506 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1926 
son, and Jabez Jenks. The following week four more were em- 
employed—Ennise Torpen, John and Varnes Jenks, and Otis Borrows. 
The third week Ann Torpen commenced working in the cotton 
factory, and the fourth week the same nine were employed. Thus 
during the first month of cotton manufacture in America by means 
of machinery, the entire business was carried on by Samuel Slater 
and nine assistants, nearly all of whom were young children. 
SLATHER’S FIRST MILL 
Early in the year 1793, Slater and his partners, Obadiah Brown 
and William Almy, built a new mill especially designed for the cot- 
ton business. The three cards and two spinning frames, containing 
together a total of 72 spindles, were removed thereto and set in 
motion on July 12, 1798. This was the first cotton mill on the 
American vee in which all the processes of the improved 
Arkwright cotton-spinning and preparatory machinery were carried 
on under one roof. More spindles were added as the sales of yarn 
increased. This factory, which has been known for many years as 
the “Old Slater Mill,” still stands in Pawtucket and is to be pre- 
served as a textile museum. Several times the building has been 
enlarged in height, width, and length, but the original timbers and 
frame form part of the existing building. The spinning, bleaching, 
dyeing, and finishing of cotton yarns and cloth were likely all carried 
on in this building, but the weaving was done in private houses 
on hand looms, the cloth being returned to the factory to be dyed 
or finished. 
SLATER’S SECOND MILL 
In company with his father-in-law, Oziel Wilkinson, William 
Wilkinson, and Timothy Greene, son and son-in-law of Oziel Wilkin- 
son, Mr. Slater formed the firm of Samuel Slater & Co. in 1798, 
in which he held a half interest. The erection of a mill was soon 
after begun on the east side of the river almost opposite the first 
factory, but the machinery was not started until some time in 1801. 
This was the first spinning mill in Massachusetts that operated suc- 
cessfully the Arkwright type of machinery; consequently to Slater 
belongs the credit of starting the first mills in both Rhode Island 
and Massachusetts. 
Slater was superintendent of both mills, and received in each case 
$1.50 per day for his services, making his wages $3. He attended 
strictly to his business, and it is said that for 20 years he labored 16 
hours daily. In 1810 Slater sold out his interest in this factory, 
which was commonly known as the White Mill, to the other partners, 
who conducted the business in the name of Wilkinson, Greene & Co. 
The mill was burned in 1824 but was rebuilt by Timothy Greene & 
Sons. 
