THE DOMESTIC HARDWARE BUSINESS. 95 



of life, and gave stimulus and energy to his efforts to improve 

 gum-elastic. 



That the reader may better understand how so great an im- 

 provement can be claimed for an implement of husbandry so 

 simple, it may be well to describe those that were previously 

 used. They were made by the country blacksmith, of iron, very 

 large and heavy, and were very easily bent and battered at the 

 points, and would now no sooner be used than the wooden 

 plough of the ancients. 



So completely has the article formerly used been superseded 

 by this improvement, that the rising generation of farmers do 

 not know what article their fathers were obliged to make 

 use of 



In 1826, the writer removed from Connecticut, with his 

 family, to Philadelphia, and engaged in the domestic hardware 

 and commission business, in connection with the manufacturing 

 establishment in Connecticut, which was carried on under the 

 firm of A. Goodyear & Sons. This was the first establishment 

 for the sale of domestic hardware in the United States. It was 

 regarded by many as a visionary enterprise, for to that time the 

 whole trade in hardware had been in imported articles. The 

 predictions of that time in regard to this business were not, how- 

 ever, verified ; for it was eminently successful, and, like the 

 domestic dry goods business, it soon became an extensive de- 

 partment of trade, which is constantly increasing. 



It will be remembered by many hardware men of the present 

 day, that from 1826 to 1830, the inventor was known in our 

 commercial cities to be the pioneer in domestic hardware, by 

 which, and the manufactory alluded to, a handsome fortune was 

 accumulated by the firm, and the writer occupied a position in 

 business every way desirable ; but in consequence of too ex- 

 tended operations in different States, too liberal credits, and 

 heavy losses in 1830, they were obliged to suspend payments. 



After consulting with the creditors of the firm, they were 

 induced to continue their business with extension of payments. 

 This was considered unavoidable, on account of the amount of 



