After the Indian Wars and until the American Revolution of 1776, Dunstable was mostly a farming community. Corn and Vegetables were grown on the Merrimack/Nashua River intervale. Hay and Orchards were prevalent on the southern side.
Merchants and travelers from outside of town from the north and south used Nashua as a thoroughfare thereby creating a hospitality and entertainment economy. Many taverns and hotels were built along The Great Road (Main Street) such as Tylers Tavern which provided necessary comfort and service.
Daniel Abbot moved to the upper community of Dunstable in 1802. Abbot is a Harvard graduate who soon after opened a law practice here. Abbot quickly became a civic leader who then proceeded to rename Dunstable to "Nashua Village" in a speech given on July 4th in 1803.
Right about the same time, Josiah Griswold Graves, MD became the first physician in town. He became very popular because he had an exceptional ability in diagnosing ailments of his patients.
Nashua was heading towards a full scale industrial makeover. During the 1820's, Abott, along with the Greeley brothers, Daniel Webster and some Massachusetts Industrial Investors formed a coalition to create the first textile mills in Dunstable powering Nashua's Industrial Revolution. Abott had been watching his Harvard counterparts in Massachusetts and knew Dunstable had the water power to begin the Waltham-Lowell venture. He moved forward to begin the industry that would become the socio-economic scene dominating the 1830's - 1860's.
Robert Owen, resident of New Lanark, Scotland is credited with creation of the infant structure of our city. The basis of his landmark design includes the layout of the streets, the mills and their basic architecture, and most importantly; social planning which included how the employees would be treated.
Two men, Nathaniel Appleton and Patrick Tracy Jackson, traveled to New Lanark and studied the designs of Owen. The Owen design made it all the way to Nashua from Scotland; consisting of a mill, worker housing, a school, and a church, all run by the originating mill company. This combined with the mastermind of Francis Cabot Lowell and the energy of Daniel Abbot began the enterprise of Nashua's economic future.
Francis Cabot Lowell, Harvard graduate and math major, traveled to England with the express interest of studying the textile designs of the James Archright Power Loom and creating it's mirror here in the United States. His extended vacation included touring the industries where the loom existed and in essence, formulated the designs in his mind. An extreme form of piracy in that day as the patent for the machine and exporting the technology was expressly prohibited. His textile looms were better than their English predecessors and his fabrics soon found their way into world commerce.
Francis Cabot Lowell - Nathaniel Appleton
The first large company created was the Nashua Manufacturing Company in 1823. Nashua Manufacturing was the first in New Hampshire completed in the full scale Waltham-Lowell design.
The Waltham-Lowell design, including especially the church, met the demands of the New England farmer father as a "socially and morally acceptable" place of employment for their daughters, as they made up the majority of the mill workforce.
For 30 years, tens of thousands of young, single women migrated to the Waltham-Lowell mills and revolutionized women's labor in America, and the world, right here in Nashua!
Mill Girls
Daniel Abbot was a great and powerful force fueling the creation of Nashua's Mills. His passion for growth and success empowered the people to achieve their greatest, evident even today. Daniel Abbot, coined 'the Father of Nashua' is due to his many contributions to its rich heritage.
Nashua was and continues to be the New Hampshire cradle of technological culture. The<
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