was opened to the public, July 4, 1835.  The cars and locomotive would be a curiosity to-day.  The former, resembling Concord coaches, were divided by a partition into two compartments, each entered by two doors, on the sides.  The interiors of the compartments were upholstered with drab-colored cashmere, and each accommodated eight passengers.  The conductor and engineer had each a silver whistle.  After the former had ascertained the destination of each passenger and collected the necessary fare, he would close the car doors, climb to his place in a cab at the top of the coach, and whistle to the engineer as a signal for starting.  The engineer, who was protected by no cab, would respond with his whistle, when the train would dash out of the station.  The brakes were such as are used on a coach, and it was a scientific matter, when the engineer gave his warning-whistle to break up a train on arriving at a station.  The rails were secured to granite ties, by means of cast-iron plates, and the road was very, very solid.  Frost soon rendered it necessary to introduce wooden ties, and nothing has yet been discovered which can be used as a substitute for them.

[Illustration:  JOHN NESMITH.  Born in Londonderry, New Hampshire, August 3, 1793.]

The Lowell Railroad was not the first opened in the United States, but it was the first passenger road in successful operation in New England.

In 1831, the Railroad Bank was established.

In 1832, the Suffolk and Tremont Mills were established.

In 1833, the town felt the need of a police court, and one was established.  Joseph Locke was the first justice.  During the same year the Lawrence Mills were started; and the town was visited by President Andrew Jackson and members of his Cabinet, and later by the great statesman, Henry Clay.

In 1834, Belvidere was included in Lowell, and the town had the honor of entertaining Colonel David Crockett, George Thompson, M.P., the English abolitionist (not cordially), and M. Chevalier, the French political economist.

In 1835, Joel Stone, of Lowell, and Joseph P. Simpson, of Boston, built the steamboat Herald, for navigating between Lowell and Nashua, but the enterprise proved a failure; the Nashua and Lowell Railroad Company was incorporated; the Lowell Almshouse was started; the hall of the Middlesex Mechanics’ Association was built; and the Lowell Courier, the oldest daily newspaper in Middlesex County, was established.

[Illustration:  SUFFOLK-STREET ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.]

In 1836, the population of Lowell was 17,633.  During the year the Boott
Mills were started, and a city charter was adopted.

[Illustration:  THE THIRD UNIVERSALIST CHURCH.  Now Barristers’ Hall.]