season of depression of manufactures; the cessation of the unusual war
demand and excessive importations from abroad were the principal causes.

At this period, when politics were carried into private affairs, as
religion had been some hundred years before, each party must have its
factory. Thus the Housatonic Woolen Mill of 1810 was offset a few years
later by the Pittsfield Woolen and Cotton Company in Federalist hands.
The former enterprise languished before long for want of sufficient
water power. The latter, by a change of ownership, came under the
control of Lemuel and Josiah Pomeroy, and enjoyed the benefits of the
tariffs of 1824 and following years. Other mills went gradually into
operation. But in this instance Yankee ingenuity and versatility found a
difficult foe to master. The proprietors were ambitious and determined
to make their fabrics as firm and as heavy as the best imported goods.
In this they succeeded, but by a clumsy, wasteful process, which
destroyed all profit. Moreover, instead of making a single class of
goods, each factory attempted to satisfy the various demands of the
market. Hence arose multiplied causes of failures, for which remedies
had to be invented. A general business knowledge did not immediately
avail in an industry where matters of detail were of the greatest
consequence. To-day these mills are the principal sources of wealth in
the county. Another branch of manufactures grew up in 1799 when Lemuel
Pomeroy came to Pittsfield, and in addition to the ordinary labor of a
blacksmith began to make plows, wagons, and sleighs. He bought the old
Whitney forge and extended the works from the production of fowling
pieces to that of muskets. Large contracts with State and National
governments brought a profitable business, until, in 1846, the
percussion guns were introduced.

The independant spirit displayed by Pittsfield, or rather by Berkshire