The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-05-20
A DESERTED VILLAGE.
BozRAHVJLLE IN THE TOWN OF
 BOZRAH.

Sad Spectacle Presented in Settlemcn
 Which Has Gone to Ruin fn si,
 Years.
 The village of Bozrahville, a settle
 ment in the town of Bozrah, presents a lsad spectacle when contrasted with its thriving, busy place, with good sized
 cotton factory which employed some
 three hundred men and women, hum dred or more happy homes clustered about it. there was Q large general store and post-of1lce, and trim district
 school that got most of its pupils from
 the village. Now all is changed, the
 mill is silent and the hum of machinery
 will never be heard within it's walls
 again; the houses are all vacant, the
 store and postoffice is closed. and the
 school bell calls no merry children to
 study
 | The reason for this condition of things
 arose from the fact that the members of
 the company that last operated the fac- tory are all dead, all having departed
 this life in quick succession. All were
 public spirited men who lived in Nor | wich and vicinity, all all were success | ful in other lines before they became as- sociated in what was known as the Boz lrahvllle company about the year of 1S79 1 During the last hard times this little community felt the brunt of them pretty keenly, the mill being closed much of the time. After business began to pick up throughout the country, the wave of progress did not seem to affect
 this Industry and the promoters soon
 learned that the market was lost to
 them through factories more favored
 with transportation facilities and who understood them.
 Bozrahvllle being five miles from the railroad, everything had to be carried to the village in teams, and the matter of freight had got to be considerable unit in calculating the cost of the cot ton cloth, and thus finding themselves at disadvantage the directors closed the factory. Very soon afterWard every one of the chief officers of the compony died, and their successors never started the factory Had the old officers lived they would in all probability have started the mill again, though it's sue cess might not have been assured.
 Soon the factory was stripped of it's from top to bottom until not a loom or spinning frame remained The factory had been in operation for more than eighty years, and though the floors were of oak and heavy, 1t was said they could not be safely trusted to support weighty machinery again. So 1t stands silent and gloomy, and the | great bell in the tower that called out | the hours of labor for such q long peri | od is still II called many all their lives 10 labor, for men and women were plenty who began work in that mill in their most tender years when child la OCT was sought for by the operators who continued the practice until the law prevented and prohibited them some fifteen years ago. Most of the children worked in the spinning room, and prior @ the age limit was common to see tile children of eight years working hirteen hours in the winter and four cen in the summer; going to work in he morning when the lamps were lit lnd emerging at night under cover of !arkness Sometimes a father would ,ring his little boy to the mill asleep n his arms, and after reaching the fifth floor would place him in the spin ing department, after shaking him up 0 awaken him in preparation for the lays labor. For years cat-o'-nne- aNs was used to punish the children or any infraction of the rules. It hung ut in the foremans office and the lit- le fellows dreaded to see it. Men who oiled in this factory from youth to old ge told of this whip being a part of very foreman's equipment during their ime. It was abolished however, some tile time before the final cessation of usiness.
 There were three weaving rooms in l his factory and in one corner of the s pper weaving room, as 1t was called, .unt Mercy Mott watched the shuttle I V to and fro for more than forty years. [ aptain William Smith, for many years I he superintendent. started life in the c actory at the age of nine as spinner a oy, and left his labors there when r early eighty years of age. Although a 5 superintendent he permitted the use s the eat on boys, still he very often | ave them a word of encouragement. o James M. Peckham for more than for t , x,ears conducted the village store and t