MANCHESTER, N. H., city, one of the county-seats of Hillsboro County on the Merri mac River at the mouth of the Piscataquog and on branches of the Boston and Maine Railroad, about 17 miles south of Concord, the capital of the State, and 56 miles north of Boston. The first settlement was made in 1722 and for a number of years it was called Amoskeag and Harrytown. In 1751 it was incorporated as ‘Derryfield,p and in 1810 the name was changed to Manchester. It was chartered as a city in 1846. The Amoskeag Falls (54 feet) in the Merrimac, above the city, provides extensive water power which by means of canals is made available for manufacturing. The city's pros perity is largely dependent upon this water power, which for years has been controlled by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. The city has over 400 manufactories, representing about 60 different industries. The capital in vested is about $26,000,000 and the number of employees about 25,000. The chief industrial establishments are the cotton mills, which turn out annually about 250,000,000 yards of cotton. Other manufactures are foundry and machine shop products (especially locomotives and fire engines), hosiery, paper, boots and shoes, wooden-ware, needles, woolen goods, knit goods, leather, lumber, cigars, brushes, wagons, carriages and furniture. The system of water
works, owned by the city, has a reservoir of 16,000,000 gallons capacity which is fed from Lake Massabesic, a body of pure water about four miles from the city. The works were com pleted in 1874 at a cost of $1,500,000. Some of the principal public buildings are the govern mein building, the Roman Catholic cathedeal, the county courthouse, Sacred Heart Hospital, Hos pital of Our Lady of Lourdes, Elliott Hospital, Women's Aid Home, Weston Observatory, Holy Angels' Convent and a public library, which contains about 46,000 volumes. The sev eral public parks arc well kept and add much to the attractive features of the city. The city has the State Industrial School, Saint Joseph's and Saint Patrick's orphanages and Saint Pat rick's and Saint Vincent's homes for the aged. The educational institutions are a public high school, parish high schools, a number of gram mar and elementary public and parish schools, a training-school for teachers, Saint Augustine's and Saint Mary's academies and Saint An selm's College. The yearly income of the mu nicipality is about $3,000,000. Pop. 75,635.