SNIPPET: Lowell, Massachusetts became known as Spindle City because of the amount of textile mills there from the 1820s onwards. As the home of the American Industrial Revolution, and because of its location 28 miles north of Boston, it became home to many Irish who used it either as a first stop on their travels around the U. S. or as a permanent base. Lowell's place in American industrial history was founded on water power and location. The Merrimack river, which was diverted into the Pawtucket canal, provided the power to the mills. The raw cotton came from the Southern states and cheap cotton material was turned out at a rate of nearly a million yards per week by 1846. Initially labour was provided mainly by women from the New England states. This was the introduction of work ouside the home for them and raised fears among parents for their well-being. These fears were lessened somewhat with the provision, by the mill bosses, of supervised boarding houses in Lowell. These were the first American homes of many Irish women and a glance at the census returns shows their origins -- mainly west of a line from Sligo to Cork. The story of the 'mill girl' and immigrants is told in a Working People's Exhibit in Lowell. By the 1840s there was stiff competition from other cotton producing towns in New England which caused the mill owners in Lowell to reduce their production costs through increased productivity. This was followed by a reduction in wages - the final straw - leading to worker walk-outs. At this point the families of the Irish settlers who had dug the canals and built the mills, and the emigrants from famine-torn Ireland, had joined the work force. They took on the lowly jobs first and then progressed to spinning and weaving. Their reaction also to wage cuts was the same as that of the Yankees -- in 1859 Irish spinners resisted wage cuts by a walk-out and other disturbances. The majority of Irish families lived in the Acre - a public housing scheme which accommodated most of the mill workers. These included Poles, Armenians, Greeks, Portuguese and Italians with a minority of Russians and Jews. As well as providing accommodation, the Acre often became a battleground where tensions, often originating in the mills, was released. The ACW brought an end to the Golden Age of Lowell as a textile producing city. As the cotton supply from the southern states was cut off during the war the woolen mills produced the navy blue cloth worn by Union soldiers. After the war cotton production resumed on a smaller scale with the manpower once more being provided by immigrants from Europe and French Canadians. This time industrialisation diversified; as well as the cotton mils there were small wollen mills, the latter producing carpets and upholstery material for train interiors. A range of haberdashery items (elastic, laces, thread, tapes and cords) was produced in the smaller cotton factories and a huge tannery, the American Hide and Leather, went into operation. Machinery and machine parts were also produced. By 1900, 75% of the city's population of 90 thousand were first and second generation immigrants and 42% were foreign born - showing the importance of migration labour there. Worker protection was scant in Lowell mills, as owners co-operated to prevent labour unions becoming sufficiently organiised to work effectively on behalf of their members. As a result of labour disorganisation state regulations on working conditions were difficult to implement. The mills got a last boost in wartime as demand for uniforms, flags, parachute and blankets increased. The introduction of rayon in the 1930s sounded the death knell for cotton, and Lowell in the 1960s, was saved by light industry and electronics. The era of the mill was gone forever: Merrimack, Appleton, MA, and many others became mere memories. Many of them are now museums and the Pawtucket Canal transports visitors aorund the once industrial part of the city which, at one time, had more spindles and looms that any other part of the U. S. Because of its history, Lowell holds the stories of many Irish who worked and died there. Some resources useful in researching antecedents in Lowell include: St. Patrick's Cemetery, 1251 Gorham St., Lowell, the final resting place of many Irish. It is mainly a Catholic cemetery but since 1900 some non-Catholics have been buried there. A letter to the cemetery office may establish date of death and the cemetery office maps help locate graves within the cemetery. There are other cemeteries in and near the town which include St. Mary's, St. Joseph's, Chelmsfort, etc. In the Pollard Memorial Library, Merrimack St., Lowell, you will find Lowell newspapers after 1860. The library also holds runs of Lowell vital records. Once you have a date of death, the obituary notices in the Lowell papers may be checked. These often contain particulars of family members in Lowell but also indicate family memers living elsewhere in the country and sometimes even in Ireland. Such information is vital in establishing whether your research is on the "right track". The National Archives, New England Region, Trapelo Road, Waltham, MA, has federal records such as census, naturalization and immigration records for the years 1790-1920 (perhaps 1930, now), on microfilm in the NA Office. The census data is important to establish where peoplel lived at a particular time and the work they were engaged in. The MA State Archives, Columbia Point, Boston, has births, marriages and deaths 1840-1900 and a wide range of city and town maps. The University of MA, Centre for Lowell History, 40 French St., has a microfilmed collection of newspapers, census records, WWI draft cards, marriage records 1840-1900. There is also an excellent series of indices for census records and obits. (Please check for other area cemeteries, additions to collections in all the above respositories since 1999). -- Excerpts, Brid HESLIN, "Irish Roots" genealogy magazine published in Cork, 1999 issue #1.