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Page 19
William Edwards was only thirteen when he was put out as an
apprentice to a tanner in Elizabethtown, N.J. To reach this place the
lad had to ride horseback to the Hudson river, about thirty miles, make
arrangements to have the horse taken back, and take passage on a West
Indies cattle brig to New York. It took him a week to get to New York.
He then took the ferry for Elizabethtown.
When young Edwards began life as a tanner it took twelve months for
the tanning of hides. This was by far the most extensive tannery in
America. It had a capacity of 1,500 sides. The only "improvement" then
known--1784--was the use of a wooden plug in the lime vats and water
pools to let off the contents into the brook. The bark was ground by
horse power. There was a curb fifteen feet in diameter, made of
three-inch plank, with a rim fifteen inches high. Within this was a
stone wheel with many hollows and the wooden wheel with long pegs. Two
horses turned these wheels which would grind half a cord of bark in a
day of twelve hours. The first year William was at work grinding bark.
All the pay received for the year's work was the knowledge gained of the
art of grinding bark, very poor board (no clothing, no money), and the
privilege of tanning for himself three sheep skins. The fourth half
year he received his first money, $2.50 a month, which was paid out of
friendliness for the Edwards family.
Before he was twenty he set up in business for himself. He had saved
$100; his father, still poor, gave him $300; he bought land for his
plant for $700 on long credit. After years of great struggle he
succeeded in business and developed the process by which instead of
employing one hand for every one hundred sides he could tan 40,000 with
twenty lads and the cost was reduced from twelve cents a pound to four
cents. The quality was improved even more than the cost was reduced.
When the war of 1812 broke out he had practically the only important
tannery in the United States, but the war scare and attendant evils led
to his failure in 1815. He was now 45 years old with a wife and nine
children. He went to work in a factory for day wages to keep his family
supplied with the necessities of life. By some misunderstanding and a
combination of law suits his patents were lost to him.
When Colonel Edwards failed in 1815 he owed considerable sums of money
and nine years later the courts released him from all obligations, yet
between the age of 69 and 75 he paid every cent of this indebtedness
amounting to $25,924.
The chief interest in Colonel Edwards centers in his children. When his
failure came there were nine children, five boys and four girls. The
youngest was a few months old and the eldest 19. Seven of them were
under 12 years of age. In the first four years of their reverses two
others were born, so that his large family had their preparation and
start in life in the years of struggle. Nevertheless they took their
places among the prosperous members of the Edwards family. The eldest
son, William W. Edwards, was one of the eminently successful men of New
York. He lived to be 80 years old and his life was fully occupied with
good work. He was engaged in the straw goods business in New York;
helped to develop the insurance business to large proportions; organized
the Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn, of which he was treasurer and
cashier. He was one of the founders of the American Tract Society and of
the New York Mercantile Library. He was a member of the State
legislature for several terms.
Henry Edwards was one of Boston's most eminent merchants and a most
useful man. He had the only strictly wholesale silk house in Boston for
nearly half a century. He was born in Northampton, 1798. At the age of
fifteen he entered the employ of a prominent Boston importing house and
began by opening the store, building the fires, and carrying out goods.
By the time he was twenty he was the most trusted employee. He was a
born trader. His brother in New York knowing that twist buttons were
scarce in that city suggested that Henry buy up all there were in Boston
before the dealers discovered the fact that they were scarce in New York
and send them on to him. They cleared $500 in a few weeks. He was an
earnest student. Not having had the advantages of an education he made
up for it by studying evenings. They imported their silks from France
which led him to study French until he was accomplished in the art of
reading and speaking the French language. It is rather remarkable that
learning the language in this way, he was able to go to France and
out-rank most foreigners in Parisian society. An Edwards did not
absolutely need the college and the university in order to be eminently
scholarly in any special line.
At the age of twenty-five he went into business as the senior
partner of the house of Edwards & Stoddard on State street, Boston. It
was the only house that made its whole business the importing of silks.
At the age of twenty-eight he went to Paris to purchase silks and
remained there many years. They did a highly profitable business for
nearly fifty years. He received much social attention while in Paris.
General Lafayette was specially friendly, and the families visited
frequently. He was also highly honored in Boston, where he was a member
of the city government--it was an honor in those days--for nine years,
one of the trustees of Amherst College for forty years, a member of the
Massachusetts legislature and received several important appointments
of trust and honor from Governor John A. Andrew and President Lincoln.
Boston had few men in his day who were more prosperous or more highly
honored.
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