History of Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA

Lawrence, a post-town and semicapital of Essex county, Massachusetts, on the left (N.) bank of the Merrimack river, 26 miles N. from Boston, and 12 miles N. E. by E. from Lowell. This is one of those wonderful creations of the manufacturing enterprise of New England, under the influence of which, a petty village, or perhaps a tract without inhabitants, is almost instantaneously converted into a populous city. In 1845 the Essex company constructed a dam across the Merrimack river at this place, by which a fall of 28 feet in the entire volume of the river has been obtained. The work cost about $250,000. A canal, more than a mile long, and from 60 to 100 feet wide, and about 12 feet deep, con ducts the water from the dam to the different mills. The town is laid out on both sides of the Spicket river, but chiefly between the Spicket and Merrimack, with streets extending from river to river. Near the centre is a handsome common, comprising 17 1/ 2 acres. The principal public buildings are a ...

The collapse of Pemberton Mill has been deemed the worst industrial accident in Massachusetts history and one of the worst industrial disasters in American history. On January 10, 1860, the large factory in Lawrence collapsed without warning. An estimated 145 workers were killed and 166 injured. To add to the horror, someone accidentally knocked over an oil lantern during the rescue efforts. The flames caught on the mounds of cotton waste and splintered wood, turning the wreckage into an inferno with many survivors still trapped in the refuse and burned alive. Many of the workers at the mill had been women and young children.

Feeling her way in the dark to the child's crib, directed by a strong impulse, she put her finger into the little sleeper's mouth, and to her astonishment took from thence a large pin.