Private Library 
 
 Fred E. Mclntire 
 
 No. 
 
CHAllLKS COWLEY. 
 
ILLUSTRATED 
 
 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 REVISED EDITION. 
 
 BY CHARLES COWLEY. 
 
 M 
 
 BOSTON : 
 LEE & SHEPARD. 
 
 LOWELL : 
 B. C. SARGEANT AND JOSHUA MERRILL. 
 
 1868. 
 
Press of Stone & Huse, Lowell. 
 

 74 
 L scy 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 In an age so prolific in works of local history as ours, no 
 apology need be offered for publishing this History of Lowell. 
 Successors of the Pawtucket and Wamesit Indians, heirs of the 
 founders of American Manufactures, contemporaries of the men 
 of the "Legion of Honor," who went hence to defend the Na 
 tionality of America, and who, dying on the field of battle, have 
 risen to enduring renown; the people of Lowell are to-day in 
 possession of a certain body of memories and traditions, not 
 current elsewhere, but kept alive here by local associations, by 
 the presence of historical objects, and by the local press. 
 
 Of these memories and traditions Lowell is justly proud. 
 From them her people receive an educational stimulus not to be 
 despised. She would no more part with these local reminis 
 cences than Plymouth would part with her Pilgrim history, or 
 than New York would forget those Knickerbocker memories, 
 among which the genius of Irving is enshrined forever. 
 
 To gather and embalm all that seemed most valuable in this 
 heritage of memories and traditions, has been the object of the 
 present work, which covers the whole period from the discovery 
 of the Merrimack River by De Monts, in 1605, to the year of 
 Grace 1868. 
 
 The first edition, or rather the original germ, of this work, 
 was published in 1856. With the aid of a mass of materials 
 laboriously gathered during the last twelve years, I may hope 
 that the value of the work has been greatly increased. The 
 narrative has been thoroughly revised, and very much enlarged. 
 
 Several engravers of established reputation were employed 
 to execute illustrative cuts. Many of these arc well done : but 
 
some are so badly executed that, perhaps, an apology is due 
 for their insertion in these pages ; and others have been rejected 
 altogether. 
 
 Materials were at hand for a much larger volume, or even for 
 several volumes ; but I have aimed to be concise, considering 
 Moses, who, in two lines, chronicled the creation of a world, 
 (pace Colenso,) a much better model for the local annalist than 
 he who filled several volumes with the burning of a Brunswick 
 Theatre. 
 
 How far I have succeeded in the accomplishment of this self- 
 imposed task, my readers must judge; and they will form the 
 most charitable judgments, who best appreciate the great diffi- 
 "culties under which such a task must be prosecuted. If I have 
 not wholly failed of my purpose, the work will possess attrac 
 tions for all who are identified with Lowell, and perchance may 
 descend to the Lowellians of the Future, and be read with inter 
 est hereafter, when he who wrote it shall have passed away. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 March 4th, 1868. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter. Page. 
 
 I. FBOM THE DISCOVERY OF THE MERRIMACK TO THE 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF MANUFACTURES, .... 13 
 
 II. INTRODUCTION OF MANUFACTURES, 28 
 
 III. THE FIRST MANUFACTURING CORPORATION, . . 36 
 
 IV. MANUFACTURING HISTORY OF LOWELL, ... 42 
 
 V. GENERAL HlSTORY OF LOWELL. 1820 1835, . 69 
 
 VI. CHURCH HISTORY OF LOWELL, 86 
 
 VII. SCHOOL HISTORY OF LOWELL, 103 
 
 VIII. GENERAL HISTORY OF LOWELL. 1835 1850, .111 
 
 IX. GENERAL HISTORY OF LOWELL. 1850 1860, . 140 
 
 X. POLITICAL HISTORY OF LOWELL, 158 
 
 XL MUNICIPAL HISTORY OF LOWELL, 165 
 
 XII. LOWELL DURING THE KEBELLION, 172 
 
 XIII. GENERAL HISTORY OF LOWELL. 1860 1868, . 198 
 
 NECROLOGY OF LOWELL, 213 
 
 LOWELL LEGISLATORS, 223 
 
 NAVAL OFFICERS 226 
 
 ARMY OFFICERS, 228 
 
 SOLDIERS WHO DIED IN THE SERVICE, . 231 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 LOWELL AND THE AUTHOR, Frontispieces. 
 
 Page. 
 
 PAWTUCKET FALLS AND BRIDGE, 31 
 
 KIRK BOOTT 45 
 
 JOHN D. PRINCE, 47 
 
 MERRIMACK MILL, No. 6, 49 
 
 LOWELL COMPANY S MILLS, 52 
 
 OLIVER M. WHIPPLE, 63 
 
 WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, 74 
 
 ST. ANNE S CHURCH, 86 
 
 ST. PAUL S CHURCH, 88 
 
 FIRST UNIVERSALIST CHURCH 89 
 
 APPLETON STREET CHURCH, 91 
 
 PAIGE STREET CHURCH, 94 
 
 WORTHEN STREET CHURCH, 96 
 
 FREE CHAPEL, 97 
 
 KIRK STREET CHURCH, 98 
 
 CENTRAL METHODIST CHURCH, 99 
 
 LEE STREET CHURCH, 100 
 
 JAMES 0. AYER, 115 
 
 NATHAN CROSBY, 133 
 
 NORTHERN DEPOT, 134 
 
 NORTHERN CANAL, 137 
 
 COURT HOUSE, 141 
 
 GEORGE WELLMAN 146 
 
 LOWELL JAIL, 153 
 
 BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, 173 
 
 LADD AND WHITNEY MONUMENT, 178 
 
 MAJOR E. G. ABBOTT, 182 
 
 CAPTAIN CLAFFEY, 184 
 
 MAJOR S. A. PERKINS, 187 
 
 GENERAL H. L. ABBOTT, 190 
 
 JOHN NESMITH, 201 
 
 STATUE OF VICTORY 210 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FROM THE DISCOVERY OF THE MERRIMACK TO THE INTRODUCTION 
 OF MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Geology of the Merrimack Discovery of the Merriftick De Monts Cham- 
 plain Concord River Indian Rendezvous at Lowell John Eliot Gen. 
 Gookin Billerica Chelrnsford Wamesit Reservation Indians Passa- 
 conaway Wannalaucet Indian "War King William s War Dracut Pur 
 chase of Wamesit Tewksbury Convention in Dracut Bunker Hill Inci 
 dents Simeon Spaulding Shay s Rebellion Slavery Pawtucket Canal- 
 Bridge over the Merrimack Middlesex Canal Timber Trade. 
 
 HERODOTUS, with fine felicity, calls Egypt a gift from the 
 Nile. In a similar sense, Lowell may be called a gift from 
 the Merrimack. Her history, also, may be well begun with 
 that noble artery of nature, the waters of which move the 
 great wheels of her industry. 
 
 Long after America was upheaved from the bosom of the 
 Atlantic, a chain of lakes occupied the valleys of the Merri 
 mack and its tributaries, from the mountains to the sea. 
 Proofs of this appear in the alluvial formation of these valleys, 
 the shapes of their basins, their outlets, their different levels, 
 and the stratified character of the soil. One of these lakes 
 extended westward from Pawtucket Falls ; and the limits of 
 several others may be easily defined. But long before the 
 dawn of history, and probably long before man appeared on 
 the earth, the attrition of the waters in the channels of these 
 lakes, by widening and deepening their outlets, gradually 
 diminished their depth, and at length left their basins dry. 
 
 * Potter s Manchester, p. 24; Fox s Dunstable, p. 8. 
 2 
 
14 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 The draining of these lakes increased the volume of water 
 which the Merrimack rolled down to the main. 
 
 The head of the Merrimack is at Franklin in New Hamp 
 shire, where the Winnepesawkee, the outlet of the lake of that 
 name, unites with the Pemigewasset, an artery of the White 
 Mountains. Like all the great rivers on the Atlantic slope, 
 the Merrimack pursues a southerly course. But after follow 
 ing this course from Franklin to Tyngsborough, a distance of 
 eighty miles, the Merrimack, unlike any other stream on the 
 Atlantic, makes a detour to the north-east, and even runs a 
 part of the way north-west. It is obviously unnatural that, 
 after approaching T|jthin twenty miles- of the head- waters of 
 the Saugus, as the Merrimack does on entering Massachusetts, 
 it should suddenly change its course, and pursue a circuitous 
 route of* more than forty miles to the sea. If the history of 
 by-gone ages could be restored, we should probably find the 
 Merrimack discharging its burden at Lynn, and not at New- 
 buryport. 
 
 Changes like this, however, are not unfamiliar to geologists. 
 Sometimes they have been caused by earthquakes, but more 
 often, in these latitudes, by ice-gorges. Whether this deflec 
 tion in the course of the Merrimack was caused by subterra 
 nean convulsions, or by the formation in the old channel of an 
 ice-blockade, cannot now be known ; but the fact of the change 
 is unquestionable. 
 
 The discovery of the Merrimack took place under the auspi 
 ces of Henry the Fourth, commonly called Henry the Great, 
 whose reign forms one of the most brilliant eras in the annals 
 of France. In 1603, Pierre Du Gua, Sieur de Monts, one of 
 the ablest of the Huguenot chiefs, obtained a patent from this 
 king, creating him Lieutenant-General and Vice-Admiral, and 
 vesting in him the government of New France, which em- 
 
 *On earthquakes on the Merrimack, see Coffin s Newbury; on ice- 
 floods, Hitchcock s Geology of Massachusetts, Part III. 
 
HISTORY OP LOWELL, 15 
 
 braced all our Eastern and Middle States, together with the 
 Dominion of Canada. On the seventh of March, 1604, De 
 Monts sailed from Havre with an expedition for colonizing 
 " Acadia," as his new dominions were called. He arrived on 
 the sixth of April, and began at once the great work of ex 
 ploration and settlement. While talking with the Indians on 
 the banks of the river St. Lawrence, in the ensuing summer, 
 he was told by them that there was a beautiful river lying far 
 to the south, which they called the Merrimack.f The follow 
 ing winter De Monts spent with his fellow-pioneers on the 
 island of St. Croix, in Passamaquoddy Bay, amid hardships as 
 severe as those which, sixteen years later, beset the Pilgrims 
 at Plymouth. 
 
 On the eighteenth of June, 1605, in a bark of fifteen tons, 
 having with him the Sieur de Chainplain, several other French 
 gentlemen, twenty sailors, and an Indian with his squaw, De 
 Monts sailed from the St. Croix, and standing to the south 
 examined the coast as far as Cape Cod. In the course of this 
 cruise, on the seventeenth of July, 1605, he entered the bay 
 on which the city of Newburyport has since arisen, and dis 
 covered the Merrimack at its mouth. The Sieur de Cham- 
 plain, the faithful pilot of De Monts, and chronicler of his 
 voyages, has left a notice of this discovery in a work which 
 ranks among the most romantic in the literature of the sea. 
 Inclosing this notice Champlain says: "Moreover, there is 
 in this bay a river of considerable magnitude, which we have 
 called Gua s Eiver."| 
 
 * Parkman s Pioneers of France in the New World, 
 f Relationes des Jesuites, 1604. 
 
 J Plug y a en icelle bay une riviere qui est fort spaciuese, Jaqulle auons nom- 
 tnela riviere du Gas [Gud]. Voyages en la Nouvette France, ed. 1632, p. 80 
 (Harvard University Library). In Potter s Manchester, and Chase s Haverhill, 
 Captain Champlain himself is erroneously credited with the discovery of the 
 Merrimack. The romantic career of Champlain, " the father of New France," 
 is graphically sketched by Dr. Parkman, in his Pioneers of France in the New 
 World. His works are soon to be published by the University of Lasalle. 
 
16 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 Thus De Monts named the Merrimack from himself ; but 
 the compliment was not accepted. Eegardless of the name 
 with which it was baptized by its discoverer, the Merrimack 
 clung, with poetic justice, to the name which it received from 
 the Indians long before the flag of "the Vice- Admiral floated 
 over Newburyport Bay. The visit of Admiral De Monts, like 
 that of Capt. John Smith in 1614, was attended with no result. 
 Other renowned names were yet to be inscribed on the list of 
 the visitors of the Merrimack. But its song was the song of 
 Tennyson s brook : 
 
 "For men may come and men may go, 
 But I roll ou forever." 
 
 The King had stipulated, in his patent of New France, that 
 De Monts should establish in Acadia the Eoman Catholic 
 creed, (" la foy catholique, apostolique et romaine ;"} a singu 
 lar condition indeed, considering that De Monts was a Protest 
 ant, and that Henry himself was only a "political Catholic." 
 The expenses of the three expeditions which he sent to New 
 France were ruinous to De Monts. Cabals were formed by his 
 enemies ; neither the loftiest motives nor the finest abilities 
 could save him ; and the tragic death of Henry by the dagger 
 by Kavaillac, in 1610, completed his ruin as a public man. 
 He died about the year 1620. 
 
 In 1635, thirty years after the discovery of the Merrimack, 
 the Concord, which the Indians called the Musketaquid, as 
 sumed a place in civilized history; the fame of its grassy 
 meadows and of the fish that swarmed in its waters attracting 
 settlers from England, who established themselves at Concord. J 
 
 From a period too remote to be determined by either history 
 or tradition, until after the great Indian Plague of 1617, 
 Pawtucket Falls on the Merrimack, and Warnesit Falls on the 
 
 * See Haag s Vies des Protestants Francais (Boston Public Library). 
 
 J Thoreau s Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers ; Reynold s Agri 
 cultural Survey of Middlesex County, in Transactions of Mas?. Society for 
 Promoting Agriculture, 1859; Shattuck s Concord, 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 17 
 
 Concord, were the sites of populous villages of Pawtucket or 
 Pennacook Indians, who, indeed, remained, though with 
 greatly diminished numbers, in the present territory of Lowell, 
 forty years after the plague. Here, in spring-time, from all 
 the circumjacent region, came thousands of the dusky sons 
 and daughters of the forest, catching, with rude stratagem, 
 their winter s store of fish. Here they sat in conclave round 
 the council fire. Here they threaded the fantastic mazes of 
 the dance. "Here was the war-whoop sounded, and the death- 
 song sung ; and when the tiger strife was over, here curled 
 the smoke of peace." 
 
 The Pawtuckets, or Pennacooks, were among the most pow 
 erful tribes in New England, numbering, after the plague, 
 several thousand souls. Their territory stretched almost from 
 the Penobscot to the Connecticut, and included the whole of 
 New Hampshire, a part of Massachusetts, and a part of Maine. 
 At the head of this tribe, the first English settlers found the 
 sagacious and wary Passaconaway, who, in 1644, after more 
 than twenty years observation of the progress of the English 
 settlements, signed an agreement which is still preserved, re 
 nouncing his authority as an independent chief, and placing 
 himself and his tribe under the colonial authorities.* 
 
 In 1647, the Eev. John Eliot, " the Apostle of the Indians," 
 began a series of missionary visits to this place, which were 
 continued by him till the villages of Wamesit and Pawtucket 
 ceased to be. In 1656, Major-General Daniel Gookin was ap 
 pointed Superintendent of all the Indians under the jurisdic 
 tion of the Colony, among whom were the Indians living here. 
 Thus a sort of Indian Bureau was established, not unlike the 
 Freedmen s Bureau of a later day. The Apostle Eliot and 
 Judge Gookin won the entire confidence of the Indians, being 
 about the only white men that came among them who did not 
 come to rob them. 
 
 * I omit the details of the Indian history of Lowell, and refer the reader 
 to my historical lecture on the "Memories of the Indians and Pioneers" of this 
 region, published, in pamphlet form, in 1862. 
 
 2* 
 
18 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 In 1652, Captain Simon Willard and Captain Edward 
 Johnson, under a commission from the colonial government, 
 ascended the Merrimack in a boat, and surveyed the valley as 
 far as Lake Winnepesawkee. A new impetus was given to 
 the work of settlement, which, as early as 1653, reached the 
 vicinity of Lowell. On the twenty-ninth of May, 1655, the 
 General Court incorporated the town of Chelmsford, and also 
 the town of Billerica. 
 
 To secure the Indians from being dispossessed of their lands, 
 on which they had erected substantial wigwams, made enclo 
 sures, and begun the business of agriculture, Eliot, in 1653, 
 procured the passage of an act by the General Court, reserving 
 a good part of the land on which Lowell now stands to the 
 exclusive use of the Indians. The bounds of Chelmsford, and 
 also of this Wamesit Indian Reservation, were modified and 
 enlarged by the General Court in 1656 and in 1660. About 
 1665, a ditch, traces of which are still visible, was cut to 
 mark the bounds of the Indian reservation ; beginning on the 
 bank of the Merrimack, above the Falls, and running thence 
 southerly, easterly, and northerly, in a semi-circular line, 
 including about twenty-five hundred acres, and termina 
 ting on the bank of the Merrimack, about a mile below tho 
 mouth of the Concord. 
 
 The year 1660 was signalized by an event claiming notice 
 in this narrative, though it is uncertain whether it took place 
 here or where Manchester now stands : the retirement of Pas- 
 saconaway. Burdened with the weight of about four score 
 years, this veteran chief gave a grand though rude banquet, 
 which was attended by a vast concourse of chiefs, braves, and 
 other Indians of every degree, together with a representation 
 of the new race that was now claiming the ancient abode of 
 the red man. Transferring his sachemship to his son, Wan- 
 nalancet, the old chief made a farewell address, of which we 
 
 Allen s Chelmsford ; Myrick s Billrica; Barber s Historical Collections. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 19 
 
 have the following report, which is, perhaps, as trustworthy 
 as the reports of speeches in the pictured pages of Livy : 
 
 " I am now going the way of all the earth; I am ready to die, and not 
 likely to see you ever met together any more. I will now leave this word 
 of counsel with you : Take heed how you quarrel with the English. Harken 
 to the last words of your father and friend. The white men are the sons of 
 the morning. The Great Spirit is their father. His sun shines bright about 
 them. Never make war with them. Sure as you light the fires, the breath of 
 heaven will turn the flame upon you and destroy you." 
 
 The local sachem of this place dur 
 ing several succeeding years was Nump- 
 how, who was married to one of Passa- 
 conaway s daughters. But in 1669, 
 Wannalancet and the Indians of Con 
 cord, New Hampshire, fearing an attack 
 from the Mohawks, came down the Mer- 
 rimack in canoes, took up their abode at 
 Wamesit, and built a fort for their pro 
 tection on the hill in Belvidere, ever 
 since called Fort Hill, which they sur 
 rounded with palisades. The white settlers of the vicinity, 
 participating in this dread of the Mohawks, shut themselves 
 up in garrison houses. 
 
 In 1674, Gookin computed the Christian Indians then in 
 Wamesit at fifteen families, or seventy-five souls, and the ad 
 herents of the old faith, or no-faith, at nearly two hundred 
 more. At this time, the Indian magistrate, Numphow, the 
 archetype of Judge Locke and Judge Crosby, held a monthly 
 court, taking cognizance of petty offences, in a log cabin, near 
 the Boott Canal. An Indian preacher, Samuel, imparted to 
 his clansmen 4iis own crude views of Christianity at weekly 
 meetings in a log chapel near the west end of A ppleton street. 
 In May of each year came Eliot and Gookin, who held a court 
 having jurisdiction of higher offences, and gave direction in 
 all matters affecting the interests of the village. Numphow s 
 cabin was Gookin s court-house, and Samuel s chapel was 
 
20 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 Eliot s church. Wannalancet held his court as chief in a 
 log cabin near Pawtucket Falls. 
 
 In 1675, came King Phillip s War, during which Wanna- 
 lancet and our local Indians, faithful to the counsels of Passa- 
 conaway, either took part with the whites, or remained neutral. 
 Their sufferings in consequence of this were most severe. 
 Some of them were put to death by Phillip for exposing his 
 designs ; some of them were put to death by the colonists as 
 Phillip s accomplices ; some fell in battle in benalf of the 
 whites ; while others fell victims to the undiscriminating hatred 
 of the low whites, whose passions, on the least provocation, 
 broke out with hellish fury against the "praying Indians." 
 In one instance, in 1676, when all the able-bodied Indians 
 had fled to Canada, and when six or seven aged Indians, blind 
 and lame, were left here in wigwams, too infirm to be removed, 
 a party of scoundrels from Chelmsford came to Wamesit by 
 night, set fire to these wigwams and burned all the invalids to 
 death. What is worse, so depraved was public sentiment 
 during that period, these wanton and cowardly murderers were 
 allowed to go unpunished. It was impossible to find a jury 
 that would return a verdict of guilty against a white man who 
 had killed an Indian, no matter under what circumstances of 
 atrocity the murder had been committed. 
 
 During this war the white settlers in this region were gath 
 ered for protection in garrisons. Billerica escaped harm ; but 
 Chelmsford was twice visited by the partisans of Phillip, 
 and several buildings were burned. Two sons of Samuel Var- 
 num, living in what is now Dracut, were shot while crossing 
 the Merrimack with their father in a boat. 
 
 In April, 1676, Captain Samuel Hunting aiftl Lieutenant 
 James Eichardson, under orders from the Governor and Coun 
 cil, erected a fort at Pawtucket Falls, in which a garrison was 
 
 o See more of these atrocities in Cowley s Indian and Pioneer Memories ; 
 Gookin s Christian Indians In Transactions of the American Antiquarian 
 Society, vol. 2; Oliver s Puritan Commonwealth; Willard Memoir. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 21 
 
 placed, under command of Lieutenant Eichardson. A month 
 later, the garrison was reinforced, and Captain Thomas Hench 
 man placed in command. This put an effectual check to the 
 incursions of Phillip s party in this part of the colony. 
 
 When the war was over, and Wannalancet returned to 
 Wamesit with the remains of his tribe, he found his corn fields 
 in the hands of the whites, and he himself a stranger in the 
 land of his fathers. By order of the General Court, he and 
 his people were placed on Wickasauke Island, in charge of 
 Colonel Jonathan Tyng of Dunstable. In 1686, Colonel 
 Tyng, Major Henchman, and others, purchased of Wannalan 
 cet and his tribe all their remaining lands in this region, leav 
 ing them only their rights of hunting and fishing. At length, 
 after passing through various vicissitudes, and doing numerous 
 acts of kindness in return for the injuries which the colonists 
 had inflicted on him, Wannalancet joined the St. Francis tribe 
 in Canada, and ended his days among them. 
 
 During the nine years of King William s War, which fol 
 lowed the English Kevolution of 1688, the people of all the 
 towns of this region again took refuge in forts and forti 
 fied houses. The fort at Pawtucket Falls was occupied by a 
 garrison under command of Major Henchman. But this did 
 not entirely save them. On the first of August, 1692, a 
 party of Indians, in league with the French in Canada, made a 
 raid into Billerica, and killed eight of the inhabitants. On 
 the fifth of August, 1695, a similar party made a raid into 
 what is now Tewksbury, and killed fourteen of the people. A 
 party of three hundred men, horse and foot, under Colonel Jo 
 seph Lynde, scoured all the neighboring country in vain, in 
 search of the foe. From this officer, Lynde s Hill in Belvi- 
 dere derives its name he having fortified it, and for some time 
 occupied it with his command. 
 
 In 1701, the town of Dracut was incorporated. It contained 
 twenty-five families, and had previously formed a part of 
 
22 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 Chelmsford. It took its name from a parish in Wales, the 
 original home of the Varnums. 
 
 Subsequent to the " Wamesit Purchase," made by Tyng and 
 Henchman, already mentioned, the lands of the Indian Reser- 
 vation were purchased in small parcels by various persons, who 
 settled upon them as upon other lands in Chelmsford. But in 
 1725, when Samuel Pierce, who had his domicil on the Indian 
 Reservation, was elected a member of the General Court, he 
 was refused his seat, on the ground that he was not an inhabi 
 tant of Chelmsford. Thereupon the people of East Chelms 
 ford, as Wamesit was then called, refused to pay taxes to 
 Chelmsford ; and to remedy this mischief, an act was passed 
 annexing Wamesit to that town. 
 
 On the twenty-ninth of October, 1727, occurred the greatest 
 earthquake ever known in this country. W T alls and chimneys 
 fell, and all the towns on the Merrimack suffered severely. 
 
 In 1734, the General Court incorporated the town of Tewks- 
 bury, the territory of which had previously belonged to Bil- 
 lerica. It took its name from the English parish of Tewks- 
 bury, on the Severn, in Gloucestershire, so famous in history 
 as the scene of one of the bloodiest battles in the " Wars 
 of the Roses." There the partisans of the House of York, 
 under Edward the Fourth, and the partisans of the House of 
 Lancaster, under the Amazonian Margaret, Queen of Henry 
 the Sixth, encountered each other s battle-axes for the last 
 time. There, after the battle, a Prince of Wales was barbar 
 ously murdered by two royal Dukes. There the glory of the 
 royal House of Lancaster was eclipsed in blood. 
 
 In 1745, occurred the siege and capture of Louisburg. To 
 the army which Sir William Pepperell led from Massachusetts 
 against that renowned fortress, belonged young John Ford, 
 and perhaps others, from what is now Lowell. 
 
 At the battle of Bunker Hill, two companies of Chelmsford 
 men, one under Captain John Ford, the other under Captain 
 
 * Lowell Citizen and News, October, 1859. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 23 
 
 Benjamin Walker, and one company composed largely of Dra- 
 cut men, under Captain Peter Colburn, were present, and ac 
 quitted themselves with credit. There are two traditions con 
 nected with this event which must not be lost, notwithstanding 
 the gigantic battles of the late Kebellion have thrown all the 
 engagements of the Eevolution into the shade. It is said that 
 when the first man in Ford s company fell, his comrades, then 
 for the first time under fire, were seized with panic ; but there 
 upon one of Ford s officers began to sing Old Hundred in a 
 firm voice, and this so reassured the men that they gave no 
 further sign of panic. The other tradition of this battle is, 
 that, just as the ammunition of the Americans was exhausted, 
 and orders were given to retreat, a British officer mounted the 
 breastworks, and, with a flourish of his sword, exclaimed, 
 " Now, my boys, we have you." Hearing this, Captain Col- 
 burn of Dracut picked up a stone, about the size of a hen s 
 egg, and, throwing it with all his might, hit the officer in the 
 forehead, knocking him down backwards. The Captain and 
 his men then hastily retreated with the rest of the American 
 forces. 
 
 In November, 1776, committees from all the towns of this 
 region met in convention at the house of Major Joseph Varnum 
 ki Dracut, and petitioned the colonial legislatures of Massa 
 chusetts and New Hampshire for a law to regulate prices,, 
 which had been fearfully enhanced by the Kevolutionary War, 
 then pending. The proceedings of this convention show that 
 its members participated in that ignorance of the principles of 
 political economy, which was universal till the time of Adam 
 Smith, and which is by no means dispelled in the days of John- 
 Stuart Mill. 
 
 This region has the honor of having contributed one of the 
 most useful, though not one of the most brilliant, statesmen 
 who served the American Colonies in their struggle for national 
 independence Simeon Spaulding of Chelmsford. He was a 
 
 *New Hampshire Historical Collections, vol. 2, pp. 58-68. 
 
24 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 Colonel of Militia when the duties of the Militia, and the 
 protection which it afforded, made that office one of real impor 
 tance. From 1771 to 1775 he was a member of the General 
 Court. From 1775 to 1778 he served in the Provincial Con 
 gress, and during one of these years was Chairman of the 
 Committee of Public Safety. He was also a member of the 
 Convention of 1779, which framed the State Constitution. 
 He died in 1785.* 
 
 During Shay s Eebellion, in 1786, a body of Chelmsford 
 Militia served under General Lincoln in the western counties ; 
 and "on the memorable thirtieth of January," as Allen 
 writes, "performed a march of thirty miles, without refresh 
 ment, through deep snows, in a stormy and severely cold night ; 
 a march that would have done honor to the veteran soldiers of 
 Hannibal or Napoleon." 
 
 The people of Chelmsford, from the earliest period of their 
 local history, gave every encouragement to millers, lumber 
 men, mechanics, and traders, making grants of land, with tem 
 porary exemption from taxation, to such as would settle in their 
 town. Accordingly, Chelmsford became distinguished for its 
 saw-mills, grist-mills, and mechanics shops of various kinds. 
 Establishments of the same kind also arose in Billerica, Dra- 
 cut and Tewksbury. 
 
 It is but fair, though far from flattering, to record the fact, 
 that the mother towns of Lowell were among the last to abandon 
 slavery, f Till near the beginning of the present century, ne 
 gro slaves were kept on what is now the Moor farm, and also 
 on what afterward became known as the Livermore place, 
 where Phillip Gedney, a former British Consul a^ Demarara, 
 then resided. 
 
 Toward the close of the last century, this region became 
 the theatre of an active business in wood and lumber. The 
 forests along the shores of the Merrimack, which had never 
 
 * Allen s Chelmsford ; Lowell Courier, September 2329, 1859. 
 t See Moore s Slavery in Massachusetts. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 25 
 
 before rung with the sound of the woodman s axe, afforded an 
 exhaustless supply of materials for rafts, which already com 
 manded a good price at Newburyport and other towns on the 
 sea-board. But the descent of the river at Pawtucket Falls 
 was so precipitous, the current so violent, and the channel so 
 rocky, that great difficulty was experienced in passing rafts 
 down the rapids. A canal round the falls for the passage of 
 boats, rafts and masts was first suggested for the convenience 
 of the lumbermen, thirty years before any one dreamed of 
 using the waters for the purpose of manufactures ; though from 
 about the time of the Kevolution there had been a saw-mill 
 below Pawtucket Falls, driven by the Merrirnack. It was 
 owned about this time by John Tyng of Tyngsborough, a Judge 
 of the Court of Common Pleas. 
 
 In 1792, Dudley A. Tyng, William Coombs, and others, 
 were incorporated as " The Proprietors of the Locks and Ca 
 nals on Merrimack Kiver." They at once proceeded to open a 
 canal, one and a half miles long, connecting Merrimack Eiver 
 above the falls with the Concord below. The level of the 
 water in the lower end of the canal, a brief distance above the 
 mouth of the Concord, was thirty-two feet lower than the level 
 of the water at the upper end. The descent was accomplished 
 by means of four sets of locks. The canal occupied less than 
 five years in its construction, and cost fifty thousand dollars. 
 
 When the first boat passed down the canal in 1797, with 
 the directors and other gentlemen on board, and hundreds of 
 men, women and children as spectators on the banks, an inci 
 dent occurred, of which Allen gives a very lively account. 
 One side of the canal gave way ; the water burst upon the 
 the people, and the greatest confusion ensued. " Infants were 
 separated from their mothers, children from their parents, 
 wives from their husbands, young ladies from their gallants ; 
 and men, women, timber, and broken boards and planks, were 
 seen promiscuously floating in the water." Nantes rari ap~ 
 
 *7 Mass. Rep. p. 168. 
 
 3 
 
26 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 parent in gurgite vasto. But no life was lost, and no serious 
 injury incurred. 
 
 The stock of the Locks and Canals Company was divided 
 into five hundred shares, owned by individuals in Middlesex 
 and Essex Counties. But the dividends declared were never 
 considerable ; and the stock soon fell far below par in conse 
 quence of the successful competition of the Middlesex Canal 
 with the business. 
 
 In the same year that the Locks and Canals Company were 
 incorporated, Parker Varnum of Dracut and others were in 
 corporated as " The Proprietors of the Middlesex Merrimack 
 Eiver Bridge," and the first bridge across the Merrimack 
 was constructed by them at Pawtucket Falls. It was entirely 
 of wood. Previous to this time, the only public conveyance 
 over the Merrimack was by a toll ferry-boat. The Concord 
 had been bridged nearly twenty years earlier. 
 
 In 1793, the Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal were incor 
 porated. Mr. Weston, an eminent English engineer, was em 
 ployed to survey the channel of the canal ; and Loammi Bald 
 win of Woburn superintended its construction, and was the 
 animating soul of the work. This canal began on the Merri 
 mack, about a mile above Pawtucket Falls, extended south 
 by east a distance of thirty-one miles, and terminated in Charles- 
 town. It was completed in 1804, and cost seven hundred 
 thousand dollars. It was twenty-four feet wide and four feet 
 deep, and was fed by Concord Eiver. In digging this canal, 
 pine cones and charcoal were found, twelve feet below the sur 
 face, specimens of which were long exhibited in the Museum at 
 Cambridge. The excavations made for this canal, and also 
 those previously made for the Pawtucket Canal, disclosed un 
 mistakable proofs that the channel of the Merrimack, in this 
 vicinity, was once a considerable distance south and west of 
 its present situation that the Merrimack formerly ran by the 
 southwest side of Fort Hill, instead of by the northeast 
 side. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 27 
 
 This Canal was the first in the United States that was 
 opened for the transportation of passengers and merchandise ; 
 and some are still living who were often passengers in the neat 
 little packet-boat, " Governor Sullivan," which plied between 
 Boston and Lowell, through the waters of the Middlesex Ca 
 nal, occupying nearly the whole day in the passage. Connect 
 ing Boston with the upper Merrimack, the channel of which 
 was navigable the entire distance from Pawtucket Falls up to 
 Concord, it formed an important artery for the lumber busi 
 ness, which had long been very extensive here, as well as for 
 the new industries then in process of development. Vast 
 quantities of timber grown around Winnepesawkee Lake, on 
 the Merrimack and its branches, and on Massabesic Pond, and 
 the produce of a great extent of fertile country, were trans 
 ported to Boston by this canal. 
 
 The first boat voyage from Boston, by the Middlesex Canal 
 and the Merrimack River, to Concord, (N. H.), was made in 
 the autumn of 1814. The first steambo<& from Boston reached 
 Concord in 1819. Had this canal been kept open until now, 
 it is difficult to see why it might not still be profitably con 
 ducted. But its day has gone by, and its history may as well 
 be ended here as hereafter. 
 
 As the competition of the Middlesex Canal ruinously re 
 duced the value of the property of the Pawtucket Canal, so, 
 in the retributive justice of years, other competition the in 
 troduction of railroads extinguished the value of the stock 
 of the Middlesex Canal. A striking example of " the revenges 
 of history." In 1853, navigation was discontinued in the 
 canal, and soon afterward portions of its banks were levelled, 
 and parts of the channel filled up. The income of the stock 
 hardly averaged three and a half per cent.; and the proprie 
 tors, hopeless of any better dividends, disposed of all their 
 saleable property, and abandoned their franchise, of which 
 
 Sce Armory s Life of Governor Sullivan. 
 
28 
 
 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 they had once been proud. On the third of October, 1859, 
 the proprietors were declared, by a decree of the Supreme Judi 
 cial Court, to have forfeited all their franchises and privileges, 
 by reason of non-feasance, non-user, misfeasance and neglect. 
 Thus was the corporation forever extinguished. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Modern Factory System Inventors Kay Paul Wyatt Hargreaves Highs 
 Arkwright Peel Crorapton Watt Cartwright Bell Berthollet 
 Scheelc Chivalry of Industry France Manufactures in the United States 
 Beverly Byfield Samuel Slater Moses Hale War. of 1812 Phineas 
 Whiting Josiah Fletcher Oliver M. Whipple Thomas Kurd Winthrop 
 Howe Bridge over thc^oncord Asahel Stearns General Varnum. 
 
 The rise of the modern Factory System marks one of the 
 grandest epochs in the progress of mankind. The arts of card 
 ing, spinning, weaving, bleaching, dyeing and printing cotton, 
 woollen and linen fabrics, have been practiced from the re 
 motest ages of history, and were practiced in pre-historic 
 times. Scarcely a century has elapsed since these arts were 
 pursued as mere domestic handicrafts. No progress of moment 
 had been made in them, no new implements had been intro 
 duced, for a thousand years. But during the closing forty 
 years of the last century, these arts were raised from a state of 
 utter insignificance to a national and world-wide importance, 
 and were developed into the most elaborate and mature sys 
 tem of industry the world has ever seen. 
 
 As the great inventions which wrought this wonderful change 
 were achieved long before the building of Lowell, a rapid ac 
 count of them will be all that the purposes of this history re 
 quire. But they can hardly be passed unnoticed, for without 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 29 
 
 them Lowell must have remained a border hamlet of an ob 
 scure town. 
 
 The first modern invention that led to any important im 
 provement in manufacturing, was John Kay s fly-shuttle, pa 
 tented in 1733, but strange to say, not introduced into this 
 country for more than fifty years after it was first used in 
 England. 
 
 In 1738, Lewis Paul obtained a patent for the first machin 
 ery for spinning, invented, several years before, by John 
 Wyatt. In 1740, manufacturing was commenced at Man 
 chester, England. In 1748, Paul obtained a patent for the 
 first cylinder carding-machine. In 1758, he obtained another 
 patent for improved machinery for spinning. 
 
 In 1760, Robert Kay invented the drop-box, by which fill 
 ing of different colors could be used in weaving with the fly- 
 shuttle. In the same year, James Hargreaves constructed a 
 carding-machine corresponding substantially with the carding- 
 machines now in use. Two years later, Hargreaves obtained 
 a patent for the spinning-jenney, which, however, seems to 
 have been invented?* in 1764, by Thomas Highs. 
 
 In 1769, Richard Arkwright obtained a patent for his spin 
 ning frame or throstle. Six years later, he obtained another 
 patent for improvements in carding, drawing and spinning. In 
 1779, Robert Peel, father of the celebrated statesman, obtained 
 a patent for improved machinery of the same kind. In the 
 same year, Samuel Crompton combined the excellencies of 
 Hargraves jenny with Arkwright s throstle, in a new spin 
 ning-machine, which, from its hybrid nature, he called a mule. 
 
 These triumphs of inventive skill led to the substitution, 
 first, of horse-power for hand-power, and then of water-power 
 for horse-power. The year 1 789 was signalized by the appli 
 cation of steam-power to manufacturing purposes, one of James 
 Watt s engines being introduced in a factory in Manchester. 
 
 In 1785, the Rev. Samuel Cartwright took out his first pa 
 tent for the power-loom. Other similar patents were after- 
 3* 
 
30 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 ward taken out by him and by others ; but power-loom weav 
 ing realized only partial success until after the dressing-frame 
 had been invented by Kadcliff, Boss and Johnson in 1803 ; 
 and 1806 is the accepted date of the successful introduction 
 of the power-loom into Manchester in England. 
 
 In 1785, Thomas Bell obtained his patent for cylinder 
 printing. Calico printing, however, had been introduced by 
 the Claytons, twenty years before. In the same year, Berthol- 
 let first applied chlorine (then called dephlogisticated muri 
 atic acid) to bleaching. But Scheele, a Swedish chemist, had 
 discovered the properties of chlorine in destroying vegetable 
 colors, ten years prior to its application by Berthollet in France. 
 
 Thus, as an able writer says, " while Burke was lamenting 
 the fall of chivalry, while Hastings was extending the 
 British Empire in the East, and while Pitt was initiating his 
 retrograde policy, men of that class which was destined to 
 reap the most benefit from the transformation, were inaugura 
 ting the industrial system, destined to succeed the first, utilize 
 the second, and destroy the third. From the weaver s cottage 
 at Blackburn, and from the barber s shop at Preston, went forth 
 powers as pregnant with consequences to Britain [and to the 
 world] as ever issued from the Parliament- House at Westmin 
 ster, or the Council- Chamber in Bengal." 
 
 Other nations followed. In France, the genius of Napoleon 
 
 v introduced the Cotton Manufacture, including yarns, cloths, 
 
 and prints. "Before the Empire, the art of spinning cotton 
 
 was not known in France ; and cotton clothes were imported 
 
 from abroad."f 
 
 These inventions of the mechanical genius of Europe soon 
 found their way to the United States. .The first machinery 
 for carding and spinning cotton put in operation in this coun 
 try, was started at Beverly, in Massachusetts, in 1787, and 
 was driven by horse-power. Other cotton factories were soon 
 
 * Westminster Review, April, 1861. 
 
 t Napoleon the Third s Napoleonic Ideas, p. 69. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 31 
 
 afterward established in Connecticut, Khode Island, New 
 York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. But the year 
 1793 the same year in which Eli Whitney gave to the world 
 his invaluable legacy of the Cotton Gin is the generally ac 
 cepted date of the Cotton Manufacture in the United States, 
 since it was during that year that Samuel Slater " the father 
 of the Cotton Manufacture in America" started his first cot 
 ton factory, with Arkwright machinery, driven by water- 
 power, at Pawtucket in Khode Island. By a singular coinci 
 dence of dates, in the same year, the first factory in this coun 
 try, for carding and* spinning wool by machinery, was started 
 at By field in Massachusetts. 
 
 At the commencement of the present century, the cotton and 
 woollen factories of Great Britain were counted by hundreds : 
 and, perhaps, a dozen such factories had been started in the 
 United States. 
 
 This rapid survey of the rise of modern manufactures brings 
 us to the starting of the first carding machine in the region of 
 Lowell. It was in 1801 that Moses Hale, whose father had 
 long before started a fulling mill in Dracut, established 
 his carding mill on Eiver Meadow Brook, the first enterprise 
 of the kind in Middlesex County. This mill still stands, be 
 tween Hale s Mills and Whipple s Mills, and was one of the 
 mills which for many years were run by the late Joshua 
 Mather, a native of Preston, the town of Kichard Arkwright, 
 the great inventor and systematizer of cotton-spinning machin 
 ery in England. A saw-mill was also started about the same 
 time by Mr. Hale, on the same stream. 
 
 In 1805, the bridge built across Merrimack Eiver at Paw- 
 tucket Falls in 1792, was demolished, and a new bridge, with 
 stone piers and abutments, constructed in its place, at a cost 
 exceeding fourteen thousand dollars. This bridge is still 
 
 *See Batchelder s valuable little book on the Cotton Manufacture; Bains 
 History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain ; Bishop s History of Amer 
 ican Manufactures ; White s Memoir of Samuel Slater, etc. 
 
32 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 standing, though essential improvements have been made in it 
 from time to time. It was made free in 1860. 
 
 The year 1812 brought the second war between the United 
 States and Great Britain, when British cruisers swept our 
 commerce from the seas. Until then, most of our manufac 
 tured goods had been imported from England. Domestic man 
 ufactures there were comparatively none, except such. domestic 
 fabrics as were spun upon the spinning-wheel, and woven upon 
 the hand-loom, by the dames of the rural districts. No sooner 
 was importation stopped by the war, than imported fabrics 
 commanded famine prices. Public attention was irresistibly 
 attracted, and a powerful impetus given, to American manu 
 factures. Large investments of capital were made ; and mills 
 started up all over the Union, but more especially in Massachu 
 setts. Such of them as were started here, were driven by 
 Concord Kiver power. No " wizard of mechanism " had yet 
 laid his hand on the lordly Merrimack, and put it on duty, like 
 a chained convict or a galley slave. 
 
 In 1813, twenty-six years after the first attempt in the United 
 States to manufacture cotton by machinery was made at Bev 
 erly, Captain Phineas Whiting and Major Josiah Fletcher 
 erected a wooden cotton-mill on the present site of the Mid 
 dlesex Company s mills, at an outlay of about three thousand 
 dollars, and carried on the business with some success. John 
 Golding entered upon a similar enterprise near by, about the 
 same time, but failed. 
 
 The year 1815 is associated with the tradition of the most 
 disastrous gale that had swept New England since the famous 
 gale of 1635, when the tide rose twenty feet perpendicularly 
 in Narragansett Bay. It was particularly severe in the town 
 of Chelmsford, then including Lowell. It "spread the ruin 
 round," like a devastating fire. Not less than fifty thousand 
 cords of standing timber, besides several houses, were de 
 stroyed, the trees being torn up by the roots, and the houses 
 removed from their foundations. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL, 33 
 
 The saw-niill and grist-mill of the Messrs. Bowers, at Paw- 
 tucket Falls, were started in 1816. About the same time, 
 another grist-mill was started by Nathan Tyler, where the 
 Middlesex Company s Mill No. 3 now stands. At the junction 
 of the Concord and Merrimack rivers, stood the saw-mill of 
 Captain John Ford. There is a tradition, not very well au 
 thenticated, that Captain Ford once killed an Indian by pitch 
 ing him into the wheel-pit of this saw-mill ; the Indian being 
 on the watch for a chance to take the life of the captain, who 
 had killed one of his brothers during a former war. 
 
 In 1818, Moses Hale started the powder-mills on Concord 
 Kiver, with forty pestles. Mr. Oliver M. Whipple and Mr. 
 William Tileston of Boston engaged in the business with Mr. 
 Hale in 1819. In 1821, Whipple s Canal was opened by 
 them. In the same year, Moses Hale disposed of his interest 
 in the business to David Hale, who retained his connection 
 with it till 1827, when he in turn sold out to his partners, and 
 became editor of the New York Journal of Commerce. Mr. 
 Tileston retired in 1829, and Mr. Whipple remained as sole 
 proprietor till 1855, when the manufacture of powder was dis 
 continued in Lowell. The business was enlarged from time to 
 time, and was in its zenith during the Mexican War. Nearly 
 a million pounds of powder were manufactured here during a 
 single year of that contest. Mr. Wliipple amassed a handsome 
 fortune by the manufacture of this "destructive element." 
 When Mr. Whipple first came to Lowell, in 1818, his whole 
 capital was but six hundred dollars. His subsequent success 
 in his business operations entitles him to a high place among 
 those who, without the aid of inherited wealth, make their own 
 fortunes, and conquor their own position in the world. 
 
 In 1818, Thomas Hurd removed to East Chelmsford (as we 
 must still call Lowell), and purchased the cotton mill, started 
 five years before, by Whiting & Fletcher. He converted it 
 into a woollen mill, and ran sixteen hand-looms for the manu 
 facture of satinets. He also built a larger brick mill for the 
 
34 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 manufacture of the same class of- goods. Mr. Hurd s mill was 
 destroyed by fire, and rebuilt in 1826. About this time, be 
 ing in want of additional power, he built the Middlesex Canal, 
 conveying water from Pawtucket Canal to his satinet mills. 
 Mr. Hurd was the first man in this country who manufactured 
 satinet by water-power, having had a mill at Stoneham before 
 he came to Lowell. He continued to run these works until the 
 great re-action of trade in 1828, when he became bankrupt, 
 and the property, in 1830, passed into the hands of the Mid 
 dlesex Company. 
 
 About the time of Mr. Hurd s appearance here, Winthrop 
 Howe started a mill for the manufacture of flannels at Wam- 
 esit Falls in Belvidere. Mr. Howe continued to manufacture 
 flannels by hand-looms till 1827, when he sold his mill to 
 Harrison Of. Howe, who introduced power-looms in lieu of 
 hand-looms, and continued the business till 1831, when he 
 sold it to John Nesmith and others. 
 
 The bridge built across the Concord near its mouth in 1774, 
 was demolished in 1819, and its place supplied by a superior 
 structure. The bridge on East Merrimack Street, connecting 
 Belvidere with the main part of the city, stands near the site of 
 the bridge of 1819, the last-named bridge having been several 
 times renewed. 
 
 The dam across Concord Eiver at Massic Falls, where Rich 
 mond s Batting Mills now stand, was constructed about this 
 time, and a Forging Mill established, by Messrs. Fisher & 
 Ames. Their works were considerably extended in 1823, and 
 continued by them till 1836, when they sold their privilege to 
 Perez 0. Eichmond. 
 
 While new men were thus coming to this place, an old and 
 distinguished resident Asahel Stearns removed elsewhere. 
 He was the pioneer lawyer of this vicinity, and has scarcely 
 had a superior among all his successors. He was born at 
 Lunenburg, June 17, 1774, and graduated at Harvard in 1797. 
 He was educated for the bar, admitted to practice about 1800, 
 and married the same year. He opened an omce near Paw- 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 35 
 
 tucket Falls, where he practiced law till 1817. He was for 
 several years District Attorney ; Member of Congress in 1815- 
 1 7 ; and in the latter year was appointed Professor of Law at 
 Harvard, which position in 1829 he resigned. He published, 
 in 1824-, a work of much celebrity on the Law of Keal Ac 
 tions, and was a Commissioner with Judge Jackson and Mr. 
 Pickering to revise the Statutes of the Commonwealth. He 
 died at Cambridge, February 5, 1839, in the sixty-fifth year of 
 his age. He was a learned and skillful lawyer, a zealous advo 
 cate, a gentleman of suavity, integrity and kindness. 
 
 Within a few years after the removal of Mr. Stearns, occur 
 red the death of the most distinguished man of the Merrimack 
 Valley Major-General Yarnum of Dracut. Born in 1751, 
 Joseph B. Yarnum had accomplished the " three score years and 
 ten" which the Psalmist allots to man, when r in 1821, he re 
 ceived that summons which no child of mortality can ever dis 
 obey. The record of his life shows him to have been continu 
 ally in office ; and the traditions that have survived him repre 
 sent him as a man of extraordinary native powers, highly 
 developed, not so much by books as by contact with men and 
 events. He was a Captain of Militia at the age of eighteen, 
 through the Eevolution, and until 1787, when he became a 
 Colonel. In 1802, he was made Brigadier-General, and 
 three years later Major-General, which rank he retained till 
 his death. From 1780 to 1795,, he was an active member of 
 the Massachusetts Legislature. As President of the Senate, 
 he presided at the trial of Judge Prescott, and had a rough 
 " passage" with Daniel Webster, who was Prescott s counsel. 
 He was a member of the Convention which framed the State 
 Constitution in 1780, and of the Convention which revised it 
 in 1820. From 1795 to 1817, he was a member of Congress; 
 for four of these years he was Speaker of the House, and for 
 one year he was President pro tempore of the Senate. The 
 traveller from Lowell on the Methuen road often turns aside, in 
 passing through Dracut, to read his epitaph on the head-stone 
 which stands where his ashes repose. 
 
36 HISTORY OF LOWELL, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE FIRST MANUFACTURING CORPORATION. 
 
 The Waltham Company The Lowell Family Judge Lowell- John Lowell- 
 Francis C. Lowell Patrick T. Jackson Nathan Appleton Introduction 
 of the Power-Loom Paul Moody Death of Francis C. Lowell John 
 Lowell, Junior. 
 
 
 
 ONE of the most interesting events connected with the early 
 history of the Cotton Manufacture in America, was the intro 
 duction of the power-loom, in 1814, at Waltham. The chief 
 actor in this enterprise was FRANCIS CABOT LOWELL, from 
 whom our city was so appropriately named. Among the others 
 were Patrick Tracy Jackson, Nathan. Appleton, and Paul 
 Moody, who afterward became the fathers of Lowell, and in 
 troduced here " the Waltham system," in all its details of 
 factory machinery, factory hoarding-houses, and wages paid 
 monthly in cash. Some account of these men and of this 
 Waltham enterprise must therefore be given before we proceed 
 to the building of the mills at Lowell. 
 
 The Lowells are among the most distinguished families in 
 America, and are the descendants of Percival Lowell, who 
 emigrated from Cleaveland, near Bristol, in England, and set 
 tled in Newbury in 1639. The first member of this family 
 who achieved any particular distinction was the Hon. John 
 Lowell, father of Francis Cabot Lowell, and son of the Eev. 
 John Lowell, the first minister of Newburyport. He was a 
 leading member of the Provincial Assembly in 1776, and of 
 the Convention which framed the Constitution of Massachu 
 setts in 1780. He was the principal champion of the move 
 ment for the abolition of slavery in this State in 1783, an 
 active and influential member of the Continental Congress, 
 Judge of the Court of Appeals in Admiralty, appointed by 
 Congress, and the first Judge of the District Court of Mas 
 sachusetts, by appointment of President AVashington. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 37 
 
 Judge Lowell died in 1802. His sons all rose to distinc 
 tion. One of them, John Lowell, always refused to accept 
 public office, but wielded a controlling influence in the Federal 
 party for more than twenty years, held the highest rank in 
 the profession of the Law, was one of the founders of the 
 Massachusetts General Hospital, the Boston Athenaeum, the 
 Boston Savings Bank, the Hospital Life Insurance Company, 
 and other institutions for the public good, and died of apo 
 plexy in 1 840, at the age of seventy years. 
 
 Francis Cabot Lowell, another son of the distinguished 
 Judge Lowell, was born in Newburyport, April 7th, 1774, and 
 graduated at Harvard in 1783. He engaged in mercantile 
 business, with good success, in Boston. HIB friend and asso 
 ciate, Patrick Tracy Jackson, was also born in Newburyport, in 
 1780, and was the son of the Hon. Jonathan Jackson, who was 
 a member of the Continental Congress in 1782, and filled other 
 distinguished positions in State and Nation. As Marshal of 
 the District of Massachusetts, by appointment of President 
 Washington, the father of Mr. Jackson served the monitions, 
 etc., issued by the father of Mr. Lowell, as Judge of the Dis 
 trict Court. 
 
 Nathan Appleton was one year senior to Mr. Jackson, and 
 five years junior to Mr. Lowell, having been born in 1779, at 
 New Ipswich in New Hampshire. In 1794, he engaged in 
 commercial pursuits, at Boston, with his brother, Samuel Ap 
 pleton, whose partner he became as soon as he attained his 
 majority, in 1800. In the next year, business called him to 
 Europe. While in France, he met Napoleon Bonaparte, then 
 firmly seated in the Consular Chair, and preparing to ascend 
 the Imperial Throne, his star burning brightly in the 
 zenith, his brow radiant with the glory of Marengo. 
 In 1810, Appleton s business again called him to Europe. 
 In 1811, at Edinburgh, he met his Boston friend, Francis 
 Cabot Lowell ; and the meeting, as we shall see, proved prolific 
 of results. 
 4 
 
38 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 The restraints imposed on commerce, which finally culmina 
 ted in the war of 1812, led Mr. Lowell to close his business as 
 a merchant; and in 1810, on account of the feebleness of his 
 health, he visited England with his family, and spent two 
 years in that country and in Scotland. While there, his mind 
 became deeply impressed with the importance of manufactur 
 ing industry as a source of national wealth ; and he took pains 
 to make himself master of all the information that was obtain 
 able, touching the machinery and processes that had been in 
 troduced by the manufacturers of Great Britain, with a view 
 to their introduction into the United States. It was while full 
 of these plans that he met Mr. Appleton at Edinburgh, as 
 already stated. Mr. Appleton entered readily into his 
 designs, urged him to go on with them, and promised coopera 
 tion. 
 
 In 1813, Lowell returned to Boston, with a fixed idea that 
 the Cotton Manufacture, then monopolized by Great Britain, 
 could be successfully introduced here. He saw and admitted 
 that the advantages of cheap labor, abundant capital, superior 
 skill, and established reputation, were all on the side of the 
 English. But the raw cotton could be procured cheaper here ; 
 water-power was more abundant than in England ; and he 
 thought that the superior intelligence and enterprise of the 
 American population would ensure the success of the Cotton 
 Manufacture in these States, in spite of the competition of all 
 Europe. 
 
 Mr. Lowell communicated these ideas to his brother-in-law 
 and fellow-townsman, Patrick Tracy Jackson, whose business 
 had been suspended by the war then flagrant between Great 
 Britain and the United States. Jackson eagerly enlisted in the 
 enterprise, and was not discouraged by difficulties which would 
 have thwarted a less resolute man. The result was, the incor 
 poration of Messrs. Lowell, Jackson, Appleton and others as 
 the Boston Manufacturing Company, with a capital of one 
 hundred thousand dollars, followed by the purchase of water- 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 39 
 
 power at Waltham, and the successful starting of the power- 
 loom in 1814.* 
 
 The Waltham power-loom, in so far as it differed from the 
 power-loom previously introduced in Great Britain, was the 
 sole product of Mr. Lowell s genius ; and his success is the 
 more remarkable from the fact that he had no model to go by, 
 but only his own recollections of his observations in Europe, 
 aided by imperfect drawings, brought with him on his return. f 
 
 Being in want of a practical mechanic, Mr. Lowell and his 
 associates secured Paul Moody, whose mechanical skill was 
 well known, and whose success fully justified the choice. Mr. 
 Moody was born in Amesbury in 1777, and had been for some 
 time engaged in the manufacturing business in that town, in 
 connection with Mr. Ezra Worthen. His aid was invaluable 
 in the starting of the first mill at Waltham, though he did 
 not remove to reside there till 1814. 
 
 The original design of Messrs. Lowell and Jackson was only 
 to start a weaving-mill, and to buy their yarn of others. No 
 such establishment as a mill where raw cotton was manufac 
 tured into finished cloth, without going through different 
 hands, and forming two distinct businesses, was then dreamed 
 of. The practice was to run spinning-mills and weaving-mills 
 as separate establishments. But as soon as their loom was 
 completed, they found it expedient to spin their own yarn, 
 rather than to buy it of others. They accordingly fitted up 
 a mill with seventeen hundred spindles, at Waltham. 
 
 Their sizing-machine they constructed by improving upon 
 Horrock s dressing-machine, patented in England, Mr. Lowell 
 and Mr. Moody both had a hand in the invention of their 
 double-speeder for spinning. The mathematical scholarship of 
 Mr. Lowell was as indispensable to its success as the mechan- 
 
 - The first broad power-loom was constructed and started in 1817, at Gosh- 
 en, Conn., by Lewis M. Norton, who obtained the idea of it from the Edinburgh 
 Encyclopaedia. Mr. Norton, however, realized poor success in the manufacture 
 of broadcloth. See his Letter to Samuel Lawrence, Lowell Courier, April 22, 
 1843. 
 
40 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 ical ingenuity of Mr. Moody. The peculiar invention of Mr. 
 Moody was the filling- throstle. The machines invented or 
 improved by these ingenious men were substantially the same 
 as those now in use, though subsequent inventions have still 
 further improved and perfected them. 
 
 The enterprise proved a splendid success ; the capital stock 
 of the Company was increased, first to four hundred thousand, 
 and afterward to six hundred thousand dollars, and the busi 
 ness extended as far as the water-power of Waltham and Water- 
 town would permit. The original suggestion and most of the 
 chief plans were made by Mr. Lowell, who was the informing 
 soul of the whole proceeding; and when the enterprise was 
 fairly started, the general management of it was committed to 
 Mr. Jackson. 
 
 While cotton cloth was selling at thirty-three cents per 
 yard, Mr. Lowell, fired with the presentiment of what his 
 plans would accomplish, predicted to a friend, that " within 
 fifty years, cotton cloth would be sold for four-pence a yard." 
 The prediction was called " visionary " then ; but it has long 
 since been realized. Our far-sighted adventurers were fre 
 quently advised, by meddlesome outsiders and gossiping Mrs. 
 Grundys, that they would soon overdo their new business. No 
 sooner did one mill send forth its cloth, than all agreed that it 
 would be the last. The markets would be glutted. Goods 
 would lie by, and rot in the warehouses. Bankruptcy, ruin, 
 pauperism, would ensue. But our adventurers kept right on, 
 paying no attention to the Mrs. Grundys. True, they saw 
 not all the future, nor "half the wonders that would be;" 
 but they remained firm in the conviction that by improved ma 
 chinery they could compete successfully with England in all 
 the markets of the globe ; and experience has proved that this 
 conviction was not without foundation. 
 
 The peace of 1815 proved ruinous to many of our manufac 
 turers, whose business had been greatly inflated by the war. 
 In 1816, a new tariff 1 was to be made; and Mr. Lowell visited 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 41 
 
 Washington, to impress upon members of Congress the impor 
 tance, the prospects and the dangers of the Cotton Manufac 
 ture, and the policy of shielding it from foreign competition 
 by legislative protection. Constitutional objections have often, 
 in more recent times, been urged against the protective system. 
 No objection of this kind was then heard of. The New Eng 
 land States were too exclusively engaged in commerce to listen 
 to him ; but the Middle States favored the new plan. The 
 States of the West were divided ; the South, as usual, held the 
 balance of power ; and Mr. Lowell s appeal to the interests of 
 the Southern planters prevailed. The famous minimum duty 
 of 6 1 cents per square yard on imported cotton fabrics was 
 proposed by Mr. Lowell, recommended by Mr. Lowndes, advo 
 cated by Mr. Calhqun, and incorporated into the tariff of 1816. 
 
 In this way, American Manufactures were protected from 
 British competition, and nursed into a vigorous life. It is to 
 this provision of law, says Mr. Everett, that " New England 
 owes that branch of industry which has made her amends for 
 the diminution of her foreign trade ; which has kept her pros 
 perous under the exhausting drain of her population to the 
 West ; which has brought a market for his agricultural pro 
 duce to the farmer s door ; and which, while it has conferred 
 these blessings on this part of the country, has been produc 
 tive of good, and nothing but good, to every portion of it." 
 
 The whole credit of this policy is due to Mr. Lowell. But 
 he did not live to witness the realization of his plans. " Man 
 proposes, but God disposes." He died in Boston, September 
 2d, 1817, at the age of forty-three; and committed to others 
 the completion of his vast designs. Like his brother, the em 
 inent lawyer, he shunned public office ; but he contributed 
 more than a thousand of the common herd of hum-drum states 
 men to the advancement of national industry and well-being. 
 As Mr. Everett eloquently says: "In the great Temple of 
 Nature, whose foundations are the earth, whose pillars are 
 the eternal hills, whose roof is the star-lit sky, whose organ 
 40 
 
42 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 tones are the whispering "breeze and the sounding storm, 
 whose architect is God, there is no ministry more sacred than 
 that of the INTELLIGENT MECHANIC. " 
 
 His son, John Lowell, was worthy of his sire. Wander 
 ing amid the ruins of Thebes, and feeling the approaches of 
 death, by his last will, " penned with a tired hand on the top 
 of a palace of the Pharaohs," he made a princely bequest of 
 $240,000 to found the Lowell Institute at Boston. 
 
 CHAPTEB IV. 
 
 MANUFACTURING HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 Purchase of Pawtucket Canal First Visit Merrimack Company Recon-struc- 
 tion of the Canal Kirk Boott Ezra Worthen Paul Moody Warren Col- 
 burn Calico Printing John D. Prince Management of the Merrimack 
 Company Re-organization of the Locks and Canals Company James B. 
 Francis Hamilton Company Samuel Batchelder Management of the 
 Hamilton Appleton Company Lowell Company Proposed Reform in 
 Sales Middlesex Company Ruin and Re-organization Suffolk Company 
 Tremont Lawrence Bleachery Boott Company Belvidere Company 
 Perez O. Richmond Massachusetts Company Dismissal of Operatives 
 Men of whom more might have been made Whitney Mills Machine Shop 
 Prescott Company Miscellaneous Manufacturers and Mechanics In 
 creased Productivity in the Future. 
 
 In 1821, Messrs. Appleton and Jackson, elated with the 
 splendid success of their establishment at Waltham, were look 
 ing about for water-power for operations on a more gigantic 
 scale. In September, 1821, they examined the water-fall at 
 Souhegan, but found it insufficient. In returning, they passed 
 the Nashua Eiver, but they were not aware of the existence of 
 the fall which the Nashua Company have since improved ; 
 
 * See Edward Everett s Memoir of John Lowell; Robert C. Winthrop s 
 Memoir of Nathan Appleton; John A. Lowell s Memoir of Patrick T. Jackson; 
 Nathan Appleton s Introduction of the Power-Loom and Origin of Lowell, etc. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 43 
 
 neither were they aware of the existence of the water-power 
 of the Pawtucket Canal. Shortly afterwards, Mr. Moody, 
 while on a visit to Amesbury, mentioned to Ezra Worthen 
 that the company at Waltham were in quest of water-power. 
 Mr. Worthen had been familiar with Pawtucket Falls from his 
 boyhood, and very naturally replied, "Why don t they buy up 
 Pawtucket Canal ? That will give them all the power of Mer- 
 rimack Eiver. They can put up as many mills as they please 
 there, and never want for water." 
 
 On returning to Waltham, Mr. Moody went out of his way 
 to look at the canal, and Mr. Worthen accompanied him. Ar 
 riving at Waltham, they related to Mr, Jackson a description 
 of the place, and Mr. Worthen chalked out upon the floor a 
 map of Merrimack River, including both Pawtucket Falls and 
 the Canal. Mr. Jackson listened eagerly to their story, and was 
 soon convinced that a large manufacturing town could here be 
 built up. The great idea of possessing himself of the whole 
 power of Merrimack River filled his mind ; and with charac 
 teristic sagacity, he at once put himself in communication with 
 Thomas M. Clark, of Newburyport, the Agent of the Pawtucket 
 Canal Company, and secured the refusal of most of the shares 
 of the stock of that Company at less than par. 
 
 Mr. Appleton and Kirk Boott entered eagerly into the en 
 terprise with Mr. Jackson, and, through the agency of Mr. 
 Clark and others, all the stock of the Canal Company was 
 purchased, and some of thB lands needed for using th water- 
 power. But the wisest men cannot foresee everything. Four 
 farms, containing about four hundred acres, covering what is 
 now the most densely peopled portion of Lowell, were bought 
 at from one to two hundred dollars per acre ; and most of the 
 lands thus purchased were afterward sold at from twelve cents 
 to a dollar per foot. But there was a great deal more land 
 which the founders of Lowell then overlooked; and when 
 these lands were wanted, the proprietors were shrewd enough 
 to fix their own prices, and at a pretty high figure too. 
 
44 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 The value of land was of course suddenly largely enhanced. 
 For example : Nine undivided tenths of the Moses Cheever 
 farm were bought in 1821 for eighteen hundred dollars ; and 
 the owner of the other one-tenth had agreed to convey the same 
 for two hundred dollars. Before he had conveyed it, however, 
 he died, suddenly, insolvent ; and the one-tenth was sold by 
 order of court. But such had been the increase in its value, 
 that the Locks and Canals Company paid upward of three 
 thousand dollars for seven and a half-tenths of it ; and the re 
 maining two and a half-tenths were sold, one year afterward, 
 for upward of five thousand dollars. 
 
 In November, 1821, Nathan Appleton, Patrick T. Jackson, 
 Kirk Boott, Warren Button, Paul Moody, and John W. Boott, 
 made a visit to the canal, perambulated the ground, and scan 
 ned the capabilities of the place ; and the remark was made 
 that some of them might live to see the place contain twenty 
 thousand inhabitants. Nathan Appleton did, indeed, live to 
 see it contain nearly forty thousand. Here, in the vicinity 
 of Boston, was a river, with a water-shed of four thousand 
 square miles, delivering its volume of water over a fall of 
 thirty feet. Evidently, the Manchester of America was to be 
 here. 
 
 On the fifth of February, 1822, these gentlemen and others 
 were incorporated as the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, 
 with Warren Button as President. Their capital, at first, was 
 $600,000 ; but this capital has been four times increased, and 
 is now $2,500,000. The first business of the new company 
 was to erect the dam across the Merrimack at Pawtucket Falls, 
 widen and deepen Pawtucket Canal, renew the locks, and open 
 a lateral canal from the main canal to the river, on the margin 
 of which their mills were to stand. Five hundred men were 
 employed in digging and blasting, and six thousand pounds of 
 powder were used. The canal, as reconstructed, is sixty feet 
 
 * Miles s Lowell as it Was ami as it Is. 
 

HISTORY OF LOWELL. 45 
 
 wide, and eight feet deep, and capable of supplying fifty mills. 
 It has three sets of locks. 
 
 In deepening this canal, ledges were uncovered, which 
 showed indisputable marks of the attrition of water. Many 
 cavities were found in the ledge, such as are usual where there 
 are water-falls, worn by stones kept in motion by the water. 
 Some of these cavities measured a foot or more in diameter, 
 and two feet in depth. Here had once been the channel of the 
 Merrimack. 9 
 
 The first mill of the company was completed, and the first 
 wheel started, September 1st, 1823. The first return of cloth 
 was made in the following November. The bricks used in 
 building the mills of this and the succeeding manufacturing 
 corporations, were boated chiefly from Bedford and Merrimack, 
 in New Hampshire. 
 
 The first Treasurer and Agent was Kirk Boott. He was 
 born in Boston in 1791, and received an academic education 
 at the famous Bugby School in England. He entered Harvard 
 College, but never graduated. His tastes being military, a 
 commission was purchased for him ; and he served five years 
 as an officer in the British Army. He fought under Welling 
 ton in the Peninsular War, and commanded a detachment of 
 troops at the siege of San Sebastian, in 1813. His courage 
 was perfectly bullet-proof. When the wars of Napoleon ended 
 with his captivity at St. Helena, Boott resigned his commis 
 sion, and, in 1817, returned to Boston. Through the intimacy 
 that arose between him and Mr. Jackson, while the latter was 
 agent of the mills at Waltham, he was employed as the com 
 pany s agent. He established, himself here in the spring of 
 1822, took charge of the mills, and infused into the whole 
 place much of his own determined spirit and unconquerable 
 will. He became, by the general consent of all, the man of 
 the place, so that for fifteen years the history of Lowell was 
 little more than the biography of Kirk Boott. 
 
46 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 Ezra Worthen removed here at the same time with Mr. 
 Boott, and his services as superintendent were of inestimable 
 value. Like Mr. Lowell, Mr. Worthen was not permitted to 
 see even "the beginning of the end " of his plans. He died 
 June 18th, 1824. 
 
 Mr. Moody also removed here from Waltham, in 1823, and 
 took the charge of the company s machine shop. This shop 
 was completed in 1825, and cost one hundred and fifty thou- 
 and dollars. He remained in this position during a period of 
 eight years, when his labors were terminated by death, July 
 5th, 1831. Born and bred a mechanic, Mr. Moody was none the 
 less a gentleman. Skill in mechanism was his forte ; but his 
 general capacity was large ; and when he died, all felt that 
 one of the ablest citizens, and one of the most estimable men, 
 had fallen. 
 
 The place left vacant by Mr. Worthen, in 1824, was subse 
 quently filled by Warren Colburn, the distinguished author of 
 a series of popular school-books on Arithmetic. Mr. Colburn 
 was born in Dedham in 1793, and graduated at Harvard Uni 
 versity in 1820, at the ripe age of twenty-seven years. He 
 was distinguished while at college for his assiduous devotion 
 to the mathematics. After graduating, he engaged as a school 
 teacher in Boston, and while thus employed prepared those 
 works on Arithmetic which have forever intimately associated 
 his*name with that science. Prior to Mr. Worthcn s decease, 
 Mr. Colburn had acquired some experience in charge of the 
 mills at Waltham. His abilities were such as amply enabled him 
 to fill Mr. Worthen s place. " He readily perceived and appre 
 ciated the peculiar character of a manufacturing community in 
 New England, and projected at once a scheme of lecturing, 
 adapted to popular improvement." He actually delivered in 
 Lowell several courses of the best Lyceum Lectures, several 
 years before any popular Lyceums were organized at all. He 
 
 * See Edson s excellent Memoir of Warren Colburn, in Barnard s American 
 Journal of Education, September, 1856. 
 
JOHN J). PJRINCE. 
 
HISTORY OP LOWELL. 47 
 
 died September 13th, 1833. Though he filled no higher offi 
 ces than those of factory superintendent, church warden, 
 school committee, college committee, lyceum lecturer and writer 
 of school-books, Mr. Colburn was nevertheless one of the great 
 men of America. Here he will be especially remembered for 
 his efforts, in connection with Rev. Dr. Edson, to build up, 
 upon a permanent basis, that complete system of public schools, 
 which is the pride of the place. 
 
 The successors of Mr. Colburn as Superintendents of the 
 Merrimack Mills have been, from 1833 to 1848, John Clark ; 
 in 1848, Emory Washburn, afterward Governor of the Com 
 monwealth ; in 1849, Edmund Le Breton ; from 1850 to 1866, 
 Isaac Hinckley, who was succeeded by John C. Palfrey. 
 
 The founders of the Merrrimaek Company had from the 
 first contemplated the introduction of calico-printing. " I was 
 of opinion," says Appleton, " that the time had arrived, when 
 the manufacture and printing of calicos might be successfully 
 introduced into this country." And although calicos were 
 probably printed at Taunton and Dover before they were at 
 Lowell, the attempt was first begun here, under Allan Pol 
 lock. The printing business, however, was not perfected to 
 any considerable degree until 1826, when the late John D. 
 Prince, senior, resigned his position at Manchester in Eng 
 land to take the Superintendency of the Merrimack Print 
 Works. Here he remained till 1855, when Henry W. Bur 
 rows succeeded him. The skill of Mr. Prince, assisted by Dr. 
 Samuel L. Dana as chemist, won for the Merrimack Prints an 
 unequalled renown in all parts of%he globe. On his retire 
 ment, the Company gave him an annuity of $2,000 per annum. 
 He did not, however, live long to enjoy it, but died suddenly, 
 January 5th, 1860, at the age of eighty years, leaving to us, 
 and to the Lowellians of the future, the grateful memory of a 
 1 fine old English gentlemen, "one of the real old stock/ 
 
 * Origin of Lowell, p. 17. 
 
48 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 who dispensed to bis friends a baronial hospitality, and to the 
 poor a charity that was as liberal as his own resources. 
 
 The Merrimack Company have divided upon an average a 
 dividend of thirteen per cent, on their stock. For many years, 
 fabrics bearing their imperial name have commanded a cent 
 a yard more than the fabrics of other companies equal in cost 
 and equal in intrinsic quality. Such a result can only be as 
 cribed to the consummate ability of the Company s managers. 
 Voltaire said, he knew many merchants in Amsterdam, of more 
 penetration and administrative ability than Ximenes, Mazarin 
 or Eichelieu. So may we say, that the men whose sagacity 
 achieved such remarkable success in the business of manufac 
 turing, were men of far higher calibre than those who have 
 generally presided over the Executive Departments at Wash 
 ington. 
 
 During the late War, however, the Merrimack Company 
 showed great " lack of sagacity and forethought " in stopping 
 their mills in dismissing their operatives in discontinuing 
 the purchase of cotton and in selling their fabrics at a slight 
 advance on their peace prices, and at less than the actual cost 
 of similar fabrics at the time of sale. Had they not committed 
 this stupendous blunder, they might have realized many mil 
 lions of dollars during the War. But instead of boldly run 
 ning, as companies elsewhere did, they took counsel of their 
 fears, and their spacious mills stood on the bank 
 
 "As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean." 
 
 The blunders of this company were naturally copied by 
 others the younger companies being accustomed to " dress " on 
 the Merrimack. In this instance, the blunders of the older 
 company were not only copied, but exaggerated and intensified 
 to a fatal degree. The other cotton companies actually sold 
 out their cotton, and several of them made abortive experiments 
 in other branches of manufactures, by which they incurred 
 
 * Report of the Committee of the Proprietors, 1863. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 49 
 
 losses, direct and indirect, exceeding the amount of their en 
 tire capital. It is but fair to add, that most of these abortive 
 experiments were made in opposition to the judgment of the 
 local agents. 
 
 The Merrimack have five mills and print works, with 100,- 
 000 spindles, and 2,450 looms. When all are in operation, 
 they employ 1,700 females and 700 males. Their weekly con 
 sumption of cotton is 80,000 pounds, and their return of 
 cloth 450,000 yards. They print 500,000 yards per week of 
 Prints, No. 30 to 37, and Chintzes. 
 
 In 1825, the old Locks and Canals Company of 1792 was 
 reestablished .as a separate corporation. The Merrimack Com 
 pany, at the time of their incorporation, owned the original 
 charter of the Locks and Canals Company, the entire water- 
 power of Merrimack Eiver, and the lands abutting thereon. 
 The Proprietors of the Locks and Canals were now reorganized, 
 with an amendment to their charter, allowing them to purchase, 
 hold, sell or lease land and water-power, to the amount of 
 $600,000. The Merrimack Company conveyed to the Locks 
 and Canals Company all their water-power and all their lands ; 
 and then so much of it as was required for their own purposes, 
 was reconveyed to the Merrimack Company. By this arrange 
 ment, the Merrimack Company was placed upon the same basis 
 as other manufacturing companies more recently established. 
 The Locks and Canals Company had other objects to pur 
 sue. The affairs of this company, in addition to those of the 
 Merrimack, were placed in the master hand of Kirk Boott. On 
 the death of Mr, Boott, in 1837, Joseph Tilden became Agent 
 for one year, when Patrick T. Jackson succeeded him. Mr. 
 Jackson was succeeded for a short time by William Boott. In 
 1845, James B. Francis was appointed Agent, and in this posi 
 tion, which he has ever since retained, he has earned the dis 
 tinction of the best water-engineer in the United States. He 
 had been eleven years engineer of this company, when the duties 
 of Agent were superadded to his duties as engineer. At first, 
 5 
 
50 HISTOKY OF LOWELL. 
 
 he was associated with that excellent engineer, George W. 
 Whistler, father of James Whistler, the gifted artist. 
 
 For twenty years, the business of this company was, to fur 
 nish land and water-power, and build mills and machinery for 
 the various manufacturing companies successively organized in 
 Lowell. After all the mill-powers were disposed of, another re 
 organization took place. The standard adopted for a mill-power 
 was the power required to run the second mill built at Waltham, 
 which contained 3584 spindles, or the right to draw twenty- 
 five cubic feet of water per second, on a fall of thirty feet, be 
 ing about sixty horse power. Cf This company have never en 
 gaged in manufacturing operations. They kept in operation 
 two machine shops, a foundry, and a saw-mill, until 1845, 
 when the Lowell Machine Shop was incorporated to take 
 the charge of this business. They constructed all the mill-canals 
 to supply the various companies with water-power, and erected 
 most of the mills, and the boarding-houses attached to them, 
 together with most of the machinery which they severally con 
 tain. They employed constantly from five to twelve hundred 
 men, and built two hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth 
 of machinery per annum. The stock was long the best of which 
 Lowell could boast, being worth thrice, and even four times its 
 par value. Their present business is to superintend the use 
 of the water-power, which is leased by them to the several com 
 panies. Their stock is held by these companies in the same 
 proportion in which they hold the water-power. 
 
 The first sale of water-power was to the Hamilton Manufac 
 turing Company, incorporated in 1825, with a capital of $600,- 
 000, afterward increased to $1,200,000. The first Agent of 
 this Company was Samuel Batchelder. It was under his skill 
 ful management that the power-loom was here first applied to 
 twilled and fancy goods, and that cotton drills were first man 
 ufactured. Mr. Batchelder was born at Jaffrey, in New Hamp 
 shire, in 1784, five years before the first cotton mill was started 
 
 Appleton s Origin of Lowell, p. 28. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 51 
 
 in America. He assisted in starting one of the first cotton 
 mills in his native State, in 1807. On quitting the Hamilton, 
 he assisted in establishing the York Mills at Saco, Maine, of 
 which he has been for many years Treasurer, as well as of the 
 Everett Mills at Lawrence. With his remarkable business 
 habits, he has always combined the love of books ; and his 
 work on the Cotton Manufacture is one of the most valuable 
 contributions yet made to the literature of that prolific theme. 
 Mr. Batchelder was followed in the Agency of the Hamilton, in 
 1831, by the late John Avery, to whom in 1864 Oliver H. 
 Moulton succeeded. 
 
 Following the example of the Merrimack, the Hamilton 
 Company established Print Works, of which the late William 
 Spencer was Superintendent till his death, September 27th, 
 1862. William Hunter was then appointed Superintendent, 
 and to him in 1863 succeeded William Harley. 
 
 The management of the Hamilton during the War was par 
 ticularly unfortunate. Not only were the mistakes of the 
 Merrimack repeated here ; but what was worse when the 
 War was drawing to a close, the Hamilton threw out a large 
 portion of their cotton machinery, and put in a lot with which 
 to manufacture woollen goods, and purchased a large stock of 
 fine wool, paying for this machinery and wool the ruinous 
 prices which the War had entailed. Thus, they superadded to 
 their losses by the War, a new category of losses caused by 
 the collapse of prices on the return of peace. 
 
 The Hamilton have five mills and print works, with 51,268 
 spindles and 1,348 looms, requiring the labor of 850 females 
 and 425 males. Their weekly consumption of cotton is 50,000 
 pounds, and of clean wool 10,000. Their weekly product is 
 235,000 yards of Delaines, Flannels, Prints, Ticks, Sheetings, 
 &nd Shirtings, No, 10 to No, 53. The number of yards printed 
 per week is 120,000, and the number dyed is 6,000, 
 
 In 1828, .the Appleton Company was incorporated, 
 with a capital of $600,000. John Avery was their Agent 
 
52 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 till 1831, when George Motley succeeded him. It was in the 
 mills of this company that Uriah A. Boyden s famous turbine 
 water-wheels were first used with success. Though the man 
 agers of the Appleton, during the late War, shared, for a time, 
 the delusion that the country would have "peace in sixty 
 days," and under that delusion sold their cotton, and allowed 
 their mills to stand idle, they acquired, quicker than many 
 others, a true view of the national situation ; and the manage 
 ment of this company, when tested by its results during a pe 
 riod of nearly forty years, must be pronounced successful in 
 an eminent degree. 
 
 The Appleton have three mills, with 20,608 spindles, and 
 717 looms. They employ, when running to their full capacity, 
 400 females and 120 males. Their weekly consumption of 
 cotton is 50,000 pounds, and their weekly return of cloth is 
 130,000 yards of Sheetings and Shirtings, Nos. 14 and 20. 
 
 In 1828, the Lowell Manufacturing Company was incorpo 
 rated, with a capital of $900,000, since increased to $2,000,- 
 000. In starting their jacquard looms they employed Clau 
 dius Wilson, one of the most ingenious and liseful mechanics 
 that has ever appeared in Lowell, who emigrated from Scot 
 land to enter this company s service. This company s mills 
 were the first in the world where power-looms were introduced 
 for weaving woollen carpets. These looms were invented by 
 E. B. Bigelow, and rank among the most wonderful triumphs 
 of mechanical genius the world has ever witnessed. Alexander 
 Wright was Agent of this Company till his death in 1852, 
 when Samuel Fay succeeded him. 
 
 In 1859, a discussion arose among the stockholders touch 
 ing the mode of selling their products. An attempt was made 
 to make the selling agents personally interested in augmenting 
 their sales, and enhancing the income from the company s 
 
 Francis Lowell Hydraulic Experiments, 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 53 
 
 stock. This change has "been successfully made by the Mid 
 dlesex, but has not yet been adopted by the Lowell. 
 
 The Lowell haye one carpet mill, one worsted mill, and one 
 cotton mill. The number of spindles run is 12,500 on worsted 
 and wool, and 2,816 on cotton. They employ 1,000 females 
 and 450 males, and consume 4,000 pounds of cotton, and 63,- 
 000 of clean wool, per week. Their productive power is 35,- 
 000 yards of Carpets, 13,000 of Sheetings, and 4,500 of 
 Stuffed Goods, per week. They have 432 looms, of which 
 258 weave Carpets, 124 Cottons, and 50 Stuffed Goods. 
 
 In 1830, Samuel Lawrence, William W. Stone, and others 
 were incorporated as the Middlesex Company, with a capital 
 of $500,000, afterward increased to $1,000,000, but subse 
 quently reduced to $750,000, and engaged in the manufac 
 ture of broadcloths, cassimeres, etc. James Cook was the 
 Agent of this Company s mills for fifteen years. He was suc 
 ceeded, in 1845, by Nelson Palmer, in 1846, by Samuel 
 Lawrence, and in 1848, by Oliver H. Perry, who retained 
 the Agency for three years. In 1851, William T. Mann be 
 came Agent, but was succeeded, in 1852, by Joshua Hum 
 phrey, who remained in charge six years. In January, 1858, 
 James Cook was recalled. Nine months later, Oliver H. Perry 
 was recalled. 
 
 The mismanagement of the Middlesex Company s affairs 
 during many years was astonishing. The entire capital of the 
 Company was lost through the mistakes and irregularities of 
 Samuel Lawrence, William W. Stone and their associates. In 
 1858, the Company was reorganized, with new managers and a 
 new subscription of stock. Eive hundred shares, of the par 
 value of one hundred dollars each, formed the capital with 
 which the Middlesex Company took their " new departure " in 
 
 * Report of Dr. Ayer, Peter Lawson and H. J. Adams, the Committee of 
 the Proprietors, 1859. 
 
54 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 the voyage of life. This capital has since been increased to 
 $750,000. 
 
 Until now, all our manufacturing companies had sold their 
 products through commission-houses in Boston and New York, 
 whose compensation was determined by the gross amount of 
 sales not by the amount of profits. The wisdom of this pol 
 icy had been often questioned by sagacious stockholders, with 
 out, however, leading to any change. The Middlesex Com 
 pany now adopted a different mode of selling their products, 
 making their sales through their Treasurer, whose com 
 pensation depended mainly upon the profits realized by the 
 Company. By this arrangement, the business of selling was 
 kept directly under the Company s control, and the interests of 
 the selling agent made identical with those of the Company. 
 Since their reorganization, they have been remarkably success 
 ful, their per centage of profits exceeding those of any other 
 company in Lowell. 
 
 The Middlesex have three mills and dye-houses, with fifty 
 sets of cards, consuming 25,000 pounds of wool per week. 
 They run 16,400 spindles, 240 broad and 22 narrow looms. 
 They employ 452 males and 320 females, producing Broad 
 cloths, Doeskins, Cassimeres and Shawls. 
 
 The Suffolk Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 
 1831, with $600,000 capital. Robert Means was their Agent 
 until 1842, when John Wright succeeded him. They have 
 two mills. 
 
 An ill-advised experiment in the manufacture of cassimeres 
 was made by the Suffolk, during the War, but it aborted, leav 
 ing them depleted of their capital. When in full operation, 
 they run 21,432 spindles, and 815 looms, employ 410 females 
 and 205 males, consume 30,000 pounds of cotton per week, 
 
 *Dr. Ayer and Gen. Butler bought largely of this stock, and their invest 
 ments yielded them splendid returns. Those who think Gen. Butlerls for 
 tune was derived solely from the plunder of Louisiana and Virginia, should look 
 into the Company s books, and learn their mistake. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 55 
 
 and make 125, 000 yards, per week, of Corset Jeans, Sheetings, 
 and Shirtings, Nos. 14 to 22. 
 
 The Proprietors of the Tremont Mills were incorporated in 
 1831. Their capital is $600,000, and they have two mills. 
 Their Agents have been, from 1831 to 1834, Israel Whitney; 
 from 1834 to 1837, John Aiken ; from 1837 to. 1859, Charles 
 L. Tilden; and since 1859, Charles F. Battles. 
 
 The experiment in cassimeres which was made by the Suf 
 folk, was repeated by the Tremont, both having the same 
 Treasurer Henry V. Ward. The same disasters followed, 
 and here too cassimeres were discarded. The productive ca 
 pacity of the Tremont is about equal to that of the Suffolk, 
 viz : 20,960 spindles, and 764 looms, run by 500 females and 
 120 males. The weekly consumption of cotton, when in full 
 operation, is 37,000 pounds, and the weekly return of cloth 
 135,000 yards of Sheetings and Shirtings, Nos. 14 to 20, and 
 Flannels. 
 
 The Lawrence Manufacturing Company were incorporated in 
 1831. Their capital is $1,500,000 ; and they have five mills 
 and dye-houses. William Austin was their Agent till 1837, 
 when John Aikcn was transferred from the Tremont Mills. In 
 1849, Mr. Aiken was succeeded by William S. Southworth, 
 who remained till 1865, when William F. Salmon succeeded him. 
 
 The Lawrence had the same Treasurer during the War as 
 the Suffolk and Tremont ; but instead of experimenting in cas 
 simeres, the Lawrence engaged in hosiery, incurring, directly 
 and indirectly, a loss of half a million dollars. The Lawrence 
 have 60,432 spindles, 1,564 looms, and 163 knitting machines, 
 requiring the labor of 1,350 females and 350 males. Their 
 weekly consumption of cotton, when all their machinery is run 
 ning, is 110,000 pounds, and 2,000 of wool. Their fabrics 
 are Shirtings, Sheetings, Printing Cloth, Cotton and Merino 
 Hosiery. 
 
 In 1831, the Suffolk and Western Canals were cut, to supply 
 the Suffolk, Tremont and Lawrence with water-power. 
 
56 HISTORY OP LOWELL. 
 
 The Lowell Bleachery was incorporated in 1832, with a cap 
 ital of $50,000, since increased to $300,000. Jonathan Derby 
 was in charge the first year. From 1833 to 1835, Joseph 
 Hoyt was in charge. Then succeeded Charles T. Appleton, 
 who retained the Agency till 1846, when Charles A. Babcock 
 succeeded him. The present Agent, Frank P. Appleton, suc 
 ceeded Mr. Babcock, in 1853. 
 
 The Bleachery establishment consists of four mills and dye- 
 houses, employing 360 males and 40 females. They dye 15,- 
 000,000 yards, and bleach 8,000,000 yards, of cloth per annum. 
 
 The Boott Cotton Mills were incorporated in 1835, with a 
 capital of $1,200,000, and commenced operations in 1836. 
 Benjamin F. French had charge of these mills till 1845, when 
 Linus Child succeeded him. In 1862, William A. Burke was 
 transferred from the Machine Shop to succeed Mr. Child. 
 When Mr. Burke came, the stock of the Boott had fallen forty 
 per cent, below par, and was paying no dividends. Since then 
 an extensive policy of reconstruction has been pursued ; the 
 stock has risen to par, and has paid good dividends. 
 
 The Boott have five mills, with 71,324 spindles and 1,878 
 looms, employing 1,020 females and 290 males. Their weekly 
 consumption of cotton is 100,000 pounds, and their weekly 
 return of cloth 350,000 yards of No. 14 Drillings, Sheetings, 
 Shirtings and Printing Cloth, No. 30 to No. 40. 
 
 In 1832, W. B. Park, of Boston, purchased the flannel mill 
 near Wamesit Falls, in Belvidere, of John Nesmith, who, as 
 we have previously seen, had purchased these premises of Har 
 rison Gr. Howe. Mr. Park divided most of the lands adjoining 
 into convenient lots and sold them at an enhanced price tc a num 
 ber of individual purchasers. Without observing too rigid an 
 adherence to the order of chronology, we will here give the 
 remaining history of these mills. In 1834, Eliphalet Barber, 
 Walter Farnsworth, and George Hill, of Boston, purchased 
 these mills of Mr. Park, and carried on the business until 1851, 
 as the Belvidere Flannel Manufacturing Company. They also 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 57 
 
 extended their business by the purchase of the stone mill, 
 which had before been owned by the Whitney Mills. In 
 1851, Charles Stott and Walter Farnsworth bought out the 
 company s interest, and carried on these mills on their own ac 
 count ; but their business was soon impeded by fire. The stone 
 mill was burned in 1851, and the old flannel mill in the year 
 following. In 1853, under the old charter granted to W. B. 
 Park in 1834, the Belvidere Woollen Manufacturing Company 
 was reorganized, Messrs. Stott and Farnsworth conveying one- 
 third of their interest to the new company. The large brick 
 mill, at Wamesit Falls, was built the same year. Another 
 large mill at Whipple s Mills was built in 1862. The capital 
 of this company originally only $50,000 is now $200,000. 
 Charles Stott has been Agent since 1835. 
 
 It was in 1836 that Perez 0, Richmond, who had for two 
 years previously been engaged in manufacturing batting, near 
 Wamesit Falls, established himself at Massic Falls, where he 
 experienced distinguished success in that business. When he 
 began manufacturing operations in Lowell in 1834, he borrowed 
 six hundred dollars from a friend, with which he bought and 
 started a few carding machines. When he died in 1854, he 
 left an estate worth over one hundred and twenty-five thousand 
 dollars, above all his liabilities. 
 
 The Massachusetts Cotton Mills the youngest of the great 
 corporations now existing in Lowell were incorporated in 
 1839, with a capital of $1,200,000, which was afterward in 
 creased by the absorption of the Prescott Company to $1,800,- 
 000. The Agents of this Company have been, from 1839 to 
 1849, Homer Bartlett; from 1849 to 1856, Joseph White; 
 and since 1856, Frank F. Battles. The Superintendents of 
 the Prescott Mills, (a part of the same Company s establish^ 
 rnent,) have been, from 1845 to 1849, Homer Bartlett; from 
 1849 to 1856, Frank F. Battles; and since 1856, William 
 Brown, 
 
58 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 The Massachusetts have six mills, with 67,872 spindles and 
 1,887 looms, employing 1,300 females and 400 males. They 
 consume 180,000 pounds of cotton, and make 540,000 yards 
 of cloth, per week ; their fabrics being Sheetings, Shirtings 
 and Drillings, No. 12 to No. 22. 
 
 In 1839, John Nesinith and others were incorporated as the 
 "Whitney Mills, and for several years they manufactured blank 
 ets in the stone mill near Wamesit Falls. But the business 
 proved a failure, and they sold their machinery to Joseph W. 
 Mansur and John D. Sturtevant. The blanket manufacture 
 finally found a grave in the Tariff of 1846. That Tariff, the 
 result of the financial charlatanry of Kobert J. Walker, Presi 
 dent Folk s Secretary of the Treasury, raised the duty on all 
 imported wools to thirty per cent., while it reduced the duty 
 on imported flannels and blankets to twenty-five and twenty per 
 cent. 
 
 It was in 1839 that Charles P. Talbot & Co. commenced the 
 business of manufacturing dye-stuffs and chemicals in Lowell 
 and Billerica. This business, small in its beginning, has 
 gradually swelled to the amount of $500,000 per annum. A 
 flannel mill has also been started by the Messrs. Talbot, at 
 Billerica, with eight sets of cards. 
 
 In 1845, the year of the second reorganization of the 
 Proprietors of the Locks and Canals, the Lowell Machine 
 Shop was incorporated, with a capital of $600,000. William 
 A. Burke, who had previously been Agent of the Manchester 
 (N. H.) Machine Shop, was the first Agent, and was suc 
 ceeded in 1862 by Mertoun C. Bryant. Mr. Bryant dying 
 soon afterward, Andrew Moody succeeded him. 
 
 The War, which brought death and ruin to so many others, 
 was improved by this company to the utmost advantage ; and 
 since the War, they have realized a hundred thousand dollars 
 in a single year. 
 
 The establishment of this company consists of four shops, a 
 smithy and foundry, employing 800 men ; 3,000 tons of cast 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 59 
 
 iron, 400 tons of wrought iron and 35 tons of steel are con 
 sumed annually, in the manufacture of Cotton and Paper Ma 
 chinery, Locomotives, Water- Wheels, Machinists Tools, and 
 Mill-work. 
 
 A machine for bending ship timber is now in process of con 
 struction here, the weight of which will exceed 200 tons. 
 
 While the Machine Shop was getting under way as an inde 
 pendent corporation, the Prescott Manufacturing Company, in 
 corporated in 1844, with a capital of $800,000, was consoli 
 dated with the Massachusetts ; the change being made with a 
 view to economy. 
 
 Having now traced in outline the origin and progress of all 
 the great corporations of Lowell, we may here insert a statis 
 tical summary of the most salient facts touching their produc 
 tive capacity. 
 
 Capital stock of the corporations , $13,650,000 
 
 Number of mills 47, and dye-houses, etc. 
 
 Number of spindles 429,474 
 
 Number of looms 12,117 
 
 Female operatives 8,890 \ 
 
 Male operatives 4,672 
 
 Yards of cotton cloth produced per week 2,248,000 
 
 Pounds of cotton consumed per week 646,000 
 
 Yards dyed and printed per annum 45,002,000 
 
 Tons anthracite coal consumed per annum 35,100 
 
 Bushels charcoal consumed per annum 20,000 
 
 Gallons oil consumed per annum 97,650 
 
 Pounds starch consumed per annum 2,190,000 
 
 Water-power nearly 10,000 horse-powers. 
 
 Steam-power 32 engines 4,375 horse-powers. 
 
 Wages of females, clear of board, per week $3 . 50 to $3 . 75 
 
 Wages of males, clear of board, per day $1.00 to $2.00 
 
 Medium produce of a loom, No. 14 yarn, yards per day 45 
 
 Medium produce of a loom, No. 30 yarn, yards per day 30 
 
 Average per spindle per day 1 
 
 In 1829, one mill was burned down, and, in 1853, another. 
 Both these mills belonged to the Merrimack Company ; and 
 although fires have been frequent, no other mills of the great 
 corporations have been lost by that devouring element. This 
 
60 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 comparative exemption from the ravages of fire has been 
 secured by the most efficient system of watching, which has 
 been practiced here from the first. The corporations also have 
 an elaborate system of " sprinklers," which enables them, in 
 an instant, to wet down the whole or any part of a room, or of 
 all their rooms, so that fires are arrested at once. This admir 
 able machinery of sprinklers, however, was not introduced un 
 til after the establishment of the reservoir on Lynde s Hill, 
 in 1850. A system of mutual insurance against fire was also 
 adopted by the corporations about the same time ; but so per 
 fect are their facilities for preventing and suppressing fires, the 
 cost of their insurance has been less than a tenth of one per 
 cent, on the value of the property insured. 
 
 In connection with those corporations that stopped their mills 
 more or less during the War, the question may be asked, 
 How would the great men who founded the factory system of 
 Lowell regard this ruthless dismissal of hundreds and thou 
 sands of operatives, dependent on their day s wages for their 
 day s bread ? The founders of Lowell were far in advance of 
 their times. How mindful they were of the well-being of their 
 operatives ! With what thoughtful care did they establish, at 
 their own cost, their admirable system of boarding-houses, 
 with the most efficient moral police, and with every provision 
 for religious worship ! To them the condition of their opera 
 tives was a matter of the highest interest. Not so to their 
 successors. The impartial historian cannot ignore the fact, 
 painful as it is, that nine of the great corporations of Lowell, 
 under a mistaken belief that they could not run their mills to 
 a profit during the War, unanimously, in cold blood, dismissed 
 ten thousand operatives, penniless, into the streets ! 
 
 This crime, this worse than crime, this blunder, entailed its 
 own punishment, as all crimes do by the immutable law of 
 God. When these companies resumed operations, their former 
 skilled operatives were dispersed, and could no more be recalled 
 
 * Appleton s Origin of Lowell, p. 15. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 61 
 
 than the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Their places were poorly 
 filled by the less skilled operatives whom the companies now 
 had to employ. So serious was this blunder, that the smallest 
 of the companies would have done wisely, had they sacrificed 
 a hundred thousand dollars, rather than thus lose their accus 
 tomed help. 
 
 During the last forty years, a great variety of mechanical tal 
 ent has been developed by th^ corporations of Lowell. But 
 strange to say, no method has been devised to retain in the service 
 of the companies the talent thus developed, by opening to its pos 
 sessors a wider field of action. Accordingly, when an overseer, 
 or employe of any grade, has so mastered his business as to be 
 fitted to fill the higher positions, so often filled by men wholly 
 ignorant of manufacturing processes, his almost only hope of 
 advancement lies in quitting the companies employ. 
 
 Among the men heretofore employed in the mills, who found 
 no adequate sphere on the corporations, and who have risen to> 
 higher theatres of action outside of the Lowell mills, the first 
 names that occur are Phineas Adams, Sylvamis Adams, W.. 
 L. Ainsworth, D. M. Ayer, Jefferson Bancroft, Joseph Battles,, 
 E. B. Bigelow, Ezekiel Blake, Cornelius Blanchard, Francis 
 A. Calvert, Josiah G. Coburn, John L. Cheney, Joshua Con 
 verse, D. D. Crombie, A. G-. Curnnock, E. S. Davis, Orlando 
 Davis, George Draper, Oliver Ellis, Franklin Forbes, William 
 Hunter, Daniel Hussey, L. W. Jaquith, G. H. Jones, Peter 
 Lawson, Pliny Lawton, George Lund, Foster Nowell, George 
 K. Paul, Hannibal Powers, T. L. Eandlett, E. A. Straw, Eoyal 
 Southwick, Charles P. Talbot, Thomas Talbot, Eufus Whittier, 
 Claudius Wilson, Hubbard Willson, Walter Wright, S. J. Weth- 
 erell, Lothrop Wetherell, and John Yeaton ; and many others 
 might readily be recalled. 
 
 Synchroniously with the building of the factories and board 
 ing-houses of the corporations, a large number of small private 
 establishments were started in various parts of Lowell, by ma 
 chinists, blacksmiths, house-builders, carpenters, dyers, carriage 
 6 
 
62 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 and harness makers, artificers of tools, and all sorts of workers in 
 wood and in iron, in short, by all classes of mechanics and 
 artisans who could in any way contribute to the building and 
 beautifying of an inland town. Many of these congregated 
 near Wamesit Falls, in Belvidere. There too were subsequently 
 started the manufacturing establishments of James 0. Patter 
 son, John D. Sturtevant, Aaron Cowley, Eoger Lang, James 
 Siner, Samuel C. Shapleigh, Moses A. Johnson, and others. 
 Most of these establishments have long since disappeared from 
 Belvidere the manufacturers finding a more desirable theatre 
 at Whipple s Mills, and the miscellaneous classes of mechanics 
 establishing themselves at Mechanics Mills in the westerly 
 part of Lowell. This region of Mechanics Mills, built up 
 largely by "William Livingston and Sidney Spaulding, has 
 been the focus of most of the lumber business done in JLowell 
 since 1846. No water-power is used there; but planing mills, 
 saw-mills, and other works are run by steam. 
 
 It was long the policy of the corporations to discourage any 
 manufacturing enterprize that was not incorporated. This 
 policy was based partly on a love of methodicity and an un 
 reasoning attachment to incorporated forms of industry, and 
 partly on the selfish desire to have the whole body of the peo 
 ple of Lowell subject to their sway. But notwithstanding this 
 discouragement, many independent hives of manufacturing in 
 dustry have been started from time to time ; and some of them 
 have realised remarkable success. 
 
 In 1846, Oliver M. Whipple gathered, in the southerly part 
 of Lowell, that group of industrial establishments ever since 
 called Whipple s Mills, which are supplied by the water-power 
 of Concord River, estimated at five hundred horse-powers. In 
 his long and active career, Mr. Whipple has rendered many 
 valuable services to the public. Some of these have already 
 bee.n forgotten, and the memory of most of the rest will prob 
 ably perish with the generation now in being. But whatever 
 else may be forgotten, this will not be forgotten, that when 
 

 OLIVER M. WUIPPLK. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 63 
 
 all the water-power of the Merrimaek had been monopolized 
 by great corporations, he laid hold on the water-power of the 
 Concord, and held it, with a firm hand, for the use, chiefly, of 
 independent manufacturers. For nearly twenty years, he con 
 tinued to let land, buildings and water-power, on the most lib 
 eral terms, to every man of merit that would embark in any 
 manufacturing adventure. As the region of Whipple s Mills 
 becomes more thickly peopled, the magnitude of the service 
 thus rendered by Mr. Whipple will more and more appear ; 
 and Lowell, when she calls the roll of her benefactors, can 
 never omit his name. 
 
 Among the first establishments at Whipple s Mills were 
 Smith & Meadowcroft s bolt factory, Thomas Barr s print 
 shop, Aaron Cowley s carpet factory, Sylvester Crosby s bob 
 bin shop, and C. H. Crowther s dye house. Afterward came 
 Roger Lang, James Siner, and G-eorge Nay lor, carpet manufac 
 turers ; Carroll & Thompson, dyers ; Charles R. Littler, calico 
 printer ; the Lowell Wire Fence Company ; John Cowley, woollen 
 manufacturer ; John Sugden, Richard Rhodes, and James Dug- 
 dale, worsted spinners, and a multitude more. 
 
 During the late War, portions of the water-power of the 
 Concord, at Whipple s Mills, were purchased and applied by 
 the Bclvidere AVoollen Manufacturing Company, Luther W. 
 Faulkner & Son, Charles A. Stott, and others. The residuum of 
 this water-power passed, for a time, into the hands of Ephraim 
 B. Patch, who sold it, in 1865, to the W T amesit Power Com 
 pany, which was incorporated the same year, with a capital of 
 $150,000. By this company, water-power is still leased to 
 private manufacturers, as in former years by Mr. Whipple. 
 
 During the two lustrums between 1845 and 1855, the num 
 ber of spindles run by the great corporations of Lowell, was 
 exactly doubled. Only 200,000 spindles were in operation in 
 1 845. The spaces between the mills were then built up, and 
 other extensions made, and, in 1855, the number of spindles 
 running was 400,000, with 12,000 looms. 
 
64 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 In 1860, Moses A. Johnson and others established a mill at 
 "VVamesit Falls, for the manufacture of cattle s hair into vari 
 ous forms of felted goods. The use for which this fabric was 
 originally designed, was the sheathing of the copper of ships ; 
 "but it has since been applied extensively to a great variety of 
 uses such as underlaying carpets, roofing, packing, etc. In 
 
 1866, this business was removed to Pawtucket Falls. In 
 
 1867, the Lowell Felting Mills were incorporated, with a cap 
 ital of $100,000, and with Moses A. Johnson as Agent. 
 
 Outside of the great corporations, there is no establish 
 ment in Lowell, involving near so much capital, as the 
 Laboratory of Dr. James C. Ayer & Co., established in 
 1843, and now employing one hundred males and fifty fe 
 males. The advertising disbursements of this firm exceed 
 $140,000 annually. Five and a half million copies of Ayer s 
 Almanac, printed by steam at their establishment, are annu 
 ally distributed, gratis, in English, French, Dutch, German, 
 Norwegian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese. About 325,- 
 000 pounds of drugs, of the value of $850,000, 220,000 
 gallons of spirit, of the value of $550,000, and 460,000, 
 pounds of sugar, costing about $98,000, are annually ex 
 pended here. About $1,500,000 bottles, 185,000 pill boxes, 
 425,000 square feet of packing boxes, and 112,000 square feet 
 of card board, are also used. The paper and printing ink 
 consumed annually amount in value to $75,000. The pro 
 ducts of this mammoth laboratory are sent to every part of 
 the globe, at an expense of $48,000 a year for freight, and 
 $2,800 for postage, 150 letters on an average being sent out 
 every day. 
 
 The principal manufacturing and mechanical establishments 
 in Lowell, not already mentioned, are as follows ; 
 
 American Bolt Company, Bolts. 
 
 Thomas Atherton & Co., Machinists. 
 
 Sager Ash worth, Files. 
 
 Milton Aldrich, Hand Screws. 
 
 A. H. & J. H. Abbott, Carriages, 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 65 
 
 J. W. Bennett & Co., Metallic Hoofing. 
 Artemas L. Brooks, Saw Mill and Planing Mill. 
 D. C. Brown, Reeds, Loom Harnesses, etc. 
 S. L. Buckman, Harnesses. 
 James A. Brabrook, Harnesses. 
 T. F. Burgess & Co., Iron Machinery. 
 H. R. Barker, Gas and Steam Pipes, etc. 
 Ephraim Brown, Money Drawers, etc. 
 Blodgett, Reed & Pease, Stone Cutters, etc. 
 S. R. Brackett, Worsted Yarns. 
 George L. Cady, Belt Hooks, etc. 
 George Crosby, Extension Tables, etc. 
 Coburn, Wing & Co., Shuttles. 
 John H, Coburn, Shuttles. 
 Coburn & Park, Stone Quarries. 
 Cutter & Walker, Shoulder Braces. 
 Samuel Convers, Carriages. 
 Cole & Nichols, Foundry. 
 Elbridge G. Cook, Tannery. 
 Carter & Roland, Wool Washers. 
 Charles H. Crowther, Dyeing. 
 Alfred H. Chase, Fancy Cloths. 
 Weafe Clifford, Dyeing. 
 Asahel Davis, Dovetailing Machines, etc. 
 Luke C. Dodge, Babbeting Metal, etc. 
 Davis & Melindy, Planing Mill. 
 Alfred Drake, Card Combs. 
 James Dugdale, Woollen Yarns. 
 Dobbins & Crawford, Steam Boilers. 
 Eagle Braid Mills, Braid. 
 Willis G. Eaton, Currier, 
 N. B. Favor & Son, Doors, Sashes and Blinds. 
 William Fiske, Coverlets. 
 L. W. Faulkner & Son, Woollens. 
 George W. Field, Machinist. 
 Fuller & Read, Wood Turners. 
 Josiah Gates & Sons, Hose, Belts, etc. 
 Joseph Green, Mats and Rugs. 
 Hart & Colson, Furniture. 
 Hill Manufacturing Company, Suspenders. 
 Howe & Goodhue, Card Clothing. 
 John Holt, Press-dyed Flannels. 
 60 
 
66 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 Andrew J. Hiscox & Co., Files. 
 
 Howes & Burnham, Lumber. 
 
 George W. Harris, Loom Harnesses, etc. 
 
 Henry A. Hildreth, Wire Worker. 
 
 B. S. Hale & Son, Insulated Wire. 
 
 H. B. & G. F. Hill, Carriages. 
 
 Eliphalet Hills, Wood Turner. 
 
 Hubbard & Blake, latent Leather. 
 
 J. S. Jaques & Co., Shuttles. 
 
 Joel Jenkins, Carriages. 
 
 Keyes and Sugden, Worsted Yarns, 
 
 Bichard Kitson, Cotton Machinery. 
 
 D. S. Kimball, Furniture. 
 
 J. A. Knowles, Jr., Scales. 
 
 Wm. Kelley, Doors, Sashes and Blinds. 
 
 Benjamin Lawrence, Machinist. 
 
 Lowell Arms Company, Fire Arms. 
 
 Lowell Card Company, Card Clothing. 
 
 Daniel Lovejoy, Machine Knives. 
 
 David Lane, Woollen Machinery. 
 
 Livingston, Carter & Co., Flannels, etc. 
 
 William E. Livingston, Grist Mill, etc. 
 
 John McDonald, Carpets. 
 
 John Mather, Carpets. 
 
 William & Luke McFarlin, Ice. 
 
 J. V. Meigs, Patent Guns. 
 
 Norcross & Saunders, Lumber. 
 
 George Naylor, Carpets. 
 
 Parsons & Gibby, Copperstamps, etc. 
 
 F. S. Perkins, Iron Machinery. 
 
 Parker & Cheney, Bobbins. 
 
 M. C. Pratt, Doors, Sashes and Blinds. 
 
 Isaac Place, Doors, Sashes and Blinds. 
 
 J. G. Peabody, Doors, Sashes and Blinds. 
 
 John Pettengill, Cisterns, etc. 
 
 J. M. Peabody, Set Screws. 
 
 John N. Pierce, Machinist. 
 
 George Eipley & Co., Batting. 
 
 Eobinson & Nourbourn, Machinists. 
 
 Eunals, Clough & Co., Granite Workers. 
 
 Charles B. Richmond, Paper. 
 
 Joseph Eobinson & Co., Acids and Charcoal. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 67 
 
 Amos Sanborn & Co., Silver Ware. 
 Samuel Smith, Set Screws. 
 Charles A. Stott, Flannels. 
 
 A. C. Sawyer, Harnesses, etc. 
 Hamilton Sawyer, Machinist. 
 
 Solon Stevens, Eeeds, Loom Harnesses, etc. 
 Styles, Rogers & Co., Grist Mill. 
 
 B. F. & J. Stevens, Machinists. 
 Taylor Chemical Company, Chemicals. 
 Upton & Blake, Shoulder Braces. 
 
 U. S. Bunting Co., Bunting. D. W. C. Farrington, Agent. 
 
 William Walker & Co.. Woollens. 
 
 Woods, Sherwood & Co., Wireworkers. 
 
 H. & A. Whitney, Lumber. 
 
 S. H. Wright, Machinist. 
 
 Edward F. Watson, Bobbins. 
 
 Phineas Whiting & Co., Belts. 
 
 Charles H. Western, Patterns, etc. - 
 
 H. H. Wilder & Co., Brass Foundry. 
 
 S. N. Wood, Grist Mill. 
 
 White & Plaisted, Saw Mill. 
 
 White & Chase, Flocks. 
 
 There are also various manufacturing establishments in the 
 circumjacent towns, which can hardly be ignored in connection 
 with the manufacturing history of Lowell. Among these are 
 the following : 
 
 BILLEEICA. 
 
 C. P. Talbot & Co., Flannels, Dye Stuffs and Chemicals. 
 J. R. Faulkner & Co., Flannels. 
 
 Hill & Proctor, Machinery. 
 Robert Prince & Co., Soap. 
 Thomas Patten, Furniture. 
 
 CHELMSFORD. 
 
 Eagle Mills, Woollens. Isaac Farrington, Treasurer. 
 Christopher Roby & Co., Swords, Edge Tools, etc. 
 Baldwin Company, Worsted. Peter Anderson, Agent. 
 Silver & Gay, Woollen Machinery, Tools, etc. 
 Chelmsford Foundry. W. H. B. Wightman, Treasurer. 
 George T. Sheldon, Hosiery. 
 
68 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 Merrimack Hosiery Company. G-. T. Sheldon, Treasurer. 
 Warren C. Hamblet, Grist Mill. 
 
 DBACUT. 
 
 Merrimack Mills, Woollens. Edward Barrows, Agent. 
 George Kipley & Co., Paper. 
 
 TEWKSBURY. 
 
 Fosters & Co., Furniture. 
 J. F. Huntington, Peat. 
 
 TYNGSBOROUGH. 
 
 Nathaniel Brinley, Lumber and Boxes. 
 WESTFORD. 
 
 Abbot Worsted Co., Worsteds. J. W. Abbot, Treasurer. 
 Charles G. Sargent, Machinery. 
 
 The water-power of the Merrimack has been increased by 
 the superaddition of reservoirs near its sources, which cover a 
 hundred and fifteen square miles. It now amounts to the 
 enormous volume of four thousand cubic feet per second for all 
 the hours during which the mills are run, or nearly ten thou 
 sand horse-powers ; and the whole of this has been applied. 
 The Merrimack alone use the whole fall of thirty-three feet. 
 To the other companies, the water is delivered from two levels. 
 The Hamilton, Appleton, Lowell, Suffolk, Tremont and Ma 
 chine Shop draw from the upper level, under a fall of some 
 what more than thirteen feet ; while tne Middlesex, Law 
 rence, Boott and Massachusetts draw from the lower level, un 
 der a fall of something more than seventeen feet. 
 
 Within less than a mile below the settled portion of the city, 
 are Hunt s Falls, where the Merrimack Biver, reinforced by 
 the Concord, makes another descent of ten feet. No part 
 of this water-power has yet been applied to manufacturing 
 purposes ; though the utilization of the whole of it is only a 
 question of time. Here are the means to increase the produc 
 tive power of Lowell by more than thirty per cent. At pres- 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 69 
 
 ent, however, the cost of the dam, canal, etc., which would be 
 required in applying this power, would probably exceed the 
 value of the power that would be obtained. 
 
 Besides Hunt s Falls, the superaddition of steam-power to 
 the water-power, and the invention of contrivances to diminish 
 the friction of the machinery and enable it to be run with 
 less power, will lead to considerable further increase of our 
 productivity as a manufacturing city. Moreover, the experi 
 ments of Bonelli foreshadow many probable future improve 
 ments in manufactures, from the application of electricity to 
 various process, especially to the weaving. We are very far 
 yet from the point of culmination. Before the present century 
 expires, Lowell is destined to contain seventy-five thousand 
 inhabitants. Nor will her progress end even there. When 
 the men of our times are all gathered to their fathers, she bids 
 fair to renew her .youth, and to march, with firm step, toward 
 the goal of that ideal perfection, which is forever approached, 
 but never attained. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF LOWELL. 1820 1835. 
 
 East Chelmsford in 1820 The Journal Local Militia Orators of Independence- 
 Day James Dugdale Central Bridge Mechanics Association Lowell a 
 Town Postmasters "William Livingston Odd Fellows Ephraim K. Av- 
 ery Sarah Maria Cornell Boston and Lowell Railroad Judge Livermore 
 Police Court The Advertiser Francis A. Calvert Gen. Jackson Henry 
 Clay Col. Crackett George Thompson Michael Chevalier Steamboat on 
 the Merrimack Mechanics Hall The Courier Local Scenery. 
 
 In 1820, the village of East Chelmsford, together with Bel- 
 videre and Centralville, contained about two hundred and fifty 
 inhabitants. Whipple s Pow.der Mills were then in operation, 
 and Howe s Flannel Mill. Several saw-mills and grist-mills 
 also contributed to the life of the place. Kurd s Mill, now 
 at Whipple s Mills, then stood in the present Middlesex Com- 
 
70 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 pany s yard. Ira Frye s Tavern stood where the American 
 House now stands, and furnished "provender for man and 
 beast." At Massic Falls stood a blacksmith s shop ; and there 
 were a few other such establishments as country villages usu 
 ally afford. Scattered about, were a few substantial dwelling- 
 houses, of which the Livermore House in Belvidere was the 
 most conspicuous and about a dozen farm-houses, cottages, 
 etc. 
 
 The operations of the Merrimack Company attracted a nu 
 merous and daily increasing population ; and the gables of a 
 hundred new houses shortly pierced the sky. In 1822, a reg 
 ular line of stages was established between East Chelmsford 
 and Boston. Previous to this, business men, like Mr. Whipple 
 and Mr. Hurd, had often paid five dollars for the conveyance 
 of a single letter from Boston. 
 
 In 1824, a weekly paper called the Chelmsford Courier, was 
 established in Middlesex A 7 illage, and became, at once, the 
 organ of the rising community. It was published by William 
 Baldwin, and edited by Bernard Whitman. In a short time, 
 it passed into the hands of E. W. Keinhart, who changed 
 its name first to Chelmsford Phoenix, and afterward to Mer 
 rimack Journal. He also removed it to what is now Lowell. 
 In November, 1825, John S. C. Knowlton purchased the paper 
 of Mr. Eeinhart, and after the incorporation of the town, 
 changed its name to the Lowell Journal. 
 
 On July 4th, 1825, was organized the Mechanic Phalanx, 
 the first Company of Militia in Lowell. Four other companies 
 of Militia were afterward organized here : the City Guards, in 
 1841 ; the Watson Light Guard, in 1851 ; the Lawrence Ca 
 dets, in 1855. The Phalanx and the Guards still live; but 
 the two last companies passed away during the War, giving 
 place to the Putnam Guards and the Sargeant Light Guards. 
 
 In 1825, the anniversary of American Independence was 
 celebrated here with appropriate ceremonies. The principal 
 events of the day were an oration by the Rev. Bernard Whit- 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 71 
 
 man, of Chelmsford, the first editor of the paper now called 
 the Lowell Journal, and a public dinner at the Stone House 
 near Pawtucket Falls, then just erected by Captain Phineas 
 Fletcher, and now the elegant private residence of Dr. James 
 C. Ayer. The successors of Mr. Whitman in the line of 
 Fourth-of-July oratory have been as follows: In 1826, Sam 
 uel B. Walcott ; in 1828, Elisha Bartlett ; in 1829, Dr. Israel 
 Hildreth ; in 1830, Edward Everett; in 1831, John P. Eobin- 
 son; in 1832, Eev. Thomas J. Greenwood; in 1834, Thomas 
 Hopkinson ; in 1835, Rev. E. W. Freeman and others; in 
 1836, Eev. Dr. Blanchard; in 1841, Eev. Thomas F. Norris 
 and John C. Park; in 1847, Eev. John Moore; in 1848, Dr. 
 Bartlett, again; in 1851, Eev. Joseph H. Towne; in 1852, 
 Rev. Matthew Hale Smith; in 1853, Jonathan Kimball ; in 
 1855, Augustus Woodbury ; in 1860, Dr. Charles A. Phelps ; 
 in 1861, George S. Boutwell and others ; in 1865, Alexander 
 H. Bullock; in 1867, Judge Thomas Eussell, and others. 
 
 Another event occurred about 1825, of more importance 
 than a Fourth-of-July oration viz., the arrival of James 
 Dugdale, an ingenious mechanic from Lancashire, who be 
 came overseer of a spinning-room on the Merrimack, where he 
 introduced the English "dead spindle," and revolutionized the 
 mode of spinning coarse yarns. 
 
 In 1825, the Central Bridge Corporation was incorporated. 
 The only mode of crossing Merrimack Eiver at this point un 
 til now, had been by what was called " Bradley s Ferry." 
 This ferry was purchased by the Central Bridge Company, for 
 one thousand dollars. The bridge was so far completed during 
 this and the following season that tolls for foot-passers and 
 carriages were received early in December, 1826. The tolls 
 for foot-passers were abolished in 1843. The bridge itself 
 was rebuilt in 1844 ; and covered in 1849. The original cost 
 of the bridge was twenty-one thousand dollars ; the cost of 
 rebuilding was nine thousand ; and the cost of covering four 
 thousand. In 1855, the bridge was laid out by the City Coun- 
 
72 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 oil as a public highway, a foolish act, which involved the city 
 in most tedious and expensive litigation, and for which the 
 proprietors of the bridge recovered over $26,000, as damages, 
 costs, etc. The present bridge was built in 1862 at a cost of 
 nearly $34,000, an outlay of money scarcely less reckless than 
 the seizure of the old bridge. 
 
 In 1825, the Middlesex Mechanics^ Association was incorpo 
 rated to minister, by a library of books, now nearly 10,000 
 volumes, by public lectures, by occasional fairs, and various 
 other means, to the intellectual needs of the people. This 
 was only two years subsequent to the founding of the famous 
 Mechanics Institute in London the first of a most useful 
 class of popular institutions, originating in the genius of Dr. 
 Birkbeck, and helped into existence by Lord Brougham. Thus 
 Lowell followed the lead of London with a more rapid step 
 than many of the great English towns. 
 
 One hundred years had now elapsed since the Wamesit In 
 dian territory was annexed to the town of Chelmsford. The 
 time had come for a separation ; and the inhabitants of East 
 Chelmsford petitioned to be incorporated as a town, and that 
 that town be called Merrimack. Mr. Boott suggested the name 
 of Derby, probably on account of his family associations with 
 that place, which was also in the immediate vicinity of one of 
 the earliest English seats of the Cotton Manufacture. The in 
 fluence of Mr. Appleton finally caused the name of Lowell to be 
 adopted, out of respect to his associate in the Waltham Com 
 pany, Francis Cabot Lowell, f 
 
 At the inauguration of the Lowell Institute at Boston, 
 December 31st, 1839, Edward Everett delivered a biographical 
 discourse on John Lowell, its founder, and paid a well- 
 merited tribute to that founder s father, from whom was named 
 our City of Spindles. " Pyramids and mausoleums," says the 
 
 See 4 Gray s Reports, p. 474. 
 
 t The ancient form of this name was Louie, afterward Lowle. It, perhaps, 
 had the same origin as Lovell. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 73 
 
 orator, " may crumble to the earth, and brass and marble min 
 gle with the dust they cover ; but the pure and well-deserved 
 renown, which is thus incorporated with the busy life of an 
 intelligent people, will be remembered, till the long lapse of 
 ages and the vicissitudes of fortune shall reduce all of America 
 to oblivion and decay ! " 
 
 The municipal independence of Lowell began on the first 
 day of March, 1826. The population of the new-born town 
 was about two thousand. 
 
 The first post-master was Jonathan C. Morrill, who had 
 been appointed postmaster at East Chelmsford in 1823. The 
 post-office was located at the corner of Central and William 
 Streets. Captain William Wyman succeeded Mr. Morrill in 
 1829, when the post-office was removed to the site of the 
 present City Hall. As successive administrations came into 
 power at Washington, different post-masters, of different party 
 affiliations, were appointed.- Mr. W T yman was succeeded by 
 Eliphalet Case, who removed the office from the City Hall to 
 Middle Street ; Mr. Case by Jacob Bobbins ; Mr. Bobbins by 
 S. S. Seavy ; Mr. Seavy by Alfred Gilman ; Mr. Oilman by 
 T. P. Goodhue ; Mr. Goodhue by F. A. Hildreth, who removed 
 the office to its present location, and who was succeeded in 
 1861 by John A. Goodwin, the present incumbent. 
 
 The years 1827 and 1828 were marked by great depression 
 in the commercial and manufacturing circles of the country. 
 Lowell was enveloped in the common cloud. Mr. Hurd, the 
 satinet manfacturer, became bankrupt ; but the two corpora 
 tions the Merrimack and the Hamilton kept on in the even 
 tenor of their way. too strong to be crushed. 
 
 In spite of all this, however, Lowell still advanced, aug 
 menting her population at the rate of one thousand souls, and 
 her valuation-table many thousand dollars, every year. The 
 business facilities of the place were much increased in 1828 
 by the establishment of the Lowell Bank, with a capital of 
 two hundred thousand dollars. 
 7 
 
74 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 In 1828, William Kittredge brought one ton of coal to Lowell 
 in a baggage wagon. It was the first coal ever seen here, and 
 was considered a sufficient supply for the Lowell market for a 
 year. When the first coal fire was started, in the law office of 
 Samuel H. Mann, more than a hundred incredulous persons 
 called to satisfy themselves whether the "black rocks" would 
 actually burn. 
 
 In 1829, the Lowell Institution for Savings was incorporated. 
 In the same year, William Livingston established himself in 
 the coal and wood trade. For a quarter of a century, Mr. 
 Livingston was one of the most active, most enterprising and 
 most public-spirited men in Lowell. Much of the western 
 portion of the city was built up by his instrumentality. His 
 efforts to save Lowell from the oppressive monopoly of her 
 railroad business by a single company, mark him as a man far 
 ahead of his time. If the men of business here had sustained 
 those efforts, as an enlightened sense of self-interest dictated, 
 Lowell would now have two competing railroad routes to Bos 
 ton ; and, with cheap freight and a prompt transmission of 
 merchandise, her progress would be vastly accelerated. In 
 politics, Mr. Livingston was a Democrat of the old school, and 
 his principles brought him into antagonism with all attempts 
 to establish monopolies, and with all political and incorporated 
 "rings." He was always active in politics as in every other 
 sphere of human activity. In 1836 and 1887, he was a mem 
 ber of the State Senate. He died in Florida, whither he had 
 gone to escape the rigors of our northern clime, of consump 
 tion, March 17th, 1855 ; and his place in the business and 
 other circles of Lowell has not yet been filled. 
 
 It is from 1829 that Odd Fellowship dates its existence in 
 Lowell, Merrimack Lodge having been instituted during that 
 year. This Lodge was the last of this order in the State, that 
 succumbed to the opposition which all secret societies at one 
 time encountered in Massachusetts. But in 1836 it ceased to 
 exist. It was re-organized in 1839, and has continued ever 
 
WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 75 
 
 since. Four other Lodges were afterward formed, two of which 
 still live Mechanics , instituted in 1842, and Oberlin, insti 
 tuted in 1843. Two Encampments were also instituted here, 
 one of which Monomake, established in 1843 has survived 
 to the present time. 
 
 In July, 1830, an acquaintance was formed between two 
 persons in Lowell, whose names are destined to be associated 
 forever, being cemented by the triple bond of adultery, abor 
 tion and murder. One of them was Ephraim K. Avery, Pas 
 tor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, now in Hurd 
 street ; the other was Sarah Maria Cornell, a member of the 
 same church, a fair but frail factory girl, employed on the 
 Hamilton Corporation. The reverend hypocrite made frequent 
 calls at the Hamilton counting-room for interviews with his 
 paramour ; and then it was 
 
 "The golden hours on angel wings 
 Flew o er him and his dearie." 
 
 Little did either of them dream that the amorous dalliances 
 in which they then indulged, would culminate, in a few fleet 
 ing months, in one of the most appalling tragedies in the 
 annals of New England. Others besides Avery enjoyed the 
 favors of Miss Cornell, who was finally expelled from his 
 church for criminality and lying. In 1832, Avery removed to 
 Bristol, Khode Island. Miss Cornell followed, and took up 
 her abode where she could communicate with him by personal 
 interviews, as well as by letter. 
 
 On the night of the twentieth of December, 1832, loud cries 
 and groans were heard in Tiverton, a few miles from Bristol ; 
 but the bloody tragedy then and there enacted, was not discov 
 ered until the following morning. The dead body of Miss 
 Cornell was then found suspended by the neck in a stack yard 
 fence, near the spot where such terrible cries had been heard 
 
 * This statement is inconsistent with the narrative of Avery, published with 
 the report of his trial, by Richard Hildreth and B. F. Hallett; but I had it from 
 the late Ithamar Vv r . Beard, who was employed in the Flamilton counting-room 
 at the time, and who, unlike Avery, had no motive to lie. 
 
76 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 on the evening before. There was indisputable evidence that 
 prior to the murder Miss Cornell had undergone the manipu 
 lations of an abortionist. By a remarkable coincidence, the 
 day following that on which Miss Cornell was thus put out of 
 the way, had been assigned by the Presiding Elder for the 
 trial of Mr. Avery, before an ecclesiastical court, on a charge 
 of adultery committed with Miss Cornell, in the preceding 
 August, at a camp meeting at Thompson, in Connecticut. 
 
 Avery was soon afterward arrested at his hiding-place at 
 Bindge. in New Hampshire, and carried to Newport, where, 
 on the sixth of May, 1833, he was arraigned for trial. He 
 was the first clergyman in the United States that was ever 
 tried on an indictment for murder; and his case was one of the 
 most remarkable in the annals of crime. His trial continued 
 for twenty-eight consecutive days. He was defended by the 
 celebrated Jeremiah Mason and Eichard K. Bandolph, and was 
 finally acquitted. A Committee of the New England Confer 
 ence reported, and the Conference unblushingly resolved, that 
 Avery was not only innocent of the murder, but that he was 
 also innocent of adultery with Miss Cornell. But the time 
 had gone by when the convictions of mankind could be con 
 trolled by the decree of an ecclesiastical conclave. Avery 
 having had the impudence to preach to his old society in 
 Lowell, shortly after the murder, a party of gentlemen, not 
 altogether blind to all moral distinctions, prepared to bear 
 him from the town on a rail. But before their preparations 
 were completed, Avery fled. His pursuers gave expression to 
 their resentment by hanging him in effigy. 
 
 In 1830, the Town Hall was built, and the Fire Department 
 established. Our population had then increased to six thou 
 sand four hundred and seventy-seven souls ; the principal 
 streets of the present city had been laid out ; and the once 
 rural hamlet had begun to wear a decidedly urban aspect. 
 
 It was in 1830, that Patrick T. Jackson undertook the Cy 
 clopean work of the Boston and Lowell Bailroad. The line 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 77 
 
 for a macadamized road had already been surveyed, when this 
 road was projected; and it was a part of the original plan to 
 have the cars drawn by horses. But just "in the nick of 
 time," the intelligence of Mr. Stephenson s brilliant success 
 in his experiment with locomotive steam-engines on the Liver 
 pool and Manchester Railroad, reached the ever-open ears of 
 Mr. Jackson, and convinced him that a similar road might be 
 established here also. He corresponded with the best invent 
 ors and mechanics of England, availed himself of their valua 
 ble suggestions, and in five years the work was successfully 
 completed. 
 
 As a matter of course, all the incorrigible fogies of the 
 country pronounced the project of a railroad with cars pro 
 pelled by steam, to be radical, wild and visionary. Many a 
 Mrs. Grundy indulged liberally in ridicule at both Mr. Jackson 
 and his " castle-in-the-air " railroad. The stockholders com 
 plained of the repeated and enormous assessments which he 
 imposed upon them, without any prospect, as those timid crea 
 tures thought, of any future dividends. Probably no other 
 man then living in Massachusetts could have sustained himself 
 against an opposition so powerful and so various. But the 
 iron mind of that truly great man, true to itself as the needle </ 
 to the pole, overcame every obstacle, and pressed right on 
 ward to the goal. 
 
 How much the actual cost of this railroad exceeeded all pre 
 vious calculations, one fact will sufficiently indicate. In 1831, 
 a Committee of Stockholders estimated the whole cost at four 
 hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; but out of the exuberant 
 liberality of their generous hearts, they advised that six hun 
 dred thousand dollars be raised for that work ; so that Mr. 
 Jackson might have means "enough and to spare." But 
 when, in 1835, the road had been completed, the actual cost 
 was found to have been eighteen hundred thousand dollars ! or 
 three times the cost of the Middlesex Canal, and three times 
 the cost estimated in 1831 ! 
 7 
 
78 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 This has often been represented as the first railroad started 
 on this continent. But the Boston and Quincy Eaiiroad was 
 the first that carried freight using horse-power. It was built 
 in 1827. The first passenger road was the Baltimore and 
 Ohio, opened with horse-power for fifteen miles in 1830. Lo 
 comotives were first used in 1831 on the Mohawk and Hudson 
 Eailroad, and in 1832 on the Baltimore and Ohio, and on the 
 South Carolina Eailroad. The Boston and Providence, Boston 
 and Worcester, Boston and Lowell Eailroads, were each open in 
 1835. 
 
 In cutting through the mica slate and gneiss rock near the 
 Northern depot, to lay the track of this railroad, remarkable 
 intrusions of trap rock were uncovered, severing and disturbing 
 the general strata. Similar seams of trap rock were after 
 ward disclosed when the cut was made through the ledge on 
 Fletcher street. Phenomena like these are always of interest 
 to geologists. 
 
 In 1831, the Eailroad Bank was established, with a capital 
 of six hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 On the fifteenth of September, 1832, occurred the death of 
 the distinguished Judge Liverrnore. Edward St. Loe Liver- 
 more was the son of the Hon. Samuel Liverrnore, and was 
 born at Londonderry (N. H.) in 1761. In 1783, he com 
 menced the practice of law at Concord, and was Solicitor for 
 Eockingham County from 1791 to 1793. From 1797 to 1799, 
 .he was a Judge of the Superior Court of New Hampshire. 
 He was elected Eepresentative in Congress from the old Essex 
 North District in 1807, and reflected in 1809. He removed 
 to what is now Belvidere about 1816, purchasing the estate of 
 Phillip Gedney, on which he resided till his death. The 
 Liverrnore estate then passed into the hands of John Nesmith, 
 another native of Londonderry, and of the same sinewy Scotch- 
 Irish stock, which has given to the United States so many 
 -distinguished men Presidents Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, and 
 Johnson, Generals McClellan, Grant, Sherman, Butler and Me- 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 79 
 
 Dowell, not to mention James Gordon Bennett and Horace 
 Greeley. 
 
 In 1833, the Police Court was established being the first 
 local court established here, since Major General Daniel Goo- 
 kin played the part of judge, assisted by the Apostle Eliot 
 and the Christian Indian Chiefs. The first Justice of the new 
 court was Joseph Locke. 
 
 The bounds of the city were extended in 1834, by the an 
 nexation of Belvidere ; :? and the same year gave birth to the 
 Lowell Advertiser. After running for some time under the 
 editorship of B. E. Hale, the Advertiser passed into the hands 
 of Eliphalet Case. In the list of Mr. Case s successors are 
 found the names of N. P. Banks, H. H. Weld, J. G. Abbott. 
 I. W. Beard, William Butterfield, Henry E. and Samuel C. 
 Baldwin, Fisher A. Hildreth, .Robbing Dinsmore, and J. J. Ma- 
 guire. The Advertiser always supported the Democracy ; but 
 the Democracy never supported the Advertiser ; and in 1864 
 it collapsed. 
 
 In 1833 the Lowell Irish Benevolent Society was estab 
 lished. Their charitable disbursements amount to fifteen 
 hundred dollars per annum. In 1843, this society was incor- 
 poratad by the Legislature. 
 
 In 1833, Francis A. Calvert began in Lowell that career of 
 mechanical invention, which has given to the world the bur- 
 ring-machine, the comber, and the cotton-willow. The first 
 worsted-spinning machinery in Lowell was built and started 
 by him. As the final product of his genius, the world is yet 
 promised a percussive steam-engine, though this chef d ceuvre 
 remains thus far imperfect. His ingenious brother, William 
 W. Calvert, came to Lowell in 1825, and remained for twenty 
 years. He died in 1847, at Panama. 
 
 On the 26th of June, 1833, Andrew Jackson, President of 
 the United States, made a visit to Lowell, accompanied by 
 
 The beautiful faubourg of Belvidere received its name originally as a 
 term of reproach, on account of the lawless scenes then frequently witnessed 
 there. 
 
80 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 Martin Van Bureu, then Vice President, Judge Woodbury, 
 and other members of the Cabinet. A brief address of wel 
 come was made by Joshua Swan, Chairman of the Board of 
 Selectmen ; to which the President made an appropriate re 
 sponse. He then proceeded through the principal streets, 
 where triumphal arches had been erected and decorated artis 
 tically with flags and flowers. He was escorted by the Select 
 men, the Committee of Arrangements, (of which Kirk Boott 
 was Chairman) , a regiment of militia, a cavalcade of two hun 
 dred citizens, six hundred school children, and over twenty-five 
 hundred factory girls. Clothed in white, these Lowell factory 
 girls looked like "livered angels." They walked four deep, 
 and their beauty and their elegance of dress were greatly 
 admired. The procession passed in review before the Presi 
 dent, with drums beating, cannon booming, banners flying, 
 handkerchiefs waving, and nine times nine hearty cheers of 
 welcome. The old hero could hardly have been more moved 
 amid the din of battle at New Orleans, than by the exhilerat- 
 ing spectacle here presented. He seemed to enter Lowell, as 
 Scipio entered Rome after the defeat of Hannibal, or as Napo 
 leon entered Paris after the treaty of Campo Formio. The 
 procession over, the President visited the Merrimack Com 
 pany s mills, and saw some of the works put in operation by 
 the girls in their gala attire. On his return to the hotel, he 
 was visited by a young lady, who requested the privilege of 
 kissing the father of her country. It was a startling request ; 
 but Jackson submitted with becoming resignation. 
 
 It is interesting to observe how a spectacle like this impressed 
 the imagination of the distinguished French statesman, Cheva 
 lier, now Minister of Finance to Napoleon the Third : 
 
 If these scenes were to find a painter, they would be admired at a dis 
 tance, not less than the triumphs and sacrificial pomps which the ancients have 
 left us delineated in marble and brass; for they are not mere grotesques after 
 the manner of Rembrandt they belong to history, they partake of the grand; 
 they are the episodes of a wondrous epic which will bequeath a lasting memory 
 to posterity, that of the coming of democracy." 
 
HISTORY OP LOWELL. 81 
 
 Four months after Jackson s departure, October 25th, 1833, 
 Henry Clay visited Lowell, was shown through the mills and 
 schools, and treated with all the attention due to so distin 
 guished a guest. Luther Lawrence was Chairman of the 
 Committee of Arrangements, Kirk Boott having declined. 
 Kemembering how Clay had advocated the declaration of war 
 against England in 1812, how he had made his country the 
 cat s-paw of Napoleon, and how, on Napoleon s downfall, he 
 had patched up a hasty peace, without securing one of the 
 objects for which war had been declared, Mr. Boott utterly 
 refused to assist in" any honors to Mr. Clay. 
 
 In the evening, Mr. Clay addressed the citizens in the Town 
 Hall, which was illuminated with candles ; and though Kirk 
 Boott was not there, the hall was filled to its utmost capacity. 
 Never, probably, has an orator faced a more enthusiastic au 
 dience. Never was an audience moved by a more impassioned 
 orator. 
 
 Nineteen years rolled away; the twenty-fifth of October 
 came round again : but the sleep that knows no waking had 
 fallen on Henry Clay ; and all that was mortal of his great 
 compeer. Daniel Webster, lay in the chamber at Marshfield 
 attired for the tomb ! 
 
 In May, 1834, the famous comic statesman, Colonel David 
 Crockett, visited Lowell, and was hospitably entertained at the 
 Stone House, near Pawtucket Falls. He visited the factories; 
 and at the Middlesex Mills, Samuel Lawrence presented him 
 with a suit of broadcloth. He met the young men of Lowell, 
 by tlieir request, at supper, and made a shrewd, sensible speech, 
 full of Crockettisms and fun. 
 
 A few months after Crockett, came George Thompson, Mem 
 ber of Parliament and Abolitionist, who, as many a village 
 politician verily believed, was sent on his campaign in the Un 
 ited States by the British Government, and had his pockets 
 loaded with British gold, for the express purpose of breaking 
 
 * Crockett s Life of Himself, p. 217. 
 
82 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 v / up our glorious Union. On October 5th, 1834, he spoke in 
 the Town Hall, where "gentlemen of property and standing" 
 banded together and mobbed him as an emissary of the devil. 
 A brick which was thrown at him through the window, and 
 which failed to hit him, was long preserved as a sacred relic 
 by the late H. L. C. Newton, one of Thompson s most ardent 
 friends. 
 
 It was in 1834 that M. Chevalier, the French political econo 
 mist, already mentioned, was sent to this country by M. Thiers, 
 Minister of the Interior to Louis Phillippi, for the purpose of 
 inspecting the public works of the United States. His impres 
 sions touching the characteristics of our social organization 
 and the workings of our political institutions, were published 
 in letters to the Journal des Debats, and afterward as a sepa 
 rate work. These letters attracted great attention at the time. 
 In a letter from Lowell, he says : 
 
 "Unlike the cities of Europe, which were built by some dcmi-god, son of 
 Jupiter, or by some hero of the eeige of Troy, or by an inspiration of the genius 
 of a Caeser or an Alexander, or by the assistance of some holy monk, attracting 
 crowds by his miracles, or by the caprice of some great king, like Louis XIV. 
 or Frederick, or by an edict of Peter the Great, it (Lowell) is neither a pious 
 foundation, a refuge of the persecuted, nor a military post. It is a speculation 
 of the merchants of Boston. The same spirit of enterprise which the last year 
 suggested to them to send a cargo of ice to Calcutta, that Lord William Ben- 
 tinck and the Nabobs of the India Company might drink their wine cool, has 
 led them to build a city, wholly at their expense, with all the edificics required 
 by an advanced civilization, for the purpose of manufacturing cotton cloths 
 and printed calicoes. They have succeeded, as they usually do, in their spec 
 ulations."* 
 
 Foreseeing that the Merrimack Valley and indeed all New 
 England would become to Boston what Lancashire was to 
 Liverpool, M. Chevalier continues : 
 
 " The inhabitants possess in the highest degree a genius for mechanics. 
 They are patient, skillful, full of invention ; they must increase in manufac 
 tures. It is in fact already done, and Lowell is a little Manchester." 
 
 So pleased was M. Chevalier with the factories and factory 
 girls of Lowell, that, more than thirty years later, in 1866, 
 when a member of the Commission charged with the organiza- 
 
 * Letters from the United States, p. 131. 
 
HISTOEY OF LOWELL. 83 
 
 tion of the Exposition of 1867, he wrote to Senator Sumner, 
 invoking his efforts to have a group of these girls sent to Paris, 
 with their looms, so that they might be seen in Paris, at work, 
 as they are seen in Lowell. 
 
 In 1835, Joel Stone of Lowell and J. P. Simpson of Boston 
 built the steamboat " Herald," and placed her upon the Mer- 
 rimack to ply twice a day between Lowell and Nashua. But 
 owing to the shortness of the distance, the inconvenience of 
 the landing-places, and the necessity for shiftings of the pas 
 sengers and baggage, this enterprise proved a failure, even 
 before the railroad was opened between the two termini. It 
 was, however, continued by Joseph Bradley until after the open 
 ing of the railroad, when the boat was taken to Newburyport, 
 and sold for service elsewhere. 
 
 In the same year that the "Herald" began her trips, the 
 Nashua and Lowell Kailroad Company was incorporated, with 
 a capital of $600,000. The Lowell Almshouse dates from the 
 same year. 
 
 The Hall of the Middlesex Mechanics Association was also 
 erected in 1835, chiefly by contributions from the various man 
 ufacturing companies of Lowell. In this hall hang full-length 
 paintings of George Washington, Kirk Boott, Patrick T. Jack 
 son, Abbott Lawrence, Nathan Appleton, and John A. Lowell. 
 There, too, are half-length portraits of Daniel Webster and 
 Elisha Huntington, with busts of Abraham Lincoln and George 
 Peabody. 
 
 On the sixth of January, 1835, first appeared the Lowell 
 Courier, the oldest daily newspaper now existing in Middlesex 
 County. For ten years it was published tri-weekly only, but 
 became a daily in 1845. Its publishers were Leonard Hunt 
 ress and Daniel H. Knowlton, and it was printed in the office 
 of the Mercury a weekly paper started in 1829, and after 
 ward consolidated with the Courier, In the February follow 
 ing, the Journal also was consolidated with the Courier. In 
 the editorial roll of the Journal, and of the Courier, during 
 
84 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 the last forty years, we find the names of John S. C. Knowl- 
 ton, John E. Adams, John L. Sheafe, Edward C. Purdy, John 
 S. Sleeper, H. H. Weld, John P. Robinson, Seth Ames, Charles 
 H. Locke, Daniel H. Knowlton, Leonard Huntress, Thomas 
 Hopkinson, Elisha Bartlett, Elisha Huntington, Elisha Puller, 
 Albert Locke, Bobbins Dinsmore, William 0. Bartlett, Daniel 
 S. Eichardson, William Schouler, William S. Eobinson, James 
 Atkinson, Leander E. Streeter, John H. Warland, Charles Cow- 
 ley, John A. Goodwin, Benjamin W. Ball, Samuel N. Merrill, 
 Homer A. Cooke, Zina E. Stone and George A. Harden. 
 
 In this list are many of the ablest men that have ever re 
 sided in Lowell. Under their management this paper was 
 often quoted as authority by other journals in New England. 
 But the gravitation of all things toward Boston, with the im 
 mense and inevitable superiority of the papers of that city, 
 has arrested the growth of the Courier, and of many other 
 papers within equal proximity to " the Hub." What with 
 steam-railroads, horse-railroads, telegraphs and the habit of 
 traveling, Lowell is now, practically, as near to Boston as 
 Charlestown was in the first days of the Courier. It is time 
 that counts now. Space is extinguished. 
 
 By this time, the fame of Lowell as a theatre of the Cotton 
 Manufacture had extended throughout Christendom. The 
 solid Englishman, the impressible Frenchman, the phlegmatic 
 Dutchman, thought the tour of the United States incomplete 
 until he had visited Lowell. It was not enough to visit New 
 York and New Orleans, traverse the prairies, climb the Alle- 
 ghanies, and listen to the thunder of Niagara. He must come 
 to the City of Spindles, and enter the great temples of the 
 " Divinity of Labor," each more spacious than the Temple of 
 Jeddo, the Mosque of St. Sophia, or the Cathedral of Milan ; 
 and hear from the legions of priests and priestesses " the 
 Gospel according to Poor Eichard s Almanac." 
 
 Through these visitors, Lowell first awoke to the singular 
 beauty of her own natural scenery. The whole valley of the 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 85 
 
 Merrimack is noted for its picturesqueness ; but from the 
 mountains to the main, there is no lovelier scene than that 
 which meets the eye when from the summit of Christian Hill, 
 we look down upon Lowell, and survey the varied landscape 
 unrolled like a beautiful map before us. The spacious natural 
 amphitheatre surrounded by hills, the sky-blue rivers, 
 the long lines of mills. the labyrinth of brick and masonry, 
 the obeliscal chimnies curtaining the heavens with smoke, 
 the spires of churches, belfries of factories, and gables o 
 houses, the radiant cross of St. Patrick s pointing away from 
 earth, the forests in the background, and the noble blue 
 mountains of Monadnock, Wachusett and Watatic in the 
 distance, all combine to form a scene that must be pleasing 
 to every eye that has been quickened to the beauties of art and 
 nature. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CHURCH HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 St. Anne s First Baptist First Congregational St. Paul s First Univer- 
 salist Unitarian A ppleton Street Congregational Worthen Street Bap 
 tist St. Patrick s Freewill Baptist Second Universalist Third Baptist 
 John Street Congregational Worthen Street Methodist St. Peter s 
 Ministry-at-Large Kirk Street Congregational High Street Congrega 
 tional St. Mary s Third Universalist Central Methodist Lee Street 
 Unitarian Prescott Street Wesleyan Methodist Protestant Church St. 
 John s. 
 
 St. Anne s Church was the first edifice that was dedicated 
 to religious worship in the present territory of Lowell, since 
 the erection of that modest log chapel in which the Rev. John 
 Eliot and his Indian assistant, Samuel, preached to the copper- 
 colored Christians of Warnesit, two centuries ago. 
 8 
 
86 HISTOBY OF LOWELL. 
 
 The founders of the Merrimack Corporation made early 
 provision ffir religious worship among their operatives. "In 
 December, 1822," says Appleton, "Messrs. Jackson and Boott 
 were appointed a committee to build a suitable church ; and 
 in April, 1824, it was voted that it should be built of stone, 
 not to exceed a cost of nine thousand dollars." The Epis 
 copal form of service was adopted, because Mr. Boott was 
 an Episcopalian, and naturally desired to bring into "the 
 Church " as many as possible of the people then flocking to 
 East Chelmsford, some of whom had drank of one dilution of 
 Christianity, some of another, and some of none at all. The 
 church was organized, February 24th, 1824, and was called 
 originally " The Merrimack Religious Society." 
 
 The first public religious services were conducted by the 
 Rev. Theodore Edson, on Sunday, March 7th, 1824, in the 
 Merrimack Company s School House, which was opened to 
 pupils the same year. The church edifice and the parsonage 
 adjoining were erected in 1825. It is a substantial edifice, 
 built of dark stone, with Gothic doors and arched windows, 
 and shaded by forest trees. The cost of the edifice, including 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 87 
 
 subsequent additions, was about $16,000. It was consecrated 
 by Bishop Griswold, March 16th, 1825.* The Eev. Dr. Ed- 
 son, the first and only rector of this church, bids fair to cele 
 brate the Jubilee of St. Anne s, in 1874. 
 
 In the tower of St. Anne s is a chime of eleven bells, 
 mounted in 1857, weighing nearly ten thousand pounds and 
 costing over $4,000. Their sonorous tones would be better 
 appreciated had they -been placed higher. 
 
 "Amid these peaceful scenes their sound 
 
 Has soothed the wretched cheered the poor; 
 In them has Love a solace found, 
 And Hope a friend sincere and sure." 
 
 On the eighth of February, 1826, the First Baptist Church 
 was organized. The church edifice one of the largest in 
 Lowell was built the same year, the land being given to 
 the society by Mr. Thomas Kurd, the satinet manufacturer 
 mentioned in a former chapter. The edifice, which cost over 
 $10,000, was dedicated November 15th, 1826, when the Kev. 
 John Cookson was installed as pastor. He was dismissed 
 August 5th, 1827, and was succeeded, June 4th, 1828, by 
 the Kev. Enoch W. Freeman, who remained until his myste 
 rious death, September 22nd, 1835. Rev. Joseph W. Eaton 
 was ordained pastor of this church, February 24th, 1836, 
 and dismissed February 1st, 1837. Eev. Joseph Ballard was 
 installed December 25th, 1837, and dismissed September 1st, 
 
 1845. Rev. Daniel C. Eddy was ordained, January 29th, 
 
 1846, and dismissed after a longer pastorate than any of his 
 predecessors, at the close of 1856. Dr. Eddy was Speaker 
 of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1855, and 
 Chaplain of the Senate in 1856. Rev. William H. Alden was 
 installed June 14th, 1857, and dismissed in April, 1864. 
 Rev. William E. Stanton was ordained November 2nd, 1865. 
 
 The First Congregational Church was organized June 6th, 
 1826. The church edifice was built in 1827, on land given 
 
 *See the St. Anne s Church case, 14 Gray, pp. 586-613; and Edson s Thir 
 tieth Anniversary Sermon. 
 
88 
 
 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 by the Locks and Canals Company, and cost, with improve 
 ments, some $13,000. The first pastor, Eev. George C. Beck- 
 with, was ordained July 18th, 1827, and dismissed March 
 18th, 1829. Kev. Amos Blanchard, D. D., was ordained 
 December 5th, 1829, and dismissed May 21st. 1845, when 
 he became pastor of the Kirk Street church. Eev. Willard 
 Child was installed pastor, October 1st, 1845, and dismissed 
 January 31st, 1855. Eev. J. L. Jenkins was ordained Octo 
 ber 17th, 1855, and dismissed in April, 1862. Eev. George N. 
 Webber was installed in October, 1862, and dismissed April 
 1st, 1867. Eev. Horace James, the present pastor, succeeded 
 him. 
 
 The Hurd Street Methodist Episcopal Church dates from 
 1826. The edifice is the largest Protestant church in Lowell ; 
 it was erected in 1839, at an expense of $18,500. It being 
 the custom of the denomination to make frequent changes in 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 89 
 
 the location of their clergy, the pastors of this church have 
 been numerous, and their terms of service brief. Rev. Ben 
 jamin Griffin was pastor in 1826 ; A. D. Merrill in 1827 ; 
 B. F. Lambert in 1828 ; A. D. Sargeant in 1829 ; E. K. Avery 
 in 1830 and 1831; George Pickering in 1832; A. D. Mer 
 rill, for the second time, in 1833 and 1834 ; Ira M. Bidwell 
 in 1835; Orange Scott in 1836; E. M. Stickney in 1837 
 and 1838 ; Orange Scott, again, in 1839 and 1840 ; Schuyler 
 Hoes in 1841 and 1842; W. H. Hatch in 1843 and 1844; 
 Abel Stevens in 1845 ; C. K. True in 1846 and 1847 ; A. A. 
 Willets in 1848 ; John H. Twombly in 1849 and 1850 ; G. 
 E. Cox in 1851 and 1852 ; L. D. Barrows in 1853 and 1854; 
 D. E. Chapin 1855 ; George M. Steele in 1856 and 1857 ; 
 H. M. Loud in 1858 and 1859 ; William K. Clark in 1860 
 and 1861 ; Daniel Dorchester in 1862 and 1863 ; Samuel F. 
 Upham in 1864, 1865 and 1866. In 1865, Rev. Mr. Upham 
 was Chaplain of the Massachusetts House of Eepresentatives. 
 He was succeeded by Rev. S. F. Jones, in 1867. 
 
 In July, 1827, a society was organized under the name of 
 the First Universalist Church. In the following year, they 
 
90 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 erected their church on Chapel street, but removed it in 1837 
 to Central street. The edifice cost $16,000. The first pastor 
 settled over this church was the Bev. Eliphalet Case, who 
 officiated here from 1828 to 1830, but afterward abandoned 
 the ministry to become a reformer, a politician, a post-master, 
 a journalist, and a rum-seller. The next four pastors were 
 Calvin Gardner, from 1830 to 1833 ; Thomas B. Thayer, from 
 1833 to 1845; E. G. Brooks, in 1845; and Uriah Clark, 
 from 1846 to 1850, when he began to develope "Free Love" 
 proclivities. Kev. T. B. Thayer was again settled here in 
 1851, and remained till October, 1857. He was much be 
 loved by his people, and the regrets which attended his depar 
 ture, were intensified by a painful accident shortly afterward, 
 which involved the fracture and almost loss of a leg, with the 
 additional affliction of a newspaper war with some of his own 
 surgeons. In 1859, Kev. J. J. Twiss succeeded Dr. Thayer. 
 
 At the time of the organization of this society, the lords 
 of the loom, under the monarchy of Kirk Boott, exercised 
 arbitrary power, not only over the acts and votes, but also 
 over the thoughts and even over the charities of those in their 
 employ. To cherish the hope that the loving-kindness of the 
 Father will attend the whole family of man through the life to 
 come, was enough to put any man under a cloud. Tor contrib 
 uting toward the erection of this church, and for advocating 
 the principles of Gen. Jackson, Mr. (now Bev.) T. J. Green 
 wood was dismissed from his place as an overseer on the Mer- 
 rimack Corporation by the direct order of Mr. Boott. Such 
 an act of bigotry would hardly occur now. We have made 
 some progress during the forty years of Lowell. By the way, 
 it was in Mr. Greenwood s room, that Nathaniel P. Banks 
 began his career as a bobbin-boy," ere yet he aspired to be 
 come a lawyer, legislator, governor, major-general, etc. 
 
 The South Congregational (Unitarian) Church was organized 
 November 7th, 1830. The edifice, cost $32,000, and was ded 
 icated December 25th, 1832. Bev. William Barry was pastor 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 91 
 
 of this church from 1830 to 1835 ; Henry A. Miles, D. D., 
 from 1836 to 1853; Theodore Tibbetts, in 1855 and 1856; 
 Frederick Hinckley, from 1856 to 1864. Kev. Charles Grin- 
 nell was ordained pastor February 19th, 1867. 
 
 The Appleton Street (Orthodox) Congregational Church dates 
 from December 2nd, 1830. The edifice, which cost $9,000, 
 was erected in 1831. The succession of pastors has been 
 "William Twining from 1831 to 1835 ; U. C. Burnap, from 
 1837 to 1852; George Darling, from 1852 to 1855 ; John P. 
 Cleaveland, D. D., from 1855 to 1862, when he became Chap 
 lain of the Thirtieth Kegiment, in the Department of the Gulf; 
 J. E. Kankin, from 1863 to 1865. Eev. A. P. Foster was 
 ordained October 3rd, 1866. 
 
 The Worthen Street Baptist Church was organized in 1831. 
 The edifice known as St. Mary s Church was built for this 
 society. The present edifice was built in 1838, costing $8,000. 
 The pastors have been James Barnaby, from 1832 to 1835 ; 
 Lemuel Porter, from 1835 to 1851 ; J. W. Smith, from 1851 
 to 1853 ; D. D. Winn, from 1853 to 1855 ; T. D. Worrall, of 
 
92 HISTOEY OF LOWELL. 
 
 memory like Uriah Clark, from 1855 to 1857 ; J. W. Bonham, 
 from 1857 to 1860 ; George F. Warren, from 1860 to 1867. 
 
 The digging of the canals and the building of the mills 
 early attracted the sons of "the Emerald Isle" to Lowell. 
 Different clergymen of their faith attended them here, secured 
 for the time such places as were obtainable, and offered "the 
 clean sacrifice for the quick and dead." In 1831, a church 
 was erected called St. Patrick s, which was replaced in 1854 
 by the splendid edifice which now bears that name, the cost of 
 which was about $75,000. This building is 186 feet long by 
 106 wide. The height of the body of the church is 61 feet 
 from the floor. The architecture is of the Gothic style of the 
 thirteenth century. Bishop Fitzpatrick of Boston, assisted by 
 Bishop O Eiley of Hartford, consecrated this church, October 
 29th, 1854. The pastors of St. Patrick s have been Eevs. 
 John Mahoney, Peter Connelly, James T. McDermott, Henry 
 J. Tucker, and John O Brien. Among the many assistants 
 that have officiated here, was Rev. Timothy O Brien, who died 
 in 1855, and to whose memory an elegant monument was erected 
 in St. Patrick s Church -yard. 
 
 In 1833, a free church of the Christian denomination was 
 organized under the ministry of Eev. Timothy Cole. Success 
 ful for some years, the experiment finally failed ; and Cole s 
 church, after passing through the hands of the Methodists, 
 became first a dance-hall, and afterward the armory of the 
 Jackson Musketeers, an Irish military company, .whose mus 
 kets were taken from them by Gov. Gardner. Having men 
 tioned the Jackson Musketeers, it is but fair to say that when 
 the late war broke out in 1861, they forgot and forgave the 
 Know Nothing fanaticism of 1855, and, rushing to arms among 
 the first, illustrated on many a bloody field how bravely the 
 sons of Ireland die for their adopted homes. 
 
 The Freewill Baptist Church was organized in 1834. The 
 proprietors were incorporated in 1836. The spacious edifice 
 on Merrimack street, opposite Central street, was erected in 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 93 
 
 1837, at a cost of $20,000, which was largely contributed by 
 the factory girls. There preached the somewhat famous Elder 
 Thurston, now no more ; an honest man, and popular as a 
 preacher, but incapable of managing important matters of 
 business, such as he was foolishly encouraged to undertake, 
 in connection with this church. Through his incapacity, more 
 than ten thousand dollars was lost, in the course of six years, 
 and a tremendous panic ensued. He was denounced as a 
 thief, and indicted and convicted of cheating ; but the Supreme 
 Court set the verdict aside, and the prosecution of the elder 
 was stopped. 
 
 Then arose controversies about the church property, which 
 was under more than fifty attachments at once. These suits 
 ended adversely to the society ; and on July 29th, 1846, the 
 deacons were forcibly ejected from the church by Joseph 
 Butterfield, a Deputy Sheriff, on an execution issued upon a 
 judgment belonging to Benjamin F. Butler, Thomas Hopkin- 
 son, and Tappan Wentworth, who personally assisted in oust 
 ing the deacons. 
 
 That comedy might follow tragedy, the new proprietors, 
 Benjamin F. Butler and Fisher A. Hildreth, converted the 
 church into a museum and theatre. After being used thus 
 for nine years, once struck by lightning, and three times 
 burned, in 1856, this ill-starred edifice was fitted up for a 
 dance-hall, a bowling alley, lawyers offices, a newspaper office, 
 an exchange, etc. 
 
 Attempts have been made to use one part of it as a lecture- 
 hall, but without success ; though the famous Lola Montez, 
 the discarded mistress of the late king of Bavaria, delivered 
 her lecture on Beautiful Women here. Nor have the attempts 
 to use this edifice as a caucus-hall been any more successful. 
 The last attempt of the kind was made in 1860. On that 
 memorable occasion, Theodore H. Sweetser began a speech 
 but just as he was capping his first climax, a gentleman who 
 
 *8 Metcalf, 301; 2 dishing, 597; 4 Gushing, 302. 
 
94 
 
 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 disapproved of his remarks, suddenly turned off the gas, and 
 " brought down the house " in the wildest merriment and con 
 fusion. 
 
 The strategical manoeuverings by which this edifice was 
 transferred from the ecclesiastical proprietors to their lay 
 successors, were none too creditable to the consciences of the 
 manipulators. But perhaps they did not fully realize the 
 scandalousness of their proceedings, and failed to hear the 
 still, small voice of conscience in following the more clamor 
 ous calls of avarice and ambition. 
 
 More than twenty years have now elapsed since the perver 
 sion of this edifice into a museum. Let us hope that before 
 another twenty years have rolled by, this church the mon 
 ument of the piety of the factory girls of Lowell will be 
 restored to its original purposes, and reconsecrated to the wor 
 ship of the everliving God. 
 
 In 1853, another edifice was built on Paige street, costing 
 $16,700, now occupied by this church. The pastors of this 
 church have been Eevs. Nathaniel Thurston, Jonathan Wood- 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 95 
 
 man, Silas Curtis, A. K. Moulton, J. B. Davis, Darwin Mott, 
 (a wolf in sheep s clothing, who finally ran away with another 
 man s wife,) George W. Bean, and J. B. Drew. 
 
 The Second Universalist Church was gathered in 1836, and 
 the house erected in 1837, at a cost of $20,000. The pastors 
 of this church have been Z. Thompson, from ^183 7 to 1839 ; 
 Abel C. Thomas, from 1839 to 1842 ; A. A.* Miner, D. D., 
 from. 1842 to 1848; L. J. Fletcher, who became involved in 
 his domestic relations, and remained but a few months ; L. B. 
 Mason, from 1848 to 1849 ; I. D. Williamson, from 1849 to 
 1850; N. M. Gaylord, from 1850 to 1853. John S. Dennis, 
 Charles Cravens and Charles H. Dutton were then settled here 
 for a few months each. In 1859, Eev. L. J. Fletcher again 
 became pastor, having, since his former settlement, run a varied 
 career as preacher, play-writer, actor, gold-miner, school-master, 
 lawyer, politician, judge of insolvency, etc. His second pasto 
 rate continued three years, and was eminently successful. Eev. 
 F. E. Hicks succeeded Mr. Fletcher, but soon died, and was 
 succeeded in 1866 by Eev. John G. Adams. 
 
 On July 4th, 1836, the Lowell Sabbath School Union was 
 organized, by the pastors of the several evangelical churches, 
 and the superintendents and teachers of the various Sunday 
 Schools connected therewith. 
 
 The John Street (Orthodox) Congregational Church was 
 organized May 9th, 1839. Their edifice was built the same 
 year, at a cost of $20,000, and dedicated January 24th, 1840. 
 Eev. Stedman W. Hanks, the first pastor, was ordained March 
 20th, 1840, and dismissed February 3rd, 1853. He was suc 
 ceeded by Eev. Eden B. Foster, D. D., who resigned his charge 
 in 1861, but resumed his ministrations here in 1866. During 
 his absence, Eev. Joseph W. Backus, was pastor. 
 
 In 1840, the Third Baptist Church was organized. In 1846, 
 the edifice now occupied by the Central Methodist Church, was 
 built for this society, costing about $14,000. After battling 
 for life for nearly twenty years, under the pasterates of Eevs. 
 
96 
 
 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 John G. Naylor, Ira Person, John Duncan, Sereno Howe, John 
 Duer, and John Hubbard, this church was disbanded in 1861. 
 The mention of the Eev. Sereno Howe renders it proper to 
 say, that during his seven years residence in Lowell, from 
 1849 to 1856, his private life was irreproachable. That he 
 afterward became addicted to licentious indulgencies, in Ab- 
 ington, may, in charity, be attributed to constitutional infirm 
 ities, against which he may have struggled long and bravely, 
 but in vain. 
 
 " What s done we partly may compute, 
 But know not what s resisted." 
 
 The Worthen Street Methodist Episcopal Church was organ 
 ized October 2nd, 1841, and the edifice erected in 1842, at a 
 cost of $8,800. The succession of pastors has been Eevs. 
 A. D. Sargeant, A. D. Merrill, J. S. Springer, Isaac A. Savage, 
 Charles Adams, I. J. P. Collyer, M. A. Howe, J. W. Dadmun, 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 97 
 
 William H. Hatch, A. D. Sargeant, (again), L. R. Thayer, 
 William H. Hatch, (again), and J. O. Peck, one of the 
 gayest Lotharios that ever flourished in the Lowell pulpit. 
 Rev. George Whittaker succeeded Mr. Peck in 1867. 
 
 St Peter s Eoman Catholic Church was gathered on Christ 
 inas Day, 1841, and the edifice built the same year, costing 
 $22,000. Rev. James Conway, the first pastor of St. Peter s, 
 was succeeded in March, 1847, by Rev. Peter Crudden. 
 
 In 1843, the Lowell Missionary Society established a Min- 
 istry-at-Large after the style of that established in Boston by 
 the Rev. Dr. Tuckerman. Rev. Horatio Wood has officiated 
 in this ministry since 1844. He has also labored assiduously 
 and successfully in Free Evening Schools, Sunday Mission 
 Schools, etc. 
 
 The Kirk Street Congregational Church dates from 1845, 
 and the edifice from 1846. The cost of the land, edifice, 
 organ, etc., was $22,000. Rev. Amos Blanchard, D. D., has 
 been pastor of this church ever since its organization. 
 
98 
 
 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 In the substantial elements of parochial strength, this 
 church is one of the strongest in Lowell. Yet four lines 
 suffice for its history it having had no changes in its pas 
 torate, no heresy, no schism, no scamps, no scandal. "Happy 
 are the people whose annals are barren." 
 
 The High Street Congregational Church was organized in 
 1846. Their edifice, which cost $12,500, was built by St. 
 Luke s Church, an Episcopal society which was formed in 
 1842, and which perished in 1844, under Rev. A. D. McCoy. 
 The pastors have been Kev. Timothy Atkinson, from 1846 to 
 1847 ; Rev. Joseph H. Towne, from 1848 to 1853 ; and Rev. 
 0. T. Lamphier, from 1855 to 1856. Rev. Owen Street, the 
 present pastor, was installed September 17th, 1857. 
 
 St. Mary s Roman Catholic Church was originally built for 
 the Baptists, but was ill located for any Protestant sect. After 
 passing through various vicissitudes, in 1846, it was purchased 
 by the late Rev. James T. McDermott, and consecrated March 
 7th, 1847. Father McDermott s independence of mind in 
 volved him in a controversy with his Diocesan, the late Bishop 
 Fitzpatrick ; and for years this church has been closed. This 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 99 
 
 is much to be regretted ; for in Lowell, as in all the centres of 
 population, the Roman Catholic Church has a great body of 
 the poor and laboring classes in her communion; and as Brown- 
 son remarks, " the country is more indebted than it is aware 
 of, to the Catholic priesthood, for their labors among this por 
 tion of our population." 
 
 In 1843, the Third IJniversalist Church was organized, and 
 the edifice now known as Barrister s Hall built for its use. 
 But after a languid existence under Eevs. H. Gr. Smith, John 
 Moore, H. G. Smith, (again), and L. J". Fletcher, it was dis 
 solved. The two last pastors of this church were not in full 
 fellowship with their denomination, but preached indepen 
 dently as ecclesiastical guerrillas. 
 
 The Central Methodist Church occupied this edifice, after 
 the collapse of the IJniversalist society, until 1861, when 
 they secured the building of the Third Baptist Church, then 
 defunct. This Central Methodist, society was gathered in 
 1854. The pastors have been Revs. William S. Studley, 
 
 * Father O lirieu estimates the number of Roman Catholics in Lowell to 
 be fifteen thousand. 
 
100 
 
 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 Isaac S. Cushman, Isaac J. P. Collyer, Chester Field, Lorenzo 
 K. Thayer and J. H. Mansfield. Eev. Andrew McKeown suc 
 ceeded Mr. Mansfield in 1865, and remained two years. He 
 was succeeded in 1867 by Eev. William C. High. 
 
 In 1850, a picturesque stone edifice, of Gothic style, with 
 stained windows, was erected on Lee street, at a cost of $20,000. 
 It was designed for a Unitarian society, organized in 1846, 
 which occupied it until 1861, whose pastors were Eevs. M. A. 
 H. Niles, William Barry, Augustus Woodbury, J. K. Karcher, 
 John B. Willard, and William C. Tenney. 
 
 Since 1864 it has been occupied by a society of Spiritualists. 
 
 The wooden edifice on Prescott street containing Leonard 
 Worcester s clothes-making establishment, has an ecclesias 
 tical history that must not be lost. It was the first church 
 erected by the Episcopal Methodists in Lowell, and was built 
 in 1827. It stood originally at the corner of Elm and Central 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 101 
 
 streets. It is from this church or chapel that Chapel Hill 
 derives its name. On the completion of the Hurd street 
 church in 1839, this edifice was closed. But on the organ- 
 zation of the Wesleyan Methodists as a separate denomination, 
 this church passed into their hands. In 1843, it was removed 
 to Prescott Street. Here successively preached Revs. E. S. 
 Potter, James Hardy, Merritt Bates, William H. Brewster, 
 and Daniel Foster, who became Chaplain of the Massachusetts 
 House of Eepresentatives in 1857, and subsequently Chaplain 
 of the Thirty-Third Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, 
 and who was killed in battle at Fort Harrison, September 
 30th, 1864, while in command of a company of the Thirty- 
 Seventh Colored Troops. 
 
 If Captain Foster was the last, Mr. Hardy was the most 
 popular in this succession of pastors. He began his ministry 
 here in 1846, and flourished brilliantly for a time, selecting the 
 best sermons of the ablest English divines, and palming them 
 off as his own his too credulous people admiring and won 
 dering at his ability and versatility. 
 
 " And still he talked, and still the wonder grew, 
 That one small head could carry all he knew." 
 
 Mr. Hardy, however, proved anything but a good shepherd. 
 He developed tendencies toward practical Mormonism and Free 
 Love. He not only had one wife too many, but he was dis 
 covered in a liason with one of the ladies of his choir, and 
 his pastorate was brought to an abrupt termination. He sub 
 sequently "took a degree" in a New York penitentiary for 
 bigamy, and died ingloriously. 
 
 On July 5th, 1855, the stone edifice on Merrimack street 
 erected by the late William Wyman, was dedicated as a 
 Methodist Protestant Church. There preached Revs. Wil 
 liam Marks, Richard H. Dorr, Robert Crossley, and others, 
 
 *Mr. Brewster had previously been pastor of a second Wesleyan society, 
 which long occupied the edifice on Lowell street, where Rev. Timothy Cole 
 formerly preached. 
 
 9* 
 
102 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 both clerical and lay, not the least of whom was Captain Wy- 
 man himself. But after a few years the enterprise aborted ; 
 and the edifice passed into the hands of the Second Advent- 
 ists, a society formed here as early as 1842. 
 
 St. John s Episcopal church was erected in 1861, and con 
 secrated by Bishop Eastburn, July 16th, 1863. Eev. Charles 
 W. Homer, who had previously been assistant minister at St. 
 Anne s, was the first rector. On November 22nd, 1862, he 
 resigned, and was succeeded in 1863, by Eev. Cornelius B. 
 Smith, to whom in 1866 succeeded Kev. Charles L. Hutchins. 
 In this edifice is a Memorial Window to the late Elisha Hun- 
 tington. 
 
 Besides the churches herein chronicled, others have been 
 formed at various times, which acquired no permanent foot 
 hold, but experienced all varieties of fortune, and passed into 
 the limbo of oblivion, leaving no discernable footprints on the 
 ever-changing sands of time. 
 
 The number of churches now "in commission" here is eigh 
 teen. The population of Lowell is about forty thousand. If, 
 then, we assume each church to have, upon an average, six hun 
 dred attendants, we shall have, in the aggregate, ten thousand 
 eight hundred church-goers ; and if to this we add twenty-two 
 hundred who are reached through the Ministry-at-Large, the 
 Mission Schools, etc., we shall still have twenty-seven thousand 
 souls unprovided with stated religious instruction. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 103 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SCHOOL HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 District Schools High School Edson Washington Bartlett Adams- 
 Franklin Moody Green Mann Colburn Varnum Intermediate- 
 Evening Carney Medals Superintendence, etc. 
 
 Before the manufacturing companies began their operations 
 here, the eastern school district of Chelmsford contained two 
 common district schools, one near the pound on the old Chelms 
 ford road, and the other near Pawtucket Falls. In 1824, the \ 
 Merrimack Company, at their own expense, established a school 
 for the children of their operatives, and placed it under the 
 supervision of Rev. Theodore Edson, their minister. This 
 school the germ of the present Bartlett School was kept in 
 the lower story of the building then occupied by the Merri 
 mack Religious Society. Colburn s "First Lessons," and his 
 " Sequel" were introduced here, though much denounced and 
 opposed by those who did not understand them. In the fol 
 lowing year, the opposition to Colburn s books abated, the 
 school being then in charge of Joel Lewis, who had been a 
 pupil of Colburn, and understood the use of his books. 
 
 In 1826, the new-born town of Lowell was divided into 
 six school districts ; and one thousand dollars was appropri 
 ated for the support of schools during that year. The school 
 for the first district was that which the Merrimack Company 
 had founded ; that for the second district stood near where 
 the Hospital now stands ; that for the third, near the Pound ; 
 that for the fourth, near Hale s Mills ; that for the fifth the 
 germ of the present Edson School near the site of the Free 
 Chapel ; that for the sixth, near the south corner of Central 
 and Hurd streets. As population multiplied, other schools 
 were opened, but the number of districts remained unchanged 
 until 1832, when the district system terminated. 
 
104 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 The first School Committee consisted of Theodore Edson, 
 AVarren Colburn, Samuel Batchelder, John 0. Green, and Eli- 
 sha Huntington. Their report was read in the town meeting 
 in March, 1827, and recorded in the town book. The appro 
 priate custom of reading school committees reports in town 
 meeting is now universal in Massachusetts. Concord, which 
 claims the honor of leading in this custom, did not adopt it 
 until 1830, four years after it had been introduced in Lowell. 
 
 In the management of these schools, the School Committee, 
 for some years, encountered many difficulties, through the fierce 
 antagonisms of interest and feeling which arose between the 
 old settlers and the operatives in the mills. The old preju 
 dice against Colburn s books soon revived with unwonted fury, 
 especially in the third district, which was the smallest and the 
 most troublesome in the town. In the winter of 182G-7, a 
 teacher Perley Morse was employed by the Prudential Com 
 mittee, who joined in the opposition to Colburn s books, and 
 whom the School Committee refused to approve ; but the Pru 
 dential Committee, contrary to law, backed by the people, sus 
 tained him in his school. The excitement reached its crisis at 
 the town meeting in March, 1828. The report of the School 
 Committee had no sooner been read, than, by vote of the 
 meeting, it was laid under the table ; and a motion was made 
 that the Committee be laid under the table too. Neither 
 Colburn, nor Edson, nor any of their associates were then re- 
 elected ; but a new Committee was chosen, perfectly supple 
 and subservient to popular caprice. 
 
 The operation of the complex machinery of the District 
 system was attended with constant friction ; and on the third 
 of September. 1832, a town meeting was held to determine 
 
 *Edson s Colburn School Address, p. 12. Mr. Boutwell s statement on 
 the sixty-first page of his last report as Secretary of the Hoard of Edu 
 cation, requires correction. For the roll of School Committee-men, see 
 the Appendix to the Regulations of the School Committee, 18(57. See also 
 Merrill s school sketches in Lowell Courier, December, 1859. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 105 
 
 whether the town would authorize a loan of $20,000 to defray 
 the expense of buying land and building two large school 
 houses^ with the view of consolidating all the public schools 
 of the town in two large schools, and thus superseding the 
 District system altogether. The whole body of corporation 
 influence, with Kirk Boott to wield it at his imperial will, 
 was brought to bear against the proposed reform ; and not a 
 few of the old settlers also clung with fond tenacity to their 
 " deestrict " schools. So formidable was this opposition, that, 
 although the local clergy and all the most intelligent friends 
 of education strongly favored the innovation, only one man 
 was found with courage enough to advocate it in town meet 
 ing. Single handed and alone, Theodore Edson met Kirk Boott 
 and his allies breast to breast ; not hesitating 
 
 "To beard the lion in his den, 
 The Douglass in his hall." 
 
 During a protracted and tumultuous debate, Edson held his 
 ground unflinchingly, and finally carried his point by twelve 
 majority. Chafing under their defeat, the adherents of the old 
 system called another town meeting on the nineteenth of the 
 same month, when another debate- ensued, more tumultuous 
 and more decisive than the last. Two new champions John 
 P. Kobinson and Luther Lawrence entered the list with 
 Boott ; but Edson stood alone as before, and when the vote 
 was taken, carried his point by thirty-eight majority, con 
 vincing his opponents that it would be folly to renew the fight. 
 
 The part played by Dr. Edson in this contest was never for 
 given by Boott, who even withdrew from the church in which 
 the Doctor officiated. For a time, none of the corporation 
 nabobs would have anything to do with the schools thus 
 erected contrary to their sovereign will and pleasure. It was 
 only when Henry Clay came to Lowell that their High Mighti 
 nesses were graciously pleased to let the light of their coun 
 tenances shine for a moment on the benighted little Hottentots 
 that filled the North and South Grammar Schools. 
 
106 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 To detail in full the history of all the schools would be 
 tedious ; but the principal schools must not be passed unno 
 ticed; for, as Edward Everett observes, "the dedication of 
 a new first-class school house is at all times an event of far 
 greater importance to the welfare of the community than many 
 of the occurrences which at the time attract much more of the 
 public attention, and fill a larger space in the pages of history." 
 
 In December, 1831, the Lowell High School was opened un- 
 under Thomas M. Clark, now Bishop of Ehode Island, as 
 principal teacher. One of his classes contained four boys 
 whose subsequent history may well excite pride in their 
 teacher, if so unsanctified a feeling ever obtains access to 
 the episcopal breast. These boys were Benjamin F. Butler, 
 whose exploits have been recorded with fond exaggeration by 
 Parton ; Gustavus V. Fox, the energetic Assistant Secretary 
 of the Navy during the War ; E. A. Straw, the efficient Agent 
 of the Amoskeag Mills at Manchester ; and George L. Balcom, 
 of Claremont, one of the wealthiest and most successful men 
 in New Hampshire. 
 
 The present High School House was erected in 1840, and 
 reconstructed in 1867. Mr. Clark was succeeded in Septem 
 ber, 1833, by Nicholas Hoppiu ; in August, 1834, by William 
 Hall; in May, 1835, by Franklin Forbes; in August 1836, 
 by Moody Currier; in April, 1841, by Neheraiah Cleaveland ; 
 in July, 1842, by Mr. Forbes (again ;) and in July, 1845, by 
 Charles C. Chase, who has ever since ably and worthily sus 
 tained himself at the head of the Lowell corps of teachers. 
 
 On February 18th, 1833, the South Grammar School-House 
 was opened, and two schools were united and placed in it. One 
 was the school of what had been the fifth district, which, since 
 November 5th, 1827, had been taught by Joshua Merrill. The 
 school thus formed was the same that afterward took the name 
 of the Ed son School. Joshua Merrill had charge of it until 
 October, 1845, when Perley Balch succeeded him. 
 
 * In 1841 and 18i2, Mr. Merrill had for his assistant Theodore II. Svveetser , 
 who has since acquired notoriety by his success at the Bar. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 107 
 
 In 1856, this edifice was reconstructed, and the Washington 
 School consolidated with the Edson. This Washington School 
 was founded March 24th, 1834, kept for four years in the 
 North School-House, and then removed to the South School- 
 House. Its principals were Nathaniel D. Healey from 1834 
 to 1835; Samuel S. Dutton and Isaac W hittier in 1835; 
 John Butterfield from 1835 to 1840; Jonathan Kimball from 
 1840 to 1851 ; Albert T. Young from 1851 to 1853 ; P. W. 
 Kobertson from 1853 to 1856. 
 
 In May, 1833, the North Grammar School-House was com 
 pleted, and the school, which, until then, had occupied the 
 Merrimack Company s school-house, was moved into the upper 
 part of it, and has continued to occupy it ever since. The 
 principals of this school have been Joel Lewis from 1825 to 
 1826 ; Alfred V. Bassett from 1826 to 1829 ; Walter Abbott 
 from 1829 to 1830 ; Reuben Hills from 1830 to 1835 ; Jacob 
 Graves from 1835 to 1841 ; G. 0. Fairbanks from 1841 to 
 1842; 0. C. Wright from 1842 to 1843; Jacob Graves from 
 1843 to 1847 ; and J. P. risk from 1847 to 1856, when the 
 edifice was reconstructed and Samuel Bement became princi 
 pal. Originally known as the Merrimack School, on being 
 removed in 1833 it took the name of the North Grammar 
 School, which it retained till 1850, when the School Com 
 mittee named it the Hancock School. On the reconstruction 
 of the building in 1856, this school received the name of the 
 Bartlett School, in honor of Dr. Bartlett, the first Mayor of 
 Lowell. At the same time, the Adams School, was consoli 
 dated with the Bartlett. The Adams was opened in 1836 in 
 the lower part of the North Grammar School-House. Its first 
 principal was Otis H. Morrill, to whom Samuel Bement suc 
 ceeded in 1851. 
 
 The City Charter of 1836 provided that the School Com 
 mittee should consist of six persons specially chosen, in addition 
 to the Mayor and Aldermen ; but in 1856 the Charter was 
 
108 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 amended, and the Aldermen detached from the School Com 
 mittee, the number of which was increased to twelve, besides 
 the Mayor and the President of the Common Council. 
 
 The Franklin Grammar School dates from the winter of 
 1839, when Eufus Adams opened a school near where the 
 Franklin now stands. George Spaulding taught here from 
 1840 to 1844, when Nelson H. Morse succeeded him. The 
 present edifice was erected in 1845, and remodeled in 1863. 
 In 1848, Mr. Morse was succeeded first by Ephraim Brown, 
 and afterward by Ephraim W. Young. In 1849, Amos B. 
 Heywood was placed in charge of this school. 
 
 On January 8th, 1841, the Moody Grammar School was 
 opened under Seth Pooler, who had been an assistant in the 
 High School since 1838, and who continued principal of the 
 Moody School until 1856, when Joseph Peabody succeeded 
 him. 
 
 A few months subsequent to the opening of the Moody 
 School, the Green School was opened. Samuel C. Pratt was 
 principal from 1841 to 1843 ; Aaron Walker, Junior, from 
 1843 to 1845 ; Charles Morrill from 1845 to 1866, when he 
 was chosen Superintendent of Schools. Charles A. Chase suc 
 ceeded him. 
 
 On January 8th, 1844, the Mann Grammar School-House 
 was opened. The school itself had existed as a public school 
 ever since 1835, when the arrangement for comprehending the 
 Irish schools in the public school system of Lowell was first 
 effected by the School Committee and Eev. James Connolly, 
 the Koman Catholic priest. In 1839 another school was con 
 solidated with it which had previously been in charge of Daniel 
 
 * See Reports of the School Committee, 1833 and 18M; Mrs. Mann s Life of 
 Horace Mann, p. 202; New Englander, April, 1848. This arrangement was 
 that the teachers of the Irish children s schools should be Roman Catholics. 
 They were, however, to be subject to examination, and their schools to visi 
 tation by the School Committee, in the same manner as other teachers and 
 schools. In a few years, however, the jealousies which rendered this ar 
 rangement advisable, siibsided, and differences of creed ceased to be recog 
 nized in any form in connection with the public schools. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 109 
 
 Mclllroy. The principals of the present Mann School have 
 been Patrick Collins, from 1835 to 1838; Daniel Mclllroy, 
 from 1838, to 1841 ; James Egan, from 1841 to 1843; Michael 
 Flynn, from 1843 to 1844 ; George W. Shattuck, from 1844 to 
 1853. P. W. Eoberston and Albert T. Young were then each 
 in charge for a few months; but before the close of 1853, 
 Samuel A. Chase was appointed principal, and has remained 
 here ever since. 
 
 On December 13th, 1848, the Colburn School was opened, 
 when Dr. Edson delivered an address, full of interesting 
 reminiscences of the early school history of Lowell. Aaron 
 Walker, Junior, was principal from 1848 until 1864, when 
 Fidelia 0. Dodge succeeded him. 
 
 On the annexation of the faubourg of Centralville in 1851, 
 the Varnum School was opened. A. W. Boardman was prin 
 cipal during the two first years, and was succeeded by D. P. 
 Galloupe. Originally kept in the old Academy Building, in 
 1857, it was removed into the spacious edifice which it now 
 occupies. 
 
 In 1851, the School Committee established Intermediate 
 Schools to meet the wants of a numerous class of Irish pupils, 
 too large to be placed to the Primaries, and too backward to be 
 admitted to the Grammar Schools. But in ten years the neces 
 sity which called these schools into being, was no longer felt, 
 and they were consolidated with the Grammar Schools. 
 
 In 1857, two free Evening Schools which had previously 
 been conducted by the Lowell Missionary Association, were, 
 by vote of the School Committee, comprehended within the 
 public school system of Lowell. In 1859, there were six 
 public evening schools three for boys and three for girls 
 under the supervision of the School Committee. They had 
 two sessions per week and imparted instruction to about five 
 hundred pupils. If any schools should be public and free, 
 surely the evening schools of the industrious uninstructed poor 
 
 * Report of School Committee, 1859, pp. 28-31. 
 
 10 
 
110 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 should "be public and free. Yet these have been suffered to 
 languish and die ; and the Missionary Society has resumed 
 the work which properly belonged to the city. 
 
 In 1858, Mr. James G. Carney presented one hundred dol 
 lars to the city, upon the condition that the interest thereof 
 shall annually be appropriated to the procuring of six silver 
 medals, to be distributed to the six best scholars in the High 
 School, forever, three in the girls department and three in 
 boys department. The liberal donation was accepted, and the 
 faith of the city pledged to the just discharge of the trust. 
 Such was the origin of the Carney Medals, which will continue 
 to be striven for by the pupils of the High School when the 
 dust of unnumbered centuries shall cover the grave of their 
 founder. 
 
 In 1859, the experiment of a Superintendent of Public 
 Schools was first tried in Lowell, George W. Shattuck being 
 appointed to that office. But toward the close of the year a 
 popular clamor was raised, and the office abolished. It was 
 revived in 1864, when Abner J. Phipps was made Super 
 intendent. The credit of the revival of this useful and neces 
 sary office is largely due to the School Committee. Mr. Phipps 
 was succeeded in 1866 by Charles Morrill. 
 
 In 1863, John F. McEvoy, John H. McAlvin and others 
 founded the Lowell High School Association. Annual levees 
 are held by this society, whereat the lives, adventures, songs, 
 services, speeches, hair-breadth escapes and deeds of valor by 
 flood and field of the past pupils of the High School, are 
 commemorated with becoming enthusiasm. 
 
 The public educational system of Lowell now consists of 
 one high school, eight grammar schools, and forty-seven pri 
 maries, which would probably not suffer by comparison with 
 the schools of other cities in New England. 
 
 * See Carney Medal Documents, appended to the Report of the School 
 Committee of 1859. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. Ill 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF LOWELL. 1835 1850. 
 
 Marriage and Death of Enoch W. Freeman Hannah Kinney Her Trial for 
 Murder Elias Howe James C. Ayer Financial Revulsion Lowell be 
 comes a City Death of Kirk Boott Market House Courts in Lowell 
 Death of Luther Lawrence Wendell Phillips Lowell Hospital The 
 Commons Museum The Offering Death of Sheriff Varnum Death of 
 President Harrison The Cemetery Vox Populi Chai les Dickens 
 William Graves President Tyler Webster Incidents City Library 
 Elisha Fuller Henry F. Durant Medical Society Dr. Miles Book 
 Newspaper Libels John G. Whittier Merrimack River Fisheries Judge 
 Locke Judge Crosby President Polk Death of Patrick T. Jackson 
 Northern Canal Abraham Lincoln Death of President Taylor Battle 
 of Suffolk Bridge Father Mat-hew Reservoir on Lynde s Hill. 
 
 "The Minister s AVooing " had deeply exercised the ladies 
 of the First Baptist Church, long before that subject employed 
 the pen of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Church Committees, 
 Ex Parte Councils and Mutual Councils were again and again 
 appointed to consider the scandals growing out of the court 
 ship of Rev. Enoch W. Freeman and Hannah Hanson. Mr. 
 Freeman was, of course, sustained ; but there was still an 
 undercurrent of discontent in the church, on account of his 
 connection with this remarkable woman. She was a native 
 of Lisbon, in Maine, was the cousin of Mr. Freeman, and had 
 had some tender correspondence with him in early life. In 
 January, 1822, she was married to Ward Witham, at her 
 father s house in Portland. Four children were the fruit of 
 this marriage, which proved anything but a happy one. In 
 February, 1832, the Supreme Judicial Court, sitting at Boston, 
 granted her a decree of divorce from the bond of matrimony, 
 on account of the criminality of Witham. A correspondence 
 between Mr. Freeman and her soon afterward commenced, 
 which culminated in their marriage, September 23rd, 1834. 
 For six months they boarded with Mrs. Charlotte Butler, 
 
 * Life of Mrs. Kinney, by Herself. 
 
112 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 whose son Benjamin the future pro-consul of New Orleans 
 was at that time intended for the Baptist ministry. As Pope 
 sighed 
 
 " How sweet an Ovid was iii Murray lost," 
 
 so may others lament that a Boanerges of the pulpit was 
 spoiled in Butler. In March, 1835, Mr. and Mrs. Free 
 man made a visit to the father of Mr. Freeman, in Maine. 
 Durina that visit, the elder Freeman suddenly died, exhibiting 
 the same symptoms which were afterward observed in the case 
 of his son. 
 
 Mrs. Freeman continued to be the subject of scandal after 
 her marriage, on account of her supposed intimacy with George 
 T. Kinney of Boston, who had assisted her in obtaining her 
 divorce, and to whom she was said to have been engaged. It 
 was said that Kinney was a frequent visitor at Mr. Freeman s 
 house, and that he was there on the morning of Sunday, Sep 
 tember 20th, 1835. On that day, after morning service, Mr. 
 Freeman became suddenly ill, and experienced repeated vom 
 itings. He, however, returned to his pulpit, and commenced 
 the afternoon services, but was unable to proceed, and returned 
 to his house. He continued to grow worse, suffering intense 
 pain internally, until five o clock on the morning of the fol 
 lowing Tuesday, when death released him from his sufferings. 
 He was thirty-seven years of age, and had been married ex 
 actly one year. He was a most uxorious husband, and on his 
 death-bed requested that all his wife s children by Witham 
 should adopt his surname. If he really died by poison admin 
 istered by his wife, his last words to her " Never feel alone ; 
 I shall always be with you" must have come home with ter 
 rible emphasis to her depraved soul. 
 
 Just as he closed his eyes in death, he was asked whether 
 he had any advice to leave to his church. He replied, " Tell 
 them to be humble, faithful, zealous and united in love." A 
 post mortem examination showed his stomach to have been 
 highly inflamed, but the contents were not subjected to a 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 113 
 
 chemical analysis no suspicion being then entertained that 
 the death was caused by poison. Mrs. Freeman appeared to 
 be deeply affected by her bereavement. One week subse 
 quently, she was confined. She remained for some time in 
 Lowell, keeping a milliner s shop on Merrimack street. She 
 afterward removed to Boston, from, whence she sent a weeping 
 willow to be planted by the monument erected over Mr. Free 
 man s grave. On November 26th, 1836, she was married to 
 George T. Kinney, a man five years younger than herself a 
 drunkard, a roue and a gambler. On August 10th, 1840, 
 Kinney died in a manner similar to Mr. Freeman ; and a cor 
 oner s jury found that his death was caused by poison admin 
 istered by his wife. 
 
 Long before the death of Kinney, suspicions hid been 
 entertained in Lowell that there had been foul play with Mr. 
 Freeman that his wife had been guilty of the "deep damna 
 tion of his taking off." In consequence of these suspicions, 
 one week subsequent to the death of Kinney, Mr. Freeman s 
 remains were exhumed in the Middlesex street burying-ground 
 and found to be in a remarkable state of preservation. Many 
 a subject has been used to illustrate anatomical lectures, which 
 was more decomposed than the body of Mr. Freeman. 
 
 Immediately after Kinney s funeral, Mrs. Kinney made a 
 visit to some of his friends in Thetford, Vermont. There she 
 was arrested and taken back to Boston to stand her trial for 
 murder. On her way thither she stopped at Lowell, arriving 
 here on Sunday afternoon, August 30th. After a few mo 
 ments delay, at the American House, she again left in the 
 stage for Boston, in the custody of an officer. Just as the 
 stage was leaving, the congregation to whom Mr. Freeman had 
 ministered, and among whom she had once moved in all the 
 dignity of a pastor s wife, poured along the streets at the close 
 of their afternoon services. With what emotion they gazed on 
 the weeping prisoner, and with what agony she met their gaze, 
 it is easier to imagine than describe. 
 100 
 
114 HISTORY OF LOWELL. 
 
 The trial of Mrs. Kinney for the murder of Kinney began 
 December 21st, 1840, and closed on Christmas Day. The 
 defence was conducted by Franklin Dexter and George T. 
 Curtis. Although she was acquitted by the jury, there have 
 always been persons among those who knew her, who have 
 persisted in believing that she was guilty, that she poisoned 
 two husbands and one husband s father, in short, that she 
 was an American Lucretia Borgia. But while the deaths of 
 the three supposed victims are most easily explained upon the 
 hypothesis of poison, the total absence of motive on the part 
 of the accused, envelopes each case in the gravest doubt. 
 
 In 1835, Central Village contained about forty dwelling 
 houses. Central Village Academy was incorporated and en 
 joyed a flourishing existence for some years. 
 
 It was in 1835 that Elias Howe, Junior then a boy of 
 sixteen came to Lowell. He remained here two years, em 
 ployed in building cotton machinery. While here, he proba 
 bly became acquainted with the experiments which John A. 
 Bradshaw was then making with the sewing machine. Nine 
 years later, he invented the famous Lock-Stitch Sewing Ma 
 chine, for which he obtained a patent in 1846. Little, how 
 ever, did he appreciate the value of his invention ; for he 
 offered to sell his patent for the sum of five hundred dollars 
 a patent from which he afterward realized half a million dol 
 lars in a single year ! He died October 3rd, 1867, at Brooklyn. 
 
 Among the crowds that took up their abode here synchro- 
 niously with Mr. Howe, was a slender youth of seventeen 
 summers, who now stands the foremost of those who have 
 achieved wealth and fame in the manufacture of patent medi 
 cines. James C. Ayer was born in Groton, Connecticut, May 
 5th, 1818, exactly six months earlier than his friend and 
 fellow-citizen, Gen. Butler. His first experiences here were 
 in the family of his uncle, James Cook, and in the High 
 School. As the ardent boy walked occasionally through the 
 Middlesex mills, (of which his uncle was then Agent,) and 
 
JAMES C. AYER. 
 
HISTORY OF LOWELL. 115 
 
 saw the stockholders and directors in all their pride and pre- 
 tention, he doubtless hoped that the time would come when he 
 too would be a stockholder and a director. What was then a 
 dream of fancy has long since been realized as a fact. 
 
 After quitting the High School, and studying for a short 
 time in the Westford Academy, young Ayer entered the apoth 
 ecary shop of Jacob Bobbins, where he devoted much of his 
 attention to chemistry. In 1843, he commenced the manu 
 facture of medicines for popular use. The result of his 
 enterprise is the mammoth laboratory of which an account 
 has already been given. The first machine for making pills 
 was invented by him. In recognition of his acquisitions in 
 chemistry and kindred sciences, in 1860, the University of 
 Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, conferred on him the degree 
 of Doctor of Medicine. Similarity of tastes and opinions on 
 various points brought him into contact with Horace Greeley ; 
 and for some years past, Dr. Ayer has been the largest stock 
 holder in the New York Tribune. 
 
 The people of Lowell participated with their fellow citizens 
 all over New England in the mania which arose prior to 1835, 
 first, respecting the lands in Maine, and afterward spreading 
 till it inflated the prices of land in all the principal cities and 
 towns of New England. Visionary schemes were projected, 
 castles in the air erected, and the wildest expectations cher 
 ished that large fortunes were to be made as quickly as by 
 the seal of Solomon or the lamp of Aladdin. This splendid 
 bubble, bursting in 1837, left all its dupes in the gulf of 
 penury. When the commercial history of this country shall 
 be written, it will be found to present a constant series of 
 alternate periods of wild speculation, and periods of bank 
 ruptcy. When business has been good, credits have been 
 extended too far ; and a general reaction has ensued. But 
 the elastic spirit of the people and their recuperative energy 
 have always saved the country from protracted periods of 
 depression. 
 
 * Ante p. 64.