Page "Auburn, Maine" Paragraph 3

Farms supplied grain and produce.

But with construction of the bridge to Lewiston in 1823, and especially after arrival of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad from Portland in January 1848, the community developed into a mill town.

Mills were built to operate by water power from falls on the Androscoggin River and Little Androscoggin River.

In 1835, the factory system of shoe manufacture originated at Auburn.

Other firms manufactured cotton and woolen textiles, carriages, iron goods, bricks and furniture.

The population in 1860 was only about 4, 000 but by 1890 it was about 12, 000, when its shoe factories attracted many French Canadian immigrants, many of whom arrived by train from Quebec.

Steady population growth continued to about 1960 when the population was about 24, 500.