MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREADWELL 



327 



them by extemporizing hour after hour imaginary adventures, which, wild and im- 

 possible as they may have been, just suited the taste and comprehension of his 



audience. 



His mechanical tendencies were early shown. In his twelfth year the town 

 of Ipswich bought a fire-engine. " This," says one of his schoolfellows, Mr. 

 S. N. Baker, "attracted the attention of the schoolboys, and of Daniel Tread- 

 well in particular, who resolved to make one. When finished, he announced to the 

 boys that he would try it and exhibit it during the vacation. When the time 

 came, the boys assembled, and we drew it to a two-story building ; we went to 

 work, forced the water on to the roof, and with a shout of joy pronounced it a 

 success." A feat showing an amount of -thought, skill in the handling of tools, and 



perseverance, seldom found at that time of life. 



In ISOo, when nearly fifteen, he went apprentice to his eldest brother, Isaac, 



who had just served his own time as a jeweller and silversmith, and hail established 



himself in business in Newburyport. Here he remained nearly two unhappy and 

 unprofitable years, although treated with great kindness by Ins brother. Thi 

 brother had made a great 1 mistake. He was too young, and knew too little of 

 business matters to make his way. The times were unpropitious, and as his 

 difficulties increased his spirit and industry relaxed, until at last, having been 

 cheated out of a large amount, he gave up his business, and in a short time went 

 to New York, afterwards to Caraccas, where he became Director of the Mint and 

 the Department of Mining under the government, and perished in the great earth- 

 quake of 1812. His second brother, who had become mate of a brig at the early 

 age of nineteen, on his first voyage in that capacity died at Havana, in 1806. By 

 the death of this brother, and the removal of the elder from New England, the 

 youngest boy was left without any near relative, and with none of any degree 

 with whom he maintained a close intercourse. He was now out of occupation; 

 neither Newburyport nor Ipswich offered any satisfactory means of learning the 

 trade suited to his peculiar turn of mind, and in which he had now spent two 

 years. At the age of seventeen he went to Boston. Here he became an appren- 

 tice to Captain Jesse Churchill, a gold and silversmith whose shop was near the 

 " White Horse Tavern," on Washington and Boylston Streets. He soon became 

 an expert workman, and that without much effort. 



In early life he had few but children's books, and the Bible (then the principal 

 reading-book of the New England schools), some translations from Virgil, Kobin^on 

 Crusoe, and a few other tales; also Nathan Bailey's Dictionary, by a close study 



