Template:Wp-Wakefield, New Hampshire-History

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Initially a native settlement, Wakefield was attacked by John Lovewell during Father Rale's War. Settled later by colonists from Dover and Somersworth, the town was granted in 1749 by John Mason. It was called "East Town" before being incorporated as Wakefield in 1774 by Governor John Wentworth. Wakefield, in Yorkshire, England, is near Wentworth Castle, the home of the Wentworth ancestors.

The New Hampshire town developed as an important sledge and stage stop between the seacoast and the White Mountains. The Wakefield Inn, built in 1804 beside the principal trade route through Wakefield Corner, remains operating today.

Although the soil was considered "stubborn", farmers made it productive. Lumber became a chief product, and by 1859 there were five sawmills, five gristmills, and ten shingle, clapboard and planing mills. Shoemaking was another local industry.^[1] When the Portsmouth, Great Falls and Conway Railroad arrived in 1871, the center of Wakefield shifted from Wakefield Corner to Sanbornville, which today remains the retail district of town.