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Chapter 8, page 238-239.

Poor living conditions created ideal breeding grounds for disease. Many immigrants lived in run-down, unsanitary conditions.

This letter from Henry S. Gilman describes the cholera epidemic in Bangor in 1849. Gilman details the speed and severity of the outbreak, and mentions that many cases occurred on the street where his office was located and where many Irish immigrants lived.

A similar outbreak killed nearly 200 Irish people in Lewiston in 1854.

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Chapter 8, page 238.

Clark Stanley of West Watervillewrote to C.C. Woolcot of Somersworth, N.H., in 1829 about an order of bobbins.

Stanley, a woodworker, mentioned that he was eager to continue turning more bobbins in his shop. This item shows how the mill industry had a ripple effect on the economy.

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Chapter 8, page 237-238.

Raw cotton is stacked at a mill, probably in Lewiston, in 1900.

Chapter 8, page 234-236.

A large number of Irish immigrants settled in Lewiston in the mid-1800s.

Canals that fed the mills were dug largely by Irish immigrants. Irish immigrants also maintained the canals.

Chapter 8, page 237-238.

This photograph, dated 1916, shows women operatives in Lewiston seated at sewing machines, with a man apparently working as the overseer.

The earliest millworkers, women from rural areas, often working temporarily until they married. Later, most of the factory workers were immigrants.

Chapter 8, page 237-238.

A man and two women are shown inside a textile mill, probably in Lewiston, ca. 1900.

Chapter 8, page 240-242.

A man and two boys are shown in front of spools inside a textile mill, likely in Lewiston, ca. 1900.

Chapter 8, page 239-240.

While living at Paris Hill in 1849, Persis Andrews Black wrote of a visit to the Little Androscoggin River where a bridge was being constructed by the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railway.

In this diary entry, she describes a village that the Irish have formed there, noting with curiosity the people and their way of life.

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Chapter 8, page 239-240.

During the summer of 1854 anti-Catholic sentiments ran high. A mob in Bath, incited by a street preacher, ransacked and burned the Protestant church that had been rented by Catholics as a place of worship. The Know-Nothing party was held responsible for this act. See also Record #5283.

May Agnes Tincker's book The House of York(1872) chronicled the anti Irish Catholic sentiment.

Chapter 8, page 240-242.

In the mid to late 1800s, child labor in the mills was common. Many children who worked in the mills were immigrants whose families needed the extra money. Note that the young boys are barefoot.

This photograph was taken in Lewiston about 1900.