[Illustration: THE SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.]
The town so originated and named grew gradually until the breaking out
of the civil war, but its most rapid growth has been since 1865. In 1857
the water-power and property were purchased by a company which organized
as the Holyoke Water Power Company, and which has fostered and developed
the natural advantages of the place as a manufacturing centre to a
wonderful degree.
[Illustration: THE CITY HALL.]
In the first twenty years of its existence the town acquired a
population of about 11,000 and a valuation of nearly $10,000,000. In the
sixteen years that have succeeded, the population has almost trebled and
the valuation this year is nearly $16,000,000.
There is not another city in the east that can show such swift and at
the same time substantial growth as Holyoke has enjoyed during the two
decades succeeding the war. In a few years it became the greatest
paper-making centre of the country. It has now twenty-four large
paper-making corporations, one having the largest paper-mill in the
world.
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