Amesbury

Includes some families from Newbury, Haverhill, Ispwich, and Hampton.

Amesbury tells the story of an extraordinary town with an unusually broad manufacturing history. Settled eighteen years after the Pilgrims landed, and chartered in 1668, Amesbury's earliest industries included mills, shipyards, and a busy ferry operation. Amesbury is extremely rich in meticulously preserved Victorian homes, and the four miles of Merrimack River riverfront that wrap along Amesbury's Point Shore area provide a remarkably beautiful year-round panorama. Amesbury's links to the past include the great statesman Josiah Bartlett and poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who penned his best works here, as well as poets Harriet Prescott Spofford and Robert Frost.

In 1968, Amesbury celebrated its 300th anniversary. Residents compiled a cookbook, commemorative coins were sold, dances and plays were held, and townspeople dressed in period costume as part of the many events for the town's tercentenary. Since then, Amesbury has grown considerably, with many new businesses--furniture makers, fine food products, Norman's Restaurant, and clothing shops--emerging. Old mills have been reinvented into spaces for artists, photographers, and other creative outlets. The downtown area has been redeveloped and is a welcoming site as one enters Amesbury. One only needs to sit in Market Square, stroll along the Riverwalk, watch the falls of the Powow River in the Millyard, or listen to a concert in the amphitheater to experience Amesbury's charm. Despite a 1996 vote changing the town into a city, this great community retains the same small-town feel it has held for so many years.

Incorporated in 1668, Amesbury was a significant mill town from its earliest beginnings, producing everything from textiles and carriages to a machine that made nails. Amesbury flourished as the primary carriagemanufacturing town of the United States until modern technology demanded the manufacture of automobiles. Carriage factories were transformed into automobile factories as Amesbury kept the pace with the changing times. This wonderful new history covers much of the late 19th century and continues through the 1960s. Amesbury has, over the years, drawn many people inside its borders; both Robert Frost and Currier (of the Currier and Ives Prints) had summer homes in Amesbury. Natives of Amesbury include the famous poet Harriet Prescott Spofford; Josiah Bartlett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence; and Susan Fowler, the model for the Currier and Ives print of the Bloomer Costume. John Greenleaf Whittier, although born in Haverhill, spent most of his adult life in Amesbury. Whittier found much of his inspiration here for writing poetry, including the well-known poem, "Snow Bound."

Found a few kilometres from Stonehenge, the graves of the Amesbury Archer and the Boscombe Bowmen date to the 24th century BC and are two of the earliest Bell Beaker graves in Britain. The Boscombe Bowmen is a collective burial and the Amesbury Archer is a single burial but isotope analyses suggest that both were the graves of incomers to Wessex. The objects placed in both graves have strong continental connections and the metalworking tool found in the grave of the Amesbury Archer may explain why his mourners afforded him one of the most well-furnished burials yet found in Europe. This excavation report contains a series of wide-ranging studies and scientific analyses by an array of experts and a discussion of the graves within their British and continental European contexts.

Amesbury was incorporated in 1668. The settlers began to build the community, starting the first sawmills on the Powwow River. The community continued to grow with carriage manufacturers starting businesses in town; Jacob Huntington was very influential in this endeavor. The automobile industry was the next major industry with the S.R. Bailey Company leading the way. George McNeil was responsible for unions coming to town, and Amelia Earhart was teaching English as a second language to factory workers. Valentine Bagley made sure that everyone had water, and John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a poem about it, "The Captain's Well." Gregory Hoyt and Jeffrey Donovan left the Amesbury High School drama club behind and made it big in movies and television. Ryan Noon went from designing his own fashions to designing for Nike. Legendary Locals of Amesbury showcases just a select few from the long list of fabulous people who have helped make Amesbury the community it is today.