flowing through its mills and moving their machinery. Projected southeast from the lower end of the second level canal, the third level canal, 20 feet lower than the former, carries us waters to the mills built along the bank of the river into which its waste water flows. From the upper end of the second level canal a branch bends at first due east, then south, then southwest, and follows the trend of the river bank, supplying the mills along the banks, through which its waste waters are poured into the river. The system of streets is laid out in relation to the grand canal system, generally parallel with or at right angles to the same. The upper and second level canals are traversed by streets a thousand feet apart, and halfway between each two streets are others without bridges. From these canals westward about 830 feet the ground rises rapidly to a practically level plain about a mile square, a part of the original 1,100 acres. Upon the eastern border of this plain is located High street, parallel with the canals, and beyond it westward are other streets, distant from one another 300 feet, having alleys half-way between each two streets. Since the city was laid out by the projectors, adjacent sections have been developed, the Highlands, Elmwood, Oakdale and Springdale, each conforming somewhat to the original plan. When the proprietors began to develop their plans and attract population, the necessity for independent civil government was recognized by the General Court, March 14, 1850, and the first town meeting was held the following day. The place was named after Elizur Holyoke, an early and prominent resident of the ancient town to which Holyoke belonged. In the fall of 1850 the Holyoke House was opened. The company had sold fifty-nine lots, and stores and dwellings were going up in all directions. In 1851 the Hadley Falls Company had two factories, running 36,000 spindles, machine, foundry, blacksmith and pattern shops and boarding blocks; and gas mains were laid throughout the village. The Parsons Paper Mills were built in 1853, with a nominal capital of $53,000, and in 1854 the Lyman Mills, with a capital of $1,470,000, the latter producing in one year two million pounds of cotton cloth, whose gross value was $1,161,178. By I855 the census showed a population of 4,639, a gain of 1,386 in five years. The rate of the town's growth is shown at a glance by the following statistics:
The religious sentiment of the city is expressed in two Congregational churches, two Baptist, two Methodist, one Episcopal, two Protestant Mission churches, one German Lutheran, and one German Reformed, one French Baptist congregation, and one French Congregational church, three English-speaking Roman Catholic and two French Roman Catholic churches. The one-story schoolhouses have given place to twenty fine buildings, valued at about $700,000, and accommodating 10,000 children, and, to crown all, a nearly completed high school house, built for 800 students and planned for thorough work in all the departments known to the best modern high schools. What potent agencies have brought Holyoke to its present position? First and foremost, here are located twenty-five paper manufacturing concerns, unrivaled in the quality and quantity of their product, giving to the place its name of "Paper City." To these must be added some of the largest cotton mills in New England, and mills
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