COLONEL WILLIAM EDWARDS
Fascinating is the story of Colonel William Edwards, grandson of
Jonathan Edwards, the inventor of the process of tanning by which the
leather industry of the world was revolutionized. In no respect did the
intellectual and moral inheritance show itself more clearly than in the
recuperative force of the family of Colonel Edwards.
Attention has already been called to the remarkable way in which
the father, Timothy Edwards, re-established himself and educated
his large family after his great financial reverses in the period of
the Revolutionary war, but the story of Colonel William Edwards is
even a more striking illustration of this same power. He was born at
Elizabeth, New Jersey, November 11, 1770. He was a mere child during the
Revolutionary struggle. Before he was two years old the father removed
to Stockbridge, Mass., and the boy grew up in as thoroughly a rural
community as could be found. The school privileges were very meagre.
No books were printed in the American colonies because of British
prohibition. From early childhood he had to work, first as his mother's
assistant, tending the children and doing all kinds of household work
such as a handy boy can do. As soon as he could sit on a horse he rode
for light ploughing and by the time he was ten was driving oxen for
heavy ploughing and teaming.
William Edwards was only thirteen when he was put out as an
apprentice to a tanner in Elizabethtown, N.J. To reach this place the
lad had to ride horseback to the Hudson river, about thirty miles, make
arrangements to have the horse taken back, and take passage on a West
Indies cattle brig to New York. It took him a week to get to New York.
He then took the ferry for Elizabethtown.
When young Edwards began life as a tanner it took twelve months for
the tanning of hides. This was by far the most extensive tannery in
America. It had a capacity of 1,500 sides. The only "improvement" then
known--1784--was the use of a wooden plug in the lime vats and water
pools to let off the contents into the brook. The bark was ground by
horse power. There was a curb fifteen feet in diameter, made of
three-inch plank, with a rim fifteen inches high. Within this was a
stone wheel with many hollows and the wooden wheel with long pegs. Two
horses turned these wheels which would grind half a cord of bark in a
day of twelve hours. The first year William was at work grinding bark.
All the pay received for the year's work was the knowledge gained of the
art of grinding bark, very poor board (no clothing, no money), and the
privilege of tanning for himself three sheep skins. The fourth half
year he received his first money, $2.50 a month, which was paid out of
friendliness for the Edwards family.
Before he was twenty he set up in business for himself. He had saved
$100; his father, still poor, gave him $300; he bought land for his
plant for $700 on long credit. After years of great struggle he
succeeded in business and developed the process by which instead of
employing one hand for every one hundred sides he could tan 40,000 with
twenty lads and the cost was reduced from twelve cents a pound to four
cents. The quality was improved even more than the cost was reduced.
When the war of 1812 broke out he had practically the only important
tannery in the United States, but the war scare and attendant evils led
to his failure in 1815. He was now 45 years old with a wife and nine
children. He went to work in a factory for day wages to keep his family
supplied with the necessities of life. By some misunderstanding and a
combination of law suits his patents were lost to him.
When Colonel Edwards failed in 1815 he owed considerable sums of money
and nine years later the courts released him from all obligations, yet
between the age of 69 and 75 he paid every cent of this indebtedness
amounting to $25,924.
The chief interest in Colonel Edwards centers in his children. When his
failure came there were nine children, five boys and four girls. The
youngest was a few months old and the eldest 19. Seven of them were
under 12 years of age. In the first four years of their reverses two
others were born, so that his large family had their preparation and
start in life in the years of struggle. Nevertheless they took their
places among the prosperous members of the Edwards family. The eldest
son, William W. Edwards, was one of the eminently successful men of New
York. He lived to be 80 years old and his life was fully occupied with
good work. He was engaged in the straw goods business in New York;
helped to develop the insurance business to large proportions; organized
the Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn, of which he was treasurer and
cashier. He was one of the founders of the American Tract Society and of
the New York Mercantile Library. He was a member of the State
legislature for several terms.
Henry Edwards was one of Boston's most eminent merchants and a most
useful man. He had the only strictly wholesale silk house in Boston for
nearly half a century. He was born in Northampton, 1798. At the age of
fifteen he entered the employ of a prominent Boston importing house and
began by opening the store, building the fires, and carrying out goods.
By the time he was twenty he was the most trusted employee. He was a
born trader. His brother in New York knowing that twist buttons were
scarce in that city suggested that Henry buy up all there were in Boston
before the dealers discovered the fact that they were scarce in New York
and send them on to him. They cleared $500 in a few weeks. He was an
earnest student. Not having had the advantages of an education he made
up for it by studying evenings. They imported their silks from France
which led him to study French until he was accomplished in the art of
reading and speaking the French language. It is rather remarkable that
learning the language in this way, he was able to go to France and
out-rank most foreigners in Parisian society. An Edwards did not
absolutely need the college and the university in order to be eminently
scholarly in any special line.
At the age of twenty-five he went into business as the senior
partner of the house of Edwards & Stoddard on State street, Boston. It
was the only house that made its whole business the importing of silks.
At the age of twenty-eight he went to Paris to purchase silks and
remained there many years. They did a highly profitable business for
nearly fifty years. He received much social attention while in Paris.
General Lafayette was specially friendly, and the families visited
frequently. He was also highly honored in Boston, where he was a member
of the city government--it was an honor in those days--for nine years,
one of the trustees of Amherst College for forty years, a member of the
Massachusetts legislature and received several important appointments
of trust and honor from Governor John A. Andrew and President Lincoln.
Boston had few men in his day who were more prosperous or more highly
honored.
Ogden E. Edwards was for several years at the head of one of the largest
leather houses of New York City, eminently prosperous and of great
service to the public. Alfred Edwards was founder and senior partner
in one of the largest wholesale dry goods houses of New York for fifty
years, known as Alfred Edwards & Co. Amory was for many years a member
of the firm of Alfred Edwards & Co. He was also United States Consul at
Buenos Ayres, and traveled extensively in South America. His nephew, Wm.
H. Edwards, wrote of these travels. This nephew, resident at Coalbough,
West Virginia, is the author of a famous work on "The Butterflies of
North America," and also of an important work on "Shaksper nor
Shakespeare." Richard C. Edwards was also a member of the firm of Alfred
Edwards & Co. and shared the prosperity of the house with his brother.
Rebecca T. Edwards, the eldest daughter, married Benjamin Curtis, a
wealthy merchant in business in New York and Paris. She was married in
Paris and General Lafayette gave her away in place of her father. Sarah
H. Edwards married Rev. John N. Lewis, a successful clergyman. Elizabeth
T. Edwards married Henry Rowland, an eminently successful and useful
citizen of New York, whose children, like himself, have been honored in
many ways.
Ann Maria Edwards married Professor Edwards A. Park, D.D., the president
of Andover Theological Seminary and the most eminent theologian of the
day. Their son, Rev. William Edwards Park, of Gloversville, New York, is
a preacher of rare ability. Rev. W.E. Park has two sons, graduates of
Yale, young men of great promise.
The ten children of Colonel Edwards lived to great age, and each of the
sons was eminently successful in business, and all were highly esteemed.
Each of the daughters married men eminent in commercial or professional
life. None of them were privileged to receive a liberal education
because of the great financial reverses that came to the father in their
youth, but every one of them was closely identified with educational
institutions and all were rated as scholarly men and women.