This is a transcription of the Swanzey, NH description from A Gazetteer of New Hampshire Containing Descriptions of all the Counties, Towns and Districts in the State by John Hayward, John P. Jewett (publisher), Boston, 1849.
SWANZEY
CHESHIRE CO. The principal streams in this town are the Ashuelot and the South Branch Rivers. The former passes through Swanzey in a south-west direction, and empties into the Connecticut at Hinsdale. This is a stream of much importance, and is made navigable for boats as far up as Keene, excepting a carrying place about the rapids at Winchester. The South Branch unites with the Ashuelot about one mile north from the centre of the town.
The surface here is somewhat diversified with hills, valleys, and swells of upland. There is one pond in the south-west part of the town, the source of the South Branch. There is a mineral spring, the water of which is impregnated with sulphate of iron.
From 1741 to 1747, this town suffered much from Indian depredations. Several of the inhabitants were killed and many were made prisoners. After Massachusetts withdrew her protection, the settlers collected together their household furniture, such as chests, tables, iron and brass ware, and concealed it in the ground, covering the place of concealment with leaves, trees, &c., and left their plantation to the disposition of the Indians, who were not tardy in setting fire to their forts, which, with every house except one, they reduced to ashes. Most of the people went to their former places of residence in Massachusetts. They returned about three years afterwards, and nothing about their former habitation was to be seen, but ruin and desolation.
Boundaries. North by Keene, east by Marlborough and Troy, south by Richmond, and west by Winchester and Chesterfield.
First Ministers. Rev. Timothy Harrington, settled in 1741; left in 1747. Rev. Ezra Carpenter, settled in 1753: dismissed in 1769. Rev. Edward Goddard, settled in 1769; dismissed in 1798. Rev. Clarke Browne, settled in 1810; dismissed in 1815.
Productions of the Soil. Indian corn 8,785 bushels; potatoes, 34,520 bushels; hay, 3,269 tons: wool, 6,374 lbs.; maple sugar, 12,200 pounds.
Distances. Six miles south from Keene, and sixty south-west from Concord.