“Mill Girls” was the last program for the New Hampshire Circle of Home and Family’s Halcyon Seekers before we take a summer break. I’m sure many folks remember when the textile mills in New Hampshire were up and running. A majority of people in the area worked in the mills. At one time, New Hampshire had 32 of them.

Textile mill technology was brought to America by Samuel Slater. At the time, it was a crime to bring any drawings or designs out of England, but Samuel Slater had worked there in all areas of the textile industry and was able to reproduce textile machinery in the Colonies.

The first mill was built in Rhode Island in 1790 and was run by the “Slater System.” An adult supervised, while children and teenagers ran the mill, and mom stayed home.

In 1813, Francis Cabot Lowell built a mill in Waltham, Massachusetts, and developed the “Lowell System” which recruited young women aged 17 to 20 to work in the mills. Actually, children as young as 10 worked in the mills. This technology moved through the New England states.

The employment market from farms was ripe, as farms were failing due to the short growing season, over-working the soil, and not replacing the nutrients.

The working day at the mill was from 5 AM to 7 PM, six days a week . Women worked in hot, airless rooms with extremely loud noise from the clacking of the looms. They received $5 per week.

The girls lived in boarding houses, 25 to a house and up to six in a room. They were very strictly supervised and had to attend church on Sunday. The mill paid 25 cents per week toward their food.

The mill provided classes and lectures, but the girls were often too tired to attend. It sounds like a difficult life, but if you were working on a farm from dawn to dusk for nothing, it wasn’t too bad.

Mills eventually left the area for the south, to be closer to the cotton supply and cheaper labor. By the 1950s, most of the textile mills had been replaced by shoe manufacturers. There is a wonderful museum in Manchester in the old mill yard complex which traces the rise and fall of the textile industry.

We will meet again in September, when our program will be “Food Gifts.” If you are interested in joining our group, call 735-5493.