The town was chartered by
Massachusetts Governor
Jonathan Belcher in 1735 as one in a line of nine forts intended to protect southwestern New Hampshire from
Indian attack. It was granted as "Newton" or "Newtown" in 1752 by Governor
Benning Wentworth, but would be incorporated in 1763 as Alstead. It was named for
Johann Heinrich Alsted, who compiled an early
encyclopedia that was popular at
Harvard College. Settled about 1764, Alstead would be one of the towns that wavered in its allegiance after the
Revolutionary War. It decided to join
Vermont in April 1781, but at the insistence of
George Washington, returned to New Hampshire authority early the next year. Formerly known as "Paper Mill Village", Alstead is the location of one of the state's first paper mills. It was established in 1793 on the
Cold River by Ephraim and Elisha Kingsbury. Paper was then a rare and expensive product, made by chopping rags of
linen and
cotton cloth into pulp. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1880. While Alstead was basically an
agricultural community, its streams and ponds once powered a variety of small mills. A turbine water mill at East Alstead is probably the last of its type anywhere in the region.
Shedd-Porter Memorial Library, built in 1909–1910 in the
Beaux-Arts style, was a gift to Alstead and
Langdon by native son
John G. Shedd, president of
Marshall Field's department store in
Chicago. Another native son
philanthropist, Charles M. Vilas, gave a large public recreation area, school building and the only
carillon in Cheshire County. On the weekend of October 8–9, 2005, parts of Alstead were devastated by a severe flood. Heavy rain in Cheshire County—at least in a 30-hour period—caused the Cold River and its tributaries to swell. The streamflows, which were swollen by the surge of water from Warren Brook, exceeded a 500-year recurrence interval. The storm created major property damage in Alstead, Langdon, and
Walpole along the Cold River and Warren Brook. It washed away homes, cars, and of
Route 123. Four inhabitants of the town were killed. A
Save Our History grant from
The History Channel provided funding to the Alstead Historical Society and several students of the local high school, who wrote and printed a book called
Too Much Water, Too Much Rain, chronicling the disaster and its aftermath. Image:Langdon Road, Alstead, NH.jpg|Langdon Road in 1910 Image:Street Scene, Alstead, NH.jpg|Street scene Image:Lake Warren, East Alstead, NH.jpg|Lake Warren in 1910 ==Geography==