History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

the Merrimack Company, a quit-claim given, and
also water from the Hamilton Canal, at the rate of
four dollars per spindle. After Kurd's mill, on
the Concord Eiver, was burned, the mill at the
foot of Pawtucket Falls was taken down and re-
built on the site of the one burned. The canal,
tiirough which Mr. Hurd's mill drew its supply
of water from the Hamilton Canal, crossed Central
Street at the foot of Jackson Street, to the rear
and south of Hard Street into the Warren Street
Canal. The recent building improvements on Cen-
tral Street unearthed the remains of this conduit.
'iVo persons, Callender and Whipple, committed
suicide by drowning in this conduit.
From 1821 to 1826 the records of the Merrimack
Company constitute the history of the period, and
the writer is under obligation to the treasurer, C. H.
Dalton, Esq., of Boston, for permission to consult
them. As early as November 22, 1824, the sub-
ject of a new township occupied the minds of the
directoi-s, and a committee was appointed to con-
sider the expediency of petitioning the legislature
to have a certain part of Chelmsford set ofl' as a
separate township.
The Merrimack Print-Works were started in the
autumn of 1824, under the charge of Mr. Allan
Pollock. He resigned in 1826, and Mr. Boott
went to England to secure engravers. Mr. True
Wiggin had secured the services of J. D. Prmce,
who continued in the position of superintendent
until 1855, and then retired on an annuity of
$2,000. He died suddenly January 5, 1860.
Mr. Prince enjoyed the reputation of a generous-
hearted English gentleman, and a faithful servant
to the company. The second mill on the Merrimack
was started in 1824. The machinery for it
was built at Waltham.
February 28, 1825, the Proprietors of the Mer-
rimack Manufacturing Company voted to transfer
the water-power, lands, etc., to a new company, to
be called The Locks and Canals Company. " In
1826, finding it inconvenient to carry on under
one management a large manufacturing establishment
and a land and water ])ower enterprise, the
property was divided. The Proprietors of Locks
and Canals, under the authority of an act of the
legislature, taking tlie land, water-power, and ma-
chine-shop, and the Merrimack Company retaining
their mills and print-works, with land and water-
LOWELL. 63
and Canals sold mill sites and water-power to the
manufacturing companies, as they were chartered,
from time to time ; also, in most cases, building
the mills and machinery for thein ; they also sold
building-lots as the growth of the place demanded.
Kirk Boott died in 1837 ; he was succeeded, as
treasurer, for a short time, by Joseph Tihlen.
From 1838 to 1845 Patrick T. Jackson (son of
the Hon. Jonathan Jackson of Newburyport, the
first president of the original Locks and Canals
Company) held the office of treasurer. In 1845
the Proprietors of Locks and Canals, having dis-
posed of all the permanent water-power, nearly all
the available building-lots, and the machine-shop,
their only remaining property of much importance
was their interest in the water-power. To control
this, the manufacturing companies bought up all
the shares of their stock."
January 26, 1S25, the Hamilton Manufactur-
ing Company was incorporated with a capital of
§600,000. The associates named in the act were
Samuel Batchelder, Benjamin Gorham, William
Appleton, William Sturgis, and John Lowell, Jr.
From time to time the capital luis been increased
to §1,250,000.
Under Mr. Batchelder^ the power-loom was
applied to weaving cotton drilling and other twilled
goods. " It was an entirely new article upon the
market ; nothing of the kind had previously been
imported or manufactured in this country It
sold readily at nineteen and one quarter cents per
yard, and the treasurer of the company made a
contract for all that could be made for six months
at sixteen cents." This business was so profitable
that the directors were considering the practica-
bility of changing the machinery of the Appleton
Mills, but concluded, on account of the expense,
to build new mills. The result was the Sutl'olk
Company in 1S31.
In 1804 a man by the name of Robbins, one
of Mr. Slater's workmen, built a mill on the
Souhegan River, in New Ipswich. In 1807 an-
other mill was built on the same stream by Seth
Nason, Jesse Holton, and Samuel Batchelder; it
went into operation in 1808. These were the first
cotton-mills built in the state of New Hampshire.
From what was known of Ezra Worthen's consti-
tution and health, it was thought that his death
would be sudden. Mr. Batchelder had been
power sufficient for their purposes.
1 Samuel Batchelder eame to East Chelmsford in 1825. He
"Under the new arrangement, with Kirk Boott
was horn in JattVey, N. H.. in 1784, and died at Camhridge I'eh-
for its treasurer and agent, the Proprietors of Locks ruary 5, IST'J, aged ninety-tivx- years.