Essex Company Records

In the 1830s Daniel Saunders began buying land on either side of the Merrimack River between Lowell and Andover, in order control the water power rights. With his son, Daniel Saunders, Jr., his uncle, J. Abbot Gardiner, and John Nesmith, he established the Merrimack River Power Association.

Saunders then approached the Lawrence brothers (Samuel, Amos, and Abbott) and the Boston Associates. The Boston Associates bought the Merrimack Water Power Association and renamed it the Essex Company. Incorporated on March 20, 1845 the Essex Company’s purpose was to construct a dam across the Merrimack River, with appurtenant power canals, “to create a water power to use, or sell, or lease to other persons or corporations to use for manufacturing and mechanical purposes…” The original incorporators were Samuel Lawrence, John Nesmith, Daniel Saunders, and Edward Bartlett. Capitalized at one million dollars, the Company’s stock was quickly subscribed by Bostonians and local capitalist such as Capt. Nathaniel Stevens. The first board of directors included Nathan Appleton, Patrick Tracy Jackson, Abbott Lawrence, John A. Lowell, Ignatius Sargent, William Sturgis, and Charles Storrow. Storrow was appointed to act as Treasurer, Agent, and Chief Engineer.

The Essex Company purchased the rights to nearly 4,000 acres in Methuen and Andover, some previously acquired by Daniel Saunders’s Merrimack Water Power Associates. Developing that land into the city of Lawrence depended on successful completion of the dam, power canal, factory buildings, and housing. Construction of most industrial structures was overseen directly by the Essex Company’s engineers beginning in 1845. Sales of land at public auction provided for commercial and private residential development in 1846. The town of Lawrence grew quickly. Incorporated in 1847, it achieved city status by 1853. The City Hall and churches were built on land donated by the Essex Company. Unique among the mill towns in New England, Lawrence, Massachusetts, was planned and development controlled due to the fact that the Essex Company owned most of the land along both sides of the river. The company further controlled development by buying, jointly with Lowell's Proprietors of Locks and Canals, land and water rights along the Merrimack River up to Lake Winnipesaukee, in New Hampshire. This led to the Essex Company becoming a pioneer in water and sewage treatment, developing the United States' first slow sand filter for drinking water.

Lawrence’s municipal organization was closely tied with the Essex Company for much of the 19th century. Essex Company engineers laid out and graded the city streets and parks. The Company controlled the pace at which the city developed through land sales, street development, and the extension of manufacturing sites on the south side of the river with the construction of the South Canal beginning in 1865. Residential and commercial development followed, and a city of 35,000 people straddled the Merrimack by 1876.

In 1979, it became a subsidiary of Essex Development Associates, and completed a hydro-electric generating facility at the dam. It is now a subsidiary of Patriot Hydro LLC.

The above organizational history was condensed from The Lawrence History Center's Administrative History for their Records of the Essex Company of Lawrence, MA and from The Merrimack Valley Textile Museum: A Guide to the Manuscript Collections.