Rockville, Connecticut, USA
In 1821, Colonel Francis McLean built the first textile mill in what is now Rockville in partnership with George and Allyn Kellogg and Ralph Talcott, next to a spot known as "the Rock" with capital of $16,000.

For some years Colonel Francis McLean had fostered many and varied enterprises. He was a man of great mental vigor and the possessor of an indomitable will. In his youth there was evident this same intensity of character. Work, heavy and constant on his father's farm, developed a physique of great power. Referring to his military service, the Colonel remarks : "At 18 years old I became a soldier, then was chosen corporal, then a sergeant, orderly sergeant, ensign, lieutenant, captain, major, and at last colonel." He
adds : "I went up too fast from one office to another for my good." This was the caliber of a leading spirit — generous, high-minded, and firm in principle. Such nobility became the bulwark of the early institutions of our town. In 1821 Colonel McLean, George and Allen Kellogg and Ralph
Talcott organized for the regular manufacture of satinets. They erected a building 80x30 and three stories high, on the present Rock Site. This structure loomed up so mightily and was actually so much larger than anything previously attempted, that to the inhabitants it appeared indeed a posi-
tive prodigy. This was a real factory, in fact, the first that might properly be called by that name. It was called the Rock, because of the many great rocks thereabout, and the name of Rockville followed naturally from the name of this first factory. We have mentioned George Kellogg and Allen Kellogg as two of the proprietors of this mill. Another brother, Nathaniel O. Kellogg, a few years before, in 1817, bought the Warburton privilege in southern Vernon which McLean had operated as a wool-carding plant. Here Mr. Kellogg added spinning and weaving equipment for the manufacture of the same cloth — satinet. Hence the
early development of this new industry was almost simultaneous at both extremities of the town.

In 1821, when the first Rock Mill was completed, the scattered population was hardly fifty persons all told. At least a third of these were Grants, descendants of the pioneer, and from them Colonel McLean purchased the land necessary for the new mill...

A CENTURY OF Vernon, Connecticut 1808—1908
PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF SPECIAL HISTORICAL COMMITTEE.
ROCKVILLE, CONN.
PRESS OF T. F. RADY & COMPANY
JAN. 1911



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