Lowell² Dec 21st 1845 

Dear Father

            I received your letter on Thursday the 14th with much pleasure. I am well which 
is one comfort. My life and health are spared while others are cut off. Last Thursday one 
girl fell down and broke her neck which caused instant death. She was going in or 
coming out of the mill and slipped down it being very icy. The same day a man was 
killed by the [railroad] cars. Another had nearly all of his ribs broken. Another was nearly 
killed by falling down and having a bale of cotton fall on him. Last Tuesday we were 
paid. In all I had six dollars and sixty cents paid $4.68 for board. With the rest I got me a 
pair of rubbers and a pair of 50.cts shoes. Next payment I am to have a dollar a week 
beside my board. We have not had much snow the deepest being not more than 4 inches. 
It has been very warm for winter. Perhaps you would like something about our 
regulations about going in and coming out of the mill. At 5 o'clock in the morning the 
bell rings for the folks to get up and get breakfast. At half past six it rings for the girls to 
get up and at seven they are called into the mill. At half past 12 we have dinner are called 
back again at one and stay till half past seven.,, I get along very well with my work. I can 
doff as fast as any girl in our room. I think I shall have frames before long. The usual 
time allowed for learning is six months but I think I shall have frames before I have been 
in three as I get along so fast. I think that the factory is the best place for me and if any 
girl wants employment I advise them to come to Lowell. Tell Harriet that though she 
does not hear from me she is not forgotten. I have little time to devote to writing that I 
cannot write all I want to. There are half a dozen letters which I ought to write to day but 
I have not time. Tell Harriet I send my love to her and all of the girls. Give my love to 
Mrs. Clement. Tell Henry this will answer for him and you too for this time.

  ^{1Mary Stiles Paul b: 26 Jan 1830, Hanover, NH d: 12 Dec 1899, 
    Cambridge, MA; parents: Bela Paul b: Taunton, MA and Mary 
    Briggs b: Keene, NH; married in Lowell 1857: Isaac Guild b: 
    19 Jun 1831, NH; Isaac Guild 1860: marble works, Lynn, MA; 
    children: Irving Tracy Guild and Sidney Paul Guild.
    Twenty-five of her letters, covering the years 1845-1862 have 
    survived. She began working as a domestic in Bridgewater, Vermont. 
    1845-1848 worked in Lowell textile mills. 1848 joined her father in 
    Claremont, New Hampshire. 1850 returned to Vermont for a short spell. 
    Then she joined Lowell companions at an agricultural utopian community 
    in Redbank, New Jersey for a year. Following her brief tenure at the 
    collective, she once again returned to New Hampshire.
  2Woodstock, Vermont.}
 

This from

Mary S Paul