The story of the enterprise thus begun forms one of the brightest
pages in the industrial history of America; for these partners
had the wisdom and foresight to make provision at the outset for
the comfort and well-being of their operatives. Their mill hands
were to be chiefly girls drawn from the rural population of New
England, strong and intelligent young women, of whom there were
at that time great numbers seeking employment, since household
manufactures had come to be largely superseded by factory goods.
And one of the first questions which the partners considered was
whether the change from farm to factory life would effect for the
worse the character of these girls. This, says Appleton, "was a
matter of deep interest. The operatives in the manufacturing
cities of Europe were notoriously of the lowest character for
intelligence and morals. The question therefore arose, and was
deeply considered, whether this degradation was the result of the
peculiar occupation or of other and distinct causes. We could not
perceive why this peculiar description of labor should vary in
its effects upon character from all other occupations." And so we
find the partners voting money, not only for factory buildings
and machinery, but for comfortable boardinghouses for the girls,
and planning that these boardinghouses should have "the most
efficient guards," that they should be in "charge of respectable
women, with every provision for religious worship." They voted
nine thousand dollars for a church building and further sums
later for a library and a hospital.

The wheels of the first mill were started in September, 1823.
Next year the partners petitioned the Legislature to have their
part of the township set off to form a new town. One year later
still they erected three new mills; and in another year (1826)