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.

[Illustration: UNITARIAN CHURCH, 1845.]

The property of the company occupies twenty-four acres of land. They
have five mills besides the print-works, 153,552 spindles, 4,465 looms,
and employ 3,300 operatives. They use up 18,000 tons of coal. The prints
made at this establishment, are marked "Merrimack," and are too well
known to require description.

The Hamilton Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1825. The
treasurers have been William Appleton, 1825; Ebenezer Appleton, 1830;