Louisa Wells

Louisa Wells was born in Vermont in 1815. She later came to Lowell to work in the mills as a weaver.

Her presence in Lowell is first documented in the 1836 Lowell Female Directory, and existing payroll records indicate she started working in the Card Room of Mill #5 at the Lawrence Mfg. Company in February 1836. She opened a bank account at Lowell Institute for Savings in June 1836 with a deposit of $27.00.

Louisa worked at Lawrence Mfg. Company for about 13 years. After that, there is no record of where she lives or works until she appears in the 1866 Lowell City Directory as living on River Road in Dracut (later annexed by Lowell as Varnum Avenue). 

Death and Monument 

She died in February, 1886 at the age of 69. In her will, she leaves money for a monument in the Lowell Cemetery. With her will direct, the residue of her estate would be used to erect a monument on her grave. Her family contested the will, and the litigation lasted for 20 years. The court’s final ruling was that her directions were to be followed. What was originally a modest sum would, twenty years later, erect a major monument.

Daniel Chester French received the commission to create the monument. Mr. French was the artist who created the Lincoln Monument in Washington, D.C., and the Minute Man in Concord, Massachusetts. His associate, Evelyn Longman, executed the design in Tennessee marble and took more than a year to complete the work. It depicts an Angel of Mercy looking down on a tired worker holding a bobbin. The inscription is: 

“Out of the fibre of her daily tasks, she wove the fabric of a useful life.”