The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was established in Manchester in the 1830s. The city of Manchester was designed and built by the owners of the mill. During the Civil War, cotton was scarce, so the factory made muskets, but they returned to producing cotton cloth after the war. In the early 1900s, it was the largest textile manufacturer in the world, with over 17,000 workers. The first workers came from farms in New Hampshire, but as the company expanded, they recruited immigrants from French Canada, Greece and Poland.

When cheap labor provided stiff competition from southern textile mills, Amoskeag increased hours and lowered wages, resulting in a strike in 1922, closing the mill for nine months. When workers returned, they had won no concessions. In the 1930s, the Depression caused the company great hardship, and the mill finally closed at the end of 1935. The huge mill complex is now the home of many small industries, offices, the Millyard Museum, and even a childcare center.

Lewis Hine took about 40 photos at the Amoskeag Mill between May 21 and May 26, 1909. Most of the children were not identified in the captions. This photo attracted me right away. The boys are well dressed, and all have their hands in their coat pockets. They appear comfortable and confident, as they stand on the bridge over the Merrimac River, which appears in the above photo of the mill.

I chose Martin Markey first, and found his death record right away in the Social Security Death Index. But the death record listed only that he died in Manchester in April of 1977, and did not give the date of the month. Consequently, I was unable to get the Manchester City Library to look up the obituary. So I did the next best thing: I called up all the Markeys listed in Manchester, and one of them, a distant relative, directed me to Martin's daughter, Sister Monica Markey, of Dover, NH. I called her, and she was both surprised and delighted that her father's picture is in the Library of Congress.

I am currently researching the other two boys: Jeremiah Moore, who died in Manchester in July of 1972; and Napoleon Camire, who died in Lewiston, Maine on June 26, 1967.

Martin Francis Markey was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, on December 16, 1894. His parents were Owen and Ellen (Regan) Markey, who were married in 1894. Both were Irish immigrants. It was Owen's third marriage, his first two wives having passed away. He worked at Amoskeag. In the 1900 census, the family was living at 161 Cedar St, less than a mile east of the mill. In 1910, they were living at 33 State St, a boarding house that was managed by Martin's mother. It was just a short walk from the mill. Martin was listed as a mill worker.

In 1917, Martin's WWI draft registration card listed him as living in Butte, Montana, where he worked in a silver mine. He stated, "one eye very bad." That is explained in my interview with his daughter. In 1920, he was back in Manchester, at 252 Bell St, living with his parents and working in the mill. In 1930, he was living with his wife and three children, in his widowed father's home, still at 252 Bell St. Martin was working for the Manchester Gas Company, where he was still working in 1942, according to his WWII draft registration. He passed away on December 12, 1955, four days before his 60^th birthday.