Lowell City (part 3 of 11)

During tlie year 1792 Parker Vamum of Dra- 6ut and others, incorporated as The Proprietors of the Middlesex Merrimack River Bridge, built the first bridge across the Merrimack at Pawtucket Falls. It was built of wood. Previous to this, the conveyance across the river had been by a toll ferry-boat. The average width of the river in Chelmsford is about four hundred yards.

In May, 1792, a number of gentlemen held a meeting to consider the project of ''opening a canal from the waters of the Merrimack, by Concord Biver, or in some other way, through the waters of Mystic Biver, to the town of Boston.*' There were present at this meeting the Hon. James jSuUivan, Benjamin Hall, Willis Hall, Ebenezer Hall, Jonathan Porter, Loammi Baldwin, Ebenezer Hall, Jr., Andrew Hall, and Samuel Swan, Esq. Sullivan, Baldwin, and Ebenezer Hall were cliosen a ooomiittee to obtain an act of incorporation. They presented a petition to the General Court, and their petition was granted in an act of incorporation dated June 22, 1793, and on the same day it was signed by John Hancock, governor of the commonwealth. Hon. James Sullivan was chosen

The survey was completed August 2, 1794. The work on the canal was prosecuted with great caution from the commencements the year 1803, at which time it was so far completed as to be navigable from the Merrimack to Cliarles Biver.

This canal was thirty-one miles long, thirty feet wide, and three feet deep. It was fed by Concord Biver, had seven aqueducts over rivers and brooks, and twenty locks. Tlie company had the privilege of converting Concord Biver into a canal for twenty-three miles of its extent, through the towns of Billerica, Bedford, Cairlisle, Concord, and Sndboiy.

The improvements in the navigation of iSat Merrimack in connection with the canal were : the locks built at Wickasee Falls, round Tyng's Island, which were afterwards rendered useless on account of the back flowage when Pawtucket Dam was built ; the locks at Moor's Falls, at Little Cl jcsj at Short's Falls, at Moor's Big Falls, at Amoskeag (now Manchester), at Hooksett Falls, Craven's Palls, and Turkey Falls, a little below Concord. Going up, those locks had to be used ; but, coming down, the boats, in an ordinary state of water^ ran the falls.

In 1851 the proprietors surrendered their char* ter, and in 1852 sold the property in sections, and the owners of land on its borders were, in most cases, the purchasers. On the 3d of October, 1859, says Cowley, the proprietors were declared, by a decree of the Supreme Judicial Court, to have forfeited all their franchises and privileges by reason of non-feasance, non-user, misfeasance, and neglect.

'' Ik 1801 Moses Hale set up a carding-machine in his mill on Biver Meadow Brook.'' This fact is stated by Allen in his history of Chelmsford, and is corroborated by Mr. Bemice S. Hale, one of his (Moses Hale's) descendants, in a paper read before the Old Besidents' Historical Association, November 10, 1876.

In 1807 sundry Masonic brethren- from* the towns of Clielmsford, Dracut, and Tewksbury petitioned the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts for leave to erect a lodge in Chelmsford at Pawtucket Falls. The petition was granted, and a lodge organiaed under the superintendence of Captain Isaac Cobum, Master. It was consecrated in due form October 12, 1809, and called Pawtucket Lodge in Chelmsford.

Lowell

- In 1812 Mr. John Goolding invented '' a very eniious loom for weaving boot-straps^ moved entiidy by watcr/^ Mr. Goulding, who resided in Worcester, gave the following account of his labors in this vicinity : -

" I settled there in the year 1812, had a factory built for me by Fletcher and Whiting, on Concord Biver; hired it for eight years at S200 a year; carried on the business of spinning cotton yam in a small way, as all our manafacturing was done at tbat time ; : span about twenty pounds of yam per day ; also had a carding-machine for carding custom wool for spinning by hand, making what was called homespun doth ; carried on a machine-shop, making cotton and wool machinery ; made looms for weaving suspender webbing and boot webbing, and a tape loom to weave thirty-six pieces at one and the same. time.

''The place was very thinly settled at that time, - amy Mr. Fletcher, Joseph Tyler, and Philip Gedney, - just over into Tewksbury ; Major Fletcher, WiUiam Warner, and Tavern House belonging to the canal, and I think one other, were all the houses that oonld be seen there at that time. I pccujned the building I hired of Fletcher and Whiting for some four years, when ]Mr. Thomas Hurd purchased it, and used it for making satinet. I built a. small* mill on the canal property, and took water from the canal, and made machine!}' there ; helped fit up Hurd's mill. I moved from there just before the Canal Company sold out to the present owners, who came in possession and established Lowell. Mr. lyier built a grist-mill just below me on the canal.''

From the close of the Revolutionary War to 1812, England had enjoyed an almost uninterrupted monopoly in supplying the United States with manufsetured goods. The War of 1812 put a stop to her trade with us ; and the attention of capital^ was directed to supplying these goods for home consumption. Mills were erected in various localities, wherever a sufficient water-power could be obtained for the purpose. Congress passed a law, approved July 1, '' adding one hundred per centum to the permanent duties then levied upon imports, with an additional ten per cent on goods imported in foreign vessels," the efiect of which was to enbanc6 iht price of everything. It is curious to look back to those days when &milies carded, spun, add wove the cloth they wore. The autobiography of a mill overseer, Daniel Knapp, throws a little on home-lifo iii New England. ''We had cotton brought to our house by the bale, to pick tp pieces and get out the seeds and dirt. The children had to pick so many pounds as a stint. We had a whipping-machine made four square ; and about three feet from the floor was a bed-cord run across from knob to knob, near together, on which we put a parcel of cotton, and with two wliip-sticks ire lightened it up .and got out the dirt, and made it ready for the card.'' In families the hand-card and the oue-thread spinning-wheel were in use. '^ There was no chemical process of bleaching in the country at this date. My mother put loops in the selvage on both sides, and stayed the cloth down on the green grass with sticks, so the wind should not blow it about. When she had a quarter of an acre spread out she would take her watering-pot and sprinkle the whole ; and as soon as she got through the lot, the first was ready for another sprinkling. The bright sun drying up the water did the bleaching/' ,;

In 1813 Captain Phineas Wliiting and Colonel Josiah Fletcher erected a building sixty feet long, fifty feet wide, and forty feet high, for a cotton manufactory, at an expense of 82,500, on Concord Biver, about three hundred rods from its' mouth. This occupied the present site of the MiddleseiL Mills ; and in 1818 it was sold to Thomas Hurd of Charlestown. Hurd fitted it up for the manufacture of woollen goods, and employed twenty persons. The product from sixteen looms amounted to about one hundred and twenty yards of satinet per day. The whole process of carding, spinning, weaving, and dyeing the cloth was completed in this mill. Bishop says : " Hurd erected a brick edifice, and converted both into a woollen factory, which ran fifty power looms, and was burned in 1826. It was rebuilt on a larger scale, and sold in 1828 to the Middlesex Company."

In 1816 two new mills were built. Luke Bowers and son built a saw and grist-mill just below the bridge, at Pawtucket Falls. Nathan Tyler built a grist-mill on the canal near Conpord Biver.

It is said that Captain John Ford liad a saw-mill at the mouth of ConcorcJ River. Captain FordiWas a tall, stout^ rugged man. Tradition says the Indians held a grudge against him. One of them, with the intent to kill the captain, was skulking round the mill. Captain Ford was busy moving a log with his grippers, when he cauglit sight of the Indian near some logs. He kept on "with his work until the Indian approached him and stood up to grasp him. The captain, concentrating his whole strysngthi threw his hand round imd knocked thfe Indian into the stream. Captain SilasTyler locates the mill just below the bridge^ at Pawtucket Falb.

Before the progress of the waters of the Merrimack to the sea had been cliecked and restrained by damsi thjsj bore* in their bosom a bountiful source of supply for the sustenance of not only the Indians^ but also the first Endish settlers. Within the memory of the oldest inhabitant now living^ the Merrimack teemed with salmon, shad, aleiiives, and eels. Occasionally a sturgeon was seen leaping^ in sportive activity, high in the air. This is what one of the oldest inhabitants ^ savs : '^ The best haul of fish I ever knew was eleven hundred sliad and eight or ten thousand alewives. This was in the Concord Biver, just below the Middlesex Mills. Formerly there was what was called an island on the Belvidere side of the bridge, near the mouth of the Concord. Occasionally the water from Concord Biver found a course down by the Owen house and the old yellow Tavern House. There were four fishing places, two above and two below the Concord-Biver bridge. Joe Tyler, my uncle, owned those above, and Josiah Fletcher those below the bridge. The first owner of the yellow Tavern House was Brown. The house stood where St. John^s Hospital now standf. Brown sold to Coding (Gedney ?) of Boston ; Gedney sold to Woodwardy and Wood^\-ard sold to Major Whittemore* of West Cambridge ; Whittemore sold to Livermore, and Livermore sold to John and Thomas Nesmith.

'' My. uncle got so many alewives at one time that he did not know what to do with them. He made a box that we called a ' shot,' and filled it full of alewives. This he attempted to run over the falls; but it struck a rock and spilled the whole. The law allowed us to fish two days each week in the, Concord, and three in the Merrijnack. This law was enforced about the same as the prohibitory law of the present day ; and just about as much attention was paid to it. The fish wardens were the state police.

" The Dracut folks fished in the pond at the foot of Pawtucket Falls. They would set their nets there on the forbidden days. On one occasion the 'fish wardens from Billerica came, took and carried oflF their nets. The wardens, when they returned to Billerica, spread the nets on the grass to dry.

Tlie next night the fishermen, in a wagon with a span of horses, drove to Billerica^ gathered up the nets, brought them back, and reset them in the pond.

^' People would come 15 or 20 miles on fishing days to procure these fish. Shad were worth five dollars per hundred, salmon ten cents per pound.^'

In concluding the early history of LoweU, we must note that the abundant water-power of the Merrimack Biver had been made avaibble only for the purpose of pro|)elling the wheel of an insignificant saw-mill near the Pawtucket Falls ; and this was done, not by a regularly constructed dam and canal, but by the current of an oiEshoot from the falls themselves.

During the period over which we have taken the reader, from 1810 to 1820, the calculation, foresight, and enterprise of one man had gradually been so shaping the material interests of the state, that he is now considered the author and father of its system of manufactures. It is trae that others, with a laudable ambition^ were engaged in the same work ; but it is to his systematic efforts and thorough appreciation of the people, their capabilities and wants, and the natural facilities they possessed, that he was enabled to win success under difficulties. Perhaps '' he builded better than he knew,'' having only the strong desire and hope of making a fortune. The credit for results that tedound to his honor cannot be denied.

Francis Cabot Liowell was bom in Newburyport, April 7, 1775. His father moved to Boston in 1776, and it was there that the son acquired his education. The Lowells, it is said, were descended from two brothers, Richard and Percival Lowle, who came from Bristol, England, in 1639 and settled at Newbury. The Bev. John Lowell, probably a descendant of one of these^ was pfotor of the first church in Newburyport for forty-two years. He died in 1767, leaving one son, John Lowell, LL. D., who was bom in Newbury, June 17, 1743 (O. S.), and graduated at Harvard College in 1760. He was appointed Judge of the United States District Court for Massachusetts bv Washington, and was distinguished for his leaiming and eloquence.

Francis Cabot Lowell, second son of Judge Lowell, graduated ^t Harvard College in 1793, at the age of eighteen. One of his classmates was Charles Jackson, afterwards judge, a brother of I^ rick Tracy Jackson, whose sister Lowell married. Very little is known of his early life; it is not until he had arrived at the age of thirty-six that we know abont him. John A. Lowell speaks of him as " a yonng man at that time (1810)^ thirty-five years of age^ whose business had been that of a merchant, bnt who had been driven from his business, at first by the Embargo, afterwards by the Non-intercourse Act, and finally by war/' Hon. Nathan Appleton met him in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1811 ; and it was then that Mr. Lowell communicated liis determination to obtain all possible information on the subject of the manufacture of cotton, with the purpose of introducing it into the United States. ^Ir. Appleton says, " I urged him to dp so, and promised him my co-operation.'' Li the fulfilment of his purpose we can imagine how persistently he investigated the whole process of manufacturing cotton as known in England and Scotland. TVilliam Horrocks of Stockport had patented a powerloom in 1803, another in 1805, and another, with improvements, in 1813. These so alarmed the hand-loom weavers in England and Scotland, that they destroyed many of them» Mr. Lowell undoubtedly improved his opportunities; and, -although the construction of these looms was kept secret, he obtained sufiicient information to enable him to construct one. He returned home in 1812. ' It was to Patrick Tracy Jackson he first imparted his designs, and offered a share in the enterprise. -Mr.' Appleton says of Lowell: ^'He and Patrick T. Jackson came to me one day on the Boston Exchange, and stated that they had determined to establish a cotton factory ; that they had purchased a water-power in Waltham (Bemis's paper-mill), and that they had obtained an act of incorporation, and Mr. Jackson had agreed to give up all other business and take the management of the concern." Associating themselves with some of the most intelligent merchants of Boston, they procured in February, 1813, a charter under the name of The Boston- Manufacturing Company, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars.

It appears that immediately after Mr. Lowell's zetom he had at once gone to work to construct a loom ; but he found its construction no easy task. Without patterns, or even drawings, so far as we know, each part had to be planned and tried, altered and rearranged, until tlic whole assumed the shape of a machine. Wc are told tliat ** manv little matters were to be overcome or adjnsted before it would work perfectly." Mr. Appleton says : ^\ Mr. Lowell said to me that he did not wish me to see it until it was complete/ of which he would give me notice. At length the time arrived. He imnted me to go out with him and see the loom operate. I well recollect the state of admiration and satisfaction with which we sat by the hour watching the beautiful movement of this new and wonderful machine, destined, as it evidently was, to change the character of all textile industry. This was in the autumn of 1814."

The great obstacle to the use of the power-loom, at that time, proved to be dressing the yam ; it required a man at each loom to dress the wa^ as it unrolled from the beam. This rendered it necessary to stop the loom while the man was doing it. Tliis difficulty was removed by the invention of an ingenious mode of dressing the warj) before it was placed in the loom. Mr. Lowell procured from England a drawing of Horrocks' dressing-frame, and Mr. Moody, whose services he had secured, made an improvement which more tlian doubled its efficiency, - a very ingenio^ machine called a warper, that wound the threads from the bobbins on the beam. After this thefe was no further difficulty in running a power-loom.

" The greatest improvement was in the doublespeeder. , The original fiy- frame introdiiced in England was without any fixed principle fortegulating the changing movements necessary in the process of filling a spool. Mr. Lowell midertook to make the numerous mathematical calculations necessary to give accuracy to these coinplicated movements, wliich occupied him constantly for more than a week. Mr. Moody carried them into effect by constructing the machinery in conformity. .... The last great improvement consisted in a more slack spinning on throstle- spindles, and the spinning of filling directly on the cops without the process of winding."

Samuel Batchelder, in his work on cotton manufacture, relates the following anecdote : ''Mr. Moody also stated to me another incident respecting the construction and completion of the dressingframe. At first thev had used wooden rollers where the threads of the warp were submitted to the action of tlie size ; but being constantly wet, the wood swelled and warped, so that the rolls would not fit accurately. They then tried covering the rollers with metal, by casting a coat of pewter on the outside ; but after various methods of casting, sometimes in sand, and sometimes in a mould miaidc of iron, they were still found to be imperfect. He at length thought of making a mould of' soapstone in which to cast them. Meeting liis brother

David in Boston^ who had known the trouble he had experienced, he s«id to^ him, ' I think I shall get oyer the difficulty about the rollers ; I intend to tiy spapstone/ - meaning fox a mould to cast them VDu His .brother replied, ' Well, I should think sfNtpstone would, made a very goctd roller/ Mr. Moody made no reply, but took the hint, and made his rollers of soapstofie, and they are in general i&/' ' "

They'liad one loom in operation, and it Ifcrew off the cotton cloth so fiast, that they^ere fearful the production would exceed the demand. Mr. Lowell thought the goods woidd not sell; tney calloil on Mrs. Bowers, who kept the only shop in Bostte where domestig^ goods were sold, and she said eytfrjrbody 'praised the goods, and no objectidta WflCs made^to the price; but still she made no SS^ Mr. Appleton had previously formed a copartnership with Benjamin C. Ward, for thc; purpose o{' ii^porting British goods. He told Mr. I^ell to Wnd the next parcel to the sJ[ore of - B. Ca.lS'ard & (5o. Although Mr. Lowell was willing to/t^ke tfrinty-fiv^e bents pei^^tard i(it the goods, they were put into an auction-room, and brought " somethmg over thirty cents." This was the commencement of. the practice of consigning goods to a house to sell on commission.

1%erw]|ole .economy^f a Qotton-mill wa^ regulated by ^r^' Lowell; the different processes followed csacl^ oth^r with the regularity of a clock. His stidies led him to a systematic division of labor, and the diffictdties he had to encounter taught him that, if. he would succeed in his undertakings, he must adopt the strictest economy. ' He had seen manu&cturing establishmients in the Old World, and the gUtter'of wealth growing out of their op6j(ations ; but this did not hide from his view the miserable condition of the operatives. Believing that such a state of things did not legitimately belong to manufacturing establishmeilU;;' he conceived of a community where outness and comfort, plea^nt iissidences and happj^* homes, churehes and spbool-hdlises, . good, wholesome food and decent clothing, were all to be found. Li, the establishment at Wkltham he endeavored to give ''a local habitation and a name " £o his concepti6n.

Britain in the manufacture of cotton goodi, lUrick T. J'ackson, who fucceeded Mr. Lowdl in tiie management at Waltham in 1820, bq^^to look round- for a locality where tlie busiiiess might be extended a9 soon as the capabilitiea^^of Charles River should be exhausted.

Li 1820-21, as has been stated, Patrick T. Jackson and his associate, Hon. Nathan Appletoii, ivere looking for a water-power in order,- to extend the manufacturing ))uaSnes8^. 'They had htea enahied, by the association of capital 'and their impioral machinery, to withstand the finaifcial premire that crushed so many cotton ;and wooUoi w**»"^i^«- turers in New England after the ifar^' and looked forward to an improved state of things. Mr. Lowell, as earl^ fl)i'-i81-8> had not fiivoied a veiy high rate of duty on foreign goods ; JiA^bdieted that the iniprovemente in machinery andj^ef&nomy in nTanagement operated as a protection. "-In 1819 the price of domestic cottons had fallen ^mqit one third from 1816; yet the Boston Manubctniing Company were enabled to make a dividend ot Are per ceut.in 1820, a time of ijjfiusual depreasioiL

Mr. Appleton says : '' At the suggestion of Mr. Charles H. Atherton of Amherst, N. H., we met him at a fall of the Souhegan Biver, a few miles from its entrance into the Merrimack ; but the fidl ,was in^f&cient for 9ur purpose.^ Thia was in September, 1821. In returning, we; passed the Nashua Biver without being aware of tiie existence of the fall, which has since been made the spnioe of so much power by the Nashua Company. We only saw a small grist-mill standing near t^Voad, in the' meadow, with a dam of some si^or seven feet. Sooh aftei^ our return I was jCt Waltham one day, when I was iilfkrmed that Mr. M^^dj had lately been at Salisbury, when Mr. Ezra Wortheo, his fonher partper, said to him, ^ I Eear IlQessn. Jackson and Appleton are looking out for a-^faterpower; why don't they buy up the F!aw|aeket Canal? That w^ulfgive them theirtiole power of ^the Merrimack, with a fall of over thirty'ifeet.' On the strength of this, Mr. Moody had letuned to Waltham by that route, and was satisfied tjf the extent of the power which might be tiini obtained.^'

We havis a r^rd of the finft visit of'Pkiul Moody to the Fnfwtvcket Falls, written in 1843, by the venerable rector of St Anne's Ghurcii, .ILev. Theodore Edsbp, ipbted to him by fmpfi the party, Mrs. Susan (Moody) Dana. '' An arrangement was made for Mr. and Mrs. Worthen to take a chaise and accompany Mr. and Mrs. Moody to

Fkwiucket Falls ; but John Worthen being taken ill Mis. Worthen could not go^ wherefore Mr. Worthen went in one chaise, and Mr. and Mrs. Moody and Susan in the other. When they came to the foot of Hunt's Falls, the gentlemen got out to look round, while Mrs. Moody and Susan sat in the chaise. They then came up to Mr. Jonathan Tyler's to dine. He kept the public-house at that time. After dinner they rode out again, went up the river and reconnoitred the Pawtucket Falls and neighboriiood to their satisfaction. The two friends parted, and Mr. Worthen went home to Amesbunr.'*

Betuming to Mr. Appleton's narrative: "Our first visit to the spot was in the month of November, 1821, and a slight snow covered the ground. The party consisted of Patrick T. Jackson, Kirk Boott, Warren Button, Paul Moody, John W. Boott, and myself. We perambulated the grounds and scanned the capabilities of the place, and the remark was made that some of us might live to see the place contain twenty thousand inhabitants.^'

In KirhlafupM AnecdoU$ will be found the following amusing notice of Sark Boott: "When the prospect of founding a large manufacturing town on the Merrimack Biver was in contemplation, some of the persons interested in that great gentleman skiDed as an engineer, and who was also fond of sporting, to view the water-privilege carefully, and to make inquiry as to the prices of land in the vicinity. He went with his dog, gun, and fishing-tackle, and obtained board in a farmer's house, a Mr. F . He spent his time in viewing the falls, the canal, the river, and the grounds, with occasional fowling and fishing. After si^ending some time there, in talking with the farmer one evening he told him that he liked the place very well, and thought he should be pleased to come and live there. The man said 'he should hundred dollars, and I can't sell it for less than three thousand dolkrs.' 'Tliat is too much,' said Mr. B - - , ' I can't give that.' ' Very well, you need not.' Here the conversation ended.

mind that I should like to live here very well; and though you ask so much, I will take up with your offer, and give you three thousand dollars.' ' Why,

" Some time afterward ilr. B ask^ the farmer what reason h^ had in the course of a few days to double the price of his farm, and to insist upon two after I ofiered you the farm for three thousand dollars I saw two men on the opposite side of Merrimack Biver, sitting on a rock, and talking for some time ; then they got up and one went up the river and the other down, and after some time they returned, seemed in earnest conversation half an hour or more, when they arose and went away. I did not know what it meant, but I thought 9omeihing was in the wind, and I determined if you asked me again to sell my farm, I would demand double the price.' Thus began the purchase, by Boston merchants, of the land upon which the city of Lowell has been erected."

General Butler, in his address at the semi-centennial celebration, says: "First and foremost of the remarkable men who were its [Lowell's] founders that the early engineers reported no water-power here, and it remained for an English half-pay cavalry ofiicer, wandering along the side of our fall, rod in hand, casting the fly for the salmon, to discover and appreciate the mechanical force of a river which now does the work of ten thousand

John A. Lowell, in his address on the same occasion, says : " I should be the last person to say one word in depreciation of Kirk Boott. He was my bosom-friend, and I was his trustee. I would nut say anything to detract from his credit ; but it is no more trae as a mattef of Tact^ that he made the first experimeut in joint-stock companies in carrying on the cotton manufacture, than it is true that he went out with ar fishing-Une and found that there was a water-power at Chelmsford. I pretend to know all about tliat thing. Tlie first person who suggested this place was Ezra Wortheu. Paul Moody knew notlniig about it. Mr. Moody and Mr. Jackson came up afterwards, and saw the place. It is not true that Mr. Boott was the first to suggest 'it. So far from it, the whole purcliase was made of the Pawtucket Canal, and of most of the farms here, before Mr. Kirk Boott had set foot on the spot.''

February 6, 1822, the legislature granted ''an act to' incofporate the Merrimack Manufacturing Company.'' Kirk Boott, William Appleton, John W. Boott, and Ebenezer Appleton were the persons named in the act. The capital was $600,000. A personal-liability clause was inserted in the charter, ''that every person who shall become a member of said corporation shall be liable in his private capacity, after his membership may liave ceased, for all debts contracted during the time he was a member of said corporation."

Up to this time they had purchased six hundred and thirty-nine shares in the Pawtucket Canal or Locks and Canals Company, for which they paid $80,607.62 ; the Tyler farm for 88,000, the Josiah Pletcher farm for §6,860, the Joseph Fletcher fiirm or land for $1,280.62, and eight tenths of Cheever's land for $1,605. These sums, with $8,700 paid to N. Wright, $647.80 paid to T. M. Clark, and other incidental expenses, amounted to $«9,8r6.62.i

* That hat been t story carrent fi>r a long time, that Thomas Hard, rented to be a shrewd operator, bfiiig in Boston about the time these lands were boiipht, o?erhcard a conversation that led him to hasten back to Chelmsford, secnre the reftisal of tBt Bowers saw-miU near Pawtucket Bridgre, and of land in that Tieinitj. The story is corroborated by the record of the doings of the directors of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company ; for Jdy 29, 1822, the directors received a proposal from Mr. Hui-d of Chelmsford rebtive to his purchases at Pawtucket Bridge, which was referred to a committee. August 17, 1822, Mr. Kurd's mill It Pawtucket Bridge and sundry parcels of land adjoining wen purchased. Hurd at that time bought Artemas Holden's l^aee, but he failed without paying for it, - a serious lost to Mr. UoUeo. We thaU hear from Hurd agaio.

to a width of sixty^ilTe feet and a depth of eighf feet. The locks were renewed, and the Merrimack and Hamilton canals were commenced. - Five faun-^ dred men were emjdoyed. These improvements cost § 1^0,000.

The Lowell Jbnmal, March 10, 182&, in an account of these operations, says : '' In digging this canal ledges were found considerably below the I old canal, which bore evident traces of its having ' once been the bed of tlie river. Many places were found worn in the ledge, as there usually are in falls, by stones kepi constantly in motion by the water ; some of these cavities were a foot or more in diameter, and two feet deep.''

September 1, 1823, the first mill on the Merrimack was completed, water let into the canal, and the wheel started. The first cloth was turned out in November of this year. October 9 started the first cards on the Merrimack.

There was no suitable public-house in the place at this time. The Stone House, where company was received and entertained, was erected soon after this.

June 18, 1824, Ezra Worthen, while giving directions to his workmen, dropped dead. Warren Colbum was appointed to the place made vacant by his death. The company gftve Mr: Worthen's widow S750, the amount of his salary for six months.

At this time the establishment of another company, to be called tiie Hamilton Manufacturing Company, was proposed. Tlie Merrimack Company voted to charge the new company thirty dollars per spindle, including machinery and land, or four dollars per spindle for land without machinery.

October 25, 1824, J. B. Yamum erected a wing dam near the foot of .Pawtucket Falls, on the Dracut side of the river, and tlie Merrimack Manufacturing Company remonstrated, asserting its right to the whole falls; bat remonstrance being of no avail, May 3, 1825, the agent was authorized to purchase the land in Dracut of J. B. Varnum. This was another of Mr. Hurd's phins, and Mr. Yamum was selected to assist him in carrying it out. Belying upon the current created by the dam, he attempted to drive a water-wheel by that current, and in 1825 and 1826 built a mill on the spot, the foundation of which still remains. June 1, 1825, the Warren estate was sold to Hurd by tlie Menimack Company, a quit-claim given, and also water from the Hamilton Canal, at the rate of four dollars per spindle. After Hurd's mill, on the Concord Biver, was burned, the mill at the foot of Pawtucket Falls was taken down and rebuilt on the site of the one burned. The canal, through which Mr. Hurd's mill drew its supply of water from the Hamilton Canal, crossed Central Street at the foot of Jackson Street, to the rear and south of Hurd Street into the Warren Street Canal. lUie recent building improvements on Central Street unearthed the remains of this conduit. Two persons, Callender and Whipple, committed auicide by drowning in this conduit.

From 1821 to 1826 the records of the Merrimack Company constitute the history of the period, and the writer is under obligation to the treasurer, C. H. Dalton, Esq., of JiJoston, for permission to consult them. As early as November 22, 1824, the subject of fi new township occupied the minds of tlie directors, and a committee was appointed to consider the expediency of petitioning the legislature to have a certain part of Chelmsford set off as a separate township.

The Merrimack Print- Works were started in the autumn of 1824, under the charge of Mr. Allan Pollock. He resigned in 1826, and Mr. Boott went, to England to secure engravers. Mr. True Wiggin had secured the services of J. D. Prince, who .continued in the position of superintendent until 1H55, and then retired on an annuity of $2,000. He died suddenly January 5, 186U. Mr. Prince enjoyed tlie reputation of a generoushearted, English gentleman, and a faithful servant to the company. The second mill on the Merrimack was^ started in 1824. The macliinery for it was built 9t Waltliam.

February 28, 1825, the Proprietors of the Meylimack Manufacturing Company voted to transfer the water-power, lands, etc., to a new company, to be called The Locks and Canals Company. '^ In 1826, finding it inconvenient to carry on under one management a large manufacturing establishment and a land a^id water power enterprise, the property was divided. The Proprietors of Locks and Canals, under th^ authority of an act of the legislature, tatting the land, water-power, and machine-shop, and the Merrimack Company retaining their mills and print-works, with land and waterpower sufiicient for th^r pur^xises.

and Canals sold mill sites and water-power to the manufacturing companies, as they were chartered, from time to time ; also, in ^lost cases, building the mills and machinery for them ; they also sold building-lots as the growth of the place demanded. Kirk Boott died in 1837 ; he was supceeded, as treasurer, for a short time,- by Joseph Tilden. From 1838 to 1845 Patrick T. Jackson (son of the Hon. Jonatlian Jackson of Newburyport, the first president of the original Locks and Capals Company)^' held the office of treasurer. In 1845 the Proprietors of Locks and Canals, having 4isposed of a^I the permanent water-power, nearly all the avaikble building-lots, and the machine-shop, their only remaining property of ; much importance was their interest in the water-power. TorControl this, the manufacturing companies bought up all the shares of their stock.''

January 26, 1825, the Hamilton Manufiieturing Company was incorporated with a ^capital of S6UU,0U0. The associates named, in the act were Samuel Batchelder, Benjamin Gorham, William Appleton, William Sturgis, aud John ]jOwell, Jr. From time to time the capital has been increased to §1,250,000.

Under ^Ir. Batchelder ^ the power-loom was applied to weaving cotton drilling and other twilled goods. '^ It was an entirely new article upon the market ; nothing of the kind had previously been imported or manufactured in this country. . ... It sold readily at nineteen and one quarter cents per yard, and the treasurer of the company made a contract for all that could be made for six months at sixteen cents/' This, business was so profitable that the directors were considering the practicability of changing the machinery of the Appleton Mills, but concluded, on account of the expense, to build new mills. The result was the Suffolk Company in 1881.

Li 1804 a man by the name of Bobbins, one of Mr. Slater^s workmen, built a mill on the Souhegan River, in New Ipswich. In 1807 another mill was built on the same stream ^ by Seth Nason, Jesse Holton, and Samuel Batchelder; it went into operation in 1808. These were the first cotton-mills built in tlie state of New Hampshire. From what was known of Ezra Worthen's constitution and health, it was thought that his death Mould be sudden. Mr. Batchelder had been spoken to by Nathan Appletoo, in case of Mr. Worthen'a decease^ to take his place. Mr. fiatchelder came to Chelmsford as soon as it was proposed to form the Ebmilton Company^ and superintended the erection of all the buildings for tliat company.

The memorable events of 18£5 were the organization of an independent military company^ called the Mechanic Pluibnx, the incorporation of thd^ Centfial Bridge Company and of the Middlesex Mechanic Association. The third mill on the Merrimack Corporation was .started with a complete set of machinery made in the machine-shop under the superintendence of Mr. Moody. May 18^ the first dividend of profits of ten per cent, or one hundred dollars per share^ was declared by the Merrimack Company; and December 1, another divideifil of seventy-five dollars on each share was made. December 30, the terms of separation were agreed upon by the townsmen of Chelmsford. The liame of '' Merrimack '' was to be given to the new town. The editor of i\it Journal suggested that of La Grange. Mr. Appleton states when, where, and how the name originated: ^'In 1826 I met Mr. Bbott [in Lowell] one day, when he said to xne that the committee of the legislature were ready to report the bill. It only remained to fill the I blank with the name. He said he considered the question narrowed down to two, Lowell or Derby. I said to him, ' then Lowell by all means ' ; and Lowell it was.''

The directors of the Merrimack Company appropriated the sum of $500 to purchase books toward the formation of a library ; and Kirk Boott, Warren Colbum, and Eev. Theodore Edson were appointed a committee to lay out that sum for the purpose.

Bcunicipal History

Wb have already described the boundaries of the new town ; now we turn to the terms of separation said to have been agreed upon by the townsmen of Chelmsford. We can very readily imagine the anxious participation of such men as Kirk Boott and Nathan Appleton in the deliberation of these important questions.

The Merrimack Company had nearly completed Ave factories, three of which were filled with machinery in full operation, and two large buildings for print-works. They were using 450,000 pounds of cotton, and making 2,000,000 yards of cotton doth per annum. The cloth was bleached, and three loarths of it dyed and printed. The Hamilton Company had erected one factory and laid the foundations for the second. They had erected two blocks of houses, with eight tenements in each; and were preparing to erect two more, one hondred and ninety-three feet in length and tliirty-^ix feet in widtL Hey had built a counting-house, storehouse, and a dwelling for the agent. These were all of brick roofed with skte. By a regulation of the proprietors, all buildings more than ten fiset high, hereafter to be erected upon any of the lands then belonging to them, must be of stone or brick, with a slated roof.

Five families moved off the ground occupied by the Merrimack Company ; 1,500 persons were now accommodated on the same ground. There were now, in all, one hundred tenements erected for those employed in the ftustories, print-works, and machine-shop. In the tenements of the Merrimack Company there were 967 persons ; 299 males and 668 females: in those of the machine-shop' were 263; 162 nudes and 101 females. It was estimated that the population at that time was 2,500. In addition to this, Belvidere, separated from Lowell by the Concord River, contained a population of 300 or 400. There were already a dozen stores in the place, a church, a stone house almost ready for the rector, a school-house, and two hotels, - the Stone House and Frye's Tatem.

March 2, 1826, Joseph Locke, justice of. the peace, issued a warrant directed to KiriL Boott, authorizing him to call a meeting of the freeholders other inliabitants, to choose town officers, to vote for register of deeds, and agree upon the manner of calling future town-meetings. Mr. Boott's return is dated March 6, the day of the meeting, which was held at Balch and Coburn's tavern, the '' Stone House.'^ Kirk Boott was chosen moderator, Samuel A. Cobuni town-clerk, and Nathaniel Wright, Samuel Batchelder, and Oliver M. Whq>- ple selectmen. Artemas Uolden Avas chosen treasurer, and Luther Marshall constable.

Up to this time (1826) the affairs of this community had been managed by the resident agents of the companies. No doubt, in their view, it was their prescriptive right. The companies had done much for the welfare of the people gathered here : building and maintainmg a church and schoolhouses, purchasing books for a library, and doing everything necessary for the religious, moral, and physical well-being of the people. Incorporation as a township brought another clement to the surface ; the people foutid iJiat Iheg were, iJkemseli^ei, called apon'to participafe in the management of afiain. It is not strange, therefore, that there should be occasionally a' wide divei^nce of opinion, resulting, not in a feeling of hostility to the pecuniary interests of the companies, but in a desire to carry out and perfect what the companies had so generously begun. On the part of the agents, the desire of directing and controlling all matters involving the expenditure of money may have been prompted by prudential motives, as the companies were the heaviest and almost the only 2X)ssessors of taxable property. By them, therefore, all public burdens would have to be borne. It is necessary to Iceep this fact in view.

At the first town-meeting, March 6, 1826, Oliver M. Whipple, Warren Colbum, Henry Coburn, Jr., Nathaniel Wright, and John Fisher were appointed a committee to divide the town into school and highway districts. The committee reported at the next meeting, April 3, proposing its division into five school districts. The school-houses were located as follows: District No. 1, where the new Green School-house now stands; No. 2, at the Falls, near the hospital ; No. 3, near the pound ; No. 4, near Hale's mills, called the Red Schoolhouse; and No. 5, on Central Street, south of * Hoid Street. At this meeting (April 3) Theo- . dore Edson, Warren Colbum, Samuel Batchelder, John O. Green, and Elisha Huntincrton were elected .school committee; and the town appropriated 5 1^000 for the support of the schools. Dr. Edson says : " One of the districts, No. 3, was very small, not comprising more than about sixteen . pupils. In 1825, the year previous to the iricor- 'poration of Lowell, the town of Chelmsford ap- .propriated for schools in this whole region, winch was reckoned one district, the sum of 8113.50.'^ At thc^ town-meeting. May 8, a proposition was made and carried, that the school-money be distributed in proportion to the taxes paid from each^ district, provided that where the sum for any district amounted to less than §112, it be made up to that sum.

The establishment of schools on a more liberal foundation, and their regulation, became a matter of heated controversy between the new town authorities and the representatives of the mill corporations, who opposed lai^e expenditures for new school-houses aiid for their maintenance, the burden of which would fall chiefly upon their corporations, and from which they would derive littte direct benefit. A long struggle terminated in' a vote of

Early in 1826 a stage line was established between Middlesex Village and Boston, to run three times a week. April 10, a stage ran from Lowell to Boston daily. June SO, Hurd^s mill (woollen factory) and machine-shop were destroyed by fire. December 15, Central Bridge, across the Merrimack Biver, was finished so as to be passable. Its length, 500 feet; span of centre arch, 180 feet; two. outer arches, 160 feet each. Luke S.

sidered a great improTement. These, and other impTOTements introduced by him into the new factories at Waltham and . Lowell aided in establishing the cotton manufacture in the United States upon an improved and permanent basis.

Paul Moody came to Lowell in 1823, and superintended the building of the Merrimack Company's machine-shop, which was completed in 1825, at an expense of 8150,000. He held the position of superintendent under the Merrimack Comji^ny, and, when the property was transferred to the Locks and Canals Company, also under that company until bis dealh.

- In 1832 the Lowell Bleachery was incorporated, with, a capital of §50,000, since increased to 8300,000. Jonathan Derby was agent for one year.- He was succeeded by Joseph Hoyt from 1883 to 1835, Charles T. Appleton from 1835 to 1846, Charles A. Babcock from 1846 to 1853, Frank P. Appleton from 1S53 to the present time.

In 1821 1 Mr. Hard sold the land and water privilege on^ the east side of Concord Biver, comprising what was then the " island '' in Belvidere, <to Winthrop Howe, who built a mill, and disposed of the surplus power to other parties. Tliis mill was sold to John Nesmitb, who in turn sold to W. B. Park of Boston,, in 1832. Mr. Park, haviing obtained a charter, sold his privilege in 1834 to Eliphalet Barber, Walter Farnsworth, and George Hill^ Boston, the Belvidere Manufacturing Com- : pany. Having purchased the stone mill, they continued the business until 1851, when Charles Stott and Walter Farnsworth bought out the company^s interest. The stone mill was destroyed by fire in 1851y and the old flannel-mill in 1852. The company was reorganized in 1853; Messrs. Stott and Farnsworth conveyed one third of their interest to the new company. The brick mill on Lawrence Street, oui the Wamesit Power Company^s canal, was built in 1862. The capital stock is now 8200,000. Charles Stott has been agent since 1835.

At. the town-n)eeting, January 21, 1833, it was voted to petition for the establishment of a police court in Lowell. This petition was granted, and the police court, with Josjeph Locke as justice, ' became one of the institutions of Lowell. April 1, measures were taken to commence a svstem of sewenge. May 6^ Chelmsford Street was laid out.

July 2, the subject of a market-house was .referred to a committee; and a petition to license theatrical exhibitions or entertainments was negatived ; yeas 356, nays 473. November 11, Tyler. Street wa« laid out, and the question of licensing iet theatre came up again, with the same result; yeas 392^ nays 529. A building for a theatre had been erected on Lowell Street, in which a number of performances were held under the management of Mr. Barrett, of the Tremont Theatre, Boston. The building was eventually turned into a tenemetit^ house, called the Theatre Building for a long time. *At the adjourned meeting, November 25, the Bdvidere people were highly gratified, for a short time, by the apparent success of a measure that they haA so persistently advocated. The town voted on the question of annexation, yeas 597, nays '445/ and instructed its representatives to vote for the annexation of Belvidere.

In anticipation of the visit of the President of the United States, General Andrew Jackson,' to Lowell, a meeting of the citizens, without distinction of party, was held. May 20, to concert measures for receiving him with proper demonstrations of respect. This visit occurred on Thursday, June 27. The committee of arrangements, accompanied by a cavalcade, met the President near the Andover line in Tewksbury, and escorted him to Nesmith Street, where he was welcomed in a brief address by Joshua Swan, Esq., chairman of the board of selectmen. In the mean time the mill-girls, to the number of 2,500, " all dressed in a style of elegance and neatness,^' were formed on Jackson Sti'eet; thence they were escorted by the military to their position on Church Street. This street was the place assigned for the school-children also. The citizens on foot were formed on High Street; the military and the cavailcade on Nesmith and Andover streets. The artillery was stationed on Chapel Hill, east of Central Street, near to and overlooking Concord River.

The President, who was accompanied by Messrs. Van Bureu, Cass, "Woodbury, and Dohelson, his private secretin*, was too ill to attend the banquet prepared for him. He, however, nsited tlie Merrimack Corporation, and went through mill No. 2, wliere all tlie machinery had been put'in operation. The girls belonging there, in their holiday attire, took diarge of the work and exhibited the process of cotton manufacturing. The President was greatly

Waften Colbum was bom in DedUam, March 1, 1793^ and was the son of Richard and Joanna (Eaton) Colbum. While a teacher he .wrote ahd published his well-known work on Arithmetic, called the FirH Leuont. He finished tlie Sejuel after he went to Waltham, daring his leisure time. His Fini' LeuoMi gradually worked its waj to notice and favor, and enjoyed a more enviable success than any other school-book ever published in this country, and its merits were deservedly ackiiowledged. It has been stated that fifty thousand copies of Colbum^s First Lessons are annually used in Qieat Britain. About two millions of copies had been Bold in 1856.

June 18, 1824, the superintendent of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, Mr. Ezm Worthen, died iijotantly while engaged in liis ordinary duties. Mr. Colbum was appointed his successor.

Mh Samuel Batchelder says of Colbum : " His miithematical skill, and his knowledge of the principled of mechanics, gave him important advantages for the situation in which he was placed, and he was* not less successful in his good judgment in the general management of business.'' He died September IS, 1833.

October 25, Henry Clay, the eminent Kentuckian, visited Lowell. He visited the schools, and in the evening of that day held a reception in the old town-hall.

At the town-meeting, January 18, 1834, a motion to reconsider the vote of November 25, 18SS, on the annexation of Belvidere, was carried (yeas 724, nays 1), and the representatives were instmcted to oppose the annexation. March 29, the Iq^lature passed " an Act to set off a part of the town of Tewksbiiry and annex the same to the town of Lowell.'' This settled a long controversy. November 10, a committee appointed May 5, 1832, to consider the matter of a poor-farm, reported in favor of a house seventy-five feet long, thirty-seven feet wide, and three stories high in front, to be

May 7, David Crockett, of Tennessee, visited the town, and was toted, toasted, and praised to his heart's content. He says of this visit : " I wanted to see how it was that these Northerners could buv our cotton and carry it home, manufacture it, bring it back, and sell it for Irnlf nothing; and, in the mean time, be well to live, and make money besides. We stopped at the hige stone house at the head of the falls of the Merrimack River, and having taken a little refreshment, went down among the factories. The dinner-bells were ringing and the folks pouring out of the houses like bees out of a gum. I looked at them as they jiassed, all well dressed, lively, arid genteel in their appearance; indeed, the girb* looked as if they were coming from a quilting frolic."

May 31, 1834, a steamboat was launched abov^ Pawtucket Falb, to run on the Merrimack Biver between Lowell and Nashua. This enterprise originated with Joel Stone of Lowel) and J. P. Simpson of Boston. The first steamlx^t on the Merrimack is said to have come from Boston in 1819, and reached Concord, N. H. Stone and Simpson's boat, ninety feet long and twenty wide, was named the Herald. Joel Stone was her first captain.

October 4, George Thompson, a distinguished English antislavery orator, spoke in Lowell. Missiles were hurled at the building from behind the speaker. One of these, a large brickbat, came through the window with a startling crash, passed near Mr. Thompson's head, and fell upon the floor. This was preserved, and exhibited in the rooms of the New England Antislavery Society, Boston. On it was this inscription : -

" While G. Th9mpsou, from England, was plnding the cause of 2,300,000 human and immortal American bom brings, held in brutal, unmitigated, and soul-destroytug bondage, in this land of Republicanism and Christianity, this deadly oiissile was hurled with tremendous foroe at his head by one of the citicens of Low-helL In the year of our Saviour Christ, 1834 ; of American Independence, 58."

Citizens of Lowell, arise! Look well to your interests! Will you suffer a question to be discussed in Lowell whksh will endanger the safety of the Union, -^ a question which we have not by our constitution a right to meddle with f Fellow^itizens, shall Lowell be the first phu^ to suffer an Englishman to disturb the peace and harmony of our coun» try ? Do you wish instruction from an EngUsluiuiu ? If you are free-born sons of America, meet, one and all, at 'the town>hall, this evening, at half-past seven o'clock, and convince your Southern brethren that we

Mr. Thompson that day received an anonymons letter^ a rare specimen of the literature of tliat day, telling him that " there is a plot in agitation to immerse you in a vat of indelible ink"

Thi^ boar of the third meeting arrived. Quite a large audience had gathered in the hall. Tlie night was ''dark, drizzly, and disagreeable/' A crowd was outside, in full force : some with a purpose to break up the meeting, some to see the fun, and more to see a mob ; while all helped to swell the noise. Mr. Thompson, his friends, and the selectmen of the town were in the anteroom of the faalL Brickbats and stones were hurled against the windows /rom the Shattuck Street side, but a board screen rendered them harmless. Although the selectmen wanted to see fair play, they were powerless in such a crowd. The Abolition friends of Mr. Thompson, concluding that " discretion was the better part of valor,'' disguised him as best they could, and let him go out and see the fun. The^meeting was adjourned to, and held, the next afternoon, without any hindrance or disturbance.

y&x. Thompson came to Lowell again, March 15> 1865, in the company of William Lloyd Garrison, at the invitation of the Lowell Freeman's Aid Society. The meeting was in Huntington Hall, and the Hon. Nathan Crosby presided.

In 1835 the market-house was buiU» and for a short time looked a little like business; but the occupants of the stalls had to adopt the plan of the stores,-?- obtain their orders and carry out their goods. It became very evident that a markethouse was not adapted to Lowell's wants.

Hie transfer of the courts from Concord and Cambridge created a necessity for a court-room ; and the upp^r story of the market-house was made available for that purpose. To follow all the changes that the building has been subjected to would require too much space. It is. now used for a police station, a police court, and by Messrs. C. P. Talbot & Co. as a store-room for their drugs and dyestufis.

At the town-meeting, January 12, the committee appointed in November, 1834, to consider the subject of having one or more terms of the courts held here, reported in favor of the June term, and it was voted to petition the legislature for that, and also that the house of correction be located in LowelL .

March 27, the Boott Cotton Mills were incorporated, with a capital of 81,500,000. Abbott Lawrence, Ozias Goodwin, and John A. Lowell were named in the charter. B. F. French was the agent till 1845 ; he was succeeded by Linus Child till 1862, and by William A. Burke, from the Lowell Machiue-Shop, in April, 1862.: Mr. Burke left in September, 1865, and .was succeeded by A. G. Cumnock, the present incumbent. . The cars on tlie Boston and Iiowell Bailroad began to run regularly July 4.

The Middlesex Mechanics' Association finished and occupied their building this year. This Association was incorporated June 18, 1825, and was oiganized October 6. The first annual meeting was held October 5, 1826. Warren Colbum delivered an address on the comparative state of the sciences, arts, and literature^in ancient and modern^ times.

In December, 1834, the Merrimack, Hamiltoii, Appleton, Lowell, Middlesex, Sufiblk, Lawrence^ and Tremont corporations made a donation to the Association of one fourth of one per cent on th^ capital, amounting to §14,075. A mortgage was given by the Association, upon its land and building, to the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on Merrimack Biver. The conditions of this donftion were, '' that the Association shall, during its existence, apply the sum of §1,000 annually to the maintenance and increase of a library and reading-room, in the establishment of lectures, and for the payment of premiums for inventions and improvements in the, mechanic arts, and for any or idl of these objects.''

A vote of thanks to Kirk Boott, who was instrumental in procuring these favors, was passed by the Association, January 3, 1835, and a request made that he would sit for his portrait, at the expense of individuals of the Association. No individual was to be allowed to subscribe more than five dollars. A full-length portrait was painted^ and hung in the hall, where it still is.

As has been stated above, the building was completed this year, 1835. The jnoney that had been donated, together with admission fees, assessmentfi^ and a loan of $2,000, was all expended. Under these circumstances, more assistance was needed ; and in April, 1839, the Boott Cotton Mills made; a donation of 82,500 in money. After paying the debt, this left 8500 to be used to replenish the library'. Soon after, the Lawrence, Boott, Hamil- » ton, Tremont, Suffolk, Appleton, and Middlesex* made an additional donation of S 1 ,395, making the whole amount from the companies $22,480.

In the spring of 1837 an amendment to the charter .Ai'as obtained, giving authority to establish a reading-room, M'hich was done. Since that time

Ei8T0B7 Of Middlesex County

In 1845 Nathan Appleton and Abbott Lawrence were inrited to sit for their portraits^ which tliey did ; and the portraits were placed in the hall. The hall is now adorned with the portraits of Washington, Boott, Appleton, Lawrence, John A. Lowell, and Patrick T. Jackson.

Li 1847 Hon. Abbott Lawrence gave the sum of Sl^OOO to be expended in the purchase of valuable French scientific works. After the death of Kirk Boott his widow presented the Association with two hundred volumes.

The Middlesex Couuty Society of Natural History, an incorporated association, which was oi^nised in 1836, consisting of members of the Mechanics' Association, had collected and arranged in cases aiid drawers a valuable assortment of curiosities and minerak. These specimens occupied a room in tfae'building. A large portion was contributed by (Miver M.'Wliipple, Esq., and in honor of him the collection was called the Whipple Department. October 6, 1859, this department was presented to the Association by the above-named society, and so little is the interest felt in it that it is now consigned to an attic.

Li 1856 the Association successfully undertook to establish- an annual course of twelve public lectures, which have been maintained ever since at ^ an expense of about 31,200 per annum. In con- ' sidacation of the scientific character of some of these lectures, the companies contributed $300 annually to sustain them. The profit arising from these lectures is devoted to the library.

During the latter part of 1834 and the early part of 1835 the people of Lowell were severely exercised on the subject of shivery. The visit of Thompson had served to fix the opinions of the people, and two parties were formed. In order to stand well with the South, it was thought necessary to hold a public meeting and denounce all agitation of the slavery question. Such a meeting was held August 22, 1835, and a series of resolutions were offered by Charles H. Locke, which were discussed and then referred to a committee consisting of Messrs. Charles H. Locke, John Aiken, John P. Robinson, Samuel H. ^lann, Elisha Bartktt, John Avery, Thomas Hopkmson, John L. Sheafe, and William Austin. A paper called the Lowell Times says of this meeting, '' Hisses, scrapings, coughings, and yells were mited with die exerdses,'' and that an attempt made by H.

Citt Government Organized

As early as November 17, 1885, the Qmrier called the attention of the people to the necessity of a city government. The facts that there had been ten town-meetings during that year, that the population had increased to over sixteen thousand, and that the voters entitled to a participation in town affaire numbered over twelve hundred, weref sufficient in themselves to warrant a movement in that direction. The experience had in the transaction of business, raising the necesskry sums of money, kying out streets, building school-houses, sidewalks, drains, and sewere, made it evident that there was a need of reform, and that some method must be devised to obviate the necessity of calling such a large number of people from their tegular business to transact the business of the town.

At the town-meeting held February 8, 1886, a committee of twenty-five were chosen and in^ structed to consider if any alterations or modifications in the municipal r^ulations of said town were necessary, and also the expediency of establishing a city government. The following gentlemen were chosen to serve on this cbmmittee : Luther Lawrence, Eliphalet Case, John NesmiA, O. M. Whipple, William Austin, Joseph W. Mansur, Seth Ames, Joel Stone, Jr., Amos Spalding, Hamlin Davis, Jolm B. Adams, John Chase, William N. Owen, Erastus Douglas, Granville Parker, Walter Willey, T. P. Goodhue, Isaac Swan, Thomas Flint, Eichard Fowler, Daniel H. Dean, Henxy J. Baxter, J. M. Doe, John Aiken, George BrowneU.

This committee reported, on the 17th of February, that it was expedient to establi^ a city government, adducing in its favor that under the town government there was a '' want of executive power,^' and a '' loose way of spending money.*'

To this committee ten more memben were added, as follows : '* Joseph Locke, David Boynton, Tappan Wentworth, John Mixer, Peter H. Willaid, Benjamin Walker, Samuel A.Cobum, Thomas Hopkinson, Benjamin Hutchinson, Thomas B. Comins ; and they were instructed to draft a charter and present a petition to the legislature for its embodiment in an act of incorporation. They were authorized to print fifteen hundred copies of the charteSr for distribution. At the meeting, February 27j the proposed charter was read and accepted. Only (HDe amendment was suggested, but not carried, that '' no person holding an office under the United States or state governments should be eligible to the office of mayor.'*

Hie charter was promptly granted by the legislature, and the governor, lldM'ard Everett, signed the act April 1. Its acceptance must be by a majority of the voters in town-meeting assembled, and it suspended the election of town officers for the year 1836, allowing the old board to hold over until their successors were chosen. It. gave the selectmen authority to call the first meeting under the charter, by issuing their warrant before the first Monday in May for the citizens to give in their votes for a. mayor, six aldermen, twenty-four counciUnen, and six members of the school committee, who were to hold their offices until the first Monday in April, 1887.

This charter was accepted by the voters at a meeting held April 11; yeas 961, nays 328. The selectmen issued their warrant April 14, for a meeting to be held April 21, at which time the following persons were chosen: Elisha Bartlett,^ mayor ; William Austin, Benjamin Walker, Oliver M. Whipple, Aaron Mansur, Seth Ames, Alexander Wright, aldermen ; Thomas Ne$|;nith, Tliomas Oidway, Samuel Garland, George Brownell, Cyril French, Horace Howard, William Wymau, Erastus Douglas, Henry J. Baxter, Weld Spalding, Jonathan Bowers, Sidney Spalding, John Clark, James Bossell, H. W. Hastings, David Nourse, ^tei^ien Mansur, John Mixer, John A. Savels, James Cook, Josiah B. French, Jonathan Tyler, David Dana, Tappan Wentworth, councilmcn ; Lemuel Porter^ Amos Blanchard, Jacob Bobbins, John O. Green, John A. Enowles, Thpmas Hopkinson, school committee.

The Merrimack Company, with a capital of 81,500,000; running 25,704spindles, 1,253 looms; employing 1,321 females, .437 males; making 184,000 yards of cloth weekly, of whicli 163,000 yards were dyed aAd printed ; consuming 44,000 pounds of ^tton weekly, and ^,200 tons of coal, 1,500 cords of wood, and 8,700 gallons of oil per annnoL.

The Hamilton Company, with ^ capital of 8900,000; running 19,456 spindles, 560 looms; employing 780 females, 200 males ; making 85^00 yards of cloth per week, of >Yhich 70,000 yards were dyed and printed ; consuming 28,000 pounds of cotton per week, and 2,000 tons of coal, 1,500 cords of wood, and 6,000 gallons of oil per annum.

-The Appleton Company, with a capital of 8500,000; running 11,776 spindles, 380 looms; employing 470 females, 65 males ; making 100,000 yards of cloth })er week ; consuming. 33,000 poinds of cotton per week, and 300 tons of coal and 3,375 gallons of oil per annum.

The Lowell Company, with a capital of §500,000; one mill running 5,000 spindles for cotton,, besides woollen ; 142 looms for cotton, 70 for carpet^; em* ploying 325 females, 150 males ; making 5{l,000 yaids of cotton cloth, 2,500 yards of carpeting, and 150 rugs per week ; consuming 30,000 pounds of cotton per Aveek, and 180 tons of coal, 500 cords of wood, 3,000 gallons of olive and 4,500 gallons of sperm oil per annum.

The Suffolk Company, with a capital of §450,000; running 10,752 spindles, 460 looms; employing 460 females, 70 males; makmg 90,000 yards per week; consuming 30,000 pounds of cotton per week, and 294 tons of coal, 70 eords of wood, and 3,840 gallons of oil- per annum.

The Tremont Company, with a -capital of 8 500,000;. running 11,520 spindles, 416 looms; employing 460 females, 70 jnales ; making 125,800 yards per week; consuming 34,000 pounds oi cotton per week, and 329 tons of coal, 60 cords of wood, and 3,692 gallons of oil per annum.

The Lawrence Company, with a capital of 81,200,000 ; running 31,000 spindles, 910 looms; employing 1,250 females, 200 males; making 200,000 yards of cloth per week; consuming 64,000 pounds of cotton per week, and 650 tons of coal, 60 oords of wood, and 8>217 gallons of oil per annum.

The Middlesex Company, with a capital of 8500,000; running 4,620 spijidlcs, 38 lo6ms for broadcloths, 92 looms for cassimeres; employing 350 females, 185 males; making 6,300 yards <of cassimere, and 1,500 yards of broadcloth per week; consuming 600,000 pounds of wool, 3,000,000 teasels, 500 tons of coal, 1,000 cords of woodjT 11,000 gallons of olive and 2,500 gallons of spwm oil per annum.

The Proprietors of Locks and Canals^ with a capital of $600,000. Their machine-shop employs 290 males, where the complete machinery for a mill of 5,000 spindles can be tarned out in four months ; and locomotives built that will run sixty miles in an hour. .

In addition to what is statedi^ above, the consumption of starch in t^e Inills was 510,000 pounds per annum, flour 8,800 barrels, and charcoal 500,000 busheb. The average wa^es of females, exclusive' of board, two dollars; j^r week, male^ eighty, cents per day. .; /^

Besides these companies, there were the powdermills of 0. M. Whipple, the Lowell Bleaciiery> tfie flannel-mills, the. card and whip factory, phmingmachine, reed-machine, grist and saw millsy altogether employing 300 Hauds and a capital of $300,000. Also, a worsted mill, fbrinerly the Hurd Woollen Mill, runnipg 1,20<> spindles, employing 125 persons, and consuming 200^,000 pounds of wool and 5,250 giillons of oil per annum. "

There were twenty schopls : one high, four grammar, and fifteen primary ; employing thirty-three teachers, and having an atverag^ daily attendance's fellows : high, 75 ; grammar, 550 ; primary, 745, - total, 1,370 scholars.

The whole number of 'churches was tliiiteen v four Congregational, two Baptist, two Methodist, one Episcopal, oneUniverssQist, one Christian Union, one Free-will Baptist, one Eoman Catholic

The Lowell Bank, with a capital of $250,000^ and the Bailroad Bank, with a capital of §500,000, were both well established, and also the Lowell Listitution for Savings. ^ /

May 2, the new government was organized. The oath of office was admimstered to the mayor by Judge Locke. In the common council, John Clark was chosen president and Geoi^ Woodward clerk. Li convention, Samuel A. Coburn was chosen city derk.

The mayor, in his address, said : '' Looking back to the period when I came amongjou, a penniless stranger, alike unknowing and unknown, I find the interval of more than eight years filled up with manifestations of kindness and good-will. One of the most striking points of the entire history of our town and city consists in the unparalleled rapidity of its growth. The graves of our fathers are not hefe. The liaunts of our childhood are not here. The old trees and the old men, which rendered venerable and sacied the quiet towns of our nativity, are not here. The large and gradually accujnulated fortunes of nearlv all our older towns are not to be foUnd here. The great mass of wealth which is centred here, and which has made our city what it is, is owned abroad. Its proprietors do not reside amongst us. Its profits are not ex- ^nded amongst us.''

''; April 16, the legislature passed an act removing a term of the Supreme Judicial Court and one ,of the court' of Common Pleas from Concord to ]jowelL - For the accommodation of these courts, rooms were fitted up in the market-house.

John Clark, James Cook, and James G. Carney, incorpomted as. the Lowell Dispensary, were organized June 10. . Its object was to provide medical advice and medicine for the poor. A division of the city into six wards was made Novem- W 28.

An event of importance toXowell was the deatii, of apoplexy,* April 11, 1837, of Kirk Boott. At the moment of his decease Mr. Boott was sitting in his chaise near the Merrimack House. Kirk Boott was bom in Boston, October 20, 1790. At an early age he was sent to England, and was for some time a member of the Bugby School. On his return he entered Harvard. His name appears among the juniors in 1807, and the seniors in 1808 ; but he did not graduate. Choosing the military profession, ^his father obtained for him a commission in the English, army, with which he was connected for about five years. He served in the Peninsular War, under the Duke of Wellington, and commanded a detachment at the siege of San Sebastian in July, 1813. After this his regiment nras ordered to New Orleans to serve against the United States. Mr. Boott obtained leave to withdraw, and entered a military academy, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of engineering and surveying, arts which were afterwards of such eminent service to him.^ During the summer of 1821 Kirk Boott was ''pass-

1 His fiither, Kirk Boott, who died Janiury, 1817, cime to Boston in the latter part of the last century and established an importing hooae. In 1810, February 1, John Wright Boott was admitted a partner, and the firm became Kirk Boott and Son.

tng a day at Nahant^ in company with Mr. Patrick T. Jackson ; the latter gentleman expressed great delight in having even that brief respite from his numerous and pressing cares. Mr. Boott expressed a wish that he had cares too, and offered to accept of anj post of service which Mr. Jackson might assign him.'' Thus, accidentally, he found the place for which he was so admirably fitted. We find a communication from him to the owners of the Locks and Canals on Merrimack River, dated November 14, 1821, offering to hire the water-power at §1,800 per annum. The offer was refused, and the Boston Company proceeded to buy up a sufiicieut amount of the stock to control it ; when Thomas M. Clark, clerk of the old Locks and Canal Company, was employed to purchase the lands in the vicinity. Tlie property in the hands of J. Wriglit Boott was in the market seeking a profitable investment. The Boston Manufacturing Company at Waltham had solved the problem in regard to the ability of manufactures to sustain themselves in the business. It was here, then, that the trust funds held by J, W. Boott under his father's will were to find a profitable investment, and I find among the articles subscribed to by the founders of Lowell the following: -

"Article GtL Wliereas we have been informed that the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on Merrimack River are possessed of valuable mill-seat^ and water-privileges, and irhereas Kirk Boot has with our consent advanced money for tlie purchase of shares in the stock of that corporation, and of lands tliereunto adjoining, we hereby confirm all he has done in the premises, and further authorize him to buy the remainder of the shares in said stock, and any lands adjoining the Locks and Canals he may judge it for our interest to own ; and also to bargain with the above-named corporation for all the mill-seats and waterprivileges they may own."

Kirk Boott we find now thoroughly and systematically engaged in this new enterprise. He gave himself up heartily to its prosecution, and in the dischai^ of everj' duty devolving upon him he amply fulfilled the expectations of his most sanguine friends. But we have become aware of one fact, that he was not a rich man. The interest from his * portion of his father's estate did not go a great ' way toward the support of himself and family, Aviiilc tlie pittance allowed him by the company ($3,000

At a tubscqaent period Francis, tnotfacr son, was admitted as a partner. The father built the mansion-hoase where the Revere Home now is, in Boston. This was the family mansion nntil 184^ when H was sold to William Lawmca.

per annum ^) in the light of salaries of the pre»» ent day looks meagre. There was no public-house at that time suitable for the entertainment of his friends or the directors, when they came to LowelL It fell upon him to make his house their resort» -whether they were attracted here by curiosity or business. The Merrimack Company built a house for him which formerly stood on the ground now occupied by the Boott Mills. Besides his cares and duties as resident manager of the Merrimack Company, and afterwards of the Locks and Canals Company, he was the foremost man in every public enterprise. He was chosen moderator of the first town-meeting, and repeatedly represented the town's interests in the state legislature. He married Anne Haden in 1818, and had six children.

March 6, 1838, Luther Lawrence was elected mayor. He was born in Groton, September 28, 1778, and was a son of Samuel Lawrence, a soldier the Bevolution. He graduated at Harvard in 1801, and read law with the Hon. Timothy Bigelow of Boston, whose sister he afterward tnarried. He was several times a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, and in 1822 was Speaker of the House. He came to Lowell in 1831, and built the mansion on Lawrence Street now occupied and owned by the widow of Tappan Wentworth. He served the city with ability, and was re-elected in 1839 by an increased majority. He entered upon his second term April 1, 1839. On the 16th of the same month, ^^ while walking through one of the buildings forming a part of the Middlesex Mills, he suddenly fell into the wheel-pit, a distance of seventeen feet. His head struck a cast-iron wheel, his skull was fractured, and death ensued almost immediately."

October 8, steam-cars commenced making regu* lar trips between Lowell and Nashua. A new jail was built on the land since occupied by the Boiler Works, near the Wamesit Mills; it was taken down after the completion of the County Jail in 1858.

In 1839, as has been stated, Luther Lawrence was re-elected mavor. After the unfortunate accident which terminated his life, the city council declared the office vacant, and April 24 proceeded to fill it. Elisha Huntington had twenty-four of thirty votes, and Avas declared elected. He was born in Topsfield, April 9, 1796, the son of Rev. Asahel Huntington. He frraduated at Dartmouth, at the age of nineteen. In 1823 he received the d^ree of M. D. at the Medical School at Yale, and in 1824 came to Lowell or East Chelmsford. May 31, 1825j he married- Hannah Hinckley, daughter of Joseph and Deborah Hinckley of Marblehead. He was re-elected mayor in 1840, 1841, 1844, 1845, 1832, 1836, and 1838, nfiiking e^t years in alL He served in the board of aldermen in 1847, 1833, and 1834. In 1832 he was elected lieutenant-governor with Governor Clifford, but declihed the nomination for the next year. He was 6n the board of overseers of Harvard College ; and served one term as an inspector of the Stote Almshouse at Tewksbury. His wife died September 19, 1839. He was for many years a vestryman of St. Anne's (Episcopal) Church, and,' with others from St. Anne's, in 1860, united to form St. John's Church, of which, during the remainder of his life, he was senior warden. He died December 13, 1865, of apoplexy. '-.When the new city hall was built, it was named in honor of him. His portrait graces the readingroom of the Middlesex Mechanic Association, and s beautiful memorial window was placed in the west end of St. John's Church, in the centre of which is a life-size figure of St. Luke, the ** beloved ^ysician."

Januaiy 28, the Massachusetts Cotton Mills were incorporated, with a capital of $1,300,000, which was increased in 1846 to 3 2,000,000. The persons named in the act were Abbott Lawrence, Ozias Goodwin,' and John A. Lowell. Homer Bartlett was the agent firom 1839 to 1849 ; he was succeeded by Joseph White from 1849 to 1856; and by FraxJc F. Battles from 1856 to the present time.

April 26, a proposal was made for the creation of the office of city solicitor. It originated in the board of aldermto, but was rejected in the common council.

' July 24, the city council authorized the building of a bridge over Concord River, near O. M. Whip- ^e's house. It was completed December 28.

John Nesmith and others were incorporated as the Whitney Milk for the manufacture of blankets, and occupied the Stone Mill in Belvidere. The enterprise proved a failure, and they sold the machinery to Joseph W. Mansur and John D. oturtevant.

C. P. Talbot & Co. commenced the business of eottihg dyewoods and manufacturing and selling diemicab in a small way. The firm is now a leading house in the business.

November 1, 1839, the seveod inoorporated companies united for the purpose of establishing the Lowell Hospital Association. The purpose of this association is ** the convenience and comfort of the persons employed by tliem respectively when sick, or needing medical or surgical treatment." lliey purcliased tlie house formerly occupied by Kirk Boott, wliich liad been sold August 1, 1838, to Luther Lawrence, and moved it to the spot where it now stands, near Pawtucket Falls. . Hiis house, and the land on which it stands, were deeded in trust to the Proprietors of the Locks and Canab on Merrimack Biver ; the trustees were not to be held liable for insurance, repairs, and taxes. The treasurers of the several companies have the control of the property, and power to elect twelve trustees and a treasurer, to hold office during their pleasure. This board of trustees, made up from the resident agents of the companies, is empowered to hold meetings once a month, to have a chairman and clerk, to appoint one or more surgeons or physicians, and a supeirintendent for the hospital, and to establish the rate of board to be paid by the patient In case a patient fiiik to pay, the company in whose service he or she may be at the time of admission pays it.

The location of the hospital is retired, and yet easy of access ; commanding a view of Pawtucket Falls and the adjacent country north and west. Dr. Oilman Kimball had charge of it until 1865 ; he was succeeded by Dr. George H. Whitmor^, Dr. John W. Graves, and Dr. Hermon J. Smith, the present physician;

In 1840 Dr. Elisha Huntington was re-elected mayor. April 7, Thomas Hopkinson was elected as city solicitor, the first person who occupied the office.

July 29, a call was issued for a meeting of all desirous of establishing a cemetery. The meeting was held at the office of the Lowell Mutual Insurance Company, and Elisha Bartlett was chosen cliairman and Thomas Hopkinson secretary. A committee of thirty was chosen to take the matter into consideration. This committee reported, at a meeting held Aug. 22, in favor of obtaining a suitable lot of land for the purpose. At this meeting a new committee of five were chosen to make estimates and suggest plans. Tliis committee reported in favor of Uie Fort-Hill Lot, owned by Oliver

M. Whipple, which could be had for $5,000. Sabscriptibns were opeued for lots containing 300 square feet, at S 10 each. October 19, five hundred lota having been subscribed for, a committee was chosen to procnre a- charter. February 22, the act of incorporation granted January 23, 1841, was accepted, and at the meeting of March 8 a code of by-laws was adopted, together with a seal bearing the words, "Lowell Cemetery, 1841. The dead shall be i^ised.*' ' Oliver M. Whipple was chosen president, James G. Carney treasurer, and Cliarles Hovey derk. - Tlie grounds were consecrated Sun- ! day, June 18, 1841, at 4^ o'clock, p. m. The address was delivered by the Rev. Amos Blanchard. In 1847 the chapel was built.

The first number of The Lowell Offering appeared in October of this year. It was really wliat it pretended to be, a magazine containing original compositions by girls working in the mills. My dxperience in the publication of The Aldnm, or Ladies^ Common-Place Book, as early as 1833, convinced me that there was " mind among the spindles.'* Quite a number of my correspondents were iactory-girk, and it was evident that all tirat was munication with the public. This was obtained in 1840 in the publication of The Offering. The circumstances attending its origin have been faithfully detailed by the Bev. A. C' Thomas and Miss Hartiet Farley/ An improvement circle was formed in 1839-40, where written communications were received and read by the pastor of the Second. Univeisalist Church, Mr. Thomas. Their authorship being unknown, they were subject to criticism and amendment. The readins; of these articles was tlie sole entertahiment of the circle. This led to the practice of reading, at social meetings of the churchmembers or the society, those articles which were of a serious and religious character. The talent tlms brought out led to the publication of The Offeriugy a production that caused quite a commotion in the literary world.

The two most enterprising and leading members of the circle were Harriet Farlev and Harriet P. Cu^ tis. Miss Farley, the daughter of the.Rev. Stephen Farley* of Amesbury, left home, and worked in tlie mills to obUiin funds for the. purpose of helpinir a brother secure a collegiate education. In 1842, while in sole charge of the editorial department of ' Tie Offerings she writes of its first appeamuQ^ :

''We shall never forget our throb of pleasure when we first saw The Lowell Offering in a tangi* ble form, with its bright yellow cover; nor our fiutterings of delight as we perused its pages. True, we had seen or heard the articles before, but they seemed so much better in print ! They ap» peared to be as good as anybody's writings. Th,^y sounded as if written by people who never worked at aU."

The success of The Offering was such that a rival sprung up, called The Operatives* Magazine. It may have grown out of the jealousy of the other denominations, as Mr. Thomas suggests, he being a Universalist. Miss Farley says: ''It differed from The Offering by receiving communications from both sexes and from those females who had left the mill .... After a time, however, the gentlemen's articles were discarded, and the magazine passed entirely into the hands of the young ladies ; they owned, edited, and published it.'' Previous to tliis, the male editor, A. C. Thomas, sold Tie Offering to the printer of The Magazine, William Schouler; and after a while both works tr^re united in one by the proprietor, and edited by Harriet Farley. After this, all denominations contributed to and sustained it.

Harriet F. Curtis, " who held a dashing pen,** as Mr. Thomas says, was a pretty good specimc;n of the Yankee girls, wide awake, keen, ^nd sharp. Women, iu her opinion, Avere just as fit for business as men, in whose vocations she was very much interested. She wrote a novelette entitled Kate in Search of a Htt^band, and an essay, 5. S. S. Pit' losophi/. All hep articles were signed " Kate.*' ^

Lydia 8. Hall, over the signature of " Adelajide/* wrote poetry that has won merited encomiums. ' Lucy Larcom, another contributor, enjoys a reputation tliat dates back to The Offering. Her signature was " L. L."

Harriet Lees united A^ith Farley and Curtis in presenting Harriet Martineau with an elegantly bound copy of The Offering. This was in response to the publication in England, by Miss Martineau, of selections from The Offering, entitled Ji/iW among the Spindles.

The Kev. William Scoresby, D. D., Vicar of Bradford, Yorkshire, England, visited this country in the summer of 1844. During the month of February, 1845, he delivered two lectures in Brad- ford on American fiictories and their female operatives, in which he quotes very la^Iy from The Offering. Here is his description of the girls as thej came from the mills at noon : '' They were neatly dressed, and clean in tlieir persons ; many with their hair nicely arranged, and not a few with it flowing in nicely curled ringlets. Ail wore (being the height of summer) a light calico covered bonnet, or sort of calecAe, large enough to screen' the face, and with a dependent curtain shielding the neck and shoulders. Many wore veils, and some carried silk parasols. By no means s &w were exceeding well-looking, more pallid than the factory-girls with us, and generally slight in their figure. There was not the slightest appearance of boldness or vulgarity; on the contrary, a very becoming propriety and respectability of manner, approaching with some to genteel.''

' In regard to the elementary education of the girb, he was assured by the manager of one of the corporations that *' an examination that had recently taEen place in respect to eight hundred girls belonging to the four mills of his corporation, showed that there were only forty-three out of that number who did not write their names legibly and tolerably well ; of these, forty were Irish, and two not natives.''

January 11, 1841, Benjamin F. Vamum died at bis home in Centralville. Although Mr. Yarnum belonged to Dracut, he was identified with the interests of Lowell. He was bom in Dracut in 1795, the son of General Joseph B. Vamum. He represented Dracut in the state legislature from 1824 to 1827, and as senator from 1827 to 1831. In 1828 he was appointed one of tlie board of county commissioners, which ofiico he retained until 1831, when he was appointed sheriff for Middlesex County. He was succeeded in this office by Gteneral Samuel Chandler of Lexington, who retained the office until 1851, and was succeeded by Fisher A. Hildreth. In 1853 John S. Keyes of Concord was appointed sheriff, and in 1860 Charles Kimball succeeded him. Mr. Kimball died in 1878. Elisha Huntington was re-elected mayor.

The City Guards, an independent military company, was organized this year. This company, the Phalanx, and the National Highlanders were allowed the use of the city hall for drill. The grammar-school house, afterward called the Green School, in honor of Dr. John O. Green, was erected on Middle Street. This building was sold in 1870 to J. C. Ayier & Co., and the school removed to the new Green School-house on Merri-' mack Street, built on the spot where the old Meirrimack Company's school-house Stood. '

''Until 1841 there liad been no substantial bridge over Concord River, connecting Church and Andover Streets. The first stmcture was a floating bridge for foot-passengers. The next was a bridge set upon piles. This year a double^arch ' stone bridge was constrocted, which was replaced * in 1858 by the present stmcture."

In 1842 Nathaniel Wright was elected mayor. He was bom in Sterling, Worcester County, February 13, 1785. He graduated at Harvard in the class of 1808. Shortly afterwards he came to East Chelmsford, and entered the office of Asahel Steams. He died November 5, 1858, of hieart disease.

Among the most extensive and successfill private enterprises in the city, is the establishment of the " J. C. Ayer Company,*' which was founded * by Dr. James C. Ayer in 1842.

Dr. Ayer passed liis early life aa a clerk in an apothecary store in this city ; ample scope to' gratify his predilections for the study of chemistry and medicine was afforded, and he acquired a skill in compounding preparations which enabled him to build up a business that is almost unparalleled ' in its extent and success.

In 1855 Ids brother, Frederick Ayer, becamehis partner in the concern. His business * tact, energy, and executive ability, coupled with thedoctor's professional talent, gave a new impetus to the .business. . i -

This establishment, attractive to travellers be-- cause of its \i^orld- wide reputation, has been visited by many foreign potentates, who have admired the magnitude of its proportions and the extent of its facilities. ^

June 19, 1842, John Tyler, President of the United States, visited Lowell. He was accompanied by 'Abbott Lawrence, Isaac Hill, John Tyler, Jr., and others. Th^re was a procession, in which appeared the teachers and scholars of the high school, a citizen's cavalcade, and s miliary escort. The President visited the works of the Middlesex, Lowell, Boott, and Merrimack companies, and expressed himself highly gratified withall of them.

Febnuuy iO, the^ city council instructed the repleaentaliFes to the General Court to oppose the annexation to Lowell of that part of Dracut called; CentTalville. The Central Bridge Company obtained'^n act authorizing it to )«build tlie bridge across Merrimack River^ and it was accepted, April 5, by the city council. Foot-tolls were abolished on this bridge, - an inducement for people employed ja Lowell to reside in Dracut.

February 5, 1844, the Prescott Manufacturing Company was incorporated, with a capital of $800,000. The persons named in the Act were Natlian ^ppleton, William Sturgis, and Patrick T. Jacksep. Homer Bartlett, the agent- until 1849, was succeeded by Frank F. Battles from 1849 to 1856, and in 1856 by William Bro\ni. Mr. Brown died October 18, 1875, and was succeeded by Erastus Boyden, who is the pre^nt superintendent. The Prescott was united to the Massachusetts Company, in December, 1846, and they are now one company.

Tlie city council, February 19, appointed a joint special committor to take into consideration the subject of establishing a city school-library. May 20, an oidinance was passed establishing the City School-Library in Lowell, and the sum- of $2,000 was apprt^riated> to be added to 31,215 received f com |he state for that purpose. During the thirtyfive years since the establishment of t^ie library, ending Janiiftry 1, 1879, there lias been appropriated,, including $ 1,215 from the state, by the city council the sonl of $51,150.95, which, with the receipts from various sources ($21,470.94), makes an aggregate of $72,621.89. It is estimated that the namber of volumes in the library, including all works of reference, is about twenty-four thousand.

The Lowell Maohine-Shop was organized as a corporatioii, at a qieeting held in Boston March 12, 1845, by the choice of Kirk Boott clerk, seven directors, John A. Lowell president, and J. Thomas Stevenson treasurer^ 8300,000 was fixed for the capital -stock, and had been previously subscribed for by fiftjhfive subscribers. The par value of the shares wa^ fixed at $500. The office of the treasurer has always been in Boston. At a ipeeting of the directors on the same day, William A. Burke was appointed superintendent at Lowell.

The Lowell Macliine-Shop liaving bought of the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on Merrimack fiiver their machine-shops and foundry, with all the tools and machinery, in them, also, tlie tenement houses and land belonging to them, on the first day of April, 1845, commenced making cotton machinery, mill-gearing, and castings. At the present time (1Q79) the authorized capital is. $1,000,000, and the capital stock, as voted by the stockholders and paid in« is 8600,000.

The Proprietors of the Locks and Canals, previous to 1845, built and equipped witli machineij all the cotton-mill$i, with the exception of two^ then in opei-ation in Lowell ; but since then nearly all the machinery, turbine water-wheels, and millgearing have b^en furnished by tlie Lowell Machine-Shop. Tl^e Locks and Canals Company were among the first in this country to build locomotives, and the Lowell IMachine-Shop continued the manufacture to some extent ; they also mad^ steamengines, boilers, and machinists^ tools. Tliis class of machinery was discgntinued a few years^ since« In 1 858 the shop began building paper machinery of the different kinds in use, and it is now one.of ^ the departments of its manufacture. Besides the machinery made for the cotton-mills in Lowell, veij, large quantities have been and are furnished to other mills in the New England States, and ip qnitf a number of the smaller mills in the Sotttheix^ States.

J. Huntington TTolcott, Esq., is president of tbe corporation; J.Thomas Stevenson, Ijsq., was the treasurer from the first, till his death in August, 1876. To the strictest integrity in all liis dealings he joined a rare ability as a business man.