Manufactures and Commerce. 179 



■copartnership, and the firm name was Beal & Loring. The per- 

 sons and firms who have since been manufacturers of tin-ware 

 here in connection with the stove business are as follows : Enos 

 Loring, Wilder & Stodder, Charles Gill, E. & 1. W. Loring, Isaiah 

 W. Loring, Rich & Marble. 



Ploughs were manufactured by Charles Howard at Hingham 

 Centre for about twenty-five years. At first they were of wood, 

 but afterwards of cast-iron. That they were regarded as an im- 

 provement over other ploughs at the time they were in use, both 

 as to the quality of work performed and to the saving of manual 

 and team labor, is shown by the numerous published notices relat- 

 ing thereto, and especially to the improvements Mr. Howard 

 afterwards made on his own early invention. At the ploughing 

 match of the Plymouth County Cattle Show, held Oct. 2, 1833, 

 when but four premiums were awarded, the first was to Charles 

 Howard of Hingham for his plough, — Charles Fearing, plough- 

 man ; Joseph Cushing, driver. Also the second to Charles Howard 

 of Hingham for his self-governing plough, — Nehemiah Ripley, 

 ploughman and driver. The statistical tables of the State show 

 that for the year ending April 1, 1837, the number of ploughs 

 manufactured here was eight hundred; the value of these was 

 estimated at $10,000. Four hands were employed. 



After 1840 the business began to decrease, and in 1854 the 

 number manufactured was but twenty-five. 



The early settlers of Hingham had obtained a good education 

 before leaving the mother country. They were a well-to-do people, 

 for that period, and upon their arrival here were in comfortable 

 circumstances. They were industrious, persevering, frugal ; and 

 these traits were inherited in a great measure by their descend- 

 ants. They brought with them from their former inland homes 

 in Hingham, England, and its vicinity, a practical knowledge of 

 agriculture and the mechanical arts. In many instances both 

 callings were followed in the same family. As the population 

 became greater the demand for skilled labor in the workshop in- 

 creased, and special departments of industry came into prominence. 

 And so for two centuries or more after the settlement of the town 

 its manufacturing interests were not unlike those of other towns 

 similarly situated and having about the same number of inhabi- 

 tants. Its artisans were skilful and progressive, nor was capital 

 wanting to encourage every worthy enterprise. Although the 

 colonists were hampered by the restrictions of the home gov- 

 ernment upon the export of manufactured articles, the establish- 

 ment of the independent government of the United States changed 

 the laws of trade and commerce, and after the Revolution, even 

 before the commencement of the present century, a more ex- 

 tended and nourishing business was inaugurated. 



