Manchester, NH news and local guide

In 1807 Samuel Blodget opened a canal and locks around the falls as part of a waterway network toward Boston, and he imagined a great industrial center, "the Manchester of America," after Manchester, England. In 1809 Benjamin Prichard and others built a water-powered cotton mill on the west bank. Derryfield was renamed Manchester in 1810, apparently at Blodget's suggestion, the year the mill was incorporated as the Amoskeag Cotton and Woolen Manufacturing Company. Massachusetts investors bought it in 1825, expanded it to three mills in 1826 and incorporated it in 1831 as the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. Amoskeag's engineers and architects planned a model company town on the east bank, founded in 1838 with Elm Street as its main street. Manchester was incorporated as a city in 1846 and was soon home to the largest cotton mill in the world. Sources Wikipedia: Manchester, New Hampshire