History of Lowell, (Middlesex County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Local History Notes:

LOWELL, a city and one of the capitals of Middlesex county, Massachusetts, is situated on the right bank of the Merrimack where it receives the Concord river, and at the terminus of five railroads, which communicate with the principal cities on the seaboard, and with various sections of the interior, 25 miles N. by W. from Boston. Lat. 42° 38' 46" N., lon. 71° 19' 2" W. In the extent and variety of its manufactures this city may be regarded as without a rival in the United States. The site has many inequalities of surface, but is regularly laid out with streets intersecting each other at right angles. In different sections are two public squares. The one in the southern part of the city, called South Square, has an ample area, which is being graded and beautifully ornamented. The private edifices are for the most part spacious and elegant; those occupied as boarding-houses for the 15,000 operatives employed in the mills, will compare favorably with the better class of residences in other American cities. The principal public edifices are the Court House, Mechanics' Hall, a market-house, and the churches, of which there are 22, viz. 1 Episcopal, 3 Roman Catholic, 4 Baptist, 3 Congregational, 3 Universalist, 3 Methodist, 2 Unitarian, 2 Orthodox, and 1 ministry at large. A new court house was erected by the county two or three years since, at a cost of about $100,000; it is fire-proof throughout, and a very handsome structure. A costly railroad depôt has been erected within the present year, the upper story of which contains a large hall for the use of the city council. The literary and educational institutions of Lowell are highly respectable. Among the most prominent may be mentioned the Mechanic Association, incorporated in 1825, with a fund of $25,000. It has a valuable library of about 6000 volumes, reading room, philosophical apparatus, &c. The City School Library, comprising about 9500 vols., is owned by the city, and accessible to all upon the annual payment of fifty cents. A hospital was established in 1839 by the several manufacturing companies, chiefly for the benefit of persons in their employ. Lowell has an excellent system of public instruction. It comprises 48 primary, 3 intermediate, 110 grammar schools, and 1 high-school, for the maintenance of which about $44,000 have been appropriated in 1853. The press consists of 4 daily and 4 weekly papers. The total number of pupils for this year is about 9500.

The almost unrivalled advantages which Lowell enjoys for manufacturing are derived from a descent of 30 feet in the Merrimack, known as the Pawtucket Falls, which, by the aid of canals and locks, furnishes an immense hydraulic power. The original design of the first canal was to provide a passage for boats and rafts from Concord river to the head of the falls. In 1822, a company, entitled the Proprietors of Locks and Canals on Merrimack River, commenced the enlargement of this channel for the purpose of securing an extensive and available water-power for the propulsion of machinery. Its present dimensions are, length, a mile and a half, breadth, 60 feet, and depth, from 6 to 8 feet. In 1847, the old canal proving in some degree inadequate to the rapidly increasing demand, a new one of greater capacity was constructed, averaging 100 feet wide, 15 feet deep, and nearly a mile in length, costing upwards of $600,000. The same corporation are the proprietors of all the principal water privileges at Lowell, and also of most of the lands adjoining the falls on both sides of the river, in the short space of three months, the Lowell Machine Shop is prepared to furnish machinery for a mill with a capacity for 6000 spindles: the mill can be built in the same period. In 1852 there were 12 manufacturing corporations in Lowell, owning 51 mills, and employing an aggregate capital of $13,900,000. The number of hands engaged were, males, 4163; females, 8470; total, 12,633. Number of spindles in operation, 342,722; looms, 10,606; cotton consumed during the year, 91,650 bales; wool, 5,158,000 pounds; iron in machine shops, 4500 tons; anthracite coal, 30,576 tons; charcoal, 68,350 bushels; wood, 3220 cords; whale and sperm oil, 69,607 gallons; lard, 47,000 gallons; and starch 1,400,000 pounds. The weekly products of the looms were, cotton cloth, 2,087,000 yards osnaburgs, 90,000 yards; woollens, 27,000 yards; carpets, 25,000 yards; cotton goods dyed and printed, 300,000 yards. The medium produce of a loom per day is about 45 yards of No. 14 yarn, and 33 yards of No. 30 yarn. Average produce of a spindle per day, 1 1/4 yards. The average wages of males per week, clear of board, are about $4.80, and of females, $2.00. Among the 12 corporations, the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, with a capital of $2,500,000, may be mentioned as one of the most extensive. It annually makes use of 1,000,000 pounds of madder, 38,000 pounds of copperas, 60,000 pounds of alum, 50,000 pounds of sumac, 45,000 pounds of indigo, and 40,000 pounds of soap. The Middlesex Company annually use 6,000,000 teasels, 2,000,000 pounds of fine wool, 50,000 pounds of glue, $30,000 worth of dyestuffs, and $13,000 worth of soap. Other manufactures, in addition to those above specified, embracing powder, paper, batting, &c., are annually produced to the value of $1,500,000, employing a capital of $400,000, and about 1500 operatives.

Comparatively few adults are natives of Lowell; about one-third of the whole population are foreigners, principally Irish; the other two-thirds are nearly all from the different New England states, New Hampshire and Maine furnishing a large portion. Very great efforts are made to avoid the usual objections to a manufacturing city arising from immorality. No female of doubtful reputation is employed in any of the mills, and even a reasonable suspicion of any impropriety of conduct is, by an arrangement among all the manufacturing companies, sufficient to procure her discharge and to prevent her employment in any other manufactory in the city. The result is a highly respectable community, in which the daughters of the worthy farmers of New Hampshire and Maine find profitable work and agreeable society, without a suggestion that the employment is in any degree derogatory to their reputation. They remain only about three years on the average. Lowell has 5 banks, an insurance company, and 2 savings institutions. The amount deposited in the latter, November 1st, 1851, was $812,598.63, and the number of depositors, 6224, nearly all of whom were persons employed in the mills. A reservoir of great capacity has been built on an elevation, in Belvidere, east of the city, for the purpose of furnishing a ready supply of water to any part of Lowell in cases of fire. The water is conveyed into the reservoir by forcing-pumps from the Lowell Machine Shop, and thence by distributing pipes to the city hydrants, to which hose can be attached when necessary. The annual expenditures of the government are about $200,000. The mills are all heated by steam and lighted with gas. The name of Lowell is derived from Francis C. Lowell, a gentleman of Boston, distinguished for his efforts to introduce the manufacture of cotton into the United States. It was incorporated a town in 1826, and a city in 1836. When the enlargement of the canal was commenced in 1822, the territory included within the limits of Lowell contained less than 200 inhabitants. In 1830 the population was 6474; in 1840, 20,796; in 1850, 33,385; and in September, 1853, about 37,000.

Biographies:

David (Dalhoff) Neal, artist, was born in Lowell, Mass., Oct. 20, 1838; son of Stephen Bryant and Mary (Dalhoff) Neal, and grandson of Stephen Neal and of David Dalhoff. His first ancestor in America, Christoph Logadin Dalhoff, immigrated to New Amsterdam from Holland in 1830. He attended the high school at Lawrence, Mass., and a private academy in Andover, N.H. Deciding to devote himself to the study of art, he removed to San Francisco, Cal., where he made drawings on wood. He studied in the Royal academy, Munich, and under Maximilian Ainm?ller and Alexander Wagner. He was married, Dec. 9, 1862, to Marie, daughter of Maximilian Ainm?ller of Munich. She died Sept. 29, 1897. In 1870, under the direction of Carl von Pilotz, he gave his attention entirely to figure painting. Among his earlier paintings are: The Chapel of the Nonberg Convent, Salzburg (1864); Chapel of the Kings, Westminster (1869); St. Marks (1869); On the Grand Canal Venice (1869). His figure subjects of later period include: Retour du Chasse (1870); James Watt (1873); The Burgomaster (1873); The First Meeting of Mary Stuart and Rizzio (1876), which received the highest award at the Royal academy of Munich; Oliver Cromwell Visits John Milton (1883); Nuns at Prayer (belonging to the Royal Gallery, Stuttgart) (1884); Admiral du Quesne receives Louis XIV. on board the flagship Louis Le Grand, at Cherbourg (1885); Boy with Violin (1887). His later and more notewortby work consists of portraits, the most important being those of: Countess Lerchenfeld, the Rev. Mark Hopkins, Mrs. W. C. Whitney, Mrs. Harrison Garrett, the Hon. Adolph Sutro (Paris, 1890), Governor Nesmith, Judge Ogden Hoffman (for the U.S. District Court room, San Francisco, Cal)., Rev. Dr. William Henry Green (for the Lenox Library, Princeton university), D. O. Mills, the Misses Mills, Whitelaw Reid, Miss Reid. Mr. Neal made his home in Europe, visiting America occasionally.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

George Whitfield Chadwick, musician, was born in Lowell, Mass., Nov. 13, 1854; son of Alonzo C. and Hannah G. Chadwick. He was educated in the public schools of Lawrence, and in 1872 went to Boston, where for three years he studied under Eugene Thayer. He then taught music for a year at Olivet (Mich.) college, and in 1877 went to Germany, studying at Leipsic under Jadassohn and Reinecke, and at Munich under Rheinberger. At the close of his musical studies at Leipsic he composed an overture entitled Rip Van Winkle which was performed at a conservatory concert in Leipsic. He returned to Boston in 1880, and the Rip Van Winkle overture was given at a Handel and Haydn festival in Boston, with Mr. Chadwick as conductor, and also by the Harvard musical association. He was made instructor in harmony and composition at the New England conservatory of music, and in 1881 conducted the music of the Oedipus in Boston and in New York. In 1887 he became conductor of the Boston orchestral club, and in 1890 of the Springfield festival association. In 1891 he was commissioned to compose the music of the ode for the dedication of the buildings of the Columbian exposition. In 1893 his Symphony in F major gained for him the prize of three hundred dollars offered by the national conservatory of music in New York. He composed the music of the opera Tabasco first performed by the 1st corps of cadets in Boston in 1894. In February, 1897, he was chosen to succeed Carl Faelton as director of the New England conservatory. Among his choral works are: The Vikings' Last Voyage, Ph?nix Expirans, The Lily Nymph, The Lovely Rosabelle, and The Pilgrim's Hymn; and his orchestral works include the overtures Thalia, Melpomene, and Rip Van Winkle; also A Pastorale Prelude, Jubilee, Noel, and A Vagrom Ballad; symphonic sketches for orchestra, and twelve songs from Arlo Bates's "Told in the Gate."

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Louis Henry Dow, educator, was born in Lowell, Mass., April 1, 1872; son of Thomas E. and Mary J. (Burbeck) Dow; and grandson of Thomas E. and Frances (Brown) Dow, and of Samuel Noyes and Eliza Jane (Irving) Burbeck. He was prepared for college at the Lowell high school and was graduated at Harvard, A.B., 1890, and A.M., 1894. He was an instructor in Greek at Dartmouth, 1895-96, and a student at the Sorbonne, France, 1896-97. In 1896 he accepted the chair of the French language at Dartmouth. He was married, July 16, 1896, to Rebecca Rumrill of Springfield, Mass.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

William Franklin Draper, diplomatist, was born at Lowell, Mass., April 9, 1842; son of George and Hannah (Thwing) Draper, and a descendant of Maj. Abijah Draper of Dedham, who fought in the Revolutionary war. The years 1858-61 were largely occupied in work in machine shops and cotton mills, and in studying the manufacture and operation of cotton machinery. He was prepared to enter Harvard in 1861 but the war put an end to his plan for a university education, and on Aug. 9, 1861, he enlisted in a volunteer company which his father was instrumental in raising and which became Company B, of the 25th Massachusetts regiment. He was chosen its second lieutenant and was attached to General Burnside's staff as signal officer, taking part in the battles of Roanoke Island, Newbern, and Fort Macon, at which last he was promoted first lieutenant, and returned to his regiment. In August, 1862, he was commissioned captain of the 36th Massachusetts volunteers and served through the remainder of the Antietam campaign, including the battle of Sharpsburg, Sept. 16-17, 1862, and the battle of Fredericksburg, Dec. 11-15, 1862. Later he spent several months in a pursuit of Morgan's and other bands of guerillas in Kentucky. In June, 1863, he shared in the capture of Vicksburg and in the subsequent march to Jackson, Miss. For his service in this campaign he was promoted major. He took part in the clarence of Knoxville, in August, 1863, and in the battles of Blue Springs, Tenn., Oct. 10, 1863; Campbell's station, Nov. 16, 1863, and Strawberry Plains, having command of his regiment after October 10. In the spring of 1864 he was attached to the Army of the Potomac. In the battle of the Wilderness, May 5-7, 1864, he was shot through the body while leading his regiment in the capture of a rifle pit, May 6, and was captured by, and recaptured from the Confederates, and finally sent to a hospital in Washington. For his gallantry on this occasion he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel. When only partially recovered from his wound he joined his regiment during the siege of Petersburg, and held command of a brigade at the engagement on the Weldon railroad, Aug. 18-21, 1864 and a month later, at Poplar Spring church. He was wounded in the shoulder at Pegram Farm, Sept. 30, 1864. On Oct. 12, 1864, he was honorably discharged with the brevets of colonel and brigadier-general for "gallant service during the war." General Draper then engaged in the manufacture of cotton machinery, as a member of his father's firm of George Draper & Sons. After his father's death in 1887 he became the head of the firm. He served on the staff of Governor Long, 1880-83; was a delegate to the convention that nominated President Hayes, in 1876; and an elector-at-large on the ticket that elected President Harrison in 1888. He was a representative in the 53d and 54th congresses, 1893-97. In 1897 he was appointed ambassador to Italy by President McKinley. He was president of the Home Market club in 1891 and 1892. He was married first in 1862, to Lydia W. Joy, who died in 1884; and secondly May 22, 1890, to Susan Christy, daughter of Maj.-Gen. William Preston of Kentucky, U.S. minister to Spain under President Buchanan.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor