now West Newbury, g'ot up the first chaise that Avas manufiic- 

 tured in the valley of the Merrimac River, and probably in 

 Essex County. He was assisted by an Englishman, a deserter 

 from the army and a chaise-body maker by trade. It Avas pur- 

 chased bv Hon. TheophiluS Parsons, of Xewburyport, and was 

 the first chaise that was owned in that then aristocratic town. 

 The rapid increase of wealth in the seaport towns of New 

 England after the war gave an impetus to the business, and 

 orders for the " one horse shay " came from. Maine and New 

 Hampshire, and some were sent with the other staple produc- 

 tions of the county — shoes and tow cloth — to Charleston, S. C. 

 Everybody went to meeting on Sunday and lecture day, with- 

 out reo-ard to the weather. For those who lived remote from 

 the meeting-liouie and were able to buy one, a chaise was con- 

 sidered a luxury that it was not wicked to possess. In twenty 

 years after the war it had become the leading mechanical busi- 

 ness of Essex County. It was carried on extensively in New- 

 bury, now West Newbury, in Belleville, in Amesbury, Haver- 

 hill, Bradford, Itowley, Salem and Beverly. The business 

 involved so many difi^erent trades that a system of exchange, 

 or barter trade, Avas adopted by those who Avere engaged in it. 

 This opened the Avay for shoemakers, storekeepers, hatters and 

 even farmers to dabble in it, as the most available method of 

 turning the proceeds of their oavu industry into cash. This 

 barter system of manufacturing and the ex})enses incident to 

 dragging them around the country for sale, eventually rendered 

 the carriage business unprofitable, and it gradually gave place, 

 in all these Essex toAvns but Amesbury and Salisbury, to the 

 more extensive and profitable demands of the shoe and leather 

 trade. During the last seventy years great improvements have 

 been made in the style and in the mode of manufacturing car- 

 riajies. Four-Avlieeled vehicles have been introduced in all 

 their multiplied forms. The turned axle and pipe box, the 

 eliptic spring and hoop tire, patent and enameled leather, and 

 recently steel and iron, have been largely substituted for Avood, 

 AA'hich, taken in connection Avith the saving of labor bA- the use 



