John Keith Letters page 311

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John Keith Letters page 311

Date

11/1/1882

Description

Nov 1, 82 [1882] -- My dear Bentley, -- I have been looking at the water privileges at the mouth of the Millers River with a view of building a paper mill. It is one mile from Millers Falls depot and one half mile from your track at the nearest point. If I should decide to build there would the N.L.M. RR Co. put in a branch track? -- Yours Respectfully -- John Keith -- -- -- -- ; -- -- *Note: From Pg. 11 “The Dam at French King Rapids” Ed Gregory 2006. -- -- About 1806 a dam and lock were built just below the mouth of Miller's river to make slack water at the French King rapids. The second dam at Turners Falls was built by Lieutenant Hale after the great flood of February 10, 1824, which carried away the South Hadley dam, the Montague City bridge and the dams at Turners Falls and at the French King rapids. Sol Caswell, a native of Montague, was foreman in replacing the dams here, as he had been in building the first dam at the French King. He was one of three persons known to have gone over Turners Falls and lived. The first was an Indian squaw, the second was the ferryman, in the days of Elisha Mack, the builder of the first dam in 1824. He landed on the little island at the mouth of Fall River. -- Ref."History of Montague" pg 165 ⁋ 2. -- e.g. -- -- From Pg. 13 “The Dam at French King Rapids” Ed Gregory 2006. -- THE 1806 PROPOSAL -- In 1806 the Proprietors completed the list of their intended improvements by building a dam to transform the French King rapids into slack water. This dam, located approximately 1,000 feet below the mouth of Millers River, was 330 feet long, had a fall of 8 feet, and was equipped with one lock along the Gill shore 100 feet long and 20 feet wide. When the dam was rebuilt in 1824, the height was increased somewhat. -- On completion of this dam and lock in 1806, a continuous waterway was opened up from Long Island Sound to points as far north as Wells River, Vermont. For the next thirty or more years as streaming procession of up and down navigation possessed the Connecticut River during seven or eight months of the year, concerning which altogether too little has been left on record. -- Ref."History of Gill" 1793-1943 pg 93 ⁋ 4. -- e.g. -- -- -- --