children. He went to work in a factory for day wages to keep his family
supplied with the necessities of life. By some misunderstanding and a
combination of law suits his patents were lost to him.

When Colonel Edwards failed in 1815 he owed considerable sums of money
and nine years later the courts released him from all obligations, yet
between the age of 69 and 75 he paid every cent of this indebtedness
amounting to $25,924.

The chief interest in Colonel Edwards centers in his children. When his
failure came there were nine children, five boys and four girls. The
youngest was a few months old and the eldest 19. Seven of them were
under 12 years of age. In the first four years of their reverses two
others were born, so that his large family had their preparation and
start in life in the years of struggle. Nevertheless they took their
places among the prosperous members of the Edwards family. The eldest
son, William W. Edwards, was one of the eminently successful men of New
York. He lived to be 80 years old and his life was fully occupied with
good work. He was engaged in the straw goods business in New York;
helped to develop the insurance business to large proportions; organized
the Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn, of which he was treasurer and
cashier. He was one of the founders of the American Tract Society and of
the New York Mercantile Library. He was a member of the State
legislature for several terms.

Henry Edwards was one of Boston's most eminent merchants and a most
useful man. He had the only strictly wholesale silk house in Boston for
nearly half a century. He was born in Northampton, 1798. At the age of
fifteen he entered the employ of a prominent Boston importing house and
began by opening the store, building the fires, and carrying out goods.