Monadnock Moment No. 163

Era 6: Development of the Industrial United States
           1870 to 1900

Hampshire Water

Mineral springs and spas were quite popular from the mid to late 1800s. Their waters were advertised as cures for a wide variety of physical ailments. The Monadnock Region was the home of commercial springs in Temple, Unity, and West Keene. A fourth spring was located in Swanzey. George W. Eastman bottled and sold Hampshire Water from his farm along the shores of Wilson Pond in North Swanzey. Eastman was a prominent farmer who supplied large amounts of vegetables to Keene markets. In the 1880s he also began to bottle and sell water from the spring on his farm.

He advertised the water as the "most delicious of table waters," which had been "declared absolutely healthful" by the official water tester of Massachusetts. The water contained iron and soda. The advertisements suggested that if you were suffering from poor digestion or were just plain "tuckered out," you should send for a case of the water. Hampshire Water was sold by the case in quart or pint size bottles. The water was recommended by leading physicians and its "strengthening and invigorating" powers would clear up any digestion problems one might have. It was available at Bullard and Foster's drugstore in Keene or through agents in New York.

Many people travel along Route 32 in North Swanzey every day, but very few realize that they are passing the site of George Eastman's successful Hampshire Water mineral spring.