NEW HAMPSHIRE 



4155 



NEW HAMPSHIRE 



The People. In 1910 the population of New 

 Hampshire numbered 430,572, or 47.7 per square 

 mile, over one and one-half times the average 

 density for the United States. On January 1, 

 1917, the number of people was estimated to 

 be 443,467. Over one-fourth of the population 

 are foreigners, chiefly French-Canadian, British- 

 Canadian and Irish, and immigration has con- 

 tinued to increase, opportunities for employ- 

 ment being offered to aliens in the numerous 

 factories of the state. Over sixty-two per cent 

 of the inhabitants live in towns or cities ; Man- 

 lier, with a population of 78,283 (1916), is 

 the largest city and manufacturing center. 

 Other cities with a population over 10,000 are 

 Nashua, Concord, the capital, Dover, Berlin, 

 Portsmouth, Laconia and Keene. 



The largest religious body is the Roman Cath- 

 olic, other important denominations being the 

 Baptists, Methodists and Congregationalists. 



Education. Much attention has always been 

 pivcn to education in New Hampshire; the 

 state aims to keep abreast of the times in its 

 educational methods and administration. An 

 organized system has existed since 1647, when 

 the general court of Massachusetts required 

 towns of over fifty inhabitants to maintain 

 schools. Before the nineteenth century the 

 founding of Phillips Exeter, the well-known New 

 England academy for boys, and other similar 

 schools stimulated interest in education and 

 the early development of a good common 

 school system. 



Public education is now administered by 

 towns, though there are a few special districts 

 under the state superintendent, who is ap- 

 pointed by the governor. In 1910 the illiteracy 

 in the state was 4.6 per cent, most of which 

 was among the foreigners; the illiteracy among 

 whites of native parentage was only & per cent. 

 In 1914 there were 63,991 pupils enrolled in the 

 public schools. Pupils living in towns where 

 are no high schools are educated at public 

 expense in towns where high schools arc main- 

 tained. The educational fund is derived from 

 local and state taxes. Normal schools are mam- 

 <l at Keene and Plymouth. Dartmouth 

 College, founded at Hanover in 1769, from 

 ulnch have been graduated some of the moot 

 nguished men of the United States; the 

 New Hampshire College of Agriculture and 

 iianical Arts at Durham; and Saint An- 

 selm's College, a Roman Catholic institution at 

 Manchester, are the only institutions of colle- 

 rank. Saint Paul's School at Concord is 

 a famous academy for boys. 



Charitable and penal institutions under the 

 state board of charities and corrections include : 

 a school for the feeble-minded and a soldiers' 

 home at Tilton ; a state sanitarium at Benton ; 

 an industrial school at Manchester; an insane 

 asylum and the state prison at Concord. Alms- 

 houses and houses of correction are maintained 

 in each county. The blind are systematically 

 cared for and educated. 



The Land. New Hampshire is famous for its 

 delightful scenery of forest-covered hills and 

 rough mountains, filled with deep glens, rushing 

 streams, waterfalls and beautiful lakes. The 

 mountains, traversed by many excellent roads, 

 are among the most beautiful and popular 

 pleasure grounds of the East. The only low 

 part of the state is in the southeast, where the 

 land meets the sea in sandy beaches along 

 which there are salt marshes and tidal creeks. 

 Beyond the Merrimac River it rises to broad 

 fields and rolling hills, which become more 

 rugged in the central part of the state, merging 

 into the lofty Presidential and Franconia 

 ranges of the White Mountains, which cover 

 an area of about 1,400 square miles in the 

 north-central region. 



The Presidential Range is the highest, many 

 of its summits rising above an elevation of 

 5,000 feet. The loftiest peak is Mount Wash- 

 ington, with an altitude of 6,279 feet, the 

 highest mountain, next to Mount Mitchell in 

 North Carolina, in the Appalachian system. 

 Mounts Lafayette and Lincoln, over 5,000 feet 

 above the sea, are the highest mountains of 

 the Franconia Range, which is separated from 

 tin Presidential Range on the east by the fa- 

 mous Crawford Notch, through which flows 

 the Saco River. 



The Franconia mountains are traversed by 

 the Franconia Notch, through which th< IVmi- 

 gewasset River flows. Profile Mountain, the 

 most interesting feature of the Notch, over- 

 hangs a deep, romantic glen. Its upper pro- 

 jection, which resembles a human profile, is 

 known as The Old Man of the Mountain* and 

 was immortalized by Hawthorne in 7 

 Stone Face. Here also is Franeonia Flume, a 

 fissure sixty feet deep, into which pours a foam- 

 ing torrent. Mounts Moosilaukc and Monad- 

 nock, Sunapce and Koarearge mountains are 

 isolated peaks of lofty rlrvaticm. A number 

 of bald peaks, rising above the tree line and 

 tmu tin- Mm fn their rocky summits, have 

 the appearance of snow-coven < 1 mountains and 



n to these ranges the name "W! 

 Hills," later changed to White Mountains. 



