Elisha Southwick

Elisha Southwick was a wagon maker and "blue jeans" cloth manufacturer born in Uxbridge, Massachusetts on April 4, 1809.cite book|last=Baldwin|first=Thomas Williams|authorlink=|title="Vital Records of Uxbridge, Massachusetts to the Year 1850|publisher=Wright and Potter Printing|location=Boston|pages=p. 369|date=1916|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=6lj7wmu0U2IC&dq=Samuel+Taft+of+Uxbridge&pg=PA235&ots=kbl8tM2at5&sig=MW5Zl5YQwXgYUawOVq1iwYpt-bU&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3DSamuel%2BTaft%2Bof%2BUxbridge&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=2&cad=legacy#PPA321,M1|accessdate=2007-11-02] He died in Uxbridge in 18xx

Southwick was from Quaker City in the Town of Uxbridge, Massachusetts. His brother David Southwick, actually "created" some of the Conestoga Wagon Wheels that would be used by pioneers in the settlement of the U.S. He and his brother Jonathan, also manufactured the cloth for Kentucky Blue Jeans from a very old textile mill which they rebuilt at Ironstone, Massachusetts.

Elisha Southwick's home

Going north to Chocolog Village at 255 Chocolog Road is the 1820-30 wooden clapboard house that became the farm of wagon maker Elisha Southwick by 1855. Elisha and his brother Jonathan had rebuilt the Ironstone Mill after it burnt to the ground the first time. They produced the cloth to produce Kentucky jeans. During this time, Elisha was also producing a wagon each month and handling some smaller side jobs like carts, too. The brothers also ran a tannery and Jonathan operated a brick yard, too, off River Road in the Ironstone Village. By the 1870s, David Southwick was living in the home . He was a farmer and a blacksmith. He created some of the wheels used by the Conestoga Wagons that the pioneers traveled westward in during the late 1800s. The family burial ground, which might be the oldest in Uxbridge, lies between this home and George Southwick's home. George had started the first store in Uxbridge in Quaker City which was also a lending library and the post office.cite web |title= "Walking tours - Uxbridge"|publisher= Blackstone Daily |url= http://www.blackstonedaily.com/Outdoors&Nature/WTuxbridge.htm |accessdate= 2007-09-23] The Elisha Southwick House is on the US National Register of Historic Places. The town of Uxbridge has 60 buildings which are on the national register of historic places. The town has more than 250 buildings which are listed on the Massachusetts state registry of historic places.

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