CHAPTER XVI. 



PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 



THERE has been such a desire to know how I came to 

 engage in this business, that I venture to give a short ac- 

 count of myself under this head. 



I came from Ireland when a boy of fourteen, and, being 

 thrown upon my own resources, I engaged to learn the car- 

 riage-making business in Wellsville, N. Y. At the end of 

 three months I was compelled by circumstances to seek 

 employment elsewhere. I next engaged in the same busi- 

 ness by the month at Almond, N. Y., where I remained 

 two years, after which I obtained employment at Dry den, 

 N. Y., where I remained nearly two years. While here, I 

 arranged to go into business with a young man in the man- 

 ufacture of carriages in Myersburg, Pa. ; and after continu- 

 ing the business nearly a year, I bought him out, and con- 

 tinued there alone for four years. During this time I be- 

 came so successful a manufacturer of carriages that I took 

 the first premium at two county fairs in Towanda, the first 

 year on single, the second on double, carriages. The diffi- 

 culties of this achievement can be better understood when 

 it is stated that I did but a small country business, doing 

 most of the work of painting and trimming myself, besides 

 being compelled to compete with several large manufac- 

 turers. 



During my residence here I first exchanged carriages 

 for horses, and this led me to dealing in them. In this 



(472) 



