68 JUKES EDWARDS 



and doing all kinds of household work such at* 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 plough- 

 ing and teaming. 



William Edwards was only thirteen when he was 

 put out as an apprentice to a tanner in Elizabeth- 

 town, 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 "improve- 

 ment" 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 diam- 

 eter, 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 knowl- 

 edge 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 



