The Life of William M. Wood  

     George Patton married the sister of William Wood in Beverly Farms MA in 1910.

     At the time of the 1912 strike, the mean age at death in Lawrence was a bare 15 and by 15 many a boy and girl had already been a mill hand for 1-2 years.

     William Wood Jr, joined his father after graduating from Harvard with a degree in Sociology.  In 1919 a day care nursery was built in Lawrence for the children whose mothers worked in the Wood Mills and a summer camp for the employees children opened in Boxford Ma.  

     In 1925 "White Shawsheen" had been completely developed.  Old timers resented changing the name of Frye Village to Shawsheen Village.  Others feared that Wood would want to make the village a part of Lawrence.  Wood wrote to the Andover Townsman on December 14, 1923 to assure the local community that he opposed annexation of Shawsheen Village to Lawrence.  "The new residents are delighted to belong to Andover".

     Some Andoverans took offense to what they considered "snobbishness" of the early residents of Shawsheen Village.

Transcribed by MET June 28 2006

Taken from Mills, Mansions and Mergers - Roddy