Mill Girls the subject of Wolfeboro Library program

WOLFEBORO — The Wolfeboro Public Library will kick off its 2017 Connect Discover Explore program series on Thursday, Jan. 12, 6:30 p.m., with an illustrated talk about the young women and girls who once worked in textile mills.

Mill Girls played a key role in the success of the Industrial Revolution. They came from all over New England during the 1800s and early 1900s to the cities with textile mills. There they were hired and trained to weave the strands that moved a society from farm and home-produced goods, as well as imported goods, to factory goods that were produced in America. Ranging in age from 10 to middle age, but mostly in their early 20s, the "girls" ended representing about 75 percent of the textile mill workforce. They lived a harsh and demanding life, but moved out of the shadows of being a possession and stood proud in a new endeavor.

Speaker Peg Fargo will take a peek at the stories and the lives — fact and fantasy — of the Mill Girls. The emphasis will be on the mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, but will also look at Manchester's Amoskeag Mills.

Fargo is a retired educator with a lifelong interest in history. She moved to New Hampshire from northern New York and became intrigued with the mills and the importance of New England in the Industrial Revolution.

This program will be presented with support from the Friends of the Wolfeboro Public Library. As always, the library's programs are free and open to all. For more information call 569-2428 or visit www.wolfeborolibrary.org.

Girls and young women stand next to textile machinery in one of New England's textile mills. A program about the role that young female labor played in the textile mills will be presented at the Wolfeboro Public Library on Jan. 12. (Courtesy file photo)