Editing Dummer, New Hampshire (section)

==History==
The town was granted on March 8, 1773, by Governor [[Sir John Wentworth, 1st Baronet|John Wentworth]] to a group of wealthy [[Portsmouth, New Hampshire|Portsmouth]] investors, including his father, Mark Hunking Wentworth, Nathaniel Haven and others.<ref name="books.google.com">[https://books.google.com/books?id=OcoMAAAAYAAJ&dq=coolidge%20mansfield%20history%20description%20new%20england%201859&pg=PA477 Austin J. Coolidge & John B. Mansfield, ''A History and Description of New England;'' Boston, Massachusetts 1859]</ref> He named it after [[Province of Massachusetts Bay|Massachusetts]] Governor [[William Dummer]],<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n109 110]}}</ref> who successfully defended the eastern [[English people|English]] provinces from the [[New France|French]] and [[Native Americans of the United States|Indians]] in [[Dummer's War]].<ref>[http://www.nh.gov/nhes/elmi/htmlprofiles/dummer.html New Hampshire Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau Profile]</ref> But the town remained unsettled until 1812 when William Leighton arrived from [[Farmington, New Hampshire]], with his family. Dummer was incorporated by the [[New Hampshire General Court|General Court]] on December 19, 1848.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nh.searchroots.com/documents/coos-history/History_Dummer_NH.txt |title=Archived copy |access-date=November 13, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080821123435/http://www.nh.searchroots.com/documents/coos-history/History_Dummer_NH.txt |archive-date=August 21, 2008}}</ref>

[[Image:Pontook Pond, Dummer, NH.jpg|thumb|left|Pontook Reservoir in 1908]]
Mountainous terrain and sterility of the soil prevented [[Tillage|cultivation]]. But the region had forests, and the [[Upper Ammonoosuc River]] provided [[water power]] for [[watermill|mills]]. There were two [[sawmill]]s operating by 1859, with a considerable trade in [[timber]].<ref name="books.google.com"/> [[log driving|Log drives]] on the [[Androscoggin River]] supplied the [[papermill]]s downstream in [[Berlin, New Hampshire|Berlin]]. Pontook Dam, which created [[Pontook Reservoir]], was reconstructed in the mid-1980s to generate [[hydroelectric power]].