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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924025963830 
 
MEMOIRS 
 
 Col. William Edwards 
 
 FORMERLY OF 
 
 STOCKBRIDGE AND NORTHAMPTON, MASS., 
 
 LATER OF HUNTER, GREENE CO. , N. Y. , 
 
 AND OF BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
 
 WRITTEN BY HIMSELF, IN HIS 76TH YEAR, 1 847, WITH NOTES 
 
 AND ADDITIONS BY HIS SON, WILLIAM W. EDWARDS, AND 
 
 BY HIS GRANDSON, WILLIAM HENRY EDWARDS. 
 
 PRINTED— NOT PUBLISHED 
 
 \vv 
 
 U K I V J? U <; I 1 Y 
 

 'Vi 
 
 Psfim^zn 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 One evening during the winter of 1846-7, 
 after hearing my grandfather, William Ed- 
 wards, then of Brooklyn, relate some of his 
 early recollections, I urged him to employ 
 his mornings in writing out what he could 
 remember of his active life, assuring him 
 that it would interest his grand-children and 
 those who came after them. In a few days 
 I learned that he had taken kindly to the 
 proposition, and was engaged in writing. 
 Some months afterwards, he handed me the 
 manuscript. On reading it, I found that 
 little had been said of his brothers and sisters, 
 as well as of the generation preceding his 
 own, and I returned the papers to him that 
 he might add something concerning his 
 relatives. I was out of the city and the 
 country the larger part of the next four years, 
 
IV 
 
 and heard no more of the matter. At his 
 death, in 1851, the manuscript was found in 
 his desk, with no additions. It was read by 
 my father, William W. Edwards, about 1855, 
 and he was moved to add to it his own recol- 
 lections of his father, and the life at North- 
 ampton and Hunter. The booklet is printed 
 for the descendants of William Edwards, in 
 the first place, but also for the descendants 
 of Timothy and Rhoda Ogden, his parents, 
 of whom it says much. 1 originally intended 
 to append a list of William Edwards' descen- 
 dants, and such an one was prepared. But 
 later, it seemed best to begin with Timothy, 
 particularly as there is in existence (as in the 
 Tuttle and the Stoddard genealogies) no 
 even tolerably complete record of the de- 
 scendants of Timothy's sons and daughters. 
 What there is, is really worse than nothing. 
 I hope that, within the next year, I may 
 have this list ready for publication. 
 
 Wm. H. Edwards. 
 
 COALBURGH, W. VA. 
 
 October i, 1897. 
 
WILLIAM EDWARDS 
 iVVO-iSs'i 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 1897 
 
PnesB of w. f. hoberTb 
 
 WASHINGTON. 0. C, 
 
Brooklyn, Feb'y 8, 1847. 
 
 I have been solicited by some of my 
 family to leave a record of the prominent 
 occurrences of my life (their reasons assigned 
 for my doing it that it would be both useful 
 and gratifying to my Posterity), particularly 
 as I have passed through scenes of deepest 
 interest to our country — the Revolution, and 
 the adoption of the existing Constitution — 
 and have witnessed the happy effects of 
 these measures in producing a prosperity to 
 our Nation that is unexampled. 
 
 1 was born in Elizabethtown, in New 
 Jersey, on the 11th day of November, 1770. 
 My father was Timothy Edwards, the first 
 son and the sixth child of President Jonathan 
 Edwards. He was born in Northampton, 
 Mass., in July, 1738; was educated at Nas- 
 sau Hall College ; married Miss Rhoda 
 Ogden in September, 1760, and settled in 
 
Elizabethtown, N. J., where they had six 
 children born, viz: Sarah, Edward, Jonathan, 
 Richard, Phebe, and William. After residing 
 ten years in Elizabethtown, they removed 
 to Stockbridge, in Mass., June, 1771. At 
 Stockbridge, they had nine children, viz: 
 Robert Ogden (died young), Timothy, Mary 
 Ogden (died young), Rhoda, Elizabeth, 
 Mary, Anna, Robert Burr, and one other 
 that died very young. 
 
 My mother was the daughter of Robert 
 Ogden, Esq., of Elizabethtown, whose 
 ancestors were of the first settlers of that 
 place, and were emigrants from England. 
 
 [Ancestry of Rhoda Ogden, Wife of Timothy 
 Edwards. 
 
 1. John Ogden, an influential man in the Colonial 
 
 history of New Jersey, as early as 1641; he 
 emigrated from England. (See Hatfield's History 
 of Elizabeth, N. J.) He died 1681. He married 
 Jane Bond, and with other children, had 
 
 2. Jonathan, born 1646; died 1732. He married 
 
 Rebecca and with other children, had 
 
 3. Robert 1st; who was born ; died in 1733; 
 
 married for his first wife Hannah Crane, of Newark, 
 N. J. They had six children, of whom was 
 
 4. Robert 2nd; born October 7, 1716; died January 
 
 2i, 1789. He married Phebe Hatfield, who was 
 
5 
 
 born November 25, 1720, and died December 22, 
 1796. December 24, 1751, he was Recorder of 
 the Borough of Elizabethtown, and the same year 
 was elected to the 18th Provincial Assembly. In 
 x 755i be was elected to the 20th Assembly, serv- 
 ing as Speaker until he resigned, in 1765. 
 
 On January 27, 1853, Governor Belcher 
 appointed him a Surrogate, and August 14th, same 
 year, " one of our clerks in Chancery." 
 
 From 1757, through the French war, and 
 until 1773, his papers show that he was Com- 
 missary and Barrack Master for the King's troops. 
 On August 3, 1761, he was commissioned Justice 
 and Judge — he had been a Justice of the Quorum 
 since 1755. December 24, 1761, " Robert Ogden, 
 gentleman," was commissioned Clerk of the 
 Court of Essex County ; and March 22, 1762, he 
 was Commissioned by Governor Hardy one of the 
 Surrogates of the Orphans' Court of the Province 
 of East New Jersey. In 1763, and 1766, as Ruling 
 Elder, he attended the Synod of New York and 
 New Jersey. When the Stamp Act was passed, 
 and the people of all the Colonies rose in angry 
 resistance to its operations, Robert Ogden was 
 speaker of the Assembly. On August 24, 1764, 
 he wrote Cortland Skinner, Attorney-General of the 
 Province, and a fellow member of the Legislature, 
 inclosing a copy of the communication sent out 
 by the Committee of the Massachusetts Represent- 
 atives, for his perusal and advice. He says: " The 
 affair is serious and greatly concerns all the 
 Colonies to unite and exert themselves to the 
 utmost to keep off the threatening blow of impos- 
 ing taxes, duties, etc., so destructive to the liber- 
 
ties the Colonies hitherto enjoyed." "At a meet- 
 ing of a large, number of representatives of the 
 Colony of New Jersey, October 3, 1765, Robert 
 Ogden, Hendrick Fisher, and Joseph Borden, 
 Esquires, were directed to attend the Congress 
 now met at New York, and join the measures 
 there to be concluded," 
 
 The first Congress of the American Colonies 
 met at New York, October 7th, 1765, the three 
 delegates from New Jersey being present. When 
 the battle of Lexington occurred, and Committees 
 of observation and correspondence were formed, 
 Robert Ogden was a member of the Committee 
 from Elizabethtown. 
 
 In 1776, he was Chairman of the Elizabeth- 
 town Committee of Safety. His son, Matthias, 
 was Colonel of the 1st New Jersey Regiment; his 
 sons-in-law, Col. Oliver Spencer and Major 
 Francis Barber, and his son, Aaron Ogden, were 
 officers in other New Jersey regiments. 
 
 Robert Ogden removed to Ogdensburg, in 
 Northern New Jersey, where he owned large 
 tracts of land, in 1777. His wife called the place 
 Sparta, the record says. There he died, January 
 21, 1787, and was buried, "a little in rear of the 
 meeting house. " His wife was buried beside him. 
 On his tombstone is inscribed : " In public life both 
 in Church and State he filled many offices with 
 ability and integrity. In his private business he 
 was upright, eminently useful, active, and diligent. 
 He was temperate and humane. A friend to the 
 poor, hospitable and generous. A most faithful, 
 tender and indulgent husband and parent, and 
 above all, his life and conversation from his youth 
 
was becoming a professor of religion and a 
 follower of the blessed Jesus." 
 
 Robert and Phoebe Ogden had twenty-two- 
 children, of whom Rhoda was the third. 
 
 (These particulars concerning Robert Ogden 
 2nd, are taken from the book entitled the " Des- 
 cendants of Robert Ogden 2nd, 1716-1787. By 
 Edmund Drake Halsey," of Morristown, N. J,.] 
 
 Grandfather was for many years a deacon of 
 the Presbyterian Church in Elizabethtown 
 —extensively engaged in business, both 
 public and private — was the King's Surveyor, 
 also the King's Commissary. He was 
 largely engaged in farming, also in tanning. 
 His house was the home of all clergy- 
 men of the Presbyterian denomination who 
 visited or passed through the town. On 
 my Father's marriage, he settled in Eliz- 
 abethtown, upon the solicitation of Grand- 
 father Ogden; had a small sloop, in con- 
 nection with a store, and got a comfortable 
 support for his family. , But my mother 
 lost her health. The situation of Elizabeth- 
 town.was low — surrounded by a salt marsh, 
 -particularly the part of the town where my 
 father resided. The state of my mother's 
 health led my father to remove from Eliza- 
 bethtown to Stockbridge, where he engaged 
 largely in trade for that period. 
 
8 
 
 Berkshire County was then sparsely in- 
 habited. There was scarcely a store in 
 the County except my father's. He was 
 very prosperous in his business ; his stock 
 of goods was large. The newly cleared 
 lands in that fertile region produced abun- 
 dance of excellent wheat, which he re- 
 mitted to New York with as much profit 
 as he made upon the goods sold. His 
 business prosperity enabled him to pur- 
 chase a farm of several hundred acres, 
 on which he built a dwelling house, barn, 
 etc., for the comfortable accommodation of 
 his family, in 1772. During the business 
 season his building and farming operations 
 required the aid of from 40 to 50 laborers. 
 The expense of these was fully met by the 
 profit of the store for the period (say six 
 months) he thus employed them. His 
 prosperity was uninterrupted until the com- 
 mencement of the Revolution, when all 
 commerce and all business connected with 
 it was suspended, and the energies and 
 resources of those who loved their country, 
 and held dear the liberties of their descend- 
 ants, were absorbed in the unequal contest 
 which Britain had urged against us. She 
 had also obtained the aid of the savages of 
 this country, and of the barbarians of 
 
Germany, to increase the horrors of a civil 
 war and a domestic feud. Our whole 
 western frontier was a scene of blood and 
 carnage from the Indians and Tories. (The 
 Mss. goes on to mention the massacres of 
 Wyoming and Cherry Valley, — the murder 
 of thousands of prisoners on the prison ship, 
 «Scc.) These things taught our fathers what 
 they must expect from the tender mercies 
 of Great Britain if conquered. Union and 
 patriotism were the order of the day. 
 Personal service and cheerful sacrifice of 
 property in the cause of Liberty were almost 
 universal. My honored father was a Whig, 
 in the Whig State of Massachusetts. He 
 devoted his time from the year 1775 to 1783 
 almost exclusively to serving his country 
 as a member of the State Legislature ; as 
 a commissioner, associated with General 
 Schuyler, and the Honorable Silas Deane, 
 to the Indians on our western border, if possi- 
 ble to keep them at peace with us. He also 
 acted as a Commissary for supplying the 
 army with provisions. In 1777, he was 
 elected by the. Legislature of Massachusetts 
 a member of the Continental Congress, his 
 colleagues being the Hons. John Adams and 
 John Hancock. But the danger from Gen. 
 Burgoyne's army overrunning the country 
 
10 
 
 where himself and family resided, made it 
 his duty to remain at home, and prevented 
 him from taking his seat in Congress. 
 
 My father's pecuniary sacrifices to the 
 cause of liberty absorbed nearly all his prop- 
 erty. At the commencement of the war he 
 was worth about twenty thousand dollars. 
 To sustain the credit of the Continental 
 (paper) currency was a most important 
 object with the patriots of that day, it being 
 the only resource to meet the expenses of 
 the war. To aid the government in its 
 efforts, silver and gold were exchanged for 
 Continental money at par. My father, at 
 one time, when the army was about to 
 march north, to meet Gen. Burgoyne, 
 exchanged one thousand pounds lawful 
 money (as it was then termed), $3,333, and 
 received for it paper currency, dollar for 
 dollar. Our army, under Gen. Gates, could 
 not leave their encampments without some 
 specie. My father also furnished the 
 Government with fifty tons of flour delivered 
 at Springfield, Mass., and received paper 
 money at par in payment. Taxes were very 
 high, — labor was dear, father's family was 
 expensive. These things, with the sacrifices 
 made as related, absorbed all his property, 
 and in the year 1784, he was not worth a 
 
II 
 
 dollar. He was indebted in New York over 
 $3,000 for goods purchased for his store in 
 1774. He collected the only currency of 
 the country (Continental paper money), and 
 went to New York for the express purpose 
 of paying every claim upon him. His credi- 
 tors were his old friends; they told him they 
 had no use for the money, having closed 
 their business, and begged him not to tender 
 the (paper) money to them, as the laws of 
 the State empowered him to do. He 
 returned home with the paper. Having 
 confidence in the good faith and ability of 
 the Government he kept a large sum of the 
 paper money on hand. It declined rapidly, 
 and he sold it, or received for it Massachusetts 
 State securities, depreciated to two shillings 
 and sixpence on the pound. He sold all his 
 public securities soon after the close of the 
 war, and invested the proceeds in land, in 
 the county of Broome, New York. In 
 adjusting the conflicting claims of Massa- 
 chusetts and New York, in addition to the 
 territory lying west of Seneca Lake, ten 
 townships lying upon the Chenango and 
 Susquehanna Rivers, containing 240,000 
 acres of land, were ceded to Massachusetts; 
 that is, the right to the soil, the jurisdiction; 
 remaining with New York. These town- 
 
12 
 
 ships were purchased by a company in 
 Berkshire County, principally in Stockbridge 
 and Lenox. The company paid Massachu- 
 setts one cent per acre, and paid the same 
 sum to the Indians. This purchase saved 
 my father from entire destitution of property, 
 enabled him to free himself from all debts, 
 and gave him a comfortable support for 
 himself and family. The land rose in value 
 from year to year; at the end of six years 
 from purchase the average price to settlers 
 was about three dollars per acre. 
 
 Father had given his children the best 
 advantages of common and subscription 
 schools that were in his power. School 
 books could not be obtained; no books at 
 that period were printed in the country; they 
 were prohibited by Great Britain and none 
 were imported. The only books we had at 
 school during the war were Dil worth's 
 Spelling Book and Arithmetic, and- the 
 Psalter, /'. e. the book of Psalms. 
 
 My earliest recollections were of quite a 
 belligerent character, — the marching of the 
 minute men from Stockbridge to join the 
 army at Cambridge, immediately after the 
 first American blood had been shed at the 
 battle of Lexington. 
 
 (The Mss. relates the massing of troops 
 

 
 by Great Britain, at Boston and other 
 points, and goes on to say:) This state of 
 affairs led to a convention or congress, 
 which met at Salem, where arrangements 
 were made for raising troops by enlistment. 
 Twelve thousand men were enlisted to 
 march at a minute's warning. They were 
 from almost every town in the State. Of 
 these were the men of whom 1 spoke a 
 moment ago. I was then about four and 
 one half years old. My father, Deacon Nash, 
 and Esquire Woodbridge, were the Com- 
 mittee for enlisting and forwarding the quota 
 of the minute men from Stockbridge. I 
 well recollect, that, on a Sabbath morning, an 
 express had arrived from Cambridge, giving 
 notice of the battle of Lexington, and re- 
 quiring the minute men to march. Esquire 
 Woodbridge and Deacon Nash were our 
 neighbors. About 8 a.m., they came down 
 the street, each with a gun. Father met 
 them at the cross road (that is, the road that 
 comes in from Lenox), in front of his house, 
 with a gun in his hand. They all fired in 
 succession, and soon men began to assemble, 
 some having guns and knapsacks. The 
 Pastor of the parish, Rev. Dr. West, made 
 a prayer. The people collected on the 
 piazza of the house — as many as it could 
 
14 
 
 hold — it being a rainy morning in April. 
 About fifteen minute men marched before 
 twelve o'clock; and this promptness and 
 despatch was characteristic of that stirring 
 period. 
 
 [My parents had twelve children that lived to adult 
 years, six sons and six daughters. The oldest, Sarah, 
 married Benjamin Chaplin, of Mansfield, Conn., and 
 for her second husband, Captain Daniel Tyler, of 
 Brookline, Conn. They both lived to about 80 years 
 of age. 
 
 Edward, the second, married Mary Ballard, resided 
 in Stockbridge ten or twelve years thereafter, and then 
 removed to Broome County, New York. He died in 
 1846, aged 80 years. 
 
 Jonathan, the third, married Lucy Woodbridge. 
 They settled first in Stockbridge, later in Broome 
 County. He died about 1830. 
 
 Richard, the fourth, studied law, and engaged in 
 the practice at Albany, N. Y. ; married a Miss Griffin, 
 of Hampton, Conn. ; from Albany he removed to 
 Cooperstown, N. Y., where he died in 1805. 
 
 Phebe, the fifth, married Rev. Asahel Hooker, of 
 Goshen, Conn. Mr. Hooker's health was impaired by 
 the cold, bleak climate, and they removed to Norwich, 
 Conn., about 1810, and he died there 1813. My sister, 
 some years afterwards, married Samuel Farrar, Esq., 
 of Andover, Mass., and at the date of this writing 
 (1847) is still living. 
 
 I was the sixth child. Timothy, the seventh child, 
 married Miss Sarah Haigh, of Huddersfield, England. 
 They settled in Charleston, S. C, later in Savannah, Ga.; 
 
«5 
 
 about 1830, removed to Lexington, Greene County, 
 N. Y., and thence to Jersey City, N. J. 
 
 The eighth, 'Rhoda, married Josiah Dwight, Esq. 
 They lived in Stockbridge several years, and thence 
 went to Northampton. Mr. Dwight died about 1820; 
 my sister is still (1847) living. 
 
 The ninth, Elizabeth, never married, and now 
 resides at Northampton. 
 
 The tenth, Mary, married Mason Whiting, Esq. 
 They first lived in Great Barrington, and then removed 
 to Binghamton, N. Y., where they now live (1847). 
 
 Anna, the eleventh, (called Nancy, in the family), 
 married a Mr. Williams, of Hadley, Conn., about 1830, 
 and died two years after. 
 
 Robert Burr, the twelfth, married Miss Hannah 
 Pomeroy, of Northampton; after two years they 
 removed to Charleston, S. C, where he died of yellow 
 fever, about 1824. His widow married John Tappan, 
 Esq., of Boston, in 1844.] 
 
 I was employed in assisting my mother- 
 tending the children and in household affairs, 
 going to school — until 1 was old enough to 
 ride a horse, to drive an ox team in plough- 
 ing, to drive the cows to pasture a mile 
 distant, and to bring them home at night. 
 I had no brother within two years either 
 older or younger than myself, therefore I 
 was longer continued as a help to my mother. 
 When I was in my fourteenth year, my father 
 proposed that I should learn the trade of tan- 
 ner and currier. As I have previously stated, 
 
16 
 
 my maternal grandfather was a tanner, which 
 circumstance recommended to me that pur- 
 suit. I acquiesced in my father's proposal, 
 and he made an arrangement with Col. 
 Oliver Spencer, who married a sister of my 
 mother, and Col. Matthias Ogden, brother 
 of my mother, who succeeded grandfather 
 Ogden in his tannery, to take me as an 
 apprentice. Some of the last days of No- 
 vember, 1784, father sent me on horseback 
 in company with two of his neighbors, Mr. 
 Pratt and Mr. Hutchins, to Hudson, N. Y. 
 There I took a passage on a brig loaded with 
 live stock — cattle and horses on deck — for 
 one of the West India Islands. We had a 
 passage of a week to New York, arriving 
 there in the morning. I delivered a letter 
 father had written my cousin and his nephew, 
 Col. Aaron Burr, who resided there, and 
 soon after noon took the ferry boat for 
 Elizabethtown, reaching that place about 
 dark. 
 
 The British army evacuated New York in 
 November, 1783, a year before 1 passed 
 through. A large part of the city was 
 burned soon after the British army occupied 
 it. At the time I was first there the popu- 
 lation was said to be about 15,000. There 
 was not a single house between St. Paul's 
 
17 
 
 church and the Bowling Green, and from 
 Broad Street to the North River. The only 
 part inhabited was from Whitehall to Broad 
 Street, up Broad to Nassau and to John St., 
 and up Pearl St. to Cherry St. The popula- 
 tion was almost wholly confined to the east 
 and southeast of the above lines. 
 
 Before the war, Col. Spencer did an exten- 
 sive and profitable business in tanning. He 
 removed his family to Mendham, Morris 
 County, that they might be safe from the 
 enemy. Most of the time he commanded 
 a regiment in the Continental army, with 
 but little pay, and of course supported him- 
 self. This and the wants of his large 
 family exhausted his property. He had 
 nothing left but some wild land in the 
 west, given by Congress to the officers 
 and soldiers of the army. He removed his 
 family to Elizabethtown two or three months 
 before I began my apprenticeship. The 
 tannery of my employers was established 
 by the first ancestor of my Grandfather 
 Ogden who emigrated from England, and 
 was a tanner. It was one of the most 
 extensive tanneries then in the United 
 States. It would contain 1500 sides, if 
 every vat was filled. The average time 
 for completing the tanning of the stock 
 
i8 
 
 was over twelve months. The tannery 
 was entirely upon the old plan, without a 
 single modern improvement, except that 
 the lime vats and water pools were let off 
 by plugs at the bottom into the adjoining 
 brook. The vats were upon a hill, had no 
 underground conductors, and were both 
 filled and emptied by a wooden bucket 
 with a long handle, so as to make a dipper. 
 The bark was ground by two horses. There 
 was a curb of 12 or 15 feet in diameter, made 
 of three inch plank, with a rim 15 inches 
 high round the outside; a stone wheel and 
 also a wooden wheel, of even height, when 
 placed on edge, say y/ 2 feet high, and 8 to 
 10 inches thick. The stone was cut into 
 "bears mouths," five inches from center to 
 center of each. The wooden wheel had 
 round iron pins inserted. The bark was 
 ground by these wheels rolling over it, and 
 one-fourth of a cord of bark was a "floor- 
 ing. " Two floorings were a fair day 's work. 
 The first year of my apprenticeship my work 
 was almost exclusively to grind bark. We 
 had not a single vat under cover; our "beam 
 house" was an open shed, and here we 
 apprentices, five, and one journeyman, 
 worked summer and winter, early and late. 
 The only reward we had was in acquiring a 
 
19 
 
 knowledge (a most limited one) of the trade, 
 and a right to tan four sheep skins a year. 
 Very plain, miserable board; and not an 
 article of clothing, or even a pair of "taps," 
 did our employers give us. Towards the 
 close of my first year's apprenticeship, 1 was 
 so afflicted with headache that my father 
 and my employers thought 1 had better 
 leave the trade and return to Stockbridge 
 and work at farming. This I did, and 
 remained with my father until September, 
 1787. 
 
 Duringthis residence in Stockbridge, Shays' 
 Insurrection took place. The war had left 
 the country very poor; suits for the collection 
 of debts were instituted in great numbers; 
 the Courts of Common Pleas and the Justices 
 of the Peace issued Executions. To satisfy 
 these, the personal property of the debtors 
 was sold by the Sheriff to the highest bidder, 
 generally at a small fraction of the value, 
 owing to the scarcity of money. These 
 oppressive measures led the people to march, 
 arms in hand,and to obstruct the sitting of the 
 Courts — beginning in Hampshire County, in 
 September, 1 786, and extending to Worcester, 
 Middlesex, and Berkshire Counties. Several 
 thousand, probably five or six, able-bodied 
 men, took part with the insurgents. The 
 
20 
 
 largest gathering was at Springfield, in 
 October, 1786. About 200 men, under the 
 command of Daniel Shays, who had been 
 a Captain in the Revolutionary Army, at- 
 tempted to capture the U. S. Arsenal, at 
 Springfield, which was protected by General 
 Shepherd with a militia force of 400 men. 
 Shays, with more courage than military 
 discretion, marched histroops in solid columns 
 in front of Gen. Shepherd's battery of light 
 artillery. The General sent an aid to Shays, 
 notifying him that if he advanced to a certain 
 point he would fire a platoon of 8-pounders 
 upon him. This notice was disregarded; the 
 first shots were fired over the heads of the 
 assailants, and produced no effect. The guns 
 were then pointed at the advancing column, 
 and killed six or eight men. The, whole 
 body fled to the pine woods and thence to 
 their homes. The insurgents rallied within 
 the four Counties during the autumn, winter 
 and spring. The State of Massachusetts 
 raised 1200 troops, placed them under the 
 command of General Lincoln, who marched 
 through the disaffected Counties. At 
 Petersham, in Worcester Co., after a most 
 tedious march of thirty miles, in the month 
 of February, during the whole of a stormy 
 night, he came by surprise upon a body— 
 
21 
 
 about 1500 — of the Shaysmen, under com- 
 mand of Shays himself, who fled instantly, 
 and wholly broke up their encampment. 
 The Governor enlisted for a short period 
 (two months, to my recollection) in Berk- 
 shire Co., 250 troops, of whom 1 was one. 
 About every town in that County contained 
 some of the disaffected. Our Commander 
 was Gen. Patterson, of Lenox, late of the 
 Army. The sleighing was uninterrupted; 
 we marched through and through the 
 County, taking prisoners some of the most 
 violent, keeping them under military guard, 
 and when Gen. Lincoln reached Pittsfield, 
 (in March) delivering them to him. We lay 
 at Sheffield— the most southern town of the 
 County — where we had taken six or eight 
 prisoners. About 3 p. m., we were ordered 
 to escort the prisoners to Pittsfield, 24 miles. 
 We had three soldiers, one driver and three 
 prisoners, to a sleigh. It was a bitter cold 
 night. Our Commander suffered us to 
 stop and warm at Barrington, six miles. 
 The prisoner 1 had charge of was a Mr. Hub- 
 bard, a respectable middle-aged man. I told 
 him that I would treat him with becoming 
 respect, but as it was very dark, and 1 was 
 responsible for his safe keeping, sitting on 
 the same seat in the sleigh, he must allow 
 
22 
 
 me (a lad of sixteen years) to hold him by 
 the collar of his coat, to which he did not 
 object. Thus we rode, 1 having my gun, 
 bayonet fixed, held by my left hand, and 
 Mr. Hubbard held by his collar with my 
 right hand. We left Great BarringtOn after 
 a brief warming. Having had no sleep the 
 night previous — from being on guard — before 
 we had gone two miles, 1 fell asleep and did 
 not awake till we reached Lenox, eight miles. 
 I started up, conscious of my criminality, 
 but had the satisfaction of finding my prisoner 
 safe, and my hand fast hold of his collar. 
 And 1 did not perceive that my breach of 
 duty had been discovered by any one. 
 
 Our party reached Pittsfield about one 
 o'clock and delivered the prisoners. The 
 quarters assigned us was a school house, as 
 open as a barn. We made a fire, roasted 
 some pork on the ramrod of my gun (my 
 mother had given me a piece of pork and 
 some bread when 1 left home). After finish- 
 ing my meal, I wrapped myself in the blanket, 
 and got several hours of comfortable sleep 
 on the floor. We returned to our camp at 
 Sheffield the following morning. Some 
 time during the early part of the winter, 
 the government troops were in Stockbridge, 
 150 to 200. A body of the Shaysmen col- 
 
23 
 
 lected at West Stockbridge, five miles dis- 
 tant. The place is remarkable for the meet- 
 ing of four roads, one from Stockbridge, one 
 from Pittsfield and Lenox, one from Rich- 
 mond, and one from Great Barrington. 
 Gen. Patterson sent a detachment by 
 circuitous route upon each of these roads, 
 so arranging the time that the four should 
 meet simultaneously at West Stockbridge. 
 The expedition was well planned and well 
 executed. We made the whole party of 
 Shaysmen prisoners, about ninety. Our 
 officers finding many of the disaffected in 
 the Upper part of the County, went to Wil- 
 liamstown. Found Shaysmen in all the 
 towns, particularly in Adams, Cheshire, 
 Lanesboro and Dalton. At Lenox, on our 
 return, we halted over night. The officers 
 heard there was a body of Shaysmen in the 
 east part of this town, about five miles from 
 the encampment. We were paraded early 
 and proceeded in our sleighs in pursuit of 
 these rebels. They were commanded by a 
 Major Wiley, of Dalton, and we soon found 
 ourselves within three-fourths of a mile of 
 them. There was a small stream that had 
 its rise in Becket, east of Lee, its course 
 being nearly due west. The hills on each 
 side of the stream were high and rather 
 
24 
 
 steep. We were marched upon the north 
 side of the stream by an old road, and on 
 passing an elevation on our right, came in 
 full view of the Shaysmen, half a mile 
 distant, on the south side of the stream, 
 handsomely paraded. The company to 
 which 1 was attached was commanded by 
 a Capt. Stoddard, also of the revolutionary 
 army, a brave, good officer. Our company 
 was the advance. As we were leaving the 
 sleighs, our commander with his aids passed 
 us— I heard one of them say '• he was a 
 brave man and there would be fighting that 
 day." Young as I was, 1 saw that Gen. 
 Patterson was a little tipsy. The snow 
 was about six inches deep, with a crust 
 which would not bear a man, and this 
 made the walking bad. As our company 
 advanced, a company of the Shaysmen, 
 preceded by the music of a fife, left their 
 main body, marched in single file, crossed 
 the stream directly in front of us and within 
 gunshot, then halted. Our Captain had 
 brought us to a halt before these Shaysmen 
 had left their main body. Soon one of the 
 aids came full speed up the hill to us, and 
 told Capt. Stoddard that the General had 
 sent a flag of truce to Wiley, giving him 
 fifteen minutes to decide whether they 
 
25 
 
 would surrender their arms, pull from their 
 hats the green boughs, and promise to go 
 home and obey the laws. Unless these 
 terms were acceded to the General would 
 attack them. We had one small field piece 
 and twenty-five to thirty light horse. The 
 aid told Capt. Stoddard that if the terms 
 were not complied with, the field piece 
 would fire and we must charge the enemy's 
 advance guard; that we should be supported 
 by -Capt. Whiting's company, of Great Bar- 
 rington ; that the horse would charge up 
 the creek, and thus cut off the communi- 
 cation between the main body and their 
 advance guard. Capt. Stoddard called us 
 to order ; our Sergeants examined the 
 muskets, ammunition, etc. I looked back 
 of our company, and saw three of the Stock- 
 bridge physicians preparing their bandages 
 and lint. Our Commander, after more than 
 an hour's communication with the rebels, 
 suffered them to depart, arms in hand, and 
 green boughs in their hats, and we returned 
 to our sleighs. As we were getting! into 
 them, the Shaysmen in a considerable num- 
 ber passed us, and fired guns over our heads 
 and about us, which excited an indignation 
 that our officers found it difficult to restrain. 
 As it was, we took some of these men 
 
26 
 
 prisoners and kept them under guard several 
 days. Had Gen. Patterson not been under 
 the influence of liquor, we no doubt should 
 have had a battle that day. 
 
 After .Gen. Lincoln reached Pittsfield, our 
 detachment was disbanded. Still we had 
 frequent alarms. The Shaysmen collected 
 over the State line— in the State of Mew 
 York, and Were safe, beingin a foreign country. 
 (This was before the Federal Constitution 
 was formed and adopted.) Gen. Lincoln's 
 troops were enlisted for only a limited time, 
 which expired early in March. It was said 
 the Shaysmen had heard he had only thirty 
 soldiers, and they were determined to 
 attempt taking him prisoner. • An alarm was 
 sent to Stockbridge in the evening; fifteen 
 or twenty of us started at once for Pittsfield. 
 1 was one of the number, called from my 
 bed about ten o'clock, after a hard day's 
 work laying up a heavy pole fence. We 
 reached Pittsfield about two o'clock, a. m., 
 found all safe, camped upon the bar room 
 floor and got some sleep. Before sunrise an 
 express from Stockbridge informed us that 
 upwards of one hundred Shaysmen, com- 
 manded by a Capt. Hamlin, had marched 
 from New Concord, just over the State line 
 into Stockbridge, and burned every house 
 
27 
 
 on the plain, and taken all the men prisoners. 
 We returned rapidly to Stockbridge, found 
 no houses had been burned, but they had 
 been plundered, and all persons capable of 
 bearing arms had been taken prisoners, about 
 seventy-five, and Hamlin had gone through 
 Great Barrington, designing to go through 
 the town of Alford into New York. When 
 we reached Stockbridge, we found Gen, 
 Patterson with one hundred and fifty armed 
 men just setting out in pursuit. Gen. Ashby, 
 of Sheffield, was early notified of Hamlin's 
 proceedings, and at once collected a body 
 of troops of over one hundred— marched up 
 and met Hamlin, who had the wickedness 
 to crowd his prisoners at the point of the 
 bayonet into the front of the troops. The 
 badge of the Government men was a white 
 paper in the front of their hats. Gen. Ashby 
 led his troops to the battle and gave orders 
 to fire. His men exclaimed "They are our 
 friends, see their white papers." The 
 General replied, " I see our friends, pour in 
 your fire, and may God have mercy on their 
 souls." Gen. Ashby 's men fired several 
 rounds, as did Hamlin's men. Several were 
 killed. One of the prisoners, a Mr. Gleason, 
 school teacher in Stockbridge, was of the 
 number killed. Hamlin was severely woun- 
 
28 
 
 ded. After five or six rounds were fired, 
 the Shaysmen fled back toward Barrington 
 village, and were met by Gen. Patterson's 
 command within a mile of the battle ground 
 — and were taken prisoners almost to a man. 
 Ninety of them were prisoners in Barrington 
 before sunrise the next morning. At Stock- 
 bridge, 1 joined Capt. Cook's company. 
 We pursued Hamlin's party in sleighs, met 
 them a mile below Barrington, and made 
 them prisoners without resistance, except in 
 one instance. A young man by the name 
 of Hugo Burckhart, a member of Yale College, 
 on his return from a vacation, fell in with 
 our troops and met Hamlin's men, several 
 of whom were together. They attempted 
 to hide themselves in a swamp, on the 
 margin of which was the road. Burckhart, 
 with only a rattan in his hand, pursued a 
 Shaysman, struck him with his rattan and 
 ordered him to surrender. Instead of this, 
 the man fired upon Burckhart the ball 
 passing through his shoulder, which threw 
 him from his horse. I was stationed by the 
 swamp when he was shot, and took one 
 man a prisoner who was tried for treason 
 and condemned to death, but was pardoned 
 by the Governor. The Stockbridge company 
 returned home the same evening. On the 
 
29 
 
 way we passed the body of Gleason on 
 a sleigh, being sent to his family. Hamlin 
 lingered several months from his wound; 
 was subsequently tried by the Supreme 
 Court, and sentenced to the State Prison for 
 a term of years. 
 
 Note by William H. Edwards, 29 December, 1891. 
 
 I have copied the Shays episode from my Grand- 
 fathers Mss. in extenso, as it relates to an obscure 
 passage in the country's history. In 1842, I graduated 
 at Williams College, and my Grandfather, accompanied 
 by my Aunt Elizabeth Edwards, drove across coun- 
 try from Hunter, New York, and were present at the 
 occasion. With them my Uncle, Henry Edwards, of 
 Boston, who happened to be at Hunter at the time. 
 After the commencement exercises were over, Mr. E. 
 went on to Boston, but I accompanied my Grandfather 
 and Aunt to Pittsfield, Stockbridge, and thence home. 
 It was the first time Grandfather had been in Berkshire 
 for many years, or since he left that State in 1815, as 
 hereinafter related. As we passed through Lanesboro, 
 he pointed out the site of the house where he had one 
 night encamped with Shaysmen prisoners. As we 
 came into Stockbridge main street from Lenox, exactly 
 at the corner, to the right, stood the old house of 
 Timothy Edwards, in good repair, then occupied and 
 owned by Mr. Owen. There was the porch on which 
 the minute men had gathered, and at the north gable 
 was a small attic window — the house was two stories 
 and an attic — at which my Grandfather said his father, 
 Timothy, had stationed him, gun in hand, on some 
 occasion of an attack apprehended by the Shaysmen, 
 
30 
 
 and showed him how to get two of them in line and 
 shoot them at one fire. The old gentleman told us this 
 with great relish. In front of the house stood several 
 immense, wide-spreading elm trees, and all these he 
 told us he had carried on his back for two miles, when 
 he was sixteen years old, and planted with his own 
 hands. We drove on to the cemetery where Timothy 
 and Rhoda Edwards are buried, and thence crossed the 
 river to the west. Here my Grandfather said was his 
 father's farm, and had much to say about it. We drew 
 up at a small house or cabin by the left of the road, and 
 Grandfather inquired of a young colored girl if "Caesar" 
 lived there. Presently a very old colored man came 
 out, and Grandfather called him to the door of the 
 "carryall," saying, after a moment of suspense, " Don't 
 you know me, Caesar?" The old man was dim of 
 sight and probably of hearing. It was strange to see 
 the intense look in his face as he felt that there was 
 some one here whom he ought to know. Grandfather 
 then said, " Don't you know Billy Edwards," and the 
 old man cried out with delight. The two broke down 
 together, and for a moment neither could speak. At 
 last Grandfather inquired of Caesar about himself, and 
 told him what he could, and they parted with adieus 
 for this world. It seems they had been boys together 
 60 or more years ago. Timothy Edwards died at 
 Stockbridge, October 23rd, 1813, aged 75 years. 
 Rhoda, his wife at Litchfield, Conn., November 5th, 
 1822. 
 
 While I was at Williams College, 1838-42, Dr. 
 Mark Hopkins, who had been a boy at Stockbridge 
 in the first years of this century, told me he well 
 remembered Timothy Edwards coming to the school 
 and informing the teacher that some of the boys had 
 
3i 
 
 passed him on the street, without taking off their hats! 
 In my own younger days, say about 1830, school 
 children in the country were taught by their teachers 
 to bow to passing strangers, and the girls to curtesy, 
 and they usually did as they Were taught. 
 
 My father was one of the Commissioners 
 from Massachusetts to unite with Commis- 
 sioners from New York, to run the line 
 between the two States. Gen. Schuyler 
 was one of the New York Commissioners. 
 My older brothers were abroad, engaged for 
 themselves. Father committed to me the 
 oversight of his farming business, which was 
 extensive. We had 60 acres of mowing, 40 
 of harvesting, wheat, rye and oats. Also a 
 summer fallow of 30 acres, for wheat and 
 rye, to be prepared and seeded early in the 
 autumn. Father returned from running the 
 State line about the time I finished the sow- 
 ing of the summer fallow. After carefully 
 examining the accounts and results of my 
 summer's doings, he was well satisfied, said 
 he could hardly have done better had he 
 been at home himself, except he could have 
 got along with less cider and rum for the 
 laborers than I had ! This was the autumn 
 of 1787. 
 
 Being in a measure relieved of my severe 
 headache, I returned to Elizabethtown to 
 
32 
 
 complete my apprenticeship. Col. Spencer 
 had but a small stock of hides, and thought 
 seriously of giving up the tanning, and 
 removing his family to the far west, on the 
 Ohio River, where he had a tract of Bounty 
 Land given him by the Government for 
 services in the Revolutionary War. Early 
 in 1788, he went to explore his land, giving 
 me permission to find employment for myself 
 for six months, by which time he would 
 decide about removing. 1 engaged with a 
 Mr. Price; he would board me and give me 
 instructions in the currier's trade. Col. 
 Spencer had a prosperous journey, found his 
 land new and uncultivated, situated within 
 a few miles of where Cincinnati now is, and 
 decided to remove. He gave up my inden- 
 tures, and I renewed my engagement with 
 Mr. Price for another six months, he to board 
 and instruct me, and to give me $15.00 for 
 the six months This I thought very liberal. 
 Mr. Price treated me kindly, and moreover 
 felt a regard for the family. 
 
 Soon after my return, I joined a Grenadier 
 Militia Company. Our uniform was for 
 those days a splendid one— long blue broad- 
 cloth coats, pantaloons with scarlet facings, 
 scarlet vest ; a high cap, bearskin in front, 
 scarlet back ; an emblematical plate and 
 
33 
 
 feathers on the front. Our company was 
 commanded by a Col. Crane, a Revolu- 
 tionary officer. The first lieutenant was a 
 Mr. Hendricks, a very respectable mechanic; 
 the second lieutenant was Mr. Elias Dayton, 
 a son of Gen. Dayton, of the Revolutionary 
 Army. Our company was the flower of the 
 militia of Elizabethtown. We often paraded 
 for exercise and improvement. We were 
 stationed in the company according to 
 stature, the tallest on the right and left, 
 of course the shortest in the center. I was 
 the fourth in stature, being six feet three 
 and one-half inches tall. My station was 
 the second on the left. There was in Eliza- 
 bethtown, besides our company of Grena- 
 diers, one of Horse, one of Artillery, and one 
 of Infantry. 
 
 The present Constitution of the United 
 States was framed at Philadelphia, in 1787, 
 was adopted by the several States in 1788, 
 and the first President and Members of Con- 
 gress chosen, and the Government organized. 
 The President, General Washington, was in- 
 ducted into office, at New York, in April, 
 1 789. A messenger had been despatched to 
 Mt. Vernon, 10th April, who arrived there 
 in such season that the General set out, the 
 14th, for New York. On his journey through 
 
34 
 
 New Jersey he lodged at Woodbridge, seven 
 miles from Elizabethtown, on the Philadel- 
 phia road. Arrangements were made for the 
 General and his party to breakfast in Eliza- 
 bethtown, at the house of Mr. Samuel 
 Smith. An escort from Elizabethtown met 
 the General near Woodbridge. The uni- 
 formed companies were paraded in season 
 to pay a salute upon his arrival. My com- 
 pany stood with arms presented, just at the 
 right of and nearest Mr. Smith's house. Be 
 assured I felt a pride in presenting arms to 
 the man who " was first in war, first in 
 peace, first in the hearts of his country- 
 men." The General's travelling establish- 
 ment consisted of three gentlemen, four 
 servants, a travelling chariot and pair, and 
 several led horses, one of which was his 
 favorite white horse, which he had had 
 with him during the war. A large number 
 of citizens— several hundred— had assembled 
 to greet General Washington, who left his 
 carriage, mounted his horse, and preceded 
 the cavalcade a few rods, when passing the 
 bridge at the head of the village. He was 
 dressed in a black suit, with a cocked hat, 
 which he held in his right hand near the 
 pommel of his saddle, in his left the bridle. 
 The horse was a stallion, beautiful— and 
 
35 
 
 walked most gracefully, turning his head 
 from right to left and left to right, seeming 
 to discover a consciousness of the proud 
 part he was taking in the events of the day. 
 As soon as the General alighted, my com- 
 pany was called to order, and the marshal 
 of the day requested our Captain to detach 
 a guard of six, and that two sentinels be 
 placed in front of the house while the 
 General was at breakfast. Captain Crane 
 ordered six privates from the left of the 
 company, with a corporal, and being sec- 
 ond on the extreme left, I was one of the 
 fortunate number who that day had the 
 honor of being a sentinel at the door of 
 the house while General Washington was 
 at breakfast,— the greatest, feat of my life ! 
 Several uniformed companies from the sur- 
 rounding towns, particularly Newark, six 
 miles distant, came thus early in the day 
 to have the happiness of seeing General 
 Washington, and in all there were brought 
 together over four hundred troops. We 
 marched in platoons to the Point, where 
 we were reviewed by the General previous 
 to his embarking for New York. 
 
 A splendid boat had been built in New 
 York for the express purpose of conveying 
 the General from Elizabethtown Point to the 
 
36 . 
 
 city, and thirteen Pilots volunteered their 
 services to row the boat. As he embarked, 
 the welkin rang with the firing of the Artil- 
 lery and the platoons of Infantry. Our 
 Company returned to the parade ground, and 
 were then dismissed. Thus ended theexer- 
 cises and events of this interesting day,— 
 all of which are now, after a lapse of sixty 
 years, as distinctly and perfectly remembered 
 as if they had transpired yesterday. 
 
 I here insert some notes made by my father, Wm. 
 W. Edwards, after he had read my Grandfather's manu- 
 script, several years ago, and which relate to Timothy 
 Edwards and that part of William's life heretofore treated 
 of. Wm. H. Edwards. 
 
 On the death of. President Jonathan Edwards, at 
 Princeton, N. J., 1756, the care of his numerous family 
 devolved in a great measure upon the eldest son, 
 Timothy. He had been educated at Nassau Hall, but 
 finding the cares and expenses of two families pressing 
 upon him, he settled as a trader in Elizabethtown. 
 
 On his removal to Stockbridge, with his wife and 
 six small children, he found that region largely occupied 
 by the Stockbridge Indians, among whom his father 
 had labored as a missionary twenty years before. 
 William was an infant, a few months old, at this 
 removal. When he was four years old, he was playing 
 with an Indian boy of about his own age, in the open 
 garret of his father's house, and in running around the 
 chimney, which was in the middle of the garret, their 
 
37 
 
 heads came in contact, and William was knocked 
 senseless upon the floor. This blow caused the cranium 
 to enlarge as the child grew, affecting him so much in 
 his fifteenth year that he was compelled to give up his 
 trade for a season, and devote himself to light work 
 about the house and farm of his father. 
 
 When William went to Elizabethtown, as related in 
 the memoir, he was compelled to work early and late. 
 He had had a very insufficient education thus far, as 
 also related. His uncle, Col. Aaron Ogden, then a 
 practising lawyer in Elizabethtown, possessed a good 
 miscellaneous library, and tendered his books, with 
 the use of the office fire and lights to his young kins- 
 man ; and notwithstanding the fatigue of his daily toil, 
 and the temptations of the society of troops of his 
 cousins of both sexes, the offer was gratefully accepted, 
 and regularly improved so long as he remained in 
 Elizabethtown. Throughout his long life, he attributed 
 to this reading the mental culture which enabled him 
 ever after to maintain a high position in whatever 
 situation he was placed. 
 
 Concerning the sacking of Stockbridge spoken of in 
 the memoir, William W. Edwards adds the following 
 notes: 
 
 Numerous anecdotes of this affair were related by 
 the several families which are worthy of preservation. 
 Timothy Edwards, being a Judge of the Court, was 
 particularly obnoxious to the Shaysmen. His eldest 
 son, Edward, was at home, and finding that no defense 
 to the sudden attack could be made, he hid himself in 
 the barn, behind the hay. While he was concealed 
 there, some Shaysmen came into the barn and searched 
 every nook, pricking the hay with their bayonets. 
 
38 
 
 Fortunately, for the moment, he escaped discovery, but 
 coming out before they had all departed, he was seized 
 and carried off, and was among the devoted band of 
 prisoners pressed to the front of Hamlin's forces, as 
 before related. Timothy had received ^ioo in specie 
 but a short time before, which his wife concealed on 
 her person, and wore at the time the rebels were 
 searching the house. This saved the family from 
 poverty, for the money paid for the lands in the ten 
 townships in Chenango County, purchased by Timothy 
 Edwards and others, as related in the memoir. 
 
 I continued with Mr. Price until Septem- 
 ber, 1789, and then went to East Haddam, 
 Conn., to work at the tanning and currying 
 business with Colonel David B. Spencer, 
 brother of Oliver Spencer. I remained with 
 him a year, and learned more of the two 
 trades by far than I had learned before. 
 Colonel Spencer and family treated me with 
 much kindness, as did Uncle and Aunt 
 Mosely, who resided in that town. Aunt 
 was a sister of my mother. At East Had- 
 dam I became acquainted with an interesting 
 circle of young people of both sexes, which 
 was a novelty to me. 
 
 So reduced were the pecuniary means of 
 my father, from his losses and sacrifices in 
 the war, that the family were obliged to 
 give up the use of tea and sugar, which 
 was a great privation to my mother, then 
 
39 
 
 more than fifty years old. By the aid of 
 Mr. Price, when at Elizabethtown, I pur- 
 chased on a credit some sole and upper 
 leather, which 1 sent to my father. This he 
 sold at a profit, which profit I invested in 
 tea and sugar — repeating the enterprise 
 several times. In this way, 1 had the sat- 
 isfaction of supplying my parents with 
 those comforts for twelve or eighteen 
 months before I left Elizabethtown. The 
 situation of my parents and younger 
 brothers and sisters led me to listen to 
 the advice and solicitation of my father, 
 to settle in Northampton, his native place, 
 and this before 1 was twenty years old, 1 
 fully expecting that it would be incumbent 
 on me to provide a home for my parents in 
 their old age. My own wishes and judg- 
 ment were that I should work as a journey- 
 man for several years, five or six at least, 
 until I had thoroughly learned my business, 
 and had acquired some property to enable 
 me to make a small beginning without run- 
 ning in debt. I had a strong desire to locate 
 myself in the State of New York, west of 
 Albany. The movement to Northampton 
 was a most unfortunate one, and was the 
 first wrong step that led to troubles which 
 have attended me through life. No water 
 
40 
 
 power, bark to be transported several miles, 
 I compelled at the start to assume a heavy 
 debt. But my location at Northampton led 
 to a happy matrimonial alliance, which has 
 been a solace to me under the evils which 
 were the consequence of this injudicious 
 removal. Upon a brief acquaintance, Judge 
 Henshaw sold me ground for a tannery, 
 having an unfailing spring of water upon it, 
 and a side hill favorable for building upon, 
 the lot containing five acres. But I found I 
 must purchase with it an ofd house and 
 three-quarters of an acre, on the opposite 
 side of the street. The price was about 
 $700, upon a long credit, with an annual 
 interest of six per cent. This was in Sep- 
 tember, 1790. 1 had saved about $100, and 
 my father gave me $300. With this I com- 
 menced operations. 1 drew a plan for the 
 tan yard, adapting it to the ground, built a 
 barkhouse 24 feet square, placed a barkmill 
 upon the ground floor with a curb, and a 
 heavy round stone, like a large sized mill- 
 stone, so contrived as to roll upon the bark 
 in the curb, and thus grind it fine and fit for 
 use; and stored my bark in the loft above, 
 as I took it in. 1 built one lime vat, one 
 water vat, and four tan vats ; purchased 50 
 hides, which 1 got into the bark by 1st De- 
 
4i 
 
 cember. I found myself by the ist of Janu- 
 ary, 1791, nearly $1000 in debt, with no 
 means either to pay my interest, or to 
 enlarge my tannery, except my head and 
 hands. During the winter I did some 
 currying for tanners in the neighboring 
 towns, thus earning sufficient to pay for 
 my board. On the opening of spring, 1 
 enlarged the tannery, bought on credit 
 more hides, making my stock up to about 
 200, took two apprentices who worked for 
 their board and clothes, and built a small 
 barn upon the street. I began keeping 
 house with an ancient good woman, Naomi 
 Phelps, who had been in my mother's em- 
 ployment, in Stockbridge, as a spinner, sev- 
 eral years, when 1 was a youth and before I 
 began my apprenticeship. I took some land 
 on shares of Judge Henshaw, some for 
 planting and some for mowing, and thus 1 
 got corn for my own pork, and hay for the 
 cow and the mill horse. In the autumn of 
 that year, 1791, by great efforts and some 
 waste of bark, I got my first 50 hides tanned 
 and retailed the leather, which gave satis- 
 faction. Leather was in good demand, a 
 large proportion of that consumed in the 
 region being purchased in Boston, and trans- 
 ported 100 miles, by the storekeepers, and 
 
42 
 
 retailed with other goods. There was a 
 general disposition in the community to 
 aid me in pursuing my business, giving 
 me a preference in selling their hides, and 
 in purchasing their supplies of leather. 
 Some gentlemen loaned me money, par- 
 ticularly Judge Henshaw, Esquire Buck(?) 
 and Judge Lyman, and my credit was good; 
 but when 1 look back to the events of that 
 time, I am surprised thai it should have 
 been. I enlarged my business from year 
 to year,, and in 1794, I sent a quantity of 
 calfskins and upper leather, skirting, har- 
 ness and bridle leather, to Boston, for a 
 market — the first leather that was sent from 
 Hampshire County to a market. 
 
 In November, 1793, 1 married Miss Rebecca 
 Tappan, daughter of Benjamin and Sarah 
 Tappan, of Northampton*. I was 23 years 
 
 * [Ancestry of Rebecca Tappan, wife of William 
 Edwards. 
 
 1. Abraham Toppan came to America from Yarmouth, 
 
 England, October, 1637. (The name was originally 
 Topham, taken from the name of a place in York- 
 shire.) His wife was Susanna Taylor. They 
 lived at Newbury, Essex Co., Mass.; had seven 
 children of whom was 
 
 2. Peter. From Peter descended 
 
 3. Samuel, born 5th June, 1670; married Abigail Wig- 
 
43 
 
 glesworth, in $702, daughter of the Minister of 
 Maiden, Mass. They had ten children, the ninth 
 of whom was 
 
 4. Benjamin, born in 1720; graduated at Harvard Col- 
 
 lege; married Elizabeth Marsh, of Haverhill, Mass. ; 
 was Minister at Manchester, Essex Co., in 1745. 
 He died in 1790. They had twelve children, the 
 oldest being 
 
 5. Benjamin, born October 21, 1747; married Sarah 
 
 Homes, October 22, 1770. 
 
 After the death of Rev. Benjamin Toppan, 1790, 
 his children, at a family meeting, agreed to change 
 the spelling to Tappan. 
 
 Benjamin and Sarah Homes Tappan lived at 
 Northampton, Mass. He died January 29, 1831 : 
 Mrs. Tappan died March 26, 1826. They had 
 eleven children, nine of whom survived both 
 parents. 
 
 1. Satah, born August 1, 1771; married to Solomon 
 
 Stoddard, Esq., of Northampton. 
 
 2. Benjamin, born May 25, 1773; married Nancy 
 
 Wright; studied law; removed at an early day to 
 Steubenville, Ohio. Was distinguished in his 
 profession. Judge of Circuit Court, and later, U. 
 S. Senator, for the State of Ohio. 
 
 3. Rebecca, born July 14. 1775; married William Ed- 
 
 wards, of Northampton, November 11, 1793; died 
 in Brooklyn, N. Y., 1857. 
 
 4. Lucy, born July 14, 1777; married John Pierce. 
 
 5. William, born July 21, 1779. 
 
44 
 
 6. John, born July 26, 1781 ; lived in Boston; married 
 
 Sarah Salisbury, September 30, 1800. 
 
 7. Charles, born August 8, 1781; married Ann Maria 
 
 Long, of Portsmouth, N. H. 
 
 8. Arthur, born 22d May, 1786; married Francis 
 
 Antill, of Montreal, Canada, September 18, 1810; 
 merchant at Montreal, later at New York ; died at 
 New Haven, Conn. 
 
 9. Lewis, born October 31, 1788; married Susan As- 
 
 pinwall, of Brookline, Mass., September 7, 1813. 
 
 10. Elizabeth, born October 31, 1790; married Alex- 
 ander Phenix, 18 17. 
 
 11. George W., born October 3P, 1793. 
 
 1. William Homes, born in North of Ireland, near 
 
 Londonderry ; married Miss Craghead of that 
 town; was ordained Minister of the Presbyterian 
 Church, October 21, 1692. Soon after, he emi- 
 grated to America, and was installed pastor of the 
 church at Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard, in 1715. 
 They had seven children, of whom was 
 
 2. Robert, born ; master of a vessel that traded 
 
 between Boston and Philadelphia; he married 
 Mary Franklin, daughter of Josiah and Abiah 
 Folger Franklin, and sister of Dr. Benjamin 
 Franklin. She was born 22nd September, 1694. 
 It is supposed that he was lost at sea. They left 
 two children, one of whom was 
 
 3. William, born 10th June, 17 16; in the house at the 
 
 corner of Union and Hanover Sts., Boston ; married 
 Rebecca Dawes, of Boston, 24th April, 1740; died 
 
45 
 
 July, 1785. They had fifteen children, of whom 
 was 
 
 4. Sarah, born January 2, 1748; married to Benjamin 
 Tappan, of Northampton, Mass., October 22, 
 1770. 
 
 old the day we were married, my wife 
 upwards of 18. Our connection has been 
 a very happy one. Blessed by our Heavenly 
 Father with mutual love and affection, we 
 have had the happiness to rear ten amiable 
 and most affectionate children. Our oldest 
 son (William W. Edwards) was born in 1 796, 
 and the youngest (Richard C), in 18 19 — six 
 sons and four daughters. 
 
 I continued to enlarge the tannery from 
 year to year, and to increase my indebted- 
 ness. In 1799, the tannery was burned— 
 wholly destroyed, I lost everything— had 
 not a dollar left ; was all but fully decided to 
 close my business, give up to my creditors 
 everything I possessed, and seek a residence 
 at the west. But my numerous friends 
 persuaded me to rebuild, and aided me 
 liberally with their subscriptions. 1 rebuilt, 
 and extended the tannery as far as 1 could 
 get hides — without any capital, for I had 
 never been worth one dollar from the time 1 
 began to the time I was burned out; and 
 
4 6 
 
 that calamity added to my insolvency 
 several thousand dollars. 
 
 My loss by fire led me to contemplate 
 improvements in tanning. 1 found the 
 whole fraternity utterly ignorant of the 
 nature and results of the business. 1 never 
 saw a man who could tell how many pounds 
 of leather could be made from a given quan- 
 tity of hides, or how many pounds of leather 
 could be made from a given quantity of bark; 
 say one cord. Tanning is a chemical process. 
 All that the most experienced knew was 
 that immersing the hides in a decoction of 
 lime and water a few days would loosen the 
 hair, so that it could be worked off on the 
 tanner's "beam;" that the lime could be 
 expelled from the hide, after dehairing, by 
 soaking it in water, but in a shorter time, by 
 soaking it in hen dung and water and again 
 working it over the beam; and then applying 
 ground bark to the hide, renewing it once in 
 30 days — for from six months to two years, 
 according to the thickness of the hide. Then 
 the leather was taken out of the vats, rinsed 
 in clear water and hung up to dry — as soon 
 as dry being fit for sale or use. 
 
 The method of constructing a tannery was 
 to place the tanning vats and leaches upon 
 a level; the usual size of the vats being 6x4 
 
47 
 
 feet— the leaches double the size—constructed 
 by dowelling the plank together, depending 
 upon clay to make them tight. In the pro- 
 cess of tanning the liquor was often to be 
 changed and run through the leaches, which 
 were filled with bark. The liquor was 
 dipped by a long handled bucket into a 
 chute, so arranged as to carry the liquor 
 into the leach, or from the leach into the 
 vat where it was wanted for use. The 
 leaches had a corner boarded off, of size 
 to admit the bucket, called the "eye" of 
 the leach. This separated the bark from 
 the liquor, which could from this eye be 
 dipped from one leach into another — that 
 is, from the weak leaches into the stronger 
 ones. It was termed ' 'coursing the leaches. " 
 Copying after the plan of the yard in which 
 I served my apprenticeship, in my first tan- 
 nery I had three leaches near the middle of 
 the tan vats. When we changed the liquors 
 in the vats, which was usually done at every 
 working day, they were dipped out nearly 
 to the bottom, when a boy got into the vat 
 and shovelled the remainder into the bucket. 
 Then the new liquor from the forward leach 
 was dipped into the empty vat. This made 
 a new "handler," an important thing for 
 hides newly put into the bark. We made 
 
4 8 
 
 two new "handlers" daily when in full 
 work. The old liquor must be dipped out 
 into the weakest leach— the empty handler 
 filled by dipping the liquor from the forward 
 leach, which was "coursed" up from the 
 second leach, which was coursed up from 
 the third leach. Thus to make a "handler" 
 required the bailing out of five full vats, and 
 the larger half of a faithful day's work for 
 two apprentices. I have been particular in 
 stating the process in order to show the 
 saving of labor in accomplishing the same 
 object, in an improved tannery, with water 
 power, which would do the same work in 
 one hour. I had found by careful observa- 
 tion that I could forward my tanning more 
 in the months of July, August and Septem- 
 ber, than in the other nine months of the 
 year. The cause was obvious — the temper- 
 ature of the weather. My first thought of 
 improvement in this point was, that if 1 
 could get a summer temperature for my 
 liquors all the year, it would be a valuable 
 achievement. After numerous experiments, 
 I contrived a leach with a copper heater or 
 cylinder passing through its whole length, 
 adapted to having a fire built in its mouth, 
 the smoke being carried off through an 
 elbow in the rear. The leach was filled 
 
49 
 
 with new bark and with weak liquor or 
 with water, by the aid of a pump, and fire 
 applied. This brought the liquor to boiling 
 heat in 24 hours (but scalding heat was 
 found to be sufficient to exhaust the bark, 
 even new bark, within a week). More than 
 two-thirds the time necessary for the process 
 was thus saved, besides the great saving in 
 more effectually extracting the tannin from 
 the bark than in the old method. 
 
 After various experiments, 1 found it the 
 best plan to place two leaches, one above 
 the other, and to put the heater into the 
 upper one; to have the bottom of the lower 
 leach 12 to 18 inches above the top of the 
 tan vats; to have leaders placed under one 
 end of the row of vats, connected with them 
 by a tube inserted in the bottom of each vat, 
 at a corner; a plug to be fitted to the tube 
 of sufficient length to come to the top of 
 the vat, protected by a strainer, to keep the 
 bark out; the leader to terminate in a special 
 vat two feet deeper than the others. This 
 deep vat we called a "junk." I placed a 
 powerful pump, moved by water power. 
 Thus to make a new handler — to obtain a 
 new liquor for laying away a pack — the labor 
 of half an hour by a single hand accomplished 
 as much as that of two hands for half a day 
 
50 
 
 by the old method. This saving is a fair 
 specimen of the saving effected in the whole 
 process of tanning.. As previously stated, 
 my master employed one hand to every 
 hundred sides tanned. With an improved 
 modern built tannery, with good water 
 power, I have year after year tanned 30,000 
 to 40,000 sides with the labor of 20 hands. 
 I have built six tanneries — extensive ones, 
 the first in "Northampton, commenced in the 
 autumn of 1790, and the' last in Hunter, 
 Greene Co., "New York, in 1830. This last 
 had seven powerful water wheels, one for 
 grinding bark, four for the hide mills in the 
 beam house, one for a pump, and one for a 
 rolling machine, to finish the leather. About 
 the year 1827, I laid aside the use of lime, 
 which enabled me to gain on dry hides 60 
 per cent, instead of 20, which was the aver- 
 age under the old mode of tanning. And 
 the quality of the leather was improved in 
 as great a proportion. The cost of tanning 
 sole leather in the old way was 12 cents per 
 pound, as declared by the late Jacob Lorril- 
 lard and other experienced tanners. My 
 various and numerous improvements reduced 
 the cost to 4 cents per pound, thus saving 
 8 cents. So much is the community bene- 
 fited by my improvements, and very many 
 
5i 
 
 individual fortunes have been made by use 
 of them. 
 
 With regard to the invention of the "rolling" ap- 
 paratus, the improved bark mill, and other labor saving 
 machinery, Mr. William W. Edwards adds the follow- 
 ing notes: "My father had observed with regret the 
 rough surface of the finished sole leather, which con- 
 trasted unfavorably with the smooth surface of English 
 leather which he had seen in market. He had also 
 observed the solidity and finish given to leather by the 
 hammer on the lapstone. If this solidity and finish 
 could be given to the whole side, a much better article 
 would be produced. He tried various experiments in 
 pounding, rubbing and rolling, and finally hit upon the 
 " Rolling Machine," now of universal use. The appear- 
 ance of the improved leather in market created no small 
 sensation among the trade, especially in New York. 
 My father had by this time extended his acquaintance 
 to that city, and had sent thither a considerable quan- 
 tity of his leather of various kinds. He proposed to 
 Mr. Jacob Lorillard to accompany him to Northampton 
 and see for himself what improvements in tanning he 
 had made. The long journey was made by land, and 
 Mr. Lorillard was especially impressed by the simple 
 but effectual work of the roller. 
 
 Father had early given up the old stone horse mill 
 for grinding bark, and substituted a pair of mill stones 
 moved by water. For this purpose he purchased a site, 
 and erected the mill on a branch of the Mill River, five 
 miles west of the tannery, and by so much nearer his 
 bark region. The ground bark was carted to the tan- 
 nery daily for use. 
 
52 
 
 Dry hides began to appear. Father at first used the 
 stone wheel, and the floor where he had originally 
 ground his bark, to soften the hides, but this was quite 
 too slow and tedious an operation. It occurred to him 
 that they might be "fulled " in a mill. Taking a few 
 hides in his wagon to a cloth-fulling mill, at a season 
 when it was idle, he persuaded the owner to try the 
 effect of his hammers upon them. It operated admira- 
 bly, and he set at work at once to build machines 
 adapted to the requirements. Thus was invented the 
 "Hide Mill," also now universally used in the trade. 
 In these several improvements he applied for letters 
 patent, which were issued in 1812, signed Jas. Madison, 
 President, James Monroe, Secretary. 
 
 Mr. Wm. W. Edwards also gives the fol- 
 lowing notes upon his father's removal to 
 Northampton in 1790, and residence there 
 afterwards. 
 
 This beautiful town was the residence of my father's 
 grandfather — Jonathan Edwards, and the birth place of 
 his father Timothy. It is situated on the west side of 
 the Connecticut River, just above high water mark, 
 and above the rich alluvial ground of which its farming 
 lands are composed. These being subject to annual 
 overflow with the melting of the ice and snow were 
 unfit for living upon. The inhabitants early divided 
 the higher land into lots of a few acres each, and built 
 thereon their dwellings, and to these lots the subdivided 
 lowlands, or "meadows," were appendages. This 
 peculiarity gave the town a more social habit than is 
 usual in the country, and the hearts of her children 
 
53 
 
 were remarkably attached to the home of their birth. 
 The losses which Timothy Edwards had sustained had 
 nearly absorbed his means of subsistence, and he 
 looked to his son William as the staff upon which he 
 might lean in his declining years. He longed to pass 
 the remnant of his days in Northampton, which also 
 seemed the most desirable spot in which to educate 
 his younger children. He took William to Northamp- 
 ton, in September, 1790, and introduced him to his 
 own and his father's friends. William was received 
 with so much kindness and consideration that he 
 yielded his own convictions (which, as related, had 
 led him to think of a longer prosecution of his trade, 
 and then removal to New York), and settled in 
 Northampton. He was of a very social temperament, 
 and found ready to receive him a large circle of intelli- 
 gent young people, and for over twenty years, and so 
 long as he lived there, he was the life and delight of 
 that circle. He was of easy and handsome address; 
 was the leader at all the festive gatherings, sleigh-rides, 
 balls and parties. He was, as related in the memoirs, 
 united to one of the leading families by his marriage, 
 in x 793- On this occasion he gave a ball and supper 
 to his wife's friends, at the principal hotel in the place, 
 now known as "Warner's." His wedding suit, coat 
 and small clothes, was of white broadcloth, vest and 
 stockings of white silk ; slippers with high heels. He 
 opened the ball with his wife's grandmother for part- 
 ner, the widow of the former clergyman of Manchester, 
 N. H. (Mrs. Elizabeth Marsh Tappan, wife of Rev. 
 Benjamin Tappan). He was early entrusted with 
 various offices ; was chosen Captain of the Engine 
 Company; Captain of the new Artillery Company; 
 was repeatedly on the Board of Selectmen, and was 
 
54 
 
 identified with every measure of improvement in the 
 town. Was especially prominent in the erection of 
 the Congregational Church, now known as the " First 
 Church," which was planned and built (mainly after 
 suggestions emanating from him) as town property, to 
 the entire union and harmony of the town. He repre- 
 sented Northampton at the General Court, at Boston, 
 repeatedly; was in politics a Federalist, opposed to the 
 French proclivities of Jefferson and Burr, and the meas- 
 ures generally of the Democratic party — their gun-boat 
 navy, non-intercourse, embargo, and war with Great 
 Britain. He became intimate with all the politicians 
 of his school in the State. No man exercised more 
 political influence in his Town and State than he did 
 in the early years of this century, His house was 
 always open to the visits of his numerous family con- 
 nections and friends. He was in the habit of giving 
 a dinner to the Sheriff, the Judges, and the prominent 
 members of the Bar, at his house nearly every session 
 of the Court. He was well read, had a fund of anec- 
 dote which he used with effect, and his company was 
 always sought at public and convivial gatherings, in 
 Northampton. There was within the recollection of 
 the writer (William W. Edwards) a circle composed 
 of Judge Lyman, Eben Hunt, J. H. Lyman, Eli P. Ash- 
 man, E. H. Mills, Sam'l Henshaw, Josiah Dwight, J. 
 C. Bates, and others, who dined together alternately 
 at each others houses every Saturday, vieing with each 
 other in the liberality of their entertainments. 
 
 Following the memoir : 
 
 In the year 1800, the country was threat- 
 ened with war with France, during the 
 
55 
 
 Presidency of the elder Adams. Troops 
 were enlisted ; Congress passed a law 
 authorizing the President to accept the 
 services of a large body of volunteers. 
 A company of 60 men was raised in 
 Northampton, and wholly unexpectedly 
 to myself, 1 was unanimously chosen 
 Captain — although some members of the 
 company were from the first families of 
 the town. The United States furnished us 
 With artillery. We uniformed and often 
 exercised, and held ourselves in readiness to 
 march on short notice. But we were never 
 called into service. When our term — three 
 years — with the U. S. expired, we were 
 cordially received into the regular militia of 
 Massachusetts, where I was raised, first to 
 the rank of Major, subsequently to Colonel. 
 I may here mention that when Boston 
 was threatened with an attack by the Brit- 
 ish, in the autumn of 181 3, I commanded a 
 regiment of artillery consisting of four com- 
 panies. Eleven companies were ordered 
 into service and to rendezvous at Boston as 
 one regiment. The Governor and Council 
 called me to the command of this regiment. 
 The officers of our Leather Manufacturing 
 Company, of their own accord, applied to 
 the Governor and Council with the request 
 
56 
 
 that some other officer of the same grade 
 should be substituted in my place, and that 
 I should be excused, as my whole time and 
 attention was very important to that con- 
 cern. His Excellency, Caleb Strong, was 
 the Governor. The Council replied to the 
 application of Head and Francis that there 
 was no other man than myself to whom 
 they would intrust so important a command. 
 1 was two months in the service ; was 
 stationed at South Boston, in General 
 Maltby's Brigade, and General Whiton's (?) 
 Division. 
 
 I forgot to state, in due order of time, a 
 business transaction of a large amount, 
 attended eventually with immense loss of 
 property. About the year 1795, I became 
 acquainted with Mr. Joseph Barrell, of 
 Charlestown, Mass., a man worth then half 
 a million of dollars, $400,000 of which was 
 in United States Bank stock. The State of 
 Connecticut sold their Western Reserve 
 lands,— a very large body of land lying to 
 the south of Lake Erie. Mr. Barrell solicited 
 me to attend a re-sale which was to take 
 place at Hartford within thirty days, and 
 offered to advance cash and credit to the 
 extent of 15 to 20,000 dollars, we to share 
 the profit or loss, in case I purchased. I 
 
57 
 
 went to Hartford, and after some investi- 
 gation, purchased 75,000 acres, to pay the 
 State forty cents per acre within five years, 
 with interest after two years— ten per cent 
 in cash within twenty days to the original 
 purchasers from the State. The whole 
 purchase amounted to $33,000. Within 
 three or four days, I was offered $7,000 for 
 my bargain. 1 felt under obligation to consult 
 Mr. Barrell. He chose to hold on to the 
 purchase, advanced the money, and gave 
 his notes, which I also signed. Mr. Barrell 
 went largely into Georgia, Pennsylvania, and 
 Virginia land speculations, and within two 
 or three years, invested his whole property 
 in those lands. He called on me to assign 
 to him my share of the New Connecticut 
 lands, as he had advanced the cash artd credit. 
 Such had been the conveyances to Mr. 
 Barrell and myself that neither could convey 
 without the signature of the other. The 
 gentlemen of whom I purchased became 
 alarmed at reports of Mr. Barren's insolvency, 
 and applied to me for my assurance that I 
 would not transfer or convey these lands 
 until their claim was paid. This appeared 
 to me the proper course, and I gave them my 
 verbal assurance that I would hold on to the 
 lands until the claim was paid. To pacify 
 
58 
 
 Mr. Barrell, I was obliged to buy him out. 
 I then sold the lands and paid all claims, but 
 at a loss of three-fourths the original cost. 
 
 About the year 1796, a land speculation 
 was gotten up in Hartford by Jacob Ogden, 
 called the Gore Company, embracing a 
 tract claimed by the State of Connecticut 
 from the southwest corner of said State 
 through Pennsylvania and New York — the 
 two lines diverging to the westward, to the 
 western boundary of the United States (then 
 the Mississippi River), — a very large tract. 
 Numbers were drawn into it and lost their 
 all, and I lost $5,000. 
 
 When 1 first engaged in business at North- 
 ampton, my brother Edward was in busi- 
 ness, and doing well, at Stockbridge; was 
 kind and rendered me important aid, which 
 I held in grateful remembrance. He removed 
 to Broome County, N. Y., about the year 
 1800, and was soon engaged in making pine 
 lumber, on the Chenango and Susquehanna 
 Rivers, and running it in rafts to Baltimore, 
 in the spring freshets. He made it profita- 
 ble for several successive years, and laid such 
 inducements before me that I embarked 
 largely with him in purchasing timber lands, 
 building saw mills, establishing a store, and 
 running the lumber to Baltimore. This last 
 
59 
 
 was found to be hazardous; if concurring cir- 
 cumstances favored, the business was highly 
 profitable ; but if the rivers were too high 
 or too low,. loss was incurred. After five 
 or six years, that concern was closed with a 
 loss of $23,000 after disposing of the whole 
 property. 
 
 (In the next pages, which will cover the remaining 
 years spent in Massachusetts by Colonel William 
 Edwards, I shall follow the account of William W. 
 Edwards, written after reading his Father's manu^ 
 script, which he substantially incorporated in the 
 narrative, adding much from his own knowledge and 
 recollections. Wm. H. Edwards.) ; 
 
 While these last events were transpiring, 
 in 1806, Colonel Edwards had induced his 
 brother-in-law, Josiah Dwight, of Stockr 
 bridge, to close his business there and 
 embark with him in the tanning, at North- 
 ampton. With the means thus acquired, 
 under the firm name of Dwight and Ed- 
 wards, he pushe'd the business. He ex- 
 tended his acquaintance with the dealers in 
 New York, and took stock from Mr. Loril- 
 lard to tan by the pound, also sent his own 
 stock there to a market. The firm had 
 among their customers a young shoemaker 
 residing in Worthington, twenty miles from 
 
6o 
 
 the tannery, who evinced industry and tact 
 in his business, coming on horseback at 
 short intervals for a few sides of leather, and 
 punctually paying at each visit for his last 
 previous purchase. The firm had felt the 
 want of an agent in Mew York specially 
 devoted to their business, and they selected 
 this shoemaker, Gideon Lee, for the pur- 
 pose, giving him $ i ,000 a year salary. They 
 were not mistaken in their judgment; the 
 tact, talent, industry and integrity of Mr. 
 Lee soon brought him position and wealth, 
 and he eventually became the leader of the 
 leather trade in his city. 
 
 While Colonel Edwards was a member of 
 the Legislature, his partner, Mr. D wight, 
 was chosen Treasurer of the State. Upon 
 this their connection was dissolved, and 
 Mr. Dwight's place was supplied by Robert 
 Burr Edwards, Colonel Edwards youngest 
 brother, who had been educated in the 
 counting house of Cornelius Dubois, of 
 New York. While attending to his legis- 
 lative duties, his acquaintance was extended 
 among his fellow legislators and with the 
 business men of Boston. Applications were 
 before the legislature for various incorpora- 
 tions for manufacturing companies. Colonel 
 Edwards conceived the idea of a leather manu- 
 
6i 
 
 facturing company, and obtained an act for 
 the incorporation of the "Hampshire Leather 
 Manuf. Co.", with a capital of $100,000. He 
 had previously erected, in connection with 
 Spencer Clark, of Chester, Mass., and Wil- 
 liam Hubbard, of Cummington, two other 
 tanneries, each of about the capacity of the 
 one at Northampton. He sold the three to 
 the new company, and contracted with it 
 to give him a full supply of hides for each 
 tannery at six cents a pound (for the finished 
 leather), and one half the profits, the com- 
 pany to make the purchases and sales. This 
 company was managed by a President, 
 Treasurer and three Trustees, who together 
 formed a Board, and their office was at 
 Boston ; Joseph Head, President ; -Eben'r 
 Francis, Treasurer ; Thomas C. Amory, 
 
 Joseph Sewall and — Belknap, Trustees 
 
 or Directors. This contract went into effect 
 in 1809. A large portion of the price of the 
 tanning was payable when the hides were 
 put in soak, and when they went upon the 
 fourth layer. The business was successful 
 and profitable, there being very little com- 
 petition with them either in the Boston or 
 New York market for hemlock sole leather. 
 In February, 181 1, a ship loaded with dry 
 hides from Buenos Ayres was stranded in 
 
62 
 
 New London harbor, and the hides were 
 wet with salt water. The owners offered 
 them to the company, who instructed 
 Colonel Edwards to repair to the spot and 
 examine the condition of the: hides, and if 
 he thought them a bargain, to buy them. 
 He found the hides sound, but wet, and 
 landed in that condition on the wharf. He 
 purchased the lot at. 6% cents per pound, 
 got them dried for $250, and as dry hides 
 were worth 10 cents, made a clear profit 
 of $6,000 for the company in the trans- 
 action. 
 
 During the summer of 1 8 1 1 , his bark mills, 
 5 miles from the Northampton tannery, were 
 destroyed by fire, together with 4,000 cords 
 of bark, costing $2 per cord, — the work of 
 an incendiary. Having a full stock of hides 
 in process of tanning, he set about a new 
 supply of bark with his accustomed energy; 
 was offered an oil mill 2% miles nearer the 
 tannery, that could easily be altered into a 
 bark mill, at a price he thought reasonable, 
 purchased it and set about the necessary 
 alterations. There was due him $6,000 on 
 his tanning; he wrote for $3,006, and was 
 astounded at the reply of the Treasurer, that 
 he and the President had concluded not to 
 furnish him any more money, until he 
 
63 
 
 consented to have them send an agent in 
 their confidence to disburse the funds. 
 Alarmed at this, he hastened to Boston, and 
 obtained a meeting of the Board to consider 
 his necessities and his dues. Mr. Amory, 
 who was the father of the enterprise, an 
 upright, honorable man, as also was Mr. 
 Sewall, and both his fast friends, after his 
 statement had been made, and the correct- 
 ness of it recognized by all, moved that he 
 should be paid what he required within the 
 contract, which passed and the payment 
 was made. Mr. Amory invited him to his 
 house, conversed with him about the busi- 
 ness, and told him that Head, Francis, and 
 Belknap seemed to be distrustful of his 
 integrity, and apprehensive that the property 
 of the Company was unsafe in his hands. 
 That he himself was entirely satisfied of his 
 integrity and capacity in the business, and 
 that if the other proprietors were disposed 
 to withdraw, he himself, with three or four 
 friends, would take the whole concern to 
 themselves. The business continued under 
 Mr. Amory's protection through that year, 
 and the next. Unhappily, in 181}, Mr. 
 Amory died suddenly, and Mr. Edwards 
 was left to the mercy of the trio. 
 
6 4 
 
 Following the memoir: 
 
 Not long after the commencement of the 
 war with Great Britain, the price of hides 
 advanced from ten to thirteen and fourteen 
 cents per pound. The Directors sent but 
 partial supplies to the tannery, and in the 
 spring of 1815, they refused to send another 
 hide till the price fell again to ten cents. At 
 the same time they withheld a balance of 
 over $6,000, already due me for tanning, and 
 refused to divide any part of the profits of 
 the six years business, done on a rising 
 market, my share of which, as calculated by 
 my brother Robert, a good accountant was 
 $42,000. 
 
 Wm. W. Edwards continues: 
 
 Colonel Edwards had at this time a full 
 supply of bark at each of the three tanneries, 
 and more than fifty men employed in the 
 business. He had borrowed money of various 
 banks, on the credit of his house — Wm. 
 and Robert B. Edwards— endorsed by his 
 personal friends, to enable him to continue 
 his preparations for, and to carry on, the 
 business. He was prepared to tan 25,000 
 hides per annum, of an average of 24 pound 
 weight, making 25 per cent gain, and the 
 
65 
 
 amount he should have received was equal 
 to $45,000 per annum for the tanning alone. 
 
 But finding all efforts with the Directors 
 useless, and his resources and dues all with- 
 held, he was forced into bankruptcy, in 
 1815. His property of every description 
 was seized by attachments, and sold by the 
 Sheriff, leaving him. only one cow and the 
 few articles of furniture which in such case 
 the law allowed. The Directors at once 
 put their agents in possession of the yards 
 and the untanned stock, men wholly un- 
 acquainted with the business, who pro- 
 ceeded to finish the tanning of the stock, 
 charging all the expenses to Colonel Ed- 
 wards' account. In winding up, the Direc- 
 tors made out a charge of seven cents per 
 pound on the whole stock, absorbing thereby 
 every dollar due Mr. Edwards, and they 
 refused all division of the profits which had 
 been made. Afraid to go to law with the 
 Directors, the creditors accepted the Chester 
 tannery, at a valuation of $5,000, in full for 
 all Mr. Edwards claims. 
 
 So the best contract, ever made in the 
 tanning business was forced to a premature 
 close, to the ruin of him whose ability and 
 industry had brought the business into being 
 — at a time too when this company had 
 
66 
 
 comparatively no opposition, had control 
 of the markets of Boston and New York, 
 and every facility for prosecuting a business 
 profitable to all concerned. 
 
 It may be worth while to consider what 
 could have been the motive which influenced 
 the majority of these Directors to so ruinous 
 a course of management. Colonel Edwards, 
 as we have seen, was greatly embarrassed 
 when he entered 'upon the contract with 
 the company. His loss by fire, in 1811, 
 increased his general indebtedness. By the 
 contract, more than half the price for the 
 tanning was to have been paid him in 
 advance of the finished leather. The war 
 was in progress, and in the opinion of all 
 opposed to the war, among whom were 
 these Directors, prices could not be main- 
 tained after the peace. They were prudent 
 and calculating men, who did not mean to 
 be caught with a heavy stock at the peace. 
 They knew that Colonel Edwards was em- 
 barrassed and they were apprehensive that 
 being forced to a failure, his materials, on 
 which they had no lien, would be seized by 
 creditors. Instead therefore of paying him 
 at stated periods, as per the contract, what 
 was due to him, thereby enabling him to 
 escape from his difficulties, their hesitation 
 
67 
 
 and timidity brought about the catastrophe 
 they had been afraid of. They saved their 
 capital, though it destroyed him. It was a 
 cruel blow to him, but as we shall hereafter 
 see, he was not utterly cast down. His 
 abilities remained unimpaired, and friends 
 in another quarter awaited the opportunity 
 of putting them into profitable requisition. 
 Finding some difficulty in conducting the 
 Chester tannery by a foreman, Colonel 
 Edwards fitted up the boarding house 
 there, and occupied it with his family in 
 the spring of 1815, assuming the manage- 
 ment himself. 
 
 Returning to the memoirs : 
 
 My failure took place in September, 1815, 
 I got some work with the Glass Company 
 in the neighborhood, and thus supported 
 my family — Mrs. Edwards and five little 
 children — as well as I could. I gave my mind 
 to further improvements in tanning, and 
 devised a plan of suspending the hides and 
 treating them with a decoction of the bark, 
 often changing the liquors, till they were 
 tanned. In March, 18 16, I went to New 
 York, and laid my plan before Messrs. 
 Cunningham and McCormick, who agreed- 
 to furnish me with thirty hides and a steam 
 
68 
 
 heater to make the experiment, so soon as I 
 could find a place to make a trial. In April, 
 I found Captain Foster Morse, in Windham, 
 Greene County, N. Y. He had called on 
 me at Northampton some years before, and 
 spent an hour with me ; this was my only 
 acquaintance with him. He received me 
 very kindly ; was aware of my misfortunes. 
 I told him of my contemplated improve- 
 ment in tanning by suspending the hides ; 
 that I wanted a leach, and a vat of sufficient 
 depth to fully extend the hides ; and that 
 1 wanted employment when not at work on 
 my hides in order to support my family. 
 That 1 had left my wife with five little 
 children, and with a very limited supply 
 of necessaries and six dollars in money, 
 and 1 myself then had three dollars. Cap- 
 tain Morse smiled, and said he would make 
 the leach and vat I wanted, and give me 
 every accommodation to make the experi- 
 ment ; also he would give me as much 
 work as I could do. "But," said he "you 
 need not feel so very poor. 1 owe you 
 thirty dollars, and Mr. Pratt, in Lexington, 
 three miles distant, owes you the same ; 
 and several other tanners in this region are 
 indebted to you." I asked him what he 
 and others owed me for. He replied, for 
 
69 
 
 using my rolling machine, which they all 
 knew I had a patent for, and would pay me 
 promptly for the right to use it. This was 
 surely most gratifying intelligence. I wrote 
 Messrs. Cunningham and McCormick to 
 send the hides and the heater to Catskill, 
 to Captain Morse's address. Captain Morse 
 furnished me with a horse, and gave me a 
 list of tanners who were using my improve- 
 ments. 1 went as far west as Utica, was 
 absent from Windham ten days, and col- 
 lected $140, besides $30 from Captain Morse 
 and as much from Mr. Pratt. This enabled 
 me to aid my family, and remove them to 
 Catskill, in a temporary residence. 
 
 (For my various improvements I had 
 taken out patents, but such was the pub- 
 lic prejudice against patents that I never 
 hazarded a law suit. Neither Mr. Fulton, 
 for the use of steam, or Mr. Whitney, for 
 the cotton gin, had ever obtained a verdict. 
 Any one who chose to do so used my im- 
 provements. In after years, I called on such 
 as I conveniently could, and asked them to 
 pay me something, even if little. I estimate 
 my collections altogether at about $2,500 
 for forty years of mental effort and expen- 
 sive experiment My patents certainly 
 reduced the cost of tanning from twelve 
 
70 
 
 cents per pound to four cents, the saving 
 aggregating millions of dollars in leather 
 sold in New York alone.) 
 
 I finished the thirty hides and returned 
 the leather in October, and it was much 
 approved of. How to employ myself and 
 support my family during the winter I was 
 utterly at a loss to conceive. But Mr. 
 Jacob Lorillard offered me business if I 
 could go to the State of Alabama, in the 
 neighborhood of Mobile. He would pay 
 my travelling expenses, and give me letters 
 of credit; would pay Mrs. Edwards twenty 
 dollars a month, and a certain sum to my- 
 self. I joyfully acceded to his proposi- 
 tion, and left New York, in November, for 
 Charleston, S. C, proposing to cross the 
 country from Charleston to Montgomery — on 
 the Alabama River. But 1 found this route 
 impracticable, and went to Havana andthence 
 to New Orleans, thence to Mobile, and to a 
 point ninety miles up the Tombigbee River. 
 I got Mr. Lorillard's deed to 600 acres land, 
 lying in Montgomery County, recorded ; 
 went upon the land and explored it, and 
 returned to Mobile and New Orleans, which 
 last place 1 reached the 10th of April ; took 
 passage to New York, arriving there about 
 the 1 st of May. I found my wife in feeble 
 
7i 
 
 health, having had a tedious winter, but the 
 children were all well. 
 
 In August, 1816, finding my plan of tan- 
 ning by suspending likely to succeed, with 
 the approbation of Messrs. Cunningham and 
 McCormick, I explored the Schoharie Kill 
 from where Prattsville is now to the height 
 of land in Hunter, wishing to find a good 
 mill seat and plenty of hemlock bark ; and 
 as near the Hudson River as I could find 
 these advantages. I found a place to my 
 mind in the southwest part of Hunter, but 
 the owners were unknown. During my 
 absence at the south, my son, William W., 
 who was a clerk with Mr. Arthur Tappan, 
 his uncle, discovered who were the owners, 
 and went to Albany, and obtained an Act of 
 Incorporation for Cunningham and McCor- 
 mick, Gideon Lee, and others, for a leather 
 manufacturing company ; authorizing a 
 capital of $60,000, with right to hold 1200 
 acres of land. The land cost two dollars 
 per acre. The company organized, and such 
 arrangements were made, that I commenced 
 operations by preparing to build a tannery 
 in the midst of a dense hemlock forest, in 
 the first days of July, 181 7. 
 
 William W. Edwards writes of this period : 
 
72 
 
 The family were settled in a small tene- 
 ment, about half way up the hill between 
 Catskill and Jefferson, the only vacant house 
 to be found, and were treated with great 
 kindness and hospitality by the good people 
 of Catskill. Just at this time, myself and 
 brother Henry, who resided with his uncle, 
 Lewis Tappan, at Boston, made a fortunate 
 speculation in silk twist buttons, then be- 
 coming fashionable, by which we realized 
 more than $200 profit. This we appropriated 
 to the comfort of our mother and the child- 
 ren, by purchasing various articles of com- 
 mon furniture, and clothing, and provisions. 
 The site spoken of in the memoir, selected 
 for the tannery, was at the " Red Falls" of 
 the Schoharie Kill. Nearly all the region 
 was wild land, abounding in beautiful groves 
 of hemlock timber. It was on a tract owned 
 by the late Edward Livingston, which had 
 been heavily mortgaged to French refugees, 
 who had returned to France and died. No 
 title could be had for the area we wanted. 
 One Roger Bronson, a squatter, had erected 
 a common saw mill at the head of the Falls, 
 and a board shanty on the bank. It was 
 ascertained, in New York, that measures 
 were being taken to foreclose the mortgages, 
 that the land would be brought into market 
 
73 
 
 in the spring, and that we could probably 
 obtain what we wanted. 
 
 On my father's leaving for the south, the 
 family were removed to Catskill, and occu- 
 pied one half the house owned by Deacon 
 Thayer, on the main street. 
 
 There was a general law in the State of 
 New York for creating incorporations for 
 manufacturing certain articles therein named, 
 of which leather was not one. It was 
 thought best to obtain an extension of this 
 law to leather in a quiet way, and to form a 
 company under the law so amended. Special 
 incorporations were difficult to obtain, and 
 one for manufacturing sole leather it was 
 feared might rouse all the tanners in the 
 State in opposition. A bill was introduced 
 early in the session by Judge Ogden Ed- 
 wards, cousin of my father, to extend the 
 privileges of this law to " morocco and 
 other leather." It hung in the Senate, and 
 no account could be had of it in New York. 
 Meantime the lands were advertised, and 
 the parties were prepared to form the com- 
 pany. On the ist of April, I left New York 
 on the first steamboat of the season, landed 
 at Athens (30 miles from Albany), and 
 travelled till 12 o'clock the second night in 
 an open wagon to Albany. The session 
 
74 
 
 was to close on the 15th. I found Martin 
 Van Buren, Moses J. Cantine, and Judge 
 Ogden Edwards, and Lucius Elmendorf, of 
 Ulster County, members of the Senate, all 
 of whom kindly lent their aid to get the bill 
 along. The bill was supported by a petition 
 from all of the principal inhabitants of Cats- 
 kill. I had the happiness of seeing it 
 become a law the day before the adjourn- 
 ment. The following is a copy: 
 
 1 . Be it enacted by the people of the State 
 of New York, &c. That from and after the 
 passage of this Act, it shall and may be law- 
 ful for any five or more persons who shall 
 be desirous of forming a company for the 
 purpose of manufacturing Morocco or other 
 leather to associate together and form such 
 company according to the directions and 
 restrictions mentioned in the Act entitled, 
 &c, &c. 
 
 Provided, nevertheless, that no company 
 or companies who shall become a body 
 corporate under this Act, shall be allowed 
 to locate their establishment in any other 
 counties than Greene and Delaware ; and 
 also that the capital stock of any such com- 
 pany shall not exceed the sum of sixty 
 thousand dollars; and 
 
 Provided, further, that it shall be lawful 
 for the Legislature, at any time after two 
 
75 
 
 years, to dissolve any incorporations which 
 may be formed under this Act. 
 
 The restricting clause was inserted to 
 pacify Judge Elmendorf, who declared in 
 his place, that "if the people of Greene 
 and Delaware wanted the tanners estab- 
 lished there, they might have them ; but 
 he had no idea of allowing them to come 
 into Ulster and Sullivan Counties and de- 
 stroy all the beautiful timber." Years after, 
 when the New York Tannery was in full 
 operation, as Judge Elmendorf was passing 
 on horseback to his lands at the village of 
 Prattsville, he met the writer of this in front 
 of the Tannery, and drawing up his horse 
 and half turning in the saddle, he said : 
 "What fine works you have erected here, 
 Mr. Edwards ! a beautiful place you have 
 made of it ! You should have looked at 
 our lands in Ulster before you located, 
 where you would have found plenty of 
 bark and water, and no mountains to 
 climb!" "Ah! Judge, we might have 
 done so, but you know you shut us out 
 in the Bill," was my reply. " I really did 
 not know what it would come to," was his 
 rejoinder, "but I greatly regret it now." 
 
 The lands were brought forward in due 
 
76 
 
 time. We had ascertained that Joseph 
 Bouchaud, of New York, and Anthony 
 Laussat, of Philadelphia, the agents of the 
 owners, would buy the lands in at any- 
 thing less than one dollar per acre, and that 
 the two tracts, one in Greene and one in 
 Delaware, would be sold in a body. We 
 therefore made a verbal agreement with 
 Mr. Bouchaud to withhold our bids and 
 allow him to buy in the lands, and give 
 us 2500 acres, including the Red Falls, at • 
 two dollars per acre. I myself went upon 
 the lands and explored them thoroughly, 
 and selected the required quantity in a 
 body from the town map. The sale came 
 off at the old Tontine Coffee House, and the 
 agents bought it in at 25 cents per acre (the 
 only bid) in their own names. We had 
 supposed it was to have been purchased 
 for the owners, but it was held as a specu- 
 lation by the agents, and they sold much of 
 it at four and five dollars per acre. 
 
 In May or June, 18 17, the New York Tan- 
 nery Company was formed under the manu- 
 facturing law as amended, with a capital of 
 $60,000, which was subscribed in equal 
 sums by Gideon Lee, Cunningham and Mc- 
 Cormick, Wm. Bayard, and Herman Le 
 Roy, all of New York, and Joseph Xifre, 
 
77 
 
 of Cuba. There was delay in executing 
 the deeds for the land purchased, and as 
 the season was getting late for peeling 
 bark, we took a contract from Mr. Bouchaud 
 for the 2500 acres, entered into possession, 
 and began operations; 1 leaving my situation 
 in New York to assist my father. In August, 
 the agents came upon the land, and finding 
 the squatters who had settled here and there 
 were willing to pay four and five dollars for 
 lots, Laussat refused to ratify the contract. 
 As we had then expended some thousands 
 of dollars, we accepted half the quantity, 
 that being the best we could do. The pre- 
 ceding season was the famous "cold sum- 
 mer," with short crops. There was no 
 bread, grain or potatoes, in that section, 
 and we had to bring supplies, even oats for 
 our horses, ,from New York. The roads 
 over the mountains were primitive, and of 
 very steep grades. It cost 50 cents to trans- 
 port 100 pounds from Catskill, twenty miles. 
 There were no carpenters or mill wrights in 
 the region, and we had to bring both from 
 Massachusetts. We bought out Bronson 
 by giving him a lot of 140 acres, worth $4 
 per acre, for his mill and shanty. For the 
 first few days we boarded at the log tavern 
 kept by Sumner Parmenter, a mile up the 
 
78 
 
 Creek. (This was on the property of late 
 year's known as Breeze Lawn, at the east 
 end of Hunter Village.) Our first effort was 
 to get lumber and boards for building. We 
 purchased two yoke of oxen, hired as many 
 men as we could get, cut and hauled in the 
 logs from which the bark had been peeled. 
 We soon had a dining room alongside of 
 Branson's shanty, and bunks for the men in 
 the loft. We brought our supplies from the 
 river, and landed them against a stump 
 while the temporary store building was 
 being sided up. But the goods were got 
 in before night and locked up. Next day 
 we put on the roof, made a rough counter 
 and a few shelves, and had standing room 
 enough to accommodate half a dozen men. 
 We had decided on the plan for the tan- 
 nery., by which all operations were to be 
 carried on within one building ; set men at 
 work to clear the ground and prepare the 
 foundation. All the land was heavily tim- 
 bered, and on the Jlat was swampy. We 
 marked out the main street (of Hunter 
 Village), and began to build on it as 
 soon as the land was cleared sufficiently. 
 First, a barn, 30x40; then a boarding house, 
 24x40, one and a-half story ; next, a sub- 
 stantial store and office, 20x40 ; and finally 
 
79 
 
 the tannery, 200x36, to begin with. With 
 all our efforts, we were only able to make 
 these buildings comfortable before winter 
 set in. Great care was taken to construct 
 the tannery in such a manner as to bring all 
 my father's improvements into the most 
 convenient situation for economical use. 
 The beam house and two hide mills were 
 in the lower end of the building, on the 
 gound floor ; the rolling machine in the loft 
 above. Next to the beam house were the 
 vats for suspending the hides, with the 
 leaches at the upper end, on the creek side ; 
 the bark mill on the floor of the loft over- 
 head, arranged so that the ground bark was 
 deposited by elevators directly over the 
 leaches. It was intended to dispense with 
 "handling" altogether, the calculation being 
 that the time required to tan the stock would 
 be so much reduced that less vat room 
 would be needed. The sides were passed 
 through the beam house by the usual 
 method of liming and beating, and were 
 stretched the length of the vats about one 
 inch apart as they came from the beam 
 house ; and when the vats were thus filled 
 liquor from the leaches was run on to cover 
 the whole. It was found that the leather 
 tanned in much shorter time (indeed 60 
 
8o 
 
 days was long enough for middle weight 
 sides), but the position tended to strain the 
 fibres, so that the backs were thin and the 
 bellies thick, and the gravity of the tannin 
 downward fixed the weight in the bellies 
 and flanks, instead of the backs, where it 
 was wanted. It was found also that wher- 
 ever one side touched another, the tannin 
 did not penetrate, but a white space, un- 
 tanned, discovered itself. Finally, the 
 weight of the leather was less by ten per 
 cent, than it should have been. We tried 
 experiments, hoping to overcome the diffi- 
 culties, but at last were compelled to abandon 
 the new plan altogether, and resort to the 
 old method of "handlers" and "laying 
 away." This required more vat room. 
 The saw mill was taken down, the 
 ground it occupied was filled with large 
 vats, and the tannery was extended till at 
 length the main building was 500 feet long, 
 and a second building near and parallel with 
 it at its upper end 200 by 36 feet. 
 
 The tannery was intended for manufactur- 
 ing 5,000 hides per annum, and a contract 
 had been made by the Company with Wm. 
 Edwards & Son to tan that number at five 
 and one half cents per pound, taking the 
 hides from, and returning the leather to, 
 
8i 
 
 New York. Finding that with small addition 
 to the tannery, we could tan 10,000 as well as 
 5,000, and bark being abundant and cheap, 
 we asked the Company to increase their 
 stock to that quantity, or to allow us to tan 
 for other parties. They declined to do either. 
 In our contract, we had bound ourselves to 
 take the tannery off the Company's hands 
 at a specified time, at a valuation ; and in 
 anticipation of such event we had built sub- 
 stantial dwellings for ourselves at our own 
 expense. We therefore, in 1822, urged the 
 Trustees to name the terms on which they 
 would sell, although the time limit had not 
 been reached. My brother, Ogden E. 
 Edwards, had now become of age, and his 
 employer, Jacob Lorillard, was willing to 
 give us all the stock we wanted. He had in 
 fact purchased a cargo of hides at a low rate 
 on purpose to give them to us. After con- 
 sultation, the Trustees gave us a price, 
 $ 1 0,000, in approved paper, at twelve months, 
 and adjourned for one day. At the meeting 
 then held, the President inquired if we 
 accepted the terms, when I handed him the 
 acceptance of Mr. Lorillard for the sum fixed 
 on. The Trustees were taken by surprise, 
 but received the paper, and in due time 
 transferred to us all the Company's real estate 
 
82 
 
 in Hunter. Mr. Lorillard required no mort- 
 gage or other security. We obtained a loan 
 of $6,000 on the property, tanned the stock 
 for Mr. Lorillard, and from that time to 1837, 
 the tannery was supplied with full stock of 
 hides by Mr. Lorillard and his successors, 
 at six cents per pound. 
 
 Tanneries began to increase all around us, 
 and the price of leather fell in consequence. 
 In 1825, a proposition was made me to 
 remove to New York, and engage in the 
 importing of French goods, in connection 
 with Joseph Barrell, a grandson of the Mr. 
 Barrell mentioned in the memoir, which I em- 
 braced, leaving the business at Hunter with 
 my father, who prosecuted it until 1830, when 
 the tannery was utterly destroyed by fire, 
 together with a large stock of bark and wood. 
 Immediate measures were taken to rebuild 
 on an improved plan, and the new buildings 
 were considerably larger than the old. After 
 this my father took his nephew, Frederic 
 Tyler, into copartnership, and the business 
 was continued with renewed energy. 
 
 Following the memoir : 
 
 My unfortunate friends, in Massachusetts, 
 who had suffered by their responsibilities for 
 
83 
 
 me, or many of them, pressed me for relief. 
 I assured them that my unalterable determi- 
 nation was, so soon as I could earn any sum 
 worth distributing among them, to give up 
 to my former creditors every dollar 1 pos- 
 sessed. Only one suit was brought against 
 me, and that for a small sum, such was the 
 confidence my former friends had in my 
 intentions. The Bankrupt act was taken 
 advantage of by me at the requirement of 
 the Trustees in the New York Tannery, not 
 for the purpose of cutting off the claims, but 
 to shield me from useless suits and expenses. 
 But, in 1834, I was sued upon a note for 
 $6,000, with many years interest, by a friend 
 who had endorsed it, and who was dis- 
 couraged about waiting longer for a final 
 dividend. This suit led me to make an 
 arrangement with the Hon. James Powers, of 
 Catskill, to receive an assignment of every 
 species of property which I possessed, for 
 the benefit of my former creditors, to be 
 distributed among them pro rata. Mr. 
 Powers would undertake only to dispose of 
 the property and pay over the proceeds to 
 such persons as should be agreed upon to 
 make the distribution. The Hon. Lewis 
 Strong and Mr. David S. Whitney, of North- 
 ampton, and my son, Ogden E. Edwards, 
 
8 4 
 
 were selected. Mr. Whitney was obliged to 
 remove to a milder climate, and Ogden, 
 after a time, declined. The agents were 
 authorized to fill any vacancy that might 
 occur in their number, and they substituted 
 Mr. Eliphalet Williams in place of the two 
 others. My sons, Henry and Alfred, offered 
 to purchase of Mr. Powers all my real estate 
 on a valuation, payable in six years, secured 
 by their joint note and a mortgage on the 
 property. I myself, by the aid of friends, 
 purchased the personal property, and paid 
 Mr. Powers for it. The Court (at Catskill), 
 decided, without giving the case to the jury, 
 that the $6,000 note, on which suit had 
 been brought, was outlawed. This decision 
 of the Court bore upon every one of the old 
 claims against me. To meet the payments 
 for the real estate, Henry and Alfred put a 
 capital into Ogden 's hands to be invested in 
 hides, which I was to tan, the profits on 
 which would meet their note and mortgage 
 before maturity. The severe mercantile 
 pressure from 1837 to 1842 greatly cramped 
 their resources. Under the circumstances 
 Mr. Powers felt justified in giving them an 
 extension of several years time. In the 
 autumn of 1845, 1 met Mr. Powers on board 
 a Hudson River steamboat, and our inter- 
 
85 
 
 view led me to write Mr. Strong a letter, of 
 which the following is a copy: 
 
 Brooklyn, Dec. 15th, 1845. 
 
 Hon. Lewis Strong. 
 
 Dear Sir : — 1 lately met Mr. Powers, and 
 was glad to hear from him that he had closed 
 his prolonged labor in the agency he kindly 
 undertook, at my earnest solicitation, in aid- 
 ing to adjust the distribution of my acquisi- 
 tions among my unfortunate creditors, in 
 conjunction with yourself and Mr. Williams; 
 and was pleased to hear him express his 
 gratification with the uprightness and good 
 faith with which the whole transaction had 
 been conducted. So painful is the subject 
 — even now, thirty years after the catas- 
 trophe — that 1 bring the events to my 
 mind, or any thing appertaining to them, 
 as seldom as possible. Still i take the 
 liberty of making a few brief inquiries of 
 you, and to tender to you and Mr. Williams 
 my sincere thanks for your kind and friendly 
 co-operation with Mr. Powers in the trans- 
 actions, many of which must have been 
 unpleasant and painful. Will you please to 
 inform me whether yourself and Mr. Wil- 
 liams have wholly closed the distribution, 
 and what amount passed through your 
 hands. Every one who is so unfortunate 
 as to be unable to pay his debts, I well 
 know is the subject of slander. 1 have 
 ever been sustained by a conscience void 
 
86 
 
 of offence, upon this distressing business. 
 I erred exceedingly in judgment, but not in 
 honesty of intention. 
 
 Very respectfully and gratefully, 
 your obedient servant, 
 
 William Edwards. 
 
 I give Mr. Strong's reply: 
 
 Northampton, Jan'y 8, 1846. 
 
 William Edwards, Esq, 
 
 Dear Sir: — 1 received your obliging letter 
 of the 15th December, and but for the 
 pressure of other engagements should gladly 
 have replied to it at an earlier day. The 
 effort you have made, in conjunction with 
 your sons, for the relief of those of your 
 creditors who had suffered by your failure, 
 in 1815, was in my judgment a noble one, 
 and entitled you, especially considering 
 your age, your repeated disasters after- 
 wards, and the long period which has 
 elapsed since the occurrence of that event, 
 to their affectionate and most grateful 
 acknowledgments. The deed of assign- 
 ment, you know was dated in 1834, and 
 the commencement of the distribution so 
 long delayed, and it occupied when begun 
 a period so much longer than any one an- 
 ticipated at the outset, that no doubt a good 
 deal of unpleasant feeling may have been 
 occasionally indulged, which under more 
 favorable circumstances would have been 
 
87 
 
 avoided. But the result, though slowly 
 reached, was rendered — perhaps by the 
 very tardiness of the process— doubly wel- 
 come ; and any suggestions which may 
 possibly have been thrown out in the 
 course of it, impeaching in any degree your 
 own good faith, or the good faith of your 
 sons, must now be deeply regretted, as 
 having been, under the peculiar circum- 
 stances of the case, entirely unwarrantable 
 and unjust. 
 
 The first dividend was made in August, 
 1839; the final one, April, 1844. The whole 
 sum divided has been $25,924.33. Permit 
 me to express to you,' my dear sir, my most 
 cordial congratulations that you have been 
 permitted, in the kindness of Providence, to 
 give to your creditors such substantial evi- 
 dence that you were sincerely desirous of 
 doing everything within the compass of 
 your ability for their relief. 
 Very truly your friend 
 
 and obedient servant, 
 
 Lewis Strong. 
 
 William W. Edwards says of these trans- 
 actions: 
 
 Thus at the advanced age of sixty-four 
 years, my father voluntarily surrendered a 
 flourishing business to do what he could to 
 repay the indebtedness from which he had 
 legally been discharged sixteen years before. 
 
88 
 
 Continuing: 
 
 For some years he occupied the dwelling 
 house at Hunter, which he had erected in 
 1 8 1 8. As most of his children had settled in 
 New York and Brooklyn, he and my mother 
 were induced to remove to Brooklyn, and 
 lived with their daughter Elizabeth (later 
 Mrs. Henry Rowland), and son, Richard C. 
 Edwards, the remainder of their lives. 
 
 Farther notes by Wm. W. Edwards: 
 
 My father's early training was of the 
 strictest Puritan character His mother 
 never allowed an opportunity to say a 
 ""word in season " to all with whom she was 
 brought in contact to pass unimproved. In 
 the midst of the- gayeties I have mentioned 
 her son William never forgot his mother's 
 counsels. At the commencement of his 
 married life, he instituted family worship, 
 though at that time he was not a professing 
 Christian, and he maintained the habit till his 
 death. It was his practice when he boarded 
 his apprentices and workmen at Northamp- 
 ton, his wife and family sitting at the same 
 table with them, to invoke the Divine 
 blessing upon the meal provided, and break- 
 fast was followed by reading from the Bible 
 
8c; 
 
 and a prayer before they separated. In 1810, 
 he made a public profession, and united with 
 the First (Congregational) Church, at North- 
 ampton. His residence at Hunter was on 
 missionary ground. Mo church going bell 
 had ever been heard in that part of the valley. 
 During the first year, he boarded with his 
 workmen, and at once established the 
 same rules as to daily worship which he had 
 observed at Northampton. On Sunday, 
 services were held in the dining room of the 
 boarding house, and in these he was aided 
 by individuals among his assistants and 
 workmen. The people of the village were 
 invited to join in these exercises and did so 
 habitually. During the summer, seats were 
 arranged in the loft of the tannery building, 
 and the services were held there. Finally, 
 a spacious room was set off in the extreme 
 end of the "new yard " as the last addition 
 was termed, and fitted with desk and per- 
 manent seats for a meeting room. In 1820, 
 a church was formed, with twelve members, 
 Presbyterian, and my father was chosen the 
 first ruling elder, a position which he held 
 until he removed to New York. In 1822 or 
 1823, a minister was settled, and, in 1826, a 
 commodious parsonage was built. To this 
 my father gave twenty acres of meadow 
 
90 
 
 land, to remain in perpetuity attached to the 
 parsonage. A church soon followed, nearly 
 all the cost of it contributed by himself and 
 his friends, and weekly worship has con- 
 tinued therein to this day. On his removal 
 to New York, my father attended Dr. Erskine 
 Mason's church in Bleecker St., and took 
 part as a teacher in the Sunday School there. 
 On going to Brooklyn, he transferred his 
 relations to the church of Dr. Sam'l H. Cox, 
 and when the building was sold to the 
 Plymouth congregation, he and my mother 
 united with the new assembly, under Rev. 
 Henry Ward Beecher. In May, 1848, they 
 removed to 67 Remsen St., a few doors from 
 the Church of the Pilgrims, of which Rev. 
 Dr. Storrs was pastor, and they united with 
 this congregation and remained members of 
 it so long as they lived. 
 
 During the last years my father withdrew 
 from all active labor, devoting his time to 
 reading and meditation, and to works of 
 benevolence. For years his health had 
 been good, but in the fall of 185 1, it gradu- 
 ally declined, though he was not confined 
 to his bed till two days before he died. He 
 was fully sensible of his approaching end, 
 and remarked to the members of his family 
 that death seemed to him like going from 
 
9i 
 
 one room of his father's house to another. 
 He died on the 30th day of December, 185 1, 
 in the 82nd year of his age, and his remains, 
 together with those of my mother, who fol- 
 lowed him March 27th, 1857, lie in the 
 family lot on Chestnut Hill, Greenwood 
 Cemetery. 
 
 In his prime my father was an active poli- 
 tician, a Federalist, later a Whig. At the 
 last annual State election before his death 
 he deposited his vote,*for the sixty-first 
 time, never having failed to vote in any one 
 year after he became of age. He was fond 
 of reading, a friend of education, and very 
 hospitable. He was especially condescend- 
 ing to the young ; was the invariable friend 
 of young mechanics; was an attentive and 
 loving husband, a devoted father, a faithful 
 friend, a consistent patriot, and a Christian 
 gentleman. 
 
 Note by W. H. Edwards: 
 
 I append a few lines taken from an address delivered 
 by Hon. Gideon Lee, heretofore mentioned in these 
 memoirs, before the Electic Fraternity, at New York, 
 on 14th February, 1838, in which attention was called 
 to the improvements made by Col. William Edwards 
 in the process of tanning. 
 
 "The time allotted me will not permit a detailed 
 description of the improvements made within the last 
 
92 
 
 thirty years in the construction of tanneries ; the labor 
 saving machinery, the new forms, modes, and uses of 
 hydraulics and water power brought into general use; 
 the application of steam, and of heat in other forms ; 
 the new and speedy mode of extracting the tannin 
 from the crude bark. Such is the extent of these 
 improvements, that, whereas the tanner of thirty years 
 ago could not afford his leather for less than six or 
 eight cents per pound advance on the cost of the dry 
 Spanish hides, the tanner of the present day can and 
 does afford to sell his leather for an advance of from three 
 to four cents per pound on the cost of such hides. * * * 
 The invention and application of these important im- 
 provements in tanning originated chiefly with Col. 
 Wm. Edwards, now of Greene County, in this State; 
 and not unlike most other cases of great projectors and 
 mental laborers, the benefits or profits from these vast 
 improvements are to the nation as millions, but to the 
 coffers of Mr. Edwards comparatively as units. I think 
 1 am not extravagant at rating the benefits of his im- 
 provements at millions. They have spread, and have 
 been adopted in some sort a measure in all the States 
 where leather is manufactured." 
 
 Mrs. Maria Edwards Park, of Andover, 
 Mass., 1892, has written some account of 
 her first recollections of Hunter. " My 
 first visit to Hunter was in the winter 
 of 1817-18, in company with my brothers, 
 Amory and Alfred. I was six, Amory was 
 four, and Alfred was several years older. 
 
93 
 
 Father was living in the boarding house 
 which he had built for the workmen, and 
 our old servant Sena (later Schermerhorn), 
 was housekeeper and took care of us. We 
 drove from Catskill in a sleigh, and 1 was so 
 much astonished at the high mountains that 
 1 asked Alfred if we should ever come down 
 again. The house stood in a small clearing 
 in what is now the village of Hunter, near 
 the south end of the present bridge over the 
 Schoharie Creek. Wild animals were plenty, 
 deer, wolves, bear. 1 remember that on one 
 morning my father called to what he sup- 
 posed were dogs about the house, but which 
 turned out to be wolves. We staid there 
 about two months, and returned to Catskill. 
 A year or two later we spent a summer at 
 the " Shaw farm," three miles west of the 
 tannery, on the road to Catskill, while father 
 was building a house to live in. When this 
 was done, Amory and 1 were tied into a big 
 arm chair, and put in the front of the last 
 load of furniture, and so made our entry into 
 Hunter. 
 
 We went to school at nearly a mile from 
 the tannery, in what is now the upper end 
 of the village, and had to pass through a 
 broad strip of woods. 1 remember with 
 gratitude to this day a woman who lived 
 
94 
 
 close to the edge of the woods, and who 
 many times took her baby and went through 
 the dreaded darkness with us. On one oc- 
 casion Amory and I, inside the woods, heard 
 a great crackling, and ran back terrified, sure 
 that a bear was following us. By good for- 
 tune, we met father and told him our story. 
 He reassured us, and himself went through 
 the woods with us. We found that a man, 
 burning brush in a clearing he was making, 
 had caused the noise that terrified us. But 
 undoubtedly the passage was more or less 
 dangerous. Besides bear and wolves, wild- 
 cats that year had been especially numerous. 
 Deer were always in plenty. At one time 
 my brothers had five fawns which they had 
 found in the forest and brought home. 
 
 My mother found the life very lonely, 
 especially when it became necessary to send 
 the older children away to school and busi- 
 ness. She was the only physician within 
 twenty miles, or nearer than Catskill, and 
 people came to her from far and near for 
 advice and medicine. 
 
 The first time I remember going to church 
 was to see Richard baptised, in 1820. 
 Father had taken down the sides of leather 
 from part of the drying loft. Benches were 
 put in and service was held there every 
 
95 
 
 Sunday. He read sermons himself, when no 
 one was at hand to preach. On this occa- 
 sion, Dr. Porter came from Catskill to offici- 
 ate, and well I remember the scene, the 
 baby and the parents, and the many men 
 standing among the sides and beams. Soon 
 after that a room was specially prepared 
 for service, and it was used for some years, 
 and until the village church was built, about 
 1827. In that room several men who after- 
 wards became celebrated, preached their 
 first sermons; as Albert Barnes, Professor 
 White, of the New York Theological Semi- 
 nary, Professor Porter, of Williams College. 
 
 I add a few notes respecting my grandfather, Wil- 
 liam Edwards, and my early recollections of Hunter. 
 
 W. H. E. 
 
 My father, William W. Edwards, moved 
 his family from New York City to Hunter, 
 May, 1829; I then being seven years old; 
 and my parents lived there thenceforth for 
 upwards of twenty years. We left New 
 York one evening, about the first of May, 
 by the steamboat Albany, were landed at 
 Bristol, before daylight, by a small boat ; 
 found the "carryall" on the dock, with 
 several wagons for the effects of the family, 
 
96 
 
 and at once started for the mountains. 
 Stopped to rest and feed the horses at the 
 widow Palen's, at the foot of the mountain 
 by the Clove road, and in course of the 
 afternoon reached Hunter, and my father's 
 house, which he had built near his father's, 
 1 82 1-2. These houses were on the north 
 side of the public road, and to the east on 
 this side but one other house was standing, 
 then recently built by Captain Frederick 
 Tyler, cousin of my father. Opposite this 
 house, with an open space in front, stood 
 the village church, built two years before ; 
 and some thirty rods above, the house oc- 
 cupied by Deacon Case, one of the bosses 
 in the tannery. That was the extreme limit 
 of the tannery village to the east. To the 
 west of my grandfather's, stood at a small 
 interval the company store, and beyond it a 
 large barn, and the boarding house, which 
 was kept by John Lockwood. Near this 
 was a house occupied by Mr. Fannin, 
 another of the tannery bosses. Directly 
 opposite grandfather's house, next the 
 creek, four hundred feet away, stood the 
 tannery, composed of a two story building 
 about five hundred feet long, and a detached 
 second, one story, building at the eastern 
 end, and parallel to the other. This was 
 
97 
 
 one hundred and fifty feet long. Between 
 these buildings and the street were several 
 "bark sheds," great framed structures, in 
 which bark and wood were piled. The 
 Worcesters Gazetteer of that day, under the 
 head of "Hunter," reported "the largest 
 tannery in the United States. " Down the 
 creek — to the west — were eight or nine 
 small, neat houses, occupied by the work- 
 men and their families. Half way between 
 my father's house and the church, on the 
 south side of the street, stood the school 
 house, about 20x30 feet, equipped with a 
 broad sloping board next the wall on the 
 two long sides, and wooden benches, with- 
 out backs. No blackboard, no maps or 
 globes, no anything to interest the weary 
 little scholars. This school house was used 
 for prayer meetings at least twice every 
 week, and in certain seasons of religious 
 fervor, two or three times more, and we 
 children were always compelled to be on 
 hand. Some of these buildings are standing 
 to-day, but every vestige of the tannery has 
 gone, and its place is occupied by a large 
 furniture factory. The plain little village in 
 the forest has grown to be a place of summer 
 resort, filled up with hotels and boarding 
 houses. At the time of which I am writing, 
 
9 8 
 
 an unbroken primeval forest covered the 
 mountains to the south, coming close down 
 to the creek. On the north side, consider- 
 able clearing had been done, but the woods 
 in most places came to the foot of the hill, 
 and the cleared land bristled with stumps. 
 The mountain chain along the south of the 
 creek embraces most of the highest peaks 
 of the Catskills — Round Top, High Peak, 
 and the peak directly in front of the village, 
 now known as one of the loftiest of all, 
 Hunter Mountain, or Mt. Guyot. The chain 
 retreats here somewhat to both the east 
 and the west, and this mountain stands at 
 the angle, and is therefore prominent ; and 
 it is also of graceful outline. The top on 
 the eastern side has a deep excavation 
 suggestive of a seat, and this has, during 
 all my recollection, gone by the name of the 
 "Colonel's Chair," from my grandfather. 
 The wasteful mode of getting bark, great 
 trees felled and left to rot, after stripping, 
 led to the many disastrous fires which 
 swept through the forest year after year, 
 destroying often hundreds of cords of bark 
 and stove-wood, besides vast areas of valu- 
 able timber. So that from the time I first 
 knew the region, it was but a few years 
 before the border of the living forest had 
 
99 
 
 retreated up the mountain sides, and there 
 was a large extent of land that gradually 
 was cleared up, and occupied by farmers. 
 But the beauty of the mountains had de- 
 parted forever. 
 
 The only outlet was by the road to the 
 Hudson River, and between 1817 and 1829, 
 a turnpike had taken the place of the primi- 
 tive track by which the new settlers had 
 climbed the mountains. This forked at the 
 bottom of the Kaaterskill cove, one branch 
 running to Catskill, the other to Bristol, ten 
 miles below Catskill, on the river. To 
 Bristol nearly all the leather manufactured 
 was carried in wagons, and hides and sup- 
 plies brought back. From Bristol to New 
 York, all traffic was by sloops. 
 
 Nothing especial occurred to impress itself 
 on my mind until the burning of the tannery 
 and all the adjacent sheds, in the summer of 
 1 830. It was soon after the afternoon session 
 of the school had begun that the alarm was 
 given. The fire originated near the ' 'heaters, " 
 and as every beam in that part of the tan- 
 nery was coated deeply with a dust which 
 had accumulated from the grinding of the 
 bark, along which the fire flew as if it had 
 been powder or petroleum, there was no 
 possibility of doing any thing except to save 
 
100 
 
 such stock as was drying in the loft, and 
 could be dragged out by hand. It was a 
 magnificent sight to the children, and we had 
 very little realization of the loss that was 
 occurring. 1 stood on the porch of my 
 grandfather's house, and 1 well remember 
 his coming up the flight of steps, haggard, 
 exhausted, with the words, "1 am fifty- 
 eight years old, and everything 1. have is 
 lost." His daughter, Mrs. Park, says, that 
 he then went into the house and called on 
 one of his children to read aloud the prayer 
 of Agar. 
 
 There was no insurance on the tannery, 
 but his sons, Henry, Alfred and Ogden, 
 furnished the money to rebuild it, and before 
 many days the village was crowded with 
 carpenters and laborers ; and every mill in 
 all that region was engaged in cutting lum- 
 ber, and every team in hauling it to the 
 ground for the new tannery. Thereafter 
 the business was carried on by Edwards 
 and Tyler. 
 
 Grandfather was always kind to us child- 
 ren, questioned us about our lessons, and 1 
 remember, mortified me exceedingly in the 
 presence of some strangers because I could 
 not tell off hand where was the " Black 
 River Country." I fancy few adults now 
 
101 
 
 can answer that dreadful question. When 
 I went away to school, age ten, he wrote 
 me a letter enjoining on me to learn by 
 heart the Assembly's (longer) catechism 
 before 1 should return home, in which event 
 I should receive something stipulated as a 
 reward. 1 tugged at the thing as Theseus 
 tugged at the rock under which lay hidden 
 his father's sword, and mastered it, but 1 
 am sorry to have to say that when 1 came 
 home grandfather had apparently forgotten 
 the matter, and I was too shy to remind 
 him of it. 
 
 It was the year of the fire that my great 
 aunt Anne, or " Nancy," as she was always 
 called, came over from Northampton and 
 was married to Mr. Williams, at grandfather's 
 house. 
 
 Grandfather carried on very large farming 
 operations, as was necessary because of the 
 vast stock of hay and oats required to feed 
 the many horses and oxen employed in 
 hauling bark and wood to the tannery. He 
 delighted in good horses, and one time with 
 another had some very valuable animals. 
 The sons William and Henry had presented 
 their mother with a Boston made vehicle, 
 probably fashionable about 1820, called a 
 " carryall." This often did duty in journeys 
 
102 
 
 to Catskill. Grandfather was of great stature 
 and of dignified appearance, and a master- 
 ful man, and always meant to have his own 
 way — generally succeeded in that respect 
 too; though very early I noticed that my 
 grandmother, who was small, quiet, un- 
 demonstrative, had her way of bringing him 
 to her views, whenever it became necessary. 
 At Hunter he was always addressed as 
 Colonel Edwards, but when spoken of, was 
 the "old Colonel," in distinction from my 
 father, who so long as he lived there was 
 known as "the young Colonel." 
 
 After his removal to Brooklyn I used 
 frequently to call on my grandparents. 
 Grandfather was always interested in the 
 current news of the day, and wanted to 
 hear what was doing. He was full of anec- 
 dotes: often quoted his father, Timothy, 
 whose wise and pithy sayings he had ever 
 ready at command; loved to discourse of 
 his Northampton friends. I remember he 
 was never tired of telling of Eben Hunt and 
 his jokes, practical and other, and from all 
 accounts, I judge that Hunt's contemporaries 
 found him as good as a circus. 
 
 But in these last years, I was impressed 
 with one thing, that grandfather was fading 
 away from sheer want of active occupation. 
 
103 
 
 And it seems to me now that a serious mistake 
 was made by his children in allowing him 
 in the prime of his life to surrender his 
 business, and to be compelled into a con- 
 dition of bodily and mental inactivity. With 
 his frame and constitution he would probably 
 have lived ten years longer, under better 
 conditions. 
 
 In copying the memoirs, I have been sur- 
 prised at the correctness of the orthography, 
 and the felicity of expression. The manu- 
 script contains almost no erasures, and not 
 a word too much. The writer had clearly 
 in view just what he wanted to say, and 
 intuitively said it in the best way. This is 
 remarkable, considering the disadvantage he 
 labored under when a child in getting any 
 education at all, as related in the memoir. 
 It shows the capacity of the man, and the 
 retentiveness of his memory, that mostly by 
 reading and thought he had attained such 
 literary excellence. 
 
 He was a good and a great man; of enor- 
 mous energy, indomitable courage, and pos- 
 sessed singular inventive power ; was an 
 affectionate husband and father, and a trusty 
 friend. His descendants may well revere 
 his memory. 
 
104 
 
 To the memoirs I append some particulars respect- 
 ing the children of William and Rebecca Tappan 
 Edwards. 
 
 William W., the eldest son, was born in 
 1796. He has spoken for himself of his 
 early years in the foregoing pages. In 1 82 1 , 
 he married Helen Ann Mann, daughter of 
 Jonas Mann, of Brattleboro', Vt. After a 
 few years at Hunter with his father, as 
 recorded, he removed to New York, and 
 was one of the firm of Barrell & Edwards, 
 in the straw goods business, at 117 Pearl 
 street, Hanover Square. He and Mrs. Ed- 
 wards became members of the Presbyterian 
 Church, under the charge of Rev. Matthias 
 Bruen. Mr. Edwards was one of the found- 
 ers of the American Tract Society, and also 
 of the New York Mercantile Library. In 
 1829, the family returned to Hunter, where 
 Mr. Edwards again engaged in tanning. 
 He was an ardent politician, a Whig, but 
 lived in a Democratic town and county. 
 Nevertheless, he was more than once 
 elected Supervisor of the town, and once 
 represented Greene County in the Assembly 
 of the State. He was an active member of 
 the church, and foremost in every good 
 work. About 1850, he removed to "New 
 York, and was for some years engaged in 
 
10$ 
 
 insurance. The last years of his life were 
 spent in Brooklyn. He obtained a charter 
 for the Dime Savings Bank, and -himself, 
 with his brother-in-law, Henry Rowland, 
 and a few friends, organized that institution 
 in 1859, he acting as Treasurer and Cashier. 
 They began business in a single room, on 
 Joralemon street, near the City Hall, Mr. 
 Edwards and a single clerk for some time 
 being the efficient staff. This Bank grew 
 rapidly in public favor, and to-day is one of 
 the most prominent of its kind in Greater 
 New York. For about twelve years, Mr. 
 Edwards was the Treasurer, until age rend- 
 ered it advisable that he should retire from 
 all active business. Mr. Edwards joined 
 the church presided over by Rev. Henry 
 Ward Beecher, on his coming to Brooklyn. 
 He died March 10, 1876, in the 80th year of 
 his age. Mrs. Edwards survived him by 
 twelve years, during which period she lived 
 with her daughter, Mrs. Mary Edwards 
 Foster, at Clifton Springs, New York. Their 
 remains lie in Greenwood Cemetery, Brook- 
 lyn, in company with several of their child- 
 ren, and also with their parents, William and 
 Rebecca. 
 
 Mr. Edwards was a man of untiring 
 energy and great executive capacity ; and 
 
io6 
 
 like several of these brothers, possessed 
 great kindness of heart He was never 
 weary of doing any thing in his power to 
 oblige his friends or neighbors. 
 
 When a young man, at Hunter, he organ- 
 ized a company of riflemen, not one of them 
 under six feet in height ; furnished them 
 himself with materials for handsome uni- 
 forms ; and on one occasion marched at 
 their head to Catskill, twenty miles, where 
 they made a creditable appearance, as the 
 writer was long ago informed by some who 
 had been lookers on. He was appointed 
 Lieutenant-Colonel in the State militia by 
 Governor Throop and hence the title by 
 which he was known throughout Green 
 County, "Colonel Edwards." 
 
 Henry, the second son, was born in 1798. 
 He died in Boston, September 23, 1885, in 
 his 87th year. "The independent" of De- 
 cember 3, 1885, said of him : "The many 
 public trusts which were committed to Mr. 
 Edwards, and the manner in which he ful- 
 filled them, show that he was no ordinary 
 man. Member of the City Government for 
 nine years ; ten years a member of the 
 Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts 
 General Hospital ; forty years a Trustee of 
 Amherst College ; Member from Boston of 
 
I0 7 
 
 the Massachusetts House of Representa- 
 tives ; Allotment Commissioner for Massa- 
 chusetts in the late War ; nominated by 
 Governor Andrew, and appointed by Presi- 
 dent Lincoln, to visit the volunteer regiments 
 of the State, and bring home their pay to 
 their families ; Trustee, by appointment of 
 Governor Andrew, for the Soldiers' National 
 Cemetery, at Gettysburg, and, by appoint- 
 ment of Governor Bullock, of the Cemetery 
 at Antietam— these many and important 
 public trusts indicate the confidence which 
 was reposed both in his ability and integrity. 
 In like manner he was honored and trusted 
 by the church of which he was a member 
 (Central Congregational Church). 
 
 But a few weeks before his death, at my 
 suggestion, Mr. Edwards wrote somewhat 
 of his personal experiences and recollections, 
 which I give. 
 
 1 was born in Northampton, October 
 22, 1798. Attended the public school of 
 the town during my early years, a large 
 house, in the center of the town. Each 
 family sent a load of wood for each scholar, 
 which was piled by itself in the space before 
 the house. It stood on the Main street, 
 with stately elm trees in front of it, at the 
 
io8 
 
 corner of what is now King street. In this 
 street the dwelling of President Edwards 
 was located, a quarter of a mile north of 
 the school house. Here also the parents of 
 President Dwight and our grandparents, 
 Benjamin Tappan and wife, resided, and 
 here the larger number of the Tappan 
 children were born. During the revolu- 
 tionary war, upon the invasion of Burgoyne, 
 a company of militia from Northampton 
 went to join the continental army, near 
 Saratoga, and grandfather Tappan was the 
 paymaster of the company. They arrived 
 however after Burgoyne's surrender. After 
 that event, a large body of the Hessian 
 prisoners were at Northampton, — it was 
 said that sixty of them were there. Several 
 of them were living during my early days, 
 and were usefully employed. 
 
 Our mother was the first of the Tappan 
 ladies to be married, and at the age of 
 eighteen she assumed the charge of the 
 large family of her husband, who lived on 
 Elm street, at corner of the street leading 
 up to Round Hill. He boarded all his work- 
 men. In her younger days, mother visited 
 her Homes relatives in Boston, going there 
 by stage, and was three days on the way. 
 Her father accompanied her on horseback, 
 
109 
 
 always joining her at night, he carrying his 
 money, which was in silver, the currency 
 of the country, in saddle bags. He was in 
 trade in Northampton about the year 1765. 
 His stock was largely of fine hardware, and 
 on my birth-day 1 remember calling on 
 him, and getting a knife, as a birth-day 
 present. 
 
 Having so many men in the family our 
 parents made an arrangement with an aged 
 couple, Ebenezer Parsons and wife, living 
 in the next town, to take William and my- 
 self to board, we to attend the neighboring 
 district school, — 1 being five to six, and 
 William two years older. On an occasion 
 of a visit from our uncle Lewis Tappan, we 
 urged him to take us to Northampton, and 
 1 well recollect my riding in front of him on 
 the horse and William behind. I think we 
 were with our good friends more than a 
 year, and afterwards attended the Public 
 School at Northampton. About 1810, 1 went 
 to Portsmouth, N. H., and attended the 
 school kept by my mother's uncle, Amos 
 Tappan, boarding in his family part of the 
 time, and part with my uncle Charles Tap- 
 pan, who had a bookstore there. Aunt 
 Tappan (nee" Ann Long) had several brothers, 
 and her father being a large ship-owner, one 
 
I 10 
 
 of them, John C. Long, was much in boats, 
 sailing on the river, and I accompanied him. 
 He entered the navy as midshipman in 1812, 
 and became in time a Commodore, the 
 highest rank then in the United States Navy. 
 He brought Kossuth to this country, on his 
 escape from the Austrian authorities. 
 
 In 181 3, I was at the Leicester academy, 
 and that autumn entered the store of Tappan 
 and Searl, of Boston, on my 15th birthday, 
 living in the family of my uncle (Lewis Tap- 
 pan), who that summer had married Miss 
 Susannah Aspinwall of Brookline. She was 
 very kind to me, during my five year's 
 residence in her family. My life in Boston 
 commenced during the war with Great 
 Britain, and the firm 1 was with was largely 
 engaged in the importation of English goods. 
 They received them from Nova Scotia, and 
 Canada, shipped in the name of their London 
 bankers, as a protection against capture by 
 English vessels. Our firm joined another, 
 in same business, each putting in $45,000, 
 and a member of this other firm went to 
 England, where he made the purchases and 
 shipped the goods. These came to Mon- 
 treal and thence through Lake Champlain, 
 in a sloop under Swedish colors, the English 
 authorities conniving at the deception, in 
 
Ill 
 
 order to encourage their manufactures. The 
 American Government wanted the revenue 
 from the trade, as well as the articles for 
 consumption. The goods were sold at auc- 
 tion in New York by John Howe & Sons. 
 I remember that pins sold at $4. 50 per pack, 
 their present value being not far from 45 
 cents. The other goods were in proportion, 
 and the profit to each of the two houses 
 was $52,000. 
 
 At that period, the duty in stores which 
 now devolves on porters, of opening and 
 closing, making fires, carrying out goods, 
 etc., so far as able, and other menial em- 
 ployments, was performed by the youngest 
 clerk or apprentice. I remember easing my 
 burden, by shifting a heavy piece of broad- 
 cloth from my shoulders to a cannon used 
 as a post, at the corner of the street, on 
 State street, opposite to where I was after- 
 wards in business for 22 years with my 
 cousin, Charles Stoddard, of the firm of 
 Edwards & Stoddard, in the importing of 
 French and China silks. 
 
 In 1818, I was the oldest apprentice with 
 my Uncle Lewis, and the general superin- 
 tendence of the whole interior duties per- 
 taining to the concern devolved upon me, 
 entailing considerable responsibility. I was 
 
112 
 
 at that time studying French under a master, 
 and devoted every leisure moment to it, late 
 at night and early in the morning. This 
 brought on a pressure of blood to the brain, 
 and I was for a period in the hands of my 
 uncle's physician. He ordered my custom- 
 house. duties suspended, and suggested my 
 going into the country to rest. My mother 
 and her eight younger children were then 
 living at Catskill, N. Y., and finding a small 
 grain vessel at Boston bound for that place, 
 1 took passage in her round Cape Cod to 
 New York, and up the Hudson River. We 
 were three weeks on the way, and several 
 days on the river, going on shore for milk 
 and other necessaries daily. This was in 
 the spring of 1 8 1 8. I had been in New York 
 the year before, and my brother William 
 and myself had combined to deal in old 
 bale rope and bale canvas, the purchases 
 being made by me in Boston and shipped to 
 him. He was then in the store of Weyman 
 & Co., at the corner of Pearl street and 
 Maiden Lane, a cloth store. He wrote me 
 that twist buttons for clothing were very 
 scarce and dear there, and suggested that if 
 I could buy them in Boston at usual prices 
 he could sell them for cash at a large profit. 
 1 found abundance of them in Boston, and 
 
ii3 
 
 on mentioning the matter to Uncle Lewis, 
 he authorized me to make the purchases in 
 his name, and I sent to William large lots. 
 We continued this business till we had 
 cleared $500. Our mother was then at 
 Catskill, living in a small house on the road 
 to Jefferson Village. On leaving Northamp- 
 ton, a creditor of my father's had attached 
 all their furniture, and they reached Cats- 
 kill entirely destitute of anything wherewith 
 to set up housekeeping. Mr. Orrin Day, 
 who owned a line of sloops running to Mew 
 York, happened to have a complete set of 
 kitchen furniture stored in one of his lofts 
 at the docks, and through the influence of 
 Rev. Dr. David Porter, he loaned it to our 
 mother. William and myself resolved to 
 make use of our button gains in supplying 
 .mother with needed furniture, and I went 
 to New York, where we invested most of 
 the money, I accompanying the goods to 
 Catskill. We took the precaution of having 
 them purchased and shipped in the name of 
 Gideon Lee, of New York, a friend of my 
 father's, for fear of Massachusetts attach- 
 ments. The letters G. L. were placed upon 
 each article, and at this date, June, 1885, my 
 sister Elizabeth (Rowland) tells me that she 
 has in her kitchen in Brooklyn some of the 
 
H4 
 
 identical chairs, with the mark " G. L." still 
 on them. 
 
 On reaching Catskill point, 1 found there 
 my brother Ogden (the third child of our 
 parents) awaiting the arrival of the sloop, 
 and at our mother's we had a joyful meet- 
 ing. My father was at the time at Hunter, 
 preparing for the building of the tannery. 
 In 1818, he hired a house three or four miles 
 east of the spot at which he was engaged, 
 and soon after my arrival at Catskill the 
 family removed to Hunter, and 1 passed the 
 summer with them. 
 
 1 occupied myself in measuring bark 
 brought in by the Hunter people, and other 
 outdoor work about the tannery for the next 
 year, and on returning to Boston, my phy- 
 sician advised me to return to the mountains 
 and continue the same life. This led to my 
 passing two more years at Hunter. Recover- 
 ing my health, I spent two years with my 
 uncle Arthur Tappan, in New York, in order 
 to regain my knowledge of business ; and 
 then, in the spring of 1823, I joined Charles 
 Stoddard in the jobbing business, in Boston. 
 Uncle John Tappan relinquished his French 
 business to us, and provided a capital of 
 $40,000 for the concern, we to have half we 
 could make, and he the other half for the use 
 
H5 
 
 of the money. Our sales were at first largely 
 of China goods, and I frequently visited 
 "New York to attend the auctions for pur- 
 chase of French fabrics, but we gradually 
 went into the importation of these, and the 
 first year our profits were $10,000. In 1826, 
 1 visited Europe, purchasing goods as well 
 in England as in France, and so passed two 
 seasons, when, to my surprise, uncle John 
 wrote me I must remain permanently. Ours 
 was the only strictly silk house in Boston, 
 and our sales increased regularly, our profits 
 averaging about $10,000 per year for some 
 years. In fourteen years we paid Uncle John 
 $152,000, besides returning his capital. 
 
 In the months of February and July, a 
 vessel usually left Havre for Boston direct, 
 but shipments at other times were made to 
 "New York by the monthly packets. 
 
 On going to Paris, I had letters of introduc- 
 tion to General Lafayette, who had visited 
 the United States the year previous, and was 
 kindly received by him, and was often at 
 his evening receptions. In March, 1828, I 
 returned to the United States, and passed 
 six months there. On the 4th of September, 
 I married Martha Ann Dorr, daughter of 
 Samuel Dorr, of Boston, and on the 16th of 
 September following, embarked at New 
 
1 16 
 
 York for Havre, having my eldest sister 
 Rebecca with us. 
 
 The grand-daughter of General Lafayette, 
 the three Misses Lafayette, and Madame 
 DeLastery were about the ages of my wife 
 and sister, and they were soon warm 
 friends. The General invited us to visit 
 them at their country seat, at La Grange, 
 some fifteen or twenty miles east of Paris, 
 and accordingly we took a post chaise and 
 passed a night there. In the morning, after 
 breakfast, we were escorted over the prem- 
 ises, General Lafayette having my wife on 
 his arm and 1 Madame DeLastery. The 
 General was very proud of many presents 
 he had received from the United States, and 
 among other things a pair of Berkshire pigs, 
 which were the admiration of all his neigh- 
 bors. A tame bear had also been sent him 
 from Missouri, which came from "New York 
 by packet, and from Havre to Paris on top 
 of the diligence, to the amusement of the 
 passengers and country people. 
 
 During our residence in Paris, the revolu- 
 tion of July, 1830, took place, when Charles 
 X. was dethroned, and Louis Phillipe, Duke 
 of Orleans, was made King of France. 
 General Lafayette was nominated to the 
 command of the Garde National, and was 
 
ii7 
 
 conspicuous in the councils of the new 
 government. The Duchess of Orleans re- 
 quested him to present to her the ladies of 
 the United States, and he arranged for the 
 gathering at the Palais Royal, the residence 
 of the Orleans family, on an appointed day. 
 Mr. Rives, the American minister, was pre- 
 sent to introduce the ladies, and General 
 Lafayette the gentlemen, who accompanied 
 their wives. Myself and Mrs. Edwards, and 
 my sister Rebecca, were of the number. 
 They found the ladies of the court with 
 their embroidery in their hands — which was 
 thrown upon a green table covering — as our 
 party entered, and were presented individu- 
 ally. A result of this call on the Duchess 
 was an invitation to a state ball at the Palais 
 Royal, all the gentlemen to appear in 
 costume. It was the first and only time in 
 my life that 1 appeared in regulation clothes, 
 with sword and chapeau de bras. 
 
 Mr. Henry Edwards ends the memoir abruptly, and 
 shortly after died, 23 September, 1885 (Aet. 87). 
 
 Ogden E., the third son, was born in 1802. 
 He lived in New York, beginning as junior 
 clerk with Jacob Lorillard, in the leather 
 business, in "The Swamp," reaching a 
 
n8 
 
 partnership, and finally succeeding to the 
 business. He was interested in several tan- 
 neries in Greene and Ulster Counties. In 
 1827, he married Miss Catherine Shepherd, 
 daughter of Thomas Shepherd, of North- 
 ampton, Mass. They lived in Clinton Place, 
 Eighth Street, where Mrs. Edwards died, in 
 1843. He died at Lexington, Greene Co., 
 in 1848, in his 46th year. Mr. Edwards, like 
 all the brothers, was an energetic business 
 man. He was a most genial companion, 
 and had hosts of friends. 
 
 Alfred, the fourth son, was born in 1804, 
 and most of his life was passed in New York. 
 He entered the store of his uncle, Arthur 
 Tappan, when quite young, and eventually 
 became a partner, and succeeded that firm, 
 which was then known as Alfred Edwards 
 & Co. In 183.1, he married Sophia Matilda, 
 daughter of Zachariah Lewis, of New York 
 and Brooklyn. For many years he resided 
 on Brooklyn Heights, later in New York. 
 He was a member, while in New York, of 
 Dr. Jas. W. Alexander's, later Dr. Hall's, 
 church, and was a man of marked benevo- 
 lence of character, as well as of extreme 
 amiability. He was greatly interested in the 
 Home for the Friendless, and every Sunday, 
 for years, conducted a class for the benefit 
 
M9 
 
 of the children there. He died in 1882, in 
 his 78th year. 
 
 Amory, the ninth child, and fifth son, was 
 born in 18 14; was brought up by his brother 
 Ogden in the leather business. When quite 
 young, he was sent by Howland and Aspin- 
 wall to Buenos Ayres, as supercargo, and 
 this resulted in his living in that city, where, 
 for half a dozen years, he was the United 
 States Consul. In 1845, he returned to the 
 States, and the following year was spent, 
 in company with his nephew, William H. 
 Edwards, in the Province of Para, Brazil, 
 and on the Amazon, the results of which 
 were embodied in a book entitled "A Voy- 
 age up the River Amazon," published by 
 D. Appleton & Co., 1847. Soon after his 
 return, he became a member of the firm of 
 Alfred Edwards & Co. Later, he filled 
 several offices of trust. He died at his home, 
 at Elizabeth, N. J., October 22, 1881, in his 
 67th year. In 1855, Mr. Edwards married 
 Sophia M. Jones, of Fairfield, Conn., who 
 died in 1876. He was a remarkably fine look- 
 ing man, and of a winning address, and of 
 great amiability. His passion was floricul- 
 ture, and wherever he lived, there came 
 to be an abundance of rare and beautiful 
 flowers. 
 
120 
 
 The eldest daughter, Rebecca Tappan, 
 was born in 1808; was educated at North- 
 ampton and at New Haven, married Ben- 
 jamin Curtis, merchant at New York and 
 Paris, in 1830. She was visiting her brother 
 Henry, at Paris, at the time, and General 
 Lafayette gave her away, in loco parentis. 
 She died, 22nd of July, 1844. As a young 
 woman Mrs. Curtis was strikingly handsome, 
 tall, with black hair, blue eyes, and a rich 
 color in her cheeks. I give some notes re- 
 specting her written by her sister Elizabeth. 
 
 "My sister Rebecca had gone to Paris, in 
 1828, with my brother Henry and his young 
 wife. We parted from her at my brother 
 Ogden's house, 18 Varick street, New York. 
 Mother's last charge to Henry was not to let 
 Rebecca marry a Frenchman. 'No,' he 
 replied, ' there is but one man in Paris whom 
 I would be willing she should marry, and 
 that is my friend, Benjamin Curtis.' The 
 day they sailed from New York, Mr. Curtis 
 sailed from Havre, but returned to Paris un- 
 t married. He admired Rebecca, and the end 
 was that they were married on the 2nd of 
 September, 1830. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis 
 returned to New York in 1832, and he 
 bought a house in Colonade Row, Lafayette 
 Place, the third house in the row from the 
 
121 
 
 south. In the fall of 1836, Rebecca was ad- 
 vised by her physician to go to Paris on 
 account of her health. Mr. Curtis could not 
 leave his business in New York, and proposed 
 my going with his wife, my parents to keep 
 house for him in her absence. We sailed, 
 November 1st, with Captain Funk, and 
 were twenty-six days out ; returning with 
 same Captain, the next May. In 1844, 
 Mr. Curtis, being in Paris, having decided 
 to remain there for a time, wished his wife 
 to join him. She embarked with Captain 
 Funk, but died just before the ship reached 
 Havre, and was buried in that city. Years 
 after, my husband and children encouraged 
 me to have the dearest wish of my heart 
 gratified, and Rebecca's remains were 
 brought to this country, and now lie in 
 Oak Lawn Cemetery, at Fairfield, Connec- 
 ticut." 
 
 Sarah Homes, the second daughter, was 
 born in 1810; resided at Hunter in her young 
 days. She spent some time in Paris with 
 her sister Rebecca. After her return, she 
 lived again at Hunter, and was married 
 thereto Rev. John Nitchie Lewis, in 1834. 
 She lived at Southampton, Long Island, the 
 last years, with her daughters, and died in 
 1895, in her 85th year. She was a woman 
 
122 
 
 of great energy and force of character, and 
 influenced for good all who came in contact 
 with her. Mr. Lewis died in 1861. 
 
 Ann Maria, the third daughter, was born 
 in 1812. She was a pupil of Miss Catherine 
 Beecher, at Hartford, Conn., one of her 
 teachers being Harriet Beecher, afterwards 
 Mrs. Stowe. On September 21, 1836, she 
 was married, at her father's house, in 
 Hunter, to Professor Edwards A. Park, D. D., 
 of Andover Theological Seminary, and 
 during her married life she resided at And- 
 over (Mass.). Their golden wedding was 
 celebrated there in 1886. She died, 7th 
 October, 1893, in her 81st year. "Placed 
 in a situation of considerable prominence, 
 her quiet dignity, native refinement, sound 
 judgment, and rare executive ability, readily 
 enabled her to meet its demands." Like her 
 brother Amory, she was devoted to flowers, 
 and her garden, at Andover, was beautiful. 
 
 Elizabeth Tappan, the fourth daughter, 
 was born in 18 16. Her early years were 
 spent at Hunter, and later she lived with 
 her parents in New York and Brooklyn. In 
 1847, she married Henry Rowland, of New 
 York. Her death took place in 1887, in 
 her 71st year. Mr. Rowland had died 
 shortly before, in 1884. Like her sisters 
 
123 
 
 and brothers, Mrs. Rowland had inherited 
 the strong character of her father ; and 
 wherever she lived, she exerted a powerful 
 influence for the right. 
 
 The youngest son, Richard Cunningham, 
 is still living (1897). He was born at 
 Hunter, in 18 19; was partner in the house of 
 Alfred Edwards & Co. In 1849, he married 
 his cousin, Mary S. Williams, who also is 
 still living. 
 
 Thus ten noble sons and daughters grew 
 to maturity from that stock, and nearly all 
 attained a good old age. An eleventh child, 
 Elizabeth, born in 1806, had died the next 
 year. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PACE 
 
 61 
 
 Amory, Thomas C, .... 
 
 Ballard, Mary, ^ 
 
 Bark Mill, invention of, 51 
 
 Barrell, Joseph, transactions with William Ed- 
 wards, 56 
 
 Burr, Col. Aaron, 16 
 
 Chaplin, Benjamin 14 
 
 Crane, Hannah, 4 
 
 Cunningham and McCormick, transactions with 
 
 William Edwards, 67 
 
 Curtis, Benjamin, 120 
 
 Dorr, Martha Ann 115 
 
 Dwight and Edwards, 59 
 
 Dwight, Josiah, 15, 59 
 
 Edwards, Alfred, 118 
 
 Edwards, Amory 119 
 
 Edwards and Stoddard 11 1 
 
 Edwards and Tyler, 100 
 
 Edwards, Anna, 15 
 
 Edwards, Anna, marriage of, . . . . 101 
 
 Edwards, Edward, 14, 58 
 
 Edwards, Ann Maria, 122 
 
 Edwards, Edward, episode of the Shays' war, . 37 
 
 Edwards, Elizabeth, 15 
 
 Edwards, Elizabeth Tappan, . ... . 122 
 
 Edwards, Henry, 106 
 
 Edwards, Henry, recollections, . . .107 
 
 Edwards, Jonathan, 14 
 
 Edwards, Mary 15, 106 
 
 Edwards, Mrs. Rebecca, death, ... 91 
 
 Edwards, Ogden E., .... 81,117 
 
INDEX 
 
 Edwards, Phebe, 
 
 Edwards, President Jonathan, 
 
 Edwards, Rebecca Tappan, 
 
 Edwards, Rhoda, 
 
 Edwards, Richard, . 
 
 Edwards, Richard Cunningham, 
 
 Edwards, Robert Burr, 
 
 Edwards, Sarah, 
 
 Edwards, Sarah Haigh, 
 
 Edwards, Sarah Homes, . 
 
 Edwards, Timothy, born at Northampton, 
 
 Edwards, Timothy, children of 
 
 Edwards, Timothy, Commissary for the army 
 
 Edwards, Timothy, educated at Nassau Hall, 
 
 Edwards, Timothy, elected member of Continen 
 
 tal Congress 
 
 Edwards, Timothy, Indian Commissioner, 
 Edwards, Timothy, invests in lands in Broome 
 
 Co., N. Y 
 
 Edwards, Timothy, life at Elizabethtown, 
 Edwards, Timothy, married Rhoda Ogden, 
 Edwards, Timothy, Mark Hopkins on, 
 Edwards, Timothy, member of Committee of 
 
 Safety, 
 
 Edwards, Timothy, member of State Legislature 
 Edwards, Timothy, removal to Stockbridge, 
 Edwards, Timothy, services to the Government, 
 Edwards, Timothy, State Commissioner to run 
 the boundary line on west, 
 
 Edwards, Timothy Jr 
 
 Edwards, William and Son, contract for tanning, 
 Edwards, William, apprenticed to Oliver Spen- 
 cer, tanner, 
 
 Edwards, William, assignment, 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 120 
 
 15 
 
 14 
 
 123 
 
 15, 60 
 
 14 
 
 14 
 
 121 
 
 3 
 
 4. 14 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 9 
 
 11 
 7 
 3 
 
 30 
 
 13 
 9 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 3i 
 80 
 
 16 
 83 
 
INDEX 
 
 PACB 
 
 Edwards, William, born at Elizabethtown, N. J., 3 
 Edwards, William, Colonel of Artillery, . . 55 
 Edwards, William, Colonel, stationed at Boston, 
 
 1813 55 
 
 Edwards, William, death, . . . .91 
 Edwards, William, detailed as guard to Gen- 
 eral Washington, 35 
 
 Edwards, William, early experience in farming, 31 
 Edwards, William, explores the Schoharie Kill 
 
 for a tannery site, 71 
 
 Edwards, William, in Brooklyn, . . .102 
 Edwards, William, joins a Grenadier Company, 32 
 Edwards, William, journey from Stockbridge to 
 
 New York and Elizabethtown, . . .16 
 Edwards, William, Journey to Alabama in 1815, 70 
 Edwards, William, letter to Hon. Lewis Strong, 85 
 Edwards, William, life at East Haddam, . . 38 
 Edwards, William, life at Hunter, ... 89 
 Edwards, William, life at Northampton, . 52-54 
 
 Edwards, William, marries Rebecca Tappan, 42, 53 
 Edwards, William, recollections of the minute 
 
 men, 13 
 
 Edwards, William, remarks of Gideon Lee, . 91 
 Edwards, William, removes to Northampton, . 39 
 Edwards, William, represents Northampton in 
 
 Legislature, 54 
 
 Edwards, William, returns to Elizabethtown and 
 
 his apprenticeship 32 
 
 Edwards, William, returns to Stockbridge, . 19 
 Edwards, William, re-visits Stockbridge 1842, . 29 
 Edwards, William H., notes on Hunter 1829-1838 95 
 Edwards, William W., . . . . .104 
 Edwards, William W., on first settlement at 
 
 Hunter 7i~7 8 
 
INDEX 
 
 Farrar, Samuel, 
 
 
 14 
 
 Griffin, Miss 
 
 
 H 
 
 Jones, Sophia M., 
 
 
 • "9 
 
 Haigh, Sarah, 
 
 
 14 
 
 Hampshire Leather Manufacturing Co., 
 
 
 61, 64 
 
 Hatfield, Phebe, 
 
 
 4 
 
 Heaters, invention of, .... 
 
 
 . 48 
 
 Hide Mill, invention of, ... . 
 
 
 52 
 
 Homes, Mary Franklin 
 
 
 44 
 
 Homes, Robert, 
 
 
 44 
 
 Homes, Sarah, 
 
 
 43. 45 
 
 Homes, William, 
 
 
 44 
 
 Hooker, Rev. Asahel, .... 
 
 
 15 
 
 Lafayette, General, 
 
 115-117 
 
 Lee, Gideon, New York Agent of Dwight 
 
 anc 
 
 I 
 
 Edwards, 
 
 
 60 
 
 Lewis, Rev. John Nitchie, 
 
 
 121 
 
 Lewis, Sophia Matilda 
 
 
 ii5 
 
 Long, Ann Maria, 
 
 
 44 
 
 Lorillard, Jacob, his connection with the 
 
 Mew 
 
 
 York Tannery, .... 
 
 
 82 
 
 Lorillard, Jacob, visit to Northampton, 
 
 
 5i 
 
 Mann, Helen Ann, 
 
 
 104 
 
 Marsh, Elizabeth 
 
 
 43 
 
 Minute Men from Stockbridge, 
 
 
 12 
 
 Morse, Captain Foster, transactions with Williarr 
 
 1 
 
 Edwards, 
 
 
 69 
 
 New York in 1784 
 
 
 16 
 
 Ogden, Col. Aaron 
 
 
 37 
 
 Ogden, Col. Matthias, .... 
 
 
 16 
 
 Ogden, Jacob, transactions with William 
 
 Ed 
 
 
 wards 
 
 
 58 
 
 Ogden, John 
 
 
 4 
 
 Ogden, Jonathan 
 
 
 4 
 
INDEX 
 
 Ogden, Robert ist, . 
 
 Ogden, Robert 2nd, . 
 
 Ogden, Rhoda, 
 
 Park, Mrs. Maria Edwards, notes on settlement 
 
 at Hunter, . 
 Park, Professor Edward A 
 Patents of Wm. Edwards, collections on account 
 
 of, . . 
 Phenix, Alexander, 
 Pierce, Lucy Tappan, . 
 
 Plunder of Stockbridge in the Shays' war, 
 
 Pomeroy, Hannah 
 
 Powers, James, 
 
 Presbyterian Church at Hunter, founding of, 
 
 Rolling Machine, invention of, 
 
 Rowland, Henry, 
 
 Sewell, Joseph, 
 
 Shays, Daniel, . 
 
 Shepherd, Catherine, 
 
 Spencer, Col. Oliver, 
 
 Spencer, David B., 
 
 Stoddard, Charles, 
 
 Stoddard, Sarah Tappan, 
 
 Strong, Hon. Lewis, letter to Wm. Edwards, 
 
 Tannery at Northampton, description of, . 
 
 Tannery at Northampton again destroyed by fire 
 
 Tannery at Northampton, destruction by fire, 
 
 Tannery rebuilt, with improvements, 
 
 Tappan, Amos, 
 
 Tappan and Searl, 
 
 105 
 
 Tappan, Arthur, 
 Tappan, Benjamin, 
 Tappan, Charles, 
 Tappan, Elizabeth, 
 
 4 
 4-7 
 4. 7 
 
 92 
 122 
 
 69 
 44 
 43 
 27 
 
 15 
 84 
 89 
 
 5i 
 
 122 
 
 61 
 
 20 
 
 118 
 
 16 
 
 38 
 
 in 
 
 43 
 86 
 40 
 62 
 
 45 
 
 46 
 
 109 
 
 no 
 
 114 
 
 43- 108 
 
 44 
 
 44 
 
 44 
 
INDEX 
 
 Tappan, Frances Antill 44 
 
 Tappan, George W., 44 . 
 
 Tappan, John 44, 114 
 
 Tappan, Lewis, ...... 44 
 
 Tappan, Mrs. Elizabeth Marsh, 53 
 
 Tappan, Senator Benjamin 43 
 
 Tappan, Susan Aspinwall, .... 44 
 
 Tappan, William 43 
 
 Taylor, Susannah, 42 
 
 The New York Tannery, building and descrip- 
 tion of, 78 
 
 The New York Tannery Company incorporated, 76 
 
 The New York Tannery, destroyed by fire, 1830, 99 
 
 The New York Tannery, rebuilding, . . 100 
 
 The Shays War 19-29 
 
 The Tannery of Oliver Spencer at Elizabethtown, 
 
 description of, 17 
 
 Toppan, Abraham 42 
 
 Toppan, Benjamin, ..... 43 
 
 Toppan, Peter, 42 
 
 Toppan* Samuel 42 
 
 Tyler, Captain Daniel, 14 
 
 Washington, General, reaches Elizabethtown, 
 
 on his way to New York, ... 34 
 
 Whiting, Mason, 15 
 
 Wigglesworth, Abigail, 42 
 
 Williams, Ashlay, 15 
 
 Williams, Mary S 123 
 
 Woodbridge, Lucy, 14 
 
 Wright, Nancy, 43