ing this year appeared the Lowell Offering, a monthly
journal, edited by Miss Harriet Farley and Miss Hariot Curtiss, two
factory girls. The journal was praised by John G. Whittier, Charles
Dickens, and other gifted writers, for its intrinsic merits.

Lowell is largely indebted to Oliver M. Whipple for its cemetery, which
was consecrated June 20, 1841. It contains about forty-five acres, and
has near the centre a small gothic chapel.

In January, 1842, Charles Dickens made a flying visit to Lowell, and has
left on record in American Notes his impressions of the city.

During this period the court-room of the city was occasionally graced by
the presence of Daniel Webster and Rufus Choate.

The City Library was instituted in 1844.

The Stony Brook Railroad Company was incorporated in 1845.

The Honorable Nathan Crosby was appointed justice of the police court in
1846, and still continues in office. The Lowell and Lawrence Railroad
was incorporated this year, and the population of Lowell numbered
29,127.

[Illustration: SAINT ANNE'S CHURCH, 1840.]

President James K. Polk visited Lowell in 1847; and the city met with
the loss of Patrick Tracy Jackson, a man whose name should be always
honored in Lowell. The great Northern Canal was completed this year by
James B. Francis, the most distinguished hydraulic engineer in the
United States. It was a stupendous work and stands a monument to the
genius of its constructor. Daniel Webster, in company with Abbott
Lawrence, rode along its dry channel, before the water was admitted, and
fully appreciated the immense undertaking.

The Salem and Lowell Railroad was incorporated in 1848, and was opened
for travel two years later.

The reservoir on Lynde's Hill was constructed in 1849.

Gas was introduced, and the Court House on Gorham Street built, in 1850.

In 1851, Centralville, previously a part of Dracut, was included within
the city limits, and the Lowell Reform School was established.

In 1852, George Wellman completed his first working model of his self
top card stripper--one of the most valuable inventions of the present
century; Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, visited Lowell; and the
Legislature of Massachusetts enacted the first prohibitory liquor law.

The City Hall was reconstructed in 1853. The Lowell Jail was built in
1856. Thomas H. Benton visited Lowell in 1857. Washington Square was
laid out in 1858.

[Illustration: OLIVER M. WHIPPLE.]

During the