In colonial times the condition of society was such as to make it almost impossible for the people to engage to any great extent in manufactures. The country was new and the principal business must be agriculture. After comfortable shelter for the families had been provided, every exertion must be put forth to secure food. Cloth could only be obtained from the mother country. Cotton and linen cloth were imported for shirts and sheets, woolen goods for clothing, a few silks for wedding dresses now and then, and leather for the shoes of all the people.
TAILOR AND COBBLER.
In the early times the tailor, with his goose and his shears, plied his trade from house to house, staying with each family long enough to make up the clothes necessary for the season. In like manner the shoemaker traveled about the country, with his kit upon his back, stopping with each household to make the shoes needed for the father, mother, and children.
These were the pioneer days, but, before we became a nation, the houses of the people had greatly improved in style of architecture and in comfort. Considerable wealth had been secured by many, and but little poverty was found anywhere. The mechanic arts were beginning to improve, and manufacturing, after a long and tedious waiting, was gradually making progress. At an early date sawmills had been established upon the streams, using the water as motive power. Gristmills had sprung up for grinding the grain raised by every farmer. The spinning wheel and the hand loom had found their place slowly but steadily in all parts of the country.
It is difficult to comprehend the great differences between the industries of those early days and the methods of doing business among us to-day. Now almost everything seems to be done by machinery, and the division of labor has been carried to such an extent that each laborer seems only an assistant to a machine. "You press the button, the machine does the rest."
