This is a transcription of the Westmoreland, NH description from New Hampshire As It Is by Edwin A. Charlton; Part II: A Gazetteer of New Hampshire by George Ticknor, Tracy and Sanford Publishers, Claremont, N. H., 1855.
WESTMORELAND
WESTMORELAND, Cheshire county. Bounded north by Walpole, east by Surrey and Keene, south by Chesterfield, and west by Putney, Vermont. Area, 22,426 acres. Distance from Concord, 65 miles, south-west; from Keene, 10, west, with which it is connected by the Cheshire Railroad. This is a very excellent farming town. It is watered by numerous small streams, which are discharged into the Connecticut. That flowing from Spafford’s Lake, in Chesterfield, is the largest, and affords the principal rater power. The surface is less varied by hills, valleys, and mountains than the neighboring towns. There is considerable fine interval, and the uplands are generally fertile and easily cultivated. Fluor spar, crystals of quartz, sulphuret of molybdena, deposits of nodular bog manganese; felspar, and milk quarts are found in various localities. The rock is gneiss, granite, and mica slate.
There are in this town three stores, one hotel, one large carriage factory, where an extensive business is carried on, thirteen common schools, and four meeting houses, viz., two Congregational, one Methodist, and one Christian.
Westmoreland was first granted by Massachusetts under the name of Number Two. It was afterwards called Great Meadow. It was incorporated by the government of New Hampshire, February 11, 1752, under its present name. The first settlement was made in 1741. The early settlers were frequently annoyed by incursions of the Indians, but no great injury, save in one or two instances, was committed. In one of their plundering expeditions they killed William Phips, and in another carried Nehemiah How captive to Canada, where he died.
Population, 1677.
Number of legal voters in 1854, 300.
Inventory, $570,458.
Value of lands, $329,806.
Stock in trade, $7954.
Value of mills, $1850.
Money at interest, $86,154.
Number of sheep, 1940.
Do. neat Stock, 1788.
Do. horses, 301.