Ezekiel A. Straw

Who was Ezekiel A. Straw?

Ezekiel Albert Straw, was an engineer, businessman, and politician from Manchester, New Hampshire. He was born in Salisbury, but moved with his family to Lowell, Massachusetts, where his father, James B. Straw, was employed at the Appleton Manufacturing Company. Ezekiel A. Straw, eldest of 7 children, attended schools in Lowell before enrolling at Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, where he showed an aptitude for mathematics.

Upon leaving Phillips Andover, Straw was hired in the spring of 1838 as an assistant civil engineer at the Nashua & Lowell Railway, then under construction. On July 4, 1838, he arrived in Manchester, New Hampshire, sent to substitute for a civil engineer at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company who had become ill. The position soon became permanent. One of his first duties was laying out lots and streets for the new industrial city as envisioned by Amoskeag's cultured treasurer, William Amory. He also assisted with the construction of the dam and canal. In 1842, he founded the community's first Unitarian Society. Straw was sent by the mills to England and Scotland in November 1844 to gather information and machinery for manufacturing and printing muslin delaines, which the Manchester Print Works introduced to the United States. In July 1851, he was appointed agent of Amoskeag.