Damming the Androscoggin harnessed river power that attracted industry to Topsham and Brunswick. The river provided cheap and plentiful power for sawmills, woolen mills, the Cabot cotton mill, and Topsham's pulp and paper mills, drawing entrepreneurs whose industries helped build both towns. In 1835, the Brunswick Manufacturing Company built a granite mill to produce cotton textiles. It was part of a succession that included the Worumbo Mill in 1847, the Cabot Company in 1853, the Cabot Manufacturing Company in 1857, and the Cabot Mill in the 1800s. For nearly 150 years, three dams along the falls powered the mills, and today a single dam generates electrical power. The mill was rebuilt and expanded between 1890 and 1920, Robert Verney bought it in 1942, and it closed in 1955. Although periodic flooding destroyed dams, mills, and bridges, they were quickly rebuilt.