country towns of New England, carried on in his family some of those minor
branches of industry suited to the capacity of children, with which New
England abounds. When Elias was six years old, he was set, with his
brothers and sisters, to sticking wire teeth through the leather straps
used for making cotton cards. When he became old enough, he assisted his
father in his saw-mill and grist-mill, and during the winter months picked
up a meager education at the district school. He has said that it was the
rude and imperfect mills of his father that first turned his attention to
machinery. He was not fitted for hard work, however, as he was frail in
constitution and incapable of bearing much fatigue. Moreover, he inherited
a species of lameness which proved a great obstacle to any undertaking on
his part, and gave him no little trouble all through life. At the age of
eleven he went to live out on the farm of a neighbor, but the labor
proving too severe for him he returned home and resumed his place in his
father's mills, where he remained until he was sixteen years old.

"At the age of twenty-one he married. This was a rash step for him, as his
health was very delicate, and his earnings were but nine dollars per week.
Three children were born to him in quick succession, and he found it no
easy task to provide food, shelter and clothing for his little family. The
light heartedness for which he had formerly been noted entirely deserted
him, and he became sad and melancholy. His health did not improve, and it
was with difficulty that he could perform his daily task. His strength was
so slight that he would frequently return from his day's work too
exhausted to eat. He could only go to bed, and in his agony he wished 'to
lie in bed forever and ever,' Still he worked faithfully and
conscientiously, for his wife and children were very dear to him; but he
did so with a hopelessness which only those who have tasted the depths of
poverty can understand.

"About this time he heard it said that the great necessity of the age was
a machine for doing sewing. The immense amount of fatigue incurred and the
delay in hand sewing were obvious, and it was conceded by all who thought
of the matter at all that the man who could invent a machine which would
remove these difficulties would make a fortune. Howe's poverty inclined
him to listen to these remarks with great interest. No man needed money
more than he, and he was confident that his m