Editing Benton, New Hampshire (section)

==History==
The town was granted by Governor [[Benning Wentworth]] on January 31, 1764, to Theophilus Fitch and others.<ref name="1875Benton">[http://gedcomindex.com/Reference/New_Hampshire_1875/066.html Article in ''Statistics and Gazetteer of New-Hampshire'' (1875)]</ref> It was named "Coventry" after [[Coventry, Connecticut]], hometown to many of the settlers, who arrived shortly after the beginning of the [[American Revolution|Revolution]].<ref name="books.google.com">[https://books.google.com/books?id=OcoMAAAAYAAJ&dq=coolidge%20mansfield%20history%20description%20new%20england%201859&pg=PA422 Austin J. Coolidge & John B. Mansfield, ''A History and Description of New England;'' Boston, Massachusetts 1859]</ref> At the suggestion of Governor [[Isaac Hill]], the name was changed on December 4, 1840, to Benton,<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.nh.searchroots.com/documents/grafton/History_Benton_NH.txt |last=Child |first=Hamilton |title=Gazetteer of Grafton County, N.H., 1709-1886 |oclc=1045603861 |page=148}}</ref> in honor of [[Thomas Hart Benton (politician)|Thomas Hart Benton]], the [[Missouri]] senator who championed [[manifest destiny|American westward expansion]].

With a rough and mountainous terrain, the town was not suited for [[agriculture]]. But Benton had [[water power]] sites and abundant forests. By 1859, when the population was 478, there were five [[sawmill]]s producing a large quantity of [[lumber]]. The Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad ran through the town, which once included the village of [[Glencliff, New Hampshire|Glencliff]].<ref name="books.google.com"/>

Atop [[Mount Moosilauke]] in 1860 was built the Prospect House, later renamed the Tip Top House, a stone hotel with accommodations for 35 [[hiking|hikers]]. A [[carriage]] road was built to the summit in 1870, so the hotel was enlarged in 1872 to accommodate 50 guests. In 1920, the hotel and land were given to [[Dartmouth College]], but in 1942, the Tip Top House burned.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/chronicleswhite01kilbgoog/page/n320 <!-- pg=255 quote=Tip Top House, Mount Moosilauke, New Hampshire. --> Frederick Wilkinson Kilbourne, ''Chronicles of the White Mountains;'' Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York 1916]</ref>