CHAPTER I.


EARLY DAYS.--LEAVING HOME.--BOUND OUT.--FARMING.--CARPENTER.--SOLDIER.--
CLOCK MAKING.

I was born in the town of Canaan, Litchfield County, in the State of
Connecticut, on the 10th day of June, 1793. My parents were poor but
respectable and industrious. My father was a blacksmith and wrought-nail
maker by trade, and the father of six children--four sons and two
daughters. I was the fourth child.

In January, 1797, he moved from Canaan to the town of Plymouth, in the
same County, and in the following spring built a blacksmith shop, which
was large enough for three or four men to work at the nail making
business, besides carrying on the blacksmithing. At that time all the
nails used in the country were hammered by hand out of iron rods, which
practice has almost entirely been done away by the introduction of cut
nails.

My advantages for education were very poor. When large enough to handle
a hoe, or a bundle of rye, I was kept at work on the farm. The only
opportunity I had for attending school was in the winter season, and
then only about three months in the year, and at a very poor school.
When I was nine years old, my father took me into the shop to work,
where I soon learned to make nails, and worked with him in this way
until his death, which occurred on the fifth of October, 1804. For two
or three days before he died, he suffered the most excruciating pains
from the disease known as the black colic. The day of his death was a