New Hampshire
Webpages concerning "New Hampshire"
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Wikipedia-Article "New Hampshire"
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| State nickname: Granite State, Mother of Rivers, White Mountain State, Switzerland of America [1] |
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| Official languages | English | ||||
| Capital | Concord | ||||
| Largest city | Manchester | ||||
| Governor | John Lynch (D) | ||||
| Senators | Judd Gregg (R)
John Sununu (R) |
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| Area - Total - % water |
Ranked 46th 24,239 km² 3.4 |
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| Population - Total (2000) - Density |
Ranked 41st 1,235,786 53.20/km² (20th) |
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| Admission into Union | June 21, 1788 (9th) |
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| Time Zone | Eastern: UTC-5/-4 | ||||
| Coordinates - Latitude - Longitude - Width - Length |
42°40'N to 45°18'N 70°37'W to 72°37'W 110 km 305 km |
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| Elevation - Highest point - Mean - Lowest point |
1,917 m 305 m 0 m |
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| Abbreviations - USPS - ISO 3166-2 |
NH US-NH |
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| Web site | www.state.nh.us | ||||
New Hampshire is a small U.S. state in northern New England. It is located east of Vermont, north of Massachusetts, south of Quebec, Canada, and west of Maine and the North Atlantic Ocean. The state ranks 46th of the 50 states in land area (23,249 km2) and 41st in population (around 1.3 million by a 2003 U.S. Census Bureau estimate). It is the site of the New Hampshire primary, the first primary in the U.S. presidential elections, and has probably the most famous of all state mottos: "Live free or die," quoted from Revolutionary War hero John Stark's response to a letter honoring him for the Battle of Bennington.
New Hampshire's state nickname is "the Granite State" because it has numerous granite quarries, although that industry has declined greatly in recent decades. The nickname has also been embraced for reflecting the state's attachment to tradition and limited government. Its state flower is the purple lilac. Its state bird is the purple finch. Its state tree is the American white birch, also called paper birch or canoe birch.
New Hampshire is home to the highest winds ever recorded on Earth: 231 mph in 1934 at the Mount Washington weather observatory in the Presidential Range.
In 2003, it gained international attention for having the first openly gay bishop of a large mainline Christian church, Gene Robinson, within the Anglican Communion (the Episcopal Church in the United States of America).
New Hampshire's recreational attractions include skiing and other winter sports; observing the fall foliage; the Lakes Region; and the New Hampshire International Speedway (formerly Bryar Motorsport Park), home of the Loudon Classic, the longest-running motorcycle race in the United States.
USS New Hampshire was named in honor of this state.
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History
New Hampshire was founded by Captain John Mason and first settled in 1623, just three years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. In 1631, Captain Thomas Wiggin served as the first governor of the Upper Plantation (comprising modern-day Dover, Durham and Stratham). In 1679 this Upper Plantation became the "Royal Province" with John Cutt as governor.
The "Royal Province" continued until 1698 when it came under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts with Joseph Dudley as Governor. Thus it continued until 1741. Under King George II New Hampshire returned to its royal provincial status with a governor of its own, Benning Wentworth, who was its governor from 1741 to 1766. See also: Province of New Hampshire It was one of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. It was the first state to declare its independence, and the historic attack on Fort William and Mary (now Fort Constitution) helped supply the cannon and ammunition needed for the Battle of Bunker Hill that took place north of Boston a few months later.
On January 5, 1776, the Provincial Congress of New Hampshire, meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire ratified the first state constitution in the soon-to-be United States, six months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
In the 1830s, New Hampshire saw two major news stories: the founding of the Republic of Indian Stream on its northern border with Canada over the unresolved post-revolutionary war border issue, and the founding of the modern Republican Party by Amos Tuck and friends. New Hampshire grew as a hotbed of Abolitionist sentiment up to the American Civil War, participating in the Underground Railroad in providing safe routes into Canada, primarily via the Connecticut River waterway.
In the 20th Century, New Hampshire gained political renown for its First in the Nation political primaries which tended to accurately predict who would be elected President of the United States.
Scholarly books on New Hampshire History
- Adams, James Truslow. Revolutionary New England, 1691-1776 (1923)
- Adams, James Truslow. New England in the Republic, 1776-1850 (1926)
- Axtell, James, ed. The American People in Colonial New England (1973), new social history
- Belknap, Jeremy. The History of New Hampshire (1791-1792) 3 vol classic
- Bidwell, P. W. and John Falconer, The History of Agriculture in the Northern United States to 1860 (1925)
- Brewer, Daniel Chauncey. Conquest of New England by the Immigrant (1926).
- Cole, Donald B. Jacksonian Democracy in New Hampshire, 1800-1851 (1970).
- Conforti, Joseph A. Imagining New England: Explorations of Regional Identity from the Pilgrims to the Mid-Twentieth Century (2001)
- Daniell, Jere. Experiment in Republicanism (1970), colonial political history
- Daniell, Jere. Colonial New Hampshire: A History (1982).
- Hareven, Tamara. Family Time and Industrial Time (1982), social history of workers at Amoskeag Mills in Manchester
- Jager, Ronald and Grace Jager. The Granite State New Hampshire: An Illustrated History (2000)
- Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (1998), new social history*
- Morison, Elizabeth Forbes and Elting E. Morison. New Hampshire: A Bicentennial History (1976)
- Renda, Lex. Running on the Record: Civil War Era Politics in New Hampshire (1997)
- Richardson, Leon Burr. William E. Chandler, Republican (1940), late 19th century politics
- Squires, J. Duane. The Granite State of the United States: A History of New Hampshire from 1623 to the Present (1956) vol 1
- Wilson, H. F. The Hill Country of Northern New England: Its Social and Economic History, 1790-1930 (1936)
- Wright, James. The Progressive Yankees: Republican Reformers in New Hampshire, 1906-1916 (1987)
- WPA. Guide to New Hampshire (1939)
- Zimmerman, Joseph F. The New England Town Meeting: Democracy in Action (1999)
Law and government
- Main article: Government of New Hampshire
The New Hampshire state capital is Concord, which has also been known over time by the names Rumford and Penacook. The governor of New Hampshire is John Lynch (Democrat). New Hampshire's two U.S. senators are Judd Gregg (Republican) and John E. Sununu (Republican).
New Hampshire has a bifurcated executive branch, consisting of the Governor and a five-member Executive Council which votes on state contracts over $5,000 and "advises and consents" to the governor's nominations to major state positions such as department heads and all judgeships, and pardon requests. New Hampshire does not have a Lieutenant Governor, the Senate President serves as "acting governor" whenever the governor is unable to perform the duties.
The New Hampshire General Court is the bicameral legislative body, consisting of the the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representative is the third-largest and most representative legislative body in the world with 400 members. Legislators are typically independently wealthy or retired as they only make $100 a year, plus mileage.
The state's sole appellate court is the New Hampshire Supreme Court. The Superior Court is the court of general jurisdiction and the only which provides for jury trials in civil and criminal cases. The other state courts are the Probate Court, District Court, and Family Division.
The New Hampshire State Constitution is the supreme law of the state, followed by the the New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated. Although the state retains the death penalty, the last execution was conducted in 1939. In 2004, the General Court passed the "New Hampshire Parental Notification Prior to Abortion Act" which was declared unconstitutional in Federal court; in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of New England, the state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Politics
New Hampshire has historically been dominated by the Republican Party, and is still considered to be the most conservative state in the Northeast, but in national elections it has become a swing state. In 2004, New Hampshire narrowly gave its four electoral votes to John Kerry with 50.2% of the vote, while in 2000 it narrowly supported George W. Bush. The state supported Clinton in 1992 and 1996, but prior to that had only strayed from the Republican party for three candidates—Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson.
Unlike other northeastern states, Republicans still dominate local and state offices. Republicans still hold both U.S. Senate and House of Representative seats, and control both houses of the state legislature. However, in 2004, Democrat John Lynch defeated one term governor Republican Craig Benson. Democratic strength is greatest in Strafford, Cheshire, Grafton and Merrimack counties.
New Hampshire has a Libertarian-like political tradition that values individual freedom and weak state governmental powers, although the Libertarian party does not do well in elections when compared to Democrats and Republicans.
Much of the authority in the state is in the hands of municipal governments. In 1995, with the passage of Senate Bill 2, municipalities were able to continue conducting town meetings the traditional way or by ballot voting.
Killington, Vermont has twice voted to secede from Vermont and join New Hampshire—a largely symbolic act, since secession would require the agreement of both states' legislatures and the U.S. Congress. Supporters of secession note that almost all Vermont towns were first chartered by New Hampshire, and point out that the two states already have some unusual cross-border links, including two of the rare interstate school districts in the United States (a third is shared by Oregon and Nevada).
Geography
See List of New Hampshire counties
New Hampshire is part of the New England region. It is bounded by Quebec, Canada to the north, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Massachusetts to the south, and Vermont to the west. New Hampshire's major regions are the Great North Woods, the White Mountains region, the Lakes region the Seacoast region, the Merrimack Valley region, the Monadnock region, and the Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee area.
See List of mountains in New Hampshire
New Hampshire was home to the famous geological formation called the Old Man of the Mountain, a face-like profile in Franconia Notch, until May 2 to May 3, 2003, when the symbol of New Hampshire collapsed.
The Presidential Range in New Hampshire spans the central portion of the state, with Mount Washington being the tallest, and other mountains like Mount Madison and Mount Quincy Adams surrounding it. With hurricane force winds every third day on the average, 100 recorded deaths among visitors, and conspicuous krummholz (dwarf, matted trees much like a carpet of bonsai), the upper reaches Mount Washington claim the distinction of the "worst weather on earth." In consequence, a non-profit observatory is located on the peak for the purposes of observing harsh environmental conditions.
In the flatter southwest corner of New Hampshire another feature, the prominent landmark and tourist attraction of Mount Monadnock, has given its name to a general class of earth-forms, a monadnock signifying in geomorphology any isolated resistant peak rising from a less resistant eroded plain.
See List of New Hampshire rivers
Major rivers include the 116 mile (187 km) Merrimack River, which bisects the state north-south and ends up in Massachusetts. Its major tributaries include the Souhegan River. The 410 mile (670 km) Connecticut River, which starts at New Hampshire's Connecticut Lakes and flows south to Connecticut, forms the western border of New Hampshire. Oddly, the state border is not in the center of that river, as is usually the case, but lies at the low-water mark on the Vermont side, so New Hampshire actually owns the whole river. The Piscataqua River and its several tributaries form the state's only significant ocean port where they flow into the Atlantic at Portsmouth.
The largest lake is Lake Winnipesaukee, which covers 72 square miles (186 km²) in the central part of New Hampshire.
New Hampshire has the shortest ocean coastline of any coastal state, 18 miles (29 km) by state figures. (Under some federal definitions, Pennsylvania's coast is shorter: See Footnote in "Miscellaneous"). Hampton Beach is a popular local summer destination. About 10 miles (16 km) offshore are the Isles of Shoals, nine small islands (4 belonging to the state) best known as the site of a 19th-century art colony founded by poet Celia Thaxter, as well as the alleged location of one of the buried treasures of the pirate Blackbeard.
The state has an ongoing boundary dispute with Maine in the area of Portsmouth Harbor, with New Hampshire claiming dominion over several islands (now known as Seavey Island) that include the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard as well as to the Maine towns of Kittery and Berwick. New Hampshire asserts the area was granted to it by Massachusetts prior to Maine becoming a state of its own rather than just the northern part of Massachusetts, in the Missouri Compromise of 1820. New Hampshire’s claim is also bolstered by British records of captured American POWs during the Revolutionary period, who were held in England and claimed "Berwick, NH," "York, NH," and "Kittery, NH" as their home towns.
A dramatic change in the visual landscape of New Hampshire occurred about a century ago when it changed from an open landscape of fields and small farms: It is now the second-most-forested state in the country, after Maine, in terms of percentage of land covered by woods. This change was caused by the abandonment of farms by owners seeking wage jobs in urban areas or bank seizure of unproductive farms, with farming families moving west. The reversion forms the subject of many poems by Robert Frost, while the emigration is consistent with the results of New Hampshire native and newspaper legend Horace Greeley imploring, "Go West, Young Man."
The northern third of the state, locally refered to as "north of the notches", contains less than 5% of the state's population, suffers from relatively high poverty rates, and is losing population as the logging and paper industries decline.
Economy
The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that New Hampshire's total state product in 2003 was $49 billion. Per capita personal income in 2003 was $35,140, 7th in the nation. Its agricultural outputs are dairy products, nursery stock, cattle, apples, and eggs. Its industrial outputs are machinery, electric equipment, rubber and plastic products, and tourism.
New Hampshire experienced a significant shift in its economic base during the last century. Historically, the base was composed of the traditional New England manufactures of textiles, shoe-making, and small machining shops drawing upon low wage labor from nearby small farms and from Quebec. Today, these sectors contribute only 2% for textiles, 2% for leather goods, and 9% for machining of the state's total manufacturing dollar value (Source: U.S. Economic Census for 1997, Manufacturing, New Hampshire). These traditional sectors experienced their sharp decline during the Twentieth Century due to increasingly obsolete plants and increasingly cheaper wages available in the US South.
The current New Hampshire economy is largely driven by fiscal policy. The state has no personal income tax and advocates a frugal budget, thereby attracting commuters, light industry, specialty horticulture, and service firms from other jurisdictions with high tax policies, notably from neighboring Massachusetts. This is a viable fiscal policy for a small, high-income state with limited social service demands, but it has not been one hundred percent successful, and pockets of depressed manufacturing activity still remain. Additionally, New Hampshire's lack of a broad-based tax system (aside from the controversial state-wide property tax which former Governor Benson cut nearly in half in two years) has resulted in the state's local communities having some of the nation's highest property taxes, yet overall NH remains ranked 49th in combined average state and local tax burden, due to its lack of income or sales taxes.
Demographics
| Historical populations | |||
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| Year | Population |
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| 1790 | 141,885 | ||
| 1800 | 183,858 | ||
| 1810 | 214,460 | ||
| 1820 | 244,161 | ||
| 1830 | 269,328 | ||
| 1840 | 284,574 | ||
| 1850 | 317,976 | ||
| 1860 | 326,073 | ||
| 1870 | 318,300 | ||
| 1880 | 346,991 | ||
| 1890 | 376,530 | ||
| 1900 | 411,588 | ||
| 1910 | 430,572 | ||
| 1920 | 443,083 | ||
| 1930 | 465,293 | ||
| 1940 | 491,524 | ||
| 1950 | 533,242 | ||
| 1960 | 606,921 | ||
| 1970 | 737,681 | ||
| 1980 | 920,610 | ||
| 1990 | 1,109,252 | ||
| 2000 | 1,235,786 | ||
As of 2004, the population of New Hampshire was estimated to be 1,299,500. This includes 64,000 foreign-born (4.9%).
The racial makeup of the state is:
- 95.1% White
- 1.7% Hispanic
- 1.3% Asian
- 0.7% Black
- 0.2% Native American
- 1.1% Mixed race
The five largest ancestry groups in New Hampshire are: Irish (19.4%), English (18%), French (14.6%), French Canadian (10.6%), German (8.6%). People of old colonial ("Yankee") ancestry live throughout most of New Hampshire. The large Irish American and French-Canadian elements are the children and grand-children of mill workers, and they still live in the former mill towns, like Manchester. New Hampshire has the highest percentage of residents of French/French-Canadian ancestry of any state. The fastest growth is along the southern border, which is in commuting range of Boston and other Massachusetts cities.
Religion
The religious affiliations of the people of New Hampshire are:
- Christian – 80%
- Protestant – 43%
- Congregational/United Church of Christ – 7%
- Baptist – 7%
- Episcopal – 4%
- Methodist – 3%
- Other Protestant or general Protestant – 22%
- Roman Catholic – 35%
- Other Christian – 2%
- Protestant – 43%
- Other Religions – 1%
- Non-Religious – 19%
Important cities and towns
- Berlin, the northernmost town of any size, important center of the forest products industry.
- Manchester, is the most populous city in the state giving it the nickname of the "Queen City." The Merrimack River runs through the city and once provided water power to a textile mill industry.
- Nashua, the second-most-populous city, was twice named the best city in the country to live by Money magazine.
- Keene is still called "The Elm City" despite the fact that Dutch elm disease destroyed most of the city's elm trees in the 1930s. Keene is the home to Keene State College.
- Salem contains The Mall at Rockingham Park, frequented by Massachusetts residents to avoid paying sales tax; Canobie Lake Park, an amusement park; and Rockingham Park, New England's first racetrack for horses.
- Peterborough is the inspiration for the town of Grover's Corners portrayed in Thornton Wilder's play Our Town.
- Lebanon is known as "The City of Fountains." It contains Lebanon College and the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and is the location of many malls along the Connecticut River that draw Vermont shoppers avoiding that state's sales tax.
10 largest towns/cities in New Hampshire according to 2000 Census
| Manchester | 107,006 | |
| Nashua | 86,605 | |
| Concord | 40,687 | |
| Derry | 34,021* | |
| Rochester | 28,461 | |
| Salem | 28,112 | |
| Dover | 26,884 | |
| Merrimack | 25,119* | |
| Londonderry | 23,236* | |
| Hudson | 22,928 |
* While Census records may seem to indicate that two separate Census Districts exist for this community, in fact one district is contained entirely within the other.
Education
Colleges and universities
Notable high schools
- St. Paul's School
- Dublin School
- Tilton School
- Derryfield School
- Pinkerton Academy
- St. Thomas Aquinas High School
- Phillips Exeter Academy
- Kimball Union Academy
- Manchester High School Central
Professional sport teams
Minor league baseball teams:
Hockey team:
Arena football teams:
Soccer team:
Miscellaneous information
See List of New Hampshire-related topics
- The New Hampshire Constitution is the nation's only state constitution that allows the Right to Revolution.
- New Hampshire's Constitution is one of the few in the nation that does not mandate the provision of a public school system.
- In Charlestown, New Hampshire there is the reconstructed Fort at Number 4 from the 1740's and 1750's
- New Hampshire has the highest per capita of elected and appointed Libertarians, and the highest density of Libertarian Party members in the nation.
- New Hampshire was the last of the New England states to observe Fast Day, a day of prayer for a bountiful harvest. Traditionally observed on the 4th Thursday in April, from 1949 was observed as a legal holiday on the 4th Monday in April until 1991 when it was replaced by Civil Rights Day. [2]
- There is no general sales tax, no individual income tax, no capital gains tax, no inventory tax and no tax on machinery and equiptment in New Hampshire, though the state does have meals, lodging, and other taxes. (List of states without personal income tax)
- New Hampshire is the only state that does not mandate public kindergarten, partly out of frugality and lack of funding, and partly out of belief in local control, a philosophy under which towns and cities, not the state, make as many decisions as possible. As of 2005, all but two dozen communities in the state provided public kindergarten with local property-tax money.
- Like several states, New Hampshire requires all hard liquor to be sold in state-owned, state-run stores, which keep prices so low that it attracts many out-of-state customers.
- New Hampshire is host to the New Hampshire Highland Games. New Hampshire has also registered an official tartan with the proper authorities in Scotland, used to make kilts worn by the State Police while they serve during the games.
- Based on FBI figures, New Hampshire has the least overall crime in the nation as of 2001.
- New Hampshire is the #1 healthiest state in the nation, tied with Minnesota, as ranked by the United Health Foundation, 2003.
- New Hampshire has the 4th lowest percentage of government employment in the country, following Nevada, Pennsylvania and Massachusettes.
- New Hampshire has the only piece of Interstate highway that is two-lane (i.e. a single northbound lane and a single southbound lane) with a cobblestone median. This was done to preserve Franconia Notch, the site of the Old Man of the Mountain, a former rock formation visible from Interstate 93 in Franconia.
- In northern New Hampshire the town of Dixville Notch is traditionally the first city or town in the U.S. to vote in presidential primaries and the presidential election. The few dozen residents of Dixville Notch all stay awake until after midnight to vote. State law grants that a town where all registered citizens have voted may close early and announce their results.
- Approximately 37% are registered Republicans and 27% are registered Democrats but a full 36% are registered Independents.
- New Hampshire is the only state with no mandatory seatbelt law for adults, no motorcycle helmet law for adults, nor mandatory vehicle insurance for automobiles.
- New Hampshire is the destination of the Free State Project.
- New Hampshire was ranked as the Most Livable State by the Morgan Quitno Press [3].
- EXTENDED FOOTNOTE on coastline. Official figures recognize two coastal concepts, the coastline and the shoreline. The coastline is a generalized measurement of the shore configuration, whereas the shoreline includes measurements for offshore islands and other features such as inlets and rivers to the head of a narrow tidewater. Pennsylvania has no saltwater coastline, but has a saltwater shoreline of 89 miles versus 131 for New Hampshire. Pennsylvania's number apparently comes because a portion of the Delaware River on its southeastern border is tidal. Source: U.S. Dept of Commerce, "U.S. Coastline by States" cited on Page 606 of the 2003 "World Almanac."
Granite State firsts
From New Hampshire's official folklife website: http://www.nh.gov/folklife/
- On January 5, 1776 at Exeter, the Province of New Hampshire ratified the first independent state constitution, free of British rule.
- On June 12, 1800, Fernald's Island in the Piscataqua River became the first government-sanctioned US Navy shipyard.
- Started in 1822, Dublin's Juvenile Library was the first free public library.
- In 1828, the first women's strike in the nation took place at Dover's Cocheco Mills.
- In 1845, the machine shop of Nashuan John H. Gage was considered the first shop devoted to the manufacture of machinists' tools.
- On August 29, 1866, Sylvester Marsh demonstrated the first mountain-climbing "cog" railway.
- Finished on June 27, 1874, the first trans-Atlantic telecommunications cable between Europe and America stretched from Balinskelligs Bay, Ireland, to Rye Beach, New Hampshire.
- On February 6, 1901, a group of nine conservationists founded the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, the first forest conservation advocacy group in the US.
- In 1908, Monsignor Pierre Hevey organized the nation's first credit union, in Manchester, to help mill workers save and borrow money.
- On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard Jr. of Derry rode a Mercury spacecraft and became the first American in space.
- In 1963, New Hampshire's legislature approved the nation's first legal state lottery.
- In 1966, Ralph Baer of Sanders Associates, Inc., Nashua, recruited engineers to develop the first home video game, patented in 1969.
- Christa McAuliffe of Concord became the first private citizen selected to venture into space. She perished with her six space shuttle Challenger crewmates in January 28, 1986.
Hotels
Daily newspapers
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Other publications
- The New Hampshire Gazette Portsmouth alternative biweekly, arguably the oldest paper in America (although other publications also make that claim)
- New Hampshire Business Review (statewide)
- Hippo Press (Manchester and Nashua editions)
- The New Hampshire - "The University of New Hampshire's Student Newspaper Since 1911"
External links
- Official State Website
- New Hampshire Historical Society
- The New Hampshire Almanac
- Coos County Website