Amoskeag Millyard Adventure By: Leo, age 8 1/2

A couple of days ago we went to an Amoskeag Millyard tour. This is a closed down mill. It was put out of business by a strike held by all the workers (in protest against the loss of money which in the first place was quite limited to a small sum of about four dollars per week!). It was also put out of business beacause it started to get hard for the south to get cotton from the south to the north.

It took a while for our family to find a parking space. Even then we had the dilemma of finding the right coins to put in the parking meter. After going through the big production of getting everyone out of the car we finally made it inside the vast building. We paid; then we waited for everyone else in our group get there. After everyone gathered together, the tour guide told us that we would be gathering into small teams made up of two or three in each group. I was teamed up with one of my friends at the Co-Op. Each team got a section, and each team also got a paper instructing them what to find and present to the class. My friend and I were assigned the textile section. We learned a lot in general. We also learned about one girl in particular. One day while working at the mill she saw the steel tipped shuttle running at a speed of around 90 mph. fly off its track and hit someone! This event always upset her to the day she made the invention of a box for the shuttle. The girl made many other inventions such as the flat bottom paper bag that we commonly use today. One of her inventions was stolen! Thankfully she kept careful drawings of the invention and was finally able to get a patent for her invention. We also learned about child labor. One particular job that children commonly got was putting the threads in place for the weaver. My sister, Stella, did a presentation about holidays and festivals. One of our friends at Co-Op joined Stella. We also learned that all the employees got cards telling their name, date of birth, and information such as where they worked in the mill. A marking many cards bore upon the front was the red check indicating the worker had gone on strike! It would be hard to get a job at the mill again if your card bore that mark. After the Great Depression the mill had very few employees, so they were forced to shut down. I think this was a very fun, educational, and entertaining way to present the early days of the Amoskeag Millyard.