LOOM AND SPINDLE OR Life Among the Early Mill Girls WITH A ...

ival; when, by the "irony of fate," its individuality was merged in that of a larger and
more powerful organization,–the Boston and Maine Railroad, of which, in 1895, it
became only a section or division. But let us not regret too much this accident of time, for
who knows what will become of this enormous plant during the next fifty years, when
our railways, perhaps, may be laid in the "unfeatured air."
The first factory for the manufacture of cotton cloth in the United States was erected in
Beverly, Mass., in 1787, and in l 790 Samuel Slater established the cotton industry in
Pawtucket, R.I.; but the first real effort to establish the enterprise was in Lowell, where a
large wooden building was erected at the Wamesit Falls, on the Concord River, in 1813.
The history of Lowell, Mass., is not identical with that of other manufacturing places in
New factory people, and among them were the first who showed any visible sign of
mental cultivation; and, second, because it was here that the practice of what was called "
The Lowell factory system" went into operation, a practice which included the then new
idea, that corporations should have souls, and should exercise a paternal influence over
the lives of their operatives. As Dr. John 0. Green of Lowell, in a letter to Lucy Larcom,
said: "The design of the control of the boarding-houses and their inmates was one of the
characteristics of the Lowell factory system, early incorporated therein by Mr. Francis
Cabot Lowell and his brother-in-law, Patrick T. Jackson, who are entitled to all the credit
of the acknowledged superiority of our early operatives."
Cotton-mills had also been started in Waltham, Mass., where the first power-loom went
into operation in 1814; but, for lack of waterpower, these could be carried on to a limited
extent only. It was therefore resolved, by gentlemen interested, that the "plant" should be
moved elsewhere, and water privileges were sought in Maine, New Hampshire, and in
Massachusetts. Finally, Pawtucket Falls, on the Merrimack River, was selected, as a
possible site where a large manufacturing town could be built up. Here land was bought,
and the place, formerly a part of Chelmsford, set off in 1826, was named Lowell, after
Francis Cabot Lowell, who, through his improvements, was practically the inventor of
the power-loom, and the originator of the cotton-cloth manufacture as now carried on in
America.
Kirk Boott, the agent of the first corporation, (as the mills, boarding-houses,–the whole
plant was called), was a great potentate in the early history of Lowell, and exercised
almost absolute power over the mill-people. Though not an Englishman, he had been
educated in England, had imbibed the autocratic ideas of the mill-owners of the mother
country, and many stories were told of his tyranny, or his " peculiarities," long after he
ceased to be a resident.
Of his connection with the early history of Lowell, it is stated that, before the waterpower:
was discovered there, he went as agent of the, purchasers, to Gardiner, Me., and
tried to buy of R. H. Gardiner, Esq., the great water privilege belonging to his estate. Mr.
Gardiner would not sell, but was willing to lease it. Kirk Boott would not agree to this, or
Lowell might now have been on the Kennebec in Maine. Then he came to Chelmsford,
and saw the great Merrimack River and its possibilities, and set himself shrewdly to work