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town years ago. He also read a chapter from the forth- 

 coming history of Audover by Miss Sarah L. Bailey, upon 

 the early manufacture of gunpowder in Andover, and 

 added to it a few valuable remarks of his own. It 

 appears that the slow progress of Washington in the 

 siege of Boston, a hundred 3^ears ago, was largely owing 

 to a lack of powder ; some being brought with ox teams 

 from as far as Ticonderoga. The General Court of Mass. 

 urged Judge Phillips (who was a member, and was also 

 at the same time engaged in founding Phillips' Academy) 

 to undertake the business of manufacturing powder for 

 the army. They agreed to furnish him with sulphur and 

 saltpetre, and he was to deliver powder at eight pence 

 per pound. Mr. Phillips hastened home and set his 

 neighbors to work erecting a building for the purpose, on 

 the site (it is supposed) of the Marland Mills. Miss 

 Bailey presents conclusive evidence that powder was 

 manufactured at Andover, for use in the Revolutionary 

 war, sometime before the Stoughton powder mill was 

 available. In a short time more than a thousand pounds 

 per week were turned out. But it appears also that some 

 of the powder was not good. This is shown in a caustic 

 letter of Gen. Washington, and from the action of the 

 General Court in returning that of poor quality for 

 remanufacture, and in sending a French expert to impart 

 knowledge upon the subject to the Andover manufac- 

 turers. 



Another interesting point brought out in Miss Bailey's 

 accurate, racy, and painstaking history is, that when Mr. 

 Chandler, the foreman of the powder mills was drafted 

 for service in the army besieging Boston, Mr. Phillips 

 successfully petitioned to have his help exempted from 

 military service, on the ground that their places could not 

 well be supplied, and that their occupation was already 



