[Illustration:  SAINT ANNE’S CHURCH, 1840.]

President James K. Polk visited Lowell in 1847; and the city met with the loss of Patrick Tracy Jackson, a man whose name should be always honored in Lowell.  The great Northern Canal was completed this year by James B. Francis, the most distinguished hydraulic engineer in the United States.  It was a stupendous work and stands a monument to the genius of its constructor.  Daniel Webster, in company with Abbott Lawrence, rode along its dry channel, before the water was admitted, and fully appreciated the immense undertaking.

The Salem and Lowell Railroad was incorporated in 1848, and was opened for travel two years later.

The reservoir on Lynde’s Hill was constructed in 1849.

Gas was introduced, and the Court House on Gorham Street built, in 1850.

In 1851, Centralville, previously a part of Dracut, was included within the city limits, and the Lowell Reform School was established.

In 1852, George Wellman completed his first working model of his self top card stripper—­one of the most valuable inventions of the present century; Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, visited Lowell; and the Legislature of Massachusetts enacted the first prohibitory liquor law.

The City Hall was reconstructed in 1853.  The Lowell Jail was built in 1856.  Thomas H. Benton visited Lowell in 1857.  Washington Square was laid out in 1858.

[Illustration:  OLIVER M. WHIPPLE.]

During the dark days of the Rebellion, Lowell responded loyally to the appeal for soldiers and money, and of her young men many of the best were sacrificed to preserve the Union.

The fall of Fort Sumter produced a profound sensation in Lowell.  Four companies from the city hastened to join their regiment:  the Mechanic Phalanx, under command of Captain Albert S. Follansbee; the City Guards, Captain James W. Hart; the Watson Light Guard, Captain John F. Noyes, and the Lawrence Cadets (National Grays), Captain Josiah A. Sawtelle.  They assembled at Huntington Hall, the day after President Lincoln’s call for troops, and were mustered into the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment under command of Colonel Edward F. Jones.  They at once proceeded to Boston and were joined at Faneuil Hall by the other companies of the regiment and the next day were on their way to the seat of war.  A detachment of the regiment had to fight their way through a mob in Baltimore, and four of the Lowell City Guards were the first to lay down their lives in the great drama of war known as the Rebellion.  Addison O. Whitney and Luther C. Ladd, of Lowell, were the first martyrs; their last resting-place is commemorated by a monument in a public square of the city.  The regiment arrived at Washington, were quartered in the Senate Chamber, and formed the nucleus of the rapidly gathering Northern army.  The Hill Cadets, under Captain S. Proctor, and the Richardson Light Infantry, Captain Phineas A. Davis, were formed the day after the Baltimore riot.  The company known as the Abbott Grays, under Captain Edward Gardner Abbott, was organized five days later.  That called the Butler Rifles was organized May 1, by Eben James and Thomas O’Hare.