Dunbarton, is a town in
Merrimack County-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 136,225 people, 51,843 households, and 35,460 families residing in the county. The population density was 146 people per square mile . There were 56,244 housing units at an average density of 60 per square mile...
,
New HampshireNew Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 2,758 at the 2010 census.
History
Originally granted as Gorham's-town in 1735, and re-granted as Starkstown in 1748, the town was incorporated in 1765 as Dunbarton. The name came from
DunbartonshireDunbartonshire or the County of Dumbarton is a lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Until 1975 it was a county used as a primary unit of local government with its county town and administrative centre at the town...
in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, hometown to Archibald Stark, a prominent settler.
Notable inhabitants
- Robert Lowell
Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV was an American poet, considered the founder of the confessional poetry movement. He was appointed the sixth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress where he served from 1947 until 1948...
, prominent American poet, buried in Stark Cemetery
- Robert Rogers (soldier)
Robert Rogers was an American colonial frontiersman. Rogers served in the British army during both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution...
, commander of Rogers' RangersRogers' Rangers was an independent company of colonial militia, attached to the British Army during the Seven Years War . The unit was informally trained by Major Robert Rogers as a rapidly deployable light infantry force tasked with reconnaissance and conducting special operations against distant...
during the French and Indian WarThe French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
Geography
According to the
United States Census BureauThe United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the town has a total area of 31.4 square miles (81.3 km²), of which 30.9 sq mi (80 km²) is land and 0.5 sq mi (1.3 km²) is water, comprising 1.50% of the town. The highest point in Dunbarton is 925 feet (281.9 m) above
sea levelMean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
near
NH Route 13New Hampshire Route 13 is a long north–south state highway in the state of New Hampshire, United States. The highway runs from Brookline to Concord....
north of Dunbarton Center. Dunbarton lies fully within the
Merrimack RiverThe Merrimack River is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Massachusetts, and then flows northeast until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport...
watershedA drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
.
Demographics
As of the
censusA census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 2,226 people, 814 households, and 648 families residing in the town. The
population densityPopulation density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 72.1 people per square mile (27.8/km²). There were 858 housing units at an average density of 27.8 per square mile (10.7/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 98.43% White, 0.09% African American, 0.45% Native American, 0.45% Asian, 0.04% from
other racesRace and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 0.54% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.31% of the population.
There were 814 households out of which 39.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 73.8% were
married couplesMarriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 3.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 20.3% were non-families. 14.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 3.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.03.
In the town the population was spread out with 27.5% under the age of 18, 4.0% from 18 to 24, 34.8% from 25 to 44, 26.6% from 45 to 64, and 7.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 102.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.6 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $65,081, and the median income for a family was $67,448. Males had a median income of $46,042 versus $31,641 for females. The
per capita incomePer capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the town was $27,892. About 2.3% of families and 2.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.4% of those under age 18 and 4.9% of those age 65 or over.
External links