Grafton, New Hampshire
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Grafton is a
town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
in Grafton County,
New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
, United States. The population was 1,385 at the 2020 census.


History

Originally granted in 1761, and re-granted in 1769, Grafton, like the county it resides in, takes its name from
Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton (28 September 173514 March 1811), styled Earl of Euston between 1747 and 1757, was a British Whig statesman of the Georgian era. He is one of a handful of dukes who have served as Prime Minister of t ...
, a relative of colonial governor
Benning Wentworth Benning Wentworth (July 24, 1696 – October 14, 1770) was an American merchant, landowner and colonial administrator who served as the List of colonial governors of New Hampshire, governor of New Hampshire from 1741 to 1766. He is best known ...
. Grafton was incorporated in 1778. Historically, Grafton's economic base consisted of subsistence farming, small-scale industry, and mining. Several mica mines and granite quarries once dotted the town's landscape, most notably Ruggles Mine. File:United Mica Company Mill, Grafton Center.jpg, The United Mica Company operated this mill between 1909 and 1916. Image File:Barney's Store, Grafton Village.jpg, In continuous operation since the 1840s, this store is now known as the Grafton Country Store. Image . File:Grafton Center.jpg, Grafton Center


Geography

The town is in western New Hampshire, on the southern edge of Grafton County. It is bordered to the south by Sullivan County and to the southeast by Merrimack County. U.S. Route 4 is the main road through the town, leading southeast to
Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andov ...
and Concord and northwest to
Canaan CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...
and
Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...
. New Hampshire Route 4A crosses the southwest corner of the town. According to the
U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...
, the town has a total area of , of which are land and are water, comprising 2.20% of the town. The majority of the town is drained to the east by the Smith River, a tributary of the
Pemigewasset River The Pemigewasset River , known locally as "The Pemi", is a river in the state of New Hampshire, the United States. It is in length and (with its tributaries) drains approximately . The name "Pemigewasset" comes from the Abenaki word ''bemijijoas ...
and part of the
Merrimack River The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into M ...
watershed, while the western side of the town drains by several brooks toward the
Mascoma River The Mascoma River is a river in western New Hampshire in the United States. It is a tributary of the Connecticut River, which flows to Long Island Sound. The Mascoma comprises two sections which are split by Mascoma Lake in the communities of E ...
, a tributary of the
Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
. The highest point in Grafton is the summit of Melvin Mountain, at above
sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...
in the northeastern part of town. Grafton Pond is in the western part of town.


Climate


Demographics

As of the census of 2010, there were 1,340 people, 564 households, and 372 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 839 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 96.7%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.3%
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.2% Native American, 0.4% Asian, 0.1% some other race, and 2.2% from two or more races.
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 1.5% of the population. There were 564 households, out of which 24.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.4% were headed by
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 7.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.0% were non-families. 26.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.4% consisted of someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38, and the average family size was 2.84. In the town, the population was spread out, with 18.8% under the age of 18, 5.2% from 18 to 24, 23.7% from 25 to 44, 36.5% from 45 to 64, and 14.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45.6 years. For every 100 females, there were 108.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 112.1 males. At the 2000 census, the median income for a household in the town was $38,654, and the median income for a family was $41,875. Males had a median income of $30,074 versus $23,750 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the town was $16,944. About 4.2% of families and 7.9% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 10.0% of those under age 18 and 4.1% of those age 65 or over.


Government

Grafton is governed by a three-person
select board The select board or board of selectmen is commonly the executive arm of the government of New England towns in the United States. The board typically consists of three or five members, with or without staggered terms. Three is the most common num ...
.


Politics

Grafton County, within which the town of Grafton resides, ranks number 100 in terms of highest property taxes levied in the United States. As of 2019, the town of Grafton itself has the 16th highest property tax rate in the state of New Hampshire.


Education

Grafton is in the Mascoma Valley Regional School District.
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Free Town Project

In 2004, Grafton became the focus for
Libertarians Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...
as part of the Free Town Project (a single-town version of the
Free State Project The Free State Project (FSP) is an American political migration movement founded in 2001 to recruit at least 20,000 libertarians to move to a single low-population state to make the state a stronghold for libertarian ideas. New Hampshire was s ...
). One of the goals was to advocate for legal changes. Grafton's appeal as a favorable destination was due to its absence of
zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for ...
laws and a then-low
property tax A property tax (whose rate is expressed as a percentage or per mille, also called ''millage'') is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or Wealth t ...
rate. John Babiarz, a Grafton resident and prominent member of the Libertarian Party, encouraged libertarian people to move there. During this time, the town's population grew by about 200 people (about 20%); nearly all of the newcomers were men. Project participants did not find themselves as welcome as they had hoped, but they voted in changes including a 30% reduction in the town's already small budget. This resulted in eliminating funding to the county's senior-citizens council, town offices going unheated during the winter, poorly maintained roads filled with
pothole A pothole is a pot-shaped depression in a road surface, usually asphalt pavement, where traffic has removed broken pieces of the pavement. It is usually the result of water in the underlying soil structure and traffic passing over the affecte ...
s, and the Grafton Police Department being reduced to one officer (the police chief), who said he was unable to answer calls for service as the town had no money to repair the one police vehicle left. Other issues were inconsistent basic public services, such as
trash collection Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final Waste disposal, disposal. This includes the Waste collection, collection, transport, Sewage treatment, treatm ...
. The libertarian newcomers additionally increased the town's costs by filing
lawsuits A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. T ...
against it in attempts to set various
legal precedent Precedent is a judicial decision that serves as an authority for courts when deciding subsequent identical or similar cases. Fundamental to common law legal systems, precedent operates under the principle of ''stare decisis'' ("to stand by thin ...
s. The project has been associated with an increase in the number and aggressiveness of black bears in town, including entering homes, mauling people, and eating pets. A single, definitive cause for the abnormal behavior of the bears has not been proven, but it may be due to libertarian residents who refuse to buy and use bear-resistant containers, who do not dispose of waste materials (such as
feces Feces (also known as faeces American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, or fæces; : faex) are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the ...
) safely, or who deliberately put out food to attract the bears to their own yards, without caring how this affected other people. After a rash of lawsuits from Free Towners, an influx of
sex offender A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a Sex and the law, sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convi ...
s, an increase of crime, problems with bold local bears, and the first
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
s in the town's history, the Libertarian project ended in 2016.


Notable people

*
Monroe Heath Monroe Heath (March 27, 1827October 21, 1894) was a U.S. politician. He served as Mayor of Chicago, Illinois (1876–1879) elected as a member of the Republican Party, after winning the 1876 election. He was re-elected the following year, de ...
(1827–1894), mayor of Chicago from 1876 to 1879 * Myra Belle Martin (1861–1936), teacher, writer, financier in late 19th century and early 20th century *
Cyrus A. Sulloway Cyrus Adams Sulloway (June 8, 1839, Grafton, New Hampshire – March 11, 1917) was an attorney and Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New Hampshire. Biography Sulloway studied law and was admitted to the bar ...
(1839–1917),
congressman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...


Sites of interest

* Ruggles Mine


References


External links

* *
New Hampshire Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau Profile
{{Authority control 1778 establishments in New Hampshire Towns in Grafton County, New Hampshire Populated places established in 1778 Towns in New Hampshire Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton