Book excerpt: Amesbury tells the story of an extraordinary town with an unusually broad manufacturing history. Settled eighteen years after the Pilgrims landed, and chartered in 1668, Amesbury's earliest industries included mills, shipyards, and a busy ferry operation. Amesbury is extremely rich in meticulously preserved Victorian homes, and the four miles of Merrimack River riverfront that wrap along Amesbury's Point Shore area provide a remarkably beautiful year-round panorama. Amesbury's links to the past include the great statesman Josiah Bartlett and poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who penned his best works here, as well as poets Harriet Prescott Spofford and Robert Frost.