Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University. / Harrisville is a small and attractive mill town in the highlands of southwestern New Hampshire, a town with a history quite different from those of its rural neighbors. Although its original settlement antedated the Revolution, Harrisville emerged as an entity only in the nineteenth century. It was incorporated in 1870, when it was carved out of the towns of Dublin and Nelson. Its numerous ponds and fast-flowing Goose Brook were vital elements in its growth. At the end of the eighteenth century, two small shops were built which carded wool and fulled woolen cloth with machines driven by water-power. As was typical in the development of the American woolen manufacture, these small enterprises led to the building of a complete woolen mill in 1823. Its owner was Bethuel Harris, whose father had come to Nelson after the Revolution. When Bethuel built his mill and moved his large family into a new home close by, the village began to grow in earnest. [TRUNCATED]