<P> The area that would become Concord was originally settled thousands of years ago by Abenaki Native Americans called the Pennacook . The tribe fished for migrating salmon, sturgeon, and alewives with nets strung across the rapids of the Merrimack River . The stream was also the transportation route for their birch bark canoes, which could travel from Lake Winnipesaukee to the Atlantic Ocean . The broad sweep of the Merrimack River valley floodplain provided good soil for farming beans, gourds, pumpkins, melons and maize . </P> <P> On January 17, 1725, the Province of Massachusetts Bay, which then claimed territories west of the Merrimack River, granted the Concord area as the Plantation of Penacook . It was settled between 1725 and 1727 by Captain Ebenezer Eastman and others from Haverhill, Massachusetts . On February 9, 1734, the town was incorporated as Rumford, from which Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford would take his title . It was renamed Concord in 1765 by Governor Benning Wentworth following a bitter boundary dispute between Rumford and the town of Bow; the city name was meant to reflect the new concord, or harmony, between the disputant towns . Citizens displaced by the resulting border adjustment were given land elsewhere as compensation . In 1779, New Pennacook Plantation was granted to Timothy Walker, Jr. and his associates at what would be incorporated in 1800 as Rumford, Maine, the site of Pennacook Falls . </P> <P> Concord grew in prominence throughout the 18th century, and some of its earliest houses survive at the northern end of Main Street . In the years following the Revolution, Concord's central geographical location made it a logical choice for the state capital, particularly after Samuel Blodget in 1807 opened a canal and lock system to allow vessels passage around the Amoskeag Falls downriver, connecting Concord with Boston by way of the Middlesex Canal . In 1808, Concord was named the official seat of state government . The 1819 State House is the oldest capitol in the nation in which the state's legislative branches meet in their original chambers . The city would become noted for furniture - making and granite quarrying . In 1828, Lewis Downing joined J. Stephens Abbot to form Abbot and Downing . Their most famous coach was the Concord Coach, modeled after the coronation coach of King George III . In the 19th century, Concord became a hub for the railroad industry, with Penacook a textile manufacturing center using water power from the Contoocook River . Today, the city is a center for health care and several insurance companies . It is also home to Concord Litho, one of the largest independently owned commercial printing companies in the country . </P> <Ul> <Li> <P> First Concord Bridge, 1795 </P> </Li> <Li> <P> State House c. 1906 </P> </Li> <Li> <P> Main Street c. 1908 </P> </Li> <Li> <P> City Hall in 1913 </P> </Li> <Li> <P> Old Library c. 1915 </P> </Li> </Ul>

Why is concord the capital of new hampshire