APPRENTICESHIP. MANHOOD.MARRIAGE.
PLEASED with the experience gained by his voltage, the youth was undecided whether to go sea again, or to endeavor to procure a place at which he might learn a trade. Whilst the settlement of this question was yet in abeyance, he was sent to mill with a load of grain. At the cross-roads he met Benjamin Cheany and wife, who told him that they wanted just such a boy as he to learn the Bookmaking business. The idea was agreeable to him, and a few days afterward he called upon Cheany in reference to the subject. The result of the conference satisfied him that his services were wanted to cultivate the farm rather than to assist in the workshop. This was not what he desired; but, being anxious not to miss the opportunity, he declared that he would have no objection to work upon the farm some little time, if the precise period was specified in the indenture. Cheany proposed that six months in every year should be given to farm labor. This was not what should have been granted; "but," said Fitch, "being too conceited that I could learn a trade in a short time, if I only had the first principles of it, and an expectation that my master could not call me off half that time from my trade, I agreed to his proposal."
Liberal as this concession was, it was not equal to Cheany's desire, as his apprentice soon discovered. The indentures were executed when John Fitch was about eighteen years old, and by their terms he was to have instruction in clockmaking during seven months of each year. It was one of the stipulations of the contract, that the boy should find his own clothing. This proposition had caused some difficulty during the family consultation. His father and step-mother objected to such an agreement, and the whole business was in danger of failure. In this dilemma, Timothy King, of Windsor, who had married Sarah Fitch, determined to aid his young brother-inlaw. He agreed to furnish John with clothing, trusting that he would pay him when able. A new trouble arose in consequence of the father of John desiring his services during three weeks of harvest time. This demand occasioned a serious dispute, which nearly broke off the arrangement, and was only quieted by Cheany's yielding to the request. The youth was now.installed in his place with this couple, whose dispositions were not very liberal. Cheany had many oddities, and was in person deformed from the effect of rickets in his youth, which, among other marks of its power, had left its Victim with an immense head, double the usual size. The mistress was weak and penurious, and kept the apprentice in a state of semi-starvation, his appetite seldom being fully satisfied. As an example of the household economy of this prudent couple, Fitch records an anecdote:
"In my second year my master bought four sheep, and from the flesh of one of them my mistress made some broth in a large iron pot, with beans. It was as good a pot of broth as perhaps was ever made in the parish. "Of this he ate heartily for some days, always twice and occasionally three times. After persevering with this food for a week, he became somewhat tired of it, and sighed for variety. He now, hoping to get rid of it, complained that it was "too salt." This fault was one which the liberal Mrs. Cheany was willing to correct; and she accordingly added sufficient water to visibly increase the quantity. Such a favor was not desired by the apprentice; but he continued at the Soup with a stout heart until it was nine days old "but finding," said he, "that no one eat it but myself, and that it rather increased on my hands, I got almost disheartened, and on the tenth day eat but a very little, and on the eleventh day eat none, but a piece of dry bread only. On the twelfth day, after many complaints, and expatiating on its loss by its being thrown away, it was finally condemned to the hogwash, which sacrifice I thought but just; nor did I ever think that the gods were offended at it."
It was not the desire of Cheany that his apprentice should really learn anything about the business specified in the indentures. He wanted him to labor in the field, and in the course of two years he had succeeded in getting from him more work of that kind than by the agreement was to have been done in three years. Beside that, his business was but small, his labors being principally in repairing wooden clocks. Even of this branch of the trade he contrived to keep John in ignorance. He paid but little attention to the indentures, and kept the lad "almost the whole of the time at trifling, pattering brass work," and the latter was, when he left him, "almost totally ignorant of clock work." During the time he was in his house, young Fitch kept a regular account of the days and half days during which he was called out of the shop into the field. He showed this account to his master at one time when he was desired to leave something which he was doing, to labor on the farm. Cheany was surprised at the statement, and was much affronted at it. After John had been with him two years and a half, Benjamin, finding that he would work no more in the field, having exhausted that term of service, suggested that his brother Timothy, who followed brass and wooden clock making and the repairing of watches, would be a much better person than himself to teach the youth all the branches of the trade, which he wished to learn. This suggestion was listened to, and arrangements were made to transfer the young man to the new place. He was now over twenty years of age, and, although he had spent thirty months under the instruction of Benjamin Cheany, he did not know how to make either a wooden or brass clock. It was with a hope that he would be enabled to make up for lost time, that he went to his master's brother. It was agreed that he should stay with him for a year; and, as he would be of full age before that time, his father gave a bond to Timothy Cheany that John would serve faithfully after he was twenty-one years old. This instrument was executed June 8th, 1768. Fitch was to be taught brass and wooden clock making, and watch making. The wife of Timothy Cheany was a sister of the wife of Benjamin, and was "a pretty, sensible, good kind of a woman." The first disagreeable experience which the new apprentice encountered was in reference to his food. In this family the abstemious person was the master. "He was a very small feeder. He seldom or ever sat down without exclaiming against gluttony. The family always eat as "quick as him, but had victuals to command. When Cheany was through, he started up and returned God thanks for what we had eaten; or, I believe I may say, because I had eaten no more." In this place the subject of our history learned to eat very fast, so that he was after a while able to "nearly get a bellyful between prayers."
The hope which had been indulged that he might here at least acquire a knowledge of the branches of trade which he was desirous of learning, was cruelly disappointed. He was kept at brass work from early sunrise to ten o'clock at night, but he was not taught anything relating to clock work or watch work. In reference to the manner in which he was treated, he said, many years after: " I never saw a watch put together during my apprenticeship. When I attempted to stand by to see him put one together, he would order me to my work. I seldom got to see any of his tools for Match work; they were kept locked up in his drawer. He never told me the different parts of a watch, and to this day I am ignorant of many parts by name. He never permitted me to turn a piece of iron or brass in his shop." In eight months' service Fitch had not been taught how to complete a single clock. He had commenced one, but was not allowed to finish it. He worried through these months of injustice until after he was twenty-one years of age, when he had a controversy with Timothy about the treatment which he received. A quarrel ensued. Fitch threatened to seek redress by law, but, finally, it was agreed that he should be released from further service, on payment of 8 pounds. He set out to his father's house to find the means to secure the payment of this amount. The feelings of the young man as he trudged homeward may be faintly imagined. He had " learned his trade," according to the belief of the world, but he knew nothing. He was a Bookmaker who had never made a clock, a watchmaker who had never taken a watch apart or put one together, and who had never seen the tools necessary for such delicate operations. The portion of his life most necessary to enable him to get forward in the world had been utterly wasted. No wonder that his heart was heavy as he thought of this injustice. He said, "I saw the cruelties with which I was treatedthe wickedness of the manthe dilemma which I had brought myself into by running myself in debt three years, to wear out them clothes for monsters, and 8 pounds more added to it, and I sat out for home and cried the whole distance, and doubt not but nearly as much water came from my eyes that day as what I drank."
When he got home he was ashamed to represent the case as it really was, for fear of being sent back. He therefore concealed the extent of his ignorance of his business, and represented himself to have been badly treated. His brother-inlaw, Timothy King, and his brother, Augustus, gave their joint note to Cheany, and took up the bond of their father.
At the age of twenty-one John Fitch now found himself at liberty, having but a limited knowledge of brass working, and without skill as a Bookmaker or watchmaker. His clothing was scant, he was in debt £20, and could not work at journey-work in the trades which he was reputed to have learned, for fear of showing his ignorance. He resolved to set himself up as an artificer in small brass work; but how was he to obtain capital? At that time, one Reuben Burnham was courting his sister Chloe. This young man lent him twenty shillings, and with that small capital and some credit, he commenced business. His father, with more liberality than could have been expected from him, offered him board and lodging for one month without charge; and thus furnished, the young and inexperienced brass-founder went to work. He succeeded admirably, he thought, and in two years had paid all his debts and was worth £50.
He had also, in that time, learned something about the construction of brass clocks. Timothy Cheany had stopped at his shop once, whilst on an errand to clean a clock in the neighborhood, and either in a spirit of irony or of unwanted good-nature, offered to permit Fitch to go with him and see how it was done. This proposition was declined, but shortly afterward hearing that Roger Wolcott, a grandson of Governor Wolcott, had a clock which was out of order, our brassfounder went to him and requested that he might be allowed to take it apart. He candidly confessed that he never had done work of that kind, but declared that he had confidence in his ability to clean and put it together in good order. Mr. Wolcott consented to this proposal, and Fitch, having taken the clock apart, succeeded, after much trouble, in getting it together rightly, and it went very well. After that attempt he undertook to clean brass clocks whenever he could get an opportunity. He made some blunders at first, but after a time become tolerably proficient at such work.
At that time he was induced to enter into partnership with two young men having less capital than himself, in a scheme for manufacturing potash. Fitch supposed that he could manage his brass work himself, and entrust the potash works to them. He soon discovered the unpleasant situation in which he was placed. One of his partners could not be relied upon to do the work, and the other had no money to advance upon his share. Under these circumstances, Fitch was compelled to purchase the interest of both. He was entirely ignorant of the method of manufacturing potash, and to understand it, he neglected his brass business and went into another potash house at small wages to learn the process.
The place for the potash works was badly chosen. It was twenty-five miles from the house of his father, and in Hartland township, which was not inhabited by more than thirty or forty families. The ashes supplied by them was not sufficient; the gatherings in the district did not exceed one thousand bushels in a year.
While he was at the potash works he boarded with one Beamen, who had married a daughter of Mr. Roberts, of Simsbury. During his residence there, Lucy Roberts came to visit her sister, and Fitch became acquainted with her. She was several years older than he, " and rather inclining to be an old maid." These disqualifications were not much thought of by the subject of our biography, and after a short courtship of six months, in which he had "but little opportunity of learning her character," he was married to Lucy Roberts on the 29th of December, 1769. He said of her afterwards, "she was deaceant woman enough, and no ways ugly, but delicate in her make." Her father was a man of some repute, and had a considerable estate. On the 3rd of Novemher, 1768, a son was born to this couple, who was named Shaler Fitch.
The potash works had been carried on in the meanwhile to little profit, and after it had ceased to be worth attending to, Fitch resolved to build a shop for brass work, which, as his views were rather magnificent, was three times more extensive, and expensive, than it should have been. He became embarrassed in consequence, but managed to disentangle himself after some effort. Meanwhile his family affairs were most unhappy. His wife was high-tempered, and although he avers that he never gave her an angry word, he was continually subject to her displeasure. He became convinced that he could not live happily with her, and resolved to leave her. This was not the hasty passion of an hour, but the cool determination- of six months of endurance, during which period he repeatedly told his wife, that unless she restrained her temper he would separate from her; which intimations she treated with ridicule and scorn. He brought his business to a narrow compass, and left his affairs in a good condition for settlement. Not desiring to increase his family, he was compelled to depart sooner than he had intended, leaving some of his business unfinished. In reality, his wife was enciente with a daughter, afterwards born, who was named Lucy. He averred that he did not suspect this fact, and assured his friend, Mr. Irwin, in after years, that if he " had known it" he would never have left her, but would have worried through life "as well as he could."
On the 18th of January, 1769, the unhappy husband left the residence of his wife forever, having no fixed place to which he intended to proceed, going away with a small supply of clothing, and with less than eight dollars in his pocket. Twenty years afterward, on relating this fact to Mr. Irwin, he said:
This day, sir, was the most dismal of any I ever saw; to set off from home and leave my friends and relations, neighbors and acquaintances, and a child which I valued as much as my own life, and to go almost bare of money I knew not where, nor what distresses might come upon me when friendless and among strangers; and although I had almost every day seriously told my wife that I would do what I did, for six months before, she never would believe me, nor affect to believe me, till about an hour before I sat out, when she appeared affected and distressed, and in the most humble manner implored my stay, and followed me about half a mile, where I stopped. This added double grief, and I really felt an inclination to try her once more; but my judgment informed me that it was my duty to go, notwithstanding the struggles of nature I had to contend with.