The manufacture of cotton becoming a prominent industry in New England at this time, the alert mind of Daniel Anthony conceived the idea of building a factory and using the waters of Tophet brook and of a rapid little stream which flowed through the Read farm.  This was done, and proved a success from the beginning.  A document is still in existence by which “D.  Read agrees to let D. Anthony have as much water from the brook on his farm as will run through a hole six inches in diameter.”  This was conveyed by an aqueduct, made from hollow logs, to the factory where it turned the over-shot wheel and furnished power to the twenty-six looms.  The factory hands for the most part came down from the Green mountain regions, glad of an opportunity never before enjoyed of earning wages and supporting themselves.  They were girls of respectability, and, as was the custom then, boarded with the families of the mill-owners.  Those of the Anthony factory were divided between the wife and Hannah Anthony Hoxie, a married sister.  Lucy Anthony soon became acquainted with the stern realities of life.  Her third baby was born when the first was three years and two months old.  That summer she boarded eleven factory hands, who roomed in her house, and she did all the cooking, washing and ironing, with no help except that of a thirteen-year-old girl, who went to school and did “chores” night and morning.  The cooking for the family of sixteen was done on the hearth in front of the fire-place and in a big brick oven at the side.  Daniel Anthony was a generous man, loved his wife and was well able to hire help, but such a thing was not thought of at that time.  No matter how heavy the work, the woman of the household was expected to do it, and probably would have been the first to resent the idea that assistance was needed.

During the first seventeen years of this marriage eight children were born.  One died at birth and one at the age of two years.  The eldest, born July 1, 1818, was named for the wife of William Penn, who married a member of the Anthony family, Gulielma Penn, which was contracted to Guelma.  Susan was the second child, born February 15, 1820, and named for an aunt, Susan Anthony Brownell.  She herself adopted the initial “B” when older, but never claimed or liked the full name.[3]

[Illustration: 

  Birthplace of Susan B. Anthony, Adams, mass. 
  (Born in room shaded by tree.)]

Lucy Read Anthony was of a very timid and reticent disposition and painfully modest and shrinking.  Before the birth of every child she was overwhelmed with embarrassment and humiliation, secluded herself from the outside world and would not speak of the expected little one even to her mother.  That mother would assist her overburdened daughter by making the necessary garments, take them to her home and lay them carefully away in a drawer, but no word of acknowledgment