Hinsdale is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,948 at the 2020 census. member of a prominent Deerfield, Massachusetts, family, whose mother had been taken captive in the famed Raid on Deerfield of 1704. Graduated from Harvard, Hinsdale was ordained to become a missionary for Indians of the Connecticut River Valley. Instead, he would serve as chaplain at Fort Dummer, an important trading post on the Connecticut River, later enlisting as an officer in the army. Then, in 1742, he established Fort Hinsdale, including a trading post and gristmill, reportedly at his own expense. The town's earliest history recounts Indian assaults, raids and captivities.

Located beside the Connecticut River and connected to Brattleboro, Vermont, by bridge, Hinsdale contains excellent farmland, but has been a significant center of industry as well, especially in the manufacture of paper. Tobacco was grown in Hinsdale through the 19th century. In a machine shop here, George A. Long built a self-propelled steam vehicle in 1875, the Long steam tricycle, for which he received one of the nation's earliest automobile patents. The Hinsdale post office, located on Main Street, is the oldest continually-operating in the same building post office in the United States.

From 1959 to 2008, the town was home to the Hinsdale Greyhound Park. In 2023, Geoffrey Holt, a caretaker of a mobile home park, left the town $3.8 million to be used for education, health, recreation, and culture.

Geography

Hinsdale is in the southwestern corner of New Hampshire, bordered to the west across the Connecticut River by Vermont and to the south by Massachusetts. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which are land and are water, comprising 9.42% of the town.

Hinsdale is served by state routes 63 and 119.

Adjacent municipalities

  • Chesterfield (north)
  • Winchester (east)
  • Northfield, Massachusetts (south)
  • Vernon, Vermont (southwest)
  • Brattleboro, Vermont (northwest)

Demographics

As of the census of 2010, there were 4,046 people, 1,681 households, and 1,093 families residing in the town. There were 1,827 housing units, of which 146, or 8.0%, were vacant. The racial makeup of the town was 96.5% white, 0.5% African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.5% Asian, 0.3% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 0.3% some other race, and 1.6% from two or more races. 1.4% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Of the 1,681 households, 29.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.5% were headed by married couples living together, 10.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.0% were non-families. 26.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.8% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.41, and the average family size was 2.85.

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Image:General View, Hinsdale, NH.jpg|General view in 1908

Image:Old Checkered House, Hinsdale, NH.jpg|Checkered House

Image:Bird's-eye View of Hinsdale, NH.jpg|Bird's-eye view in 1906

Image:The Haile & Frost Mill, Hinsdale, NH.jpg|Haile & Frost Mill in 1907

Image:Brightwood Mills, Hinsdale, NH.jpg|Scene at Brightwood Mills in 1908

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Notable people

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  • Elisha Andrews (1844–1917), economist, educator
  • William Babcock (1785–1838), US congressman
  • Charles Anderson Dana (1819–1897), journalist, government official
  • Jacob Estey (1814–1890), manufacturer of reed organs
  • William Haile (1807–1876), 26th Governor of New Hampshire
  • Geoffrey Holt (1941–2023), philanthropist
  • Joey R. Hood (1974-) U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia
  • Henry Hooker (1828–1907), Arizona pioneer
  • Phil Labonte (born 1975), lead singer of All That Remains, Free Stater
  • Robert Merrill Lee (1909–2003), general; Supreme Allied Commander Europe
  • Anna Marsh (–1834), established the Vermont Asylum of the Insane (1834)
  • William E. Roberts (1926–2025), member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives

References

  • Hinsdale Public Library
  • New Hampshire Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau Profile
  • Pisgah State Park