Putnam patriot., 1930-08-28
Oldest Resident Recalls Incl dents When Thriving Mill
 Town a Small Village
Recollection. of Mrs. Elodie Loi.slI.

When North Grosvenordale was not. and q hamlet ef twelve brick houses provided homes for the mill employees of Baskerville, a little girl of six years came in the year 1861. with her brothers and sisters from Canada to make her home here; the first and only French family in the community.
 On April twelfth 0. this year, this little girl. now long time grown up and become Mrs. Elodie Toiselle. will have lived in her present home for the past iifty-four consecutive yearS Her domieile was hn last of the dozen houses to be completed. Barring approximately three years spent in Webster before her marriage to John Loiselle. when she was but sixteen, she has lived here since her first arrival from Canada.
 That Mrs Loiselle. who is known as "Grandma" Loiselle has the dis tinetion of being the oldest resident of this husv. industrial town. seems incredible. but is nevertheless true t3ahEh NHt ls bul HSNNHAg=1tEHN aHd appears much younger.
 On their arrival here. the family was greatly embarrassed at their in- ability to speak the English tongue. Their Irish and Yankee neighbors came to their rescue however and taught them to speak English, gathered around the kitchen table in the evening when the days work was laid away.
 Six year old Elodie learned quick lv. Before she was nine she was working in the stone mill where hnndkerehiefs were manufactured and where the services of a single doffer were sufficient The hours of work were long; beginning at the break O. dawn and ending with the coming of night. During the sum mer months. she worked from 5.30 in the morning to 7.30 in the eve ming going out in the morning for her breakfast at which time she was allowed a half hour In the winter, work began at 6.30 continuing until T30 i.l the evening as in summer. lt was not at all uncommon to see children Of six and seven working in the mills at that time and Mrs. Lois elle tells of working alongside girls and boys of that age.
 The old mill, which was razed with the building of the present mill by the Grosvenor Company, was located where the present weaveshed oper- ates. William Grosvenor. head of the concern, purchased the Fisher vile and Masonville mills in 1866.
 Their First Home
 Alongside the old mill. there were built six of the twelve brick houses of the hamlet. and in one of these Mr.. Loiselle's parents, Mir. and Mrs. Gagnon, made their first home. The sixth structure on the north end was used hv one Rocheleau as a shoe shop where he made and mended 1 boots. Just in back of these dwell lings the present canal, which fur nished ample water power for the mill, flowed at level with the hous- e.. large sleepiiy flowing brook.
 Within stones throw of the boot makers shop and at right angles with it stood the village grocery and post office, two story structure of brick. This center of barter and trade was carried on by Mir Clark when Mrs. Loiselle first came, Later sHamp" Arnold took over the busi- ness to be in still later years sue ceeded by the Thompson brothers Edward. Byron, and Gilbert.
 Today. four of the six houses which hanked the low-lying canal are seen standing beside the one time post office, which now houses four fami- lies. Two are left remaining to- gethcr undere the shadow of the new" mill in which Mrs. Loiselle operated the first set of warpers with Mrs. Nancy Walker and where she worked for many years.
 The building of the Grosvenordale mill neeessitated the raging of the old mill which was little larger than small barn; the moving of the homes iianking the canal; and the building of the large, deep canal which would bury the fiat should it ever burst it's bounds. These tasks, were watched with great interest and enthusiasm by Mrs. Loiselle and her playmates, who were on hand whenever work did not drag them away from the scene which foretold new era of machinery and speed.
 A narrow footbridge that spanned the old canal opposite the French river brought Mrs. Loiselle and her neighbors up the steep embankment at a point nearly parallel with the present courthouBe block which was not built until years later. This was the shortcut used by the pedestrians to reach the main highway. A wood and steel structure below the mill agents home. which renovated, ia now the home of Mir John F. Rear don. provided a means of crossing for the teams of horses and oxen,- the locomotive power of 1861.
 Coming from the depot, where four trains stopped daily. up over the bridge, Mrs. Loiselle could see the other six houses of brick lying in row stretching southward along the main highway, which was border ed on the further side by the forest untouched by the choppers axes bordefed the road as far as the Methodist Episcopal church where 1t was cleared away on the north side. Here. Mrs Loiselle often went to church. as a church of her own faith was not. as yet, built.
 Only Buildings
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