History Comes Alive
This event for all ages explores local historical sites and history. The historical topics focus on the purpose of each site and its impact on community life. Topics have included the Middlesex Canal and Museum, history of the mills, the mill girls of the 1800’s and how Billerica became a Yankee Doodle Town.
The Mills
The C.P. Talbot & Company mill building still stands in the center of the Billerica Mills Historic district. The Talbot brothers bought the land and built the mill building where the company operated for 100 years until the 1950s. The dam, water power and 20 acres were secured for $10,000.
The little girl in the banner photo above is Grace Ellen Talbot and her pony.
Illustration by Wendy Wright
Mill Girls
The mill workers of Billerica/Lowell in the time before the Civil War (1780 - 1860) were mostly young single women from the farming communities of northern New England. Most were between 15 and 25, signing on for short stints that rarely exceeded a year at a time. Overall, they averaged about three years of employment before leaving the mills for marriage, migration to the west, other employment, or return to their hometowns. Dissatisfaction with the work environment was a major reason for leaving the mills. In the 1830s and 40s these young women and girls protested against mill conditions.
History of Billerica
According to “The History of Billerica” by Henry Allen Hazen, Ens. Joseph Tompson became Billerica’s first schoolmaster in 1679.
In the 1700s, the town was divided into ‘squadrons,’ where schools “were kept.” In 1725, the town granted land to each squadron for its schoolhouse; the selectmen determined each school’s location.
Yankee Doodle Town
According to Town Manager John Curran, the “Yankee Doodle” song originated in 1775 when a Billerica man named Thomas Ditson went into Boston to buy a gun. But he was captured by the British, covered in tar and feathers, and paraded through town to the tune of the popular song.
Governor Charlie Baker passed a bill designating Billerica the Yankee Doodle Town.
“We are honored to celebrate and recognize Billerica’s rich Revolutionary War history, including the town’s long-held and well-deserved nickname,” Baker said in a statement.