Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/772

 762 F. P. Goodwin. ing, trapping, and agriculture were the only pursuits, and these occupations produced the only articles of export. In the beginning settlers were largely dependent upon home- made utensils, furniture and clothing ; but the production of a sur- plus soon furnished a means for the purchase of " store goods ", and the pioneer merchant began to import manufactures from the Atlantic States and from Europe. Early in the history of pioneer communities, however, it is found to be inconvenient to depend entirely upon goods manufactured abroad, and the various centres of colonization in the Ohio valley did not furnish an exception to this rule. Besides, the long haul from the Atlantic Coast with primitive means of transportation was so expensive and inconveni- ent that it was soon found to be more desirable to import artisans than to import certain classes of manufactured goods. It was under these conditions, then, that manufacturing began in the West. The history of manufacturing in the Miami Country may be divided into two periods. It will be seen that the limits of this article include the first and the beginning of the second period. The first period, extending from the beginning of settlement to about the close of the War of 1812, was characterized by house- hold and small-shop industries. Practically no power machinery was used and no attempt was made to supply more than the de- mands of the immediate community. By 1815 the Miami Country had developed enough to support industries on a larger scale and the rise of mills and factories ushered in the second period of its industrial career. The industries thus established at the beginning of the second period continued to grow with the expanding com- merce of Cincinnati and, within a few years, were supplying large quantities of manufactured goods to the Ohio and Lower Missis- sippi valleys. We will first consider the character and extent of the industries established during the earlier period. It is probable that, outside of the simplest household manufactures, a tannery was the earliest industrial enterprise in the Miami Country ; at any rate, we find a tanner advertising for an apprentice in the Ccntincl of the North- zi.'Cst Territory, February 22, 1794. On October 3, 1795, George Kyler and Son, potters, begged leave to inform the public that they were carrying on the business of making potters' ware of all kinds at their shop opposite the printing-ofiice. A little later the adver- tisement of a ropewalk appeared in the same paper. As early as 1799 blacksmiths, millers, saddlers, hatters, dyers, tanners, bakers, potters, gunsmiths, and cabinet-makers were advertising in the Western Spy and Hamilton Gacette. In 1804 James Ritche_- es- i