Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/35

 MANUFACTURING AT MANCHESTER.

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��their headquarters at this place, and upon an eminence near the east bank of the river, overlooking the falls and upon which now stinds the man- sion of ex-Go v. Smyth, Passacona- way, the chief of the tribe, resided. In 1810, the name of the town was changed to Manchester. Up to the year 1831, the town was of but little importance, and contained at that time only about 800 inhabitants, and, up to the time mentioned, no law- yer, physician or clergyman had settled in the town.

The city, which was incorporated in 1846, now contains about 25,000 inhabitants. The rise, growth and prosperity of this — the largest city in the State — has been almost wholly dependent upon its great manufac- turing interests. There are now in the city four large corporations, viz : the Amoskeag, the Stark, the Man- chester and the Langdon,with an ag- gregate capital of $6, 750, 000, besides many other manufacturing establish, ments of less importance. ,

In tracing the history of manufac- turing at Manchester, it is proper to state that cotton goods were manu- factured in 1809 at Amoskeag Vil- lage, which was then a part of Goffs- town. This village is situated on the west bank of the river opposite Amoskeag Falls and about a mile and a quarter from the business por- tion of the city. The first cotton mill in the State was built at New Ipswich in 1803. Benjamin Pritch- ard, who had been connected with the mill at New Ipswich, came to Amoskeag in 1809, and, joining him- self with others, built a mill and commenced the business of manufac- turing cotton cloth. The business proved successful and the next year

��a stock company, called the Amos- keag Cotton and Wool Company, was formed and incorporated. The machinery was for spinning alone. The cotton was picked and the yarn was woven by the women belonging in the vicinity. The price paid for weaving averaged about 3 1-2 cents per yard, according to the fineness, and a smart weaver could earn about 36 cents per day.

In 1825, the property was sold to a new company, and a machine shop and two new mills were erected and the manufacture of sheetings, shirt- ings and tickings was commenced. The tickings soon acquired a great popularity, as they were the best which were then manufactured in the country. The trade mark upon the tickings, consisted of the letters A. C. A. The first two letters standing for Amoskeag Company and the last letter A., signifying the first class or quality of the goods. This trade mark has been used by the company at Amoskeag and its successor, the Amoskeag Manufac- turing Company, for upwards of fifty years. The operations of the com- pany at Amoskeag were very suc- cessful. Many new buildings were erected and the village became quite prosperous.

In 1830 an examination of the ter- ritory bordering on the east bank of the river, a short distance below the falls by engineers developed the fact that there were splendid sites for mills at that point and that a vast hydraulic power could be obtained by conducting canals leading from the river just above the falls and ter- minating at a point about a mile and a quarter below. The fall in the river at the falls is about 60 feet.

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