that did not suffer by a comparison with similar products from the south and west, and he was enabled to keep on sale, all the offerings of the mill, and the various kinds of grain in use.

He had equal success in the manufacture of lumber, and consequently for a time secured a generous patronage in both departments of business.

In process of time the proprietors of the Longley mills —having had long success in business, and growing somewhat remiss in the fulfilment of their engagements to their customers were quickened into renewed activity by the establishing of a new corn-mill a little way up the Catacunemaug, and on the same side of the stream. This third mill, within the limits of the town, was erected by John Edgarton, Esq., but it was too near the old establishment to succeed, especially as its rival took the wise hint to enlarge its facilities, and to more promptly meet the wants of its patrons. After a few years trial the new enterprise yielded to its competitor and was abandoned or was converted to some other purpose.

The fourth grist-mill, with which a saw-mill was connected, was builded by Joshua Longley, Esq., in 1790. It stood on the banks of the Nashua, and it occupied the only water-privilege offered by that noble stream in its passage through the town. After the death of Mr. Longley, these mills were sustained by different owners for several years, when they gave place to other enterprises; but were subsequently renewed in all their original vigor, (to which a shingle-mill was added,) by Eli Page and Sons, who in other ways greatly increased the facilities of their water-power. Being in that portion of Shirley recently annexed to Ayer, an account of their subsequent changes does not properly claim a place in this history.

In the winter of 1829, Samuel Hazen erected a sawmill on the northern branch of the Catacunemaug, which was made ready for use on the first day of the following March. It was continued until the summer of 1856, when

it was swept away by the reservoir disaster, an account of the devastations of which event the reader will find fully given in another part of this history.

The building of this saw-mill prepared the way for the establishment of a small village, known by the name of "the North Bend," the seat of other enterprises which will be noticed in their appropriate places. When Mr. Hazen broke ground to set up his mill the site of this village was a swamp, covered by a coarse jungle,—over which a few forest trees were scattered, and of little interest to any human being, except the occasional hunter, and his kinsman the trapper.

In the years 1836-7 a saw-mill was built on Mulpus Brook-a few rods above its junction with the Nashua river-by Peter Page. After one or two years its original proprietor died, and the ownership of the mill passed through that state of fluctuation which awaits embarrassed property, until the year 1856, when it was purchased by Wm. White & Co., and has since probably done a larger business than any similar establishment in town. On the 8th of March, 1857, it was consumed, with all its contents, by fire communicated through a defect in the stove. It has since been rebuilt with enlargements and improve

ments.

Of course the first want of a new settlement is food, and this want must be supplied by the labor of the hands. The brooks and rivers may abound in fish, and the forests with game, and from these sources much good may come, but all cannot take the place of bread. That must be supplied by a different and more trying process. The lands must be cleared and tilled, for grain-culture, and this requires a large amount of labor. And it was no small trial, with the settlers of Shirley, to have this grain converted into meal; but all this labor, as a matter of course, generally devolved on the male population. Yet, think not that the other sex were excused from a mighty exercise of toil and trial, such as devolves upon life in new settlements. It was by their hands that the clothing

was wrought. It is true they avoided many labors now too common and too much sought. They had few large houses, with varied suits of rooms, to keep clean and adorn; little costly furniture to daily inspect and carefully adjust; no time required to observe special rules of etiquette; no dress fashions to follow, to fret the mind and enslave the body, no frequent varying of the attire to claim the thought and attention and action. For, they mostly lived in rude, unfinished cottages, used household implements of the commonest and coarsest kinds, and wore fabrics for clothing, their own handy work, manufactured and made within their scanty domicilesmanufactures that well performed the office required of their makers. And here their chief toil lay, to convert the raw material, as it came from the field and the flock, into garments of use, comfort and comeliness, and thus supply the second great want of human existence. This constitutes a source of the highest praise of the mothers and daughters of early New England!

Until comparatively within a few years, it was the custom of the northern settlers of our country to keep a few sheep, enough to furnish wool to supply the "everyday wear" of the family, and not unfrequently the "Sunday suits" of the younger members. The winter bedmaterial was supplied from the same source. It was the intention of the farmers to annually raise a little flax also, that the summer wants of the family might be supplied. The work of the father and sons was completed when the sheep were shorn of their fleeces, and the flax cleared from its rough stalks. The work of the mothers and daughters then commenced. Both the wool and the flax

converted into rolls by the slow and laborious process of hand carding. These rolls were spun into yarn, and the yarn was woven into cloth, by hand-power machinery.

At a subsequent period the breaking and rolling was done by water-power machinery, while the spinning and weaving were yet performed at the family hearth-stone.

The outfit of girls, entering married life, at that period did not consist of gilt mirrors, costly piano-fortes, and Turkey carpets, but of hand cards, spinning-wheels, flax hatchels, warping-bars and looms; these were essentials in every household establishment, and the girl who was unskilled in the use of these implements was hardly considered worthy of the family relation. Let it not be forgotten that the health and strength of the damsels of that day, who were trained in these onerous employments, were as much superior to what is enjoyed by the modern belles, as the fabrics their hands wrought were superior, in durability, to the linsey-woolsey of the present day, which oftentimes passes under the specious name of superfine broadcloth.

As establishments for dyeing and dressing cloth had not been invented when the colonists spread themselves over the northern regions of our land; and, as even the small dye-pot, with its uses and perfumery, had not then been made to grace the chimney corner, some other means must be adopted whereby apparel could be made comely as well as comfortable. Sheep were accordingly bred of different colors-black and white-and when the mixture was converted into cloth, it made a fabric of sober gray, and formed garments of which no Puritan descendant need be ashamed. From this material both sexes were prepared with a defence against cold by day and by night. The wide striped frock and trousers were for every-day wear, and the grey coat and small-clothes made a comfortable rig for Sunday. The women wore fabrics of a similar texture, yet of finer stripe. The boys had their grey roundabouts and trousers, made when the winter school term commenced; and could sport their new tow trousers as soon as election day, which was a season of relaxation, when they would wend their joyful way, with fish-pole and tackle, to some pond or brook for a holiday enjoyment. These were halcyon times, when labor prevented ennui, and sameness of life prevented rivalry.

Think of the mothers and their daughters in the humble garret, laboring with hand-cards on massive piles of wool and flax-or plying the spinning-wheel, with a gentle hum of music, an affected imitation of the last psalm tune sung at church-or, sending forth continuous jolts of the lumbering loom,-while in a vessel over the kitchen fire below, gently boiled an Indian pudding for the family dinner, and you have a partially wrought picture of those early times. To be sure the wheel and the loom did not create the musical harmony of the modern piano; yet they wrought out a work, which ministered to the. comfort which was, in one relation, the physical salvation of the family.

Let it be remembered also that the damsels of that day wore natural teeth until past middle life, unimpaired by decay, and not often the medium of pain; they also carried two lips and a pair of cheeks as radiant of the pink and rose, as any in modern times. They were as agile as trained dancers, and many of them were of sufficient strength to accomplish the work of men. In all things they were worthy maternal ancestors of a worthy race.

In the course of events these burdens were in a measure removed by the introduction of water-power machinery. The brooks and rivers that run through the town, and had only been required to propel the wheels of saw and grist-mills, were now called to an additional tribute for their passage. The people, both male and female, had grown tired of the colors with which unaided nature had adorned their apparel; they therefore sought the aid of art in making their homespun and home-woven garments of lighter, smoother, and finer texture. Hence, the dyeing, fulling, shearing and pressing processes were added to give domestic cloth a higher finish. These processes were run in one establishment, and were unitedly called a clothing-mill. Mills of this character were introduced into the colonies sometime during the first century of their settlement, and very soon the process of breaking and rolling wool was added, thereby greatly relieving the home labor of cloth-making.