blows of the vigorous young farmer. The first settlers of the region
endured many hardships--toiled early and late, but industry brought its
rewards. The forest disappeared; green fields appeared upon the broad
intervales and sunny hillsides. A troop of children came to gladden the
home. The ninth child of a family of eleven received the name of
Sylvester, born September 30, 1803.

The home was located among the foot-hills on the east bank of the
Pemigewasset; it looked out upon a wide expanse of meadow lands, and
upon mountains as delectable as those seen by the Christian pilgrim from
the palace Beautiful in Bunyan's matchless allegory.

It was a period ante-dating the employment of machinery. Advancement
was by brawn, rather than by brains. Three years before the birth of
Sylvester Marsh an Englishman, Arthur Scholfield, determined to make
America his home. He was a machinist. England was building up her system
of manufactures, starting out upon her great career as a manufacturing
nation determined to manufacture goods for the civilized world, and
especially for the United States. Parliament had enacted a law
prohibiting the carrying of machinist's tools out of Great Britain.
The young mechanic was compelled to leave his tools behind. He had
a retentive memory and active mind; he settled in Pittsfield,
Massachusetts, and set himself to work to construct a machine for the
carding of wool, which at that time was done wholly by hand. The
Pittsfield _Sun_ of November 2, 1801, contained an advertisement
of the first carding machine constructed in the United States. Thus
it read:


"Arthur Scholfield respectfully informs the inhabitants of Pittsfield