COLONEL WILLIAM EDWARDS 71 



of an education he made up for it by studying even- 

 ings. They imported their silks from France which 

 led him to study French until he was accomplished 

 in the art of reading and speaking the French lan- 

 guage. It is rather remarkable that learning the 

 language in this way, he was able to go to France 

 and out-rank most foreigners in Parisian society. 

 An Edwards did not absolutely need the college and 

 the university in order to be eminently scholarly in 

 any special line. 



At the age of twenty-five he went into business 

 as the senior partner of the house of Edwards & 

 Stoddard on State street, Boston. It was the only 

 house that made its whole business the importing of 

 silks. At the age of twenty-eight he went to Paris 

 to pui-chase silks and remained there many years. 

 They did a highly profitable business for nearly fifty 

 years. He received much social attention while in 

 Paris. General Lafayette was speciaUy friendly, 

 and the families visited frequently. He was also 

 highly honored in Boston, where he was a member 

 of the city government — it was an honor in those 

 days — for nine years, one of the trustees of Amherst 

 College for forty years, a member of the Massachu- 

 setts legislature and received several important ap- 

 pointments of trust and honor from Governor John 

 A. Andrew and President Lincoln. Boston had few 

 men in his day who were more prosperous or more 

 highly honored. 



Ogden E. Edwards was for several years at the 

 head of one of the largest leather houses of New 



