ertakers," or
contractors of the day.

Among the tradesmen and artisans of the town were watchmakers and
clockmakers, jewelers, goldsmiths, coppersmiths, gunsmiths, blacksmiths,
and ironmongers; confectioners, bakers and brewers; hatters, and
wig-makers. Cottom & Stewart was a firm of publishers and vendors of the
latest in literature. Joshua Delacour was a bookbinder who carried on
his business in all its branches, not only supplying ladies with
bandboxes, trunks, pasteboard stays and stomachers, but he also papered
rooms in the neatest fashion. Books and stationery were imported by
Joshua Merryman, who also advertised blotting paper, quills, ink powder,
inkpots, sealing wax and wafers--in fact, all the adjuncts of polite
correspondence.

Margaret Greetner set great store by her newly imported mangle, by which
"silk, linen and cotton stockings, and other articles were smoothed and
glossed in the most expeditious manner." She took in washing at
"moderate terms" and apparently was the eighteenth century counterpart
of our modern laundry. Joseph Delarue was her competitor in the
dry-cleaning field, offering his services to ladies and gentlemen of the
town and adjacent country as a scourer of silks, chintzes, and woolen
clothes. Coachmaking was carried on by E.P. Taylor and Charles Jones.
Unfortunately, records relating to Alexandria's early artisans are
pathetically scanty or altogether lacking.

Alexandria in its heyday boasted as fine silver as could be found in the
colony, and while there is a quantity of English silver thereabouts,
much was made by her own craftsmen. It exists today in families who,
while cherishing it for generations, have used it commonly for a century
or more.

A partial list of silversmiths includes some nineteen or twenty names,
for the earliest of whom there is any record, we must thank "the
General," for it is in his ledgers that these first five names are
found, noting some work done for Mount Vernon, usually of a repair
nature. Salt spoons and ladles evidently saw hard service, or were kept
so spick and span they had to go to the silversmith for frequent
mending. In 1773 the Washington silver chest was the richer for a punch
ladle made by William Dowdney. While this was in the making, one Edward
Sandford was restoring a salt and mending a punch ladle. He also
repaired Mrs. Washington's watch and made her a silver seal. The salt
spoons were in the hands of one Charles Turner in 1775; and