Милтон, Нью-Гэмпшир: История и современность города

Milton is a town in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,482 at the 2020 census. A manufacturing, resort and residential town, Milton includes the village of Milton Mills. The primary village in town, where 593 people resided at the 2020 census, is defined as the Milton census designated place (CDP), and is located along New Hampshire Route 125 and the Salmon Falls River, just north of Route 75.

Originally a part of Rochester variously called the "Northeast Parish", "Three Ponds" or "Milton Mills", the town was settled in 1760. It was set off and incorporated in 1802 as "Milton", the name either a contraction of "mill town", or else derived from a relative of the Wentworth colonial governors—William Fitzwilliam, Earl Fitzwilliam and Viscount Milton. The town of Fitzwilliam also bears his name. The high concentration of water powered industries in Milton caused Ira W. Jones to found and operate an engineering firm from offices on Main Street in Milton. The company did business as I W Jones Engineers. In 1893 Jonas Spaulding opened a leatherboard mill in Milton, organizing the business as J. Spaulding and Sons. His sons were Leon C., Huntley N. and Rolland H., of whom Huntley and Rolland would serve as governors of New Hampshire. Jonas and his sons would undertake the construction of another leatherboard mill in North Rochester around 1900. Jonas died before the North Rochester mill became operational. The brothers continued to run the business successfully and brought the Spaulding Brothers leatherboard mill in Townsend Harbor, Massachusetts, under the J. Spaulding and Sons banner in 1902. They were successful with a machine to manufacture shoe counters and with experiments to make vulcanized fiber. In 1912 they opened a purpose built facility to make vulcanized fiber in Tonawanda, New York. In 1913 J. Spaulding and Sons opened a second leatherboard mill in Milton. They also acquired the Kennebunk Manufacturing Company (KEMACO), which made lunch boxes and violin cases using leatherboard and vulcanized fiber and at one time had facilities in Milton as well. The town contains some distinctive architecture, particularly the Milton Town House, built in 1808, and the Milton Free Public Library, a Second Empire former schoolhouse built at Milton Mills in 1875.

The main village of Milton is in the southern part of the town, along the west side of the Salmon Falls River at the outlet of Milton Pond. The village of Milton Mills is in the northern part of the town, 7 mile (11 km) by road north of Milton village. The Spaulding Turnpike (New Hampshire Route 16) runs north to south through Milton, with access from Exit 17 (New Hampshire Route 75) in the south, near Milton village, and from Exit 18 (New Hampshire Route 125) in the north, just south of the Wakefield town line. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which are land and are water, comprising 3.57% of the town. As of the census of 2010, there were 4,598 people, 1,800 households, and 1,283 families residing in the town. There were 2,181 housing units, of which 381, or 17.5%, were vacant. 225 of the vacant units were for seasonal or recreational use. The racial makeup of the town was 97.4% white, 0.5% African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.2% Asian, 0.02% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 0.2% some other race, and 1.5% from two or more races. 0.9% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Of the 1,800 households, 32.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.3% were headed by married couples living together, 9.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.7% were non families. 21.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.8% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.55, and the average family size was 2.93.