Rochester, NH news and local guide

In 1737 the Rev. Amos Main became the first settled pastor of the Congregational Church on Rochester Hill, and by 1738 the farming town had 60 families. The church moved to the 250-acre Common, called Norway Plain Mill Common for its Norway pines, which then reached into today's downtown, and a statue of Parson Main by Giuseppe Moretti stands in the town square. By 1780 the area around the Common was the most settled part of town, and a new meetinghouse was built there, moved in 1842 to Liberty and South Main streets. Soldiers gathered on the Common before marching off in the Revolution, and its Civil War monument names 54 local men who died in that war. The Mechanics Company, founded in 1834, made woolen blankets that won a top award at the 1853 New York World's Fair, and the Norway Plains Woolen Company made blankets for the Union Army. By 1880 shoe manufacturing had overtaken textiles as the town's main industry. Sources Wikipedia: Rochester, New Hampshire