was as good as his note, and he always determined to make a good article
and please his customers. He had several sons who are said to be smart
business men.

I knew Mrs. Thomas well when I was a boy, fourteen years old. She is one
of the best of women, and is now the widow of one of the richest men in
the state. The families of Terry and Thomas are extensively known,
throughout the United States. Mr. Thomas died two years ago at the age
of seventy-five. He was born in West Haven, about four miles from New
Haven, and learned the joiners' trade in Wolcott, and worked in that
region and in Plymouth five or six years, building houses and barns. I
waited on him when he built a barn in Plymouth, carrying boards and
shingles. He soon after went into the clock business in which he
remained during life. Mr. Terry died in 1853, at the advanced age of
eighty-one.

CHAPTER VI.

OPERATIONS OF FRANK MERRILLS--A SAD HISTORY.--BUSINESS TROUBLES, ETC.

In the fall, of the year 1840, a young man by the name of Franklin
Merrills was introduced to me as one the smartest and likeliest business
men in the whole country. It was said that he could trade in horses,
cattle, sheep, wool, flour, or any thing else, and make money. He
belonged to one of the first families in Litchfield county. I thought by
his appearance and recommendations that he would be a good customer for
me and I sold him a thousand dollars worth of clocks to begin with. He
gave me his four months' note which was promptly paid when due. He hired
three pedlars and went with them into Dutchess county New York, where
they sold the clocks very fast. The one-day O.G. brass clock was a new
thing to them, first-rate for time, and they readily went off for
fifteen and twenty dollars apiece. I sold them to him for six dollars
apiece, and it appeared, at this rate, that he could make a fortune in a
few years. His credit became established for any amount, and he soon
began to want clocks about twice as fast as at first. A man by the name
of Bates transported them for him in a large two-horse wagon from my
place to Washington Hollow, about twelve miles east of Poughkeepsie. Mr.
Bates lived in the same neighborhood where Frank was brought up in New
Hartford, Conn. Every week or two he would go out with a load. Things
moved on in this seemingly prosperous way for some time. One day I
accidentally heard that parties in New York with whom I had never dealt,
were selling my clocks