Er... why in the world would a woollen mill want cotton? the famous linen woollen blend cloth was a homespun product not one from the northern woollen mills my family owned woollen mills in New England ( and were investors in the cannal network that went north from Rhode Island into Mass. they were also investors in Enfield Canal located at Windsor Locks The biggest obstruction along the Connecticut River was the Enfield rapids. Goods headed up river actually had to be unloaded and stored at Warehouse Point. Men subsequently loaded the goods on flatboats and poled these over the rapids. To avoid the falls and rapid, a six mile long canal was dug by Irish workmen and opened in 1829. This was the last of the canals to be built on the Connecticut River. The canal permitted regular river traffic between Hartford, Springfield, and Holyoke. It had four locks capable of carrying boats up to seventy tons in size. All to help move their product to market...
They also lots big time investing in the Farmington Canal : the historically inclined may find this of interest as it was orignaly supposed to go from Long Island Sound to all the way to the St. Lawrence River in Canada! they did make it to Northampton Mass though so at about 70 miles it was for its short life the lobgest in New England... a broadsheet song at the time had the refrain "The only dividend known to pay, They mowed the towpath and sold the hay". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmington_Canal http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1981/cthistory/81.ch. 04.x.html#k In any case I do not want our UK friends to think that all of us in the US have such a view of history... the fact is that while large parts of the country have taken to heart the dictum of Geo. Washington to "avoid foreign entanglements" there have also been large numbers of anglophiles... (even in the unpleasantness of 1776 many scholars think that both committed members of the revolt (and I have 6 of my ancestors who signed the declaration that July) and committed loyalists together made up less than 50% of the population in the early years of the revolt... most just wanted to be left alone) who rushed to join the colours in most of the wars of the Empire. Oh and my ancestors on that side of the family did not do well with their canal investments... the Railroad was too hot on the heels of the ditches so they did not last long in New England canals... fortunatly on the other side that owned Rolling mills that were making the rails! Cheers Randolph Lee in Newcastle Maine U.S.A. W69° 32' 14" N44° 02' 44" PS lets not forget the dispute between the US and the Empire over the border between Maine and Canada! The Aroostook War, also called the Pork and Beans War, the Lumberjack's War or the Northeastern Boundary Dispute, was an undeclared, bloodless North American "war" that occurred in the winter of 1838 and early spring of 1839. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aroostook_War On Oct 26, 2006, at 4:19 PM, trainfinder22 wrote: > I read "The Pig War and found it facinating... > Also during the civil war England sided with the south. What > triggered the civil war was that southern plantataion owners would not > sell there cotton to northern woolen mills and instead sold to English > Mills.... > During World War one Americans had t9o be goaded into fighting with > the > british in WW1. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
