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Local History Books

Available online. Searchable.
Annual Report of the Town of Boscawen,
NH, 1900-1910


Bouton, Nathaniel. A Commemorative Discourse, delivered at Boscawen, NH, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the NH General Association, August 25, 1859.

Burbank, William. Historical Sketch and roll of membership of the First Congregational Church, Webster, NH. 1908.

Coffin, Charles Carleton The History of Boscawen and Webster from 1733 to 1878.

Coffin, Charles Carleton. One hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Boscawen and Webster, Merrimack, County, NH, August 16, 1883, and births recorded on the town records from 1733 to 1850.

Price, Ebenezer. A Chronological Register of Boscawen in the County of Merrimack, and State of New Hampshire, from the first settlement of the town to 1820.

Town reports and some other interesting publications digitized by UNH. 

Other Resources

A work in progress: contains searchable vital statistics from 1887 to the present.


Town histories not available as e-books.
Annual Report of the Town of Boscawen, NH, 1848-present.

Buxton, Willis The History of Boscawen and Webster, fifty years, 1883-1933.

Boscawen Historical Society. History of the town of Boscawen 1933-1983.

Kimball, Henry Ames. The John Elliott Family of Boscawen, NH. 1918.

Pillsbury, Agnes. The Story of the Boscawen Church. 1940.

Silver, Walter. From King's Plantation to Home Town Heritage: Boscawen and Webster, NH. 1997.

The Library and the town offices own uncatalogued pamphlets and records. Please contact us with specific requests.


Boscawen Historical Society

Boscawen 1913 Public Library Restoration Project

Webster Historical Society

Penacook Historical Society

A Short History

Adapted from the article at wikipedia.org
The native Pennacook tribe called the area Contoocook, meaning "place of the river near
pines." On June 6, 1733, Governor Jonathan Belcher granted it to John Coffin and 90 others, most from Newbury, Massachusetts. Settled in 1734, it soon had a meetinghouse, sawmill, gristmill and ferry across the Merrimack River. A garrison offered protection, but guerrilla attacks during the French and Indian Wars left some dead or carried
into captivity.

On April 22, 1760, Contoocook Plantation was incorporated as a town by Governor Benning Wentworth, who named it for Edward Boscawen, the British admiral who distinguished himself at the 1758 Siege of Louisbourg. With a generally level surface, the town provided good farmland, and became noted for its apple, pear and cherry orchards. Bounded by the Merrimack and Contoocook rivers, it had abundant sources of water power for mills.

Industries soon included a cotton mill, a woolen factory, nine sawmills, a gristmill, a saw manufacturer and machine shop, and a chair and match factory. A mill town village developed at Fisherville (now Penacook), which straddled the river border with Concord. In 1846, the Northern Railroad was built through Boscawen, opening the following winter.

 Sometime around 1846, the town's postmaster became one of about a dozen in the country to issue provisional postage stamps before the official issue came out in 1847. The stamps were an adaptation of a postmark, simply reading PAID / 5 / CENTS, typeset in blue on a yellowish paper. These are extremely rare; in 2003, the estimated price at auction was US$225,000.

The 1913 Boscawen Public Library was designed by noted Boston architect Guy Lowell.

During the twentieth century, Routes 3 and 4 became major roads through Boscawen.

Notable residents include Daniel Webster, Moody Currier, John Adams Dix, Moses Gerrish Farmer, and William P. Fessenden.


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Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10 to 6
Saturday 9 to 1
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116 North Main Street | Boscawen, NH  03303 | 603.753.8576
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