[Illustration:  FREE CHAPEL, 1860.]

The year 1818 also brought Winthrop Howe to town.  He started a mill for the manufacture of flannels at Wamesit Falls, in Belvidere, and continued in the business until 1827, when he sold out to Harrison G. Howe, who introduced power-looms, and who, in turn, sold the property to John Nesmith and others in 1831.  In the year 1819 a new bridge across the Concord River was built to replace the old one built in 1774.  About this time the dam across the Concord at Massic Falls was constructed, and the forging-mill of Fisher and Ames was built.  The works were extended in 1823, and continued by them until 1836, when the privilege was sold to Perez O. Richmond.

[Illustration:  KIRK BOOTT.  Born in Boston, October 20, 1790.  Died in Lowell, April 21, 1837.]

In 1821, the capabilities of Pawtucket Falls for maintaining vast mechanical industries were brought to the attention of a few successful manufacturers, who readily perceived its advantages and hastened to purchased the almost worthless stock of the Pawtucket Canal Company.  In November, Nathan Appleton, Patrick Tracy Jackson, Kirk Boott, Warren Dutton, Paul Moody, and John W. Boott, visited the canal, which they now controlled, perambulated the ground, and planned for the future.  February 5, 1822, these gentlemen and others were incorporated as the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, with Warren Dutton as president.  The first business of the new company was to erect a dam across the Merrimack at Pawtucket Falls, widen and repair Pawtucket Canal, renew the locks, and open a lateral canal from the main canal to the river, on the margin of which their mills were to stand.  Five hundred men were employed In digging and blasting, and six thousand pounds of powder were used.  The canal, as reconstructed, is sixty fee wide and eight feet deep.  The first mile of the company was completed and started September 1, 1823.  The first treasurer and agent was Kirk Boott, a man of great influence, who left his mark on the growing village.

[Illustration:  SECOND UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, SHATTUCK STREET.]

Paul Moody settled in the village in 1823, and took charge of the company’s machine-shop, which was completed in 1826.  Ezra Worthen was the first superintendent.  The founders of the Merrimack Company contemplated from the first the introduction of calico-printing.  In this they were successful, in 1826, when John D. Prince, from Manchester, England, took charge of the Merrimack print-works.  Mr. Prince was assisted by the chemist, Dr. Samuel L. Dana; and together they made the products of the mills famous in all parts of the globe.

[Illustration:  APPLETON-STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.]

In 1825, the old Locks and Canals Company of 1792 was re-established as a separate corporation, with the added right to purchase, hold, sell, or lease land and water-power, and the affairs of the company were placed in the hands of Kirk Boott.