Background on Ponakin Mills
A textile manufacturer, Ponakin (or Ponikin) Mill was established on the north branch of the Nashua River, half a mile from North Lancaster, in 1861, near the site of an earlier cotton mill. By the end of the Civil War, it boasted 40 employees who produced 500,000 yards of brown sheeting, but by the time it was incorporated in 1888, specializing in the production of cotton yarn, manufacturing in Lancaster was already on the decline. In 1901, the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor reported that the mill had set up new spinning machines and had "been running night and day for two years, employing 35 hands" and the company was still listed in the Official American Textile Directory as late as 1922. The date of its closure is uncertain.
