Bay State Monthly, Vol. I, No. 3, March, 1884 by Various

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That episode at Breed's Hill, which tested the value of even a light
cover for keen sharpshooters, had so warned Howe of the courage of his
enemy that the garrison of Bunker Hill had never worried Putnam's little
redoubt across the Charlestown Isthmus; neither had the troops at Boston
ever assailed, with success, the thin circumvallation which protected
the besiegers.

At Brooklyn, Washington established ranges for firing-parties, so that
the rifle could be intelligently and effectively used, as the British
might, in turn, approach the danger line. All these preparations,
although impaired by the illness and absence of General Greene, had been
so well devised, that even after General Howe gained the rear of
Sullivan and Stirling and captured both, he halted before the
entrenchments and resorted to regular approaches rather than venture an
assault.

If that portion of the proper garrison of New York which had been sent
to Canada, to waste from disease and fill six thousand graves, had been
available at New York, they might have made of Jamaica Ridge and
Prospect Hill a British Golgotha before the lines of Brooklyn.

If we conceive of an invasion of New York to-day, other than by some
devastating fleet, we can at once see that the whole outline of defence
as proposed by Washington, until he ordered the retreat, was
characteristic of his wisdom and his settled purpose to resist a
landing, fight at every ridge, yield only to compulsion, enure his men
to face fire, and "make every British advance as costly as possible to
the enemy."

The summary is briefly this: There was an universal revolt of the
colonies, and a fixed purpose to achieve and maintain independence.
There was, at the same time, in England, not only a vigorous opposition
to the use of force, but a clearly-defined exhibit of the maximum
military resources which its authorities could call into exercise.
Imminent European complications were already bristling for battle, both
by land and sea, and Great Britain was without a continental ally or
friend. As the British resources were thus definitely defined, so was
the military policy distinctly stated; namely, to make, as the first
objective, the recovery of New York, and its acceptance as the permanent
base for prosecution of the war. The first blow was designed to be a
fatal blow. It was for Washington to take the offensive. He did so, and
by the occupation of New York and Brooklyn put himself in the attitude
of resisting invasion, rather than as attempting the expulsion of a
rightful British garrison from the British capital of its American
colonies.

Not only did the metal of such men as he commanded stand fire on the
seventeenth of June, 1775, at Breed's Hill, but when he followed up the
expulsion of the garrison of Boston by the equally aggressive
demonstrations at New York, he gave assurance of the thoroughness of his
purpose to achieve independence, and thereby inspired confidence at home
and abroad. The failure to realize a competent field force for the issue
with Howe, and the circumstances of the retreat and evacuation, do not
impair the statement that, in view of his knowledge of British resources
and those of America, the occupation and defence of Brooklyn and New
York was a military necessity, warranted by existing conditions, and not
impaired by his disappointment in not securing a sufficient force to
meet his enemy upon terms of equality and victory. It increases our
admiration of that strategic forethought which habitually inspired him
to maintain an aggressive attitude, until the surrender at Yorktown
consummated his plans, and verified his wisdom and his faith.

* * * * *

LOWELL.

Twenty-six miles northwest from Boston, on the banks of the Merrimack at
its confluence with the Concord, is situated the city of Lowell,--the
Spindle City, the Manchester of America. The Merrimack, which affords
the chief water-power that gives life to the thousand industries of
Lowell, takes its rise among the White Mountains, in New Hampshire, its
source being in the Notch of the Franconia Range, at the base of Mount
Lafayette. For many miles it dashes down toward the sea, known at first
as the Pemigewasset, until finally its waters are joined by the outflow
from Lake Winnipiseogee, and a great river is formed, which, in its fall
of several hundred feet, offers immense power to the mechanic. Past
Penacook the river glides, its volume increased by the Contcocook;
through fertile intervales, over rapids and falls, past Suncook and
Hooksett, it comes to the Falls of Amoskeag, where Lowell's fair rival
is built; thence onward past Nashua, to the Falls of Pawtucket, where
its waters are thoroughly utilized to propel the machinery of a great
city.

The men are still living who have witnessed the growth of Lowell from an
inconsiderable village to a great manufacturing city, whose fabrics are
as world-renowned as those of Marseilles and Lyons, or ancient Damascus.

[Illustration: LOWELL AS IT APPEARED IN 1840.]

With the dawn of American history, the Penacooks, a tribe of Indians,
were known to have occupied the site of Lowell as their favorite
rendezvous. Here the salmon and shad were caught in great abundance by
the dusky warriors. Passaconaway was their first great chief known to
the white man, and he was acknowledged as leader by many neighboring
tribes. He was a friend to the English. Before the coming of the
Pilgrims a great plague had swept over New England, making desolate
the Indian villages. Added to the terrors of the pestilence, which was
resistless as fate to the children of the forest, was the fear and dread
of their implacable enemies, the fierce Mohawks of the west. The spirit
of the Indian was broken. In 1644, Passaconaway renounced his authority
as an independent chief, and placed himself and his tribe of several
thousand souls under the protection of the colonial magistrates. The
Indian villages at Pawtucket Falls, on the Merrimack, and Wamesit Falls,
on the Concord, the Musketaquid of the aborigines, were first visited in
1647 by the Reverend John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians. In 1652,
Captain Simon Willard and Captain Edward Johnson made their tour up the
Merrimack Paver to Lake Winnipiseogee, and marked a stone near the Weirs
as the northern boundary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The following
year the work of settlement swept onward, crowding in upon the
cornfields of the red men; and Eliot, caring for his charges, 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.

[Illustration: MERRIMACK RIVER BELOW HUNT'S FALLS.]

The towns of Chelmsford and Billerica were incorporated May 29, 1655.

In 1656, Major-General Daniel Gookin was appointed superintendent of all
the Indians under the jurisdiction of the Colony. By his fair dealing he
won their entire confidence. They had good friends in Judge Gookin and
the Apostle Eliot, who were ever ready to protect them from
encroachments of their neighbors.

In 1660, Passaconaway relinquished all authority over his tribe,
retiring at a ripe old age, and turning over his office of sachem to his
son Wannalancet, whose headquarters were at Penacook. Numphow, who was
married to one of Passaconaway's daughters, was the chief for some years
of the village of Pawtucket. In 1669, Wannalancet, in dread of the
Mohawks, came down the river with his whole tribe, and located at
Wamesit, and built a fortification on Fort Hill in Belvidere, which was
surrounded with palisades. The white settlers of the vicinity, catching
the alarm, took refuge in garrison-houses.

[Illustration: OLD BRIDGE OVER PAWTUCKET FALLS.]

In 1674, there were at Wamesit fifteen families, or seventy-five souls,
enumerated as Christian Indians, aside from about two hundred who
adhered to their primitive faith in the Great Spirit. Numphow was their
magistrate as well as chief, his cabin standing near the Boott Canal.
The log chapel presided over by the Indian preacher, Samuel, stood at
the west end of Appleton Street near the site of the Eliot Church. In
May of each year came Eliot and Gookin; the former to give spiritual
advice; the latter to act as umpire or judge, having jurisdiction of
higher offences, and directing all matters affecting the interests oL
the village. Wannalancet held his court, as sachem, in a log cabin near
Pawtucket Falls.

[Illustration: SAINT ANNE'S CHURCH, 1850.]

King Philip's War broke out in 1675. Wannalancet and the local Indians,
faithful to the counsels of Passaconaway, took sides with the settlers,
or remained neutral. Between the two parties they suffered severely.
Some were put to death by Philip, for exposing his designs; some were
put to death by the colonists, as Philip's accomplices; some fell in
battle, fighting for the whites; some were slain by the settlers, who
mistrusted alike praying and hostile Indians.

During the following year, 1676, the able-bodied Indians of Wamesit and
Pawtucket withdrew to Canada, leaving a few of their helpless and infirm
old people at the mercy of their neighbors. Around their fate let
history draw the veil of oblivion, lest the present generation blush for
their ancestors. The Indians of those days, like their descendants, had
no rights which the white men were bound to respect.

During the war the white settlers were gathered for protection in
garrison-houses. Billerica escaped harm, but Chelmsford was twice
visited by hostile bands and several buildings were burned. Two sons of
Samuel Varnum were shot while crossing the Merrimack in a boat with
their father.

In April, 1676, Captain Samuel Hunting and Lieutenant James Richardson
built a fort at Pawtucket Falls, which, with a garrison, was left under
command of Lieutenant Richardson. A month later it was reinforced and
the command entrusted to Captain Thomas Henchman. This proved an
effectual check to the incursions of marauding Indians.

[Illustration: RUINS OF A CELLAR, BELVIDERE.]

When the war was over, Wannalancet returned with the remnant of his
tribe, to find the reservation in possession of the settlers. The tribe
was placed on Wickasauke Island, in charge of Colonel Jonathan Tyng,
where they remained until their last rod of land had been bartered away,
when they retired to Canada and joined the St. Francis tribe. Colonel
Tyng and Major Henchman purchased of the Indians all their remaining
interest in the land about Pawtucket Falls.

[Illustration: OLD BUTMAN HOUSE, BELVIDERE.]

During the nine years of King William's War, which followed the English
Revolution of 1688, the people of Chelmsford and neighboring towns again
took refuge in forts and garrison-houses. Major Henchman had command of
the fortification at the Falls. August 1, 1682, a hostile raid was made
into Billerica and eight of the inhabitants were killed. August 5, 1695,
fourteen inhabitants of Tewksbury were massacred. Colonel Joseph Lynde,
from whom Lynde Hill in Belvidere derives its name, was in command of a
force of three hundred men who ranged through the neighboring country to
protect the frontier.

The town of Dracut was incorporated in 1701. It contained twenty-five
families, and was set off from Chelmsford.

The Wamesit purchase was divided into small parcels of land and sold to
settlers. Samuel Pierce, who had his domicile on the Indian reservation,
was elected a member of the General Court, in 1725, but was refused his
seat on the ground that he was not an inhabitant of Chelmsford.
Accordingly the people of the reservation refused to pay taxes to the
town of Chelmsford until an act was passed legally annexing them to the
town. The place was afterward known as East Chelmsford.

The year 1729 is memorable for the great earthquake which occurred on
October 29, and did considerable damage in the Merrimack valley.

Tewksbury was incorporated in 1734, its territory before having been
included in Billerica.

At the battle of Bunker Hill two companies of Chelmsford men were
present, one under command of Captain John Ford, the other under Captain
Benjamin Walker; and one company composed largely of Dracut men was
under Captain Peter Colburn.

[Illustration: FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 1840.]

Captain Ford had served previously at the siege and capture of
Louisburg, in 1745. When the first man in his company fell at Bunker
Hill, an officer prevented a panic by singing Old Hundred. When closely
pressed by the British, and the ammunition had been exhausted, Captain
Colburn, on the point of retreating, threw a stone at the advancing
enemy and saw an officer fall from the blow.

Colonel Simeon Spaulding, of Chelmsford, was an active patriot during
the Revolution and did good service in the Provincial Congress.

During Shays' Rebellion, in 1786, a body of Chelmsford militia under
command of General Lincoln served in the western counties.

The people of Chelmsford, from the earliest settlement, gave every
encouragement to millers, lumbermen, mechanics, and traders, making
grants of land, and temporary exemption from taxation, to such as would
settle in their town. It became distinguished for its sawmills,
gristmills, and mechanics' shops of various kinds. Billerica, Dracut,
and Tewksbury gave like encouragement. About the time of the Revolution
a sawmill was built below Pawtucket Falls and owned by Judge John Tyng.

[Illustration: PAIGE-STREET FREEWILL BAPTIST CHURCH, 1840.]

Toward the close of the last century the lumbering industry on the
Merrimack grew into prominence; and, in 1792, Dudley A. Tyng, William
Coombs, and others, of Newburyport, were incorporated as "The
Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on Merrimack River." This canal,
which was demanded for the safe conduct of rafts by the Falls, was
completed in 1797, at an expense of fifty thousand dollars. The fall of
thirty-two feet was passed by four sets of locks.

The first bridge across the Merrimack was built, in 1792, by Parker
Varnum and associates; the Concord had been bridged some twenty years
earlier.

[Illustration: DAM AT PAWTUCKET FALLS.]

In 1793, the proprietors of the Middlesex Canal were incorporated.
Loammi Baldwin, of Woburn, superintended the construction. The canal
began at the Merrimack, about a mile above Pawtucket Falls, extended
south by east thirty-one miles, and terminated at Charlestown. It was
twenty-four feet wide and four feet deep and was fed by the Concord
River. It cost $700,000, and was completed in 1804,--the first canal
in the United States opened for the transportation of passengers and
merchandise. For forty years it was the outlet of the whole Merrimack
valley north of Pawtucket Falls.

The first boat voyage from Boston, by the Middlesex Canal and the
Merrimack River, to Concord, New Hampshire, was made in 1814; the first
steamboat from Boston reached Concord in 1819.

The competition of the Middlesex Canal ruined the Pawtucket Canal, as it
in turn, in after years, was ruined by the Boston and Lowell Railroad.
Navigation finally ceased on its waters in 1853, since which date its
channel has been filling up and its banks have been falling away.

In 1801, Moses Hale, whose father had long before started a fulling-mill
in Dracut, established a carding-mill on River Meadow Brook,--the first
enterprise of the kind in Middlesex County.

In 1805, the bridge across the Merrimack was demolished and a new bridge
with stone piers and abutments was constructed. It was a toll-bridge as
late as 1860.

The second war with England stimulated manufacturing enterprises
throughout the United States; and several were started, depending upon
the water-power of the Concord River. In 1813, Captain Phineas Whiting
and Major Josiah Fletcher erected a wooden cotton-mill on the site of
the Middlesex Company's mills, and were successful in their enterprise.
John Golding, in the same neighborhood, was not so fortunate.

[Illustration: JOHN-STREET CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.]

The year 1815 is memorable for the most disastrous gale that has
devastated New England during two centuries; it was very severe in
Chelmsford.

The sawmill and gristmill of the Messrs. Bowers, at Pawtucket Falls, was
started in 1816. The same year Nathan Tyler started a gristmill where
the Middlesex Company's mill No. 3 now stands. Captain John Ford's
sawmill stood near the junction of the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.

In 1818, Moses Hale started the powder-mills on Concord River. The
following year Oliver M. Whipple and William Tileston were associated
with him in business. In 1821, the firm opened Whipple's Canal. The
business was enlarged from time to time and was at its zenith during the
Mexican War, when, in one year, nearly five hundred tons of powder were
made. The manufacture of powder in Lowell ceased in 1855. In 1818, also,
came Thomas Hurd, who purchased the cotton-mill started by Whiting and
Fletcher and converted it into a woolen-mill. He soon enlarged his
operations, building a large brick mill near the other. He was the
pioneer manufacturer of satinets in this country. His mill was destroyed
by fire and rebuilt in 1826. About this time he built the Middlesex
(Mills) Canal, which conveyed water from the Pawtucket Canal to his
satinet-mills, thus affording additional power. His business was ruined
in 1828 by the reaction in trade; and two years later the property
passed into the hands of the Middlesex Company.

[Illustration: FREE CHAPEL, 1860.]

The year 1818 also brought Winthrop Howe to town. He started a mill for
the manufacture of flannels at Wamesit Falls, in Belvidere, and
continued in the business until 1827, when he sold out to Harrison G.
Howe, who introduced power-looms, and who, in turn, sold the property to
John Nesmith and others in 1831. In the year 1819 a new bridge across
the Concord River was built to replace the old one built in 1774. About
this time the dam across the Concord at Massic Falls was constructed,
and the forging-mill of Fisher and Ames was built. The works were
extended in 1823, and continued by them until 1836, when the privilege
was sold to Perez O. Richmond.

[Illustration: KIRK BOOTT.
Born in Boston, October 20, 1790. Died in Lowell, April 21, 1837.]

In 1821, the capabilities of Pawtucket Falls for maintaining vast
mechanical industries were brought to the attention of a few successful
manufacturers, who readily perceived its advantages and hastened to
purchased the almost worthless stock of the Pawtucket Canal Company. In
November, Nathan Appleton, Patrick Tracy Jackson, Kirk Boott, Warren
Dutton, Paul Moody, and John W. Boott, visited the canal, which they
now controlled, perambulated the ground, and planned for the future.
February 5, 1822, these gentlemen and others were incorporated as the
Merrimack Manufacturing Company, with Warren Dutton as president.
The first business of the new company was to erect a dam across the
Merrimack at Pawtucket Falls, widen and repair 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 fee wide and eight feet
deep. The first mile of the company was completed and started September
1, 1823. The first treasurer and agent was Kirk Boott, a man of great
influence, who left his mark on the growing village.

[Illustration: SECOND UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, SHATTUCK STREET.]

Paul Moody settled in the village in 1823, and took charge of the
company's machine-shop, which was completed in 1826. Ezra Worthen was
the first superintendent. The founders of the Merrimack Company
contemplated from the first the introduction of calico-printing. In this
they were successful, in 1826, when John D. Prince, from Manchester,
England, took charge of the Merrimack print-works. Mr. Prince was
assisted by the chemist, Dr. Samuel L. Dana; and together they made the
products of the mills famous in all parts of the globe.

[Illustration: APPLETON-STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.]

In 1825, the old Locks and Canals Company of 1792 was re-established as
a separate corporation, with the added right to purchase, hold, sell, or
lease land and water-power, and the affairs of the company were placed
in the hands of Kirk Boott.

In 1820, there were in the villages of East Chelmsford, Belvidere, and
Centralville, about two hundred and fifty inhabitants. Whipple's
powder-mills and Howe's flannel-mill were then in operation, and there
were several sawmills and gristmills. Ira Frye's Tavern stood on the
site of the American House. There was Hurd's mill, a blacksmith shop at
Massic Falls, a few other such establishments as a country village
usually affords, and several substantial dwelling-houses, farmhouses,
and cottages, conspicuous among which was the Livermore House in
Belvidere.

[Illustration: ROGERS HOMESTEAD, BELVIDERE.]

The operations of the Merrimack Company soon attracted settlers. In
1822, a regular line of stages was established between East Chelmsford
and Boston. In 1824, the Chelmsford Courier was established, and
became at once the organ of the growing community. The next year a
militia company was organized; the Fourth of July was celebrated with
appropriate ceremonies; the Middlesex Mechanics' Association and the
Central Bridge Corporation were incorporated; the Hamilton Manufacturing
Company was established; and the inhabitants of the village of East
Chelmsford petitioned to be incorporated. The petition was granted, and
Lowell became a town March 1, 1826, with a population of about two
thousand. The name of the town was adopted in honor of Francis Cabot
Lowell, a business associate of Nathan Appleton, and a promoter of the
manufacture of cotton goods in this country.

The years of 1827 and 1828 were marked by great depression in the
commercial and manufacturing circles of the country, but Lowell had
a good start, and her prosperity was assured. The Lowell Bank, the
Appleton Company, and the Lowell Manufacturing Company, were established
in 1828,--the year the first ton of coal was brought to town. The coal
was used for fuel in the law office of Samuel H. Mann.

In 1829, the Lowell Institution for Savings was incorporated, and
William Livingston established himself in trade. For a quarter of a
century Mr. Livingston was one of the most active, most enterprising,
and most public-spirited citizens of Lowell. Much of the western portion
of the city was built up by his instrumentality.

[Illustration: WORTHEN-STREET OR SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH.]

The Middlesex Company was established in 1830, as was the Lowell fire
department. The Town Hall was also built; and Lowell numbered sixty-four
hundred and seventy-seven inhabitants.

[Illustration: CENTRAL METHODIST CHURCH.]

In 1830, Mr. Jackson undertook to connect Boston and Lowell with a
railroad. A macadamized road had been surveyed, when this new road was
projected; and it was a part of the original plan to have the cars
drawn by horses. The successful operation of Stephenson's Liverpool and
Manchester Railroad was known to Mr. Jackson, and he was encouraged
to persevere. The road was completed at a cost of $1,800,000 and was
opened to the public, July 4, 1835. The cars and locomotive would be a
curiosity to-day. The former, resembling Concord coaches, were divided
by a partition into two compartments, each entered by two doors,
on the sides. The interiors of the compartments were upholstered with
drab-colored cashmere, and each accommodated eight passengers. The
conductor and engineer had each a silver whistle. After the former
had ascertained the destination of each passenger and collected the
necessary fare, he would close the car doors, climb to his place in a
cab at the top of the coach, and whistle to the engineer as a signal for
starting. The engineer, who was protected by no cab, would respond with
his whistle, when the train would dash out of the station. The brakes
were such as are used on a coach, and it was a scientific matter, when
the engineer gave his warning-whistle to break up a train on arriving at
a station. The rails were secured to granite ties, by means of cast-iron
plates, and the road was very, _very_ solid. Frost soon rendered it
necessary to introduce wooden ties, and nothing has yet been discovered
which can be used as a substitute for them.

[Illustration: JOHN NESMITH.
Born in Londonderry, New Hampshire, August 3, 1793.]

The Lowell Railroad was not the first opened in the United States, but
it was the first passenger road in successful operation in New England.

In 1831, the Railroad Bank was established.

In 1832, the Suffolk and Tremont Mills were established.

In 1833, the town felt the need of a police court, and one was
established. Joseph Locke was the first justice. During the same year
the Lawrence Mills were started; and the town was visited by President
Andrew Jackson and members of his Cabinet, and later by the great
statesman, Henry Clay.

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