Editing Roxbury, New Hampshire (section)

== History ==

The smallest town in Cheshire County, Roxbury was incorporated in 1812 from portions of [[Nelson, New Hampshire|Nelson]], [[Marlborough, New Hampshire|Marlborough]], and [[Keene, New Hampshire|Keene]]. By then, settlers had established agriculture among the rolling hillsides in the area, and a community had developed at what is now called Roxbury Center. It was a "hill farm" community with some scattered small mills. Roxbury's [[granite]] [[Quarry|quarries]], among the most extensive in the Granite State at the time, provided some of the stone for the capitol building of [[New York (state)|New York]] in [[Albany, New York|Albany]].

Much of Roxbury was abandoned in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], as a very high percentage of its male population was killed in battle. Other residents left after the Civil War to seek a better life in local mill villages or in the American [[Midwest]]. [[Otter Brook (Ashuelot River tributary)|Otter Brook]] Lake, constructed by the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|Army Corps of Engineers]] in 1956–1958 to control flooding in the [[Ashuelot River|Ashuelot]] and [[Connecticut River]] valleys, occupies part of the town's western boundary.