Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/67

 THE CITY OF NASHUA.

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���NASHUA HIGH SCHOOL HOUSE. (Erected, 1870.)

��sovereign State — under which it had passed through many wars, and grown up from obscurity and poverty; and adopted, in order to distinguish it from its neighbor 't'other Dunstable,' its pres- ent name, that of the river from which itsprosperity is chiefly derived — Nashua." In 1840 Nashua had attained a popula- tion of 5,960, and the valuation of the real and personal estate was $2,467,822. In 1842 it voted at the annual meeting to erect a town house. As usual at the in- ception of such an enterprise, there was no agreement on a site. The contest waxed warm and even furious. Finally it led to a division, the people on the north side of the Nashua securing an act of incorporation from the Legislature in

��June following as the town of Nashville. This division lasted till 1853, when the two towns that should never have been divided were reunited and incorporated as the city of Nashua.

The city now had a population of 8942, and a total valuation of $4,266,658.00. The city was divided into eight wards, and at the first election Hon. Josephus Baldwin, one of the pioneer manufactur- ers of Nashua, was elected Mayor. In 1860 the population had increased to 10,- 665, and the valuation to $4,577,878. In 1870, the population was 11,000, with a valuation of $5,146,734. The present population is 12,000; (April, 1877) the valuation is $8,280,968, and the rate of taxation $1.50 on a hundred.

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