HAMLET OF BOQUET

Inscription

HAMLET OF BOQUET
AS EARLY AS 1817
MILLS, FORGES, SHOPS AND
FACTORIES LINED THIS AREA
OF THE BOQUET RIVER.
MOST WERE CLOSED BY 1870.
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2022

According to an unconfirmed secondary source, Daniel Ross built a sawmill here in 1784 and his son, W.D. Ross, built a grist mill as well as a rolling and slitting mill (probably ca. 1827) and nail factory in 1810. The Census of Industry for 1820 shows Ross’s nail factory was in operation for the past 3 years (since ca. 1817). Before 1858, a woolen mill was also constructed here, but by that time the rolling mill apparently operated only intermittently. By 1865 one observer reported that the local industry was in disrepair and unused for some time, with the apparent exception of the grist mill and woolen factory, which were operating in 1869 and 1870. In 1885, a history of Essex County reported that “Little remains of the business activities of ancient days. The old dam has been worn away rather than washed away, and the mills are the more silent in that they arouse an idea of former thrift and industry.”

Historical marker for the hamlet of Boquet.