general ticket by the people. Population, in 1890, 19,311; in 1900, 23,898. Settled in 1655, Nashua was incorporated as the township of Dunstable by Massachusetts in 1673, was reincorporated by New Hampshire in 1746, received its present name in 1836, and was chartered as a city in 1853. Consult Parker, History of the City of Nashua, N. H. (Nashua, 1897).