Formed January 1, 1769 (1st county)
Cheshire County (76,455), Keene (23,037)
The Modern red brick 2013 courthouse replaced an 1859 courthouse. It is at Winter and Court streets. New Hampshire State Highway 9 passes six blocks to the west of the site. Northeast Colaborative Architects provided the designs. The Annex built in 1979 for the old courthouse is still in use. The county is an original county created on January 1, 1769. Keene has always been the county seat. The county is named for Cheshire, England. Keene is named for Sir Benjamin Keene, friend of the governor. Cheshire County was the birthplace for 2 New Hampshire Governors, Samuel Dinsmoor Jr., and Francis P. Murphy.
Cheshire County government consists of a sheriff, an administrator, an attorney, and a clerk (executive). It has 3 Commissioners and 23 Delegates (legislative.) Four Circuit Court Judges serve Cheshire County (judicial.) The county is in the southwest corner of the state on the border with border Vermont and Massachusetts. Manchester, New Hampshire is east and Springfield, Massachusetts is southwest of the county. The county center is 3 miles East-Southeast of Keene. The county is surrounded clockwise by Sullivan and Hillsborough counties and Massachusetts and Vermont.
The area of the county is 708 square miles. It is 6 out of 10 in the state. It ranks 6 out of 10 in population in the state. It has a density of 108.0 persons per square mile making it 6 out of 10 in the state. Cheshire County has 30.1% of its population in its incorporated areas. United States Highway 202 clips the southeast corner of the county from Hillsborough County, east, to Massachusetts, south. The county resembles the State of Ohio lying on its east side. Keene is located near the center of the county. Keene is the county seat and, as the only incorporated city, it is the largest city. It is 30.1% of the county population. The county is pronounced CHE-SHUR. This county is in the Keene Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Keene
