[2] Strikers demanded a shortening of the working day to 10 hours at the mill, which the owner, the Salisbury Company, refused.

[1] When McNeill and the other workers abandoned their posts, mill owners terminated the employment of all, hiring a new crew of 50 Irish immigrants to operate the machinery of the facility.

[1] Needing to find a new line of employment after termination in the strike, McNeill apprenticed as a shoemaker, learning that craft and moving to Boston in 1856.

[2] In Boston, McNeill became politically active and joined the Sons of Temperance, serving multiple times as an officer in that organization.

[1] McNeill would serve as president of the Eight Hour League for eight years, taking part in that capacity in the successful lobbying of the state legislature for passage of a 10-hour day law in Massachusetts.

Consequently, in 1883 McNeill founded the Massachusetts Accident Company, designed to provide low cost insurance to factory workers in the state.