
Effingham, New Hampshire, on a map. (SevenMaps/Shutterstock)
Learn about seven funky New Hampshire town names and the fascinating stories behind them.
1. Stark
Though its name might sound basic and bare, this small town in Coos County is anything but. It’s picturesque and steeped in history, starting with its name, which has undergone a few changes since it was made a land grant by King George III in 1774.
Back then, it was called Percy, named after Hugh Percy, the first Duke of Northumberland, and was incorporated as a town in 1795. Five years later, Percy officially became Stark, in honor of New Hampshire’s Revolutionary War hero, General John Stark, soldier and author of the state’s in-your-face motto, “Live Free or Die,” a shortened version of his full quotation: “Live free or die; death is not the worst of evils.” The town also played a role in World War II. It was the site of the state’s only prisoner-of-war camp. Starting in 1944, about 250 German and Austrian soldiers lived at Camp Stark, cutting wood in the town’s forests until it closed two years later.
Today, Stark is home to about 470 residents and is known for its natural beauty and the 1862-built Stark Covered Bridge—a perpetual inspiration for amateur and professional photographers.

This state historical highway marker in Stark shows the spot where the state’s only prisoner-of-war camp was located. (Kevin Craft/Historical Marker Data Base)
2. Dummer
Dummer is a town in the North Country, Coos County. It’s home to about 315 residents, but its forests and Pontook Reservoir on the Androscoggin River are a draw for kayakers and bird watchers from all over.
While its name may sound like a comment on intelligence, its actual source is William Dummer, a Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor of the Massachusetts Bay province. He led what’s known as Dummer’s War (and Lovewell’s War, Father Rale’s War, Greylock’s War, and the Wabanaki-New England War of 1722-1725), a series of battles between the New England Colonies and the Wabanaki Confederacy. Although the land granted was granted in 1773, the town wasn’t incorporated until 1848.

A vintage postcard showing Pontook Pond in Dummer. (Wikimedia Commons)
3. Potter Place
It sounds like something straight out of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” but this New Hampshire village in the Andover area is named after Richard Potter, born to an enslaved mother who became an internationally famous magician, showman, and ventriloquist.
Potter was born in Massachusetts in 1783 and died in the village in 1835 on his 175-acre estate, where he settled with his wife, Sally. They are buried in a small lot on the land maintained by the Andover Historical Society, which holds an annual Potter Place Festival. In 2022, a plaque was installed there on a boulder, and the area is now a part of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire. There is also a New Hampshire historical highway marker on Route 4, which honors Potter and was installed in 1968.
4. Happy Corner
Happy Corner is a section of Pittsburgh, a town on the Canadian border. The spot is best known as the location of the Happy Corner Covered Bridge, which crosses Perry Stream on Hill-Danforth Road. It was built in the mid-19th century and is listed in the World Guide of Covered Bridges as one of the state’s oldest standing covered wooden bridges.
According to NH Tour Guide.com, the bridge got its name from a nearby neighbor who would invite residents to his house to hear music, sing, and dance, creating happy times in the happy corner of town.

The Happy Corner Covered Bridge near Pittsburg, NH. (James Walsh/CC BY-NC 2.0)
5. Sandwich
What do a turkey club and a Lakes Region town in New Hampshire have in common? They’re both named after John Montague, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich.
The town, on the shore of Squam Lake, was chartered in 1763 in honor of the British nobleman, according to Sandwichnh.com. It was considered so inaccessible that the land grant included a large parcel, making it one of the biggest municipalities in the state in terms of acreage (but not occupancy).
The town takes up 94.1 square miles, including 3.3 square miles of water, but is only occupied by 1,540 residents. It’s situated in Carroll County in the Sandwich Range of the White Mountains and is known for the annual agricultural Sandwich Fair, which has been a tradition for 137 years.
6. Hart’s Location
If your heart is in the Granite State, then you probably know where Hart’s Location is. Just in case you don’t, the New Hampshire town, with its 64 residents and a land area of 18.7 square miles, is one of the smallest towns in the state and up until recently, the first town to vote in national elections.
It may be small, but Hart’s Location is big on scenery, including Arethusa Falls, with a 160-foot drop—the state’s highest, according to the White Mountains Visitors Center site. As for that first-in-the-nation primary vote, 2024 was the first time in 28 years that the town didn’t open the polls at midnight because they were concerned that President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race would generate a mountain of write-in ballots, and they didn’t look forward to staying up until 2 a.m. counting them.
Hart’s Location started holding midnight voting 72 years ago. Before that, voting started at 7 a.m., but the time was changed so railroad workers wouldn’t miss out on their civic duty. And while it is tiny in size, the election results were broadcast throughout the country. The media attention was so intense that the election committee stopped the tradition in 1964 but revised it 32 years later.
7. Effingham
Its name may sound a little off-color, but there’s nothing untoward about this picturesque Lakes Region town incorporated two years after the American Revolution began.
This town of 1,400 residents is known for its lush woods, clear lakes and streams, and mountain views. Effingham was also the site of the nation’s first normal school—a college that standardized the education of teachers, which opened in 1830.
This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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