Walking tour stop 15 of 28
b. 1802, d. October 30, 1880. Sec. OG-13. In 1844, Hosea Richardson built a wool carding and cloth dressing mill on Paint creek. This was a great time saver for pioneer women who before, among countless chores, had to spin their wool and weave their cloth. In early agricultural Rochester most farmers had sheep whose wool they took to the Rochester Woolen Mill. This mill burned in 1867 and 1882. The mill was then sold to Charles and William Chapman and became the Western Knitting Mills. Mills were important to the early economy of Rochester.