#2 Amanda Colburn was a descendant of Edward Colburn who came from England in 1635. He lived in Ipswich for some years. In 1668 he moved to what is now Dracut, MA as the first settler on the north of the Merrimack River. Amanda’s grandfather, Uriah, was born in Dracut, MA, but moved to Rumney, NH and then Wentworth, NH where he farmed for many years.

Amanda’s mother was Betsy Smart and her grandfather was Jeremiah Smart of Rumney, NH who was a Native American. In 1850, Jeremiah was among those owning the most real estate in Wentworth, NH. Jeremiah’s wife was Relief Haines, of English heritage. Amanda was born in Wentworth, NH in June 1847. Amanda and two of her sisters came to Lowell, MA to work in the textile mills sometime after the Civil War. In Lowell, Amanda she met Meldon Stephen Giles and married in June 1869.

Meldon Giles was born in October 1840 in Acton, MA parents Israel Haynes Giles and Lucy Haynes Giles. Sometime later his family moved to Westford, MA. Meldon’s name is on the door of the Acton, MA library as veteran of Civil War. He and Amanda had two children; Nellie, born in 1870 and Clarence, born in 1871. Meldon co-invented the ‘Store Rail Account Systems’. His partner stayed in the US and Meldon worked as the international salesman.

Amanda, Meldon, and their children spent 25 years in England, 1888-1912. She sometimes did international travel with Meldon. They returned to Lowell, MA in 1912 and she passed away in 1913.

#1 – During the 1830s and 1840s, Betsey Guppy Chamberlain (1797–1886), a mixed-race writer of English and Algonkian heritage, labored in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, where she penned colorful stories and sketches for two workers’ magazines—the ‘Lowell Offering’ and ‘The New England Offering.’ A courageous and pioneering author, Chamberlain wrote the earliest known Native American fiction and published some of the earliest prose to challenge the persecution of Native people and affirm their dignity and worth.

The life and works of this remarkable and multi-faceted woman are now recovered from obscurity in this volume, which collects for the first time thirty-four of Chamberlain’s richly varied contributions. Organized in three thematic sections (Native Tales and Dream Visions; “The Unprivileged Sex”: Women’s Concerns; and Village Sketches), the captivating writings range from humorous autobiographical sketches of New England life to protest pieces that raise consciousness about the treatment of Native people, excessive mill hours and poor working conditions, and the oppression of women. Drawn from Euro-American and Native oral literary traditions, Chamberlain’s fiction and other prose shed new light on nineteenth-century American working women and illuminate the multicultural roots of New England writing.