CHAPTER X 



COLONEL WILLIAM EDWARDS 



Fascinating is the story of Colonel William Ed- 

 wards, 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 remark- 

 able 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 Wil- 

 liam 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 Stock- 

 bridge, 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 hit mother's assistant, tending the children 



