three-inch plank, with a rim fifteen inches high. Within this was a
stone wheel with many hollows and the wooden wheel with long pegs. Two
horses turned these wheels which would grind half a cord of bark in a
day of twelve hours. The first year William was at work grinding bark.
All the pay received for the year's work was the knowledge gained of the
art of grinding bark, very poor board (no clothing, no money), and the
privilege of tanning for himself three sheep skins. The fourth half
year he received his first money, $2.50 a month, which was paid out of
friendliness for the Edwards family.

Before he was twenty he set up in business for himself. He had saved
$100; his father, still poor, gave him $300; he bought land for his
plant for $700 on long credit. After years of great struggle he
succeeded in business and developed the process by which instead of
employing one hand for every one hundred sides he could tan 40,000 with
twenty lads and the cost was reduced from twelve cents a pound to four
cents. The quality was improved even more than the cost was reduced.
When the war of 1812 broke out he had practically the only important
tannery in the United States, but the war scare and attendant evils led
to his failure in 1815. He was now 45 years old with a wife and nine
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 busines