Paleo-Indians were the first visitors at the Amoskeag Falls area arriving about 12,000 years ago after the glacier receded from the last ice age.They were nomadic hunters and gathers and were resourceful people who moved seasonally following the herds of caribou and other large animals that roamed the post glacier landscape in the northeast.

NH’s climate warmed over the next 2,000 years and the region’s plants and animals slowly changed to those we know today.The course of the Merrimack River stabilized and large fish migrations of Atlantic Salmon, Shad, and River Herring from the ocean began.The fish runs became a focal point for the native people because of their importance as a food source.Amoskeag Falls and the other falls on the river became prime fishing spots because the falls created natural obstacles, which slowed the fish migration and caused vast numbers of fish to collect in the pools below the falls.

Approximately 6,000 years ago, the environment provided expanded resources, and the native people increased and became less nomadic.Large main villages were occupied seasonally, while small temporary encampments utilized by hunting bands were located away from the main encampments.All the bands were connected to a large social and cultural world through trade networks and social interaction.Through these networks, groups exchanged materials, technologies, and beliefs with other native people.

About 3500 years ago, the native peoples more settled way of life led to the use stone pots and pottery.Native people began farming the land in NH about 1000 years ago and cleared and tended fields around the new permanent villages.It was this complex and highly organized native society that Europeans first encountered on their explorations of New England.

The main community of native people living in the Amoskeag Falls area were the Penacooks who were an Algonquin speaking people along with the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Micmac, Wampanoag, Peugeot, Mohegan and other groups who lived in the Northeastern United States.

The spiritual beliefs of the Penacooks were based on their view of the world being composed of animals, people, and objects filled with spiritual power.Religious ceremonies were linked to seasonal activities such as the hunt, the harvest, and the annual runs of fish on the river.

Important seasonal resources like the elk and the fish caught at Amoskeag Falls were the foundation for important gatherings that helped bind the Algonkian peoples together. Gatherings or reunions were opportunities for feasting, story telling, dancing, competition, and marriage contracts.

Trade and exchange of finished goods and raw materials also occurred at these seasonal gatherings and anchored an extensive trade network between tribes that had existed for thousands of years. Artifacts made of non-local or exotic materials that have been found during archeological excavations in NH are evidence of the extensive trade networks utilized by NH’s native people.An obsidian tool was found in a ceremonial burial excavated in Manchester, and its nearest known source in North America is Wyoming.

The name "Amoskeag" is derived from the Penacook word "Namoskeag" which means "the great fishing place”. The word "Merrimack" means, “place of strong current” or “a long and continued place of water for fishing”.Nomadic people visited the site of Amoskeag Falls on the Merrimack River for thousands of years to fish for the plentiful runs of salmon, shad, alewives, sturgeon, and eels which swam up the Merrimack River from the Atlantic Ocean each spring.

The native people who settled in the area fished with crude nets (weirs) stretched across the river and secured to the bottom with rocks and stakes to trap the fish, and then used stone spears, harpoons, and dip nets to catch the fish.Permanent weirs were constructed of brush and branches to trap the fish and make catching them easier.

Eventually a stone weir was built on the west side of the river below the falls in the Eddy area.Openings were left in the weir for fish to enter and swim upstream until they met the swift current from the falls.When the fish tried to swim downstream through the water, they were met by more fish swimming upstream.When the water in the basin become black with fish, the men paddled their canoes into the fish and caught them with their spears and dip nets.

When the canoes became filled with fish, the men paddled to the shore where the women waited with their knives to start dressing the fish which were split and laid on wood racks to dry in the sun, or smoked over fires.After the days harvest was complete, everyone celebrated at night with feasting and dancing to show their thanksgiving for the day’s successful harvest.

The native people who settled in the village near the falls were called Namoskeags and were part of the Penacooks.The Namoskeags hunted the surrounding woods for deer, bear, moose, and waterfowl in addition to fishing.They also started to work the fertile riverbanks and harvest corn, beans, melons, squash, pumpkins, and gourds.Women tilled the soil and tended the crops while the men hunted and trapped.

The main Namoskeag village was located on the high bluff on the east side of the river above the falls at the site of the New Hampshire Insurance building and parking lot.Smaller encampments were also located on the west side of the river.Significant prehistoric artifacts have been found on both sides of the Merrimack River in the area of Amoskeag Falls during archeological excavations in 1967-1969 and 1985.Many artifacts were excavated from the village site known as the “Smyth Site” before the NH Insurance building was constructed.Some of the excavation pits were nearly 6 feet deep because of the thousand of years that the area was occupied, and the amount of flooding and sediment deposits that occurred over that time.Artifacts that were found included tools, cooking and storage utensils, ceramic objects, and evidence of encampments.Some of the artifacts from the Amoskeag Falls area have been radiocarbon dated back 7,800-9,000 years ago showing a long interest and use of the falls area.Archeological excavations have also been made on the west side of the river “Eddy Site” and similar artifacts were found.

The first white man to visit the site of Amoskeag Falls was the explorer Samuel De Champlain on June 17, 1605 after being told of the place by several native people he had met the day before at Odiorne Point in Rye.Thomas Morton provided the first authentic information regarding the native people of the Merrimack in his published work “New England Canaan” printed in 1637 which was based on his 1628 trip to the Merrimack River.

The chief of the Penacook tribe was Passaconnaway at the time of Morton’s visit, and Passaconnaway was reported to be nearly 90 years old at that time.In 1660 General Daniel Cookin saw Passaconnaway when he was reportedly 120 years old.Passaconnaway was still alive in 1663, but died sometime shortly after that, and is supposedly buried on the Sewalls Falls Island in the Merrimack River outside of Concord, NH.

Many communities of native people resided along the Merrimack River in New Hampshire.The Namoskeags lived at Amoskeag Falls in Manchester.The Penacooks lived in the Bow, Concord (formally Penacook) and the Boscawen areas.The Winnipesaukees lived on the Winnipesaukee River, one of the main tributaries of the Merrimack River draining out of Lake Winnepesaukee.The Nashua and Soughegan tribes lived in the Nashua area on the Nashua and Soughegan Rivers. Eventually most of the tribes merged into the Penacooks under the leadership of Passaconnaway.

Passaconnaway’s son Wonnolancet became chief of the tribe after his father’s death.Wonnolancet was afraid of being drawn into King Philip’s war, so in 1677 he left with close friends for St. Francis in Canada where he had connections through marriage.Kancamagus, the eldest son of Passaconnaway was named the new chief after Wonnolancet left.Wonnolancet returned to the area in 1685 after the war ended and lived at the Penacook village in the Concord area until he died around 1700.

The Scotch and Irish were the first white settlers in the area moving from the Londonderry settlement in 1719 because they were dissatisfied with the land they occupied there. The first white settler in the Manchester area was John Goffe in 1722 who acquired land on the north bank of the Cohas Brook at its junction with the Merrimack River.Several years later John Goffe built a dam across Cohas Brook and constructed and operated a sawmill.A new dam is now located in the area of the old mill off of Brown Avenue.Pine Island Pond is located behind the dam.

In 1729 a road approximately 10 miles long was built from Londonderry to Amoskeag Falls through the wilderness because of the importance of the Amoskeag Falls area.John McNeil is believed to be the first settler at the falls about 1733 in the area known as Happy Town located on the west side of the falls. Eventually the area around Amoskeag Falls was named Deerfield in 1751.

The native people were still in considerable numbers as late as 1726, even as more settlers continued to move into the area.As the numbers of settlers increased, the native people were treated badly by the settlers.In 1753, a fort was constructed under the supervision of Captain John Stark at Deerfield on the south side of Nutts Pond, and was called Stark’s Garrison.The fort was established to protect the settlers at Deerfield who were under increased attack by the native people. Slowly, the native people died off, mostly by diseases from the European Settlers, but many were driven off or just left moved north to get away from the settlers.

Early settlers farmed the fields on the sides of the Merrimack and fished the river as the native people had done in the past.In 1775 at the time of the Revolutionary War, there were approximately 41 men between the ages of 16-50 living in Deerfield, and 36 of these men were fit to bear arms.Many of the men served under John Stark at the Battle of Bunker Hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1776.

Manufacturing came to Amoskeag Falls in 1809 with the construction of the first mill on the west side of the falls, which was known as the Harvey Mill.Waterpower was taken from the dam on Harvey Mill and flowed to the manufacturing mill through a channel blasted in the rock.

Samuel Blodget saw the great potential in the waters of the Merrimack River, and developed a canal and lock system around the falls on the east side of the river so that river traffic could travel between Concord and Nashua.Portions of the canal system were extended to eventually become the canal for carrying waterpower to all the mills.

Benjamin Prichard, Messrs. Ephraim, David, and Robert Stevens started the manufacturing of fabric from cotton at Amoskeag Falls at the Harvey Mill.Mr. Prichard had a limited knowledge of cotton spinning from his work in the first mill in NH used for the manufacture of cotton bunting in New Ipswich in 1803.He started a small cotton-spinning mill in Bedford at the “Goffe Place” in about 1808.Waterpower was not sufficient for year round operations at the Goffe Mill, so Mr. Prichard determined to move to a more suitable location, which ultimately was Amoskeag Falls.

The enterprise dragged and the proprietors decided to enlarge the company.A new company to manufacture fabrics was incorporated in January 1810 and was called the Amoskeag Cotton and Wool Manufacturing Company.Ephraim and Stevens executed a bond to the new company, of which they were part, to keep their dam at Amoskeag Falls in good repair and to furnish the manufacturing company with a certain quantity of water at all seasons for a payment of $10 per year. 

In June 1810, the New Hampshire legislature approved the change of the name from Deerfield to Manchester, to honor Samuel Blodget’s vision of a great textile-manufacturing city like Manchester, England.The population of Manchester at that time was 615, which was an increase of 58 people since 1800.

Machinery was furnished and installed, additions were made to the existing buildings, and the machinery was put into operation in the summer of 1810.Most of the machinery was old and didn’t operate very well.The company determined to obtain new machinery, and hired Mr. Robinson of New London, NH, an experienced machinist, to building new machinery.Mr. Robinson built an Awkright Spinning Frame who was the first one built or used in the state.Other new equipment was purchased and installed in June 1811.

The first equipment in the mills was only for spinning cotton.Shipments of raw cotton from New Orleans and Demarara were “let out” to the people in the community who picked it by hand for 4 cents per pound.The clean cotton was then spun onto spools at the mills.Weaving of fabric was also “let out” to women in the community, many of whom averaged 10-12 yards of weaving per day and could earn about 2-7 cents per yard, depending on whether they were working course cotton or fine cotton.

The operation was not profitable and between 1815 and 1822, little manufacturing was done at the mills.In 1822, Olney Robinson from Pawtucket, RI purchased the company, but was not experienced enough to manage the mills.He turnedthe company over to Messrs Pitcher and Slater who he had borrowed money and machinery from.In 1825, Pitcher and Slater sold 3/5 of the company to Oliver Dean, Lyman Tiffany, and Willard Sayles of Boston.Oliver Dean was named agent for the new company and moved to Amoskeag in April 1826.Mr. Dean had extensive experience with the manufacturing of ticking mills in Medway and Walpole Massachusetts.

A new building was built on the island named the Bell Mill because it had a bell in the tower that called the mill workers to work.The new building was used as a machine shop, and was 3 stories high with dimensions of 40’ x 80’.Dean had an addition constructed on to the Bell Mill and fitted with machinery for ticking.Another 40’ x 80’ building was built on the largest island below the falls and was known as the Island Mill and was used as a machine shop.Stores, shops, and boarding houses were built near the mills and the village of Amoskeag soon began to flourish.The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was chartered in June 1831 with capital of $1,600,000.

The Old Mill, the Bell Mill, and the Island Mill manufactured sheeting, skirting, and ticking, which were considered the best in the market and were in demand around the world.The Island Mill was eventually destroyed by fire in 1840, as were the Old Mill and Bell Mill in 1847.

The owners realized the capacity of the hydraulic power at the falls, and sought to avail themselves of its advantages.Quietly they began to purchase the lands on both sides of the river, with the goal of building more manufacturing facilities.The plan of the company was to harness the water power and sell it to other mills which might choose to locate here, as well as erecting more manufacturing facilities for themselves.The company also wanted to build a manufacturing town with homes, stores, and shops.Engineers determined that the eastside of the river was the most feasible for the canals to provide waterpower to the mills, and as a site for their mill facilities, and by 1835 they succeeded in securing most of the land of the east side of the Merrimack River totaling almost 15,000 acres.

In 1837, a wide dam and guard lock were constructed at the head of the falls.A canal 10 feet deep and, 75 feet wide was constructed from the guard lock, and narrowed to 45 feet wide at the upper canal.The surplus water from the upper canal flowed into a section of the lower canal in area just south of Bridge Street.The layout of the Manchester canals and mills was modeled after the Lowell, Massachusetts mills developed two decades earlier by the same developers.

In 1838, the Stark Mills Manufacturing Company was incorporated with capital of $1,000,000, and the Amoskeag manufacturing Company constructed a mill for them on the upper canal with 8000 spindles.They also constructed 6 blocks of boarding houses for the accommodations of the Stark Mill workers.

In 1845 the upper canal was extended to a total length of approximately 5000 feet.At the same time the lower canal was extended to just below Granite Street, for a length of approximately 7250 feet from the dam to it’s terminus at the weir flowing back into the river.The water dropped 20 feet from the upper canal to the lower canal, and dropped 34 feet from the lower canal to the river.

The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company laid out the site for the town, consisting of the main street running parallel to the river called Elm Street.In October 1838, the first public land sale was held offering house and business sites for sale.The first house was built on these lots in January 1839 by Mrs. Anna Heyes, and was located on the corner of Concord and Chestnut Streets opposite the public park called Concord Square (Victory Park).

The next building was a two-story building located on Elm Street that housed a restaurant on the first floor and tenements on the second floor consisting of individual rooms and a common bathroom.Other lots were sold and buildings constructed, and development eventually spread to include all of the downtown area. In 1847, Manchester was incorporated as a city by the State of New Hampshire. 

In 1839 a second mill was constructed for the Stark Mills a short distance north of the first.Another mill building connecting the two was constructed in 1843 and another large mill was added in 1848.The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company also constructed additional buildings for their own manufacturing business as follows. 

1840 (machine shop)

1841 (two mill buildings – totaling 17,800 spindles and 484 looms), 1841 (foundry), 

1843 (mill building – totaling 20,475 spindles and 545 looms – 5 stories high – 444 feet long and 65 feet wide)

1847 (mill building – totaling 24,576 spindles and 630 looms)

1848 (larger foundry, a grist and sawmill, and Machine Shop for locomotive manufacturing).

The first locomotive manufactured at the Amoskeag foundry was the Etna in 1849 for the Northern Railroad.In 1856, the foundry was producing 60 locomotives (weighing 20-30 tons each) a year at a price of $8750 each.The foundry, which employed about 65 workers, was also producing twenty 300 horsepower turbine wheels and 20,000 spindles each year for the manufacturing business.The Amoskeag Mills also manufactured rifles during the civil war.

In 1856 the mills had a total of 82, 846 spindles and 2345 looms which consumed 9,600,000 lb.’s of cotton annually.The amount of fabric made annually was 22,500,000 yds which equals 67,000 yds or 38 miles per day.The number of employees consisted of 2500 females and 700 males.Additional mill buildings and workers were added into the 1900’s.

At its peak in the early twentieth century, the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was the largest textile producer in the world with 30 mills in operation, 17,000 workers, and 8 million feet of floor space, an amount equal to that contained in the World Trade Center in New York City.The Amoskeag Mills made the greatest profits in its history during World War I. 

Amoskeag continued to add mills and spindles to reduce the cost of making fabric only to discover that the textile industry throughout the world had too much productive capacity for the market, and the New England mills were the ones to lose out.After World War I, industrial demobilization followed, and the Amoskeag Mills, along with most other New England textile corporations, experienced a general decline.Southern competition, antiquated machinery, inefficiency, and high labor costs were also factors in the decline. 

The Amoskeag Mills gradually curtailed production, trimmed its labor force, and cut wages.When the company could reduce worker’s wages no further, they increased the speed of the machines to reduce costs.All of these factors caused dissatisfaction among the workers. 

The Amoskeag Corporation was successful in discouraging unionization by its workers until the first World War when the United Textile Workers of America (UTW) made their first inroads into the mills in 1917.The UTW organized their first strike in 1919, which was the first one to occur at the Amoskeag Mills since an 1885 strike by the Knights of Labor.

By the 1920’s, a period of prosperity in the United States, the workers in the Amoskeag Mills were already rehearsing for the great depression.Other prolonged strikes by the UTW in 1922, 1933, and 1934 were targeted against the Amoskeag Mills to respond to wage reductions and increased production quotas on workers.Smaller strikes occurred until the mills eventually shut down.

The mills declined for several more years and eventually closed down in September 1935, with the intention of eventually reopening.The Bankruptcy Court ordered the liquidation of the company’s assets in July 1936 to satisfy creditors, and the mills were closed for good.The Amoskeag Mills shut down in the midst of the depression and destroyed the economic base of the City of Manchester and it’s 75,000 people.

After the mills closed down in 1936, other industrial activities took up the empty buildings and unemployed workers, but most remained vacant.The largest industry was the manufacture of shoes, and others included smaller cloth factories, knitting mills, and machine shops.The shoe industries thrived through the 1950’s, but began to decline and disappear in the 1960’s when lower priced imports flooded the market.Most of the mill buildings were vacated during the 1970’s and left vacant or used as warehouses until the early 1980’s when several of the buildings were renovated and used for office space.

While some light manufacturing by small firms is still performed in the old buildings today, most of the old mills have been renovated and are used for office space, colleges, and several new restaurants. 21st century businesses like Internet companies, architects, marketing firms, advertising firms, and many other new businesses have filled the buildings which once housed the largest textile mills in the world at the time of the industrial revolution from the early 1800’s to the early 1900’s.

Prepared by Brian Lombard, PE in November 2000

The History of Manchesterby CE Potter - Published in 1856 for the Centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of Deerfield.

American Guide SeriesNew Hampshire – a guide to the Granite State by the workers of the Federal Writers Project Published in 1938.

Amoskeag – Life and Work in by Tamara K. Harden and Randolph Langenbach –

An American Factory City published in 1978

Information was also obtained from the Manchester Historical Society which maintains a library and exhibits containing artifacts, documents, displays, and publications about the native people who lived at Amoskeag Falls, those who worked in the mills, and about the manufacturing companies.If you would like to see artifacts and exhibits described in our historical summary, visit the