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Jaffrey 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 Cheshire 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 5,320 at the 2020 census. The main village in town, where 3,058 people resided at the 2020 census, is defined as the Jaffrey census-designated place (CDP) and is located along the Contoocook River at the junction of U.S. Route 202 and New Hampshire routes 124 and 137.


History

First granted by the Massachusetts General Court in 1736 to soldiers from Rowley, Massachusetts, returning from the war in Canada, the town was known as "Rowley-Canada". In 1749, the town was re-chartered by the Mason proprietors as "Monadnock No. 2", sometimes called "Middle Monadnock" or "Middletown". It was one of the first towns established following the Masonian proprietors' purchase of undivided lands under the claim. Settled about 1758, the town was regranted in 1767. It was incorporated in 1773 by Governor John Wentworth and named for George Jaffrey, member of a wealthy
Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...
family. Jaffrey's son was a life trustee of Dartmouth College and designer of the official college seal. The Contoocook River provided water power for mills. Village prosperity would be expressed in fine early architecture, including the Town Meetinghouse, built in 1775. Beginning in the 1840s, the area's scenic beauty attracted tourists, and several summer hotels were built at the base of Mount Monadnock, enduringly popular with hikers. Some who scaled the summit were
Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...
, Henry David Thoreau and
Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...
. The experience inspired Emerson in 1845 to write the poem, ''Monadnoc''. Jaffrey was the setting for a 1950 biography by Elizabeth Yates entitled ''Amos Fortune, Free Man'', winner of the 1951 Newbery Medal. Amos Fortune was an African-born
slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
who purchased his freedom and that of his wife, and established a tannery in the village. He is buried in the local cemetery, as are bandbox craftswoman Hannah Davis and author and summer resident Willa Cather. Jaffrey was the inspiration for a chapter in '' Parliament of Whores'' by P. J. O'Rourke, who was a resident for several years. Image:Old Baker House, Jaffrey, NH.jpg, Old Baker Home, which was the oldest house in Jaffrey in 1905 Image:Town House, East Jaffrey, NH.jpg, Town Hall in 1905 Image:Main Street, Looking East, East Jaffrey, NH.jpg, Main Street in 1907 Image:Old Red Schoolhouse, Jaffrey, NH.jpg, Old schoolhouse


Geography

According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the town has a total area of , of which are land and are water, comprising 4.42% of the town. Jaffrey village is in the eastern part of the town, and the smaller village of Jaffrey Center is near the town center. Thorndike Pond is in the north, and Contoocook Lake is on the southern boundary. Mount Monadnock, elevation and the highest point in Jaffrey as well as Cheshire County, is in the northwest. Jaffrey lies mostly within the Merrimack River watershed, via the Contoocook River in the eastern part of the town, with the northwest corner of town lying in the Ashuelot River watershed, part of the larger Connecticut River watershed.


Adjacent municipalities

*
Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
(north) * Peterborough (northeast) * Sharon (east) * Rindge (south) * Fitzwilliam (southwest) *
Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...
(west) * Marlborough (northwest)


Demographics

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2010, there were 5,457 people, 2,234 households, and 1,451 families residing in the town. There were 2,547 housing units, of which 313, or 12.3%, were vacant. 160 of the vacant units were for seasonal or recreational use. The racial makeup of the town was 96.2%
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 ...
, 0.4%
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, 1.2%
Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
n, 0.04%
Native Hawaiian Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians; , , , and ) are the Indigenous peoples of Oceania, Indigenous Polynesians, Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiʻi was set ...
or Pacific Islander, 0.3% some other race, and 1.7% from two or more races. 1.6% of the population were
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. Of the 2,234 households, 30.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.4% were headed by married couples living together, 11.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.0% were non-families. 28.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.5% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.41, and the average family size was 2.95. In the town, 24.0% of the population were under the age of 18, 7.8% were from 18 to 24, 23.2% from 25 to 44, 29.6% from 45 to 64, and 15.3% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41.5 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.4 males. For the period 2011–2015, the estimated median annual income for a household was $56,618, and the median income for a family was $73,564. Male full-time workers had a median income of $50,138 versus $39,434 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 $27,689. 15.0% of the population and 6.5% of families were below the poverty line. 28.3% of the population under the age of 18 and 15.9% of those 65 or older were living in poverty.


School system

Jaffrey, along with the town of Rindge, forms the Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School District, also known as SAU 47. The public schools in the town are Jaffrey Grade School (grades PK–5), and Conant Middle High School (6–12). There is also a private high school, Victory High School (9–12).


Notable people

* Laban Ainsworth (1757–1858), minister * Lucy Barnes (1780–1809), writer * Vannevar Bush (1890–1974), engineer, inventor, scientist; played an instrumental role in the Manhattan Project *
Andrew Card Andrew Hill Card Jr. (born May 10, 1947) is an American politician and Academic administration, academic administrator who was White House Chief of Staff under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006, as well as head of Bush's White House Iraq ...
(born 1947), politician and former White House Chief of Staff * Willa Cather (1873–1947), author * Francis Joseph Christian (born 1942), retired auxiliary bishop, Diocese of Manchester * Walter S. Crosley (1871–1939), rear admiral in the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
* Amos Fortune (–1801), early resident, tanner, and subject of Elizabeth Yates' book ''Amos Fortune, Free Man'' * Fannie Hillsmith (1911–2007), painter * Alfred B. Kittredge (1861–1911), US senator from
South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...
* James Laurence Laughlin (1850-1933), economist * Talcott Parsons (1902–1979), sociologist * Jedediah Sanger (1751–1829), founder of New Hartford, New York * Levi Spaulding (1791–1873), missionary * Oliver L. Spaulding (1833–1922), Civil War general, politician


References


External links

*
Jaffrey Public Library


{{authority control Towns in Cheshire County, New Hampshire Populated places established in 1773 Towns in New Hampshire