The community was granted as Upper Ashuelot in 1735 by Colonial Governor Jonathan Belcher to soldiers who had fought in the war against Canada. Settled after 1736, it was intended to be a fort town protecting the Province of Massachusetts Bay during the French and Indian Wars. When New Hampshire separated from Massachusetts in 1741, the border between the two shifted south, and Upper Ashuelot became part of New Hampshire. During King George's War, the village was attacked and burned by Native Americans in the United StatesIndians. Colonists fled to safety, but would return to rebuild in the early 1750s. It was regranted to its inhabitants in 1753 by Governor Benning Wentworth, who renamed it Keene after Sir Benjamin Keene, EnglandEnglish minister to Spain and a West Indies trader. Located at the center of Cheshire County, it became county seat in 1769. Land was set off for Sullivan, New HampshireSullivan and Roxbury, New HampshireRoxbury, although Keene would annex 154 acres from Swanzey, New HampshireSwanzey (formerly Lower Ashuelot). Timothy Dwight IVTimothy Dwight, the Yale CollegeYale president who chronicled his travels, called the town "...one of the prettiest in New England." Situated on an ancient lake bed surrounded by hills, the valley with fertile field (agriculture)meadows was excellent for farming. The Ashuelot River provided water power for sawmills, gristmills and tanningtanneries. After the railroad arrived in 1848, numerous other industries were established. Keene became a manufacturing center for wooden-ware, pails, chairs, sash windowsash, window shuttershutters, doors, pottery, glass, soap, woolen textiles, shoes, saddles, mowing machines, carriages and sleighs. It also had a brickbrickyard and foundry. Keene was incorporated as a city in 1874, and by 1880 had a population of 6,784. New England manufacturing declined in the 20th century, however, particularly during the Great Depression. Keene is today a center for insurance, education and tourism. The city nevertheless retains a considerable inventory of fine Victorian architectureVictorian architecture from its flush mill town era. An example is the Keene Public Library, which occupies a Second Empire mansion built about 1869 by manufacturer Henry Colony. Image:Griffin Estate, Keene, NH.jpgGriffin Estate in c. 1908 Image:The Square, Keene, NH.jpgCentral Square in 1907 Image:West Street in Winter, Keene, NH.jpgWest Street in 1910 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keene%2C_New_Hampshire