The Mill Girl

Gravestone of Louisa Maria Wells

Early yesterday morning I headed to the Lowell Cemetery for a morning walk with Maggie. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1998, the cemetery was founded in 1840 and dedicated on June 20, 1841. At the time of the cemetery's opening, there were no public spaces in the city of Lowell. The cemetery's website writes that that it "soon became a place of refuge for outdoor pleasures such as strolling and bird watching amid shrubs and flowers close to the city."

Off along the edge of the cemetery I found this sculpture which serves at the tomb stone for Louisa Maria Wells. The inscription reads, "Out of the fibre of her daily tasks/she wove the fabric of a useful life/Louisa Maria Wells/Died February 20, 1886."

That got me thinking about what kind of useful life she might have had. As it turns out, I'm glad I asked. The story that Wells left behind is interesting--and relatively hidden.

Wells, born in Vermont on October 8, 1815 and died on February 20, 1886, spent most of her life working in the Lowell Mills. From the June 30, 1936 edition of the Lowell Centennial: