STARCH-FACTORY AND PAPER-MILLS. 1 87 



and hold such real estate, not exceeding in value the sum of two 

 hundred thousand dollars, and such personal estate not exceeding 

 in value two hundred thousand dollars, as may be suitable and con- 

 venient for carrying on the business aforesaid. 



[Approved by the Governor, March 13, 1832.] 



The building was subsequently used as a paper-mill, and 

 burned many years ago, on June 7, 1842. Soon afterward 

 another mill was erected on the same site, which was bought 

 on October 22, 1852, by Lyman Hollingsworth of Jephthah 

 Richardson Hartwell. The plant was sold in 1881 by Mr, 

 Hollingsworth to Messrs. Hollingsworth and Vose, of Boston, 

 who still own it. The senior partner of this firm is a nephew 

 of the former owner. The product of the mill is a Manilla 

 paper of high grade, of which about three tons are made 

 daily. On August 7, 1889, I visited the mill when they were 

 making a paper, which is sent to England in boxes, for the 

 manufacture of sand-paper, and very likely to be returned 

 here in that form. In the stock-houses there were two 

 hundred tons of old cordage, more or less, ready to be 

 ground up and used in connection with "wood pulp," which 

 enters largely into the composition of the article. Last year 

 a new dam, a solid granite structure in place of the original 

 one, was built ; though, in times of low water, steam-power 

 is required to turn the machinery. 



The direct road from the village of West Groton to the 

 paper-mill, — perhaps three quarters of a mile in length, — 

 was laid out by the County Commissioners on April 13, 1838. 

 An attempt was previously made by interested persons, in 

 the spring of 1832, to have the same piece of highway built, 

 but it did not meet with success, as it was then adjudged by 

 the Commissioners to be " not of common convenience and 

 necessity." Of course the road was opened in order to accom- 

 modate the business of the new factory. 



The paper-mill on the Nashua River, at the Paper Mill Vil- 

 lage, was originally a wooden structure, and built in the year 

 1 841 by Oliver Howe, who owned the saw-mill and grist-mill 

 in close proximity; and here the manufacture of Manilla 



