McClure, to weave jeans and corduroys by hand with a fly shuttle, much in the same manner as it is now done by water power.   It may therefore with truth be said, perhaps, that the first small arms, the first solid cannon cast and bored, the first cotton thread ever spun by modern machinery, in America, were made in Bridgewater.   The first nails manufactured by machinery in the United States were made here; probably the first nail completely cut and headed by machinery at one operation in the world, was made in East Bridgewater, by the late Mr. Samuel Rogers.   In laying the shingles on the present meeting-house in East Bridgewater, which was erected in 1794, nails made by hand in a small machine invented by him, were principally used.   The writer well recollects the circumstance, and often saw the machine in operation.   It had been invented and constructed long before, and was supposed to be the first method ever discovered of making a perfect nail at one operation.

   Some of the present manufactures carried on here, such as cotton gins and others, are probably the first ever made in New England.—Few places therefore have done more towards the introduction and promotion of the manufacturing and mechanic arts, than this ancient town of Bridgewater.