Goffstown, New Hampshire in the 1830s

Work

Water turns the work

The Piscataquog is the town's power line: a saw- and gristmill at the Center² works in 1831, while the west village privilege holds a gristmill, sawmill, and satinet factory². In 1837–1839, capital gathers these scattered privileges into the Goffstown Manufacturing Company².

Faith

Several Sabbaths, one town

The decade includes Congregational, Baptist, and Universalist worship³, not a single religious voice. The Baptist meetinghouse at Grasmere is new, dedicated July 2, 1834^3,4, and in 1836 a large Amoskeag group separates from the Goffstown Baptist Church.

Law & power

Town lines still move

Goffstown is a corporate town, but its map is not fixed: Isaac Parker's farm is annexed from New Boston in 1836⁵. Selectmen, church committees, school districts, mill owners, and postmasters are the ordinary authorities a resident meets most often.

Home & table

Farms and school districts

The daily base is still agricultural, with river intervals, plains, corn, and rye^1,5 shaping household work. Schooling is local and divided, since the town had fourteen school districts⁴ after the 1805 district law.

Money

Postage is distance

A letter is not cheap if it travels far: in 1828 a single sheet costs 6 cents under 30 miles and 25 cents over 400 miles⁶. The receiver, not the sender, usually pays, because postage is collected on delivery⁶.

Who lived here

A large rural town

This is not a hamlet; 2,213 people live here in 1830¹. They occupy river villages, upland farms, the Amoskeag manufacturing edge, and road settlements tied to taverns and stages.

Roads & news

Stages before rails

News and strangers arrive by road and post, because no railroad reaches Goffstown in the 1830s⁶. The village has a daily stage stop, and the town has post offices at Goffstown, Amoskeag, and Goffstown Center⁶ during the decade.

In the air

Religion and industry change

Arguments and loyalties cluster around revival religion, denominational separation, and new mill capital: forty-four Baptists leave for Amoskeag in 1836³, and the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company is chartered in 1831² with an immense capital for the region.

Year by year

1. 1830Goffstown counted 2,213 inhabitants in the federal census. here¹
2. 1831The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was chartered with capital of $1,600,000. nearby²
3. 1832Goffstown Center received its own post office on January 22. here⁶
4. 1833President Andrew Jackson and Vice President Martin Van Buren stopped at Amoskeag Village on June 28. nearby⁷
5. 1834The Baptist church building at Grasmere was dedicated on July 2. here^3,4
6. 1836Isaac Parker's farm was annexed from New Boston to Goffstown. here⁵
7. 1837The Panic of 1837 began a national financial crisis that New Hampshire mill investors, merchants, and debtors would have heard about. the country
8. 1838The forced removal of Cherokee people on the Trail of Tears became national news and political argument. the country

What the sources say

• Goffstown's population was 2,213 in the 1830 census. from the sources¹
• A 1839 gazetteer placed Goffstown 12 miles north by east of Amherst and 16 miles south of Concord. from the sources¹
• The Piscataquog River ran through the centre of town eastward to the Merrimack, and its branches joined near Goffstown's western line. from the sources^1,5
• The river intervals were described as valuable, fertile land, while the plains back from the rivers were easy to cultivate and produced Indian corn and rye. from the sources^1,5
• The two Uncanoonuc elevations stood in the southwest part of town, and the town history gives the Uncanoonuc Mountains an elevation of 1,324 feet. from the sources^1,5
• At the west village privilege, a gristmill and sawmill were maintained until 1838, and a 1837 conveyance also named a satinet factory there. from the sources²
• At the Center, later called Grasmere, David A. Bunten owned a saw- and gristmill in 1831 and remained until about 1837. from the sources²
• The Goffstown Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1837 and took over mills and machinery on both sides of the Piscataquog on December 7, 1839. from the sources²
• The 1830s town had Congregational, Baptist, and Universalist worship, including a Baptist church building dedicated in 1834 and Universalist preaching in 1832–1834. from the sources³
• The Baptist church building at Grasmere was erected in autumn 1833 and spring 1834 and dedicated July 2, 1834. from the sources^3,4
• On December 29, 1836, forty-four members were dismissed from the Goffstown Baptist Church to form the Baptist Church at Amoskeag. from the sources³
• The town had been divided into fourteen school districts shortly after the New Hampshire school-district statute of 1805. from the sources⁴
• The Wallace Road, built after agitation in 1817, became the Goffstown stage road to Nashua and Boston until the railroad era. from the sources⁷
• Goffstown did not have a railroad in the 1830s; the Concord Railroad opened to Manchester in July 1842, and the New Hampshire Central reached Goffstown on February 19, 1850. from the sources⁶
• At the Goffstown Village hotel later known as the New Hampshire Central House, the through stage made a daily stop in the years before the railroad. from the sources⁷
• Post offices existed at Goffstown from January 14, 1814, at Amoskeag from December 15, 1826, and at Goffstown Center from January 22, 1832 until its discontinuance on February 17, 1840. from the sources⁶
• In 1828, a single letter cost 6 cents up to 30 miles, 10 cents over 30 and up to 80 miles, and 25 cents over 400 miles. from the sources⁶
• Before envelopes and postage stamps, a letter was a folded sheet sealed with red wafers, addressed outside, and postage was collected from the receiver. from the sources⁶
• President Andrew Jackson, Vice President Martin Van Buren, and cabinet secretaries Lewis Cass and Levi Woodbury stopped at the Amoskeag Village hotel on June 28, 1833, on the way to Concord. from the sources⁷
• Isaac Parker's farm was severed from New Boston and annexed to Goffstown on June 18, 1836. from the sources⁵
• The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was chartered in June 1831 with capital of $1,600,000, after cotton and woolen manufacturing had grown on the Goffstown side of Amoskeag Falls. from the sources²
• A local school report for a later period counted sixteen districts, summer school terms up to thirteen weeks, winter terms up to fourteen weeks, and teacher wages of $7 per month in summer and $20 per month in winter, but this exact report is not identified as from the 1830s. from the sources⁴
• No detailed online description found in this search says what ordinary Goffstown houses looked like inside in the 1830s. not known

Sources

1. Goffstown, New Hampshire: Hayward's New England Gazetteer (1839). NewEnglandTowns.org, 1839
2. History of the Town of Goffstown, Chapter XXVIII: Industries. NH-Roots / George Plummer Hadley, 1922
3. History of the Town of Goffstown, Chapter XXXIV: Churches. NH-Roots / George Plummer Hadley, 1922
4. History of the Town of Goffstown, Chapter XXII: Schools. NH-Roots / George Plummer Hadley, 1922
5. History of the Town of Goffstown, Chapter I: Physical Features. NH-Roots / George Plummer Hadley, 1922
6. History of the Town of Goffstown, Chapter XXV: Postal Facilities; Telegraph and Telephone. NH-Roots / George Plummer Hadley, 1922
7. History of the Town of Goffstown, Chapter XXVI: Travel and Transportation. NH-Roots / George Plummer Hadley, 1922

Goffstown in other decades

Nearby, about the same time