In February, 1863, Lowell sent to the war the Fifteenth Battery, in command of Captain Timothy Pearson and Lieutenant Albert Rowse. During this month the ladies of the city raised about five thousand dollars for the Sanitary Commission by a Soldiers' Fair--the second held in the Northern States. In July, 1863, the "draft" called for over four hundred additional soldiers from Lowell; less than thirty were forced into the service. These were the palmy days for the substitute brokers and bounty-jumpers. In July, 1864, the Sixth Regiment again responded, and served one hundred days. In 1865, came the close of the war and the return of the battle-scarred veterans. During the long struggle more than five thousand citizens of Lowell were in the army and navy of the United States, and the city expended over $300,000 in equipment and bounties. The Lowell Horse Railroad Company and the First National Bank were incorporated in 1864. The French-Canadians began to settle in Lowell just after the war. [Illustration: ST. PETER'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1860.] In October, 1866, Dr. J.C. Ayer presented the city with the statue of Victory which stands in Monument Square. The Old Ladies' Home was dedicated July 10, 1867. St. John's Hospital was completed and opened in 1868. It occupies the site of the old yellow house built in 1770 by Timothy Brown. In November of the same year the first meeting of the Old Residents' Historical Association of Lowell was held at the store of Joshua Merrill; in December, the city was visited by General Grant. In 1869, the city authorities undertook a system of water-supply works which was completed four years later; the Lowell Hosiery Company was incorporated in May. The Thorndike Manufacturing Company commenced operations in June, 1870. The fire-alarm telegraph was introduced in 1871; in August, trains on the Lowell and Framingham Railroad commenced running; in November, the new iron bridge across the Merrimack was finished; during the year, the city suffered severely from the scourge of small-pox. The boundaries of Lowell were extended, in 1873, to include Middlesex Village, taken from Chelmsford, and a part of Dracut and Tewksbury. A new railroad by the way of Andover connected Lowell with Boston in 1874. [Illustration: OLD FIRST UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, Which stood on site of the Boston and Maine Railroad Station.] The city celebrated the semi-centennial of its incorporation, March 1, 1876. The Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil visited the city in June of the same year. The Lowell Art Association was formed in May, 1878. In December of that year the waters of the Merrimack rose nearly eleven feet on Pawtucket Dam; in the same month the Merrimack Company introduced the electric light. [Illustration: JOHN DYNELY PRINCE. Born in England, 1780. Died January 5, 1860.] Merrimack Company introduced the electric light. In August, 1880, Boston and Lowell were connected by telephone.