The river appealed to settlers because its 45-foot rise in close proximity to navigable water each provided potential waterpower sites.

A cotton rag paper mill, run by Massachusetts natives William Hawes and father-and-son duo Henry and George Cox, operated on the falls (western) side of the bridge and the eastern side of the river from 1816 until 1821, at which point it was purchased by William and Calvin Stockbridge, brothers who successfully operated it for twenty years as W. R. & C. Stockbridge, a paper company.

[2] In 1836 it was incorporated as Yarmouth Paper Manufacturing Company, but when advancements in machinery and processes arrived, competition became too difficult and the mill closed.

[4] It was one of the leading industries in Yarmouth, spinning coarse and fine yarn and seamless grain bags, of which it produced up to 1,000 per day.

They remained tenants for the next 39 years, until 1992, when the decision was made to divide the mill's interior up into multiple business for extra revenue.