The Merrimack River: its source and its tributaries. Embracing a history of manufactures, and of the towns along its course; their geography, topography, and products, with a description of the magnificent natural scenery about its upper waters./ By J. W. Meader.

THE MERRIMACK RIVER;
which it maintains until it arrives at maturity, and at Lowell, where,
like the man who awakes to a realizing sense of his duties, obliga tions, and responsibilities at the eleventh hour. throws off the lethargy
that has held it so long in chains, and, dashing over nearly two
miles of picturesque and powerful falls, seems to seek, and with
entire success, to compensate for its former vagrant life, and finally
throws itself with alacrity into the Merrimack, leaving no space
between the termination of its beneficent labors and its final doom;
typifying not only the necessity but the grandeur of a reformation
which, by earnest, vigorous works, testifies to an ultimate appreciation of the duties, objects, and obligations imposed by the very fact
of the creation of capacity and inherent power. The deep tinge of
romance surrounding this stream in its native condition has not
faded or diminished, but is, rather, intensified by the peculiarities of
the men and the circumstances connected with the inauguration and
prosecution of improvements around its splendid waterfalls.
Nearly one hundred years ago a man named Ezekiel Ihale, who
resided at WAVest Newbury, possessing a great and almost purely mechanical genius, left his home in search of a water-power available for
the development of a manufacturing scheme, - a branch of industry
then in its infancy in this country, which his vigorous intellect had
long and anxiously studied; an enterprise crude and meagre, to be
sure, compared with the gigantic achievements of the present day, yet,
for that early time. a grand conception. Having, on his way, exlmined the capacity of Little River, in Haverhill, and concluding to
look farther, he finally set down on the lower falls of Beaver River,
in Dracut, where he laid the foundation for the extensive Merrimack
WVoollen Mills, which now occupy the site where Mr. Hale begun.
His sons, imbued with the same spirit as the father, now cast about
for a new and independent beginning, each for himself. Ezekiel returned to Little River and established himself where E. J. M. Hale,
Esq., has continued the business for many years until recently,
being superseded by Mr. Stevens, a connection of the family, when
Mr. Hale engaged in the manufacturing business, more extensively,
at Groveland. Moses, anotner son of Ezekiel, senior, prospected for
himself. In his peregrinations he crossed the Merrimack and found
himself in the neighborhood of Whipple's Falls in the Concord
River, and exclaiming " Eureka! " with the enthusiasm of a dev
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