Luke Taft was an industrial pioneer in the manufacture of woolens in 19th century New England.
11 Facts About Luke Taft
1.
2.
Luke Taft was a fifth-generation descendant of Robert Taft I, of the American Taft family.
3.
Robert Taft I had settled from England in the western section of Mendon in 1679 which later became Uxbridge in 1727.
4.
Luke was the son of Esther and James Taft of Uxbridge, and born into a family of eight other siblings.
5.
Luke Taft married Daniel Day and Sylvia Day's daughter, Mercy Day, and was married to Nancy Taft.
6.
Luke Taft had a total of five children, including a son, Moses, who was his second born in Uxbridge in January 1812.
7.
Luke Taft became an early American industrial pioneer and the builder of two early textile mills.
8.
Luke Taft built a dam, and his first textile mill on the West River, in 1824.
9.
Luke Taft was the son-in-law of Daniel Day, who had earlier established the first woolen mill in the Blackstone Valley, at Uxbridge, circa 1810.
10.
Luke Taft later built a second textile mill in 1833, on the Blackstone River at the site of the present day Stanley Woolen Mill.
11.
Uxbridge is in the heart of the Blackstone Valley, a major contributor to the earliest industrialization of the US Luke Taft was a member of the famous Taft family which has its roots in Mendon and Uxbridge.