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It's hard to not draw comparisons between smallpox and covid.

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Moses Brown and Nathan Appleton (of New Ipswich) were the financiers of the first small cotton mill in the US in Pawtucket, RI, followed by the larger ones Waltham and in New Ipswich. Moses hired Sam Slater who had recently come from England and had in his head the blueprint of the English loom, a trade secret that was not to be exported. Nathan born October 1, 1779 in New Ipswich, New Hampshire and spent his summers here, was based in Boston, and died one of the 10 wealthiest men in Boston, having stock in 24 different textile companies and with a net worth of over $800,000. Still, he called that an accident. “It was accident, not effort, that made me rich,” he said. Nathan then partnered with his cousin Francis Cabot Lowell to build the mills in Lowell, Mass (named after Lowell).

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Is there a "Zoom" or online viewing of the Annual meeting and presentation available? Or can it be recorded and watched from the website later?

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I expect it will be recorded. If so a link will be provided.

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I remember reading that there were 3 textile mills on the Souhegan River in the mid 1800s, the Waterloom and the Browns in Bank Village, and the Souhegan mill in Highbridge, the latter becoming the second Brown's Mill (the first having been lost in a fire). This second one was later purchased by the Columbian Corp.. There was a large boarding house near the High bridge. This must have been the house referred to today. It's interesting that 'contagion' was a known concept even before Pasteur discovered bacteria, probably because of Semmelweiss ' successful handwashing protocol for deliveries in the mid1800s.

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The boardinghouse for the mill was primarily occupied by Frence Canadian workers.

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That is probably why Highbridge was populated mainly by French Canadians. Three Finnish boys (my father, Lennie Ypya, and Leo Ylonen) all worked in that mill and married French Canadian (US born) girls. I never heard about the small pox. An interesting coincidence is that Moses Brown had introduced (or required) small pox vaccinations in his Pawtucket RI mill in the late 1800s.

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