Captains of Industry | Page 5

Plymouth Rock; his father having died in early manhood, when this
boy and a twin brother were two months old. His mother, suddenly left
with three little children, and having no property except the house in
which she lived, supported her family by weaving, in which her

children from a very early age could give her some help. She kept them
at school, however, during part of the winter, and instilled into their
minds good principles. When this boy was nine years of age she was
obliged, as the saying was, "to put him out to live" to a master five
miles from her house.
On his way to his new home he was made to feel the difference
between a hard master and a kind mother. Having a quick intelligent
mind, he questioned the man concerning the objects they passed. At
length the boy saw a windmill, and he asked what that was.
"Don't ask me so many questions, boy," answered the man, in a harsh,
rough voice.
The little fellow was silenced, and he vividly remembered the event,
the tone, and the scene, to old age. His employer was a maker of
harness, carriages, and trunks, and it was the boy's business to take care
of a horse and two cows, light fires, chop wood, run errands, and work
in the shop. He never forgot the cold winter mornings, and the loud
voice of his master rousing him from sleep to make the fire, and go out
to the barn and get the milking done before daylight. His sleeping-place
was a loft above the shop reached by a ladder. Being always a timid
boy, he suffered extremely from fear in the dark and lonely garret of a
building where no one else slept, and to which he had to grope his way
alone.
What would the dainty boys of the present time think of going to mill
on a frosty morning astride of a bag of corn on the horse's back,
without stockings or shoes and with trousers half way up to the knees?
On one occasion the little Ichabod was so thoroughly chilled that he
had to stop at a house to get warm, and the good woman took pity on
him, made him put on a pair of long black stockings, and a pair of her
own shoes. Thus equipped, with his long black legs extending far out of
his short trousers, and the woman's shoes lashed to his feet, he
presented a highly ludicrous appearance, and one which, he thought,
might have conveyed a valuable hint to his master. In the daytime he
was usually employed in the shop making harnesses, a business in
which he became expert. He served this man five years, or until he was

fourteen years of age, when he made a complete harness for one of his
cousins, which rendered excellent service for many years, and a part of
it lasted almost as long as the maker.
Thus, at fourteen, he had completed his first apprenticeship, and had
learned his first trade. The War of 1812 having given a sudden start to
manufactures in this country, he went to work in a cotton factory for a
while, where, for the first time in his life, he saw complicated
machinery. Like a true Yankee as he was, he was strongly attracted by
it, and proposed to learn the machinist's trade. His guardian opposed
the scheme strongly, on the ground that, in all probability, by the time
he had learned the trade the country would be so full of factories that
there would be no more machinery required.
Thus discouraged, he did the next best thing: he went apprentice to the
blacksmith's trade, near Worcester, where he was destined to spend the
rest of his life. He was sixteen years of age when he began this second
apprenticeship; but he was still one of the most timid and bashful of
lads. In a fragment of autobiography found among his papers after his
death he says:--
"I arrived at Worcester about one o'clock, at Syke's tavern where we
were to dine; but the sight of the long table in the dining-room so
overpowered my bashful spirit that I left the room and went into the
yard without dinner to wait till the stage was ready."
On reaching his new home, eighty miles from his mother's house, he
was so overcome by homesickness that, the first night, he sobbed
himself to sleep. Soon he became interested in his shop and in his work,
made rapid progress, and approved himself a skillful hand. Having
been brought up to go to church every Sunday, he now hired a seat in
the gallery of one of the churches at fifty cents a year, which he earned
in over-time by