Pawtucket

Pawtucket, a city of Rhode Island, on the Pawtucket River, 4 miles by rail N. of Providence. A fall of nearly 50 feet on the river, and its proximity to the sea, caused it to be selected by Samuel Slater, in 1790, as the site of the first cotton-factory in the United States. It now contains numerous large mills, where cottons, woollens, hairoth, and thread are manufactured, besides great calico-printing works, and bleaching and dyeing establishments, &c. Pawtucket was settled about 1655, and became a city in 1886. Pop. (1870) 6619; (1890) 27,633.