6 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



In accordance with a custom long since established with 

 the approval of your Board, that the opening address might 

 appropriately contain some account of the leading industries 

 of the county or section of the Commonwealth where the 

 meetinof is convened, and this being the first visit of the 

 Board in this vicinity, and many of you strangers here, I 

 will give a brief sketch of our city, with some of the inter- 

 esting facts connected with Lowell and a few of the other 

 towns embraced within the limits of the Middlesex North 

 Agricultural Society. 



Lowell was incorporated in 1826. The territory was tak- 

 en from the town of Chelmsford, one of the oldest towns in 

 this vicinity, which was incorporated in 1655. 



The interval land along the banks of the Merrimack River 

 at this place being free from stone and of excellent quality for 

 agricultural purposes, together with the abundant supply of 

 manj^ valuable varieties of fish, attracted the early settlers to 

 this place ; but the territory wdiere Lowell now stands was oc- 

 cupied by the Pawtucket tribe of Indians, and the General 

 Court, at the solicitation of John Eliot and others, passed 

 an Act in 1653, reserving it to their exclusive use. 



A ditch was subsequently cut to enclose the Indian terri- 

 tory, traces of which are still visible. It began above Paw- 

 tucket Falls and extended in a semi-circular line easterly, 

 ending at the Merrimack River below Hunt's Falls, and en- 

 closed about 2,500 acres. 



It is said that the Indians insisted on this ditch or trench 

 as a boundary line, because it could not be easily removed. 



The chief of the Pawtucket tribe, soon after Chelmsford 

 became a township, was Wannalancet. In 1669 he came 

 down the Merrimack with his warriors, and built a fortifica- 

 tion on what is now called Fort Hill, in Lowell, fearing an 

 attack from the Mohawks. For many years all the Indians 

 in this vicinity made a visit to Pawtucket Falls in the spring 

 to obtain their supply of fish, and John Eliot, who came to 

 Massachusetts in 1631 and was settled as minister over the 

 church at Roxbury, took this opportunity to preach to them. 

 His first sermon here was from Malachi i : 11, which he thus 

 paraphrased, " From the rising of the sun to the going down 

 of the same Thy name shall be great among the Indians. 



