Prior to European settlement, the area that is now Somersworth was central-south
Abenaki land. These
Algonquian speaking peoples of the
Wabanaki Confederacy lived along what they called
Newichwanook, now the
Salmon Falls River. Colonists from Britain arriving before 1700 named the area "Sligo", after
Sligo in
Ireland and settled there as a part of
Dover. The community was organized in 1729 as the parish of "Summersworth", meaning "summer town", because during that season the ministers preached there. It was set off and incorporated in 1754 by colonial governor
Benning Wentworth, and until 1849 included
Rollinsford. A clerical error at incorporation contracted the name to "Somersworth". It was incorporated as a city in 1893, before which it was also known as "Great Falls". Situated where the
Salmon Falls River drops over a mile, Somersworth early became a
mill town, beginning with
gristmills and
sawmills. In 1822, the brothers Isaac and Jacob Wendell of
Boston purchased for $5,000 a gristmill with its water rights at the Great Falls. They established the Great Falls Manufacturing Company, a
textile business that expanded to include three mills for
spinning thread and
weaving cotton and woolen fabrics, specializing in "drillings, shirtings and sheetings". Throughout the 19th century, other expansive brick mill buildings, including a
bleachery and
dye works, were erected beside the river. The bleachery became the longest running textile operation in Somersworth. The building housed the operations that took the buff-colored fabric produced in the seven mills and transformed it into a sparkling white material that could be dyed or printed according to the buyer's wishes. The gate house at the dam directed water as needed, regulating the flow either into the river or a company canal, which itself had gates sending it under the mill.
Water power turned the wheels and belts that operated mill machinery. The railroad arrived in the early 1840s, before which goods were carted to Dover. At first, millworkers came from surrounding farms, including those in
Berwick, Maine, directly across the bridge, many of whom were women. But as the need for labor grew, immigrants arrived from
Ireland, and later
Quebec. Brick
tenement row houses were rented by the company to employee families, many of whose members worked in the mills beside their parents before passage of
child labor laws. For relaxation, workers found entertainment at the Opera House or at Central Park, an
amusement park beside Willand Pond. In the early 1870s, the
Portsmouth, Great Falls & Conway Railroad began excursions to the
White Mountains. The Electric Street Railway came in 1890, allowing
trolley rides to
York Beach, Maine. In 1922, Somersworth was affected by the
1922 New England Textile Strike, shutting down the mills in the city over an attempted wage cut and hours increase. But the
New England textile industry went into decline later in the 20th century. Water power was replaced with newer forms of energy, and cotton could be manufactured where it grew, saving transportation costs. Labor was also cheaper in the
South, which did not have
New Hampshire's
inventory tax that levied commodities like coal and cotton at the plants. The
Great Depression sent many regional textile firms into
bankruptcy, when some local facilities were adapted for
shoemaking. The Great Falls Manufacturing Company's big mill was renovated for other uses in the 1980s, although the bleachery suffered a devastating fire in November 2003, which required assistance from 23 fire departments from New Hampshire and
Maine. Aclara Technologies operates a factory (previously owned by
General Electric Company) that manufactures electric meters for the energy business. Somersworth's heyday was during the mill era. Although frequently overshadowed by the larger neighboring cities of Dover and
Rochester, Somersworth retains a quantity of
Victorian architecture from its prosperous age. Some antique residences, most notably within the historic district known as "The Hill", have been restored. The municipality is today largely a
bedroom community for other cities and the
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The upper end of High Street, however, continues to develop as a retail center, with several
big-box chain stores. One ship of the
United States Navy was named after the city; the was a
PCE-842-class patrol craft. Commissioned in April 1944, it was named after the city in February 1956, and remained in service until decommissioned in September 1965. The ship was present at the
surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay at the end of
World War II. File:The Opera House, Somersworth, NH.jpg|Opera House File:Somersworth station 1907 postcard.jpg|R. R. Station File:Mill No. 1, Somersworth, NH.jpg|Mill No. 1 File:Salmon Falls River from Somersworth, NH.jpg|Salmon Falls River , looking to Berwick, Maine File:USS_Somersworth_(PCE(R)-849).jpg|USS
Somersworth ==Geography==