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The Town & the City: Lowell before and after The Civil War

Originally created to be a digital archive for Lowell documents from 1826 to 1861, this website has grown to cover many periods and events in Lowell's history.

City Records & Institutions

Lowell and the Flu Epidemic of 1918.  

From September 19 to December 31, 1918, over 630 died in Lowell from Influenza and related illnesses. 

The place of burial is indicated by number: 1. St. Patrick, 2. Edson, 3. St. Joseph, 4. Westlawn, 5. Out-of-City,   6. Lowell: Cemetery not named, 7: Lowell Cemetery on Lawrence Street.
The data was extracted from the State copies of Official Returns of Death filed with the Lowell  City Clerk.  The records are on-line at https://www.Familysearch.org  under Massachusetts, Indexed Historical Records, State Vital Records, 1841-1920. The Lowell deaths are in Volumes 60-63.

Almshouse Records

The records of Almshouse residents are taken from the printed Reports published in the Lowell City Documents.  The names were printed only for the years below.

Reform School Records

The records of Reform School inmates are taken from the printed Reports published in the Lowell City Documents.  The names were printed only for the years below.

Reform School 1868 - 1869

School Department related records

Truant Registers, 1887-1893

These are a record of children who had interacted with the Truant Commissioners.  Entries in RED indicate those arrested for truancy and sentenced to the Reform School.  The original entries were written in red also.

NOTE: When the database was originally created the Year and Page were entered for each record but the Date was omitted.  When we decided to consolidate the several databases, we found that one set of records was missing.  Those missing records were added and the Date was filled in.  Because of several sortings of the original database, it became clear that to enter the Date of each record would be a very long and tedious task. 

The original databases were created by a Library staff member on several disks.  Consolidation of those records, as well entering additional entries was done by Diane Laferriere, Karen & Walter Hickey.

Work Permit Registers

Work permits issued by the Lowell School Department for enrolled students. Information about employer, birthdate, country of origin, and residence. The work "history" of each person is on one page.  Compiled by local researchers Walter Hickey, Karen Hickey and Diane Laferrierre.