Editing Rochester, New Hampshire (section)

===Growth through the 19th century===
Mail service was established in 1768 when a post rider traveled from [[Portsmouth, New Hampshire|Portsmouth]] through [[Berwick, Maine|Berwick]], [[Dover, New Hampshire|Dover]] and Rochester bringing [[gazette]]s. In 1792 this improved when Joseph Paine would deliver and pick up mail once a week. When he arrived in town a horn would blow to inform the town of his presence. A regular post office was established on March 26, 1812, in the Barke Tavern. The first postmaster in Rochester was William Barker.

[[Image:Cocheco River and Rochester 6.JPG|thumb|left|The [[Cocheco River]] provided power for the city's early factories and mills.]]
The first large business was [[lumber]]ing, although it would be overtaken by other industries as Rochester developed into a [[mill town]] with the [[Cochecho River]] to provide [[water power]]. In 1806, six [[Tanning (leather)|tanneries]] were operating, along with a [[sawmill]], [[fulling]] mill, and two [[gristmill]]s. By the 1820s–1830s, the town had a [[cabinetry|cabinet maker]] and [[clockmaker]]. The Mechanics Company was established in 1834, producing [[woolen]] blankets that won the premium quality award at the [[Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations|1853 New York World's Fair]]. The Norway Plains Woolen Company manufactured blankets used by the [[Union Army]] in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], and in 1870 wove {{convert|1600000|yd|m|-5}} of [[textile]]s, but by century's end was out of business. Shoe manufacturing had surpassed textiles as Rochester's dominant industry by 1880.<ref name="Industry Grows">Martha Fowler, "The shoemaking history in Rochester: The industry grows", ''Foster's Daily Democrat'', May 21, 2009; http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090521/GJCOMMUNITY04/705219851/0/SEARCH</ref>

In 1854, the E.G. & E. Wallace Shoe Company was established, eventually becoming the city's largest employer, with over 700 workers in 1901. Its name changed to the Rochester Shoe Corporation in the 1920s. The Wallace brothers died in the 1890s,<ref name="fosters.com">Martha Fowler, "One foot at a time: The E. G. & E. Wallace Company", ''Foster's Daily Democrat'', May 18, 2009 http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090518/GJBUSINESS_01/705189994</ref> and other shoe factories opened, including Perkins, Linscott & Company (later the Linscott, Tyler, Wilson Company) off Wakefield Street and N. B. Thayer & Company, Inc., in East Rochester.<ref name="Industry Grows"/> In the early twentieth century, more people were employed in shoe manufacturing than in all other local industries combined. Rochester contributed to New Hampshire's position as the nation's third largest shoe-producing state.<ref name="fosters.com"/> The Kessel Fire Brick Company was established in 1889, and at one time [[brickmaking|bricks]] for new buildings at [[Harvard University]] were made in Gonic. Carrying the freight were four railroads that once passed through Rochester, a major [[junction (rail)|junction]] between [[Haverhill, Massachusetts]], and [[Portland, Maine]]. Agriculture continued to be important, and in 1875 the Rochester Fair was established. In 1891, Rochester was incorporated as a city.

The first telephone was installed in 1885 in the K.C. Sanborn Drug Store. The phone was connected to the Dover Telephone Exchange. By the early 1900s there were 1,200 local calls and 400 toll calls a day made from Rochester.

In 1889 and 1900 Jonas Spaulding and his three sons Leon, [[Huntley N. Spaulding|Huntley]], and [[Rolland H. Spaulding|Rolland]], built a leatherboard mill at [[North Rochester, New Hampshire|North Rochester]]. Jonas died before the mill became operational, but his three sons ran it well in co-partnership and expanded the company nationally and internationally. Leon Cummings Spaulding served as the J Spaulding and Sons Company president after his father's death.

During the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]], however, several industries left for cheaper operating conditions in the [[Southern United States|South]] or went [[bankruptcy|bankrupt]]. But the affluent mill era left behind fine architecture, including the Rochester Public Library, a [[List of Carnegie libraries in New Hampshire|Carnegie Library]] designed by the [[Concord, New Hampshire|Concord]] architects [[Randlett & Griffin]].