page_title: Timeline of Holyoke, Massachusetts
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of Holyoke, Massachusetts / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: English: Depot Square section of the The Flats in 1876; visible is the Perkins Block (left; also known as "Hotel Jess"), the Holyoke House (center), and what would be the first headquarters of the D. H. &#38; A. B. Tower architecture firm prior to their relocation to the Flatiron Building.
context_page_description: This is a timeline of the history of the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA.
context_section_description: 1803 – October 5: Dr. Thomas Rand becomes the first pastor of the first formal pastor of the First Baptist Church of Holyoke.
  1827 – The first Hadley Falls Company, not to be confused with the 1848 company by the Boston Associates, is established by John, Stephen, and Warren Chapin, and Alfred Smith. Believing the area could be used for future industrial purposes, Smith ordered that the company purchase 100 acres of land by the present-day location of the Holyoke Dam. He would go on to serve on the boards of the 1848 counterpart and its successor, the Holyoke Water Power Company, established in 1859.
  1846 – George C. Ewing, a traveling salesman for Fairbanks Scales first suggests the idea of a dam at Hadley Falls to his employer, Erastus Fairbanks, who approaches the Boston Associates and other merchants in Hartford, proposing a venture for a new industrial city.
  1847 – December 16: In the earliest days of the excavation of the Holyoke Canal System, workers find a subterranean channel with a chamber holding the skeletons of four Amerindians in seated positions, facing the East, with a stone mortar and pestle beside them.
  1848 –
  January 1: Workers go on strike during preliminary foundation work building the Holyoke Dam; when 20 returned to work a riot formed, and 25 men from the local militia were called in from Northampton to restore order.
  November 19: The first Holyoke Dam is completed, made of timbers, it collapses within hours of its gates closure.
  1849 – The second timber Holyoke Dam is completed, withstanding the forces of the Connecticut River.
  September 1: The first edition of the abolitionist Hampden Freeman is published by William L. Morgan, marking the beginning of the history of the Holyoke Transcript-Telegram, its successor.
  1850
  March 14: Holyoke incorporates as a town.
  March 20: First town meeting held.
  1853 – May 14: Joseph C. Parsons establishes the Parsons Paper Company out of the old 1783 grist mill and neighboring buildings, establishing the first paper mill in Holyoke, and the beginning of a city industry which would produce 80% of the United States' writing paper.
  1856 – The first Catholic church is established, St. Jerome's, serving a growing Irish Catholic population.
  1865 – January 19: Germania Mills is established by August Stursberg, marking the beginning of the history of the city's German immigrant colony.
  1867 – The First Lutheran Church is established, originally as the German Lutheran Church in South Holyoke; the church's earliest ministers would also offer German language classes.
  1869 – The Holyoke & Westfield Railroad Company is established, in part backed by the City, it is created in an effort to foster more competitive shipping rates than those offered by the Connecticut River Railroad.
  1870 – James B. Emerson establishes the Holyoke Testing Flume on the Canal System at the request of the Holyoke Water Power Company, it is later described by "father of modern hydrology", Robert E. Horton, as the "first modern hydraulic laboratory" in the United States and the world.
  1871 – Construction on City Hall begins.
  1872 – March 7: Holyoke Water Works established, entering service in the following year.
  1873 – April 7: Holyoke incorporated as a city.
  1874 – December 17: The roof over City Hall is complete, and all other openings are sealed for the winter.
  1875 – May 27: Precious Blood Church fire occurs.
  1876 – March: John B. McCormick develops the Holyoke "Hercules" water turbine while working for the Holyoke Machine Company, and subsequently J. W. Jolly Co. The turbine reached double the efficiency of others at the time, exceeding 80%, and was the first modern mixed-flow turbine ever developed. The design, combining the inward flow principles of the Francis turbine with the downward discharge of the Jonval turbine, ushered in a new era of American waterpower design.
  1877 – City Hall's clock tower is complete, with the timekeeping mechanism installed.
  1878
  March 26: John W. Albaugh performs his titular role in Louis XI as the opening show of the Holyoke Opera House.
  June 15: The world's first
caption: On June 15, 1878, the Perkins Block (right), also known as the Hotel Jess, became one of the two receiving ends of the first public toll line, going from Holyoke to Springfield
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