The town was granted on March 8, 1773, by Governor John Wentworth to a group of wealthy Portsmouth investors, including his father, Mark Hunking Wentworth, Nathaniel Haven and others. He named it after Massachusetts Governor William Dummer, who successfully defended the eastern English provinces from the French and Indians in Dummer's War. But the town remained unsettled until 1812 when William Leighton arrived from Farmington, New Hampshire, with his family. Dummer was incorporated by the General Court on December 19, 1848.
Dummer was classed with Stark for the election of representatives till 1873. The district meeting having been holden in Stark the preceding year, the duties of warning the meeting devolved upon the selectmen of Dummer. On reaching the place where a copy of the warrant was usually posted in Stark, they found a copy of the warrant for the annual townmeeting already posted, containing an article to elect a representative; after a brief consultation they returned, and inserted an article in the warrant for the town-meeting in Dummer to choose a representative. The
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History of Coos County, New Hampshire .1888 · page 854Read the page →
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The town of Dummer, surveyed by A. Baker in 1806, is laid out in square form, each outline measuring 2,100 rods, running nearly north and south, east and west. After the survey, three lots were marked on the plan as -'glebe lots," three lots for the "first settlers," three for the "first ministers," and three for the benefit of schools. Having finished the survey the proprietors decided to open a settlement, and for this purpose
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (5), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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