Woodbury, the Reverend J.K. Karcher, the Reverend John B. Willard, and
the Reverend William C. Tenney. It became the property of the St. Joseph
(French) Roman Catholic Church.

On July 5, 1855, the stone church on Merrimack Street was dedicated as a
Methodist Protestant Church. There preached the Reverend William Marks,
the Reverend Richard H. Dorr, and the Reverend Robert Crossley. The
building passed into possession of the Second Advent Society, which had
been organized as early as 1842.

[Illustration: LOWELL MACHINE SHOP.]

St. John's Episcopal Church was erected in 1861, and consecrated by
Bishop Eastburn, July 16, 1863. The Reverend Charles W. Homer was the
first rector. He was succeeded by the Reverend Cornelius B. Smith, in
1863, who, in 1866, was succeeded by the Reverend Charles L. Hutchins.
The present pastor is the Reverend Leander C. Manchester.

There are in Lowell thirty edifices exclusively devoted to public
worship.

[Illustration: EDSON BLOCK MERRIMACK STREET.]

We have followed the course of events which have developed the city of
Lowell from a small, scattering settlement to an important city, with an
area of nearly twelve square miles, occupied by more than sixty thousand
inhabitants. The daily life of its continually changing population has
not been dwelt upon. In the early days the projectors of the city cared
for the religion, the education, and the savings of those whom they
employed. New England farms contributed their fairest children to the