55 



(ii-nttiity of two dollars to Dean & White, Georgetown, for 

 Two-seated ^A'agoii. 



Two dollars to A^'ln. Xoyes, Xewburyport, for Wagon 

 made Avith one hand. 



Committee — W. Ordway, O. S. Butler, James Wilson.^ 

 Willis P. Saroent. 



One of the best indications of a good farmer is the posses- 

 sion of a good team, and it is almost always the case that 

 Avherc a good farm or jnarket-wagon is found, good oxen and 

 horses arc found to go with them. The same remark is in a 

 measm'e true when applied to the lighter carriages for family 

 use. Essex Comity has occupied a prominent position since 

 the R,e\olution for the early introduction of the manufacture of 

 carriages, combs and boots and shoes. The people of the 

 American Colonies had been dependent upon the mother coun- 

 try for their manufactures, excepting those of the most simple 

 and ordinary character, until the puritanical principles of free 

 grace and free agency brought them up into the atmosphere of 

 independent thought and action, and finally to free suffrage. 

 In no department of mechanical labor can greater improvement 

 be shown, or the versatility of American genius be more fully 

 demonstrated, than a history of the vehicles of the county will 

 reveal. The colonial pleasure-carriage was a swing-cart, Avith 

 tAvo Avhecls, Avooden axle, strip tire, short boxes and linch-pins ; 

 hung upon thorough braces attached to Avooden springs, both in 

 front and behind, and painted Avith the inevitable Spanish 

 broAvn. These carts, Avith the ox-carts, Avhicli Avere universally 

 used for farm purposes, A\ere made by joiners and sometimes 

 by the farmers themselves. The roads A^'cre merely bridle 

 paths, running around upon the mai-gin of the Ioav lands and 

 over the highest hills. Long join-neys Avere made on horse- 

 back, Avith pillion or saddle-bags, as circumstances required. 

 A few cju-riages Avere imported for government officials and 

 some of the most aristocratic families of Boston and perhaps 

 Salem. In the year 1777, Nathaniel Greenleaf, of NeAvbury, 



