Henniker: The Only One on Earth

Henniker wears its distinction lightly. It is, as residents and every sign coming into town will tell you, the only Henniker on Earth. The town was chartered in seventeen sixty-eight and named for Sir John Henniker, a British merchant and friend of New Hampshire's royal governor John Wentworth.

Wentworth was in the habit of naming towns for his associates in high places, a useful practice for securing their support. Before it was Henniker the place was called Todd's Town and then New Marlborough. The town grew slowly as a farming community along the Contoocook River, later gaining a modest manufacturing presence.

New England College, established here in nineteen forty-six, has been the largest single presence in the local economy for generations. But the name is what travelers remember.