Ironstone Cotton Manufacturing Company which produced cotton yarns. William Arnold built this mill in 1814 to make yarn from raw cotton which was then woven into fabric by area families operating as cottage industries. Around 1820, Arnold added this housing when he increased the factory production by increasing water power and installing power looms. The earliest power looms in America included those used in Uxbridge. Due to goods needing transport, Ironstone became an important stopover for various transportation carriers - the stagecoach and the train. A post office and store were quickly established on the mill property. In the 1850s this mill under management by Seth and Daniel Southwick, made denim fabric for Kentucky Blue Jeans. In the 1870s, David Southwick created Conestoga wagon wheels in his blacksmith shop in nearby south Uxbridge and Ironstone, which were used by pioneers traveling west. The mill, was finally lost after it burnt down in 1875 after two earlier fires had led to rebuilding the mill. History of Ironstone Village and the area The village of Ironstone was one of the first settlements of Uxbridge, in the early 1730s. In 1734, Benjamin Taft, a member of the American Taft family, started an early iron forge, bog iron mine here, and later Caleb Handy added a triphammer operation for making tools, guns and scythes at this site. The Blackstone Valley Daily describes the influence that Ironstone had in the life of this community. ''The Ironstone School' is an historic building that was used as recently as 1948 as a traditional one room schoolhouse. The original building dated from 1797 and had eight grades and one teacher. Ironstone was influential in Uxbridge's transformation from agriculture to manufacturing. The Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad served the Ironstone area in the 1860s for shipping goods to the markets west and east. Captain James Buxton (1745–1817), served in the 11th Massachusetts Regiment (American Revolution) at Valley Forge and Saratoga, lived in the border area in the 18th century, in what is North Smithfield, Rhode Island at the Uxbridge line. Buxton Street in South Uxbridge, and the Captain James Buxton (Uxbridge) fife and drum corps, are both named for him. Buxton's commission as Captain was signed by John Hancock, and he was given of land in Worcester County, Massachusetts, in Uxbridge for service in the American Revolution. He died of paralysis in 1817 and is buried in his family's