Exeter, New Hampshire | |
|---|---|
 Downtown | |
 Seal | |
 Location inRockingham County and the state ofNew Hampshire | |
| Coordinates:42°58′53″N70°56′52″W / 42.98139°N 70.94778°W /42.98139; -70.94778 | |
| Country | United States |
| State | New Hampshire |
| County | Rockingham |
| Settled | April 3, 1638 |
| Incorporated | 1638 |
| Government | |
| • Select Board | Niko Papakonstantis, Chair Molly Cowan Nancy Belanger Julie D. Gilman Daniel Chartrand |
| • Town Manager | Russell Dean |
| Area | |
• Total | 20.0 sq mi (51.7 km2) |
| • Land | 19.6 sq mi (50.8 km2) |
| • Water | 0.35 sq mi (0.9 km2) 1.80% |
| Elevation | 33 ft (10 m) |
| Population (2020)[2] | |
• Total | 16,049 |
| • Density | 819/sq mi (316.1/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (Eastern) |
| ZIP code | 03833 |
| Area code | 603 |
| FIPS code | 33-25380 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0873595 |
| Website | exeternh.gov |
Exeter is atown inRockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. Its population was 16,049 at the2020 census,[2] up from 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was thecounty seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboringBrentwood. Home toPhillips Exeter Academy, a privateuniversity-preparatory school, Exeter is situated where theExeter River becomes the tidalSquamscott River.
The urban center of town, where 10,109 people resided at the 2020 census,[3] is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as theExeter census-designated place.
For thousands of years prior to European colonization, the area was inhabited byPennacookAbenaki villagers. The location was originally known as "M'Squamskook", meaning "Falls at the Place of the Salmon" inAbenaki language, and would later become known as "Squamscott".[4]
About 100 Pennacook would return to the Squamscott in the spring to fish, and raise corn, pumpkin, and pigeons, and had relations to other Pennacook at Concord, Sewall's Island, and Manchester.[4] They fished at the falls where the Exeter River becomes the tidal Squamscott, the site around which the future town of Exeter grew. The falls inBrentwood were known to have been a favorite fishing site of the native population.[5]
On April 3, 1638,John Wheelwright, a clergyman exiled from the Puritan theocracyMassachusetts Bay Colony, purchased the land from Wehanownowit, thesagamore. Wheelwright took with him about 175 individuals to found a town he named afterExeter[6] inDevon, England. Local government was linked with Massachusetts until New Hampshire became a separate colony in 1679, and counties were introduced in 1769.
One of the four original townships in the province, Exeter originally includedNewmarket,Newfields,Brentwood,Epping, andFremont. On July 4, 1639, 35 freemen of Exeter signed theExeter Combination, a document written by Wheelwright to establish their own government.[7] The settlers hunted, planted and fished, raised cattle and swine, or madeshakes (shingles) andbarrel staves.
Thomas Wilson established the town's firstgrist mill on the eastern side of the island[clarification needed] in the lower falls. This mill was established within the first season of settling in Exeter, and his son Humphrey assumed control of the mill in 1643, when Thomas died.[8]
Some early settlers came fromHingham, Massachusetts, including the Gilman, Folsom, and Leavitt families.[9][10] In 1647, Edward Gilman Jr. established the firstsawmill, and by 1651, Gilman had a 50-tonsloop which he used to conduct business in lumber, staves, and masts. Gilman was lost at sea in 1653 while traveling to England to purchase equipment for his mills,[11] but his family later became prominent aslumbermen, shipbuilders, merchants, and statesmen.[12][13] TheGilman Garrison House and theAmerican Independence Museum were both former homes of the Gilman family.[14][15] The Gilman family also donated the land on whichPhillips Exeter Academy stands, including the academy's original Yard, the oldest part of campus.[16] Members of the Gilman family have played an important role in the United States government, includingFounding FatherNicholas Gilman, as well as treasurers, a governor, representatives to the General Assembly and judges to the General Court of New Hampshire.[17][18]
The Gilman family began trading as far as theWest Indies with ships they owned out ofPortsmouth. In an 1803 voyage, the 180-tonclipperOliver Peabody, owned by Gov.John Taylor Gilman, Oliver Peabody, Col. Gilman Leavitt, and others, was boarded by brigs belonging to theRoyal Navy under command of AdmiralHoratio Nelson. Enforcing a blockade against the French, Nelson offered ship Captain Stephen Gilman of Exeter a glass of wine and paid him for his cargo in Spanish dollars.[19] The trip demonstrates how far afield the merchants of Exeter reached.
The last Native American raid on Exeter was in August 1723, and by 1725, the tribes had left the area.[citation needed] In 1774, the rebellious Provincial Congress began to meet in the Exeter Town House after colonial governorJohn Wentworth banned it from the colonial capitol at Portsmouth. In July 1775, the Provincial Congress had the provincial records seized from royal officials in Portsmouth and brought to Exeter, as well, so Exeter became New Hampshire's capital, an honor it held for 14 years.[20]
Exeter had a significantAfrican American community, with its first census in 1790 recording 81 free African Americans (in 14 households, 11 of which they owned), and two enslaved African Americans.[21] This was the highest percentage of African Americans in any settlement in the state at 4.7%. Many African Americans, such asJude Hall (namesake of Jude's Pond on Drinkwater Road),[22] earned their freedom fighting in theRevolutionary War, and many settled near the west bank of the Squamscott River after the war.[23] Jude Hall is buried in the Winter Street cemetery.
ReverendThomas Paul of theAfrican Meeting House in Boston was born in Exeter near this time, and later in 1822, abolitionist poetJames Monroe Whitfield, a nephew of Jude Hall. In the late 1800s, two men had two dry-goods stores on Water Street,John Garrison Cutler and George Harris, who both had very high net worths at the time.[citation needed]
In 1827, the Exeter Manufacturing Company was established beside the river, usingwater power to producecotton textiles. Other businesses manufactured shoes,saddles,harnesses, lumber, boxes,bricks,carriages, and bicycles. In 1836, the lastschooner was launched at Exeter. In 1840, theBoston & Maine Railroad entered the town.[24]
According to former governorHugh Gregg, theUnited States Republican Party was born in Exeter on October 12, 1853, at the Squamscott Hotel at a secret meeting ofAmos Tuck with otherabolitionists. At this meeting, Tuck proposed forming a new political party to be called Republican. Upon learning of Tuck's meeting, in December 1853,Horace Greeley said, "I think 'Republican' would be the best name, it will sound both Jeffersonian and Madisonian, and for that reason will take well."[25]Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, visited Exeter in 1860. His son,Robert Todd Lincoln, was attending Phillips Exeter Academy, the college preparatory school founded in 1781 byJohn Phillips. The town was also once home to theRobinson Female Seminary, established in 1867 and previously known as the Exeter Female Academy (established in 1826). Its landmarkSecond Empire schoolhouse, completed in 1869, burned in October 1961.[26]
Joanna Pellerin, president of the Rockingham Land Trust, described theSquamscott River of the 1940s:
[The] Squamscott was a place to stay away from. It stank, and was filled with dyes from the mills and sewage dumped from along Water Street.[5]
In 1922, it was affected by the1922 New England Textile Strike, shutting down the mills in the town over an attempted wage cut and hours increase.[27][28]
In September 1965, Exeter was involved inUFO history when local teenager Norman Muscarello and two Exeter police officers, Eugene Bertrand and David Hunt, witnessed a bright red UFO at close range. Their sighting attracted national publicity and became the focus of a bestselling book,Incident at Exeter, by journalistJohn G. Fuller. The Air Force eventually admitted that it had been unable to identify the strange object, and it is still considered by many UFO buffs to be one of the most impressive UFO sightings on record.
Exeter has a considerable number ofarchitectural structures.Arthur Gilman designed the Old Town Hall of 1855. The Old Public Library of 1894, which now is home to the Exeter Historical Society, was designed by theBoston firm ofRotch & Tilden.Ralph Adams Cram, who trained with Rotch & Tilden, designed both Phillips Church, built in 1897, and Tuck High School, built in 1911. Cram's firm of Cram & Ferguson designed the entire Phillips Exeter Academy campus between 1908 and 1950. More recent is theAcademy Library, built in 1971 to the design ofLouis I. Kahn. SculptorDaniel Chester French created the town's war memorial in 1922. ArchitectHenry Bacon designed in 1916 the Swasey Pavilion at Exeter's town square.[citation needed]
Other features of the town include the Swasey Parkway, which replaced thewharves andwarehouses along the Squamscott River, and the Ioka Theatre of 1915 on Water Street. The latter was built by Edward Mayer, an Exeter judge and resident. Mayer's opening feature wasThe Birth of a Nation, byD. W. Griffith. The theatre's curious name was proposed in a contest by a young woman with an enthusiasm forScouting.Ioka was aNative American word meaning "playground".[citation needed]
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According to theUnited States Census Bureau, the town has an area of 20.0 square miles (51.7 km2), of which 19.6 square miles (50.8 km2) are land and 0.3 square miles (0.9 km2) is covered by water, comprising 1.80% of the town.[1] Exeter is drained by theExeter River, which feeds the tidalSquamscott River in the center of town. Exeter's highest point is 250 feet (76 m) above sea level, on Great Hill at the town's southwestern corner. Exeter lies fully within thePiscataqua River (Coastal)watershed.[29]
In 2005, the small herring-likealewife fish was present in the Exeter River, though its numbers were fewer than in previous years. Local accounts suggest that the average length of the alewife was six inches. At this point in time the Exeter River was dammed in downtown Exeter, and a fish ladder would occasionally have a visible chad,lamprey eel, ortrout.[5]
Water from the small freshwater Dearborn Brook is stored in the Exeter Reservoir to support municipal drinking water system. A 2005 plan to manage Dearborn Brook was submitted by the Rockingham Planning Commission through theClean Water Act.[30] Dearborn Brook is a freshwater tributary to the tidalSquamscott River.[31]
In fall 2015, the majority of the rivers in Exeter were impaired from stormwater and snowmelt-driven runoffpollutants, including large portions of Exeter River and Squamscott River, Dudley Brook,Little River, andPiscassic River.[32]
In 2016, the Great Dam that had separated the Exeter River and the Squamscott River was removed. The removal of the dam and the fish ladder caused the alewife population to rebound, with over 100,000 fish as compared to 1,628 in 1970 and 15,626 in 1981. Hawks and eagles have been observed hunting the fish.[33]
A 2017 town survey found that most human-planted trees in the urban areas of Exeter are broadleaf deciduous. Some significant species includeNorway maples,red maple, oak,sugar maples, hedge maples, and ash.[34]
Exeter also maintains a list of approved trees for planting, which include 30 trees native to the area, four trees native to the Eastern U.S., and 27 non-native species. Native trees include:Red maple,Sugar maple,Freeman maple,Serviceberry or juneberry,River birch,American hornbeam,Hackberry,Common hackberry,Pagoda dogwood,Flowering dogwood,Hawthorn,American beech,Eastern red cedar,Black gum,Ironwood, White spruce (Picea alba),Pitch pine,White pine,American sycamore,Pin cherry,White oak,Swamp white oak,Scarlet oak,Bur oak,Red oak,Black willow,Sassafras,American mountain ash (Sorbus americana 'dwarfcrown'),American linden, andAmerican elm.[34]
Exeter contains the publicly-owned 235 acre Conner Farm Wildlife Management Area. This area contains about 90 acres of open fields, as well as upland forests ofred oak,white oak,hemlock, andwhite pine. There are alsoblack cherry,hickory,hop hornbeam,aspen, andbirch trees. Additionally, there is a small freshwater marsh, a stream, and beaver ponds. Animals include deer,turkey, and migratory waterfowl.[35]
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1790 | 1,722 | — | |
| 1800 | 1,727 | 0.3% | |
| 1810 | 1,759 | 1.9% | |
| 1820 | 2,114 | 20.2% | |
| 1830 | 2,759 | 30.5% | |
| 1840 | 2,925 | 6.0% | |
| 1850 | 3,329 | 13.8% | |
| 1860 | 3,309 | −0.6% | |
| 1870 | 3,347 | 1.1% | |
| 1880 | 3,569 | 6.6% | |
| 1890 | 4,284 | 20.0% | |
| 1900 | 4,922 | 14.9% | |
| 1910 | 4,897 | −0.5% | |
| 1920 | 4,604 | −6.0% | |
| 1930 | 4,872 | 5.8% | |
| 1940 | 5,398 | 10.8% | |
| 1950 | 5,664 | 4.9% | |
| 1960 | 7,243 | 27.9% | |
| 1970 | 8,892 | 22.8% | |
| 1980 | 11,024 | 24.0% | |
| 1990 | 12,481 | 13.2% | |
| 2000 | 14,058 | 12.6% | |
| 2010 | 14,306 | 1.8% | |
| 2020 | 16,049 | 12.2% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census[2][36] | |||
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As of the2010 census, there were 14,306 people, 6,114 households, and 3,729 families residing in the town. The population density was 729.9 inhabitants per square mile (281.8/km2). The 6,496 housing units had an average density of 331.4 per square mile (128.0/km2). Theracial makeup of the town was 95.5% White, 0.6% African American, 0.1% Native American, 2.0% Asian, 0.2% some other race, and 1.6% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 1.77% of the population.[37]
Of the 6,114 households, 29.1% had children under 18 living with them, 47.5% were headed by married couples living together, 9.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.0% were not families. 32.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.2% were someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.28, and the average family size was 2.92.[37]
In the town, the age distribution of the population was 22.6% under 18, 6.0% from 18 to 24, 22.5% from 25 to 44, 30.8% from 45 to 64, and 18.2% who were 65 or older. The median age was 44.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.6 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 84.9 males.[37]
For the period 2007–2011, the estimated median annual income for a household in the town was $68,777, and for a family was $95,435. Male full-time workers had a median income of $64,632 versus $41,088 for females. Theper capita income for the town was $38,018. About 2.5% of families and 5.7% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 7.2% of those under 18 and 4.1% of those 65 or over.[38]
| Year | Democratic | Republican | Third parties |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 66.3% 6,820 | 32.3% 3,321 | 1.4% 148 |
| 2016 | 59.6% 5,514 | 35.5% 3,286 | 4.9% 445 |
| 2012 | 58.2% 5,194 | 40.5% 3,614 | 0.8%75 |
| 2008 | 60.5% 5,258 | 38.7% 3,365 | 0.8% 71 |
Exeter is located inNew Hampshire's 1st congressional district, represented byDemocratChris Pappas (D-Manchester). In theNew Hampshire Senate, Exeter is located withinNew Hampshire's 24th State Senate district, represented byDemocratDebra Altschiller (D-Stratham).[40]
In theNew Hampshire House of Representatives, Exeter has two districts covering the town. Rockingham 11 is a district with four seats covering just the town of Exeter; it is currently represented by fourDemocrats: Julie D. Gilman, Gaby M. Grossman, Linda J. Haskins, and Mark Paige. Exeter also shares Rockingham 33, a single-member district, with the several other nearby towns; it is represented by Democrat Alexis H. Simpson (D-Exeter).[41]
Like much of eastern Rockingham County, Exeter is strongly Democratic.[39]
The AmtrakDowneaster stops atExeter, providing passenger rail service toPortland andBoston.
Exeter is served by four exits (9–12) fromRoute 101, andInterstate 95 is about 5 miles (8 km) to the east. Routes27,85,108,111, and111A meet at the town's center, andRoute 88 is on the east side of the town.
In 1990, theSIGARMS, Inc. company moved to Exeter. When it was bought by Michael Lüke and Thomas Ortmeier in October 2000, the name was changed toSIG Sauer Inc. Today, SIG Sauer is one of the world's largest firearms manufacturing entities.[42]
Bauer Hockey's global headquarters is in Exeter.[43]
Places adjacent to Exeter, New Hampshire | |
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Municipalities and communities ofRockingham County, New Hampshire,United States | ||
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