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.