LAWRENCE | 231 |
N. W. part. The Atlantic and Pacific railroad passes through the S. E. corner. The chief productions in 1870 were 135,838 bushels of wheat, 621,495 of Indian corn, 222,723 of oats, 40,225 of potatoes, 21,770 lbs. of tobacco, 24,514 of wool, 148,164 of butter, 2,696 tons of hay, and 66 bales of cotton. There were 6,917 horses, 991 mules and asses, 4,043 milch cows, 6,149 other cattle, 12,444 sheep, and 22,076 swine; 5 flour mills, 8 saw mills, and 3 wool-carding and cloth-dressing establishments. Capital, Mount Vernon.
LAWRENCE, a city and one of the shire towns of Essex co., Massachusetts, situated on both sides of the Merrimack river, here crossed by two bridges, about 26 m. from its mouth, 22 m. N. of Boston, and 10 m. N. E. of Lowell; pop. in 1850, 8,282; in 1860, 17,639; in 1870, 28,921, of whom 12,717 were foreigners. There were 5,287 families and 3,443 dwellings. The Spicket river crosses the N. portion of the city and falls into the Merrimack, and the Shawsheen forms a portion of the S. and E. boundary. Near the centre of the N. section of the city is a common of 17½ acres, ornamented with a fountain, the water for which is supplied by a reservoir on Prospect hill, an eminence 140 ft. high. In the S. section are Union square and a trotting park. The city cemetery is in the N. W. part of the N. section. The principal public buildings are the county court house, county jail, city hall, high school building, masonic temple, music hall, and odd fellows' hall.
Railroad communication is furnished by the Boston and Maine, the Eastern, the Manchester and Lawrence, and the Lowell and Lawrence lines, and horse cars run to the adjoining towns. The industry of Lawrence is chiefly devoted to cotton and woollen manufactures. Water power is collected by a dam across the Merrimack, built in 1845-'8 at a cost of $250,000. It is a granite structure 1,629 ft. long, 35 ft. thick at the base, 12 ft. thick at the crown, and 40½ ft. high at the deepest part of the river. The basin formed by it extends back 9 m. to Hunt's falls at Lowell. At the source of the Merrimack in Lake Winnipiseogee there is also a dam with locks for regulating the supply of water to Lowell and Lawrence, and providing against droughts. The distributing canal, 1 m. long, 12 ft. deep, 100 ft. wide at the head and 60 ft. wide at the mouth, is on the N. side of the river; its cost, including locks, was $200,000. These works were constructed by the Essex company, incorporated in 1845, which still controls them, selling and leasing mill sites. The statistics of the principal cotton and woollen manufacturing establishments appear in the following table:
CORPORATIONS. | Date of incorporation. |
Capital. | No. of looms. | Spindles. | Operatives. | Yards manufactured per week. |
Atlantic cotton mills | 1846 | $1,500,000 | 1,800 | 87,000 | 1,250 | 430,000 |
Lawrence duck company | 1853 | 300,000 | 70 | 8,000 | 250 | 25,000 |
Pacific mills | 1853 | 2,500,000 | 3,672 | 136,609 | 4,299 | 80,000 |
Washington mills | 1858 | 1,650,000 | 1,265 | 61,560 | 2,900 | ...... |
Everett mills | 1860 | 800,000 | 788 | 33,000 | 1,060 | 135,000 |
Pemberton company | 1860 | 450,000 | 669 | 28,000 | 850 | 100,000 |
Lawrence woollen company | 1863 | 150,000 | 40 (broad) | ..... | 120 | ...... |
Arlington woollen mills | 1865 | 240,000 | 330 | 4,480 | 350 | ...... |
Total | .... | $7,590,000 | 8,634 | 358,649 | 11,079 | ...... |
The Pacific mills have extensive print works, and the Washington mills a large dye house. The Atlantic mills manufacture sheetings and shirtings; the Pacific mills, calicoes, shirtings, lawns, delaines, alpacas, serges, and other worsted dress goods; the Washington mills, cambrics, shawls, broadcloths, doeskins, opera flannels, and other worsted goods; the Everett mills, cotton fancy cassimeres, ginghams, poplins, pantaloons stuffs, and dress goods; the Pemberton company, a variety of cotton and woollen goods; the Arlington mills, ladies'