120 THE ISLAND OF NANTUCKET. 



merchants, having in his employ at the time of his 

 decease upwards of five hundred clerks, and taking in 

 cash during the holidays more than $15,000 a day. 

 Mr. Macy was one of the first to employ female clerks, 

 and through his influence and example women have 

 attained to higher positions in business than ever 

 before. The late Mrs. Margaret La Forge was one of 

 his first female employes, and doubtless gave Mr. 

 Macy an idea of what women could do. 



William Mitchell. 



The following article is from the pen of Mrs. Anne 

 Mitchell Macy, and will doubtless be read with interest 

 by all of Mr. Mitchell's many admirers. 



Among the names of those men whose works have 

 been of value to the scientific world, we find recorded 

 that of William Mitchell. Born at Nantucket in the 

 latter part of the eighteenth century, he early mani- 

 fested an interest in the wonders of the heavens, and 

 at the age of nineteen observed the comet of 1811, — 

 publishing his records, which were duly noticed by the 

 astronomers of our country. The approaching war 

 between the United States and Great Britain, threaten- 

 ing the shipping interests of the community, his father 

 being at that time largely engaged in the whale fisher- 

 ies, prevented Mr. Mitchell from taking the Harvard 

 College course for which he had been preparing, and 

 in lieu of this he became a teacher. During the war 

 of 1812 he married Lydia Coleman, a direct descendant 

 from the earliest settlers of the island. Being a woman 

 of rare talent and energy, she was not only a help- 



