I grew up in Fall River in the 1930s and 1940s. The city had many large, empty, silent mills. A few cotton mills were operating, but there was high unemployment. People found work in Providence, Boston and Hartford. The city had been hit hard by the depression after the first World War and had never recovered. The city had gone into receivership in 1931 and did not regain control of its financial affairs until 1941. The city was shabby and seedy. Grass grew in sidewalk cracks. Pot holes were prevalent in the street surfaces. Many houses needed paint, city services were meager, maintenance of parks, schools and streets were done only on a emergency basis.

The city was littered with large granite mills, three decker tenement houses and Churches. The Roman Catholic Church alone contributed twenty five church buildings. Growing up, I accepted these as the natural order of things. Only when I had left Fall River, did I realize that there were other ways of living. This led me to wonder how Fall River became the city that I had grown up in. This web site is the result of my search. It depicts the men and women, those who built and those who ran the mills. This web site relates who profited from the mills. It describes the years, 1870-1872, in which 17 cotton mills were built. It reports on the profits, the owners, the workers, the mills and the production of cotton cloth. Finally, it outlines the factors that led to the Fall River I knew growing up.

This broad story outline could be duplicated for many communities across America. Local quirks and personalities however modify the details. As has been stated many times, God is in the details. There is always a big argument as to whether the course of history is driven by great men or forces (economic, political, technical developments, religious). In the present case, the future direction of relationships between people (between nationalities, between the favored few and the needy many) was set by decisions of people. The rise was fueled by local people taking advantage of newly developed technologies. The decay of the cotton mills however was dictated by economic and technical forces beyond the control of local people.