About Nashua

Archeologists have determined that people lived in the Nashua area 10,000 years ago. Those early Indians were drawn by the Nashua River. Archeologists have found an oriental fishtail point made of raw volcanic material that was around 5,000 years old. Archeologists have also found a Susquehanna broad tip arrow made about 3,000 years ago. Therefore, archeologists have concluded that the area has been continuously inhabited for thousands of years. The first known permanent settlers lived near the Merrimack River and Salmon Brook; the area was simply known as the Harbor. The inhabitants were known as the Pennacooks Native Americans.The first white explorers wished that they had the Nashua, NH business directory to consult as they went to explore the area from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. These men included Captain Edward Johnson, C. Simon Willard, Johnathan Ince, and John Sherman. When they arrived in the area, they found 50 families already living in the area. Early white explorers to the area traded many furs for supplies from England. The furs from the area were highly prized processions in England. Much of the land surrounding Nashua was given to people who originally lived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

About 1686, Judge Edward Tyng arrived in the area and bought about 200 square miles of land. He called the area, Dunstable, after the town of his birth. Soon the area was filled with wars with the Native Americans.Despite the wars, the area continued to prosper, and that prosperity soon brought more settlers including Daniel Abbot, a Harvard graduated lawyer. Mr. Abbott, a community leader, was very involved in community affairs. He and other community leaders led the way in forming the first textile mill in Nashua. He also named the growing city, Nashua Village. He first used the term during a speech given on July 4, 1803. Robert Owen laid out the city after his birth city, New Lanark, Scotland. Other city leaders, Nathaniel Appleton and Patrick Tracy Jackson, traveled to New Lanark and bought home the concepts for the company town. Another community leader, Francis Cabot Lowell, traveled to England to learn about the textile mills, returning to Nashua and establishing better looms than were available in England. The fabrics were well respected around the world. Too bad the people of the time did not have the Nashua, NH yellow pages to find them. Until this time, the area was still known as Dunstable, but was changed to Nashua on December 31st, 1836. 1850 saw another important industry come to Nashua with the opening of George Underhill Edge Tool Company, which produced tools that farmers and loggers needed, such as hammers, axes, and chisels.

Written by Lyndsey Morgan