present mayor, the Honorable John J. Donovan.
The young city met with a serious loss April 11, 1837, in the sudden death of Kirk Boott.
A county jail was built in 1838, and the Nashua and Lowell Railroad was opened for travel.
Luther Lawrence was killed, April 17, 1839, by a foil into a wheel-pit. He was serving his second term as mayor of the city at the time of the accident. His residence was bought by the corporations and converted into the Lowell Hospital.
In 1840, the Massachusetts Mills were established; and the South Common, of about twenty acres, and the North Common, of about ten acres, were laid out. During this year appeared the Lowell Offering, a monthly journal, edited by Miss Harriet Farley and Miss Hariot Curtiss, two factory girls. The journal was praised by John G. Whittier, Charles Dickens, and other gifted writers, for its intrinsic merits.
Lowell is largely indebted to Oliver M. Whipple for its cemetery, which was consecrated June 20, 1841. It contains
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WILLIAM LIVINGSTON.
Born April 12, 1803. Died March 17, 1853.
about forty-five acres, and has near the centre a small gothic chapel.
In January, 1842, Charles Dickens made a flying visit to Lowell, and has left on record in American Notes his impressions of the city.
During this period the court-room of the city was occasionally graced by the presence of Daniel Webster and Rufus Choate.
