d manufactories, and 1 chair manufactory. There were a number
of stone bridges, and a dozen dams on the river; stages communicated
daily with Boston, Keene, and Lowell, and left three times a week for
Worcester and Springfield, and returned on alternate days.

Energetic, enterprising young men were attracted to Fitchburg as a
promising place for a home, and there was the exhilarating, hopeful
atmosphere of a new and growing town, where changes are rapid and
opportunities are many. It was about this time that Rufus C. Torrey
wrote his history of Fitchburg, in which work he was most substantially
aided by his friend, Nathaniel Wood, then a public spirited young
lawyer, who had already accumulated quite an amount of material from
records and conversations with the older residents These two men saved
from oblivion very many valuable facts in the history of the town.

About this time, also, the Fitchburg High School Association was formed
and an academy built, and in 1838 the Fitchburg Library Association was
organized, both of which institutions were valuable educational
influences.

From 1840 to 1860 the town continued to grow steadily. New paper mills
were built in West Fitchburg, the chair business enlarged greatly, the
iron business was introduced by the Putnam Brothers, and grew rapidly,
and various other branches of industry were begun and prospered. The
Fitchburg Railroad was built, followed by the Vermont and Massachusetts,
the Fitchburg and Worcester, and the Agricultural Branch Railroads, all
centreing in Fitchburg and bringing an increase of business.

At the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion the town contained
nearly 8,000 inhabitants, and during the war Fitchburg did her part,
answering all calls promptly and sending her best men to the field. Her
history in that contest is well told by Henry A. Willis, in his history
of "Fitchburg in the War of the Rebellion." Nine companies were
organized in the town, and 750 Fitchburg men sent into the field.

The years immediately following the war were years of prosperity and
rapid growth. March 8, 1872, Fitchburg was incorporated as a city. The
infant township of 108 years before had grown to a city of 12,000
inhabitants. The little stream which then turned the wheel of the one
solitary saw and grist mill had since been harnessed to the work of many
mills and manufactories, and on either side were the homes of hundreds,
dependent on its power for their daily br