Welcome to Benton

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“Welcome to Benton”

As we drove through the White Mountains in rural New Hampshire, we noticed this one room abandoned schoolhouse on the side of the road.
As we took a look inside, it seemed we walked into a history book; with many of the artifacts inside left untouched for decades. Many of the books on the shelf were written in the late 1900’s and were in fairly good condition for how old they all were.

I tried to research this school and was unable to find anything online. As for the town itself, Benton was founded in 1764 and was originally named Coventry. This was in honor of Coventry, Connecticut, which was the hometown of the first settlers who arrived before the Revolutionary War.
The town name changed to Benton in 1840, in respect of Thomas Hart Benton, the Missouri Senator who was influential in America’s westward expansion.

In present day, Benton has around 250 residents and has the largest land area of any New Hampshire small town.