Lawrence City (part 1 of 6)

Concerning The City

A CONCISE HISTORY OF LAWRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS-HER INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS ; MUNICIPAL STATISTICS AND A VARIETY OF INFORMATION CONCERNING THE CITY

Preface

In the preparation of this work, I have endeavored to produce a liistorical reference book, giving a compact story of the founding of Lawrence and its development up to the present day. The table of contents has been laid out in a manner that should make it easy for the reader or student of local history to find information relative to any particular phase or period of the life of the community. I have been painstaking in my search for facts, and I am confident that what is printed will prove reliable.

Much has been written about the early history of the city. The story of its conception and early development has been graphically told by able writers. But, little has been written, in a permanent form, about the activities of the last quarter of a century, during which the most marked progress has been made. In covering this great constructive period, attention has been given to all the important happenings. To many of the present residents the story is familiar; to the more recent comers it should prove instructive, as I hope (it will be to future generations. To those outside our gates, who read, it may be convincing of the city's enterprise and progress, and its advantages.

In the research pertaining to the early history of Lawrence, valuable assistance was obtained by reference to Hayes' and Wads worth's histories, and also to the historical sketches by the late Hon. Robert H. Tewksbury. I am deeply indebted to Mrs. R. H. Tewksbury for her co-operation in permitting recourse to Mr. Tewksbury's last manuscript on Lawrence. Thereby, I have been enabled to clear up a number of inconsistencies that have appeared, besides securing some interesting facts in regard to the early days, which have not hitherto been printed.

I wish to express my thanks to Charles H. Littlefield, William T. Kimball and Arthur. D. Marble, all of whom are well versed in the early history of the city, and who gave valuable counsel ; to Charles F. Hill who was associated with me in the beginning of the research ; to William A. Walsh, the public librarian,! for many courtesies extended ; also, to the industrial, banking and mercantile enterprises, and public-spirited men wdiose co-operation made it possible to produce the work.

Contents 5

Population, Valuation, Tax Rate. etc. > Selectmen of Lawrence Town and City Clerks Mayors of Lawrence Town and City Auditors Superintendents of Schools '' Aldermen of Lawrence

Indian History And Traditions

One looking down from the encompassing hills upon the hive of industry, that is Lawrence today, can hardly imagine that a few generations past, the Red men roamed the territory within the city limits, now so densely populated by whites. Yet, it was not so very long ago that Indians camped on both sides of the river.

Reliable history of man in this vicinity begins with the Indians. The Merrimack River ( Menomack by the Indians, from ]\Iena, an island, and awke, a place, because of the number of beautiful islands in the river) furnished a locality attractive to the Indians who were great admirers of the beauties of nature. Along its banks was a favorable resort for their mode of life. There was plenty of fish in the river and numerous streams running into it ; the light land near the water was suitable for cultivation of corn and beans, and the forests afforded abundant game.

At the time of the first settlements upon the Merrimack River the most powerful and important tribe along its banks was the Pennacooks. Their headquarters were on the river near where Concord, N. H., is now built. Their great chief was Passaconnaway. He had conqviered and subdued all tribes on the river, and all in some manner paid tribute to him. The Agawams inhabited the river east below tidewater, having their homes from the Merrimack to the Cape. The Pentuckets ow-ned and occupied the Merrimack from "Little River" in Haverhill to Pawtucket Falls at Lowell ; then came the Wamesits, Nashua, Souhegan, Namoskeag, Winnipesaukee and several other tribes.

There is no evidence showing that any particular tribe had a home in Methuen, or what is now North Lawrence, but it is certain that Bodwell's Falls (then situated a short distance above the present Lawrence dam), and the shores of the Spicket River were favorite resorts, especially in the fishing season. On the Andover side, a company of Pentuckets had a settlement near Cochichewick Brook. Some writers have located the ancient seat of the Agawams at Bodwell's Falls, and to this place came to reside the daughter of Passaconnaway, who was wedded to Winnepurket. a sachem of Saugus and who has been characterized by one writer as the "dog of the marshes". It turned out to be an unhappy union and war might have resulted, had not the "pale faces" appeared upon the stage at this time and diverted attention from tribal troubles.

Passaconnaway proved a friend of the first white settlers and desired peace. The residents along the river were never disturbed by Indian depredations during his life. He resigned his power as Grand Sachem of the tribes in 1660 to Wonolancet. about 20 years after the first white settlements upon the river. After Passaconnaway's death a war sprang up between the Indians and the whites which was waged at intervals till the year 1696. During these years the settlers of Andover had much trouble wnth the Indians.

It was on the extreme southern border of Lawrence that a band of northern warriors were discovered when about to fall upon and destroy Andover settlements. As late as 1722, seventy-eight years after the settlement of Andover, we find the town voting money to repair block-houses protecting "Shawsheen Fields" (South Lawrence). The severest Indian raids upon Andover settlers were nearly 50 years after settlement.

Local writers of early history have told us of an Indian village on Pine Island, and within very recent years their places of sepulchre on the Shattuck farm in West Andover have been desecrated in the hunt for skeletons as well as stone implements which the Indians were accustomed to bury with their dead. They had a factory for arrow points among the sand dunes where the Wood mills now stand, and quantities of their chips, the waste product of their manufacture, could be picked up there before the great mills covered the grounds.

That the Indians undoubtedly found this locality favorable, not only for fish and game, but for the tilling of the sandy fields for their supply of corn is evident. Speaking of this phase of Indian activity, Arthur D. Marble, the present city engineer, says that when he made the survey of Den Rock Cemetery in 1876 he w^as accompanied by two members of the Peters family in whose possession the land had been since white men first settled here. Back of the rock on a gentle slope to the southeast, towards the little brook which runs through the valley, he was shown an old Indian corn field. The little hills were as pronounced and unmistakable as though it w^as but a year or so ago that the Indian squaw, with her crude stone hoe, piled up the earth around the tender blades.

On the south bank of the river were the Indian burial grounds, one at the western limit of the city near Laurel grove, already mentioned, and another for their chieftains just east of Cold spring, through which South Union street now runs. To this crude sepulchre of savages, wandering Indians have made pilgrimages, within the memory of man now living. The burial ground on Shattuck's farm, just below the old steamer landing at Laurel grove, was extensive. Whether a battlefield, a burial site in the days of pestilence (when ninety percent, of the savages died and Merrimack valley became a vast charnel house), or a usual place of burial, is not known.

There is a tradition that Tower Hill was an important outlook or signal station in Indian warfare ; that from the summit smoke of fire signalled wandering bands.

Of the Indian village, referred to, on Pine Island, four miles above Lawrence, Nancy Parker was apparently the last remnant. She was remembered by the very old settlers as a tall, wild-looking, but harmless and industrious Indian woman, making her rounds among the farmers of the region, - "little dreaming that spinners would crowd to the valley by the hundreds, and that the noisy river-rapids would be harnessed to the wheels at which they toiled. From Nancy Parker's spinning wheel to the monster mill wheel is a long step".

In 1676 a party of savages crossed the river at Bodwell's Ferry (about a mile above the dam), chased the people of Andover, killed a young man named Abbott and took his brother captive.

There is a tradition that old Bodwell, standing on the spot now occupied by Davis' foundry, with a long English musket, shot an Indian spy skulking through the tall grass on the opposite side of the river. He not only probably saved the Andover settlements from harm, but secured a fine wolf-skin robe which he found on the dead savage.

There is another tradition that a thieving Indian, seeking to enter one of the old dwellings on the plain, w'as shot through the chinks of the timber wall, and buried beneath a great tree, standing near City hall ; also that an early settler, seeing a movement in the grass near the site of the South canal, discovered a creeping savage working his way towards a pioneer's cabin. He shot the wily Indian, when three others broke from cover and made good their retreat. A story is told of a young pioneer who, returning from a courting visit to the fair daughter of an up-river settler, had his dream of bliss suddenly disturbed by the whizzing of a tomahawk past his head. Finding two Indians in chase, he saved himself by his knowledge of by-paths.

There are other traditions that relate the perils of the hardy pioneers in this section, all of which are interesting but too numerous to mention.

The Pioneers

It is difficult to determine who were the first white settlers in the territory which comprises Lawrence today, but it is said that lands along the river bank were occupied by whites as early as 1655, and pioneers named Alesser, Frye and Cross appear to have been the first comers in this section. An interesting tradition is handed down which relates how, for a roll of cloth a pioneer purchased of the Indians their rights in all the lands he could surround in a day's travel through the forest. Commencing on the river, with his savage companions, he took a course northwestward over highlands about Spicket Falls, thence southward along the slopes of Tower Hill to the ^Merrimack, and by the north bank to the point of starting; thus compassing a favorite hunting ground, and including the site of a future city.

Indian sachems received, in 1642, for their rights in Haverhill lands, including the site of the town of Methuen, three pounds and ten shillings. For six pounds, and a coat, the Andover territory was secured. As Lawrence is but a speck in those great townships, the little over seven square miles comprising it, according to the valuation placed on it by the Indian owners, would not have exceeded five shillings. It is not probable that many whites had permanent residence within Lawrence limits prior to the year 1700, though Shawsheen Fields (South Lawrence) were cultivated by residents of Andover A'illage, protected by block houses, and Methuen Intervales (North Lawrence) were mown by commoners, from the direction of Haverhill, for years before that date.

Probably the first permanent habitation was a rude dwelling occupied by one Bodwell, and located on the Merrimack River bank near the mouth of the Spicket. This old dwelling was removed to a location where East Haverhill street now crosses Elm street. Here it still stands, enlarged and remodelled, almost the only relic deeply marked by time in the central wards of the city. It has a history which goes back into dim obscurity. The pioneer who occupied the original house controlled a large area of land, and he may have been the hardy settler referred to in the chapter on Indian traditions, who slew a savage on the river bank.

An ancient house, known as the Swan house, stood on the line of the common, just east of Trinity church. The stones of the cellar vuiderlie the much travelled Haverhill street. Tradition locates a rude log fort, or refvige for settlers, in Jackson Terrace; by some, it is said to have stood nearer the mouth of the Spicket River. There was also, it is said, a timber fort or stockade on the slope of Tower Hill, overlooking this valley.

The pioneers were mainly from the agricultural districts of England, and upon locating here most of them continued to follow the industrial pursuit to which they were accustomed, while others got their living as raftsmen or fishermen on the river. When Methuen was set oft' from Haverhill in 1725 probably not over fifty persons resided within the site of Lawrence. It was an isolated spot before the bridging of the Merrimack. World's End Pond was a sort of inland boundary of civilization, beyond which pioneers ventured with fear. The Andover tract was known as the "Moose Country" or the Plain of Sodom, and the chief innkeeper at the cross roads was familiarly called Lot. The IMethuen district was in retaliation referred to as Gomorrah by dwellers on the opposite bank. The phrase, "out of the world into Methuen", was commonly used.

Nearly 100 years had rolled on after the incorporation of Methuen, bringing little change to the isolated farmers. The future site of the city had been converted into peaceful farms. Dams had been built upon the Spicket River, and small paper mills and the Stevens shop for the manufacture of pianoforte cases had been erected, but the Merrimack flowed in its natural channel, undisturbed by the arts of man. At this time dwelling houses were not numerous, and, as in other farming towns, were somewhat remote from one another. The number of buildings in the now thickly populated portion of Lawrence could have been counted upon the fingers of the hand.

No church spires pointed to heaven ; three small school houses offered their ])rimitive accommodations. There was no hum of machinery except the simple movements of the small paper and grist mills on the lower Spicket and activity of Stevens' box-shop further upstream. In this sleepy hollow was born the wonderful industrial city of today, and the change that came in 1845 "^^'^s so rapid, radical and entire, that it completely overshadowed the leaven of original population, till only here and there we find a descendent of a pioneer family, and but few landmarks of the early days.

The site of Lawrence in the olden time was not the place of sand heaps and swamps, such as some writers have represented it to be. The great central farm of Hon. Daniel Appleton White and his ancestry included at one time 300 acres, divided into tillage, pasturage and woodland. These lands are now covered by large mills and the most compactly settled districts of Wards Two, Three and Four. The farms of Daniel iMerrill and Phineas M. Gage, that lay along the lines of Jackson, Newbury and Union streets, between the Merrimack and Spicket rivers, had thriving orchards and many fertile acres. The great Trull farm on Tower Hill was a fertile tract, a portion in forest. The poor farm lands of the Town of Methuen along the west side of the turnpike (Broadway) were rich in pasturage. Joshua Th wing's lands, including all the central common and the compactly settled portions of Ward Two, were fertile, as were the farms, north of the Spicket River, owned by Herrick, Huse, Stevens, Graves and Tarbox. The corn fields, rye fields, and orchards of the Poor, Richardson, Stevens, Saunders and Shattuck families in South Lawrence gave evidence of a good soil and of careful, old-time husbandry.

Among the very early pioneers of South Lawrence were the Barnards, Stevenses and Poors ; later came the Parkers and other families. The first named family trace back the title to lands nearly 250 years. To North Lawrence came, as early pioneer settlers, who remained, the Bodwells, Swans, Sargents, Barkers, Poors and ]\Iarstons ; possibly others, whose descendents do not remain. Notable among the sturdy yeomen, native residents, who had homesteads on the plain before the forming of the town, were Capt. Nathan Shattuck and Joseph Shattuck, Daniel Saunders, Ebenezer Poor, Phineas M. Gage, Benjamin Richardson, Asa Towne, Nehemiah Herrick, John Tarbox, Michael Parker, Thomas Poor, Caleb Richardson, Nathan Wells, Abiel Stevens, James and Edwin Sargent, Adolphus Durant, Samuel Ames, Fairfield White, Stephen Huse, John Graves, James Stevens and Henry Cutler. Abiel Stevens and Adolphus Durant were men of marked character, being the first manufacturers in this section.

The few dwellings of the pioneers dotting the plain on the northside were mostly upon the road leading from Lowell to Haverhill, now straightened, graded and known as Haverhill and East Haverhill streets, and upon the Londonderry Turnpike (now Broadway). Opposite the ancient dwelling on East Haverhill street, already mentioned, was the more modern house of Adolphus Durant, built about 1830. The farm house and buildings of Phineas M. Gage stood in the fields on the spot now known as Jackson Terrace ; the farm orchard was in the section of the city now crossed by Orchard street, his garden extending along the line of Garden street. Thus the names of two city streets are naturally accounted for. One old house was removed to make room for the original High school building opposite the Haverhill street mall of the common. The ancient homestead of Capt. White stood near the corner of Haverhill and Lawrence streets. His son, Judge Daniel Appleton White who gave the citizens of Lawrence the White Fund, by which has been established an instructive course of lectures besides material aid for the maintenance of the Public Library, was born beneath its sloping roof. The farm house of Fairfield White was located at the corner of Amesbury and Haverhill streets. Another farm house at the corner of Franklin and Haverhill streets was known at one time as the Sargent house. It was torn down about the time the city was incorporated.

The Pioneers 13

The original farm house of the Methuen poor farm, formerly owned by Nathaniel Sargent, stood near the corner of Bradford street and Broadway, then the corner of Haverhill road and the old turnpike. The town farm lands lay along either side of the turnpike from Andover Bridge northward, with a great pasture on the easterly slope of Tower Hill, the lands of Alpheus Bodwel! being in the Ward Five lowlands. West of the railway near the corner of Haverhill and May streets was the dwelling of Capt. John Smith. The Bodwell farm buildings stood on the hill, just westward of the ferry road. The old farm house has been supplanted by a modern brick structure. On the farm of Levi Emery (now cut up into house-lots) was the old farm house of one Ordway, a Bunker Hill patriot.

A rickety dwelling, known as the Rogers house, stood at the upper guard locks, and was demolished and replaced at the founding of the city. The Samuel Ames farm was also located in Ward Five, and below, on the river bank near the ferry, were two ancient houses, once much resorted to in the days of ferries and fords.

On the lower Spicket was the Foster house, just below East Haverhill street bridge, and the paper mill of A. Durant, long since supplanted and removed. The little old school house at the corner of East Haverhill and Prospect streets was replaced by the present school building ; the one on Tower Hill was years ago removed, and the one in South Lawrence was made into a dwelling.

Where are now the Arlington Mills, stood the piano case factory of Abiel Stevens, afterwards turned into a hat factory, and in the immediate neighborhood were the residence of father and son, the Susan Huse place, and the square house in which resided Nathan Wells.

In South Lawrence, the cross-road settlement, where Andover street crosses Broadway, was the nearest approach to a village within the present city limits. Here were located the Essex Tavern (later converted into a dwelling), the Shawsheen Tavern (later the Revere House which was torn down several years ago), the old pioneer county store, and the brick building occupied by Daniel Saunders, founder of the city. The Shawsheen House was built by one John Poor with bricks made at Den Rock in a brickyard run by the Peters family in the olden days. On the Lowell road westward from this corner were the farm house of Theodore Poor, the Caleb Richardson estate, and the old dwellings erected by the pioneers Barnard and Stevens. On the corner of Andover and Parker streets stood the dwelling of Capt. Michael Parker. Parker street perpetuates his name.

The present City Farm is a part of the old farm of Col. Thomas Poor who saw service, with a company of 50 young men from North Andover, at Lexington and Concord, and took part in several other important engagements during the Revolutionary War.

Among the most noticeable of recent landmarks were the Tarbox dwelling at the foot of Clover Hill (one time known as Graves Hill), where the late Hon. John K. Tarbox was born, and the old dwellings of the Sargents and Swans, to the eastward of Prospect Hill. Some still remember the remnants of the rude fish wharves along the line of the Merrimack. In the old days these were busy localities in the fishing season ; there were five of them between the dam and the Essex County Training School, simple structures of rough stone and logs, each creating an eddy where the fish gathered in immense numbers. They disappeared before the onrush of progress, started with the buildins: of the dam.

Topography Of Lawrence

The topography of the territory hereabouts has undergone most remarkable changes, according to geologists and early historians. Far back in the dim past, we are told, the region comprising Lawrence and the surrounding towns constituted a vast lake, and that by some upheaval in nature the surface of the earth was changed, leaving a few ponds as slight remnants of that inland sea. Cochichewick, Mystic, Haggett's and World's End (Stillwater) Ponds are said to be puddles remaining after subsidence of waters let loose from their beds by an unusual convulsion of nature.

We are also told that during the glacial period the Merrimack flowed in a closed tunnel vmder the ice and emptied its waters into Boston harbor. The glaciers gradually melted away and slowly retreated northward. At Lowell was left a pile of drift which formed a dam so strong that the river was turned to its present course, in a north-easterly direction, through Lawrence, Haverhill and Amesbury, thus finding its ocean outlet at Newburyport.

Therefore, to this phenomena we are apparently indebted primarily for the creation of Deer Jump, Peters' and Bod well's falls which furnished the unlimited water power that made Lawrence possible.

However, let us get down to a less remote period and briefly consider the appearance of this locality just prior to the construction of the dam : There was a deep depression east of Union street, and the very bottom of that part of the North canal rests on made land. The eastern part of the site of the common was an alder swamp drained by a brook running through Jackson street and emptying into the Merrimack. There was another low basin between Amesbury, Haverhill and Franklin streets, which found its drainage outlet southward through Lawrence street. This basin, long since filled and drained, has become the heart of population in Wards Three and Four. There was a fourth depression near the North depot filled with muddy water, from which hornpouts were sometimes taken. The lowlands beyond the depot and those extending along West street m Ward Five are still remembered. There were sandhills in several places and a bluestone ridge extending south of, and parallel with Essex street, between Lawrence and Newbury streets. South of the river was a rolling, sandy plain, parts of which were covered by thick growths of trees.

The topography of Lawrence has seen changes beyond what is shown by the foregoing. It is ahiiost impossible to beheve the Spicket River ever ran in the very crooked channel the old maps show. Yet it was even more crooked than these small scale maps can show. Several small ponds in various sections have disappeared with the improvement of the land.

Today the position and appearance of Lawrence is well described as follows: The city lies in latitude 42 deg., 42 min., 13 sec, and in longitude 71 deg., 10 min., 13 sec. west from Greenwich; has a little over seven square miles (4,577 acres) area, of which 2,216 acres are in the northern district, taken from the town of Methuen ; 2,097 a^^res, south of the Merrimack River, were taken from the town of Andover. The estimated water area is 264 acres. Excluding water surface, railway rights of way, public and church lands exempted, 3,102 acres remain as taxable estates.

The city proper lies in a broad and open plain. The central and populous wards are upon the rolling swell of land on the north bank of the Merrimack River, where that stream curves about the great mills. The southern district, less thickly populated, is a wide plain extending westward from Shawsheen River, somewhat rolling and broken near the western limits. The highlands west of the city, known as Tower Hill, and the rolling ridge, Prospect Hill, eastward, are sites of picturesque residences, having an elevation of 80 to 150 feet above the dam. These heights command wide views, their southern slopes rising abruptly from the bank of the Merrimack. The valley enclosed by these ridges is nearly two miles broad, extending northerly and southerly to higher lands beyond city limits.

The towns of *Methuen, Andover and North Andover encircle the city. They are rich in tradition, their early history including the history of the region where now is Lawrence.

Early Roads And Ferries

In the early days there were few roads in this locahty, and travelling had not near the pleasure that accompanies it in these days of comfortable conveyances and smooth, well-packed roadways. The old ferry roads had much travel before the building of Andover bridge ; they compassed the valley, now the site of the city.

The westerly road approached from the north, reaching the Merrimack at Bodwell's ferry, near the pumping station, by the way of what is now Reservoir, Ames and Doyle streets. The easterly road ran as it now runs, over and a little to the eastward of Prospect Hill, by the way of what is now Ferry street, reaching the Merrimack at Marston's ferry, near the Lawrence poor farm, where was also, in the olden time, a ford.

These were the principal crossings on the river. The latter, Marston's, was established, primarily, to enable settlers to pursue northern Indian bands, who often appeared on the north bank, doing much mischief and escaping unpunished. Both ferries were discontinued when Andover bridge was built in 1793.

After the building of Andover bridge, a rough roadway ran from the bridge, northeasterly, across the lowlands to a point just west of the First Baptist church, corner of Haverhill and Amesbury streets, where it joined the Haverhill road.

Haverhill and East Haverhill streets follow substantially old county roads, changed somewhat in grade and direction ; Broadway is a section of the old turnpike laid out in 1806, from Concord, N. H., to Medford, Mass. Portions of Cross, Arlington. Berkeley and Marston streets in North Lawrence, and of Lowell road, Salem turnpike (Winthrop Avenue) and Merrimack street in South Lawrence, w'ith the ferry and back roads in the outlying wards, also follow substantially old thoroughfares.

Andover Bridge

Andover Bridge, the first bridge to span the Merrimack River at Lawrence, was built by a corporation known as the "Proprietors of Andover Bridge". This was the oklest corporation within Lawrence Hmits. In ]\Iarch, 1793, in the closing year of the first administration of President George Washington, an act was passed by the General Court of Massachusetts incorporating Samuel Abbott and John White, esquires, with Joseph Stevens, merchant, and Ebenezer Poor, yeoman, and associates, as the "Proprietors of Andover Bridge", for the purpose of erecting a bridge over the ^lerrimack River from Andover to Methuen, at Bodwell's Falls, close to where the Broadway bridge now stands. The charter provided that the bridge should be built within three years, should not be less than 28 feet wide, should have a centre span of no feet reach, over the main channel, to insure easy passage for great timber rafts. Tolls were fixed by the act for foot passengers and every kind of carriage from a chariot to a wheelbarrow.

The first structure stood on huge wooden piers, and cost about $12,000. The opening of the bridge, November 19, 1793, was a great local event. A company of infantry and a company of cavalry did escort dutv at the celebration which was attended by many notable people from miles about. A boy named Stevens, while attempting to pass a guard stationed to keep the bridge clear for invited dignitaries, was fatally bayoneted by a soldier. Otherwise the occasion was of a joyful nature.

The corporation had a hard time of it. Adversity perched on its shoulders at the start, and frequently bore heavily on its patience and resources. Bridge building experience w^as limited then and the new structure had an ailing existence for eight or nine years. On August 28, 1801, a part of the bridge fell in ruins while a drove of cattle was passing over it. Some of the herd, 59 sheep, 6 cows and a saddle horse, perished in the waters of the river, and were paid for by the '-proprietors". In the winter of 1802 - 3 the superstructure was rebuilt, but shortly afterward the great centre span collapsed. It was promptly repaired. Yet, four years thereafter, February 15, 1807, a great freshet and run of ice swept away the larger part of the bridge.

The structure had stood on the site of the present railroad bridge, but prior to the next rebuilding it was moved upstream to the present location, and permanent stone piers were substituted for wood. These piers at times were terribly damaged by ice and logs. They were demolished, with the exception of one, when the present iron structure was erected in 1881. The remaining pier still stands in the bed of the river under the Falls bridge, but it does not sustain the structure.

In 1837 the old bridge was built, upon which many of the first comers to the new city rode over. It was a primitive afifair without sidewalks. The entire width of 20 feet was reduced by huge strengthening timbers within the high board railing, leaving but 17 feet of passage-way crowded with travellers flocking in and teams loaded with material for the dam, canal, new buildings and mill foundations from the ledges of South Lawrence and elsewhere.

In 1846 the bridge was absorbed by the Essex Company, and in the spring of 1848 the structure was raised nearly ten feet to the level of the railway line. This new structure was of a frame truss type. In the freshet of 1852, the toll house, south abutment and fish way all went down in the rush of waters. In 1858 the bridge was thoroughly reconstructed by the late Morris Knowles.

The bridge remained a toll bridge until 1868 when it became free, as a public highway, the city paying the larger part of the value and assuming the care of the bridge under the county commissioners' award. At the same time, Lawrence Bridge at Union street was made free in a like manner. The latter had been built in 1854 - 55 for the purpose of accommodating North Andover and Lawrence, and also avoiding the railroad crossing, at grade, near the Andover Bridge. Both bridges were destroyed by fire, Andover Bridge in 1881 and Lawrence Bridge in 1887, and were replaced by the present iron structures.

Andover Bridge, for over half a century, prior to the building of the dam, was the centre of activity in this locality and at the time of the influx to the "new^ city" it was the busiest place in the valley. But a short distance from the south end were the taverns at Shawsheen corner (corner Andover street and South Broadway), the scene of many joyous as well as bibulous gatherings. The half mile from the bridge to this corner was the race track in the old times. On muster and training days the old militia marched over the swaying arches, here and there in the ranks revolutionary patriots.

About 1814, some 15 British officers, prisoners, were quartered at Shawsheen corner to keep them away from the shipping of the ports. They proved quite an attraction, especially to the women of Shawsheen Fields, who found them to be excellent dancers.

In was on this bridge that Daniel Saunders and his associates stood in March, 1845, when they conceived the idea of harnessing the waters of the ^lerrimack River for the use of industry, and of laying the foundation of the city.

The dots seen on the aljove map represent the houses wliich were located within the territory now included in the citv, when the Essex Company began operations. It will be noted tha't the nearest approach to' a settlement was at the "cross-roads" on the Andover side ot the river, where the old Lowell road (Andover street) crossed the Turnpike (South Broadway).

The Essex Company

The history of the Essex Company is practically the story of the founding and early development of Lawrence. This corporation conceived the idea upon which the city is built, - the harnessing of the waters of the JMerrimack River and turning their power to the promotion of manufacturing industry. With the construction of the great dam was laid the corner stone of Lawrence, one of the foremost textile manufacturing cities in the world.

From the very beginning the Essex Company was closely identified with the growth of the community. Not only did it make possible, through the wonderful water power it established, the foundation of the city's great industries, but it was a tremendous factor in inaugurating many of the public improvements and utilities, the benefits of which the present generation is enjoying.

The Merrimack Water Power Association, formed in 1843, with Samuel Lawrence as president and treasurer, and Daniel Saunders as agent, with associates, mainly from Lowell, was the forerunner of this more powerful chartered company. The pioneer association secured lands and made surveys that greatly simplified and facilitated later operations. It had been demonstrated that, at and about Bodwell's Falls by the historic Andover Bridge, there lay a tract of land resting upon foundations of imperishable blue stone and so shaped and environed by nature as to be a rare site for a permanent dam and a connected system of canals, and for the building of a manufacturing city. Industries having been established at Lowell and elsewhere in New England, from 1825 to 1845, enterprising operators were already convinced that great opportunities for the employment of capital andlabor lay in the establishment of textile industries by water falls on Merrimack River.

It, therefore, came to pass that the Essex Company was incorporated March 20, 1845, ^^'^ on that very day the active promoters visited the site of Lawrence and perfected general plans for future operations. In less than one month from the granting of the charter the company was duly organized and the capital of one million dollars had been subscribed without the issue of circular or prospectus. The directors were Abbott Lawrence, Nathan Appleton, Patrick T. Jackson, John A. Lowell, Ignatius Sargent, William Sturgis and Charles S. Storrow, all manufacturers or financiers of high character.

The work of this company at Lawrence in early years was primarily important. It controlled and forced the situation. Aside from operations at Lowell there were really few models for guidance, and founders were required to design and also to execute plans. Fortunately, at the outset, Charles S. Storrow, the pioneer railroad superintendent and engineer, who for several years had successfully managed the first passenger railway in New England - the line from- Boston to Lowell - hecame the resident manager of the company's afifairs, and, with a corps of assistants, immediately commenced locating and constructing the dam and canals and laying out the new town in accordance with a definite and well considered plan.

Abbott Lawrence was president of the company during all the early years. These two men, both enthusiastic and forceful in the execution of plans, pushed forward the work of development and of town building with a rapidity that won the admiration of those who watched every step of progress. Daniel Saunders was upon the spot, a shrewd adviser and a judicious purchaser of needed lands.

It has been said that Lawrence was, at the beginning, purely a i usiness enterprise, but it is also conceded that the needs of a future community were clearly foreseen by the promoters and that steps were wisely taken to provide for coming population in advance of the then prevailing conception of public needs. Seldom do promoters encounter at the start more difficulties than did the founders of Lawrence. Textile manufacturing, in monster mills, was then an experiment in America. The works designed were upon a large scale, requiring heavy outlay and years of working and waiting for conclusive results. When operations were fairly begun adverse legislation and financial depression came to hinder and disturb, but the directors and managers of this company were men of courage, integrity and loyalty. Their fortunes and their reputations were staked upon the success of an enterprise that would afifect the lives of thousands of men and women in this and in other lands, and provide new opportunities for bread winners. Failure would result in loss to the stockholders and would also prove a public calamity and a blow at industrial development in America. The leaders, doubtless, had an eye for ultimate profits, but there was also a philanthropic spirit manifest in their action.

The public at this day probably does not fully realize the extent of the activities of the Essex Company, prior to the incorporation of the city. Besides building the dam, canals, the first streets and drainage system, and fitting lands for habitation, the company built, equipped and for years operated the great machine shop, with foundry and forge shops, all of stone, (afterward controlled by a company organized as the "Lawrence Machine Shop", and now included in the Everett Mills group) ; also built fifty brick dwellings and a large boarding house, and made expensive improvements in deepening and

The Essex Company 22

As a protection against fire, at the joint cost of the company and the Bay State Mills, the Prospect Hill reservoir was built and connected with a system of water mains. Andover Bridge was purchased and repaired by it ; a fine brick hotel (in later years enlarged and now the present Franklin House ) was erected ; gas works were needed, and this company, joining with the Bay State ^lills, built the first works ; the lumber dock, on Water street, was excavated, and lumber manufactured and sold in immense quantities during the busy early construction period.

In the loft of the machine shop, a full set of worsted machinery was set up and operated experimentally, - the first attempt to develop that since important and growing industry of the city. Flumes, raceways, wheelpits and protecting walls were built, at great cost, at the central mill site. The company also engineered and built for owners, and, in some cases, built and sold to the original owners, the first Atlantic Cotton Mills, the Upper Pacific ]^lills, the Pemberton, Duck and Machine Shop buildings.

The central and beautiful Common, Storrow Park, Bodwell Pari:. Union Park and Stockton Park, besides a large tract of land on the west bank of the Shawsheen River, from Market to Andover streets, were reserved by the company and conveyed by deed of gift to the inhabitants of Lawrence to be forever used as public grounds. Besides for recreation, it gave freely of lands for religious and educational purposes. In fact, there was hardly an activity working toward the development and advancement of the "new city", in which this corporation was not concerned. It was only after the progress of Lawrence was well uitder way and new enterprises took up the task of further development that the Essex Company turned its entire attention to the care of its own works, and the business of the company is now practically confined to the rental of its mill powers and the improvement of its remaining lands.

It may be truthfully said that few incorporated companies have been operated continuously, for more than 70 years, along definite lines so little changed. In the whole history of the conipany there have been but two treasurers in general management, Charles S. Storrow and Howard Stockton. The engineers in charge have been Capt. Charles H. Bigelow, Benjamin Coolidge and Hiram F. Mills, although of late years Richard A. Hale, assistant engineer of the company, has practically filled the position of engineer. George D. Cabot, Capt. John R. Rollins, Henry H. Hall, Robert H. Tewksbury and Roland A. Prescott have in turn served as accountant and cashier. George Sanborn was connected with the company for 52 years, from 1845 ^o 1898, the most of the time as superintendent of outside construction.

A large percentage of titles to real estate in Lawrence originated - ith the Essex Company and its records of deeds and surveys, open or public inspection, greatly simplify the work of examiners in perfecting titles.

Building Of The Dam

The construction of "The Great Stone Dam", perhaps the greatest contributing factor in developing Lawrence as one of the leading manufacturing cities of the country, was beg-an in the summer of 1845 and completed three years later.

At the time of building it was the most massive structure of the kind in the country and it remains, after more than three score and ten years, as permanent and complete as when first imbedded upon the solid rock foundation.

Within a few months of the organization of the Essex Company, July 5, 1845, the contract for the construction work was let to Gilmore & Carpenter. Excavations commenced August i, 1845. '^'^'^^ ^'''^t stone was laid in the foundation line of headers at a point near the centre of the river by John A. Carpenter of the firm of contractors on September 19, 1845, and three years afterward, September 19, 1848, on the same day of the month and hour of the day, the last stone of the completed structure was laid at a point above the first bed stone, under the direction of the same contractor. The engineer in charge of the construction was Charles H. Bigelow, a captain of engineers in the United States Army. Under his supervision the north canal was also constructed.

The dam is constructed of huge granite blocks, laid in hydraulic cement firmly embedded and bolted upon the river rock bed. The thickness at the base is 35 feet, narrowed gradually to about 13 feet below the crest stone. The greatest height of masonry is 2^2 feet and the average plunge of water 25 to 26 feet without flashboards. The masonry, including wings extending inland, is 1,629 feet in length. The overflow of water is 900 feet wide from wing to wing, the crest line curving slightly upstream. A solid filling of earth, backing the masonry and sloping back, one foot in six, protects the structure. The south wing wall is 324 feet long and the north wing 405 feet. ^I'he original cost of the structure, at the time of building when prices of labor and material ruled low, was about $250,000.

It is conceded to this day that the dam and guard locks were an advance upon engineering methods at the time. No rebuilding or special repair has been needed as no weakness or defect has been ai)parent since its completion. It stood the test of the flood of 1852, the most destructive on record for the ^^lerrimack River, when

The North Canal

The building of the North Canal went on simultaneously with the construction of the dam. Water was let into the upper portion of this canal, to test the banks, on November 29, 1847. The guard locks were finished the same month. The entire canal was not filled until a year later, however. The North, or principal canal, is 5,330 feet in length and 100 feet wide at the beginning, narrowing to 60 feet at the outlet and is 12 feet in depth, the bottom being graded to a fall of one foot in 10,000 or six inches in its course. About 12,500 horse-power or 140 mill powers for ordinary working hours in the driest season was developed.

The banks of the canal are, to a large extent, artificial, necessitating a vast amount of thorough construction. The stream follows the line of the river, and the intervening space, measuring about 400 feet, is now the site of a continuous line of some of the city's most important industrial plants.

The magnitude of this great water power development is conceivable in the fact that the great pond or reservoir formed by the building of the dam has an area of about one square mile. This large storage area, and the system of natural reservoirs, the lakes and ponds upon the ]\Ierrimack and its tributaries, covering more than 100 miles, fed from about 4,600 square miles of drainage area, prevent fluctuation and scarcity in dry seasons.

The influx of population, following the beginning of the construction of the dam, brought a great number of people from various walks of life to the "new city". Business and professional men, and mechanics and laborers of all kinds began to settle here, coming from the country for miles about.

Among the first comers was Amos D. Pillsbury of Georgetown, who came to procure a shop for the manufacture and repair of boots, but, finding no available place, he purchased a gondola at Newburyport, 32 by 12 feet, on which he built a "stateroom", pvit in a stock of boots, shoes, leather, tools, cooking utensils and provisions, arrived at the "new city" just before the first land sale, anchored in the river below the bridge, threw out his plank and commenced business. Here he continued until cold weather, when he removed to Essex street into one of the new stores. He built in 1847 ^ building near the lower end of Common street, wdiich he called the Montezuma House, one of the first hotels here. It was built without plan or system ; the usual order of procedure was reversed by commencing at the top and leaving off at the cellar, it being raised and the roof covered before the cellar vv^as dug. After a slight application of Spanish paint and the painting of the word Montezuma in large letters where no one would expect to see it, the building was completed. The walls of the house were covered with religious mottoes, and the guests were regaled with a constant flow of Scriptural quotations from the proprietor in place of the intoxicating beverages that were to be found at the other hotels. Both the Montezuma and its proprietor were noted for their peculiarities. About this time Horace Greeley visited the town and stopped at the Montezuma, having been directed there upon inquiring for a hotel where liquor was not dispensed. Being of the same mind as regards the use of intoxicants, the famous journalist probably found his host interesting.

Another early trader was John C. Dow who for several years conducted a book and stationery store. John Colby opened a similar establishment about the same time. October 15, 1846. The first dry goods dealer was Artemus W. Stearns who opened a store on Amesbury street in 1846. Mr. Stearns erected the building on Essex street in 1854, which is now a part of the block occupied by the A. B. Sutherland Company. The first clothing dealer was William R.

Spalding who came here in 1846. Hezekiah Plummei . the lirst lumber dealer, erected a steam mill in South Lawrence for supplying lumber for the growing wants of the new town. Joseph Couch was the first trial justice. I'he first druggist was Nathaniel Wilson who came June 24, 1846. The first baker was Jeremiah S. Field who commenced running a cart Monday, January 25, 1847. I'he first mechanic locating in Lawrence was Henry Goodell who came here in the employ of the E^ssex Company, May 15, 1845. The first attorney was Henry Flanders who settled here March 10, 1846. Dr. Moses L. Atkinson, the first physician in Lawrence, opened an office on Turnpike street (Broadway) on January i, 1846.

On February 6, 1849, the Lawrence Brass Band was organized. This early musical organization still exists. The first private school w^as opened on March i, 1847, in the Essex Company's building on Turnpike street, which was later removed to the "plains". The first grammar school was established in 1848 on the site of the Unitarian church on Jackson street. The following year the High school was opened.

The pioneer Shawsheen House, the Oak Street House, the Montezuma and the L'nited States Hotel were among the first hostelries, the last mentioned being destroyed by fire on August 12, 1859. Another w^as the Coburn House, opened in November, 1847, by the Essex Company, now greatly enlarged and called the Franklin House. The Merrimack House was built about the same time at the corner of Broadway and Tremont street. This was burned in 1849, ^nd not rebuilt. The Franklin is the only one of the early hotels to remain. The first boarding house was opened by Timothy Osgood at 2 Turnpike street on December 4, 1845. This was the first dwelling house raised liere after the starting of operations on the dam.

The first brick store buildings on the south side were erected by J. N. Gage, near the bridge, in 1846; the first on the north side by Albert and Joseph Smith and Daniel Floyd on Common street below Newbury street. Ground was broken for the first block of brick stores on Essex street, afterwards known as Merchants Row, about the first of January, 1847.

The first fraternal organization here, a lodge of Odd Fellows, was organized May 10, 1847. Ground was broken for the first mill, the Bay State, June 9, 1846. The first postoffice was opened September 7, 1846, and named Merrimack, j The first house of worship was erected by Grace Episcopal church in 1846. The first printing ever executed here was a handbill issued September 26, 1846, announcing that the Merrimack Courier would be issued October 9. The first brick for a brick block was laid August 12, 1846. It was the block at the corner of Methuen and Hampshire streets, being No. i of the Atlantic Mills boarding- houses.

The first grocery store was opened in 1845 o" the south side of the river by Josiah Crosby. This store with stock was afterward bought by Joseph Shattuck, who, with his brother Charles, conducted the business in the brick block, built by them on Essex street, until 1887, when they retired and were succeeded by Henry A. Buell & Co. This block is now occupied by the Lawrence Gas Company, and the Buell concern is doing business at the corner of Common and Newbury streets.

Early History Of Lawrence

The history of the territory, now comprised within the Hmits of the city, as Lawrence literally begins with the incorporation of the town, though the foundation from which the town sprung, and upon which the city grew, was started on August i, 1845, with the excavating for the great stone dam of the Essex Company. When the Town of Lawrence was incorporated, April 17, 1847. the gigantic scheme of establishing a textile centre about Bodwell's Falls was well under way. Li 1846 the construction of several of the mills was commenced, as w^as also the erection of an immense machine shop and foundry.

At the time the Essex Company began operations here the population was probably not over 200. But population rapidly followed enterprise. A boarding house w^as erected on the Turnpike. The frame was raised on September 12, 1845, and on December 4 following the finished house was occupied by Timothy Osgood who not unfrequently lodged all the way from 100 to 200 beneath his roof. The rush was so great that no one thought of complaining of the lack of proper accommodations, if he were fortunate enough to gain admission inside a dwelling. For two years the rush for houses continued almost unabated. Some of the laborers in the employ of the Essex Company walked nearly three miles every morning and night for months, so lacking w^ere housing accommodations.

The news of the "new city" building attracted a great influx of mechanics and laborers into the whirlpool of activity, a term which probably best describes the scene during the construction period. There were no idle men, no idle teams. E\ ery one was employed. Masons, carpenters, stone cutters, laborers were all doing their utmost. Laborers earned at that time 84 cents to $1.00 per day; mechanics, $1.50 to $2.00 per day.

In all the region in which the city now stands there was no spot where one could escape the din and dust of bustling industry. Beginning at the gneiss ledge, situated nearly two miles south, the stone from which composes the river wall and mill foundations, - or at North Andover, three miles east, then the depository of bricks and lumber by railway, - or at Pelham, some eight miles west, from whence came the granite for the dam, there was an almost endless string of slow plodding teams, loaded to the utmost, all centering from the dam to the Spicket River to deposit their loads. But here were not the only signs of activity. All over the place buildings were rising with most astonishing celerity. For 12 hours a day the heavy teams, here removing hills, there filling valleys, or loaded with building materials, plodded through the sulTocating dust of dry weather, or the almost bottomless mud of the rainy season. For months together the railway company delivered from ico,cco to 200, coo bricks per day at North Andover, all destined for the "new city".

The year 1846 saw the greatest number of big enterprises started, and this year and 1847 ^"d 1848 might be regarded as a group of years forming the construction period, when nothing was manufactured for market and little productive machinery was operated. Sums, then considered vast, were expended in perfecting the huge plants designed to use the water power developed by the dam. The financial resources of the Essex Company were taxed to the utmost, and the confidence of its stockholders was severely tested at this time. The plan was of such magnitude that it required years for completion, and there could be no hope for an immediate return on the money invested.

Gaze, in imagination, upon the scene in the autumn of 1847, ^vhen the town was still in the first year of its infancy, and the following features will appear prominent. The heavy work on the dam was well in progress, the grading and walls of the canal taking shape along the north bank of the river; the Atlantic Mills were going up where they (what is left of them) now stand, the Bay State Mills were rising into view at the present site of the Washington Mills, and, below, upon the Spicket bank, the stone building of the great Machine Shop and Foundry, now the property of the Everett Mills, was coming into view. Boarding houses were in the process of construction for expected operatives ; large saw mills, with a lumber dock and yard, were in operation at "Essex Yard", so-called ; four projected railway lines were rapidly approaching the new town ; groups of dwelhngs were scattered here and there upon the wide area, and, before electric hghting, gas, or kerosene even, the darkness, on starless nights, was profound ; there was not a paved street, permanent sidewalk or public sewer. To the southwest of the dam, and above the north end of same, were the shanty villages, built upon leased land by Irish laborers who were attracted to the site by news of the "new city". These were the vanguard of a coming host, then new to the country. Many of them brought their whole wardrobe upon their backs, their entire possessions in a small bundle, but, by hard labor and thrifty ways, they attained to substantial competence. The shanty has given place to a modern dwelling, and their descendents are prominent in the professional and business life of the community.

All these enteri)rises, excepting the work at the Bay State Mills and upon the railroad lines, were carried along simultaneously by the Essex Company.

April 28, 1846, the first public sale of lands was made by the Essex Company. The highest price then obtained was for a lot at the corner of Jackson and Essex streets, which realized 70 cents per square foot. Today this same lot is worth about $12.50 a square foot. Much land passed to individual ownership at that sale. The second public sale of land by the company did not occur until December 6, 1855, when 600 lots, located in almost every part of the city, were offered for sale.

On September 7, 1846, a postoffice was opened in a little building on the Turnpike, within a stone's throw of the site of the present postofiice building. The coming of this important adjunct of a busy community took many by surprise. The idea of establishing a postofBce here originated with George A. Waldo of Methuen, whose son, George Albert Waldo, was made the postmaster. The work of securing the necessary support of the idea at Washington was performed by Samuel J. \'arney of Lowell, and at his suggestion the office took the name of Merrimack. Prior to this, from the commencement of operations on the dam, the place was known by such names as "New City", "Essex", "Andover Bridge", etc.

In 1846 and early 1847, there was a large accession to the population. Mechanics, merchants, physicians and lawyers began to locate here, and order commenced rising out of chaos. In 1846, the first religious service was held, and by the following year most of the leading sects were established here. In October, 1846, the first newspaper was issued under the name of The Merrimack Courier, by J. F. C Hayes.

r The name of Merrimack, given officially to the place by the establishment of the postoffice, was continued until the Town of Lawrence was set ofi:' from Methuen and Andover by legislative enactment in the winter of 1847, which separation, by the way, was made in face of strong opposition from both towns. The question had arisen just prior to this as to what name the proposed town should take, and, on January 13. 1847. a meeting of a considerable number of residents was held in the office of the Essex Company, with a view to an understanding. The name of Lawrence was agreed upon as a token of respect to a distinguished family of that name, two of whom, Abbott and Samuel, were among the most energetic business men in New England. In fact, in point of investment the family had as great an interest here as had all others combined. They had staked a fortune on the success of the project, and Abbott, as the first president of the Essex Company, and Samuel, as the head of the Bay State Corporation, were prominently identified with all the leading enterprises. Naturally, their family name was embodied in the petition to the legislature for the town charter. So when, on April 17, 1847, the charter was granted, the town became known as Lawrence, and the city has retained that name.

In accordance with the provisions of the charter, the first town meeting was held on April 26 in Merrimack Hall (on the corner of Jackson and Common streets, then the largest hall in the place), and the first town ofificers were elected and moneys appropriated for the various functions of the government. At this meeting the nucleus of the present police department was formed with the appointment of 10 constables, and the community which had lived hitherto almost without law, in territorial independence, came under proper restraints. Money was voted for the purchase of two hand engines for the fire department, just organized. Prior to that the only apparatus for fighting fires was the "Essex", the first fire engine in use here, which had been purchased bv the Essex Company and manned by its workmen. This engine was sold to the town and was soon followed by more powerful machines and hose and hook and ladder companies until, at the introduction of the steam fire engine, the department was well equipped.

At the same town meeting money was also voted for two school houses to augment the accommodations of the three little district schools that had served since and prior to the laying of the foundation of the dam. The year following, 1848, two grammar schools were opened, and in January, 1849, the High school was established. This was the beginning of the fine public school system of which the people of Lawrence are so justly proud. In 1847, an important educational institution was also established in the Franklin Library, founded by private subscription, which in 1872 was donated to the city and. formed the basis of the present well equipped Public Library.

Early History Of Lawrence 35

established in 1847, as a bank of discount. In October of the same year, the first savings institution, the Essex Savings Bank, was started.

In 1847, the Bay State Alills, the Atlantic Mills and the Essex Company formed into an association and erected suitable buildings for the manufacture of gas for their own use. In February, 1849, the association disbanded, and a stock company, known as the Lawrence Gas Company, took over the works and began lighting the streets and running its pipes into private residences.

At the time of the first town meeting the people were comparatively strangers to one another, and it was somewhat difficult to select for office, according to the usual rule, by party lines. Therefore, the best possible selection for town officers was made irrespective of party. Not so the following year, when party lines were sharply drawn and the election of town officers was one of the most animated ever held in this vicinity. Ballot after ballot, without effecting a choice of officers, consumed the day and the business which was to be acted upon was not half finished when night compelled an adjournment. The sites for the Town hall and Oliver school house were ;;mong the questions laid over. These articles in the warrant came up at an adjourned meeting. No one seemed inclined to interfere with the arrangement in regard to the school house, but when the question of the location of the hall came in order to be acted upon, there was a noisy opposition to every proposition for location, with no definite aim at reconciliation. The matter was finally determined, however, and the present building erected. 1^115^(57

The year 1848 was one of the most progressive years in the early history of Lawrence. In that year the group of industrial enterprises in construction was practically completed and some cloth manufactured, though it was not until 1849 that the production of goods for market commenced at the several mills, and machinery was turned out at the great machine shop. In later years the building of other mills followed, and new enterprise, taking up this phase of the work of the Essex Company, encouraged the growth of the city's industries. The dam was completed in September of 1848, and the water was turned into the North canal.

It was during 1848 that streets and parks were laid out and suitable drainage provided. One might think to look over the valley stretching between Prospect and Tower Hills, that the civil engineers of the Essex Company, when they began operations here, had a snap in laying out streets and lots. But the present land surface offers little suggestion of what the original was.

Deep gullies cut up the valley, through which little water courses ran to the river. One of them was so long and important that the company built a costly stone culvert through it. Vast amounts of filling were necessary, for while an Indian trail could run down a steep path into a gully and up again on the other side, the great drays which were destined to team the product of the busy multitude that would throng the valley, would need to travel in lines of far less resistance. Then too, there would come the problem of drainage, with the need of continuous and fairly uniform gradients.

The big stone culvert which the Essex Company built served Lawrence for a main sewer for many years. The course of the culvert was quite a circuitous one, and it played a very important part in the early plans of the city sanitation. For years it received all the house drainage and street wash between Jackson street and Broadway, and north as far as Haverhill street.

An attempt was made to establish a water supply by conveying water from Raggett's Pond, Andover, but it developed that the scheme was impracticable. Subsequently the Bay State Mills and the Essex Company built a reservoir on Prospect Hill, particularly for fire protection for the mills, and kept it filled by pumping from the canal. A few houses were piped with the water and it was used to some extent for domestic purposes. Most of the inhabitants, however, clung to the wells, the original source of supply, until the establishment of the city water works.

xA^bout this time, June 8, 1848, the first police court was held in a building on the northerly side of Common street near Broadway; in the rear was the lock-up. Judge William Stevens of North Andover was the presiding justice. After the Town Hall was built, police court for a time was held in what is now the council chamber, the judge's office being in the little coat room at the westerly end, now occupied by the assistant city auditor. The cells for the prisoners were in the basement. Before the Civil war, disturbances becoming lively on the "plains", the city for a time maintained a lock-up on Elm street near Lawrence street. These were the police court facilities until the building was erected which occupied the site of the present station at the corner of Common and Lawrence streets. The first Superior court was located in the auditorium of the Town Hall, railings and fixtures being removed on town meeting days.

Early in 1848, the importance of securing and laying out a place for the repose of the dead began to receive serious attention. The original lot designated for this purpose embraced but about three acres. Subsequently this sacred enclosure was enlarged and it became known as Bellevue Cemetery. The Catholics early consecrated the ground on the summit of Currant Hill. Later Father O'Donnell secured the tract for the second cemetery on the west of the old ferry road, and his successors obtained a still larger tract extending from the northern line of the second to the southern line of . the first C?tholic buryingground.

Early History Of Lawrence 37

Direct railway communication was opened with Boston, Lowell and Salem, and Lawrence became an important railroad centre. The Boston & J\Iaine railway, having changed its location from Andover to North Andover, constructed between April, 1845, and March, 1848, the five miles of road between those places by way of this city, together with bridges across the river and canal, and on February 28, 1848, ran their passenger cars across the bridge for the first time to the station on the north side of the river. On July 2, 1848, the Lowell railway was completed between Lawrence and Lowell. The Essex railway, from Lawrence to Salem, was opened on September 4, 1848. The Manchester and Lawrence railway was opened for travel in October, 1849. '^'^""^ railroad facilities followed the growth of the city, and constant improvements were made in the service. Eventually the need of a Horse Railroad was apparent, and in 1867 the first track was laid from the Woolen mill in Methuen to the Everett mills at the foot of Essex street.

In June, 1848, the first important step was taken in the movement for the navigation of the Merrimack above tidewater. On the 6th of that month the steamer Lawrence came up from Newburyport with a delegation from that place and adjoining towns, landing her passengers about opposite the foot of Hampshire street. Since then sundry attemjits have been made to navigate the river, but with little success.

In 1848 the town had a population of nearly 6,000. Of that number 3,750 were of native birth; 2,139 were natives of Ireland; there were one German, one Italian, three Frenchmen, two Welshmen, nine natives of Scotland, 28 people of English birth and 16 negroes. Not so cosmopolitan as today, but it was largely representative of the dominating races at present.

It was in 1848 that the town rejected the ofifer of the common as a gift, but at a subsequent meeting wisely accepted. The Essex Company had stipulated that the town must fence the tract, and spend $300 a year for 20 years to beautify it. It seems as though in that day, too, the cry of "influence of corporations" was effective. At any rate, it nearly caused the loss of this boon to the community. On October 7, 1868, the common became the property of the city, without restriction.

Town meetings continued turbulent until the town became a city, and adjourned meetings were frequent. During the summer of 1849 a sort of mania for town meetings pervaded the people. Generally speaking, the Whigs were in the ascendency, although now and then rt Democratic selectman or other town ofificer was chosen. No public meeting ever assembled in this city equalled the last meeting of the electors of the town. During the melee General Oliver lost his coat tail.

The city charter was passed by the legislature, March 21, 1853, and was accepted by the people on the 29th of the same month. The first election under the charter was held on the i8th of April following, and the city government was duly organized on the i8th of May, the same year (for personnel of city or town governments see General Statistics). At the first city election there were about 1,000 names on the voting list, and from the vote cast it is apparent that nearly every one took an active interest in the proceedings.

There was not a rod of paved street in the city in 1853 and not forty rods of brick or of any permanent sidewalk. Concrete had not been used for walks at that time. The few walks that had been laid were of gravel and planks or boards. The entire south side of Essex street and a considerable portion of the north side was open, undeveloped land. The City Hall stood in an open field, abutted by buildings only on a portion of the Essex street side. The City Hall, the Jail and the Oliver school house (the last mentioned much smaller than the building recently razed to make room for the Central Grammar School) were the only public buildings constructed of permanent materials. The Jail or House of Correction was built that year.

*Charles S. Storrow, the first mayor, was elected by the Whig party. He was succeeded in 1854 by Enoch Bartlett, a candidate of the Democratic party and a young lawyer of considerable promise. It was during his administration that the "Know-Nothing" uprising commenced. That was a trying experience for Mayor Bartlett. Not long after his election he had suffered a loss of health, and the worry and excitement attendant upon the popular demonstrations, at times threatening the peace of the community, taxed his waning energy. Shortly after the end of his official term he went home to New Hampshire, his native state, to die.

In 1855 the "Know-Nothings" swept the city, electing Albert Warren as mayor. Their cry was "Nothing but native Americans in public office". The Whig and Democratic parties had dwindled down to a very few on either side, who had little fear of the Pope of Rome making America his immediate headquarters. The sweep in Lawrence, however, was no more general than throughout the state. In 1856 the election was a repetition of the year before, Warren being reelected. The Democratic party made no nomination, and John R. Rollins received the support of all voters not affiliated with the "Know- Nothings".

In 1857 party lines were not so strictly defined. The "Know-Nothing" party had just expired. John R. Rollins was elected mayor over Thomas Wright. Both Rollins and Wright were Whigs. The city at the time was strongly anti-Democratic. Rollins was re-elected in 1858, over N. G. White, also a Whig, the Democrats throwing their support to Rollins' opponent as in the preceding year.

The Republican party supplanted the Whig party in 1859, and Henry K. Oliver, the Republican mayoralty nominee, was elected, though Daniel Saunders, Jr.. the Democratic candidate, had the support of some of the most active Republicans. On the other hand, General Oliver was supported by influential Catholic Democrats and their followers. Feeling ran high, but the Irish vote being finally secured for the general, he was elected by a decided majority. The following year the political pot was turned over, and Daniel Saunders. ]v., was elected. It was during the first month of his administration that occurred the terrible disaster, the fall of the Pemberton Mill.

Party politics in municipal aft'airs cominued to attract a keen interest in succeeding years, until party lines were wiped out at the adoption of the new city charter in 191 2. For a number of years prior to then the Democrats were the dominating partv. and are still, locally, in state and national elections.

In patriotism Lawrence has never been lacking, and in 1861 she gave one of the first martyrs of the Rebellion, when Sumner H. Needham fell in Baltimore on the memorable 19th of April. Lawrence furnished 2,497 "i^n for the war, 224 over and above all demands. Ninety-two were commissioned officers. The whole amount of money appropriated and expended by the city on account of the war, exclusive of State aid, was $115,630.10. The total amount of State aid paid to families of volunteers, and which was afterward repaid by the Commonwealth, was $192,233.05. The nation has never looked in vain to Lawrence in her need.

Lawrence has passed through numerous crises, and in the early years of the city the blows have been most severe. The tarifif enacted soon after the first manufacturing here nearly paralyzed the industries just then started. The great and memorable panic of 1857 - 58 gave the city a set-back from which it slowly recovered. The Pemberton disaster came upon its heels, and the boom times of the war were followed by the rapid and demoralizing shrinkage in values in 1872-74. Nothing in the way of a serious calamity occurred from then up to within the past 2/ years, except the cyclone in South Lawrence in 1890, which resulted in the loss of eight lives and great damage to property.

During her early history Lawrence suft'ered from both flood and fire. In 1852 the town was thrown into almost a panic bv the great freshet of that year, when the highest pitch of the water was ten feet above the crest of the dam. This freshet washed out the abutment of the bridge and the toll house on the south side of the river, and, at intervals, the water reached the woodwork on the railroad bridge.

There was dread of an overflow of the wing walls of the dam, and, to protect the town, a train of cars and a large number of teams were run night and day in conveying earth for an embankment. The lowlands on the river bank were flooded, and on a number of occasions since during heavy spring freshets these sections have been overflowed, though in recent years there has been little damage in this respect. The nearest approach to the freshet of 1852 was that of 1896, when the water reached nine feet nine inches, or within three inches of the great flood.

Destructive flres have been numerous, especially in the earlv years. One of the most disastrous fires that occurred in the city broke out on August 12, 1859. in what was known as the "United States Hotel", which was located on Essex street, midway between Appleton and Jackson streets. That structure soon went down, killing in its fall two young men. From this the fire spread east, destroying one or two stores, and west to Appleton street, wiping out what was then known as the "Church Block", embracing the Second Congregational church, with stores under same, and thence traversing north, carried down the courthouse. The Unitarian church, some distance removed, was ignited by the sparks and cinders, and badly damaged.

Another conflagration, which should be given special mention, was that started by the burning of the steam mill of Wilson & AUyn on May 2, i860. The mill, formerly the meeting house which stood, in the pioneer days, on the hill near the farm house of Fairfield White, was a two-story building, and filled, from base to attic, with combustible materials. A brisk wind carried the burning embers high in the air and scattered them upon the roofs of buildings as far as Tower Hill. By the aid of ladders and water buckets many buildings in the path of the flying coals were saved, and every structure west of the railway escaped destruction. Several wooden workshops between the mill and the railway went down, and the large carriage manufactory of General Gale was saved with much difficulty.

Although there have been fires with greater amount of damage than the aforesaid conflagrations, none have occurred that covered so large an area. It has been frequently predicted that Lawrence will yet experience a terrible conflagration in one of its congested tenement districts, but it is to be hoped that the prospect will continue as a prediction only. An efficient, well equipped fire department, with a favorable combination of circumstances, has kept the number of destructive fires in recent years comparatively small.

Beyond a slow, steady growth of the city, there were few extraordinary public improvements during the 25 years that followed the Civil War. A notable improvement was the straightening of the Spicket River and the building of the main sewer through that section during the years 1883 to 1886. It might also be mentioned that street letter boxes were introduced here November 15, 1867 ; that the first fire alarm telegraph system was completed July 25, 1869, and that the legislative act to provide for a water supply was accepted May 7, 1872. In November of the following year ground was broken for the reservoir on Tower Hill.

It is worthy of mention, in closing this chapter, that during the hard times of 1857, an invention of incalculable importance to the world was brought out successfully in this city by two of the employes of the Lawrence ^Machine Shop. We refer to the steam fire engine. The inventors were Thomas Scott and N. S. Bean. Although there were other engines built elsewhere at the same time, it remained for Lawrence to produce the most practical. This city was awarded the palm at a test of machines at Boston. The first engine built here was called the Lawrence and was purchased by the City of Boston. The invention was bought by the Amoskeag Company of Manchester, N. H., where the engines were manufactured for many years. These machines completely revolutionized fire departments, and Lawrence was not slow to adopt them.

Industrial Growth

No history of Lawrence would be complete without a chapter devoted to the industrial growth of the city. Over half of the city's valuation comes from the 40 or more industrial concerns, and most of it represents propertv of the textile manufactories, their plants alone covering a land area estimated to be about 283 acres.

The development of the great mills has been the most remarkable feature of Lawrence's history. They are the backbone of the community, - the city's greatest asset. Their army of operatives would make a good sized city in itself. They give directly employment to about one-third of the population and, as the channels of trade are filled largely by the earnings of the textile workers, they are the life blood of the remaining two-thirds. Their presence has attracted other manufacturers in a great diversity of lines, and they have been a means of stimulating general enterprise. They have not only gained a worldwide recognition for themselves, but they have put Lawrence on the map as one of the greatest industrial centres.

The story of the small beginnings of these hives of industry, their ]irodigious growth, their present mammoth proportions and gigantic operations outrivals even the tale of the "magic growth" of western cities.

Prior to the building of the dam, the only industries here were the little Durant paper mill on the south bank of the Spicket, east of Newbury street, the Stevens' box shop on the site of the Arlington ]\Iills, engaged in the manufacture of cases for the Chickering pianos, and the old Graves soap factory at the foot of Clover Hill; and in the v.'hole area within the city's limits were less than 200 souls. Throughout all this territory were a few scattered farm houses, the nearest approach to a settlement being the "Four Corners", or cross-roads, where Andover street now crosses South Broadway. Through this small habitation flowed the Merrimack Ri\-er with its latent power.

Brieflv that was the industrial prospect when Daniel Saunders and his associates conceived the idea of turning the tremendous water j^ower of the ^Merrimack at Bodwell's Falls to the use of manufacturing industrv. That they builded well is evidenced by the great textile centre which today occupies the site of their operations.

During the three years required for building the dam, the foundation of the present industrial growth was laid. On April 11, 1846, the Bay State Mills (now the Washington Mills plant of the

American Woolen Company) were laid out and put in operation in 1847. Construction work commenced on the Atlantic Cotton Mills on June 9, and on the Essex Company's machine shop and foundry ( now the property of the Everett Mills) on June 10, 1846.

The Pacific Mills and the Pemberton were incorporated in 1853; the Lawrence Duck Company in 1853; the Everett in i860; the Lawrence Woolen Company (now Kunhardt's) in 1864, and the Arlington in 1865.

For the first quarter century, after the starting of the pioneer mills at Lawrence, manufacturing in America was a matter largely of experiment. Machinery and methods of operation had not been perfected ; the prejudice against home made fabrics had not been overcome by actual and extensive tests. It 'would take a volume of goodly proportion to fully narrate the experiments, the trials, the partial failures and the eventual successes of local enterprises, and a larger volume in which to pay due tribttte to the patient labor and hard study of scores of men who within the walls of our mills have by investigation and by trial brought processes of textile manufacture to such a state of perfection that it is now mostly a contest between rivals as to which shall be entitled to preference and public favor when all have attained to model methods and have discovered and applied processes dififering only in degree.

Many things, all important in modern life, had their beginning here. The worsted industry was made practical and leading in the mills of Lawrence. The use of wood pulp and Manila grass in paper manufacture was demonstrated to be practical at the original Russell Paper Mills. Machinery for the sewing of leather and other devices in the perfection of shoe machinery were first attempted and brought to some degree of perfection in the old Lawrence Machine Shop, a concern that, while it failed as a corporation, left much that was valuable to its successors elsewhere. There is nothing the value of which it is so hard to estimate as the value of a practical and useful invention in processes of manufacture, for millions eventually share in the benefits secured. In every branch of textile and paper manufacture important inventions and improvements have been made by Lawrence mechanics and manufacturers.

Our industrial plants are constantly reaching out for improvements and, notwithstanding the impression among some people abroad, who are not familiar with the requirements of the work, a vast amount of skill and ingenuity are necessary for the successful operation of the big. textile mills. As the head of one of the large plants of the city has very aptly put it : - "The factory of today calls upon almost every department of human knowledge for its development and maintenance. It demands the services of the civil, mechanical, hydraulic and steam engineer, the carpenter and the builder of brick and stone, wood and iron, the foundry and the machine shop, the inventor, the mechanic, the skilled artisan, the engraver, printer and dyer. It also needs the chemist, the electrician and the man of scientiiic research."

It was with the operative population of Lawrence, that the Pacific set up the first combing machines used in the country ; the Washington made the first all-wool dress goods, the famous Bay State shawls and blue flannel coatings being originated by these mills ; the Arlington was the first to successfully manufacture, in ihe United States, black alpacas, mohairs and brilliantines, in which class of goods England formerly had monopoly. With the Lawrence operatives originated T'aul's self-acting mules, the Pearl spindle for cotton spinning, the Wade bobbin holder which revolutionized the process of spooling, the high speed steam engine, and the successful steam fire engine, to mention but a few of the notable inventions originated and developed here.

The financial crisis of 1857 struck a severe blow to Lawrence's industries, and the growth of the city during its first decade was very much retarded. Nearly all the mills suspended for a short time ; then occurred the failure of the Bay State Mills and their reorganization. The terrible Pemberton Mill calamity of i860 was an added blow. ]jut, owing to a big demand for the products of the local mills during the war of the Rebellion, Lawrence took a new start. The boom times during and after the war, however, were followed by the rapid and demoralizing shrinkage in values in 1872 - 74. Other depressions have occurred, coming about once in every 10 years, though not as serious as those experienced in the early years. But the Lawrence industries have weathered the gales in a manner that indicated a sound stability.

The most marked development in the industrial growth came in 1905 when William M. Wood of the American Woolen Co. conceived the plan of procuring yarn for the various mills of the concern without being dependent upon other manufacturers. Thus it was that the mammoth plant which bears his name came into being. The building of the Wood Mills started a decade of mill construction in Lawrence such as has probably never been witnessed in any other textile centre. Within a few years most of the leading plants made big additions. The erection of the Ayer Mills (named for the late Frederick Ayer, a manufacturer of note) followed and the Arlington Mills were greatly enlarged, several new buildings being constructed l)y this corporation at a cost estimated to be nearly a million dollars. Large additions were made to the Pacific, Washington, Everett, Kunhardt and Duck. The big, new print works of the Pacific, besides the large coating mill of the Champion-International Paper Company (into which concern were merged the Russell paper mills), were built during this construction period; also the Uswoco Mill of the L'nited States Worsted Company, the Katama Mill and the worsted and me- rino yarn mill of the Monomac Spinning Company. ]\Iany of the minor industrial plants have also increased their facilities for production. Besides, new industries have come to the city, the most notable of the lecent arrivals being the Walton Shoe Company, which has occupied the old Stanley machine shop building on Haverhill street, and the Diamond Match Company, opposite the Wood ]\Iills, the scouring liquor waste of which it uses in the manufacture of its product.

The Everett, Kmihardt and Lawrence Duck are listed among the big textile mills, but the American Woolen, Pacific and Arlington stand out as the mammoth plants of the city, their immense proportions and their great volume of production amazing all tourists. These three, in their groups, have single buildings that dwarf the average factory structure. In the case of the American Woolen Company, this is especially tn:e. In fact, in size, there is no other to compare with the Wood i\Iil!s. Some idea of the size of this immense plant may be gained by recalling that the main building is a quarter of a mile long, 123 feet wide and six stories high; that there are 29 acres of floor space under one roof, and that from three-quarters of a million to a million ])Oun(ls of wool are consumed each week by the plant when it is running to its full capacity. The Washington and Ayer, the other big plants of the American Woolen Company in Lawrence, are huge in size, though not nearly as large as the Wood.

Not only is the plant of the Wood Worsted Mills the largest single mill plant in the world, but it has the distinction of having been erected in a shorter time than any other manufacturing establishment of magnitude. Conceived one day, it was, as it were, in operation the next. Cloth was being manufactured in April, 1906, where a long line of willow trees and birches were swaying in the breezes of the j'revious August.

Had the prediction been made in the summer of 1905 that machinery would be humming in a mammoth mill eight months later where, at the time of the prediction, there existed only a rough, half-wooded tield along a winding river bank, it would have been regarded as preposterous. Yet 900 men accomplished this seeming impossibility. There was no magic to it. It was not an Arabian Nights dream. It was a twentieth century wonder, made possible by foresight, industry, energy, persistence and skill.

It remained for a man who had risen from the bottom to the top of the, mill ladder to startle the industrial world with this example of what dash, pluck and push can do when backed by brains. The Wood Mills stand today a monument to the enterprise of William M. Wood.

The growth of the Arlington Mills has also been most remarkable. From the small wooden structure that was wholly consumed by fire in 1866 to the great system of mills that reach out beyond the city limits into the adjacent town of ]\Iethuen is a long step in factory development. The Top mill of this group is one of the largest mill buildings in the country. This concern is famed for its most extensive variety and its quality of yarns, besides its specialties in plain and fancy fabrics. Notable improvements in the process of the manufacture of dress goods originated at the Arlington. The record of the corporation for regular payment of dividends for 40 years has been interrupted only by the omission of a dividend on Jan. i, 1914, and this lapse was made up on July 2nd of 191 7, when a special dividend of $2 a share was paid in addition to the regular quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share. Joseph Nickerson, Albert W. Nickerson, William Whitman and Franklin W. Hobbs, the present head, have been the controlling minds in the building up of this great institution.

The Pacific Mills, also, have had a marvelous growth. Their buildings cover an immense area. The main mill is one of the most prominent structures in the city ; it is 806 feet long by ']2 feet wide, and seven stories in height. To go through the various rooms of this building would necessitate the walk of more than a mile. The new print works, located on a seventeen acre lot, have absorbed the Hamilton works of Lowell, besides the works of the Cocheco Mills of the corporation at Dover, X. H. They are reputed to be the largest plant of their kind in the world. The Pacific stand pre-eminent among the mills of their class in America. Their products are world-famous. Locally the plant is regarded as the most steadily operated in the city. On March 31, 1913, this corporation bought at auction the Atlantic Cotton Mills, thus securing a valuable site for a new mill and much desired room for further expansion later when the pioneer Atlantic is torn down. The guiding heads of the great concern are Robert F. Herrick, president, and Edwin Farnham Greene, treasurer.

Remarkable improvements have been made in the mills, tending to the physical and mental comforts of the workers. Not only have the hours of labor been greatly reduced, but the sanitary arrangements have been much improved. At the very beginning of manufacturing here operatives began work at 5.30 o'clock in the morning ; there was a half hour for breakfast and a half hour for dinner; the day's work closed at 7 o'clock in the evening and was a day of 13 hours. Later the noon respite was increased and the breakfast recess discontinued while the working day has been reduced to 11 and then to 10 hours, and now the 54-hour law sets the length of time at 54 hours a week. Instead of starting work at 5.30 a. m. the operatives in the mills now begin at 6.45 a. m. In the early days lighting and ventilation were poor. Besides, there was little chance for rest or recreation, while the wages were very small as compared to what are paid today, and the method of paying not so convenient as the weekly system in vosfue now.