PETERBOROUGH

A short history of Peterborough

Granted by Massachusetts in 1737, it was first permanently settled in 1749. The town suffered several attacks during the French and Indian War. Nevertheless, by 1759, there were fifty families settled. Incorporated on January 17, 1760, by Governor Benning Wentworth, it was named after Lieutenant Peter Prescott (1709–1784) of Concord, Massachusetts, a prominent land speculator.

The Contoocook River and Nubanusit Brook offered numerous sites for watermills, and Peterborough became a prosperous mill town. In 1810, the first cotton factory was established. By 1859, when the population was 2,222, there were four more cotton factories and a woolen mill. Other industries included two paper mills, an iron foundry, a machine shop, a carriage factory, a basket-maker, a maker of trusses and supporters, a boot and shoe factory, seven sawmills, and three gristmills.

The Reverend Abiel Abbot, after being charged with heresy by the Connecticut religious establishment, came to Peterborough as minister to the Peterborough Unitarian Church in 1827. He founded the town's first prep school, the Monadnock Summer Lyceum, and the first free library in the US, all in Peterborough.

Peterborough established the first tax-supported free public library in the United States, in 1833. Its success led the New Hampshire State Legislature to pass legislation in 1849 authorizing towns to raise money to establish and maintain their own libraries. The library was in the town's general store and post office, and the postmaster served as librarian. The library moved to the town hall in 1873.

Other early cultural institutions include Mariarden, a summer theatre, where Paul Robeson played in Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones. Bette Davis performed there in her teens.

Performance blossomed again in 1976, when Widdie and Jonathon Hall founded the Peterborough Folkway. "Within a few years, it became a 'must play' on the East Coast for folk musicians"; it remained popular for two decades. Regular performers included Tom Paxton, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin, and Suzanne Vega.

In the 1980s, thanks to publisher Wayne Green, "Peterborough was clearly the per capita magazine production capital of the world." Over 100 magazines, mostly about computers and technology, were published there; these included Byte and MacComputing.

Peterborough's leadership in environmental protection began in the 1990s, when its Earth Day USA office supported the United States Air Force's annual Earth Day events around the world.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Peterborough, New Hampshire, revision 1377364594 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.