The fire-alarm telegraph was introduced in 1871; in August, trains on the Lowell and Framingham Railroad commenced running; in November, the new iron bridge across the Merrimack was finished; during the year, the city suffered severely from the scourge of small-pox.

The boundaries of Lowell were extended, in 1873, to include Middlesex Village, taken from Chelmsford, and a part of Dracut and Tewksbury.  A new railroad by the way of Andover connected Lowell with Boston in 1874.

[Illustration:  OLD FIRST UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, Which stood on site of the Boston and Maine Railroad Station.]

The city celebrated the semi-centennial of its incorporation, March 1, 1876.

The Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil visited the city in June of the same year.

The Lowell Art Association was formed in May, 1878.  In December of that year the waters of the Merrimack rose nearly eleven feet on Pawtucket Dam; in the same month the Merrimack Company introduced the electric light.

[Illustration:  JOHN DYNELY PRINCE.  Born in England, 1780.  Died January 5, 1860.]

Merrimack Company introduced the electric light.

In August, 1880, Boston and Lowell were connected by telephone.

As one glances over the history of Lowell, he recognizes the fact that the city has gained its prominence, its wealth, and its population, chiefly through the great corporations, and the wisdom of their early managers; accordingly the record of these corporate bodies is intimately connected with the annals of the city.  The reader has noted the fact that the first impetus was given to the place by the acts of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company.  This company was incorporated February 5, 1822; and the first mill was started the following year.  The company is not only the oldest in the city but is the largest, employing the most operatives and producing the most cloth; their chimney, two hundred and eighty-three feet high, is the tallest in the country.

Ezra Worthen, the first superintendent of the mills, died, suddenly, June 18, 1824, and was succeeded by Warren Colburn, the author of the popular arithmetic.  Mr. Colburn died September 13, 1833, and was succeeded by John Clark, who held the office until 1848.  Mr. Clark was succeeded by Emory Washburn, afterward Governor of Massachusetts, by Edward L. Lebreton, and from 1850 to 1865 by Isaac Hinckley, now president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad.  John C. Palfrey was superintendent from 1865 to 1874, when Joseph S. Ludlam was appointed.  The print-works were in charge of Kirk Boott in 1822; after him was Allen Pollock, 1823 to 1826; John D. Prince, 1826 to 1855; Henry Barrows, 1855 to 1878; James Duckworth, 1878 to 1882; Robert Latham, since 1882.  The treasurers of the company have been Kirk Boott, Francis C. Lowell, Eben Chadwick, Francis B. Crowinshield, Arthur T. Lyman, Augustus Lowell, and Charles H. Dalton.